EDSITORIAL

TITLE: May Be Hazardous To Your Health

SUMMARY: The 'Judge' is an embittered older man who has lost his wife to the curse of tobacco usage. He is intelligent, imaginative, and very good at killing in the most bizarre methods. He announces his moves via a letter campaign to various characters.

Richard Downey II is the Chief Executive Officer for Philburn Martin Corporation, a conglomerate that includes tobacco among their main product lines.

Lee Thomas is the hardened and professional cop who is called on to solve a series of murders against relatives of the board of directors of PMC.

Paula Sampson is the popular news anchor for the city's Cable News Network.

The storyline opens with the New Year's kickoff meeting of the board of directors with one key person missing. Timothy Burkwith, the Chairman of the Board, and the last of the corporation’s bloodline, is absent. The meeting is called to order and each of the ten board members has an exquisitely wrapped package on their placemat. As they open, each finds a finger in their package. For Downey, he receives a heart and a letter.

The letter, authored by ‘The Judge’, demands the board members publicly resign their positions and denounce their product as murderous. If they do they will be spared, that is, someone close to them will be spared, as the Judge has ruled, just as someone close to him has died, they will lose someone close to each of them as punishment. This offer of amnesty, does not apply to Richard Downey II, just as it had not been allowed for the late Timothy Burkwith.

What follows is a series of Letters from ‘The Judge’ planting clues, and lecturing PMC for their distribution of their product, a series of dead people close to the board members, and a convoluted and cleaver set of parallel paths. One path belongs to “The Judge’ as he weaves his way through several killings, and the other path belongs to Lee Thomas as he plays a game of investigative Chess with ‘The Judge’ and his letter writing campaign. 

Characters, added as the suspense progresses, include an Information Management Geek, A Professional Clown, a recluse from society, and the wife of Richard Downey II. As the story progresses ‘The Judge’ commits a brazen and unbelievable kidnapping to facilitate his quest to get to Richard Downey II.

The ending is a complete surprise and this along with the quirks and turns of this novel makes this novel an entertaining and cleaver book that cannot be put down.  

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TITLE: UNBELIEVABLE DREAMS

SUMMARY: Robert Jordan is a typical blue-collar worker in most respects. However, in another, there becomes a vast difference between him and what is normal. Robert Jordan is cast into a sequence of, for lack if a better term, ‘dreams’. He is projected into situations he has often dreaded in a normal sense. The dreams become increasingly real and he seeks the help of his family doctor who refers him, and this weirdness, to a colleague, Doctor Stanley Franks. Franks is a leader in the field of mental distortions and is well respected in the field but is also a person of questionable character. This character takes over when determining the value of the problems suffered by Robert Jordan. Stanley will seek to satisfy his needs by selfishly using Bob as a study to extend his fame and not to seek and resolve the problems experienced by Bob.

Stanley Franks also has problems, worthy of mention is his childhood murder of a condescending father, another murder of a wealthy and generous aunt to gain control of her wealth, and a mind requiring the services of many in his own profession. He is intrigued by the problems of his study patient and is more excited in continuing the problem than finding a cure. He believes this is the case study he needs to spring him to the pinnacle of the profession and he is not going to allow anything to circumvent this study.

As the story progresses so does the severity and realism of the dreams Bob is delivered into. He begins experiencing out of body occurrences and what is seemingly a transfer of matter into the dreams. Of course, as Dr. Franks assures him, this cannot be the case. However, the realism of the dreams increases.

Franks also has a pretty receptionist (Cindy) who is dispatched to lure Bob into a trusting situation so she can get to the core of Bob’s personality, a requirement Franks needs but Bob will not open up to him with his history. As is the case with a guy and a gal they fall for each other. This is not good for Cindy as she finds herself drawn into Bob’s dreams. When this is revealed to Franks he is pleasantly overwhelmed at the possibilities this presents. Franks, also knows he will never be able to convince those in his profession this is a real sequence of events. His only recourse is to enlist another professional into his study. This is something he fears more than being returned to the status he suffered as a child.

His selection is one Doctor Reginald Carlton, another leader in the profession, who is also a cavalier in spirit and Carlton immediately sees the benefit of having his name on this study. The problem is he wants his name above that of Stanley Franks. This begins a difficult period for Franks who is not about to allow his fame to be shared with another. Carlton now attempts to ‘steal’ the subjects for his own study.  This culminates in Franks threatening the life of Carlton in a most vicious manner, in fact going so far as to make the doctor kneel for his own execution, only to be allowed to exit with this close call as a warning.

Next, on another mental experience, involving Jordan and Cindy, who are now romantically involved, Carlton is included with these two as a participant. This happening causes a reunion of the two doctors with one submitting to the other and becoming a patient along with the others.

As the story continues even Dr. Franks is drug into the abyss of being included into the phenomenon of being transported into the mental, and as it turns out, physical trips. What  happens next is a series of events where Dr. Franks, now deranged to the point he is convinced his three subjects are trying to steal his study,  plots and attempts to kill them following them into normal and unnatural settings to do so.

The final transportation into the unknown and unbelievable has the two doctors individually contacted by a superior intelligence form and each provides for a different avenue of dealing with this communication.

The culmination of the novel is when it all comes to a head in the private offices of Stanley Franks where the two doctors stay for eternity and the young couple leave on their own power. The epilogue explains the end!

The ending, however, is a total and unpredictable surprise-one that offers the opportunity for a sequel.

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TITLE: 52 PICKUP

SUMMARY:  Lee Edwards is not a politician. He is a recently retired business executive who reached the pinnacle in midlife and retired early to play. Unfortunately he has run out of toys. He awakens one morning with the fantastic idea of running for President of the United States. Julia, his wife and girlfriend, initially makes light of the idea but after a visit to the state party headquarters, and watching her husband who has been a long time supporter of the party get stonewalled by the party leadership she is pulled into the effort. Lee Edwards is forced to run as an independent and here is where the real race begins. He begins a campaign running as a 'People Politician' against the 'Party Politicians'.

For an organization they pick up a young man (Parker Svensson) working in the backrooms of the party headquarters and is a genius at political campaigning and add a crusty oft-fired veteran of past campaigns (Stephen Brooks), along with Parker's girlfriend, Jess and her national sorority, and a  few of Lee's associates.

What follows is a litany of hurdles and roadblocks mainly presented to their efforts by the stranglehold of the American two party system and the systems' dedicated efforts to keep it at two. Candidate registration, party filings and denial of ballot access are just a few of the problems. Add to this; Lee Edwards is a complete unknown and has just over a year until the general elections. His campaign starts with an elderly crowd whom he lectures on taking matters in their own hands to exercise themselves to good health and stop waiting for the government to fix what is theirs to fix. They love him. He goes into the union halls and admonishes them for returning the same old 'party politicians' to their stuffed seats and thus aiding the problem of lost jobs and memberships, again he wins. As his campaign heats up and his popularity grows he begins to threaten the two dominant parties to the degree there is a conspiracy to discredit him in the most obscene manner. He turns this into a victory while gaining notoriety for his steadfast manner of preaching the basics of government 'for the people'.

He gains popularity by campaigning on the basis of energy independence, a re-write of the trade agreements to bring back jobs, rebuilding the foundation and taxing the growth, while not borrowing on the future. His message is openly accepted and he turns into the darling of the American dream.

As the campaign winds down, and as he loses the battles of ballot access in the major states, through their inventiveness he gains overwhelming support of the people as a write-in candidate. On election night he is within the grasp of total and absolute victory and he walks out of the campaign headquarters, a horse barn remodeled on his estate, and back to the main house. 

The ending is neither violent nor is it disappointing. However, it is a total and unpredictable surprise-one that offers the opportunity for a sequel (The 2012 election are closing in!).

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TITLE: OBNOXIOUS COP 

SUMMARY: Tom Edwards is a New York City cop. As a cop, he is the best there is, and as a person he is the absolute worst in character. He works at both equally hard and earns success with both. Tom Edwards is a practicing non-violent racist. Anything other than white male over forty is fair game as well as most within his tolerated 'protected class'.

Marcus Emerson is a bright young man full of character and has a burning desire to be the best cop on the force. For this he has the credentials. He does not have the experience. His being partnered with Detective Sergeant Tom Edwards is the catalyst to his becoming the best cop on the force. The problem is, Edwards does not want a partner, let alone one who is a minority. Edwards leaves no doubts about his feelings towards a black one.

However, Tom Edwards is a professional. He works as hard at showing the ropes to the rookie detective as he does to demean this good young man. In addition, Edwards does not excuse anyone from his abuses as this duo wades their way through their cases.

Marcus Emerson believes he can make Edwards a better person and diligently works towards this end while becoming a sponge for the continual lessons in police work. This he does in spite of the mental beatings he must endure.

Martha Emerson, the high school sweetheart who becomes the loving wife, is torn between the pain her husband is feeling from the treatment doled out by her husbands mentor and providing patience and support for Marcus' endurance and quest for his lifelong goal. 

The weavings of the path of crime and the investigations by these two cops, at the opposite poles of character, offers excitement, intrigue, character altering events, and an abundance of humor. As they approach the culmination of their most involved case there are unexpected incidents that will have the reader laughing, mad as hell, and crying.

The story line follows a trail of organized crime killings in a 'tit for tat' scenario. Adding to this is the expertise of Detective Sergeant Tom Edwards and his ability to excite additional killings by  dropping information and names. This is something that has newly appointed Detective Marcus  Emerson questing the ethics of Edwards methods. Adding an assassin with a most unique method of dispatching his contracted victims, this novel offers a full range of surprises and cleverness.

This  novel continues long after the reader digests the final pages and has closed the cover.