Sideshow Freaks and the Mothers Who Love Them
A 79,000-word mystery/suspense told by eighteen-year-old Ike, whose oddly shaped head makes him off-the-charts intelligent, but also suffer debilitating and sometimes blinding migraines.
Looking for a bump in Latino attendance, Ike’s unscrupulous foster father William, an evangelical minister, marries Angie, the church’s devout Salvadoran housekeeper. Only hours after the wedding, Angie, who’s not at all the woman everyone thinks she is, convinces Ike to leave his beloved younger sister, Emma, and flee Barstow to find his older foster brother, Diego, whose whereabouts and welfare are unknown. Angie’s certain William and his not-so-secret lover Frankie are responsible and fears Ike will be their next victim.
With just one lead to follow, Angie and Ike try to stay a step ahead of William and Frankie as they cross the Mojave to search William’s cabin in the New Mexico mountains, on to Las Vegas and to a women’s prison in Central California. The journey to find Diego, or his body, is as much about bookish Ike finding himself. Through Angie, who isn’t always honest about how much she knows, Ike discovers where he fits in the worlds of the hypocritical pastor who raised him and the incarcerated mother who wasn’t allowed to.
Certain that Diego’s body is back in New Mexico, Ike and Angie return to the cabin and are confronted by William and Frankie, who have a gun, and something even more powerful: Emma as a hostage.
A Taste For Man
An 81,000-word psychological/paranormal thriller.
Guiding those two men into the Bangladeshi forest to observe the man-eating tiger was a mistake. Julian Hamilton should have followed his instincts and turned them away. The consequences: two dead strangers, a pair of bullet holes in his chest, and the forced mercy killing of a magnificent and endangered animal.
With little more than the names of the dead men and their vague connection to his hometown, Julian goes to Chicago to find out who wanted him and the tiger dead. Vengeance isn’t Julian’s only unfinished business. It’s been thirteen years since he’s been home. He has relationships to repair and needs to confront the trauma caused by his twin sister’s death.
Finding closure and exacting revenge prove difficult, even as he discovers the unexpected physical gifts the mighty tiger has passed on to him. Julian can handle his enhanced strength, speed and senses. It’s his new appetites that are going to get him in trouble.
A Taste For Man Book Two
Julian Hamilton has his anger and appetite issues in check. At least, partially. Now he has to contend with his past.
It’s been five years since Julian helped international authorities put shadowy tiger poacher Voqie Mugu behind bars. After serving a full sentence, Voqie’s released from a wretched prison in India and immediately uses his Chinese triad connections to seek revenge in Chicago. Julian teams up with Lourdes and a repentant Olivia to stop the powerful Voqie, however, Olivia’s brilliant but sinister alchemy has made Lourdes more dangerous than Julian ever was.