The Collegium Conspiracy

A U.S. congressman is found savagely murdered—his body bound to a navigational buoy just off the rocky coast of a quiet Maine town. The message is chilling. The motive? Unknown.

In response, the President assembles a covert task force led by former FBI agent Nick Taglio and his life partner, ex-CIA officer Francesca “Frankie” Paterson. Having walked away from high-stakes intelligence work for a quieter life in Boston, Nick and Frankie are pulled back into the shadows by a crime too dangerous to ignore.

What begins as a murder investigation soon unravels into a global conspiracy. The clues point to Collegium—a modern-day criminal syndicate modeled after an ancient Roman cabal. Their objective: hijack control of the global cryptocurrency market and destabilize the U.S. dollar, threatening the entire world economy.

Armed with cutting-edge AI and off-the-books tactics, Nick and Frankie race against time on a high-stakes mission from coastal Maine to Boston, New York, London, and Washington—until the trail leads them to the unlikeliest of doorsteps: a rival superpower.

Fast-paced and fiercely intelligent, The Collegium Conspiracy is a gripping thriller that fuses history, technology, and political intrigue into a chillingly plausible global threat.

The Man Called Death

“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” (Revelations 6:8, KJV).

Matthew Lloyd Garrison returns in the much-anticipated second instalment of the Legend of the Pale Rider trilogy. Leaving death and destruction in his wake, Garrison flees south, deeper into Texas. Hot on his trail is the one man who may be able to match him: his brother, Joshua Wayne Garrison.

Garrison presses on, determined to outrun his brother and leave his past behind him. But Joshua won’t give up and the past won’t die. Matthew’s headlong flight is soon interrupted as he finds himself embroiled in a bitter land dispute between the greedy Bryce Tillman and the beautiful Abigail Williams. Despite his best intentions, Garrison finds himself falling for this woman, from whom he hides a dark secret. Tragedy looms and before all is said and done, Garrison will be one step closer to becoming a legend: The Man Called Death.

Farewell to Ordinary

Say goodbye to Ordinary in John Gentry’s second volume of the ‘X-Legged Table’ series. Too bad if you missed Victims and Perpetrators. What is ordinary? Well, ordinarily it’s, well… on the wall, instead of off.

What could rouse your interest less than something titled, ‘Minutes of the Meeting’? Pretty ordinary, huh? It depends on the meeting, don’t you think? Or (in “Quick Change”), Man of Steel not quite ready for action! What? And one more, farewell-to-ordinary caper: “Intimate Moments,” extra-ordinary for the porno geeks. Read on.

The Web

If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent a night with a mosquito.

Mr Solomon had once heard this proverb, but to truly understand it, he had to hear something else: her buzzing.

The relentless sound of a mosquito's wings that mercilessly filled his nights.

Night after night, buzz after buzz, he found himself caught in an unusual battle. Forced to stay awake, he spent his nights chasing the unbearable, high-pitched whistles in the darkness.

She was determined to suck his blood. He refused to surrender.

She did not give up. He did not yield.

Until one night…

Shoes to Kill

Shoes to Kill is about the case of a media mogul found murdered at the home of one of the nation’s leading college basketball coaches during a nationally televised game. It plays on the State’s and South’s obsession with college sports, particularly basketball and football.The protagonist, Detective Hatchell Breeze, seeking retribution for a previously botched and forgotten case involving the university football team, enthusiastically takes on the investigation and an inevitable confrontation with the powerful players of the state university once again.This leads him to prostitution, illegal drugs, errant boosters, big business, university stonewalling, and the prominent men and women of college sports. As he tries to connect the two cases, he is reminded of his own bitter history with the university, forever embedded in his mind as his own life spins out of control.

Playlists

Music is something that, especially today, forms the background of our lives. We hear it daily. We feel it weaving the tapestry that we live our lives upon. In this collection of poetry and prose, author E. P. Jordan explores how the music she listened to in certain years of her life impacted the art that she created. As you read this collection, you will go on multiple journeys with the author, and will be invited yourself to examine your life through the lens of the music that has been with you along the way.

My Roots, My Self

Clutching a childhood photo to her heart, Jenny asks, ‘Who is the real me?’ before setting off to find the parents who abandoned her. Centuries earlier, Macuya channels the courageous spirit of his father to survive being kidnapped into a hostile world.

Thus begins My Roots, My Self, a gripping historical novel intertwining two epic journeys from 1975 Minnesota to the blood-soaked origins of the Italian Mafia and Spanish Inquisition. A fresh and engaging story about a dual search for self-identity: one character searching back to remove the stains of her crime family, the other striving ahead to forge a family legacy in a racist society.

Jenny’s search starts in Boston, where the FBI detains her after an ill-fated meeting with members of the Anguilo crime family, people of her blood. Threatened but determined, she heads to Sicily and meets a mercurial genealogist who unlocks the secrets of her lineage and her path to freedom.

Macuya, a native of the West Indies, is torn from home and family by Columbus and taken to Spain, where Queen Isabella adopts him as a mascot. Later freed with a baron’s title, he secretly marries Beka, the Jewish love of his life. Together, they move from country to country to escape being burned at the stake.

With six centuries of separation, the reader is plucked from the now and wrenched into the mysteries of the past as both characters struggle forward to find the freedom to honor their true selves.

My Roots, My Self will appeal to fans who were enthralled with the search for faith and home in Scherman’s The Mapmaker’s Daughter, who cherished the journey of self-discovery in Shapiro’s Inheritance and loved the historical intrigue of Cornick’s The Winter Garden.

“I received an advance copy of My Roots, My Self and wow what an emotional ride. Jenny’s struggle to understand where she came from hit me hard; it made me think about my own family stories and what’s been passed down to me. I loved how the book shifted between her story and Macuya’s in 1492. At first, I didn’t see how the two connected, but by the end, it all came together beautifully. This is one of those books that stays with you long after you close it.”

– Abraham Alejandro, Member, Oprah’s Book Club.

“I was lucky enough to get a copy of My Roots, My Self, and I have to say, it’s one of the most unique family sagas I’ve read. I loved the cultural details, the Slovenian pastries, the Taino rituals, the Boston immigrant neighborhoods; they made the story feel alive. Jenny was such a relatable character: restless, a little lost, but determined. And Macuya’s chapters absolutely broke my heart. If you enjoy books about family secrets, ancestry, and identity, this is a must-read.”

– Betty Burgess, What’s the Name of the Book? Book Club.

Barb Wire Bible

Morgan Maguire ranched with her family along the highline between Montana and Canada. She worked with her father providing guide services for hunters and also assisted the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue as a tracker to apprehend criminals and return the lost to their loved ones. This cowgirl spent many years learning to cope with the Irish legacy of ‘second sight’ with the help of her mentor Charlie Many Dreams, a Blackfeet medicine man. Her peaceful world was torn apart when the drug dealer she was tracking shot her longtime friend, who was riding for the Blackfeet Tribal Police. Swearing to find this killer, her quest brings her into the steel and cement canyons of New York to obtain justice. A place as alien as the moon to her.

The Search for Julia Garcia

A college student vanishes. Julia Garcia was last seen at a lakeside cottage on Seneca Lake, where she spent a weekend with friends. The routine police search comes up empty. Desperate, her parents turn to Frank Harris, a New York private detective, who takes the case, even though he doubts he’ll break even.

Harris suspects the police didn’t dig deep enough. But his decision to help isn’t purely professional. Having grown up in the Finger Lakes region, the case draws him back to his family. Yet both the search for Julia and his homecoming prove far more complicated than he anticipated.

As Frank follows Julia’s trail, he faces resistance from potential witnesses, including her new boyfriend and his wealthy family. It takes Frank time to grasp the background of Julia’s disappearance, namely the violent struggle between competing drug cartels. Was Julia abducted by gang members? Is she still alive?

Meanwhile, Frank’s return to his family gets him involved in the marital problems of his older sister for which he is unprepared.

Red Wolf and the Summer Flower

A thousand years ago, two Cherokee teenagers were forced to endure hardship, danger, peril, natural and unnatural disasters, and scorn for simply being teenagers.

They lived in an unforgiving world run by a harsh and dictatorial society but still managed to find meaning in their lives. They found that a good friendship provides strength, and loyalty to one’s friend ensures survival. Then, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, they learned that they had what it takes to be an adult.

This is a story about one short summertime in the lives of a boy called Red Wolf and a girl named Summer Flower.

The Scent of Wisteria in the Springtime

The fifteen stories contained in this collection are all individual. None of them are about the same characters or locations. Although they do share commonality: they are all based upon Southern personalities in various Southern locations. There is a slight bend towards autobiographical experiences in some of these stories. I’ll let the readers try to identify those particular stories themselves!The author’s attempt in writing these stories is to illustrate the frailties, the strength, and the inherent goodness of the human species. To show that all of us are endowed with the capacity to love, to hate, to daydream, and perhaps, to make our dreams come true.The story: Big Game Hunter is about a twelve-year-old boy in rural Mississippi who fantasizes of being a professional hunter in Africa. I know something of that dream and managed to actually participate in eleven safaris in six African countries. I lived my dream!The story, Requiem For A Romance That Could Never Be, is about the dark times in the South. The period that we all want to forget, that we wish had never happened. It’s about a sweet, biracial romance between teenagers when the South was segregated.Lost At The Falling Waters details a young woman’s quest to find her father… a young Southern American soldier. Her teenage parents were separated in Vietnam when that country literally fell apart. Her dream was beautifully realized!Aunt Sabbath Muggy and the Irreversible Hoodoo is a story about a Black-magic woman in coastal Georgia. Aunt Sabby brings two lovers together, inadvertently but very successfully!Cry Me A River is a story set in New Orleans. A young romance fell apart, but they reunited in very different circumstances many years later. One of the greatest inherent attributes as human beings is forgiveness; it’s warmly illustrated in this somewhat-tragic story.Whom Shall I Choose is about a young man named Jesse James Cuevas. He lived a hard life growing up, some of it in reform school and foster care. But when avaricious people tried to manipulate him, Jesse’s true character came through.In addition to these six stories, illustrated above, there are nine more of them. I had a lot of fun writing them…. I hope that you enjoy reading them.Jerry EdwardsSomewhere in the hills, north of Atlanta

Kabaslot

Life for Allison Johnson, a young girl growing up in the heart of a thriving independent capital city, was good. Part of a well-to-do Krio family, she and her siblings had enjoyed the best of everything, and Allison was quick to share her life with their new adoptive sister, an orphan from the provinces.

Just as she starts to discover love with an unlikely suitor, tragedy strikes. The Republic is in crisis. As events spiral out of control, Allison’s life as she knows it is turned upside down. On the other side of a vicious civil war, she must give up everything she has known as home, to seek safety in the United States.

Navigating the turn of events and her new life as an immigrant, she finds strength and resilience she had only heard about in the stories of her ancestors.

She immerses herself in a quest for spiritual restoration until a sudden shift puts her at the center of a plot to bring the decayed Republic back from the brink. She’s intrigued by the opportunity but must contend with ghosts from a dark past.