A Disturbing Nature
Mid-August 1975, Maurice “Mo” Lumen is exiled from his home in Virginia, bearing the weight of what he’s left behind—accusations, a half-brother, and an inhospitable cot. With the mind and heart of an eleven-year-old—the result of a self-described “accident”—and a love of baseball, Mo emerges in Rhode Island just shy of his twenty-fifth birthday. As summer yields to a rain-soaked fall, his frustration rises when news of a prolific killer in the region, nicknamed the Pastoral Predator, overshadows the Red Sox march to the World Series, and Mo unwittingly becomes a central figure in the investigation. FBI Chief Investigator Francis Palmer, fresh off the ensnarement of a monster—Ted Bundy—is thrust into the Pastoral Predator’s destructive path. Permanently scarred by every killer he’s hunted down, The Beast inside Palmer simmers as the investigation hits closer to home, forcing him to confront his demons. By the time Mo and Palmer’s paths collide, a dozen young women are dead. As the list of suspects narrows, Palmer’s confidence is shaken, and Mo begins to doubt his own innocence. Unable to escape their histories, they become increasingly isolated, and old secrets resurface. Who is destined to pay for the sins of their fathers, and who will pay for their own? A Disturbing Nature is a psychological thriller and coming-of-age story that examines Post-World War II America, exploring the heredity of prejudice, the hypocrisy of privilege, and the blurred line between man and monster.
However Long the Day
However Long the Day is the tale of two strangers—Niall Donovan, a poor immigrant from Ireland, and Frederick Philips, a rich ne’er-do-well from New York’s Upper East Side—who discover they look so similar they could be twins. Frederick, desperate to avoid a lecture from his father, bribes Niall to switch places for the evening. Niall finds there’s more to the story than Frederick let on, and is dragged through the turbulence created by World War I, the Spanish Flu, and social upheaval, and into the corrupt belly of Manhattan on the cusp of Prohibition. As Niall and Frederick hurtle through the next twenty-four hours, will either get what they bargained for?
MONSTER
MONSTER. The word evokes images of fairy tales and horror. But once, in 1850 Philadelphia, it was actually the term commonly used in physician’s case notes for the victims of fire. Conflagrations were common in this period—clothing, especially women’s lace, was highly flammable. Once the flesh was destroyed, there was no cure. These unfortunate souls lived out their lives as MONSTERS, secluded away by family. Once burned flesh gives way to contractures, disfigurements to rival even Bram Stoker’s imagination were born. And the hearts of the people inside the shell perished. Lorelei is one such MONSTER. Born to a wealthy family, disfigured by fire, she fake’s her own death, leaving the world she knows behind—because in her mind…freedom, even if it is a workhouse, is preferable than the life of a shut-in, a burden on her family’s name. !850’s Philadelphia is an epi-center of medicine. Rival medical schools search in desperation for bodies—cadavers to teach the art and science of anatomy to their medical students. Corpses become so rare, a new profession evolves. Resurrection Men, or body snatchers, dig up the graves of the newly decreased for high pay. Rory McTavish is one of the Resurrection Men. A Scots-Irish Immigrant, he has fought his way off the streets, and into medical school by whatever means necessary. He is not above digging up corpses—he cuts them by day, and searches them out by night. These two lives intersect in an explosion of personality-Rory is designated as Lorelei’s surgeon. Entrusted with performing the new operation called, The Mutter Flap. Once he sees her face, will the unrequited love die, or ignite? People are disappearing. Someone has discovered that murder is far more lucrative than grave robbing. And many of the bodies are from Lorelei’s workhouse. Will she be next?