Catalog
Not By Blood
Genre: Psychological Thriller
When Tina Evans gets a call from her brother in the middle of the night, she doesn’t think much of it; she’s been fielding distress calls from Bill for the last twenty years, ever since the day their father killed their mother. At first, this call seems just like all the others: Bill’s holed up in a Brooklyn drug den and needs her to come rescue him. But when Tina gets there, her brother’s nowhere to be found. Instead, she discovers the body of a private detective hidden in the junk heap out back. He’s been shot to death, and his gun is missing from its holster. Tina’s about to dial 911 when she receives a three-letter text message from a number she doesn’t recognize: “Shh...” Tina doesn’t believe in coincidence—the death of this detective and her brother’s disappearance must be related. But how? Could it be her father pulling the strings from his prison cell? And is she willing to risk her own freedom—and her life—to uncover the truth?
Utterly compulsive and brilliantly plotted, this tale of sibling loyalty and deadly family secrets digs in its claws on page one and doesn’t let go. An adrenaline-fueled, nerve-shredding thrill ride.
Chris Narozny ratchets up the tension one agonizing notch at a time in this psychological thriller about trauma, addiction, and memory. In a world of secrets lurking just beyond reach, EMT Tina Evans must face an array of personal demons, including her own broken family. Not By Blood reads like a midnight ride in a speeding ambulance, where your life is on the line and the most dangerous people may be the ones closest to home.
With an unflinching look at addiction and the aftermath of trauma, Narozny’s debut thriller is dark, tense, and will keep you guessing through to a perfectly crafted ending—one where every seemingly loose end suddenly falls solidly into place. This is sure to be one of the best debuts of the year.
Not By Blood is an unforgettable novel about the legacy of violence and addiction, the secrets we keep, and the lengths we go to protect the ones we love. Narozny writes with confidence and subtle grace, yet still manages to punch you in the emotional gut. This is the debut everyone will be talking about.
The Exiled
Genre: Detective Noir
Can anyone ever truly outrun his past? Back in the 1980s, Wes Raney was an ambitious New York City Narcotics Detective with a growing drug habit of his own. While working undercover on a high-risk case, he made decisions that ultimately cost him not only his career, but also his family. Disgraced, Raney fled-but history is finally catching up with him. Now in his early forties, Raney has been living in exile, the sole homicide investigator covering a two-hundred-mile stretch of desert in New Mexico. His solitude is his salvation-but it ends when a brutal drug deal gone wrong results in a triple murder. Staged in a locked underground bunker, the crime reawakens Raney's haunted and violent past.
A dark gem of a novel . . . Powered by relentless pacing and fully realized characters, this brutal narrative illuminates the harrowing realms of drug addiction and organized crime. Readers won't soon forget Raney's blood-soaked and coke-fueled journey through self-loathing to some semblance of salvation.
Jonah Man
Genre: Literary Historical Fiction
Set in vaudeville in the early twentieth century, Jonah Man is a gripping and ultimately heartbreaking novel that reveals the often tragic lives of performers struggling to make it to the big time. Told from the perspectives of multiple characters, including a one-handed juggler who moonlights as a drug trafficker, a talented young boy who longs to escape the shadow of his abusive father, and a police inspector whose bumbling attempts to solve a murder result in a series of calamitous missteps, Jonah Man explores the dark side of life behind the curtain, where performers will resort to the most extreme measures—including drug dealing, self-mutilation, and even murder—to keep their ever shrinking dream of becoming a star alive. Resurrecting the lost language and world of vaudeville—a "Jonah Man" was a performer who, despite his best efforts, had stalled in his career—Jonah Man is an unforgettable portrait of people trapped between their highest hopes and the crushing realties of their lives.
A classic whodunit ripe with spare, snappy prose and riddled with period language, this is one show-stopper that deserves a standing ovation.