19th century

Delivering Virtue

Delivering Virtue
Title: Delivering Virtue
ASIN: B01528UA9A
Published: November 7, 2015
Author's Twitter: @briankindall
Poetic rogue Didier Rain is hired by The Church of the Restructured Truth to deliver a baby – Virtue – to be the bride of the Prophet Nehi at his church’s new settlement in the wilderness territories. A picaresque novel set in the American frontier of 1854. “It’s 1854 in the American West and Didier Rain – rogue, poet, and would-be entrepreneur – is hired by an upstart church to deliver a child bride to the sect’s prophet across a frontier fraught with perils.” Delivering Virtue is a picaresque novel set in the American frontier of 1854. A poetic rogue by the name of Didier Rain is hired by The Church of the Restructured Truth to fulfill a prophecy. He is to deliver a baby – Virtue – to be the bride of the Prophet Nehi at his church’s new settlement in the wilderness territories. The story is an account of the trials Rain endures on this journey, attempting to adhere to the contract he signed prescribing his sacrosanct behavior throughout, while wrestling with his more base animal inclinations. As he walks this precarious line between the sacred and the profane, Virtue remains Didier Rain’s guiding miracle, showing him the true meaning of salvation by journey’s end.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Death of a Serpent

Death of a Serpent
Title: Death of a Serpent
Published: May 28, 2012
When the police do nothing to solve the murders of three prostitutes knifed to death in 1866 Sicily, Serafina Florio, a struggling widow with seven children, unmasks the killer, but not before uncovering burdensome truths of her own.  It is six years after Unification and Sicily is in chaos. Bandits rule the hills. Waves of cholera kill thousands. The Mafia begins its vicious reign of organized terror, raping a population squeezed by conscription, crippling taxes, and corrupt officials. At a high-class house near Palermo, three prostitutes have been knifed to death, their foreheads slashed with a strange mark, their bodies dumped on the madam's doorstep. When the chief inspector does nothing to solve the case, the madam summons her lifelong friend, Serafina, and asks her to catch the killer. Serafina is a midwife, but she decides she must help. She plunges into the investigation, gathering evidence, following leads. She meets with relatives and friends of the deceased and discovers a thread common to all three victims. After a fourth victim is strangled, Serafina's hopes for a quick resolution are dashed. Her emotional low is short-lived, however. In a defiant meeting with the Mafia don, she makes an important discovery. Convinced of the murderer's identity, she conceives a daring plan and, with the help of her daughter, corners the killer, a wild one bent on revenge. But will she have the strength to save herself and her loved ones?

Assessed for