Sunstone Press | www.sunstonepress.com |
AGELESS OBSESSION A Novel By Beverly Ungar Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Melody Fox, disillusioned psychologist, is the only person who suspects the sudden death of Grant Fisher, her husband's friend and business partner, was not due to a previously undiagnosed bad heart. She has absolutely nothing to support her gut feelings--at first. Melody begins delving into places she shouldn't go and finds answers to questions she wished she'd never asked. The tenacious Melody Fox finds herself in perilous, life-threatening predicaments as she attempts to uncover the truth about the prestigious Scottsdale Anti-Aging Clinic and Grant Fisher's death. A quintessential shattered dream...an undaunted search for truth...and an exhaustive struggle for survival turn Melody Fox's once tranquil life into a daring excursion. BEVERLY UNGAR moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1994 from Davenport Iowa. She has also resided in London, England, and Hanau, Germany. She has been the owner of an award winning advertising agency in the Midwest, co-hosted and produced a weekly movie review television program, and has been marketing director for an Indian casino in New Mexico before becoming a novelist. She is currently working on her next book in the Melody Fox Mystery series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
AN AMERICAN IN CALIFORNIA A Historial Novel By Peter Kazaks Adventure, romance, jealousy, murder, and travel through a harrowing wilderness combine in this historical novel set in California and the mountain West in 1826 to 1828. Order from Sunstone Press: (505) 988-4418 Legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith crosses the desert and finds amidst the lushness of the Spanish missions suspicious Mexican officials, the brutal life of mission Indians, and a simmering insurrection. Two American ship captains who trade along the Pacific coast introduce Jedediah to a Mexican landholder, Estevan Mendoza, his wife, Isabella, and their daughter, Laura. The rancher wants to recruit Jedediah and his mountain men to lead a revolt against the Mexican government. Soon a budding romance and jealousy lead to murder. Political intrigues lead to other killings. What follows is the story of how Jedediah, despite personal yearnings, tries to get his men back to friendly territory, all while attempting to make a profit from the venture. Romance, adventure, jealousy, murder, and travel through a harrowing wilderness combine in this historical novel set in California and the mountain West from 1826 to 1828. Includes Readers Guide.
Peter Kazaks is a theoretical physicist with degrees from McGill, Yale, and University of California Davis. He is also the author of two accounts of summer long canoe trips in the extreme north of Canada: From Reindeer Lake to Eskimo Point and Lands Serene. He has traveled extensively in the American West. Sample Chapter
eBook:
|
ANGELS IN TESUQUE A Novel By Michael Glasco “Glasco keeps his sensitive hero on the right track through costly lessons.” —Publishers Weekly
“…much more than an idea. It is a beautiful gift from the angels and from a talented writer who knows how to touch the heart.” —Angel Times Magazine Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 On Christmas Eve, snow falls softly on the small adobe house perched in a field on the edge of the pueblo. Young Ben Touchstone, a half-breed, feels a tear snake past his cheekbone to his mouth. Born with pale skin, straw colored hair and cobalt eyes, his sad expression is reflected in the window. Rejected by the pueblo, he also feels the pain of knowing he is regarded as an oddity by anglos. Even the tourists on the plaza in Santa Fe cast curious glances. Ben feels forsaken in a strange limbo between the cultures. That night, in the mysterious chapel at Chimayo, he is startled and bewildered by the majestic appearance of his angel who promises Ben she will intervene and counsel him at every crossroad of his life. But does she? For many years Ben is puzzled by her absence. Will he be able to discern whether people in his life have been sent by the angel, or are they dark forces dispatched by some demonic being? Moving between the abject poverty of Tesuque pueblo and the wealthy social life of Santa Fe, Ben is constantly confronted with choices, choices he alone must make. Only in the final pages of the novel does Ben comprehend the significance and fulfillment of the angel’s mysterious promises made thirty years earlier in the chapel at Chimayo.
Michael Glasco is a native of Dallas, Texas, and received his undergraduate degree in journalism and his masters degree from Southern Methodist University where he taught photography and film. He has also been a commercial photographer with assignments throughout the United States, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. This is his first published novel. Sample Chapter
eBook:
|
A BACHELOR PARTY FOR ODYSSEUS A Novel By Albert M. Balesh Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 In this first in the Alex Bales Fiction Series, high-powered, Chicago CEO Alex Bales has it all, including a loyal friend named Randy Danhurst. Yet something is missing in his life. Alex’s flings with strange women and drunken debauchery bring him no satisfaction, and he has already begun to see the telltale signs of his body’s decline. He’s gone on like this for years, devoid of true happiness that transcends the material. Then a straw breaks the camel’s back, when Alex finds his friend Randy’s body dripping blood on a cold bathroom floor. That shock triggers introspection and a quest to relive his life, further encouraged by a mysterious ad Alex sees buried in the Chicago Tribune. It appears that a new experimental drug called FOY1 is about to be employed in a suburban research project. Alex makes the trek to the address listed in the ad, and that becomes the beginning of his plunge into deep, dark waters. He knows not whether the new characters he meets are real or imaginary. The strange character of Dr. Edward Stawson, the principal investigator in the experiment, promises to give Alex a new mental and physical identity at very little risk. Is Stawson, however, an uncompromising researcher or something far more sinister? Alex relives his life post-experiment, and goes down the “rabbit hole,” with the growing grim realization that something is amiss. Was his participation in Stawson’s experiment nearsighted, at best? Includes Readers Guide.
Albert M. Balesh, MD, lived in Rome, Italy for 20 years, where he obtained his Doctorate of Medicine. He has written over 100 medical columns and three books of poetry. He now practices family medicine in Texas. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE BEETHOVEN BOOMERANG A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini A black student is shot dead during a demonstration claiming “Beethoven Was Black” in Bonn’s historic Münsterplatz with its majestic monument to the Bonn-born composer. Attending a Beethoven jubilee conference in the city is retired professor turned art crimes detective Megan Crespi with her American colleague and Beethoven expert, Will Meridian. During their symposium on the composer one of the participants is also killed. Who is the assassin or assassins and why do the murders continue? The cast of characters and suspects Megan is confronted with include Bettina Brentano, ambitious conductor of the Bonn Classical Philharmonic, Oskar van der Fresser, founder of the Beethoven und Du Museum in Vienna, Dr. Seide Sammlerin, over-protective director of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Tobias Neidisch, Beethovenhalle night guard with a chip on his shoulder, Dr. Li Shutong, with a singular background relating to Beethoven in China, Leopold Weissknab, white supremacist student studying at Bonn University, Louis van Hoven, a self-declared direct descendant of Ludwig van Beethoven, Clemens Karl von Masuren, beloved conductor of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, and Takuto Nisemono, conductor and composer once considered “the Beethoven of Japan,” now disgraced but defiant and scheming a come-back.Megan’s pursuit of Beethoven-related criminal activity extends to a cruise ship bound for China and additional deaths. Can justice prevail? Includes Reading Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both books in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press as well as The Fantastic Art of Vienna, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Schiele in Prison. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica to China and are reflected in her Megan Crespi Mystery Series: Killing for Klimt, The Schiele Slaughters, The Kokoschka Capers, The Munch Murders, The Kollwitz Calamities, The Kandinsky Conundrum, and The Mahler Mayhem. All Comini’s scholarly books are available in new editions from Sunstone Press as is the entire Megan Crespi Mystery Series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
BIG BLACK DOG IN VALLARTA A Sydney Reardon Mystery By Mary Branham Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Hoping to prevent her best friend’s suicide, Sydney Reardon rushes to Puerto Vallarta where she becomes entangled with witchcraft, a handsome Gringo lawyer, a New York cop, a huge black dog—and murder. This book, one of a series, was a selection of the Mystery Book Club. Her other books, also from Sunstone Press, are Little Green Man in Ireland and Three Deadly Days in Spain.
Mary Branham was assistant director of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Having bought numerous thick books at airport shops and left them on the plane unfinished, she determined to write a series of books that could be enjoyed on a flight of reasonable length and call them “airplane books.”
“It is a challenge to develop characters and action in such a narrow framework, but Mary Branham successfully integrates some interesting characters around Maude’s personality, which permeates the entire story. Mary Branham obeys one of the adages of writing: ‘write what you know.’ Her descriptions of Puerto Vallarta are interesting and show that she has spent considerable time there. She also does a nice job of working in a few side stories to keep the plot moving—big on dialog and relaxing for the brain.” —The Midwest Book Review
“Memorable characters, slick dialog, and almost whimsical settings make this a delightful short read....” —Library Journal Sample Chapter
Softcover:
|
BILLY OLD, ARIZONA RANGER A Historical Novel Based on a True Story By Geff Moyer In this historical novel, Billy Old and Jeff Kidder were Arizona Rangers at the turn of the twentieth century and best friends. In 1908, while acting in the line of duty, Kidder was murdered by five crooked Mexican policemen. No charges were filed against his killers. They were quietly skirted away to various locations throughout the county of Sonora, Mexico, a vast, desolate area covering nearly twenty thousand square miles. In 1909, shady politics in the Territory of Arizona brought about the disbanding of the Rangers, leaving many to drift into obscurity and some into degradation. In that same year Billy Old vanished into Sonora to find and kill the men responsible for his friend’s death. He returned close to two years later with that deed accomplished.
During Billy’s search of hundreds of sleazy Sonora whorehouses and cantinas he experiences many exciting, humorous, and tragic encounters. There’s a bloody and deadly confrontation with four scalp hunters; a mystical meeting with an old, dying Hopi Indian; an attack by the legendary “Red Ghost” of the southwest; a sorrowful meeting with a past fellow Ranger; cannibal Indians from East Texas; renegade Apaches; flushing toilets; the wonders of ether; Dancing Devils—fifty-foot high swirling dust funnels that can blind an animal; and a whore named Abbie Crutchfield who proves vital to Billy’s quest. And then there’s his horse Orion and a mule named Captain, all a part of a critically changing time in the American Southwest.
Includes Historical Background and Readers Guide.
Geff Moyer is a published playwright and retired high school theater and creative writing instructor. His play scripts have been produced by hundreds of schools and theaters across the country, including Canada, Greece, Australia, and the United Kingdom. This is his first novel. He and his wife Cathy have three sons and two granddaughters and live in the Kansas City area. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
BLACKFEET EYES First in the Blackfeet Mystery Series By Leonard Schonberg Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 The mutilated body of a young white girl is found in the parking lot of an abandoned factory on the Blackfeet Indian reservation in Montana. Raymond Two Teeth, a Blackfeet Tribal Police officer, is joined in his investigation of the crime by Will Perkins, a Lakota federal agent posted in Browning. In spite of the stormy relationship between the tribal cop and the FBI man, they are an effective team. Their investigation leads them to White Calf, a sadistic murderer, and to Dirk Aalford, a hay farmer and polygamist preacher known as ‘the prophet.’ Both are part of a major methamphetamine distribution operation.
Pursued by the FBI and Tribal Police, White Calf heads for the Canadian border, ruthlessly killing anyone who gets in his way. Raymond and Perkins find their own lives in jeopardy as they attempt to bring White Calf and Aalford to justice.
Leonard Schonberg's four previous novels, Deadly Indian Summer, Fish Heads, Legacy, and Morgen’s War, were all published by Sunstone Press. Blackfeet Eyes is the first novel of a trilogy set on Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Sample Chapter
|
BLOOD GUILT First in the Salinas Trilogy By Robert Franklin Gish This novella of becoming traces the growth of a young bi-racial woman’s struggles in life and love, marriage and motherhood as she leaves the home she must leave only to be drawn back by the forces of destiny. (SEE MOVE/TV TREATMENT BELOW) In this first in The Salinas Trilogy, Nina Lucero discovers that blood guilt has its consequences as she fights her way to self reliance, escaping from the multicultural, Pentecostal confines of a rural upbringing in southern New Mexico. Whether in butchering prize farm animals for food, hunting deer in the nearby Manzano Mountains with her war-vet uncle, warding off the lecherous attacks of neighboring twin brothers, or protecting herself from combative school-girl rivals, violence and blood map the way of Nina’s individuation. Marriage to a delusional pastor caught up in snake worship offers her only tragic respite from the perverse darkness engulfing her spirit and the historic Native American and Hispanic ruins just beyond her father’s sheep ranch. She has the stuff to save herself and her children, but will she? Are divorce and a move to Albuquerque the answers? Will the soothing strains of her brother’s enchanting guitar and her mother’s fateful courage help? Atonement must come for Nina and her family but so must even more catastrophic blood guilt. Includes Readers Guide.
Robert Franklin Gish is the author of numerous works of fiction, memoir, biography, and essays. He teaches writing at the University of New Mexico where he is a distinguished alumnus and an emeritus scholar and professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa and former Director of Ethnic Studies at California Polytechnic State University. Gish is a member of the Authors Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, and Western Writers of America. He is also an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. His previous book for Sunstone Press was Twilight Troubadour. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
BLUFF WALK A John McAlister Mystery By Charles R. Crawford "...Crawford has created a likeable main character with an engaging back story and lots of potential for serial development." --THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, Memphis" "...it is just so ready to be on the screen." --Kacky Walton, WKNO-FM "In BLUFF WALK, Charles Crawford, sends us (in the words of the late great Warren Zevon) lawyers, guns and money. But mostly, he sends us guns. I do like a good mystery. And that's precisely what Crawford delivers in BLUFF WALK. It's one of those curl-up-by-the-fireplace winter weekend reads." --TENNESSEE BAR JOURNAL Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 Private investigator John McAlister is looking for something different. Something that doesn’t involve the divorce surveillance work he is so good at. But when high-powered society attorney
Amanda Baker hires him to find a missing accused crack dealer, John gets more change than he bargained for when he learns that other accused drug criminals have gone missing. John’s search leads him through a world of urban drug dealers, country honkytonks, high society and twisted law enforcement, with a stop at one of Amanda’s divorce trials. Along the way, he learns some things he would rather not know, and narrowly escapes with his life. Set in Memphis and the surrounding Delta, Bluff Walk is a page-turning mystery thriller that captures the complexity of Southern society, high and low, and the haunting effects of the past on the present. CHARLES R. CRAWFORD has practiced with one of the oldest and largest law firms in Memphis for over twenty years. Author of several published articles and reviews, Bluff Walk is his first novel. Mr. Crawford is currently at work on the second in the John McAlister Mystery series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
BODIE GONE A Science Fiction Novel of Suspense By Bill Hyde Believe it or not: a science fiction Western! Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 THE BOOKWATCH reports: "BODIE GONE is a terrific, thoroughly entertaining debut novel for author Bill Hyde." Frances “Tip” DeQuill—affluent housewife, mother, and sometimes newspaper writer—was mortified when the iron door clanked shut. Yes, she was locked up in the Bridgeport jail. Imprisonment marked the beginning of the price she would pay for investigating a sequence of ominous, unlikely events that had occurred close to Bridgeport and the nearby ghost town of Bodie, California.
Frances had been obsessed with trying to unravel the mystery of the strange things that had happened, much like prospectors who had been driven to seek Bodie’s “Veda Madre.” No warnings, no threats, and not even jail could divert her attention. Her quest for a story would take her back in time to the gold rush days and urge her to chronicle the stories of eight strangers who had struggled to reach Bodie seeking gold, love, lust, adventure or revenge. Her strangers would interact with some of the best known characters from the Old West and they would experience many historical happenings. But nothing they suffered would prepare them for their bizarre departure from Bodie.
Would Frances find the truth? Could she escape her hunters? Would she have time to expose the cover-up and find the real meaning of BODIE GONE?
Bill Hyde is a former Naval Officer with extensive business experience who has university degrees in both geology and industrial management. He has traveled extensively, panned for gold in the high country, and loped his horse over the Bodie Mountainsides. Bill thrives on a challenge and loves an adventure. This is his first novel. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE BRAHMS BUST A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini In Vienna, upsetting mishaps occur when a Bruckner/Brahms four-part concert series under the baton of a woman conductor turns deadly. After visiting the nineteenth-century German/Texan sculptor Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin, art crimes detective Professor Megan Crespi identifies an unknown bust of the young, beardless Johannes Brahms in a local antique store, and happily acquires it. Two days later she speaks on Brahms and the Visual Arts in his birth city of Hamburg. She continues to Vienna where she is to lecture on Gustav Klimt and Music and attend a controversial concert series that juxtaposes Austrian-born Anton Bruckner symphonies with those of German-born Brahms. As partisans bicker, the conductor Agatha Endlich encounters growing threats with violent consequences. Suspects include conductors Brahms-lover Lukas Eifer and Bruckner-fanatic Christian Begeist as well as their devious cohorts. Descendants and ancestors of the world-famous Wittgenstein family of Vienna play a role. After the revelation that Brahms produced a secret work in a genre totally unassociated with him, Megan attempts to discover the score that has been hidden for over one hundred and fifty years. Will she be successful? Includes Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both books in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press as well as The Fantastic Art of Vienna, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Schiele in Prison. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica to China and are reflected in her Megan Crespi Mystery Series: Killing for Klimt, The Schiele Slaughters, The Kokoschka Capers, The Munch Murders, The Kollwitz Calamities, The Kandinsky Conundrum, The Mahler Mayhem and The Beethoven Boomerang. All Comini’s scholarly books are available in new editions from Sunstone Press as is the entire Megan Crespi Mystery Series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
BROKEN HEARTS A Suspense Novel of Crime and Mystery By Bob Levy “I read it on my trip to Okinawa. It’s very good. I could hardly put it down.” —President Bill Clinton
“Levy has crafted a lively and entertaining mystery with a special appeal.” —The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
“Bob Levy weaves a delightful tale of suspense and mystery, and the pages go flying by.” —John Grisham
“…a fine piece of writing…with crimes of such horror that even cynics will double-lock doors before perusing the next chapter.” —The Roanoke Times
“…a tense, engaging story that is especially good for putting chills down the reader’s spine!” —Library Bookwatch Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 The man had killed ten women across Virginia and Tennessee and was electrocuted for his crimes back in the late fifties. But he had left a cryptic message scratched on his death cell wall for his captor, detective Joe O’Riley, whose young wife had been the criminal’s final victim.
Now, decades later, another string of murders are working their way across the same two states, taking place in the very same old movie theaters. Expertly applied makeup leaves each victim resembling a different screen star from the fifties era. This evolving trail of death both horrifies and intrigues the now-retired Memphis Chief of Police O’Riley. His investigative fire is rekindled just as his love life returns—dormant since the death of his wife those many years ago.
The striking similarity of the crimes, along with clues left at the crime scenes, baffle the police, the medical examiner, and O’Riley. Could this be a copycat? Or is the perpetrator’s identity more sinister? A cat-and-mouse game between police and killer quickly escalates as the murders continue and once again, the love of O’Riley’s life is planted firmly in the killer’s path.
Bob Levy is also the author of Past Tense, the suspense-thriller sequel to Broken Hearts from Sunstone Press, and From the Coin’s Point of View, a Roman history/short story collection. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia. A retailer by trade with Oak Hall, a specialty clothing store founded by his great-great-grandfather in 1859, the author resides in Memphis, Tennessee. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
|
CANNIBAL PLATEAU A Mystery Novel By Joe wise BASED ON HISTORIC FACTS: THE ONLY AMERICAN EVER CONVICTED OF CANNIBALISM!
See PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK below. This exciting novel is based on actual events surrounding the trial of convicted murderer and cannibal Alfred Packer, the only American ever to be convicted of cannibalism. On a spring day in 1874, a reporter for Harper's Weekly traveling with a surveying party on a wilderness road through a remote mountain valley in Colorado's San Juan mountains, wandered onto an abandoned campsite where he found the mutilated and rotting bodies of five men. Immediately a search began for Alfred Hammit (Packer), a hapless drifter and the sole survivor of the ill-fated prospecting expedition, suspected of murdering the five men and living off their bodies during the severe winter weather that had trapped them. Fascinated by the compelling details of this 120-year-old case, David Walton and his friend Jack Fuller team up to reinvestigate the mysterious events surrounding the prospectors' deaths and the two trials that led to Hammit's conviction. Before the end of what at first seems like an academic exercise, Walton and Fuller find themselves digging up graves, trailing a suspected drug dealer through the mountains and dealing with the murder of a local mine operator. LIBRARY BOOKNOTES called it a "fascinating historical thriller." Tony Hillerman said: "People who love good writing are going to love CANNIBAL PLATEAU. Joe Wise is an artist with words--every sentence clear and true. A Winner!" And...there's even been a movie and a musical (one of its creators is Trey Parker of BLAME CANADA fame) about the subject. Joe Wise's book gives another whole side to the subject! JOE WISE, a physician and freelance writer, was born in Texas and has traveled extensively throughout the Rocky Mountain West. He has written for Military History of Texas and the Southwest, the Journal of the West, American History, Sunset, New Mexico Magazine and the Travel Section of The New York Times. CANNIBAL PLATEAU was judged Best Historical Novel at the 1995 Southwest Writers Workshop. He currently lives with his wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he is working on his next novel. His second novel, IN THE MORO, was published by Western Reflections and won an Award for Fiction from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association in 2000. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE CASSANDRA GROUP Meddling with Future History By Joseph A. Bonelli The president of the United States enlists a foreign power in locating hidden missile sites but with mixed results.
Read the "Movie/TV Treatment" below. In this speculative socio-political novel, a prestigious think tank—The Cassandra Group—led by a military historian general is aiding the president of the United States behind the scenes in sensitive negotiations with a foreign leader. As part of the plan, three brilliant young predictive historians in the Cassandra Group are assigned to devise a way to uncover the foreign nation’s hidden ICBM launch sites. Cassandra has devised a way to locate these “missing” sites by supporting a spin-off group called The Searchers composed mostly of women with highly unusual talents and time-tested old fashioned strategies. But they work. Too well, perhaps. Then bad stuff happens and everything gets messy as each hidden launch site is located. Is The Cassandra Group helping or merely meddling with history? Does this information help with the president’s negotiations? Or is it too late? Will both countries be hit hard? he Cassandra Group will tell you its truth—but you may not want to believe it. Shame on you.
Joseph A. Bonelli holds a Bachelors degree in Comparative World Literature from the University of Southern California and a Masters degree in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. He has worked in policy analysis evaluation and regulatory writing in Washington, DC and for the State of California. He has been a child protective services supervisor, substitute teacher, and medical social worker. He is also the author of Congo Ape Kitabu and The Caballero from Catalonia, The Life of Juan Duval, the latter from Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
CHACO A Novel By Mark A. Taylor See "Praise for this Book" below. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 The Great Houses of Chaco are in turmoil as the last survivors uncover the mystery and truth at the heart of their civilization. Lovers, warriors and rival clans born of an ancient American culture are catapulted to the brink of destruction by one warrior’s urgent quest. From the sandstone mesas of the American Southwest to chambered catacombs hidden beneath the desert city, this book reveals a land of Indian sacrifice and other-worldly beauty shaken by a vision of the future.
Mark A. Taylor, a native of Utah, has been a writer, editor and publisher in local and national publishing. He has written extensively about Native American rights and western water and land use issues. His fascination with the Chacoan culture of New Mexico began when he once stood at the center of the great architectural wonder of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon under a full moon. Secure Movie & TV Rights
|
THE COLONY A Suspense Novel for the Young Reader By Thomas L. Carroll Are you ready for…
An Adventure of a Lifetime? Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 In the heart of the American southwestern desert, there's trouble for Lawrence Bell, a young boy who's bullied by other boys at school. Feaful of what they will do to him, he runs away into the desert, a forbidden place filled with tarantulas, rattlesnakes, and wandering coyotes. In the face of almost unbelievable events, he finds protection in an ant colony and becomes a member of their army. Lawrence's adventures and trials boil down to a struggle between good and evil as he encounters floods, battles with the red ants, narrow escapes from spiders, imprisonment in the dreaded fungus pit, and a flight off the notorious Rockface Cliff. THOMAS CARROLL lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife and three children. He has worked as a political consultant, speechwriter, and newspaper reporter. This is his first novel. The BEVERLY HILLS COURIER says: "Let the imagination begin! Put away the comic books and the computer games." And LIBRARY JOURNAL said: "the writing is clear and confident, and there is plenty of action. An interesting first novel." Sample Chapter
Softcover:
|
CORY'S FEAST A Novel By Sallie Bingham "...fiction that resonates with truth." THE COURIER-JOURNAL, Louisville, Kentucky
Winner: Best Romance Novel, 2007 New Mexico Books Awards Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Cory is a middle-aged Easterner, long-divorced, energetic and fearlessly sensual. Pursuing a dream she has nursed for years, she moves to Taos, New Mexico and buys a famous old house and, in the tradition of its previous owner, turns it into a crucible for the transformation of her guests. Eccentric and charming, with a lover from the Pueblo and lots of turquoise and broomstick skirts, Cory finds her guests, mainly skiers and tourists, bewildered by her particular philosophy, which she calls “The School of As-If.” Then her long-time friend is found murdered and Cory is suspicious of the local police’s half-hearted attempts to find the murderer. Involving herself in trying to solve the case, her unleashed power leads to surprising and even terrifying results. Part murder mystery, part adventure, this ground-breaking novel traces the mature lives of Cory and her much more conventional sister Apple, who first appeared in the author’s “Matron of Honor,” described by "Publishers Weekly" as “A powerful novel, her best yet.” Sallie Bingham's first novel was published shortly after she graduated from Radcliffe, followed by five more novels and three collections of short stories celebrating the lives of women. This latest, "Cory's Feast," continues to spotlight adventurous women whose challenges and choices illustrate the social changes of the twenty-first century. Her short stories and poetry have been widely published and her plays have been produced both off-Broadway and around the country. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center, and is the founder of The Kentucky Foundation for women. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
|
CREEP AROUND THE CORNER A Novel By Douglas Atwill A novel of the spy world in Europe during the Cold War years. Europe in the Cold War years was a dangerous place for Harold Bronson and his buddies, draftees commandeered into espionage and counterintelligence. Their low echelon escapades take them to Berlin, Ulm, the South of France, and Zurich. Bronson chooses this time of his life to explore a personal coming out, creating secrets within secrets in a disapproving military. In his off-time, Bronson paints portraits of the other denizens of Schloss Issel, earning money for trips and adventures to Paris and Nice. Always on the edge of life, he taunts the higher-ups with a light-hearted acceptance of life in the spy world of 1957. Real danger is further off from his circle at the Schloss, but it is an insistent melody they can always hear. Other books by Douglas Atwill, all from Sunstone Press, are Imperial Yellow, The Galisteo Escarpment and Why I Won’t Be Going To Lunch Anymore. Atwill lives in Santa Fe, painting New Mexico landscapes and gardens from his studio on the city’s Eastside. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
CRISIS GAME A Novel of the Cold War By Craig Eisendrath "A FLAT-OUR ROCKET RIDE..." Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 They once had power--all four of them--and they enjoyed it. Now, in the heat of the Vietnam conflict, they're on the fringes of government, relegated to participating in a war game, trying out moves that mimic reality rather than making policy. Yet, they tell themselves, this game is important. It will help the government avoid a false step that could launch nuclear terror. The crisis they must deal with is a Chinese Communist thrust into Thailand and a Soviet attempt to take over Iran. But the four players-a former assistant secretary of state and Strategic Air Command pilot, a former effete ambassador, a philandering law professor, and a corrupt former U.S. senator-desperately want this game to be real, and they play it as if it were. Soon they're obsessed, as their wives begin to realize. Each move becomes a personal commitment, not just an exercise. Reality and game-playing blur. Before long, these four members of the State Department team are deep in conflict with a more aggressive team from the Defense Department. As they continue to explore their strategies, they reveal their deepest secrets and ambitions, and in the end they have to face the fact that they are real human beings--not just players in a game. CRAIG EISENDRATH served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State, working in the area of outer space and nuclear disarmament. With a Ph.D. from Harvard University, he became a college dean and then head of the state humanities council in Pennsylvania. Today, he is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and the author of several books on international affairs, including The Phantom Defense: America's Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion. Eisendrath also writes plays, most recently The Angel of History, which tells the dramatic story of a resistance fighter against the Nazis and her heroic attempt to rescue a famous philosopher. PRAISE FOR CRISIS GAME: Steve Zettler, author of The Second Man and Double Identity says: "Crisis Game is a flat-out rocket ride; giving new and intensified meaning to both crisis and game. When does the crisis end and the game begin? More crucial, when does the game end and the crisis begin? Eisendrath's style is thoroughly engrossing. Characters seemingly leap from the pages, struggling to match wits and backbone with the best and the brightest; but unable, or more likely, unwilling to escape from either the game or the crisis they have created. How cold was the Cold War...? You're about to find out." Cordelia Frances Biddle, author of Beneath the Wind reports: "Craig Eisendrath shows us insider Washington in a dangerously isolationist mode where global politics become 'games' enacted by players with nothing to lose. Reading Eisendrath's tale of the Cold War, one wonders what lessons--if any--our present leaders have learned." Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
CRITICAL EVIDENCE A Courtroom Suspense Novel By Laurance L. Priddy "With high-energy courtroom scenes and plenty of cunning legal manipulations, Priddy shows that you don't have to be a high-profile author (Grisham, Turow, et a.) to write a high-quality legal thriller." (BOOKLIST)
"Lawyer and mystery scribe Laurance L. Priddy crafts an unlikely hero in hotheaded and near-broke personal injury lawyer Jim McSpadden, who, out of desperation, takes a case no one else wants proving that a mechanical defect rather than human error caused a deadly highway accident. Working for the widow of the man the trucking company says is responsible, Jim finds himself playing spy, sparring with a bigger lawyer and fallinG love in "Critical Evidence." (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY) When a tanker truck crashes and explodes, down-at-the-heels lawyer Jim McSpadden hopes to represent some of the victims, but big-time attorney Rolly Sullivan gets to them first. The only client Jim can muster is Laura, widow of Danny Marcus, the truck driver whose drunken driving allegedly caused the accident. As Jim struggles to prove that a defect in the truck steering made Danny lose control, trial tactics lock Jim and Rolly in an unwelcome relationship: if one wins, the other loses, yet they must cooperate on common problems of proof. Jim's accumulation of evidence through industrial espionage provokes a violent response, escalating the game to a lethal level. Now, it's not just a matter of win or lose. His life is part of the stakes. LAURANCE L. PRIDDY, author of the critically acclaimed WINNING PASSION and SON OF DURANGO both published by Sunstone Press, was born in Sweetwater, Texas. He grew up in Gainsville and Fort Worth, Texas and graduated from Arlington State College and from the University of Texas School of law. After two years in the army, he entered the practice of law in Fort Worth where he practices today. BOOKLIST called WINNING PASSION "an excellent read" while PUBLISHERS WEEKLY commented that it had "an easy authenticity." Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
DARK REVELATION A Scott Hunter Mystery By Myron Beard Psychologist Scott Hunter is enlisted by his friend Detective Miguel Montez to assist in solving the gruesome homicide of a high profile and well-respected community leader and the complexity of the crime leads Scott to take a risk that stands to undo both the investigation and his professional career. An anonymous caller makes a late-night report to the police that there is a lifeless body lying on the stage of the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater in Santa Fe. Upon arriving, the body of Paul Austin is discovered. He was a beloved and well-regarded counselor, motivational speaker, and founder of the Community of Revelation. He had been murdered under very strange circumstances at the site of one of his favorite speaking venues. Because of their previous work together, psychologist Scott Hunter is again enlisted by his friend, Detective Miguel Montez, to help solve this gruesome and perplexing homicide. As Scott investigates the events and people surrounding Austin’s murder, he encounters unexpected and surprising aspects beneath the surface of an ostensibly well-thought of community. He is further shocked to learn about the exploitation of some very vulnerable people that happen to be among Santa Fe’s most wealthy and well-known citizens. Because of the high profile of these individuals, Scott knows that he needs to tread very carefully. Many twists, turns, and suspects emerge, turning the investigation upside down before the villain is ultimately identified. The complexity of the crime leads Scott to take a risk that stands to undo both the investigation and his professional career. Includes Readers Guide.
Psychologist, consultant to executives, and educator, Myron Beard is the product of a family with one hundred years of history in Santa Fe. He has a particular interest in the psychology of exceptionally successful psychopaths and their ability to effectively manipulate others for their own personal gain. He has lived in Denver since 1991. He is the author of three previous books: The DNA of Leadership: Creating Healthy Leaders and Vibrant Organizations; The DNA of Physician Leadership: Creating Dynamic Executives; and M & A Integration: CEOs Field Guide to the Art & Process of Effective Merger Integration; and from Sunstone Press, Santa Fe Deception, a Scott Hunter Mystery. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE DEAD GO FAST A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery By James C. Wilson See MOVIE/TV TREATMENT below. Santa Fe artist Jimmy Mackey wakes up in his studio on Canyon Road with a massive hangover. His morning gets worse when a police cruiser pulls into his parking lot next to a strange car and even worse when police find a dead woman in the trunk of the car. The dead woman turns out to be the estranged wife of the Santa Fe mayor. The ultra-sensitive case winds up in the hands of retiring police detective Fernando Lopez, the only detective with enough experience to conduct the politically fraught investigation. Lopez interviews Mackey and the artists who were drinking at Jimmy’s studio the night of the murder, all deeply suspicious with flimsy alibis. He also interviews the mayor in a tense scene at City Hall. When Mackey flees Santa Fe, Lopez chases him across northern New Mexico––from haunted Ghost Ranch to the counterculture city of Taos, where he finds Mackey hiding at the home of one of his ex-wives. Before Mackey can be arrested he is shot and killed by two assassins. Suddenly the Police Chief and the Mayor want Lopez to close the case, since the main suspect is now dead. When Lopez refuses, the two assassins come after him. Lopez senses a cover-up. The case takes a surprising turn at the end, which forces Lopez to rethink his idea of justice. Includes Readers Guide.
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of eleven previous books, including Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History and Santa Fe, City of Refuge, An Improbable Memoir of the Counterculture in addition to Peyote Wolf, Smokescreen, and Ghost Canyon in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series.
On the cover: Roadside cross at Santa Rosa de Lima, near Abiquiu, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
DEAD KACHINA MAN A Mystery By Teresa Pijoan SEE PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK BELOW. Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 Who—or what—killed Ray Hava, the best Indian kachina doll carver in the country? And how was he killed? Could his death have come from intense superstitious belief? These are only some of the questions facing Police Captain Dominique Rios as his investigation begins inside an Indian Pueblo in modern New Mexico. But instead of answers, he finds only more violence and a string of mysterious events that border on the supernatural and beyond.
The ambience of Indian and Spanish Northern New Mexico come vividly to life through a cast of memorable characters: Doc Tapia (what is he hiding?); Ed Cruz (whose side is he really on?); Nee-nee (who is she and where are her parents?); and Marge Rios who shares her husband's involvement and danger.
Teresa Pijoan, a native New Mexican, skillfully weaves this story of murder, the occult, and legend that provides the background to present, in fiction, an exciting story of modern life and concerns. She grew up at San Juan Pueblo where she worked in the family-owned trading post. Long familiar with Indian customs and beliefs, she is a well-known speaker and writer and also a translator of Tewa, a Pueblo language. Her Pueblo Indian Wisdom, Ways Of Indian Magic, Granger’s Threat, Healers on the Mountain, Native American Creation Stories of Family and Friendship, and American Indian Creation Myths were also published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
DEADLY INDIAN SUMMER A Contemporary Novel By Leonard Schonberg See "PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK" below. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 BOOKLIST said: "During volunteer medical work in Africa, Asia, and South America, (Dr.) Schonberg learned to understand and respect a culture not his own, and that respect is a major distinction of this excellent novel that also portrays the New Mexico landscape and relations between Navajos and Anglos beautifully. If Schonberg hasn't started his next book, he should get cracking." From THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW: "Schonberg has written quite a perceptive novel. His medical slant is, of course, more comprehensive than how capitalism at its worst, with its accompanying greed, starts wars and causes destruction in its wake. DEADLY INDIAN SUMMER is a page turner galore!" REVIEWERS BOOKWATCH reported: "...a deftly written novel by a consummately gifted storyteller." Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
DEATH AT LA OSA A Pueblo Tribal Police Mystery Novel By Jack Matthews The search for a prehistoric turquoise mine, murder, pueblo ceremonialism, a bookshop, and sheepherders and horsemen form a contemporary novel set in the high country of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. (SEE MOVIE/TV TREATMENT BELOW) North of Taos, New Mexico, an unidentified murder victim wearing a belt with a turquoise buckle of rare dendrite quality is discovered on the edge of the Tulona Reservation. Tribal policeman Richard Tafoya takes charge of the investigation to determine the identity and killer. Tafoya meets Forest Service biology specialist Janet Rael as he follows leads from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the Navajo Reservation in the west. Within a social interplay of Puebloan, Hispano, and Anglo cultures, Tafoya searches for the kill site to unravel the strange numbers on the back of the turquoise stones. The Tulona Pueblo’s ceremonies of racing and pole climbing on Feast Day provide a mystical overlay to the chase. With the aid of a Navajo medicine man and a cartographer with the Bureau of Land Management, Tafoya and Janet discover not only the prehistoric turquoise mine, but also the killer. Along the way they brave high mountain altitudes, desert mesas, National Forests, and sharp changes in weather from desert heat to snow and rain. Includes Readers Guide.
Jack Matthews is a former professor of history and anthropology. An outdoorsman and mountaineer, he completed archaeological field school at Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, New Mexico. He conducted field trips to northern New Mexico, climbed the Truchas, Pedernal, and San Mateo Peaks, and wrote about the environmental influence on Georgia O’Keeffe’s art. Currently, he observes forests and mesas and trades “the old way” with his Puebloan friends. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
DEATH WALK AT ACOMA A Novel By Gregory D. Kincaid TONY HILLERMAN says: "A good read by a good writer." Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 A deeply concerned Alec Clarke drops his law school studies to search for his eccentric grandfather who has set out on a dangerous ritual desert journey, known to the Indians in a remote New Mexico tribe as the Death Walk. To save his grandfather and his Indian friends from a destructive military experiment, Alec's only choice is to discover for himself the mysterious power of the Death Walk. Tony Hillerman called this book, "A good read by a good writer." Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
DECOYS A Novel of Murder, Mystery, Love, Indiscretion and Hunting By Kenneth Tetzel An early morning, gruesome murder in California’s Central Valley leads a small town homicide unit back into a previous unsolved crime, dark behavior, distraction and a cast with dangerous secrets. Order from Sunstone Press: (505) 988-4418 An early morning assassination by an unknown sniper has a solitary witness, Beatrice. But she’s in shock and can’t identify the shadowy driver speeding away from the scene. Almost immediately, the small town homicide team springs into action led by Chris, a black detective. The murder rekindles a previous case—the mysterious death of an abused woman, Sarah Crosby. Sarah’s parents emerge as suspects, the mother willing to do anything to keep a past concealed and a father well trained in the art of shooting. Tom Ellis, an avid duck hunter also comes under suspicion as well as two young farm workers. Entering the picture is a devious reporter; risking her reputation to break the story. Set against a backdrop of marshes, orchards, and small rural towns in California’s San Joaquin Valley amid drought conditions, the struggle for survival exposes unrefined passions and a cast of characters evading an inevitable conflict, all acting as decoys to the two murders. (Includes Readers Guide)
Kenneth Tetzel was born in Akron, Ohio, and graduated from California State Hayward earning a degree in geography. He now lives in Livermore, California. Vivid memories growing up in the outdoors with his father and countless days in California’s backcountry, hunting and fly fishing, are the sole inspiration for this first novel. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
DEVIL ON CANYON ROAD A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery By James C. Wilson The murder of a homeless man and reports of a red-faced prowler seen on Canyon Road trigger rumors of the Devil loose in Santa Fe, but Private Investigator Fernando Lopez discovers more sinister threats from anti-immigrant politicians and the Sinaloa Cartel from Mexico. After the murder of a homeless man in downtown Santa Fe, Private Investigator Fernando Lopez is visited by a local artist who claims to have seen the Devil on Canyon Road. Lopez is dubious, but rumors continue to spread as more Santa Feans see a red-faced beast in the area. When a second homeless man is murdered, Lopez decides to investigate. The case quickly becomes more complicated––and dangerous––when a violent anti-immigrant movement called Take Back Our Streets wants to use the murders as a pretext to ban immigrants and homeless people from the streets of the city. Lopez discovers troubling information about the leaders of the movement, information that links them to the murders. Meanwhile, sightings of a red-faced beast continue on Canyon Road. Lopez decides to stalk the so-called beast and pursues it to an old Forest Service building on Upper Canyon Road. The building is being rented by Ricardo Aragon, a Mexican painter who, Lopez discovers, is on the run from the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico. Unwittingly, Lopez finds himself up against the Sinaloa Cartel, the Take Back Our Streets movement, and the Devil on Canyon Road. Includes Readers Guide.
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of thirteen previous books, including Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History and Santa Fe, City of Refuge, An Improbable Memoir of the Counterculture in addition to Peyote Wolf, Smokescreen, Ghost Canyon, The Dead Go Fast and Painted Skull Ranch in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series.
Cover art by Virginia Maria Romero. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
DONE FROM LIFE A Novel By Elspeth Grant Bobbs A mystery set in the art colony in 1950s Santa Fe, New Mexico. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 The small art colony of La Villa Real in the Sangre de Cristos dozed while the interesting mix of residents go about their business. Only newly transplanted Mary McIntire suspects that there is more under the New Mexican sun than meets the eye. Three of the "old guard" artists at the Art Association have recently died of tragic accidents. Is this changing of the guard a natural progression or is there something more sinister afoot? Mary finds herself in the unnerving position of being the only one taking this seriously and also being close friends with every possible suspect. Is there no one who is what appears on the surface? Mary puts herself in deadly danger to find out.
This mystery set in the early 1950s about the author's adopted town gives the reader a tantalizing glimpse of a more laid-back and calmer time. The characters and the passions that drive them, however, still move about the streets of any artist colony, at any time.
Elspeth Grant Bobbs was born and educated in England. Initially studying law at Oxford University, she finished her degree at Liverpool when war broke out. She moved to Santa Fe in 1943 where she met her husband, Howard Bobbs. During the setting of her novel, the 1950s, she and her husband lived on Canyon Road. There was a studio gallery for him and a small bookshop for her, with three little girls in the back. It was a happy time. She is a “Santa Fe Living Treasure” and is known for her fabulous gardens and philanthropy work. Sample Chapter
|
EL CASADOR (THE HUNTER) A Novel By Richard M. Lienau It is Easter in the mountain village of San Blas in the territory of New Mexico shortly after the Mexican War. The secret auto-flagellant society of Penitentes is conducting its annual faux crucifixion ceremony. Six armed men, “gringos,” invade the village and the religious ceremony. The Cristo and an old man are killed, a young girl is raped, and the faux Christ’s young wife is kidnapped and violated. Quasi-outcast Severino, brother of the dead Cristo, who returns from scouting for the U.S. Army, alone, chases the outlaws and deals out revenge one by one.
Richard M. Lienau, with a background in electronics and computer technology, holds more than twenty U.S. Patents. He has written several novels, including Night Run, The Maltho-Rose Plot, Holy Ghost, The Truchas Light, Legacy of The Light and Gavilan, the last four from Sunstone Press, along with a number of screen plays, short stories and articles. He lives in San Miguel County, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE FALCONER A Novel of Mysticism and Adventure By Jorge Gutierrez and James K. Omiya See PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK below. Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 Mauro, a history teacher in South Texas, often watched and became a part of the frequent storms that swept the beaches on the Gulf of Mexico. But this time things were different. The violence of wind, sand and sky contained visions of Arab warriors and explorers of centuries past. Could he have been touched by the mythical spell of the Falconer, an Arab of the Middle ages, and could the Falconer's power reach up to him from a forgotten time to reveal some reality long hidden? Who is this Falconer and these Arabs and what is the message they bear to Hispanics like Mauro? The reader may be surprised at this centuries-old truth.
Jorge Gutierrez, a bank lawyer, was born and raised in South Texas. He attended law school at the University of Texas at Austin where his research in Spanish archives led to his interest and fascination with the Hispanic connection to the Arab culture.
James K. Omiya is a second generation Japanese-American from El Paso, Texas. He is a writer and graphic designer who has lived in Texas all his adult life. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
FISH HEADS A Novel of Suspense and Mystery By Leonard Schonberg SEE PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK BELOW. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 In the peaceful waters of the Pacific Ocean near Bikini Atoll, a Marshallese fisherman’s motorboat suddenly strikes a mysterious object. Moments later, the horrified fisherman retrieves what seem to be human body parts. Back on shore, Jodi Larsen, a young American physician working in the Marshall Islands, tries to find a logical explanation for the fisherman’s grotesque find. After reporting what she suspects may be some unknown effect from American H-bomb testing, Jim Newell, a specialist in genetic disease research, arrives to assist in an investigation. Against a backdrop of their growing love for one another, Jim and Jodi are soon drawn into a dangerous web of cover-ups, murder, and intrigue that changes their lives forever.
Leonard Schonberg, author and physician, traveled all over the world and worked as a volunteer physician in Asia, Africa and South America, one of his most recent assignments being in Uzbekistan. His previous novels, Deadly Indian Summer, Morgen’s War, and Legacy were also published by Sunstone Press. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE GATEKEEPER A Novel of Suspense By Tom V. Whatley A friendly town is caught by surprise when a relatively unknown woman is murdered in northwest Alabama. Nothing adds up as detective Lane Cole jumps on the case with bulldog tenacity only to find himself at repeated dead ends. The nonexistent trail to the killer is a puzzle. Good police work finds him quizzing the neighboring law enforcement agencies about their unsolved murders. He soon discovers five other killings over an eight-year period with the same M.O. Whammo! Lane Cole has a multiple murderer on his hands. What follows is a twisting road leading all the way to Chicago. It travels through the land of deep mental illness, severely abused children, and police work dangerously close to the edge. The surprise ending becomes the beginning of serious soul searching for any reader.
TOM WHATLEY lives in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He is the author of three western novels. "Cuts No Slack," "He Ain’t Dead," and "Ghost Runner" chronicle the life of Reed Haddok and were all published by Sunstone Press. He is a minister and declares he wrote "The Gatekeeper" from his heart. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
GAVILÁN A Novel By R. M. Lienau Jesse Landry, son of a murdered Santa Fe store owner, and his friend, Army Lieutenant. Harold Beckner, uncover and thwart an armed plot to subvert the Territory of New Mexico into the Republic of Texas. Order from Sunstone Press: (800) 243-5644 Middle-aged Evan Landry is murdered in his Santa Fe mercantile. His twenty-something “coyote” son, Jesse, shoots and kills the murderer in self-defense, but the sheriff thinks otherwise. Fleeing the city, Jesse links up with sympathetic friends and holes up with his father's wealthy business partner, Don Nerio de Noriega, in Albuquerque. His friend, Lieutenant Harold Beckner, in the Territory of New Mexico on a secret mission from the War Department, follows. Beckner and the Army are searching for an illicit arms cache, which they had traced to Albuquerque. The smuggled arms, intended for an insurrection, are discovered, as are the plotters. Are they connected to the murder and will they meet their fate? Is Jesse cleared? And what is a Texas Ranger doing in Albuquerque?
Richard M. Lienau, with a background in electronics and computer technology, holds more than twenty U.S. Patents. He has written several novels, including Night Run, The Maltho-Rose Plot, Holy Ghost, The Truchas Light, and Legacy of the Light, the last three from Sunstone Press, along with a number of screen plays, short stories and articles. He lives in San Miguel County, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
GHOST CANYON A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery By James C. Wilson Click on "Movie/TV Treatment" below. Park Ranger Pete Chavez is murdered in an ancient ruin at Chaco Canyon as he makes his nighttime security check. Santa Fe Police Detective Fernando Lopez is sent to investigate and soon realizes there may be a connection between the Chavez murder and the murder two days earlier of an eccentric Santa Fean by the name of Tom Flynn, whose grandfather had worked for Richard Wetherill during the first archaeological excavations of the ruins at Chaco Canyon. In Flynn’s ransacked house Detective Lopez finds a journal written by Flynn’s grandfather detailing a cache of jewelry and artifacts hidden by Wetherill somewhere in or near the ruin of Pueblo Bonito. On orders Detective Lopez teams up with Patricia Begay, an FBI agent of Navajo descent. Moving between Santa Fe and the 1,200-year-old necropolis at Chaco Canyon, they find themselves embroiled in a violent world of greed and murder. Their jobs are made more difficult by ancient superstitions and mysterious sightings in the canyon. In order to solve the case Fernando must follow a dangerous trail of enigmatic clues left by the killer or killers and steer a treacherous course between modern science and a 1,200-year-old world of ghosts. Includes Readers Guide.
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of nine previous books, including Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History, in addition to Peyote Wolf and Smokescreen, in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
GHOST TEARS A Novel By Helen Lamberton Gates Order from Sunstone Press: (505) 988-4418 First time visitors to the American West, Delia Hager Duval and her French husband, Jean-Paul, accept an offer of an old Santa Fe adobe house for the Christmas holidays. But something is terribly wrong. Previous tenants have fled and their house is said to be haunted. Then a malevolent stranger invades and a teenage girl is murdered, turning dark and evil tales into reality. Caught in a web of suspicion, murder and terror, can they unravel the mystery before further tragedy occurs? Includes Readers Guide.
Helen Lamberton Gates, a born storyteller, offers readers a thrilling mystery set in the rich traditions and natural beauty of New Mexico, where the real and the surreal have mingled together for centuries and contemporary crime reaches international proportions. Born in Washington, DC, Helen Lamberton Gates graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied with Joseph Campbell, and went on to earn a degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She later discovered New Mexico, and was captivated by its natural beauty, cultural diversity and artistic energy. Her writing reflects her fascination with myth, psychology and art. She and her husband, William, live in Santa Fe where their children grew up. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
GRANGER'S THREAT A Murder Mystery Laced with a Web of Lies and Familial Contempt By Teresa Pijoan Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 In a small town in northern New Mexico a father’s untimely death leads to mayhem and murder. Families find their lives threatened once the father’s will is read for unlike his wife, he did not believe in primogeniture. Truth reveals that the father did not believe in his son Granger at all and herein begins the conflict. The father’s death was to be Granger’s salvation but Granger must now find a way to gain wealth in order to maintain a family male heir. The father’s doctor and nurse know without a doubt that the father’s death was not a natural one, but can they get the daughter Sophia to see the obvious as she suffers in her grief?
Soon Granger is shown not to be as clever as he believes himself to be when someone else—someone who wants Granger’s money and is equally as dangerous—comes on the scene and Granger soon becomes a victim. Sinister and clever machinations now outweigh truth and honesty. Sophia is not willing to let her home and her loved ones be separated from her without a fight as her relatives threaten to remove her from all she holds dear, including life itself. Can she survive and solve the mystery of her father’s death? The body count piles up as the story unfolds. What appears obvious may not be easy to prove as the prodigal son falls. Includes Readers Guide.
Teresa Pijoan was born in Espanola, New Mexico, and grew up in Indian communities where she learned the ways and legends of the Native People. Her father was a public health doctor from Barcelona and her mother was a school teacher from New York. Her grandfather was the famous Spanish author, Jose Pijoan. Teresa Pijoan is a lecturer, storyteller, research writer, and teacher and has shared her storytelling throughout Central Europe, Mexico, and the United States. To storyteller Pijoan, myths are “magic lenses” through which cultures can be viewed, understood, and deeply appreciated. Other books by Teresa Pijoan are Dead Kachina Man, American Indian Creation Myths, Healers on the Mountain, Pueblo Indian Wisdom, Native American Creation Stories of Family and Friendship and Ways of Indian Magic, all from Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
HEMORRHAGE A Doctor Cooper Series Novel By Warren J. Stucki Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 When Dr. Lawrence A. Cooper (Coop) has three patients inexplicably bleed to death on the operating table, the vultures begin to circle. First, he is accused of operating while under the influence of alcohol and his surgical privileges are stripped. Next, the deceased patients’ families each slap him with separate malpractice lawsuits and not too surprisingly, the State of Utah revokes his license to practice medicine. Then, just to make sure his bones are picked clean, the county attorney charges him with negligent homicide, a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. Just as Coop is pretty sure things can’t get any worse, his malpractice insurance carrier assigns Samantha Rose Jardine as his defense attorney. He and Samantha Rose go way back. She dumped him in college, and if he had a lick of sense he would call his insurance company and request another lawyer. Then things take a few surprising turns.
Warren J. Stucki is a native of southern Utah. As a young boy, he viewed the detonation of several atomic tests. Now, as a practicing physician, he has witnessed the havoc these tests have wrought on the citizens of southern Utah. Following graduation from the University of Utah Medical School, Dr. Stucki specialized in urology. At Dixie Regional Medical Center he has served as Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and member of the Hospital Governing Board. In addition to Hemorrhage, Dr. Stucki is the author of Boy’s Pond, Hunting for Hippocrates and Sagebrush Sedition. Three others, beginning with Hemorrhage, followed by Mountain Mayhem and The Death of Samantha Rose, are part of a “Doctor Cooper” series of novels. A fourth book, Town Bell, is a prequel to the highly popular Boy's Pond. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
A HIDDEN DEATH AT SAN FRANCISCO A Father Ibarra California Missions Mystery By John J. O’Hagan The death of a Native American from Mission San Francisco leads to a trip of discovery through California’s Delta for a Franciscan priest in the 18th century. A young Native American has died mysteriously in the remote back country of the California Delta, several days’ journey from his home in Yerba Buena. Why was he there, and what killed him? Was it some terrible new disease which might threaten the entire Spanish effort in Alta California? Was it at the hands of the Spanish military? His widow, “a child with a child,” asks Father Ibarra to find out what happened to her husband over a year after his death. When Father Ibarra expresses some hesitancy, she takes matters into her own hands. She sets off with her child for the wild country inland of San Francisco Bay. If she comes to harm in this endeavor it will reflect very badly on the already troubled Mission San Francisco.
Father Ibarra is confronted with three daunting tasks. He must find the missing mother and child, find the grave in which her husband was buried, and somehow determine the cause of his death. To do this Father Ibarra must not only face the wilds of the California Delta, he must take on the Spanish military and the Superiors of his own order. Based on an actual historic event, this book takes the reader on a trip through what is now one of the most cosmopolitan areas of the United States, but which was at one time the “ends of the earth.” Includes Readers Guide.
John O’Hagan is an amateur historian. Having grown up on the central California Coast he developed a life-long interest in the California missions and is a member of the California Missions Foundation. He has lectured extensively on the missions, done a variety of educational programs on them and has led tours of them for people from throughout the United States. He was a partner with the Saint Francis and the America’s project at Arizona State University. That project provided a multi-disciplinary forum for students, scholars and researchers to examine the impact that Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans have had on the new world. John is also the author of Lands Never Trodden: The Franciscans and the California Missions (University of Nebraska Press), an exhaustive review of each of the twenty-one California missions. He lives in Boise, Idaho and travels frequently to California to keep current on the happenings at his beloved missions. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
HIGH SKIES AND FAT HORSES A Novel of War and Human Imperfection By William J. Wallisch “There’s a little of the Appo Kid in all of us.” When Air Force Captain Norm Whitman gets his orders to a remote island off the southern coast of Korea he finds himself working for Major Dubbs, who already hates his guts. But it only takes a day for Whitman to team up with his fellow site mates: An alcoholic chaplain (Father Paul); the irreverent site medic (Sergeant Goldman); a fellow captain (Andy Packer, nickname “Oyster”), made constantly miserable by his Korean “Yobo” girl friend (Adja); and a group of Korean officers dedicated to both their military mission and serious partying. The creed for survival: “It’s your mind or your liver!” Curiously flawed and alcoholic, Whitman carries his Catholic guilt from brothels to brawls. A group of Irish priest missionaries and other assorted characters who fly in and out from bases all over East Asia join in the rice-wine driven mayhem that drives base commander Dubbs up the wall. The good times end when Whitman must deal with the murder of one of his closest site mates, the Korean police, and his own shock at how suddenly life can turn ugly. On the heels of tragedy, Whitman is selected for an assignment just as surreal: Train and accompany his Korean counterparts for a top-secret mission to Vietnam. What happens in the war zone will prove to be his day of reckoning.
William J. Wallisch is a retired professor of English who’s been a life-long collector of military character sketches and tall tales. He’s filled many notebooks with “war stories” penned during his own twenty-three years of active duty service. Typical of his essays on military heroism is “In the Belly of the Whale,” published in War, Literature, and the Arts. His University of Southern California doctoral dissertation was a study of “The Integration of Women into the United States Air Force Academy.” This first novel was originally a collection of short stories, taken from what he refers to as his “dark notebook.” Though set in Korea and Vietnam, it amalgamates a variety of characters and tales, gathered from many assignments around the world. When asked if the story is a memoir, Bill replies, “No, but there’s a little of the Appo Kid in all of us.” He divides his time between Colorado Springs and Leadville, Colorado.
Includes Readers Guide Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
HOLY GHOST A Novel By R. M. Lienau Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Alessandra “Alex” Petersen, an unhappily married woman from West Texas, is rescued from a fall into the cold waters of Holy Ghost Creek, a tributary of the Pecos River in Northern New Mexico by mysterious Mark Cassidy. After drying off at his nearby house, she goes to stay at a female friend’s house in Santa Fé. Thinking her friend gone, she is horrified to find not only her friend, but her husband, both murdered. Jeremy Radcliff, retired ex-CIA agent, is blackmailed into finding and eliminating—permanently—a fellow ex-CIA agent, a woman who happens to be Mark Cassidy’s sister, Evelyn, who is hiding out with her brother in their Holy Ghost Canyon safe house. Suspicions, lethal connections and coincidences abound, leading to a surprising finale in Holy Ghost Canyon.
Richard M. Lienau, with a background in electronics and computer technology, holds more than twenty U.S. Patents. He has written several novels, including Night Run, The Maltho-Rose Plot, Gavilan, The Truchas Light, and Legacy of the Light, the last three from Sunstone Press, along with a number of screen plays, short stories and articles. He lives in San Miguel County, New Mexico. Sample Chapter
eBook:
|
HOPI TEA A Murder Mystery By Kent F. Jacobs “Kent Jacobs delivers a story with a rapid-fire pace that mixes murder, mystery, and interesting tidbits of New Mexico history that is sure to entertain.” —Michael McGarrity
“Jacobs is first-rate, delivering the reader effortlessly to war-era Fort Stanton and Lincoln, conceiving the perfect setting for suspense, betrayal and murder.” —Andrew J. Wulf, PhD, Executive Director, New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors A mysterious murder faces border patrol agent Tracker Dodds as he assumes control of the first Prisoner of War camp in the United States under a mandate from the Department of Justice. It’s a hot summer day in 1942 when he enters Fort Stanton and he is shocked to discover a brutally scalped German inmate floating in its Olympic-sized swimming pool.
A river separates the camp from a state-of-the-art tuberculosis hospital in this alpine back country of southern New Mexico which adjoins the massive Mescalero Apache reservation. Could the scalping have been done by someone from the reservation? Or was the murderer another distressed German seaman? The camp is packed with German sailors. Did a bystander see the chance to silence his blackmailer?
Though the camp is remote and cut off from civilization, every soul involved feels the crushing destruction of a world at war. And the mysterious murder facing Tracker Dodds is just an example. Includes Readers Guide.
Kent Jacobs is a graduate of Northwestern University College of Medicine with a specialty post-graduate diploma from the University of Colorado College of Medicine. His interest in writing began during his early years as a full-time academician. He is also the author of The Turned Field and Zuni Stew, both from Sunstone Press and he lives with his wife, professional painter Sallie Ritter in southern New Mexico. They received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2014, the state’s highest award in the arts. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
HUNTING FOR HIPPOCRATES A Novel By Warren J. Stucki Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 Maybe it was an innocent mistake, or could it have been sabotage? Either way, Dr. Moe Mathis is in a mess. After obtaining a positive biopsy and performing radical prostate cancer surgery on his lover’s father, pathology now finds no evidence of cancer in the surgical specimen. To make matter’s worse, Howard died of complications from that surgery, straining his relationship with Connie to the point of breaking. But that’s not the only arcane incident, recently Dr. Mathis has had a run of bad luck. The same day he operated on Howard, he also implanted a penile prosthesis in Mr. Calley for impotence. Now the surgical wound is infected with a mouth-dwelling bacterium, Streptococcus Viridans, leading Moe to conclude someone deliberately spit on his surgical instruments. Also Moe’s colt inexplicably starts to hemorrhage and quickly bleeds to death. In his garage, Moe performs an autopsy--the stomach contents reveal tiny pieces of the drug, Coumadin. This is no accident! Horses do not run down to the pharmacy and purchase a blood-thinner. Moe can only think of three people with grudges, who also had opportunity: his partner, Dr. Russell Wright; his office nurse, Diane Henrie and the reporting pathologist, Dr. Catherine Connelly. Moe’s attempts to identify the perpetrator has yielded nothing and now he suddenly finds himself in jail charged with fraud, conspiracy and murder-one. Though it seems virtually impossible, his life, his career and his relationship with Connie all depend on his finding a way. From his cell, Moe fights off despair and tries to figure out how to get out of jail, solve these crimes, save his practice, restore his reputation and get Connie back. WARREN STUCKI Stucki is a graduate of the University of Utah School of Medicine and a board certified urologist. For the last twenty-three years, he has practiced medicine at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, Utah. He has served as Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and been a member of the Hospital Governing Board. A classical medical thriller, HUNTING FOR HIPPOCRATES is an intriguing change of pace from his first book, BOY’S POND. Presently, he is working on his third novel. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
JUSTICE BETRAYED A Novel By Jeffrey David Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 A murder trial, a jury deliberating intensely on the death penalty, venal political corruption, and a staunch investigation set the stage for this story of two judges. One is a respected, seasoned veteran of the bench who has risen from Magistrate Court Judge to District Court and then to the Chief Justiceship of the state’s Supreme Court; the other a young Administrative Law Judge, riveted by his duty, immovable and undeterred by enticement or violence, and unwilling to be silenced or swerve him from his sworn oath to uphold the law. Set in the cities and courthouses, the mesas, mountains, and high desert plains of New Mexico, this book drives forward like a charging battle tank, and all these events lead to the prize of a vacant U.S. Senate seat and all the potency and might that goes with it.
Jeffrey David is an attorney who served as the Judicial Law Clerk at the District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, taking part in major criminal and civil trials during his tenure. He later served as a Judicial Law Clerk for Justice Mary Walters, the first woman appointed to the New Mexico Supreme Court in Santa Fe. He also served as Staff Attorney/ Pro Se Writ Clerk for the United States District Court of New Mexico. His legal career culminated with an Administrative Law Judgeship/ Hearing Officer position for Child Support Hearings in the northeast quadrant of New Mexico. The author was educated at Lafayette College, The University of Miami (Honor’s Program), and Gonzaga University School of Law. He has served on the board of The Albuquerque Opera Theater, The Ballet Renaissance West, and was a member of the Democratic Party State Central Committee. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE KANDINSKY CONUNDRUM A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini A moving van filled with eleven Wassily Kandinsky paintings stolen from Munich’s famous Lenbach House Museum during a violent neo-Nazi demonstration is hijacked in Slovakia. Two rival Kandinsky collectors appear to be involved: Igor Rasputin of Odessa, visiting in Munich, and Boris Zima of Moscow, whose agent Raisa Sokolova is keeping tabs on Rasputin. Puzzlingly, the museum adamantly declares there has been no theft, even though its night watchman has been found murdered.
Also visiting Munich is retired art history professor Megan Crespi, slated to give a lecture she titles, curiously enough, “Double Kandinsky.” In between visits to “mad” King Ludwig’s fantasy castles, Megan comes into contact with possible suspects, ranging from Rasputin to Iris and Laszlo Togarassy, owners of Munich’s new The Blue Rider gallery featuring Kandinsky’s works, to Katrina Keller, associate director of the Lenbach. Manipulating events connected with the theft are a young, careless gambler who owns a building behind the Lenbach, two men from the Ukrainian island of Amiinyi—one a computer wizard, the other a science photographer—and their Munich engineer friend Alyksandr Miesel, neo-Nazi leader Walter Krankenhauer, and Detective Dieter Löser.
Crespi’s lecture, including results of state-of-the-art XRF technology, becomes the revelatory preamble to a thrilling denouement that cracks the Kandinsky conundrum.
Includes a Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both books in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press as well as The Fantastic Art of Vienna, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Schiele in Prison. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, also from Sunstone Press, extend from Europe to Antarctica and are reflected in her Megan Crespi Mystery Series: Killing for Klimt, The Schiele Slaughters, The Kokoschka Capers, The Munch Murders, and The Kollwitz Calamities, all published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
KILLING FOR KLIMT A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini In this first in the Megan Crespi Mystery Series, retired art history professor Megan Crespi, an expert on the Viennese artist Gustav Klimt, becomes involved in a race to recover the Secretum, a “shameful, secret panel” stolen from the artist’s studio the night after his death in February of 1918. Her travels, at the behest of New York’s Moderne Galerie Museum, owner of the famed 1907 “golden” Klimt portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, take her from the high desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Switzerland’s Ascona, as well as to New York, Vienna, Helsinki, Paris, Montreal, and Girdwood, Alaska. Megan is shadowed by two different assassins hired by fanatical Günther Winter. Owner of Alaska’s Alpenglow Hotel, he keeps his secret art collection in an annex basement. Several killings occur involving the interested criminal parties and naïve owners of Klimt artworks. Finally setting up a trade—Winter’s Secretum for the golden Adele—Crespi and two colleagues fly to Alaska. They bring with them two crates: one purporting to contain the Adele portrait, and a larger one to receive the Secretum panel. But there, greed leads to unexpected and colossal consequences. Will Megan survive the final killing for Klimt? Includes Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both are now in new editions from Sunstone Press. Her travels, recorded in the memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica and are reflected in this, her first mystery novel. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
KIVA A Novel By Ronald K. Wetherington Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 When an archaeology student excavates the final layer of debris filling an ancient pueblo room, she dramatically and unexpectedly exposes a sacred kiva lying below. The sinister events that follow, including a murder, hurl the young Graciella into a vortex of dangers from both past and present. With the help of an Apache detective investigating the murder, she attempts to escape from haunting forces that seek to destroy her, while treading a serpentine path that crosses the line between myth and reality. This tale of a prehistoric pueblo and its living descendents confronts one of humankind’s most ancient questions: can the past reach into the present and can the present influence what happened long ago?
Ronald Wetherington is professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas. He has conducted archaeological investigations in Egypt, Mexico, Guatemala, and New Mexico. His excavations in the Taos area form the basis for this novel. He is former director of the Fort Burgwin Research Center near Taos. He has extensive publications in both physical anthropology and archaeology, including Ceran St. Vrain: American Frontier Entrepreneur from Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE KOKOSCHKA CAPERS A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini In this third book in the Megan Crespi Mystery Series, a major double portrait by the Viennese Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka showing himself with his lover Alma Mahler has been stolen from the Basel Museum in Switzerland. Left in its place is an exact duplicate, except that Alma has been replaced by an unknown woman. Retired professor of art history Megan Crespi, an expert on Viennese art, is called in to help with the investigation. Then, a second theft of fourteen crates of unknown Kokoschka artworks from a Viennese storage vault takes Megan to Vienna. There she meets by accident the mysterious multimillionaire Desdemona Dumba. A stunning anorexic, Desdemona feels it is her role in life to bring Kokoschka’s lost works together and away from public scrutiny. Meanwhile, two individuals, Leo Lang and Bruno Fichte-Mahler, harbor fanatical interest in Kokoschka and go to extreme measures either to desecrate or to protect the artist’s images of Alma. An endangered Megan pursues leads that take her from Basel and Vienna to Berlin and finally to Xenia, Desdemona’s remote islet off the Greek island of Corfu. Includes Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica and are reflected in her second mystery novel in the Megan Crespi Mystery Series, The Schiele Slaughters. It, and the first in the series, Killing for Klimt, were also published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE KOLLWITZ CALAMITIES A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini Two monumental granite statues by famed German artist Käthe Kollwitz—the Grieving Parents—have been stolen from a World War I soldiers’ cemetery in Belgium. What could the motive have been for such an unlikely theft? On a visit to the director of the Kollwitz Museum in Cologne, retired art history professor and Kollwitz scholar Megan Crespi is asked to aid in tracking down the robber or robbers. As she pursues clues and visits possible suspects more Kollwitz statues are stolen in Cologne and Berlin. Crespi’s itinerary takes her to the Berlin Kollwitz Museum, Weimar, the Baltic Sea island of Rügen, Greifswald, and finally to the Kollwitz House in Moritzburg. On the way she interacts with physicians Abraham Rückgabe and Iliana Frankel, the just-married couple Monika von Putbus and Akram al-Aljamie, and unscrupulous CEO of Rügen’s asbestos-contaminated Dorotek factory, Reinhold Fromm, collector of dominatrix drawings. We meet possible suspects, Iranian prince Yusri Pahlavi, greedy Lukas Zamann of the Galerie Zamann, and the mysterious “Marie Schmidt,” of Moritzburg, Kollwitz’s final home. All seem to be connected to the spate of Kollwitz thefts. Can Crespi solve these thefts and will the precious artworks be found? An unexpected denouement involving seven persons and two cats gives us the answer.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both books in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press as well as The Fantastic Art of Vienna, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Schiele in Prison. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, also from Sunstone Press, extend from Europe to Antarctica and are reflected in her Megan Crespi Mystery Series: Killing for Klimt, The Schiele Slaughters, The Kokoschka Capers, The Munch Murders, and The Kandinsky Conundrum, all published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
LANDER BLUE Fate, Turquoise Treasure and Survival By Richard Ryan and Gail Douglas A mystery novel, set in Nevada and New Mexico, follows a grandson trying to solve a treasure hunt for ten million dollars worth of Lander Blue turquoise hidden by his grandfather for him to find. In 1973, Mort Hamilton stops for lunch in Battle Mountain, Nevada. There a stunning Lander Blue turquoise stone set in a silver bracelet and a double homicide, combined with fate, change his life forever. Over the next forty-seven years Mort becomes a successful Santa Fe businessman. Before he dies unexpectedly from the Covid virus, he sets up a treasure hunt for his grandson Michael, a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan and a kindred spirit for magic, puzzles and riddles. The “treasure” is a ten million dollar bag of Lander Blue turquoise. Only 108 pounds were mined. There will be no more. Five treasure hunt clues lead Michael to the Battle Mountain Diner, to a trading post in Gallup, to a deserted mine on Turquoise Hill and through Santa Fe. As Michael and his new love solve the clues, Lester “Cozy” MacFarland, a bitter ex-Albuquerque cop secretly tracks them. Finding the treasure takes a back seat to staying alive. Can you solve the clues with Michael before Cozy does? Includes Readers Guide.
Richard Ryan resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico after retiring from a career in construction and university academia. Gail Douglas resides in Taos, New Mexico after retiring from a career with a major insurance company. Their enthusiasm for New Mexico and a common fascination with Southwest turquoise mines and the stories behind them formed the partnership to write Lander Blue. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE LAST CRUSADE A Contemporary Novel By Peter Menting Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Faced with the threat of bankruptcy and on the advice of his ambitious lawyer, a young businessman, Godfrey Duke Jr., sole heir to the greatest name in American capitalism—his unrevered Aunt Alexandra Duke—goes on a crusade to the Holy Land to recapture it for Christianity. An ancient though still valid law provides that all debts are frozen for anyone who takes up the Cross and engages in the cause. Though determined to disinherit him, Aunt Alexandra has only six months to live and Godfrey and his lawyer use all their ingenuity to outwit her while keeping his creditors at bay. Godfrey’s battles against the Infidel and the Unconverted and his lawyer’s against the wiles of Alexandra Duke provide the action for this satire set in Washington, DC, and the Holy Land.
The author, a graduate of George Washington University and University College London, was born in New York City, and has practiced law in Washington, DC, the Middle East and Europe. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE LAST NARROW GAUGE TRAIN ROBBERY A Thoroughly Modern Western Novel By Robert K. Swisher, Jr. Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 They could be your next-door neighbors—Bill Masterson, Ronnie Wild, Riley Page and Frank Cummings—ex-hippies now living outwardly responsible and respectable lives. But these model citizens still yearn for the old days of freedom. Finally they find a way to break out of the mold and do something daring and different: robbing the tourist-crowded narrow gauge train. This completely modern western is filled with humor and sly glances at today’s society. ROBERT K. SWISHER JR. has been a ranch foreman and a mountain guide. An individual who knows the outdoors and western history, he has successfully combined these interests in stories, poems and novels. He is also the author of THE LAND, FATAL DESTINY, ONLY MAGIC, LAST DAY IN PARADISE and LOVE LIES BLEEDING, all from Sunstone Press. Of THE LAND, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY said: “If there were a category of historical romances written for men, this moving novel would fit the bill.” A screenplay has been written. It is destined to be a movie! Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
LEGACY OF THE LIGHT A Novel By R. M. Lienau Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Officially, Jason Thompson died in a fire-fight on a ranch in Southern New Mexico in this sequel to The Truchas Light. But shortly thereafter, he walks away from a house in Truchas, New Mexico, where his wife and his Control have shot each other to death. The FBI suspects not only that he was a deep cover mole, but that he may be alive. Rogue elements within the CIA know he is. Both try to track him down. With help from widowed ranch owner Vera Tyler, along with a Russian ex-spy, a secret government agency and a mysterious woman, all conspire to revive him and clear his name.
Richard M. Lienau, with a background in electronics and computer technology, holds more than twenty U.S. Patents. He has written several novels, including Night Run, The Maltho-Rose Plot, Holy Ghost and The Truchas Light, the latter both from Sunstone Press, along with a number of screen plays, short stories and articles. He lives in San Miguel County, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE LEGEND OF GALISTEO La Leyenda de Galisteo, A Mystical Tale By Marjorie Atwood Bilingual English/Spanish translation, illustrated. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 This Spanish/English, beautifully illustrated, book about a famous New Mexican legend, tells the story of a beating heart found in a rough-hewn box in the desert and is taken and kept on the altar of a local church, bringing the healing of love to all. The author says, “There are places and times that are chosen for us. For those who feel a heart beat, nothing is every the same.”
“This warm, almost poetic, tale of the beating heart will touch and melt even the most hard-hearted among us. The lesson? For you, the reader, to discern.” —Book Talk
|
LITTLE GREEN MAN IN IRELAND A Sydney Reardon Mystery By Mary Branham See "PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK" below. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 She had been a well-known actress on Broadway. But that was ten years ago and after the sudden death of her producer husband, in her own works, “too old to be an ingénue and not talented enough to be a leading lady,” Sydney Reardon turned to decorating in London. She was enjoying a glamorous fast-paced life. And when her beautiful young cousin Kimberleigh Brennan comes for a visit they go off to Ireland with suave art exporter Ian Hardwicke and the critic friend Henry James. But the anticipated amusing weekend turns terrifying when they become involved with a little green man and theft, smuggling, a gangster—and murder.
Mary Branham was assistant director of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She describes her other two mysteries also from Sunstone Press, Three Deadly Days in Spain and Big Black Dog In Vallarta, as “airplane books.” Having bought many thick books at airport shops and left them on the plane unfinished, she determined to write a series of books that could be enjoyed on a flight of reasonable length. Regarding Big Black Dog In Vallarta, Library Journal wrote: “Memorable characters, slick dialog, and almost whimsical settings make this a delightful short read for larger collections.”
“Smoothly written and absolutely engaging from first page to last, this book is a mystery buff’s delight.” —The Midwest Book Review Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
LOVE AND BETRAYAL A Novel of Love and Violence By Muriel Maddox Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Love and violence thrive in the glamorous diplomatic worlds of Washington, Rio de Janeiro and the Texas oil fields in this suspenseful novel that opens in Midland, Texas in the summer of 1949. Midland is a booming oil town, thrust up from the West Texas prairie. Virile young men have flocked out from the East after the Second World War with adventure and the desire for a quick fortune in their veins. “Yalies” they’re called by the Texans and Peter Spaulding is one of them. Twenty-eight, handsome, attractive to women, yet moody and unhappy much of the time, he has broken away from his socialite family and needs to achieve success on his own. But fate will intervene. How is he to know—on that day, the seventh of July—that tragedy lies ahead. This novel strips off the tissue-thin covering of human nature and reveals the web of relationships and secrets that lie just beneath the surface of people’s lives, hidden from others, and often even from themselves.
Muriel Maddox spent her early childhood in Rio de Janeiro where her father, a career naval officer, was stationed. Upon returning to the United States she attended Potomac School in Washington, DC, and at ten her first poetry was published in The Washington Post. She has written short stories and screenplays, and is also the author of Captain from Corfu, Llantarnam, Noela & That Man In Rio and Myra's Daughters, all from Sunstone Press. She has traveled extensively in Greece and on Greek cruise ships and visited the islands of Corfu, Rhodes and Mykonos. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE MAHLER MAYHEM A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini During a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera there is an explosion in the foyer just off the auditorium. Auguste Rodin’s famous 1909 bronze bust of composer/conductor Gustav Mahler has been blown up and a hate-filled note has been left at the scene demanding that there be “no more Jews defiling our culture.” Retired art historian/musicologist Megan Crespi, in Vienna to lecture, is at the performance with her former student, the renowned cellist Egga Streicher, and is asked by her friend, Chief of Police Erich Decker, to help in tracking down the culprit. Soon copy-cat vandalism of Jewish monuments around the city breaks out. Things come to a horrendous climax during a performance of Mahler’s great Second Symphony, the “Resurrection” symphony, but is it the only surprise awaiting Megan Crespi’s dangerous investigation? Includes Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both books in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press as well as The Fantastic Art of Vienna, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Schiele in Prison. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica and are reflected in her Megan Crespi Mystery Series: Killing for Klimt, The Schiele Slaughters, The Kokoschka Capers, The Munch Murders, The Kollwitz Calamities, and The Kandinsky Conundrum, all published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
MOUNTAIN MAYHEM A Doctor Cooper Series Novel By Warren J. Stucki Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 When Dr. Lawrence A. Cooper (Coop) and two friends, Harvey Peck and Mack McGeary, saddle up for a wilderness fishing trip, they have no idea what mayhem lies ahead. While searching for a legendary trout lake, not only do they manage to get themselves hopelessly lost, but they also have a bloodied sixteen-year-old girl stumble into their camp. She is severely beaten, sexually assaulted and barely alive. Though Coop does everything to save her, she dies twenty-four hours later. Now they have a body and big problem. It is uncommonly warm for the mountains, and they have no idea how long it may take to find their way back to civilization. Reluctantly, Coop decides to perform a field autopsy to collect and preserve vital forensic evidence before the body decomposes. When he finishes, it is nearly dark and too late to break camp. The next morning they awaken to discover the body and all the forensic samples are missing. Now they must somehow find their way back to civilization, then convince the authorities of a grisly murder, but with no body and no evidence.
Warren J. Stucki is a native of southern Utah and along with his wife and Chocolate Lab enjoys life on a small horse ranch. Following graduation from the University of Utah Medical School, Dr. Stucki specialized in urology and is the founding partner of Southern Utah Urology Associates. At Dixie Regional Medical Center he has served as Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and member of the Hospital Governing Board. In addition to Mountain Mayhem, Dr. Stucki is also the author of Hemorrhage, Boy’s Pond, Hunting for Hippocrates and Sagebrush Sedition. Two others, beginning with Hemorrhage, and Mountain Mayhem followed by The Death of Samantha Rose, are all part of his “Doctor Cooper” series of novels. A fourth book, Town Bell, is a prequel to the highly popular Boy's Pond. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE MUNCH MURDERS A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini The art world is stunned. In the space of a little over a week three Edvard Munch paintings, including the iconic Scream, have been stolen from museums in Oslo and Stockholm. Retired professor of art history Megan Crespi, on vacation in Scandinavia with her little Maltese dog Button and her old friend Lili Holm, is asked to help. In her capacity as Munch specialist, she visits three possible suspects, all major collectors of Munch, and soon finds her life is endangered. Being kidnapped had not been in her plans. Who is responsible? The fanatical Norseliga clan, with its emphasis on Norwegian superiority? The beautiful cosmetics queen, Myrtl Kildahl, who hides her German roots, or the Swedish collector who denies he is the grandson of writer August Strindberg? Pursuit of the truth takes Megan from Copenhagen and Oslo, to Bergen and Trondheim, and finally to Stockholm and the myth-laden island of Runmarö. Megan’s dog adds an element that qualifies him as a detective second only to his mistress. Includes Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both books in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica and are reflected in her fourth mystery novel in the Megan Crespi Mystery Series, The Munch Murders. It, and the first three in the series, Killing for Klimt, The Schiele Slaughters, and The Kokoschka Capers, were also published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
MURDER IN THE HAMPTONS A Mystery By Jeanne Toomey See "PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK" below. Where social climbing is a home industry and membership in exclusive clubs often unobtainable, Murder in the Hamptons offers a unique motive for homicide: exclusion from a coveted world of social position in the exclusive Hamptons of Long Island, New York. Though fictional, the familiar scenes and characters in this novella bring to life a portrait of a beloved seashore town where in the words of bishop Reginal Herber, “every prospect pleases, and only man is vile.”
Jeanne Toomey takes credit for not being the best journalist in America, but almost surely the one who has worked for the most journals of record—from small weeklies like the Calexico Chronicle to the Associated Press and King Features Syndicate where she acknowledges she was the worst food editor in America. “My cooking has cured the dogs of begging at table?” is her claim. Though mainly a journalist, she has also handled society public relations accounts. Jeanne’s second book was Assignment Homicide, also published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE MUTILATORS A Novel By Robert L. Foster Mutilators invade Idaho and shatter the peaceful tranquility of farmers and ranchers in Idaho’s Magic Valley where they kill and butcher domestic animals with impunity, leaving horribly mutilated carcasses in their wake; it is up to law enforcement to find the answer and solve the mystery...if they can. Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 The mutilators have killed and mutilated
thousands of cattle in the Midwest—and now
they’ve moved west into Idaho where they
are killing and mutilating cattle herds. No one knows
who or what the mutilators are. They’ve never been identified.
Randy Johnson, a former green beret platoon leader in Vietnam, has now settled into the peaceful life of an Idaho rancher. It holds a kind of a magic, a new freedom, a relief from a cunning invisible enemy left behind in the dangerous jungles of Vietnam. He’s good with a gun, fast on a horse and as tough and smart as the next man, but he’s about to meet a new enemy more cunning and illusive than the one he left in Vietnam.
Idaho’s television stations issue Breaking News alerts almost hourly providing the latest gruesome statistical details of newly discovered mutilated cattle—many found on ranches adjacent to Randy’s—and that concerns Randy!
Ah, quit your worrying, Randy tells himself, Whoever or whatever the mutilators are they won’t bother me. This is a horse ranch!
Five hours later the mutilators strike Randy Johnson’s isolated horse ranch—and all hell breaks loose. It is up to law enforcement to find the answer and solve the mystery. Can they do it?
Robert L. Foster is the author of four published books. He is a member of Western Writers of America and has written many western articles for national magazines. He is a retired college professor. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE NATURAL SELECTION An Historical Mystery By Ona Russell "Russell crafts a vinegar divide between science and fundamentalism, reason and racism, change and convention, and intelligence and insecurity. This book is the more fascinating, indeed distressing, by its relevance to today’s social and political climate....fast flowing, elegantly written, and keeps one hooked until the end." (PHILADELPHIA STORIES) Order from Sunstone Press: (505) 988-4418 In July of 1925, Sarah Kaufman is finally taking the holiday she deserves. Her court duties in the hands of a competent replacement, she looks forward to a month of relaxation with her cousin Lena, the newest and most progressive member of the English department at Tennessee's Edenville College. Knowing that the South would be even more humid than Toledo, Sarah packed only her lightest clothing. What she did not know, however, was that she also would need the investigative skills she had just barely acquired, the lover she had continuously resisted, and the emotional strength that she thought had been tested enough for one lifetime.
Indeed, even before one of hottest summers on record has a chance to make her rethink her vacation plans, Sarah reluctantly agrees to help investigate the mysterious death of one of Lena's most esteemed and, as she discovers, enigmatic colleagues. With the dead professor's own cryptic, Darwinian message as a guide, Sarah travels the short distance to Dayton, Tennessee, where the internationally followed Scopes "Monkey" trial is underway. There, along with the disquieting Mitchell Dobrinkski reporting on the event for the Blade, she meets the famous journalist H. L. Mencken, who provides her with information that could help unravel the mystery. But the case, and the challenges to Sarah's physical and psychological well-being, have only just begun. What follows is a harrowing and complex path of dead-ends, bigotry and brutality, a journey that shatters her own preconceptions, takes her to the depths of her own desire, and ultimately leads her back to the college where Darwin's controversial theory of evolution startlingly resurfaces in a manner she never could have predicted.
Set against the backdrop of what was deemed the "Trial of the Century," this socially and politically relevant blend of fact and fiction includes actual courtroom excerpts and vividly portrays the Scopes trial's central figures: John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and especially H. L. Mencken.
Ona Russell holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego. She lectures nationally on the topic of literature and the law and is a regular contributor to Orange County Lawyer magazine. She also has been published in newspapers, scholarly journals and anthologies. She is the author of O'Brien's Desk, also from Sunstone Press, and is currently at work on her third Sarah Kaufman mystery, set against the backdrop of the 1920s Los Angeles oil boom. For more information visit: www.onarussell.com. Sample Chapter
eBook:
|
NOELA & THAT MAN IN RIO Two Novellas By Muriel Maddox Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 In two widely disparate novellas, Muriel Maddox explores different times and different settings as she takes us from Switzerland where a past secret endangers the present to the 1930s in Rio de Janeiro as the threat of war in Europe creates only one of the dilemmas for an American Navy wife. In "Noela," Paul Sanderson, a Los Angeles lawyer, and his wife Liz are vacationing at a Swiss hotel in Vevey on Lake Geneva. As Paul glances across the lake to France he suddenly realizes that he is opposite the village of Saint-Gingolph where his plane had been shot down during the Second World War and where he had been hidden by a French family. He wonders what has happened to Noela, with whom he had a brief love affair, and also the priest, Andre Romelin, who helped him escape. Paul had promised to return, but never did. When his wife runs into an old friend and makes a lunch date with her, he quickly takes a steamer across to Saint-Gingolph. The secret he discovers there threatens to destroy his life. In "That Man in Rio," an American Navy couple is stationed in Rio de Janeiro during the 1930s as war clouds are gathering over Europe. A former Southern belle from Raleigh, North Carolina, Lila Townsend loves the glamour of Rio but is bored with her life as a wife and mother of two small children. She becomes involved with a dashing German diplomat, whom she meets at a polo match. Their affair escalates and Kurt asks her to leave her husband and return to Germany with him. As she is torn about what to do, fate steps in bringing a tragedy Lila could not foretell. BOOKLIST reports: "...captivating, written with great depth of feeling and a clear understanding of the impact of loss on the human psyche." MURIEL MADDOX spent her childhood in Rio de Janeiro and has drawn on those early memories for "That Man in Rio." A tour guide's tale about the brave priest of Saint-Gingolph who helped downed American and British fliers escape the Nazis led her to that village and inspired the story of "Noela." Muriel Maddox is also the author of LLANTARNAM, LOVE AND BETRAYAL, CAPTAIN FROM CORFU, and MYRA'S DAUGHTERS. She has also written screenplays and published poetry and short stories. She is now working on another novel at her home in Los Angeles, California. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
O'BRIEN'S DESK An Historical Mystery By Ona Russell "...an engaging example of that popular cross-genre, the history/mystery. The daily details, smoothly integrated into narrative, give her tale a pleasing, authentic ring." THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
"A thrilling, suspense-filled, and vibrantly told novel." MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
"An intriguing and thoroughly researched story that gives us insight into the moral dilemmas of early 20th century America." ANNE PERRY
"...a terrific read because of its riveting story and because so much of the author's identity is invested in the events it so vividly portrays." RICHARD LEDERED, host of NPR's A WAY WITH WORDS Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 The year is 1923, and one of Ohio’s most prominent judges, O’Brien O’Donnell, fathers his first and only child. Though a joyous occasion for the recently married, fifty-nine year old, the birth sets off a terrifying chain of events, beginning with blackmail and the judge’s near-fatal breakdown. His only hope for recovery lies with his trusted friend and colleague, Sarah Kaufman. As Sarah begins to unravel the clues surrounding O’Brien’s collapse, she is repeatedly confronted with the explosively paradoxical forces that defined life in the twenties: sexual promiscuity and self-righteous morality, Progressive reform and political corruption, racial tolerance and institutionalized bigotry. It was O’Brien’s unique ability to strike a compromise between these forces that made him so popular...and, she realizes, so vulnerable to attack. And soon enough, Sarah, too, becomes a victim, a target of the blackmailer’s hatred and revenge. But with the help of a story-hungry reporter to whom she becomes ambivalently attached, the unconventional Jewess sets out to free the judge and herself from their common enemy. How? The answer lurks within the hidden recesses of...O’Brien’s desk. Based on true events, this suspenseful novel possesses a unique authenticity. With actual newspaper articles about the real O’Brien O’Donnell beginning each chapter, the story invites readers to solve the mystery along with the protagonist, piecing together a decades-traversing narrative, clip by clip. ONA RUSSELL holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, San Diego. She has published scholarly articles and has taught in various colleges and universities in the San Diego area, currently at the UC San Diego Extension. Her second novel, The Natural Selection was also published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE OTHER SIDE OF JUSTICE A Murder Mystery By Hal B. Coleman Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Violent death, intrigue, and a sensational murder trial strain the bounds of justice in this contemporary mystery set in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The author, a lawyer with more than forty years of experience, has woven a tale of horror that culminates in a dramatic and surprising conclusion. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE PAIN AND THE SORROW A Moreno Valley, New Mexico Territory Historical Novel By Loretta Miles Tollefson Based on the true story of the 1860s New Mexico Territory teenager who was married to serial killer Charles Kennedy.
“…a vivid, pull-no-punches trip to the 1860s ‘Wild West’” —Historical Novel Review, November 1, 2017 It’s 1867 in New Mexico Territory. A log cabin huddles at the base of a lonely mountain pass east of Taos. Travelers who stop to rest and eat here should be careful how they look at the teenager who serves their food. Her husband, Charles Kennedy, is subject to jealous rages. At least, he says that’s why he kills and then robs the unwary. And then a baby is born. How can she raise a child in such circumstances? When Gregoria finally gets up the courage to go for help, she discovers that frontier justice can be as ugly as the actions it seeks to punish. This historical novel is based on the true story of the 1860s New Mexico Territory teenager who was married to serial killer Charles Kennedy. Includes Readers Guide.
Loretta Miles Tollefson grew up in the American West in a mountainside log cabin built by her grandfather. She holds two Master of Arts degrees from the University of New Mexico. She lives in New Mexico’s Rocky Mountains, where she seeks to accurately transform historical data about the region into fiction. She is the author of three poetry collections, two novels, and two collections of historical micro-fiction.
eBook:
|
PAINTED SKULL RANCH A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery By James C. Wilson When Santa Fe musician Danny Ortiz is murdered, Private Investigator Fernando Lopez is hired by Ortiz’s wife to find the killer and his investigation takes him to mysterious Painted Skull Ranch in Taos, a 200-year-old haunted ranch where Lopez uncovers a viper’s nest of greed, treachery, and murder. Santa Fe musician Danny Ortiz is murdered by two men while walking home from a gig in downtown Santa Fe. Police believe thieves or vagrants attacked Ortiz, but his wife disagrees and hires Private Investigator Fernando Lopez to find the real killers. Lopez learns that Ortiz had been scheduled to perform in an upcoming concert at the Lensic Theater with Dallas Longstreet, a nationally known musician from Austin, Texas. However, Longstreet had bolted from his Lensic commitment and his marital problems and fled to a mysterious ranch outside Taos rented by an old friend and drug dealer, Travis Walker. Lopez goes to Taos to question Longstreet and discovers the ranch––Painted Skull Ranch––is a haunted two hundred-year-old historic property that includes an abandoned penitente morada. Lopez doesn’t know if Longstreet is staying at the ranch by choice or being held there as a prisoner. The plot thickens when Longstreet overdoses in suspicious circumstances orchestrated by his wife and her lover, Travis Walker. Every step of the way Lopez’s investigation takes him deeper into a web of deceit and betrayal, ending in murder. Includes Readers Guide
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of twelve previous books, including Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History and Santa Fe, City of Refuge, An Improbable Memoir of the Counterculture in addition to Peyote Wolf, Smokescreen, Ghost Canyon and The Dead Go Fast in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
PALMA CHRISTI A La Llorona Files Supernatural Crime Novel By Elizabeth Walker McIlhaney Two altar boys are found dead in the Santa Fe River, apparently murdered, thirty years apart. The first case was never solved, while the second unfolds in present time. The priest from Mora who worked closely with the boys is the obvious person of interest. But a woman from an old New Mexico Hispanic family with a Catholic background who is the homicide detective for the Santa Fe Police Department, and a second-generation New Mexico Anglo woman with a Baptist background who sees ghosts and is a member of a state task force formed to solve difficult cases, work closely together, as they have successfully on previous cases, to find the true killer. They realize quickly that it is possible the priest is the killer, but not probable. An old, retired, extremely well-educated and psychic priest in Jemez Springs haunted by visits from La Llorona his entire life becomes a major asset to the women as they move toward solving the case that seems to bring them nothing but dead ends—until the night it doesn't. Includes Glossary and Readers Guide.
Elizabeth McIlhaney’s maternal great-grandparents homesteaded the lush San Juan River valley of New Mexico Territory in the nineteenth century. Two generations of their progeny worked in the Indian trading industry throughout the entire Southwest and Oklahoma as owners, managers, wholesalers and retailers well beyond the middle of the twentieth century. Beginning life in the North Valley of Albuquerque on her Texas-born father's dairy farm, Elizabeth participated in the ongoing relationship begun by her maternal family in 1851 with Baylor University, which both of her parents' families had by the 1890s, by earning a journalism degree there. She broke out of her family's traditions for women when she pursued a career as a newspaper reporter and editor, free-lance magazine writer and non-fiction book contributor spanning several decades in three states. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
PAST TENSE A Suspense Novel of Mystery and Crime By Bob Levy “…a well crafted, exciting and suspenseful tale. Also highly recommended is Levy’s suspense novel Broken Hearts.” —Library Bookwatch
Praise for "Broken Hearts"
“Bob Levy weaves a delightful tale of suspense and mystery, and the pages go flying by.” —John Grisham
“…a novel of unparalleled suspense and verve.” —The Roanoke Times Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Adam Baldwin, in the middle of his seventh term as a United States Senator, is at the pinnacle of his career. And he is the front-runner for his party’s nomination for President at the looming Democratic National Convention. But a dark cloud hangs over his head. There is a seemingly far-fetched accusation that the candidate murdered a young woman decades before when in college. This is scoffed at by the local police, but when a suspicious explosion kills the accuser’s family, the curiosity of the retired Memphis Chief of Police, Joe O’Riley, a high school classmate of Baldwin’s, is aroused.
O’Riley senses truth in the allegations, especially after a woman reports knowledge of the same murder. Yet, how could the man who made the accusation and this woman know such vivid details of the murder when neither was alive at the time it happened? And how could they know details of O’Riley’s past known only to himself? Might all this be a link to an unsolved missing person case, O’Riley’s first as a rookie cop, that had haunted him his whole career?
Death and destruction stalk the couple as O’Riley jumps into the fray, determined to find out the truth before the country elects a murderer as the next President of the United States.
Past Tense is a sequel to Bob Levy’s previous work, the highly successful suspense thriller, Broken Hearts from Sunstone Press. He is also the author of From the Coin’s Point of View, a Roman history/short story collection. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia. A retailer by trade with Oak Hall, a specialty clothing store founded by his great-great-grandfather in 1859, the author resides in Memphis, Tennessee. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
PEYOTE WOLF A Fernando Lopez Mystery By James C. Wilson Click on "Movie/TV Treatment" below. A man in a wolf mask bursts into a teepee in the middle of a sacred ritual, a peyote ceremony, and kills Michael Soto, the owner of Sabado Indian Arts on the Santa Fe Plaza. The next morning Detective Fernando Lopez, a member of an old Santa Fe family, receives a complaint from two Zuni that an important tribal object, a carved wooden war god called an ahayu:da, has been stolen from their pueblo. They show him an anonymous letter sent to the Zuni Tribal Council saying that Michael Soto was trying to sell it for fifty thousand dollars. Shortly after they leave, the police dispatcher reports that Michael Soto has been murdered. Establishing what happened and who was present at the peyote ceremony proves difficult. One witness says three men and one woman from Whitewater near Zuni attended the ceremony. Another says it was four men from Whitewater. One witness blames a skinwalker or a werewolf for Michael Soto’s murder. Detective Lopez’s investigation exposes the cultural and ethnic fractures in Santa Fe, a city of Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo cultures. The investigation also leads into the dangerous underworld of buying and selling stolen Indian artifacts. Along the way he encounters looters and grave robbers, rich gallery owners who buy and sell priceless tribal objects on the black market, and artisans who produce fake replicas of the objects to sell. The search for answers comes to a startling end in a violent confrontation at a trading post just north of Zuni Pueblo, when the truth is finally revealed. Includes Readers Guide.
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of seven previous books, including most recently Weather Reports from the Autism Front: A Father’s Memoir of his Autistic Son; Santa Fe, City of Refuge: An Improbable Memoir of the Counterculture; and Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
POACHERS Hunting for a Life in Tanzania By Patricia Lee Sharpe Reinstated after leaving the U.S. Foreign Service to marry the wrong man, Diana Forrest is sent to counter Soviet propaganda in Cold War Tanzania where graft corrupts the socialist ideal and poachers slaughter elephants for ivory. Toggling between a diffident boss and a hard-to-please Ambassador in a media wasteland, Diana spends weekends in the bush courtesy of a Tanzanian subordinate with a safari business on the side. As that relationship trends from teamwork toward intimacy, Diana wrestles with her conscience and is also troubled by safari companions who aren’t above petty poaching—or worse: one of them may have colluded in the murder of a conservation-minded headman. It’s soon clear that Diana’s job performance will rate an excellent follow-on assignment, but she’s not sure she wants to leave.
As a U.S. foreign service officer, Patricia Lee Sharpe shunned personnel-heavy prestige posts in order to work in challenging (and sometimes dangerous) places: Sierra Leone during the rebel period, violence-prone Karachi and much maligned Kolkata, among others. But even on assignment to the Dominican Republic, her credo was this: get out of the office and into the thick of things. She’s also been an academic with a doctorate in American literature leading to a Fulbright lectureship in Pakistan, as well as a journalist, including a stint in Moscow during the Cold War. These days she lives and writes and hikes in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
POSSESSED A Novel Inspired by True Events By Philip J. Crowley and Kenneth C. Wylie Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 What had she done? Alone, scared, sitting in the holding cell of the Kalkaska County Sheriff’s Department, Iris Harris never imagined she would be trapped in a battering relationship. Her life was not without struggles but by her forties she was content and fulfilled, teaching inner city children in the City of Detroit. A chance encounter, in a small mid-Michigan town, with an older outwardly pleasant and charming real estate agent, plunged her into a nightmare of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. She became his possession. It was the seventies. The legal system was impotent to render assistance. Society was incapable of understanding the dynamics of domestic violence and unwilling to intervene. To her friends and neighbors she was the one at fault. Iris was ensnared in a vicious cycle of abuse. Her only wish—to be free. Her only hope—to be found not guilty.
Philip J. Crowley is a practicing attorney living in Tampa, Florida, specializing in professional liability defense. A Michigan native, Mr. Crowley served as Kalkaska County, Michigan Prosecuting Attorney in the late seventies and early eighties. During his term in office he prosecuted numerous cases of domestic violence. This book is inspired by true events.
Kenneth C. Wylie, a freelance writer, served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone 1961–1963, has studied and traveled in Africa over five decades, and is the author of several books, including An Enchanting Darkness (with Dennis Hickey), 1993. He received his PhD in African History in 1967 at Michigan State University. He has taught at Wayne State University, Lehman College of City University of New York, Maritime College of State University of New York, and Michigan State University. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE RELUCTANT CARNIVORE A Doctor Cooper Series Novel By Warren J. Stucki When Coop’s friends, deer hunters Ian McKenna and Wally Stroud, go missing, Coop assumes their disappearance is storm related, until a third hunter of the group is murdered in cold blood. The evening before the eagerly awaited deer hunt Dr. Lawrence A. Cooper (Coop) and three friends (Tim Slade, Wally Stroud and Ian McKenna) gather at his mountain cabin. Almost immediately Tim and Ian clash over religion, gun laws and Ian’s rather liberal politics and lifestyle. On the first day Tim kills a magnificent buck using an assault rifle, highly illegal in the state of Utah. Not only does Ian witness this carnage, he documents it with photographs and threatens to expose Tim to the authorities. The next day, however, an early fall blizzard blows in and Ian and Wally go missing. Although Coop and Iron County Search and Rescue spend the better part of a week looking for Ian and Wally, they find no trace of them and no bodies are recovered. Coop assumes his friends’ disappearance is a storm-related natural disaster, but still wonders about Tim and Ian’s feud. Then when Tim Slade is murdered, there is not doubt something more sinister is at foot. As the only one of the original hunters left, Coop fears he might be next. Includes Readers Guide.
Warren J. Stucki is a native of southern Utah and enjoys life on a small horse ranch with his wife and chocolate lab. Following graduation from the University of Utah Medical School, Dr. Stucki specialized in urology and now retired is the founding partner of Southern Utah Urology Associates. At Dixie Regional Medical Center he served as Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and member of the Hospital Governing Board. The Reluctant Carnivore is the third book in the Doctor Cooper Series and was preceded by Hemorrhage and Mountain Mayhem. The Death of Samantha Rose follows The Reluctant Carnivore. Dr. Stucki is also the author of Boy’s Pond, Hunting for Hippocrates and Sagebrush Sedition and is presently working on a prequel to the highly popular Boy’s Pond. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
RIVERS OF STONE A Novel of Adventure and Mystery By Robert Pruitt Diamonds from a lost mine in Navajo Country? Ridiculous, thought independent geologist Clayton P. Greer. Yet here before him were gem quality diamond pebbles mounted in authentic ancient Navajo silver jewelry. Now a mining promoter was offering to sponsor a secret search for the source of these diamonds. It was a tempting prospect, to roam Utah's wild deserts and remote canyon country looking for a fortune that no one suspected. Clayton and his buddy, Jerry Brooks, devise a plan. They pose as placer gold prospectors and fossil hunters, but they find themselves being stalked by a band of claim jumpers. Outwitting them, they send these rouges on wild goose chases into the desert. Then, with the aid of a daring bush pilot and a veteran river boating guide, Clay and Jerry ultimately find the source of the mysterious gems, only to encounter conflicts with rival uranium miners, government bureaucracy, and tribal politics. Get ready for a surprise ending when local residents and a willing team of Navajo Indian workers come to their aid. ROBERT PRUITT is a mining attorney and former exploration geologist in Salt Lake City, Utah. A seasoned writer of legal and technical works, this is his first venture into fiction. He chose a fictional storyline to weave together a series of interesting and exciting experiences to create an easily read story of a place, a time, and activities he knows so well. A sequel is already in the works, with a third to follow. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE ROADSTER PROJECT By Tom Glosser A novel depicting the lengths to which a man will go to find a rare old car and shield it from harm. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Ten year old Marty Gibson hatches a plan he hopes will one day get him a 1936 Ford Roadster like the one his uncle once owned. Years later, he combs Pennsylvania and sixteen surrounding states for the rare old car before moving his search west. In 1961, the rookie state trooper hits the Roadster jackpot in greater Los Angeles. Although his find is completely disassembled, he’s thrilled by the condition of the dusty, low mileage car.
During the near week long reassembly, he has the misfortune of encountering two malicious individuals who, because he inadvertently angers them, fixate on destroying his discovery. Another is hell bent on stealing it. He can’t get the Roadster out of California fast enough. Towing his treasure across the Southwest on Route 66, the siege not only continues, but intensifies. Four criminals, who believe Marty is in possession of their property, join in the chase.
Finding temporary refuge at a ranch in New Mexico, he calls the U.S. Secret Service for help with a problem they share. But even in their presence he continues to suffer grievous reversals right up to the happy ending.
Tom Glosser was born in Wilkes-Barre and is a life-long resident of Pennsylvania. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force, performing administrative duties in Texas, California and Spain. Majoring in accounting at Wilkes University with a BS degree in Commerce and Finance, he was, until retirement, an accountant with a major DOW-30 company. As a long time old car enthusiast, he restores his own old cars as a hobby. Sample Chapter
|
ROCKS IN MY BED A Novel By Craig Nettleton Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 When the granddaughter of an elderly outlaw asks Philip Habib to find the source of her grandfather’s money, he encounters the legend of the Lost Adams’ Diggings. His request for help from Sarah Johnson, a ranger intern, at the Malpais National Monument in the lava beds of New Mexico leads to more than information. Their growing intimacy is observed by Derek Gruber, a skin head biker, whose paranoia grows when Philip begins speaking Arabic with an old friend. Gruber discovers that Habib is an Arab American private investigator and that his friend, Ross McIntyre, is an alcoholic geologist who spent years in Saudi Arabia. He becomes convinced that they are members of a terrorist cell who are looking for nuclear materials for a dirty bomb in the uranium country in Cibola County. As Gruber follows their search, his misplaced patriotism escalates into violence. He traps Philip and Ross in a zigzag canyon where they face a choice between a sniper rifle and a flash flood. Craig Nettleton was born and raised in northern Minnesota. In his junior year of college, he studied at the American University of Beirut and traveled in the Middle East. Arriving in New Mexico in 1971, he lived in the foothills of the Zuni Mountains where he first encountered the legend of the Lost Adams’ Diggings. He obtained his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of New Mexico. After searching central New Mexico for the lost gold mine, his explorations became the basis for his first novel. Secure Movie & TV Rights
|
RULE OF CAPTURE An Historical Mystery By Ona Russell Ona Russell received the IPPY (Independent Publishers Book Awards) Silver Medal for “Rule of Capture” in 2015 in the Best West-Pacific Fiction category. Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 Los Angeles, 1928. Oil, oranges and site of the C. C. Julian Petroleum stock scandal, a Ponzi type scheme to rival any in American history and a foreshadowing of the decade’s looming, economic crash. As one of the scheme’s victims, Ohio probate officer Sarah Kaufman—still reeling from the KKK murders she helped solve in Tennessee—is in the city to attend the trial of the perpetrators, in particular of the “friend” who convinced her to invest. Sarah is eager for justice and committed to seeing the trial through. She’s glad she’s alone, that her lover Mitchell isn’t there, that after court she’ll have time to herself. But when a Mexican woman she barely knows winds up dead, Sarah’s plans are thrown upside down. Suddenly she finds herself in a nightmarish trial by fire, one that takes her from the glamour of Hollywood to the Tijuana frontier, tests her deepest beliefs and leads her to discover not only a killer, but a part of Los Angeles built on a terrible secret.
Includes Readers Guide
ONA RUSSELL is a credentialed mediator and holds a PhD in literature from the University of California, San Diego, where she also taught for many years. She is the author of two previous Sarah Kaufman historical mysteries from Sunstone Press, O’Brien’s Desk and The Natural Selection, the last of which was a finalist in the prestigious California Commonwealth Club Book Awards. She has been widely published in other venues and is an accomplished public speaker, lecturing particularly on the topic of “literature and the law.” Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
SAGEBRUSH SEDITION A Novel By Warren Stucki With world-class scenery, a brand-new National Monument and the rosy prospect of fat tourist dollars, you’d think the citizens of Southern Utah would be happy. But they’re mad! Damn mad. To them the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument is nothing more than the political equivalent to a football end run--a blatant land grab. Then when the Bureau of Land Management appoints a dedicated conservationist as the rookie Monument manager, things quickly shift from simmer to boil. Coal miner Angus Macdonald and fur trapper Bucky Lee Eakins will be put out of business but if the environmentalists have their way, and it appears they will, it is also quite probable cattle ranchers Roper Rehnquist and girlfriend, Ruby Nez, will soon follow. Before the BLM can buy back his Monument coal leases, Macdonald is brutally murdered, then Roper’s line cabin is burned to the ground and Assistant Monument Manager Ron Sparks is shot in the head and killed. This is a crime spree unprecedented in the history of U.S. National Monuments. Some think it’s eco-terrorists, but the ranchers are convinced it is a rogue BLM ranger and Monument management strongly suspects a newly formed, covert coalition of disgruntled ranchers.
Even though battle lines are quickly drawn, an uneasy unspoken truce settles over the vast new Monument. This fragile peace, however, is instantly shattered when the BLM suddenly revokes Roper and Ruby’s grazing leases. Roper realizes if he doesn’t do something fast, this little local imbroglio could quickly fan into a raging wildfire. It has all the makings of a 20th century range war, the likes of which have not been seen in the West since New Mexico’s Lincoln County war of the late 1800s.
Growing up in a farming/ranching family in southern Utah, Warren Stucki is very familiar with the ranching lifestyle and the ongoing feud between ranchers and the BLM, land stewards of a large portion of the American west. After leaving southern Utah, Dr. Stucki graduated from the University of Utah Medical School, eventually specializing in urology. He still practices medicine and lives on a small horse ranch just outside of St. George, Utah. Stucki writes in two distinct genres: historical fiction and medical mysteries. His two previous books, Boy’s Pond and Hunting for Hippocrates, were also published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
SANTA FE DECEPTION A Scott Hunter Mystery By Myron Beard Psychologist Scott Hunter returns to his hometown, Santa Fe, at the request of his ex-wife to help solve the murder of the man for whom she left him, and his agreement to help her leads to surprising changes in his life. Eleven years ago, psychologist Scott Hunter departed Santa Fe totally humiliated, his life torn asunder by the betrayal of his wife Rebecca. Now, at Rebecca’s request, Scott is unexpectedly returning to the scene of her betrayal to help solve the murder of her current husband Blake Martin, the man with whom she cheated on Scott. In Santa Fe, Scott reconnects with his old friend Miguel Montez, now a detective with the Santa Fe Police Department. With Scott’s understanding of psychopathic behavior and Miguel’s sleuthing abilities, they begin to unravel the complexities of Martin’s life and nefarious business dealings. The investigation of the murder leads to a wide array of suspects, their motives, and even the cause of death. Just as one suspect is eliminated, another surfaces, making the identification of the actual killer elusive and challenging. Scott’s journey takes him face-to-face with his own demons as well as the underbelly of the art world and drug scene. Working the case shakes up Scott’s world and causes him to rethink everything.
Includes Readers Guide.
Psychologist, consultant to executives, and educator, Myron Beard is the product of a family with 100 years history in Santa Fe. He has a particular interest in the psychology of exceptionally successful psychopaths and their ability to effectively manipulate others for their own personal gain. He has lived in Denver since 1991. He is the author of three previous books: The DNA of Leadership: Creating Healthy Leaders and Vibrant Organizations; The DNA of Physician Leadership: Creating Dynamic Executives; and M & A Integration: CEOs Field Guide to the Art & Process of Effective Merger Integration. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE SCHIELE SLAUGHTERS A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini Retired art history professor Megan Crespi, an expert on the Expressionist artist Egon Schiele, is called to Vienna to help solve the brutal murder of a museum night watchman whose naked cadaver was propped up in the same pose as the nude self-portrait by Schiele above him. A series of attacks relating to Schiele occur, ranging from “censoring” of his nude figures’ private parts with spray paint to desecration of his burial site. Amid restitution lawsuits and murderous competing gallery owners, Megan’s investigations are endangered by the fanatical Grand Master of a secret sect dedicated to the obliteration of obscenity. Her own life in danger, the twisting Schiele trail leaves multiple corpses in its wake and leads Megan from conniving Vienna to remote Kaliningrad in Russia, to ancient Krumau in Bohemia, and bustling Milan in Italy as she hunts for a possible hidden trove of major Schiele paintings. What she discovers is undreamt of and leaves the Schiele world stunned and covetous. Includes Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country, both now from Sunstone Press. Her travels, recorded in the memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica and are reflected in this, her second mystery novel in the Megan Crespi Mystery Series. The first, Killing for Klimt is also from Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE SCHUMANN SHAMING A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel By Alessandra Comini In Switzerland, Germany, and Vienna a spate of grave vandalism, graffiti, and even murder concerning 19th century musicians Clara and Robert Schumann is investigated by Megan Crespi. Researching for her book on 19th-century virtuoso pianist Clara Schumann and her eight children, Professor Megan Crespi encounters startling hatred or praise for them and for Clara’s composer husband Robert. These strong reactions come in the form of grave vandalism, outrageous graffiti on Schumann museums across Germany, in Switzerland and Vienna, and even murder. Why? Megan’s travel companion is her sister-in-law Susan, a pediatrician whose expertise becomes crucial for the thirteen-year-old Italian child prodigy Stella Scarpauomo, referred to by the press as “the twenty-first-century Clara Schumann.” Disparate characters include three dedicated detectives, two Viennese widows who are founders of the local Clara Schumann Society, and two Schumann museum directors, one helpful, the other easily annoyed. Also involved are a wacky Schumann archivist, a patroness of the arts who refuses to use one of her two surnames, and a brilliant young pianist from Liberia whose promising career has veered from that of performing artist to assistant piano tuner. Will Crespi and the detectives put the dangerous jigsaw puzzle together before further disaster strikes? Includes Readers Guide.
Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Alessandra Comini was awarded Austria’s Grand Medal of Honor for her books on Viennese artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Her Egon Schiele’s Portraits was nominated for the National Book Award and her The Changing Image of Beethoven is used in classrooms around the country. Both books in new editions are now available from Sunstone Press as well as The Fantastic Art of Vienna, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Schiele in Prison. Comini’s travels, recorded in her memoir, In Passionate Pursuit, extend from Europe to Antarctica to China and are reflected in her Megan Crespi Mystery Series: Killing for Klimt, The Schiele Slaughters, The Kokoschka Capers, The Munch Murders, The Kollwitz Calamities, The Kandinsky Conundrum, The Mahler Mayhem, The Beethoven Boomerang and The Brahms Bust. All Comini’s scholarly books are available in new editions from Sunstone Press as is the entire Megan Crespi Mystery Series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
SIR A Novel of Politics and Love By Mildred Cram Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Maybe the doctors in Washington should have told the truth. Maybe the American people had a right to know. Maybe the truth was called for with things in the country as bad as they were. What was the truth about Edward? What was the dilemma he faced and why would his ultimate decision affect the country? And was Megan the true example of the new liberated female or did she exist to serve men--the men she chose? Why was she called "a meddling tramp" by Eithne and "the lovingest woman on earth" by Scott? What was Valerie’s secret? These are all questions Edward finally finds the answers to in this absorbing story of what happens when a powerful figure in American politics has his life shaken by personal tragedy in a fast-paced world. This new softcover edition continues the tradition that readers have grown to expect and appreciate from Mildred Cram, the author of FOREVER, one of the many novels that made her famous. She was well known for her short stories and television and motion picture scripts, and is the author of another book from Sunstone Press, BORN IN TIME. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
SMOKESCREEN A Fernando Lopez Mystery By James C. Wilson Click on "Movie/TV" Treatment below. A prominent city councilmember, Tito Garcia, is assassinated at the beginning of the Santa Fe Fiesta. Known as a peacemaker, he had negotiated an agreement to ban a controversial Fiesta procession known as the Entrada. The procession celebrated the Reconquest of Santa Fe twelve years after the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion drove the Spanish out of Santa Fe. Both Spanish and Native American groups blame each other for Garcia’s murder and vow revenge. The situation explodes in violence when one Hispanic group attempts to march in downtown Santa Fe in violation of the agreement. Fernando Lopez is forced to rethink the case when he discovers Garcia’s involvement with Three-Hills Ranch, a compound suspected of sex-trafficking young women from border towns like Nogales and Juarez. The journey to find answers takes Lopez on a journey into the underbelly of wealthy Santa Fe society where deep cultural and ethnic conflicts have festered for over four hundred years. Smokescreen, the second in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series, concludes in a fiery confrontation at Three-Hills Ranch, where the truth is finally revealed and justice served. Includes Reading Guide.
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of eight previous books, including Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History (2019) and Peyote Wolf (2020), the first of the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
SON OF NOTHINGNESS A Novel of Appearances By Ona Russell One man’s hunt for ex-Nazis leads to a shocking revelation and reconciliation with his own troubled past in this 1940s historical novel set in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Los Angeles, 1949. Attorney Andrew Martin, aka Andrés Martinez, is doing what he does best: surviving. His career is stable, he has his pick of women, and his beloved parrot, Emerson, keeps him company. True, he’s still lamenting his rejection from the military, still tormented by memories of his father, and then there’s his leg, which continually feels like an imposter. But he’s learned to live with all of that, too. Until the arrival of Penny, that is, a member of the Salvation Army, a stranger with a secret. Andrew’s meeting with the woman is brief, but what he learns from her upends him. Suddenly nothing makes sense. He desperately needs to get away, and it seems the gods are listening, for he’s soon offered a job in Sacramento. And not just any job. He’s been asked to help confirm a plot that the government is using ex-Nazis to spy on communists in the U.S. The timing seems perfect, and Andrew agrees. What he doesn’t know is that this quest will lead him straight into the heart of that from which he is trying to escape.
Includes Readers Guide.
Ona Russell holds a PhD in American literature from UC San Diego, where she also taught for many years. She’s a frequent speaker at literary events, including the famed San Miguel de Allende Writers’ Conference. Her essays and academic articles have appeared in literary and legal journals nationwide. Sunstone Press published her three previous novels, including The Natural Selection, a California Book Award finalist, and Rule of Capture, an IPPY silver medal winner for regional fiction. Ona lives in Solana Beach, California. Please visit onarussell.com for more information.
Cover design by Lauren Kahn. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
SONG ON A BLUE GUITAR A Novel By Dorothy Cave See PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK below. Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 An old promise, a new ghost, and a resurgent mystery send rancher Joe Steele in search of Toro Duran, his army buddy of some 50 years and a war ago. In a barrio called Tuceros Joe finds himself sucked into a fight Toro and his offbeat amigos are waging to save their cantina and its wildly decorated outhouse--"best little privy on the Rio Grande"--from a Bible-pounding Dallas developer. He meets Arabela, muscular cash-only-and-up-front proprietress of the cantina, along with Wesley Wetherford Jones, resident outhouse artist, Lily and her girls from the nearby whorehouse, Chico and Rico, sheriff and magistrate judge of Tuceros (when they aren’t off fishing) and the mysterious Indian from the nearby pueblo. Through the scenario sits Tecolote drinking Tokay, plucking his guitar, and revising events into his one great musical opus. A climactic chase has Joe asking just who Toro is--saint or Satan, hero or humbug, Galahad or PT Barnum--and what he, Joe, is doing scaling a steep mesa past midnight, 300 miles from his own bed, his own spread, and his own business. He may find his answers in Tecolote’s song. DOROTHY CAVE spent much of her childhood exploring with her geologist father the isolated villages and mountains of northern New Mexico, a practice she continues today. Although her formal education was at Agnes Scott College and the Universities of Colorado and Wyoming, she feels her true education has come from these remote but rapidly vanishing hamlets and pueblos and from the soil-rooted wisdom of those who live in them. Cave has traveled widely, danced with the Atlanta Ballet, acted, and taught. She is the author of two histories: BEYOND COURAGE, which won the New Mexico Presswomen's Zia Award, and FOUR TRAILS TO VALOR. Her first novel, MOUNTAINS OF THE BLUE STONE, was also published by Sunstone Press. Sample Chapter
|
SUMMER OF THE GUNS A Novel By Justin Daniel Herman Journeying west to flee a troubled past, twelve-year old Billie Jean Moran and her sister find themselves embroiled in yet another ordeal—this time a scandal that implicates even the Arizona governor. In the desolate cityscape of Depression-era Phoenix, twelve-year old Billie Jean Moran has journeyed west to flee a troubled past with her deaf sister, Sara. But they find themselves in the midst of another catastrophe—this time involving a scandal that implicates even the Arizona governor. When political crooks peg Billie’s African-American father as an unsuspecting fall guy, Billie and Sara are forced to go into hiding. In the course of their ordeal, the sisters find unlikely allies in the form of a broken-down ex-insurance salesman, a juvenile delinquent, and a prison nurse. Through bravery and cunning, Billie, Sara, and their friends bring the real criminals to justice and triumph over fear, discrimination, and injustice.
Justin Daniel Herman is a retired insurance executive and vocational evaluator who grew up in Depression-era Phoenix. The novel is based on his memories of the Phoenix he grew up in and the scandals that rocked the state. His historian son, Daniel Herman, edited and revised the manuscript prior to publication. Sample Chapter
eBook:
|
TAOS GOTHIC A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery By James C. Wilson The disappearance of a Santa Fe historian at the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos sends private investigator Fernando Lopez on a dangerous journey through a haunted world of ghosts, transients, paranormals, and psychopaths. When Santa Fe historian Kate Isaacs disappears while staying and doing research at the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, Isaacs’ wife hires private investigator Fernando Lopez to find the missing woman. At the Luhan House, now a bed and breakfast inn, Lopez learns that Isaacs walked out of her room during the night wearing only a nightgown and slippers. Employees and a local paranormal organization blame ghosts. They tell Lopez the sprawling hundred-year-old house is haunted by the ghosts of the famous people who stayed there, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Willa Cather, and Dennis Hopper, as well as Mabel and her Native American husband Tony. The mystery deepens when a former lover of Isaacs turns up dead at a party Isaacs attended the night she disappeared. Isaacs is a suspect in the murder until it becomes clear that she has been kidnapped. Lopez teams up with Taos County Sheriff Hank Mathews after kidnappers contact Isaacs’ wife and demand a ransom for her return. Their investigation leads them to a derelict A-frame in the mountains where they find Isaacs’ body and the bodies of two other people. Solving the murders takes them into a dangerous underworld of transients, paranormals and psychopaths. Includes Readers Guide.
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of fourteen previous books, including Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History and Santa Fe, City of Refuge, An Improbable Memoir of the Counterculture in addition to Peyote Wolf, Smokescreen, Ghost Canyon, The Dead Go Fast, Painted Skull Ranch, Taos Vendetta and Devil on Canyon Road in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
TAOS VENDETTA A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery By James C. Wilson The murder of a Hollywood actress sends private investigator Fernando Lopez to Taos, where he finds himself in a world of intrigue, caught between feuding ranchers and old legal grievances while searching for a murderer. After a Hollywood actress is murdered at a Taos hotel, private investigator Fernando Lopez receives a call for help from Taos County Sheriff Hank Mathews, an old friend. In Taos Lopez learns the murdered woman, Anne Lewis, had been part of a movie crew filming a tacky ‘walking dead’ movie. Yesterday she’d returned to the hotel after filming at the Taos Historical Cemetery and gone for a swim in the hotel pool. Her body was found that morning with evidence indicating she had been forcibly drowned. Working with Sheriff Mathews, Lopez discovers that Lewis had a lot of enemies. Suspects include a jealous co-worker and Ted Fisher, the executive producer of the movie, who was being sued by Lewis and two other women for sexual assault. Fisher’s bodyguard threatens and later attacks Lopez in an effort to end the investigation and protect Fisher. Yet another suspect is Cowboy Jack Ryan, a young lothario who comes to the hotel bar every night looking for hookups with the various actresses. In fact, Cowboy Jack had slept with Lewis the night before the day she was murdered. Cowboy Jack complicates the investigation, because he’s part of an ongoing feud between two ranching families outside Taos, the Ryans and the Luceros. When Cowboy Jack shoots and kills the oldest Lucero son and then flees, he becomes the chief suspect in two murders. Lopez and Sheriff Mathews chase Cowboy Jack and his younger brother across northern New Mexico, finally cornering them at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu. In the ensuing melee the murderer of Anne Lewis is finally revealed. Includes Readers Guide.
Emeritus Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Cincinnati, James C. Wilson lived in Santa Fe during the turbulent 1970s and wrote for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Santa Fe Reporter. He has lived in Albuquerque since 2012. He is the author of fifteen previous books, including Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: The Trails, The Ruins, The History; New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, Photographing the Ancient City and Santa Fe, City of Refuge, An Improbable Memoir of the Counterculture in addition to Peyote Wolf, Smokescreen, Ghost Canyon, The Dead Go Fast, Painted Skull Ranch, Taos Gothic, and Devil on Canyon Road in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series.
On the Cover: Cover art by Virginia Maria Romero over photograph by the author of the Taos Mountains from the Sagebrush Inn, Taos, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THREE DEADLY DAYS IN SPAIN A Sydney Reardon Mystery By Mary Branham Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Having left behind careers in theatre and decorating in London and New York, Sydney Reardon moved to a calmer life in Santa Fe with John, her third husband and the love of her life. She began “doing houses.” “If you would like to re-create a colonial gem from Oaxaca or a farmhouse from Tuscany, I’m your girl,” she explained to a new acquaintance.
But she is devastated when John is killed in a bizarre accident. Still recovering from her loss she is invited by John’s best friend for a visit in Salamanca. She has always loved Spain and accepts, looking forward to the holiday. Her host asks her to stop in Avila, the famous old walled town, to deliver a holy relic to a monastery and seeing it as an exotic but worthwhile errand, she readily agrees. Within hours of her arrival there, Ben Harris, a personable young man with whom she shared wine, dinner and conversation on the airplane, has fallen—or been pushed—from one of the walls.
What she had thought would be a delightful week as a tourist turns into a nightmare as she is pursued by jewel thieves, kidnappers—and murderers.
Mary Branham was assistant director of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She describes her first two mysteries also from Sunstone Press, Little Green Man in Ireland and Big Black Dog In Vallarta, as “airplane books.” Having bought many thick books at airport shops and left them on the plane unfinished, she determined to write a series of books that could be enjoyed on a flight of reasonable length. The first two have also appeared as an offering from The Detective Book Club. Regarding Big Black Dog In Vallarta, Library Journal wrote: “Memorable characters, slick dialog, and almost whimsical settings make this a delightful short read for larger collections.” Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
TOWN BELL Prequel to Boy’s Pond By With the Cold War raging and espionage flourishing, a summer of innocent pranks turns deadly. It seems J.T. and Mickey will never learn. This summer they’ve decided to break the record (for the most original pranks) of the immortal Judd and Howie. They begin their quest by setting off cherry bombs in their sixth-grade classroom, then progress to dropping dummies (mannequins) from overhanging trees in front of California tourists and continue by placing cracker balls under the Sunday school chairs of the senior citizens. Unfortunately, their next prank goes very wrong. During a game of Town Bell, they lock a friend/rival, Weird Willie, in English stocks. Unfortunately, when they return to release him, Willie has vanished. Set during the Cold War of the 1950s, with Soviet espionage looming as an ominous backdrop, this also is an era when society is more tolerant of juvenile pranks. Sheriff Meecham, however, is getting fed up with the boy’s shenanigans and threatens if they don’t produce Willie soon, he’ll charge them with murder. Includes Readers Guide.
Following graduation from the University of Utah Medical School, Dr. Stucki practiced urology in southern Utah for thirty-eight years. At St. George Regional Medical Center, he served as Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and as a member of the Hospital Governing Board. Presently, he teaches two classes and is vice president of the Institute of Continued Learning at Utah Tech University. Town Bell is the prequel to his first, and highly popular Boy’s Pond. His Doctor Cooper Series includes: The Death of Samantha Rose, Hemorrhage, Mountain Mayhem and The Reluctant Carnivore. Stucki is the author of a medical mystery, Hunting for Hippocrates and an historical novel, Sagebrush Sedition, chronicling the creation of The Grand Staircase National Monument. All novels are published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
TRIPLE CROWN A Horse Racing Novel By Paul E. Patterson Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Manipulations and intrigue reign in horse racing, “The Sport of Kings,” where horse manure is not the only thing that smells on the backside of The Downs in Sierra Vista. The Tri-State Livestock News reported: “You can almost hear the flies buzzing in the race-track restaurants he describes, and you’re gripped by the electric tension in the atmosphere as his equine heroes dash for the wire. You’ve known many characters like the ones in Paul’s story.” The pages tingle with intrigue and action.
Paul E. Patterson retired from a career in ranching in New Mexico and Colorado to devote his time to writing. His stories have been featured in Western Horseman and New Mexico Magazine. Sample Chapter
eBook:
|
THE TRUCHAS LIGHT A Novel By R. M. Lienau Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Jason Thompson and Melvin Vaslovic, friends since childhood, are long-term scientists at the sprawling Rio Grande Laboratories. They are both close to retirement when there is a deadly disaster at one of the test facilities overseen by Jason. Subsequently, there is a security breach, a theft of secret documents concerning the failed test, code-named Geronimo Queen. Then Mel is found dead, and the FBI comes to believe that Jason is responsible for both incidents.
After a rendezvous with the mysterious Nantes, Jason is kidnapped at gunpoint. Escaping in the kidnap vehicle, a light plane, he crashes on a remote New Mexico ranch. But he is tracked down, then reported dead when the crippled plane catches fire during a fire-fight between Nantes and the kidnapper. After his public funeral, his wife, Sarah, retreats to their adobe house in Truchas, New Mexico where, on a rainy night, she discovers the light on.
Richard M. Lienau, with a background in electronics and computer technology, holds more than twenty U.S. Patents. He has written several novels, including Holy Ghost from Sunstone Press, and a number of screen plays, articles and short stories. He lives in San Miguel County, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
VANISHED A Novel By Steven W. Kohlhagen and Gale G. Kohlhagen A private detective agency in Charleston, South Carolina, specializing in missing person cases, unearths some eerie and strange coincidences in a sequence of murders and disappearances, which ultimately lead to the discovery of a five-decades old conspiracy linked to a factually documented disappearance off the coast of Italy in 1938. Staggering from a bar into a dark, deserted alley, a man is stalked and attacked. Forty years later, December 2007, a letter reaches a Berkeley physics professor from her friend Cy Fapp, head of a Charleston private detective agency. As the story unfolds, these two seemingly unrelated events become linked to the 1938, true life disappearance of Sicilian physicist Ettore Majorana. Working from their agency in Charleston, South Carolina, Fapp and his two young associates, Jack and Ginger, are mystified by four seemingly unrelated cases. Through a series of bizarre coincidences, they discover a series of disappearances and murders over fifty years, taking place from Wisconsin to South Beach, Florida, from Italy to Berkeley, and from Charleston to Los Angeles, California. Jack and Ginger are propelled by their discoveries to link both their boss’s and the victims’ sudden interest in theoretical physics and parallel universes. Does this all mask an international conspiracy of serial killers? If not, how are the cases tied together? Is a major theoretical physics breakthrough at the heart of the mysteries? How has their boss, Cy Fapp, disappeared? And how, in the end, does a Berkeley professor come to hold the key to all the answers?
Gale Kohlhagen is the co-author, along with Ellen B. Heinback, of Hippocrene USA Guide to West Point and the Hudson Valley and USNA: The United States Naval Academy, A Pictorial Celebration of 150 Years and is a member of Pen Women and Sisters in Crime. Steve Kohlhagen is an award winning author, former economics professor, and former Wall Street investment banker. He is also the author of Where They Bury You, awarded the “Best Western of 2014” by the National Indie Excellence Book Awards, and Chief of Thieves, both from Sunstone Press. Steve and his wife, Gale, view writing a joint murder mystery as among the latest adventures in their 45-plus year partnership. They have homes in Charleston, South Carolina and the San Juan Mountains on the Colorado, New Mexico border.
Includes Readers Guide Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
THE WATCHERS’ CLUB A Novel of Innocence and Guilt By G. Kim Blank The startling and brutal murder of two teens in a rural 1960s community seems to have been committed by another teenager—the brother of one of the victims—who is arrested and put on trial, while some kids at the center of the murder’s circumstances stumble upon remarkable evidence that puts everything in doubt. On an October Saturday night in the 1960s, a motley group of local kids in a rural community, who call themselves the Watchers’ Club, set out on an innocent lark to their local lovers’ lane. Their mission: sneak up on any parkers who might show up. To their delight, they discover a couple of teens making out, one of whom they recognize after they briefly shine a flashlight into the vehicle’s cab—the butcher’s son in his father’s delivery truck. After gleefully disturbing the couple and then running off into the forest, they gather in full innocence to congratulate themselves: mission accomplished. But one of their group, the hapless outsider, Jacob Slough, does not show up. Over the next few days, news emerges that two persons are missing, which then becomes two persons murdered—and at Lovers’ Lane, that night! The community sorely needs to find someone guilty, and all evidence points to poor Jacob. The other kids can’t believe it, nor, when they find out, can they believe who was with the butcher’s son that night. While a prosecutor presents powerful evidence that points to Jacob, two of the kids stumble upon some unexpected and odd evidence that changes everything—all thanks to a stray cat. This novel, with its quick-moving dialogue, odd local characters, quirky moments, and unforeseeable ending, is a compelling, highly original story of innocence and guilt.
G. Kim Blank has published in many genres, including four non-fiction books, as well as co-authoring two writing manuals. Recently he has written an acclaimed online biography of the poet John Keats. Between and during educational stints, he has lived in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, New York, Wales, Southampton (England), and Namibia. He is Professor of Literature at the University of Victoria. The Fisherman’s Secret, the prequel to The Watchers’ Club, is also published by Sunstone Press. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
WINDSWEPT A Novel By Kate Hancock Includes Readers Guide Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 When the gleaming World Trade Center towers come tumbling down on September 11th, so do the seemingly perfect lives of ten year old twins, Samantha and Andrew Bennett, and their mother, Rachel. Can they build a new life without their father, Ben? Can they honor his last wish? After many difficult decisions, the answer seems to be “yes.” Then, when a stranger appears on the scene, reviving sorrows and revealing hidden emotions, their fragile new life is threatened. Set on the beautiful island of Martha’s Vineyard, Windswept is a story of loss and healing. It is a story about the strength of family. Above all, it is a story about the power of love, friendship and knowledge to effect change. And then, of course, there’s that pirate business! Includes Readers Guide.
Windswept is Kate Hancock’s first published novel, but she has been writing for the theater for many years. She has written script and lyrics for dozens of plays and musicals for children. She has also written several pieces for adult audiences, including two plays: A Visit Home and Daylilies; and lyrics and co-book for three musicals: The Playboy of Ballyduff and So Nice to Come Home To, both with composer and co-book writer Richard B. Evans; and lyrics for Lighthouse Point, book by Rick Herrick, music by Ben Willmott. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and The Dramatists Guild and she is an alumna of the Lehman Engel–BMI Musical Theater Workshop for composers and lyricists. In addition to her writing, she taught 4th and 5th grade for 16 years, primarily at Willard School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and she has also been a professional stage manager for over 35 years. She holds Masters Degrees in education and theater history and criticism and lives on the island of Martha’s Vineyard with her husband, Fred. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE WINGTHORN ROSE A Story of Transgression, Redemption and the Power of Love By Melvyn Chase Lucas Murdoch isn’t what he seems to be: a successful New York City salesman, retired at the age of 53, and searching for his roots in the quiet New England town of Pennington. But Lucas is a man with an obsession that governs everything he says and does. With subtle skill, he inserts himself into the lives of the townspeople, coldly analyzing the weaknesses of everyone he meets: Henry Smythe, a seminary drop-out who sees himself as the town’s religious leader; Leo Sage, a loner with a mysterious past; Fay Geneen, a librarian who has learned to live without love; Sarge Schreiner, a policeman who had to leave the force; and Emily Schuyler Grant, the wealthy dowager who rules the town and her teen-aged granddaughter, Jeanette, with an iron hand. By the time he leaves Pennington, Lucas has forever changed their lives—and his.
After a public relations career spanning more than thirty-five years, Melvyn Chase retired from corporate life. Although he continued to work as a consultant, he also began to write fiction. In 2005, Sunstone Press published his first collection of short stories, The Terminal Project and Other Voyages of Discovery. He says that The Wingthorn Rose, his first novel, presented him with a stimulating new set of creative challenges—so stimulating that he is currently working on his second novel. Chase was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a B.A. in English Literature at Brooklyn College and an M.A. at New York University. He and his wife, a retired editor and publicist, live in suburban Connecticut. Sample Chapter
Softcover:
eBook:
|
A WINTER'S KEEP A Novel By David Cope Summary: A court-appointed psychiatrist tests a patient awaiting trial for committing a ghastly crime to ascertain his ability to understand right from wrong. Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418 A man is being held in a forensic psychiatric facility for his inability to stand trial for a crime he cannot remember anything about. A court-appointed psychiatrist interviews him several times to ascertain if he can attest to the man’s sanity. Meanwhile, someone is apparently attempting to break into the building where the prisoner is being kept. Revelation after revelation suggests that the man’s memory is returning. But, as the prisoner is about to be returned to court to stand trial, a series of events occurs that changes everything.
David Cope has written over thirty non-fiction books, several novels including Where Thunder Sleeps also published by Sunstone Press, collections of short stories, children’s books, a large number of poems, and seven plays. His art hangs in many galleries and homes and his orchestral music has been performed worldwide having been recorded on many professional CDs and available online as MP3s. He currently lives with his wife in Santa Cruz, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
THE WORD THIEF A Novel By Marie Romero Cash The daughter of a famous mystery writer takes on the massive undertaking of completing a book he started before his death, plunging her into more drama than she bargained for. Lizbeth Newman is a freelance writer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose father’s passing changes her life in more ways than one. Anthony Fox Newman was a best-selling author whose novels, set in the badlands of Indian country in New Mexico, generally hit the New York Times bestseller list within a week of their release. Prior to his untimely death, he negotiated a lucrative contract with his publisher and a sizeable six-figure advance. Lizbeth soon learns that the publisher is demanding the remaining half of the manuscript be delivered within six months. If not, they will require repayment of the advance, which Lizbeth knows will bankrupt her father’s estate and void the charitable bequests made in his Last Will and Testament. Lizbeth soon finds her efforts are being secretly derailed by a handsome fellow who comes into her life with the intent of monopolizing her time to keep her from completing the manuscript. As the deadline looms Lizbeth finds herself in a quandary of huge proportions.
Marie Romero Cash is a well-known author and award-winning folk artist whose works are in major museums and private collections throughout the United States and other countries. As an author she has written books and articles on the culture and religion of Northern New Mexico and lectured widely on the subject for the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities. Sunstone Press has published several of these books: The Saint Maker’s Daughter; Santos: a Coloring Book of New Mexico Saints; and Lowrider Blues, a Collection of Short Stories and Observations from My Inner Barrio. In addition, she has written a memoir about growing up in Santa Fe, and a mystery series featuring Jemimah Hodge, a forensic psychologist who uses her skills to profile criminals. Marie lives in Santa Fe in the neighborhood where she was born. Secure Movie & TV Rights
Softcover:
eBook:
|
YOU CAN'T KILL A DEAD MAN A Vanessa Sterling Suspense Novel By Fran Blacketer Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644 Vanessa Sterling has abandoned the all consuming life of a Chicago corporate lawyer to begin a new life in the sleepy fishing village of Depoe Bay, Oregon. But a serious challenge arises when a long-lost son returns and the past reemerges to entangle her in a web of lies, deceit, and betrayal—the depths of which not only threaten her moral fiber, but her very existence. To save her son from his sordid past, this misguided mother begins to unravel deadly family secrets, pulling her into the seedy underworld of a drug czar, only to discover her son is not so innocent.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Fran Blacketer moved to California in the late 1970s where she earned a master’s degree in psychology and taught at Saddleback College. She lived in Laguna Beach where she met her artist husband, Jim, and they moved to Depoe Bay, Oregon for six years before returning to southern California. While in Oregon she found the central coast to be a haven for writers where mystery and intrigue seemed to permeate the rugged coast line. You Can’t Kill a Dead Man is the first novel in a series of Vanessa Sterling mysteries. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
ZUNI STEW A Novel By Kent Jacobs Jack D’Amico, a newly minted physician is catapulted to a military posting on the Zuni reservation in New Mexico. Sadly, his family is murdered. And he’s next on the list, but why? Both a contract killer and the FBI are after him. In gratitude for saving his son, a Zuni medicine man, a shiwani, spirits Jack into hiding. Speed and greed drive the chase while the energy of the four winds and those of the worlds above and below direct Jack to safety. Trying to stay alive, Jack has to ask himself what is real, what the shiwani sees or what the killers see? Or, what Jack thinks he is seeing? Strap yourself in and go for the ride of your life.
Kent Jacobs is a graduate of Northwestern University College of Medicine with a specialty post-graduate diploma from the University of Colorado College of Medicine. Drafted into the U. S. Public Health Service, he was posted to New Mexico, his home, on the Zuni reservation at Black Rock Hospital. Jacobs lived with the Zunis, absorbing their culture, religion, ceremonies, and the spirit of the land. He is also the author of Hopi Tea and The Turned Field, both from Sunstone Press. He lives with his wife, professional painter Sallie Ritter, in the Mesilla Valley in southern New Mexico. Secure Movie & TV Rights
eBook:
|
SUNSTONE PRESS |
www.sunstonepress.com |