Justice, Or Something Like It

 

A private eye with a badge, a bottle, and a little bit of magic…

Justice, Or Something Like It

The Jake Bishop Files Book 2

by Doc Blalock

Genre: Noir Paranormal Sleuth Suspense

In Solomon City, everybody keeps secrets. Secrets are Jake Bishop’s job.

When a harmless old drunk is caught standing over a corpse, murder weapon in hand, the case looks open and shut—but he won’t say why he pulled the trigger. Just that it had to be done.

Bishop knows better. Digging deeper, he uncovers a blackmail scheme, a shadow war in the Irish underworld, and a threat aimed at the one person his old friend has left to lose—forcing Bishop to bend the law, and his own conscience, to see something like justice done.

 

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“Secrets. Everyone has them. Some folks keep them for good and noble reasons, others, not so much. All kinds of secrets. Personal, professional, valuable, harmful or embarrassing. People will go to extremes to keep them safe. Some folks have been willing to die for them. Some will kill to protect them. I’m Jake Bishop, private investigator. Secrets are my job.”

 

A Damned Dirty Thing

The Jake Bishop Files Book 1

The explosion should have killed him . . .

Jake Bishop is back on the streets of Solomon City, ten months after a mob bombing destroyed his office and murdered his partner and secretary. But Bishop isn’t just any private detective—he’s a “ditch wizard” able to step through shadow and bend reality to his will.

When the beautiful and mysterious Portia Vance answers his ad for a new secretary, Bishop thinks his luck might finally be changing. Together, they begin hunting Vito Morelli, the mob boss who ordered the hit that nearly ended Bishop’s life.

Their investigation leads them through the city’s darkest corners—from strip clubs to shadow banking operations, from corrupt cops to magical wards. But in a world where bullets and spells are equally deadly, and where everyone has secrets worth killing for, Bishop discovers that the line between hunter and hunted is thinner than he thought.

Some cases require a gun. Others need magic. This one demands both.

In the shadows of Solomon City, justice comes with a price—and revenge wears a beautiful face.

A gritty noir fantasy that proves sometimes the most dangerous magic is the human heart.

 

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Christopher “Doc” Blalock is a US Navy veteran Corpsman and retired counselor. He is a prolific fine artist, illustrator, musician, sculptor and writer, cursed with the itch to create. He draws inspiration from sources ranging from JRR Tolkien to Tom Clancy. He additionally draws from his love of classic black-and-white noir films, infusing their moody aesthetic and storytelling into his writing. A helpless coffee addict, he lives in the Atlanta suburbs with his childhood sweetheart and a dog of dubious moral character.

 

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Red Wine Lover

Title: Red Wine Lover

A Small Town Romance Perfect

for Lovers of Growly Guys and Kissing K9s

Series: Tales from the Chocolate Lab Café #2

Author: Kristin Jeffries

Genre: Small Town Romantic Comedy

Tropes: Golden Retriever/Black Cat, Love at First Sight

Found Family, OTT Protective MMC, Meddling Fur Babies

He Falls First, Forced Proximity, Later in Life Love

Release Date: August 21, 2026

BLURB

Their dogs tricked them into one bed, but will their secrets kick them out?

Lauren escaped to Dogwood to start over, taking her Papillon dog, Baby, and her secrets with her. Running from her toxic ex and those who said she was too poor, too weak, too good-girl to make it at her age.

She’s ready to stand on her own two feet—well, her own two red, high heel, De Luxe Chucks. And she found the perfect place to launch her dream French bakery just down the street from her bestie’s café.

Unexpected distraction…or attraction? A certain tatted, black-bearded, sooty-eyed Frenchman, whose dimples don’t quite make up for his over-the-top watchful ways.

Wine seller Jean-Luc was struck by a coup de foudre—thunderbolt of love—the stormy night they met. He promised to return to his family wine estate, yet he can’t get the stunning and sassy Lauren out of his head.

Sure, Lauren parked Jean-Luc in the friendzone—she needs friends more than flings right now. But why is the recovering bad boy so hot to protect her at any cost? And why does he hide from thunderstorms just like his rescue Bernese Mountain Dog, Cabernet?

When instant BFFs, Baby and Cab, force the couple into sharing one bed, the stakes just get higher. Will they unleash their deepest desires? Or will they fall prey to their regrets and run from forever love?

Can Lauren and Jean-Luc trust each other with their hearts…and ALL their secrets?

Red Wine Lover is a swoony, spicy romcom featuring a belly-button-baring wine tasting, matchmaking fur babies, meddling found family, and all the rich, full-bodied feels.

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AUTHOR BIO

Kristin Jeffries writes about her favorite escapes—romcoms and dogs—from her home in Portland, Oregon. After years in health care marketing, she decided to prescribe a dose of healthy escape from daily stress for romance readers like her. Kristin draws her inspiration from her family’s past Chocolate Lab Café in a small Midwest town. Plus, she’s married to the original red hot roaster who advises her on all things coffee. And she injects her affection for a long line of smouchy pups, including an IRL Pirate, into her tales.

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Dark Ugly Places

Some wounds don’t heal. They take over.

A Beverly Hills psychological thriller about grief, female rage, fractured identity, and revenge.

Dark Ugly Places

by Ashley Mansour

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Domestic Suspense

Some wounds don’t heal. They fester. They whisper. They take over.

In Dark Ugly Places, trauma isn’t something you survive — it’s something that survives you.

Thirty-four-year-old Nicola Holiday loses everything in a hit-and-run: her husband dead, her body broken, her fourteen-year-old daughter Emmy forever changed. With no one held accountable, she spirals into grief, panic attacks, and financial ruin — awakening a hereditary darkness she’s spent her life trying to outrun.

That darkness has a voice now. Her name is Martha, and she aches for revenge.

As Nicola’s grip on reality loosens, Martha slips into another life — one of wealth, glamour, and moral rot. When she crosses paths with the wife of a famous actor, Nicola’s suspicions ignite.

Pulled between vengeance and annihilation, Nicola and Martha collide with a woman whose secrets may be the key to everything — or the thing that destroys them both.

Dark, provocative, and deeply unsettling — a haunting psychological portrait of female rage, obsession, and the terrifying lengths the mind will go to survive unbearable pain.

Because sometimes the most dangerous place isn’t the past. It’s inside your own head.

 

“A suspenseful and relentless tale of troubled Californians.”

– Kirkus Reviews

 

“A tense, viciously readable psychological thriller about the violence that lurks beneath polished surfaces.”

 – BookLife Reviews

 

“With fast-paced thrills and gripping psychological drama, Ashley Mansour’s Dark Ugly Places serves up vengeance for morally complex characters.” - Indiereader

 

**Releases September 15 – PreOrder Now!**

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PROLOGUE

No one likes to be kept in the dark.

In the dark, everything is murky, even the Los Angeles sky.

But the day of Nicola’s accident, I had a pretty clear view of things. It tends to be that way—clear—when Nicola isn’t.

Nicola, Ben, and their daughter, Emmy, were walking holding hands, something the three of them hadn’t done since Emmy was a little kid. I felt the itch in Nicola’s palm, like she didn’t want to hold hands. But Emmy insisted. She was between them, arms outstretched, making that little humming sound she sometimes made when she was nervous or lost in thought. Ben walked on slightly ahead, his head down, eyes focused on the phone in his hand. I could almost hear his teeth grinding.

Up ahead, the road was clear. The sun covered everything in butter-yellow light. Crows perched in the bare-barked trees and made long, scratchy cries like a group of smokers laughing. They rustled leaves and crossed the pavement before them. But the trees were still, like the air had been sucked out of the city. Up ahead, the road was clear.

The three of them approached the corner, Emmy and Nicola chatting aimlessly. Ben narrowed his eyes and squinted at the screen as if the sky was too bright. He stepped out into the road first. Emmy, next. She skipped slightly—braids flying—and pulled her mom’s arm.

Nicola looked up and saw one of the crows overhead, its beak open, making a dreadful sound. When she looked back at the road, her gut pinged with a horrible dread she couldn’t place.

Then she—we—saw it.

From the middle distance, something large and hurtled into view, its body glinting in the sun. Emmy screamed. Nicola tried to pull her back, but one by one, her fingers slipped out of her grasp.

It was too late.

Nicola’s body collided with the big, thing, and in the next moment, she was airborne, tumbling through the air as if she had been taken by a tornado. Her thoughts spiraled with her, spinning out of control.

I’m going to die.

I’m going to live.

Don’t let me die.

I’m going to die.

She kept spiraling, around and around, until I stopped her with a simple suggestion: Breathe, Nicola. Breathe. We have this power, those of us who live in the darkness.

The asphalt grated her spine. It must have hurt, but Nicola did not cry. Perhaps because the air was too full of Emmy’s screams.

She rolled to her left, her left arm pinned against her chest like a piece of limp fabric. Her left leg lay stretched out before her perfectly straight, but dead. Cold. Frozen in place. She rolled to her side and saw Emmy, blood coating half of her face as though she were wearing a mask. Five feet away, Ben lay in the road unmoving, his body contorted, his face turned away.

Overhead, the stretch of blue sky angled down Beverly Boulevard and went on forever. Cars passed, some honking, others slowing to stop and help or to get a better look. Nicola grunted and heaved herself along the ground, her jaw gritting with pain. She reached for Emmy, reached for Ben.

The body of the car stirred. A door opened. A black polished shoe emerged onto the asphalt as the driver leaned out, then disappeared again as the door shut. I heard the engine as the car started and rolled backwards, slow at first, then picking up speed until it was gone.

 

Ashley Mansour writes dark, cinematic psychological suspense and domestic suspense about dangerous relationships, buried truths, and the chaos waiting beneath the surface of ordinary lives.

 

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Main Event

Title: Main Event

Series: No Safe Corner #3

Author: A.D. Justice

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Tropes: Protective Alpha Boxer, Fearless Heroine

Buried Past, Corrupt Power, Slow Burn

Release Date: August 20, 2026

BLURB

The only thing more dangerous than a hidden enemy… is one who steps into the light. She knows the name now.

When the architect of everything finally walked through Andi’s door wearing the face of a solution, Andi smiled and offered coffee.

Now the machine is cornered. Cornered machines don't retreat. They escalate."

The rules have changed. Witnesses disappear. People close to them are targeted — not as warnings, but as eliminations. The threat no longer stays hidden. It reaches into the places they once believed were safe. The gym. The house. The refuge Andi built for kids who had nowhere else to go.

She’s been afraid before. She knows how to do afraid.

But the truth buried in Andi's past will change the fight entirely — because it didn't start where she thought it did.

Luke Woods has one fight left before the title.

Andi Morgan has one chance to burn the machine down.

Survival isn't the goal. It's the bait.

Finish it.

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AUTHOR BIO

A.D. Justice is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of several series and stand-alone romance novels in various romance genres, including romantic suspense, contemporary, and paranormal.

When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her alpha male husband in the Northwest Georgia mountains. They’re living out their own HEA, frequently on horseback with a dog in tow.

She is also an avid reader of romance novels, a master of procrastination, a chocolate sommelier, a twister of words, and speaks fluent sarcasm. An avid animal lover, she has two horses, three cats, and two very spoiled dogs.

She loves chatting with her readers. You’re welcome to stalk her across all social media!

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Review: Smitty: Satan's Fury MC- Little Rock

Smitty: Satan's Fury MC- Little Rock by L. Wilder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Holes in the Somewhere

 

Sometimes grief sneaks up on you and hunts you down.

Sometimes it walks right up and punches you.

Holes in the Somewhere 

by Richard R. Brown

Genre: Speculative Fiction, Horror Stories

Holes In The Somewhere is a collection of short works, anchored by a personal memoir of the author's own experience with grief and loss after the passing of his father from cancer, by speculative fiction author Richard R. Brown.

A single mother encounters insanity in the worst possible person; an estranged parent loses his reunited family to a mysterious bathroom wall; a group of strangers come together to fight a fungal pandemic; college students prepare for the extinction of the Sun... these are a few of the challenges faced by the desperate characters in Holes In The Somewhere. The choices they make, the dilemmas they wrestle with, all have very supernatural consequences, but are felt with very human emotions.

These stories will tug at strings your heart thought were too well-hidden for anyone to know about, and cause the mind to probe the gray areas between wrong and right. Between normal and paranormal. Behind what's real and only to the side of what's unreal. A perfect mix of quick, unsettling reads, and longer, heart-wrenching escapes.

 

What readers are saying:

"The debut is speculative fiction in form: weird, unsettling, occasionally cosmic. But it reads less like a genre exercise than like grief that has been given permission to take unusual shapes." - Justine Castellon, Author/Reviewer

"I guarantee there is a 'gotcha' story in there for just about anybody, and if you don't find at least one that bothers you just as you're about to fall asleep, you're made of sterner stuff than I am." - Kenneth Crist, editor-in-chief, Black Petals Magazine

“These stories are weird and creepy and heart-wrenching in all the best ways. If you enjoy fiction that makes you question everything and wrecks you emotionally, this is for you!” – Valerie S., 5 star Amazon Review

 

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Excerpt from ‘Death’s Demons’, a story in ‘Holes In The Somewhere’

 

The darkened sky descended into the depths of a dismal dusk, and Jason and Abby returned to the church. The priest met them at the looming front door and offered his aging hand in greeting.

“I look forward to hearing your story again, Jason. I am Father Gregory. I see you have brought a friend. Excellent. Miss?” The tall, slender man turned to Abby.

At the utterance of his name, Abby turned white, despite her tan. When he offered his hand to shake, she reciprocated like a zombie in that old music video. She couldn’t manage to vocalize an answer to him, though. She winced and visibly recoiled when the man brought her hand to his lips and kissed the backs of her fingers.

“This is my best friend, Abby. She’s pleased to meet you,” Jason said, curious at Abby’s unexpected frigidity.

The priest smiled at Abby, then produced an oversized key ring from his coat pocket. He found a very large iron key and used it to unlock the gargantuan portal into the church.

“Please, follow me to my office,” he said, and led them toward the altar. He climbed the three small steps to the altar and turned left, heading for a door much like the door to the confessional. As Jason and Abby approached the altar, Abby clutched Jason’s arm and clung to him. Jason turned his head to ask if she was all right, but was cut off by Father Gregory.  “Please, make yourselves comfortable,” he said.

Abby chose a chair in the corner, leaving the chairs in the middle of the room open for Jason and Father Gregory. As Jason sat down, he heard Abby scoot her chair next to his and felt her hand slide under his and grasp it tightly.

The priest closed the office door and sat in the unoccupied chair. “Would either of you care for a glass of water?” he asked.‘Either’ came out as ‘eye-thur’, and Jason imagined that snakes would pronounce it in the same way if they spoke English.

They both shook their heads in refusal, and Father Gregory sat back in his chair and crossed his legs. “All right, then,” he said, and looked at Jason with an expectant smile curving his thin lips.

Jason squirmed under the priest’s gaze and started the discussion. “Well, I told you about my seeing Death…” he began.

“Yes. Please recount your experiences for me,” Father Gregory prodded.

  

Richard R. Brown is a legally-blind author of speculative fiction, horror, and thrillers. He writes from experience, having lived through paranormal events, alien attacks, and cosmic horrors -- at least, in his mind and in the books he listens to. He and his Guide Dog live in the Pacific Northwest. Richard is between Guide Dogs at the moment as Edison retired last summer. Edison was at Richard's side through every story in his book. Richard has no such guidance for his current novel, but will likely have one for editing help.

 

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