Bookworm Paradise

Mystery, Thriller Date Published: March 2019 Publisher: Black Rose Writing "The Last Van Gogh" received the 2019 Maxy Award for Best Mystery-Detective Novel A brilliant and troubled artist. A lost masterpiece. The desperate search for the truth. An unknown Van Gogh painting disappears from France at the outbreak of World War Two. A notorious con man later claims he smuggled the immense painting to the U.S. where it is never seen again. Ninety years later, his two sons, Adam and Wesley Barrow, discover letters that supposedly confirm the painting's existence, now valued at $250 million if it exists. Dogged by a dysfunctional childhood and skeptical of his father's tale, Adam at first dismisses the old letters. The painting's possible existence also attracts the attention of three unscrupulous collectors, all   former associates of his   father, one of whom engages a professional kill...

Historical Women's Fiction Publisher: Cougar Creek Books 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Silver Winner in the LGBT Category B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree Finalist in the Self   Publishing Review Awards 2017 Finalist in the Golden Crown Literary Society - Debut Novel and Historical Fiction Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award Finalist Debut Category In the shadow of the Great Depression, long before historical changes leading toward LGBTQ advocacy and equality, eighteen-year-old Ruth Thompson defies her family's expectations to marry Duke, her long-time sweetheart. Instead, she joins a rodeo circuit in order to earn money for college and comes of age in the male-dominated culture of rodeo competition. Ruth returns home to Minnesota a prize-winning competitor and resumes her familiar relationship with Duke. Once at college she grows increasingly restless in her role as soror...

Literature, Fiction Theodore Roosevelt Crenshaw, "Best Heart-Throb" of his high school class, now in is early thirties is looking to get what he wants out of life regardless of what anybody thinks. He meets Pamela White, a sharp 38-year-old business woman whose sexual hunger cannot be drowned in bourbon. She makes him an offer he can’t refuse. At nearly the same time he runs into Beverly Simons, a slightly neurotic, rather plump high school classmate with whom he once had a one-night stand. She is now widowed with a strikingly beautiful six-year-old daughter. Enter Jerry Weinstein, Esq., a rotund, gourmand bachelor lawyer specializing in criminal law and a very dead Bradford Vincente, the 17-year-old son of pizza king Tony "Pan-a-Mint" Vincente of Palos Verdes… Set in the South Bay beach communities of suburban Los Angeles some thirty years ago, the novel is a lurid tale of murder, lust and the inevi...

Science Fiction / Steampunk / Fantasy / Fiction Date Published : 7 May 2019 Aubrey Hartman left the Imperial battlefields with a pocketful of medals, a fearsome reputation, and a clockwork leg. The Imperium diverts her trip home to investigate the murder of a young druid in a strange town. She is ordered to not only find the killer but prevent a full-scale war with the dreaded Fae. Meanwhile, the arrival of a sinister secret policeman threatens to dig up Aubrey’s own secrets – ones that could ruin her career. It soon becomes clear that Aubrey has powerful enemies with plans to stop her before she gets started. Determined to solve the mystery, Aubrey must survive centaurs, thugs, and a monster of pure destruction. About the Author R.A. McCandless has been a writer both professionally and creatively for nearly two decades.   He was born under a wandering star that led him to a degree in Communication and English with a focus on...