Editorial Content for A Refiner’s Fire: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
As I cracked the spine of Donna Leon’s 33rd Commissario Guido Brunetti novel, I thought to myself how I wish this series would go on forever. The setting of Venice, Italy, always makes for a fantastic literary trip that sends the mind and senses to another place. A REFINER’S FIRE continues Leon’s established modus operandi of telling stories infused with social and moral messages in much the same way as the late, great Anne Perry did. Read More
Teaser
Around 1:00 on an early spring morning, two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s squares. Commissario Claudia Griffoni perhaps ill-advisedly walks the last of the boys home because his father, Dario Monforte, failed to pick him up at the Questura. Coincidentally, Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy friend of Vice-Questore Patta to vet Monforte for a job, triggering Brunetti’s memory that 20 years earlier Monforte had been publicly celebrated as the hero of a devastating bombing of the Italian military compound in Iraq. Yet Monforte had never been awarded a medal either by the Carabinieri, his service branch, or by the Italian government. That seeming contradiction, and the brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions.
Promo
Around 1:00 on an early spring morning, two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s squares. Commissario Claudia Griffoni perhaps ill-advisedly walks the last of the boys home because his father, Dario Monforte, failed to pick him up at the Questura. Coincidentally, Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy friend of Vice-Questore Patta to vet Monforte for a job, triggering Brunetti’s memory that 20 years earlier Monforte had been publicly celebrated as the hero of a devastating bombing of the Italian military compound in Iraq. Yet Monforte had never been awarded a medal either by the Carabinieri, his service branch, or by the Italian government. That seeming contradiction, and the brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions.
About the Book
In the 33rd installment of Donna Leon’s magnificent series, Commissario Guido Brunetti confronts a present-day Venetian menace and the ghosts of a heroism that never was.
Around 1:00 on an early spring morning, two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s squares. Commissario Claudia Griffoni, on duty that night, perhaps ill-advisedly walks the last of the boys home because his father, Dario Monforte, failed to pick him up at the Questura. Coincidentally, Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy friend of Vice-Questore Patta to vet Monforte for a job, triggering Brunetti’s memory that 20 years earlier Monforte had been publicly celebrated as the hero of a devastating bombing of the Italian military compound in Iraq. Yet Monforte had never been awarded a medal either by the Carabinieri, his service branch, or by the Italian government.
That seeming contradiction, and the brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues, Enzo Bocchese, by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions. Surprisingly empowered by Patta, supported by Signorina Elettra’s extraordinary research abilities and by his wife, Paola’s, empathy, Brunetti, with Griffoni, gradually discovers the sordid hypocrisy surrounding Monforte’s past, culminating in a fiery meeting of two gangs and a final opportunity for redemption.
A REFINER'S FIRE is Donna Leon at her very best: an elegant, sophisticated storyteller whose indelible characters become richer with each book, and who constantly explores the ambiguity between moral and legal justice.
Audiobook available, read by David Colacci
Editorial Content for And So I Roar
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In 2020, Abi Daré released her debut, THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE. This instant bestseller introduced readers to Adunni, a 14-year-old Nigerian living in a poor village where women are seen not as wholly realized citizens, but as wives, mothers or property. Adunni dreamed of an education, and in the course of the novel, she discovered the power of her words and found herself in luxurious, glamorous Lagos, working as the servant. In AND SO I ROAR, Adunni continues to hone, champion and power her “louding voice” --- only this time the stakes are even higher. Read More
Teaser
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother --- who is terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Nigeria --- and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades. Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky 14-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she finally has found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. Suddenly, there’s a horrible knocking at the front gate. It’s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth behind the secret her mother has hidden from her.
Promo
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother --- who is terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Nigeria --- and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades. Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky 14-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she finally has found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. Suddenly, there’s a horrible knocking at the front gate. It’s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth behind the secret her mother has hidden from her.
About the Book
A stunning, heart-wrenching new novel from Abi Daré, the New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE.
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother --- terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria --- and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades.
Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky 14-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she finally has found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. It’s always been Adunni’s dream to get an education, and she’s bursting with excitement.
Suddenly, there’s a horrible knocking at the front gate.
It’s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth behind the secret her mother has hidden from her. And Adunni will learn that her “louding voice,” as she calls it, is more important than ever, as she must advocate to save not only herself but all the young women of her home village, Ikati.
If she succeeds, she may transform Ikati into a place where girls are allowed to claim the bright futures they deserve --- and shout their stories to the world.
Audiobook available, read by Adjoa Andoh
Editorial Content for The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
She was born Thelma Catherine Ryan in 1912, but the world came to know her as Pat Nixon, the wife of President Richard Nixon. The significance of the First Lady in the White House has often been downplayed, despite previous examples of various First Ladies illustrating strength under adversity (Edith Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy). Pat’s role both before and during her husband’s administration would be underestimated. She wasn’t so much a political spouse as she was a trusted partner, which Nixon often recognized during his rise to the presidency. Read More
Teaser
In America’s collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted “Most Admired Woman in the World” in 1972 and made Gallup Poll’s top 10 list of most admired women 14 times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described as elusive, mysterious and “plastic” in the press. When asked to define her “signature” First Lady agenda, she defied being put into a box. In THE MYSTERIOUS MRS. NIXON, Heath Hardage Lee presents readers with the essential nature of this First Lady --- an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence, but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered world-wide.
Promo
In America’s collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted “Most Admired Woman in the World” in 1972 and made Gallup Poll’s top 10 list of most admired women 14 times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described as elusive, mysterious and “plastic” in the press. When asked to define her “signature” First Lady agenda, she defied being put into a box. In THE MYSTERIOUS MRS. NIXON, Heath Hardage Lee presents readers with the essential nature of this First Lady --- an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence, but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered world-wide.
About the Book
A new, revolutionary look into the brilliant life of Pat Nixon.
In America’s collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted “Most Admired Woman in the World” in 1972 and made Gallup Poll’s top 10 list of most admired women 14 times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact.
The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described as elusive, mysterious and “plastic” in the press. Pat married Richard Nixon in June of 1940. As the couple rose to prominence, Pat became Second Lady from 1953-1961 and then First Lady from 1969-1974, forging her own graceful path between the protocols of the strait-laced mid-century and the bra-burning '60s and '70s.
Pat was a highly travelled First Lady, visiting 83 countries during her tenure. After a devastating earthquake in Peru in 1970, she personally flew in medical supplies and food to hard-hit areas, meeting one-on-one with victims of the tragedy. The First Lady’s 1972 trips with her husband to China and to Russia were critical to the detente that resulted. Back in the US, Pat greatly expanded upon previous preservation efforts in the White House, obtaining more art and antique objects than any other First Lady.
In the domestic arena, she was progressive on women’s issues, favoring the Equal Rights Amendment and backing a targeted effort to get more women into high level government jobs. Pat strongly supported nominating a woman for the Supreme Court. She was pro-choice, supporting women’s reproductive rights publicly even before the landmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973.
When asked to define her “signature” First Lady agenda, she defied being put into a box, often saying: “People are my project.” In THE MYSTERIOUS MRS. NIXON, Heath Hardage Lee presents readers with the essential nature of this First Lady, an empathetic, adventurous self-made woman who wanted no power or influence, but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered world-wide.
Audiobook available, read by Jane Oppenheimer
Editorial Content for Group Living and Other Recipes: A Memoir
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES, author, entrepreneur and life explorer Lola Milholland shares her experience in connecting with and contemplating collective sharing --- at home, overseas, in business and with family. Read More
Teaser
Lola Milholland grew up in the ’90s, the child of iconoclastic hippies. Both her parents threw open their rambling house in Portland, Oregon, to long-term visitors and unusual guests in need of a place to stay. Years later, after college and after her parents’ separation, Milholland returned home. There, she joined her brother and his housemates in furthering the experiment of communal living into a new generation. GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES tells the story of the residents of the Holman House --- of transcendent meals and ecstatic parties, of colorful characters coming together in moments of deep tenderness and inevitable irritation, of a shared life that is appealing, humorous, confounding and, just maybe, utopian --- with a wider exploration of group living as a way of life.
Promo
Lola Milholland grew up in the ’90s, the child of iconoclastic hippies. Both her parents threw open their rambling house in Portland, Oregon, to long-term visitors and unusual guests in need of a place to stay. Years later, after college and after her parents’ separation, Milholland returned home. There, she joined her brother and his housemates in furthering the experiment of communal living into a new generation. GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES tells the story of the residents of the Holman House --- of transcendent meals and ecstatic parties, of colorful characters coming together in moments of deep tenderness and inevitable irritation, of a shared life that is appealing, humorous, confounding and, just maybe, utopian --- with a wider exploration of group living as a way of life.
About the Book
A spirited and timely exploration of group living that encourages readers to reconsider the meaning of family and home.
Lola Milholland grew up in the '90s, the child of iconoclastic hippies. Both her parents threw open their rambling house in Portland, Oregon, to long-term visitors and unusual guests in need of a place to stay. Years later, after college and after her parents’ separation, Milholland returned home. There, she joined her brother and his housemates --- an eccentric group of stop-motion animators and accomplished cooks --- in furthering the experiment of communal living into a new generation.
GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES tells the story of the residents of the Holman House --- of transcendent meals and ecstatic parties, of colorful characters coming together in moments of deep tenderness and inevitable irritation, of a shared life that is appealing, humorous, confounding and, just maybe, utopian --- with a wider exploration of group living as a way of life. From spending time at her aunt and uncle’s intentional community in Washington State to finding her footing in the kitchen as a student in Japan to mushroom hunting in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, Milholland offers an expansive and vibrant reevaluation of the structures at the very center of our lives.
Thoughtful, quirky, candid and wise, GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES introduces a gifted memoirist and thinker, making a convincing case that “now is always the right time to reimagine home and family.”
Audiobook available, read by Lola Milholland
Editorial Content for Moonbound
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
With MR. PENUMBRA’S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE and SOURDOUGH, Robin Sloan has penned works that defy categorization. Now, with MOONBOUND, he continues to expand his fictional “Penumbraverse” with a novel set in the post-apocalyptic far future but containing adventure and fantasy tropes that will remind readers of some of the classics of those genres. Read More
Teaser
It is 11,000 years from now. A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history --- and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.
Promo
It is 11,000 years from now. A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history --- and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.
About the Book
Robin Sloan expands the Penumbraverse to new reaches of time and space in a rollicking far-future adventure.
In MOONBOUND, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of MR. PENUMBRA'S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.
It is 11,000 years from now. A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history --- and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.
MOONBOUND is an adventure into the richest depths of Story itself. It is a deeply satisfying epic of ancient scale, blasted through the imaginative prism one of our most forward-thinking writers. And this is only the beginning.
Audiobook available, read by Gabra Zackman
Editorial Content for The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Earl Warren, who served as Chief Justice of the United States, is often memorialized for a quotation unrelated to his tenure on the Supreme Court but is nonetheless a wry observation on life: “I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.” Read More
Teaser
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in the inbox of New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside was having an undefeated season. After years of covering wildfires, war, pandemic and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story about this deaf football team. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated boys and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. Fuller drove seven hours to the Riverside campus just in time to see them trounce their opponent in the second game of the playoffs. THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history.
Promo
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in the inbox of New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside was having an undefeated season. After years of covering wildfires, war, pandemic and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story about this deaf football team. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated boys and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. Fuller drove seven hours to the Riverside campus just in time to see them trounce their opponent in the second game of the playoffs. THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history.
About the Book
The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller.
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller’s inbox. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, a state-run school with only 168 high school students, was having an undefeated season. After years of covering wildfires, war, pandemic and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story about this deaf football team. It was uplifting. During the pandemic’s gloom, it was a happy story. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated boys and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. The team, and Adams, tackled the many stereotypes and seemed to be succeeding. Fuller packed his bags and drove seven hours to the Riverside campus just in time to see them trounce their opponent in the second game of the playoffs.
THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history, following the personal journeys of Keith Adams (their dynamic deaf head coach), a student who spent the majority of the season sleeping in his father’s car parked in the Target lot, a fiercely committed player who literally played through a broken leg in order not to miss a crucial game, and myriad heart-wrenching and uplifting stories of the players who had found common purpose. Through their eyes, Fuller reveals a portrait of high school athletics and deafness in America.
Audiobook available, read by Thomas Fuller
Editorial Content for A Mask of Flies
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Anne Heller is a criminal badass: a sharpshooter and a fast thinker who is even good at removing bullets from a wounded comrade. But when a big bank robbery goes horribly awry, it sets off a chain of events that are both humanly and supernaturally violent and forces Anne to confront the childhood trauma she has forgotten for decades. Matthew Lyons’ A MASK OF FLIES is a horror-thriller that follows Anne as she runs toward her past in order to finally leave it behind. Read More
Teaser
In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller has no choice but to return to her family’s cabin --- a secluded shack in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother’s untimely death. Along for the ride are Jessup, Anne’s badly wounded partner, and Dutch, the police officer she’s taken hostage. As they wait for help, Anne discovers strange relics from her mother’s past and begins to unfold the mystery of her childhood at the cabin. Then Jessup goes missing, only to turn up dead. Anne and Dutch bury her friend, but that night, he comes back and knocks at the cabin door. Not a dream, not a hallucination, but not exactly Jessup, either. Something else. Something wearing her friend’s face. Something hungry.
Promo
In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller has no choice but to return to her family’s cabin --- a secluded shack in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother’s untimely death. Along for the ride are Jessup, Anne’s badly wounded partner, and Dutch, the police officer she’s taken hostage. As they wait for help, Anne discovers strange relics from her mother’s past and begins to unfold the mystery of her childhood at the cabin. Then Jessup goes missing, only to turn up dead. Anne and Dutch bury her friend, but that night, he comes back and knocks at the cabin door. Not a dream, not a hallucination, but not exactly Jessup, either. Something else. Something wearing her friend’s face. Something hungry.
About the Book
In Matthew Lyons' pulse-pounding crime horror, A MASK OF FLIES, a criminal on the run after a failed heist must confront dark family secrets and demons from her past made flesh.
THE PAST HAS TEETH
In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller has no choice but to return to her family’s cabin --- a secluded shack in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother’s untimely death.
Along for the ride are Jessup, Anne’s badly wounded partner, and Dutch, the police officer she’s taken hostage. As they wait for help, Anne discovers strange relics from her mother’s past and begins to unfold the mystery of her childhood at the cabin.
Then Jessup goes missing, only to turn up dead. Anne and Dutch bury her friend, but that night, he comes back and knocks at the cabin door.
Not a dream, not a hallucination, but not exactly Jessup, either. Something else. Something wearing her friend’s face. Something hungry.
Audiobook available, read by Saskia Maarleveld
Editorial Content for The Hollywood Assistant
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In THE HOLLYWOOD ASSISTANT, aspiring novelist Cassidy Foster leaves Texas to go to California. She will work as a personal assistant to famous film director Nate Sterling and his actress wife, Marisol Torres.
Cassidy’s best friend, Lexie, lives and works in Hollywood. When she hears of an open position for this power couple, Lexie immediately contacts Cassidy and encourages her to take the job. Cassidy trusts Lexie, so she decides to make the big move to Tinseltown. Read More
Teaser
Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then, when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA. All she has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.
Promo
Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then, when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA. All she has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.
About the Book
Offered a dream job in Hollywood with a famous director and his actress wife, an insecure woman becomes their personal assistant where their secrets and lies place her in the crosshairs of a murder investigation.
Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA.
The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury: Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay.
When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. Nate is sexy and talented, and Cassidy can’t believe her luck. Clearly, Marisol doesn’t know what she has. Maybe that’s why the two are always fighting when they think Cassidy isn’t around.
But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.
Audiobook available, read by Brittany Wilkerson
Editorial Content for Unbalanced: A Jake Longly Thriller
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In UNBALANCED, Jake Longly enters the seventh inning of his namesake series, following 2023’s CULTURED. Jake was a Major League Baseball pitcher, while his BFF, Tommy “Pancake” Jeffers, was drawn to football given his enormous size. In their youth, they caroused the many bars along the Redneck Riviera, which alludes to the strong Southern culture and host of taverns and restaurants near the Gulf coast area of Flora-Bama at the eastern Alabama border. Read More
Teaser
Ex-pro baseball player Jake Longly and his girlfriend, Nicole, are asked by Jake’s father, Ray, a private investigator, to pick up some papers from a realtor for his business. When Jake and Nicole reach the office, they find it empty --- except for the dead body of the realtor lying on the floor, a single gunshot wound to his head. Who could’ve wanted him dead? The long suspect list and the numerous possible motives make untying the knot difficult. Working with the police department, Jake, Nicole, Ray and their friend, Pancake, dive into the deceivingly simple investigation, which grows more complex by the minute. With millions of dollars at stake, weeding through the realtor’s entanglements requires all hands on deck. And yet again, Jake is dragged into the PI business he can’t seem to escape.
Promo
Ex-pro baseball player Jake Longly and his girlfriend, Nicole, are asked by Jake’s father, Ray, a private investigator, to pick up some papers from a realtor for his business. When Jake and Nicole reach the office, they find it empty --- except for the dead body of the realtor lying on the floor, a single gunshot wound to his head. Who could’ve wanted him dead? The long suspect list and the numerous possible motives make untying the knot difficult. Working with the police department, Jake, Nicole, Ray and their friend, Pancake, dive into the deceivingly simple investigation, which grows more complex by the minute. With millions of dollars at stake, weeding through the realtor’s entanglements requires all hands on deck. And yet again, Jake is dragged into the PI business he can’t seem to escape.
About the Book
Jake Longly is never saying yes to his father again.
It was a simple task. Five minutes tops.
Ex-pro baseball player Jake Longly and his girlfriend, Nicole, are asked by Jake’s father, Ray, a private investigator, to pick up some papers from a realtor for his business. Jake would rather be lying on the beach outside of his Gulf Shores restaurant, but he begrudgingly agrees. It’ll only take a few minutes.
But somehow, things are never simple in Ray’s world. When Jake and Nicole reach the office, they find it empty --- except for the dead body of the realtor lying on the floor, a single gunshot wound to his head. Who could’ve wanted him dead? The long suspect list and the numerous possible motives make untying the knot difficult.
Working with the police department, Jake, Nicole, Ray and their friend, Pancake, dive into the deceivingly simple investigation, which grows more complex by the minute. With millions of dollars at stake, weeding through the realtor’s entanglements requires all hands on deck. And yet again, Jake is dragged into the PI business he can’t seem to escape.
Audiobook available, read by Marcus Barton