Will Trent had never been alone in someone else’s home before unless that person was dead. As with many things in his life, he was aware that this was a trait he shared with a lot of serial killers.
Also as is the case with a lot of serial killers, Will Trent is in many ways not the person he appears to be on the surface; the face he chooses to present to the world, strangers and acquaintances alike, is one carefully constructed to give the appearance of normalcy. In reality, however, Will is anything but normal.
Now 40 years old and a highly successful agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Will still carries the scars, physically and psychologically, of a dark childhood during which he spent most of his time in state foster homes hoping to be adopted. It’s a painful past that, like his dyslexia, he doesn’t reveal to people for fear of the judgment – and pity – he believes they will heap upon him.
One of the few people who knows about Will’s past is his boss and mentor at the GBI, Deputy Director Amanda Wagner. Far from treating Will with kid gloves, Amanda gives Will no quarter, demanding excellence from him at all times and knowing she will get it. Which is why Will is perplexed when Amanda explicitly cuts him out of the case when a young co-ed goes missing from a local college. Little does Will realize that not only does Amanda know things about him he’d prefer others not, she knows things about him that he doesn’t even know about himself.
“Evil, Mr. Gurney. At the bottom of this case, there is an incredible evil.” – Max Clinter
It’s appropriate Fiona Johnson has chosen the moniker “McDroll” as both her pen name and online persona; the “Mc” represents her Scottish heritage, the “droll” her unique, dry sense of humor. Both of which are on display in her short story collection, Kick It With Conviction.
The Wicked Wives is a noir suspense thriller of historical fiction: murder, betrayal, court room drama, love and lust based on the true story of the 1938 poison scandals in Philadelphia. 
My twelve year-old son recently had his first day of high school. Instead of being an exciting next step, it was the most challenging day of his life. That night we sat for nearly two hours talking about his day, trying to make some sense of this new world that he now has to visit everyday for the next six years.
“There’s nothing you can say or do to make it better.”
First introduced in the Spar Battersea thriller 
Ten years. Seven hundred and twenty-one cases. Not one miracle. – Father Daniel Byrne
Though probably best known for his novels which feature brothers Gustav “Old Red” and Otto “Big Red” Amlingmeyer, cowboys turned detectives in late 1890′s America, author Steve Hockensmith started out writing short fiction. He’s damn good at it too, as evidenced by the fact he’s had scores of stories published over the years in numerous anthologies and mystery magazines, including showing up regularly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
