INTRODUCTION:

The Last Adam by Ron Echols presents a story where faith, danger, and responsibility begin to collide. As pressure builds, the narrative traces how unseen forces influence decisions and place ordinary people at the center of extraordinary consequences.

Across locations stretching from urban streets to ancient contested ground, a hidden war begins to surface. Mary Levitt’s pregnancy becomes the catalyst for escalating threats, violent encounters, and visions that signal her child’s role in a prophecy long feared.

Joseph Riesman’s involvement in a major development project draws him into political maneuvering and ancient forces operating beneath visible power structures. What appears practical soon becomes spiritual confrontation.

The sacrifice of the archangel Raphael reveals the depth of the conflict now in motion—angels, fallen angels, and human agents maneuver to control or destroy what Mary’s child represents. Watched and hunted at every turn, Mary and Joseph face betrayal and spiritual warfare as they struggle to protect a life destined to alter the course of humanity.

EXCERPT:

Prologue

Location: The Lunar Surface, Tranquility Base, southwestern corner of the Sea of Tranquility.

The moon hung motionless, like a dead thing in the void of space. Its pockmarked exterior reflecting the sun’s merciless glare and millennia of asteroids pummeling its surface. In that airless waste where humans had once taken a small step, the lunar dust lay since undisturbed, marked only by boot prints and machinery left behind. Piercing through the silence of the void, a voice called out. 

“Raphael!”

A brilliant white light erupted into existence, hovering above the moon’s surface like a tear in the fabric of space itself. The light intensified until it seemed to bend space around it, taking form. A figure of a man emerged. Behind him, the first suggestion of wings. Translucent, but appearing stronger than steel, they folded against his armor etched with ancient angelic symbols that seemed to move when viewed directly. Dark hair, wild and untamed accentuated his sapphire eyes and caressed his polished, glass-like skin.

The being that called itself Gabriel stood motionless on the lunar surface, its feet leaving no prints in the ancient dust. The face that poets had tried and failed to capture for millennia turned slowly, searching.

“Raphael?”

The name rippled out without sound, more like a thought given form in the vacuum. Gabriel’s wings stirred restlessly, creating eddies in the dust that danced like spirits in the harsh light.

“Here, Gabriel,” reverberated a voice, bright but commanding, from the shadowed surface. Another angel sat casually reclined within the lunar rover, abandoned by the humans who briefly touched the face of Heaven before retreating to their warm blue marble decades ago. His eyes were fixated upon the Earth, suspended in the cosmic darkness. Raphael mirrored Gabriel, but adorned in silver armor with fiery ginger hair framing his serene face.

“I’ve been searching for you,” Gabriel said, moving closer. In the moon’s one-sixth gravity, each step seemed to take too long, as if time itself was stretching.

“Observing,” Raphael replied simply, still watching Earth.

“Observing…anyone in particular?” Gabriel asked, also redirecting his gaze toward Earth. From this distance, cities glowed like constellations, tiny lights poking through the darkness that surrounded them.

Maintaining his stare, Raphael revealed what he had been witnessing, his voice heavy from countless years of disappointment. “There in Houston, a man, after a night of heavy drinking, returned home to engage in an argument with his wife, he killed her in a drunken fit of jealousy. Across the sea in Madrid, Spain, a young prostitute on the cusp of adulthood prepares to inject herself with an HIV-contaminated needle provided by a friend. There, in Manila, a corrupt politician embezzles funds meant for the poor, channeling them to fuel his business ventures. Wherever I look, human virtue becomes more scarce.”

Raphael shifted his gaze to Gabriel, his glowing eyes piercing the darkness. “Who is worthy down there? Even among ourselves, evil found a way to take root. We cast him down to Earth, and he has only brought misery and death upon everyone there. Since the dawn of humanity, the stain of evil has tainted them all. They have no hope.”

Gabriel hung his head in solemn contemplation of Raphael’s declaration. They both knew who “he” was. Neither needed to speak the name that had once been brightest among them.

“You have manifested yourself on the human plane of reality. What if you’re spotted?” Gabriel snapped, briefly changing the subject.

A small chuckle escaped Raphael’s lips. “I am on the MOON, Gabriel, not Times Square New York. Besides, you’re doing it too. Did you even hear anything I said?”

“We do not materialize on this plane without purpose,” Gabriel scolded. “And yes, I heard you. I came to you because I have news.”

“What news?” Raphael asked.

“Your complaining is timely for once,” Gabriel chided. 

He stepped closer to the rover, standing beside Raphael. “You are correct; there is no one on Earth capable of saving them. However, he has devised a plan.”

Raphael peered up at Gabriel, rising from his reclined posture. “What plan?”

Gabriel leaned in, his voice whispering the secret. “He will go directly to them. He will send a part of himself to help them.”

“So, the time for final battle has come? He will lead us against the adversary?” Raphael asked, energy crackling around his form at the thought.

“No, this is not Armageddon,” Gabriel corrected. “This is the beginning. He will walk the Earth himself, using his own words, his truth, will be carried directly to them.”

Gabriel’s eyes widened. “That’s too much. They will panic at the sight,” he warned.

“As usual, you are not understanding. He will be born there.” Gabriel explained.

“What? Why?” Raphael’s bewilderment unusual for someone who existed since the earth was formed. “Become a human child? What could that possibly accomplish?”

Amused by the confusion etched on Raphael’s face, Gabriel continued, “He will birth himself into their world, experience their joys and their sorrows, breathe their air, and shed human tears. He will BE human. He says only then can he deliver what is necessary for their redemption. It is a necessary madness.”

“Incredible,” Raphael murmured, the word carrying both wonder and doubt. His gaze returned to Earth, that fragile sphere that held such consequence in the cosmic order. Resting his foot upon the rover’s steering wheel, he reclined once more, assuming his former pose, his mind wrestling with what he had just heard.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ron Echols is an ordained minister of the Gospel, an award-winning business executive, and a four-time Telly Award–winning producer. With The Last Adam: Resurrection Day, he makes his debut as a novelist, bringing a cinematic sensibility and spiritual depth to contemporary Christian fiction. A storyteller at heart, Echols blends suspense, gritty realism, and biblical prophecy to create modern retellings that explore enduring themes of faith, power, sacrifice, and redemption. Drawing from his background in ministry, media, and leadership, his writing places ancient truths into present-day settings where spiritual warfare unfolds alongside deeply human struggles. He lives in Texas, where he balances business ownership, community service, family, and writing stories designed to engage the imagination while stirring the soul. Visit Ron at his website and on TikTok.

Amazon: http://bit.ly/49ZY4lQ

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/244392186-the-last-adam

GUEST POST:

I love supernatural stories.

Angels. Demons. Prophecy. Chosen ones.

But most stories treat divine intervention like clarity. I wanted to treat it like a problem.

Because if something undeniably supernatural appeared today, on camera, in real time, it wouldn’t unite people. It would fracture them. Belief wouldn’t simplify anything. It would raise the stakes.

That’s why I wrote my story as a thriller first.

Fast chapters.

Escalating consequences.

Characters forced to act before they understand what they’re dealing with.

I wanted it to read like a movie in your head. The kind where you tell yourself, one more chapter, and suddenly it’s way too late. Where the supernatural isn’t there to comfort you, it’s there to push the story forward and keep you unsettled.

Readers are smart. You don’t want sermons. You want tension. You want vibes. You want stakes that feel personal.

So this isn’t a book that tries to explain God’s plan.

It’s a book that asks:

What would it cost if God actually showed up again?

And then it lets the story run with the consequences.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

What sets your book apart from others in your genre?

The Last Adam doesn’t treat faith as an abstract.  It treats it as a lived, psychological struggle. Most supernatural thrillers either lean heavily into spectacle or into theology. This story lives in the tension between doubt and belief, power and responsibility, heaven and human consequence. The divine is present but never comfortable. Angels don’t arrive to reassure; they arrive to disrupt. The story asks what faith costs when it stops being symbolic and becomes real.

What’s your favorite compliment you’ve received as a writer?

A reader told me they forgot they were reading a faith-adjacent story and just tore through it as a thriller. They said, “I came for the supernatural angle and stayed because I couldn’t stop turning pages.” That’s exactly what I hoped for.

Why did you choose this setting/topic?

I wanted to place an ancient, world-altering story inside a modern America. We live in a time of deep skepticism, fractured authority, and spiritual exhaustion. That felt like the most honest place to ask what would actually happen if something undeniably divine showed up again, not in a church, but in a society that doesn’t believe in that anymore.

Which author(s) most inspired you?

Frank Peretti for showing me that faith-based stories could carry real tension and darkness. C.S. Lewis for his moral clarity and spiritual imagination. And Stephen King for his understanding of fear, character, and how the supernatural feels when it collides with ordinary lives.

Which 3 books would you bring to a desert island?

The Bible, because it’s not just one book, it’s an entire library, and I’d never stop finding something new in it. The Count of Monte Cristo, because if I’m stranded, I want a story I can live inside for a long time. And a desert survival manual, because faith and literature are important, but I’d still like to get off the island.

INTRODUCTION:

History often reveals itself through personal moments. In America, Mike Bond follows young lives shaped by upheaval as a generation comes of age during a decade that redefined the nation’s future.

Against a backdrop of cultural rebellion and political unrest, four young people search for meaning and direction. Troy, orphaned and newly adopted, finds hope through family and dreams of flight. Tara discovers the power of her voice as she moves toward rock ’n’ roll stardom. Mick, Troy’s brother, balances athletic success with rebellion and growing concern over war. Daisy seeks purpose through equality, service, and the study of the human mind, committing herself to activism and the Peace Corps. Together, their stories capture the victories, losses, and lasting questions left behind by a generation shaped by transformation.

EXCERPT:

FREEDOM

THE BOY STARED through the cyclone fence at the dirt road, golden meadow and forested hills beyond. He listened a moment more to the din of other boys playing in the concrete yard behind him, scrambled up the cyclone fence ripping his shirt on the barbed wire top and dashed across the meadow uphill into the cool shadowed forest.

Minutes later he glanced down from the hilltop at the hostile brick walls and barred windows of the orphanage. A black Ford police car with white doors had stopped at the gate, its yellow roof globe flashing. Two priests and a cop were walking along the road, one priest gesturing at the forest.

He imagined them catching him, hitting him, wished he’d never run away, turned uphill through the dark trees then down a wooded valley to a stream. He knelt in the wet moss, his reflection rising toward him – dirty and skinny, tan hair askew – and drank the icy water tasting of rock and mud. So this is what it’s like to drink from a stream.

He followed the valley for a long time till he saw a dirt road ahead through the trees. A big red car was there. Afraid he’d been seen, he pulled back into the trees. From the car’s open windows came voices, a man and woman. If he moved back up the hill they’d surely see him. He’d be taken back to the Boys’ Home, the Fathers would whup him.

A warm breeze stirred the leaves. His heart hammered, his knees shook with fear and fatigue. Soon the car would leave and he could cross the road.

The woman was moaning. Holding his breath he listened. The man must be hurting her. She cried out; the boy glanced round but there was no one who could help.

Shivering with fear, he worried what to do. If the man killed her and he had done nothing to help, it was a terrible sin. But if he tried to help her he’d get sent back to the Boys’ Home. Standing, he tried to see better. The man was pushing the woman down in the back seat, maybe strangling her.

The boy dashed across the road and banged on the car. “You leave her alone Mister!” he yelled, voice shaking, “I’ll call the cops!”

They were naked from the waist down. “Get him out of here!” the woman screamed. The man threw open the back door shouting, “You little shit!” and slapped the boy hard across the head. The boy tumbled into the ditch and scrambled through brambles uphill. The man wasn’t following but the boy kept running, gasping for wind, legs weak with fear that the man would circle somehow and get him. He ran till he could run no more, stumbled, fell, and ran again.

After a while he stopped and bent over panting, watching behind him. He couldn’t stop shivering but wasn’t cold. He tried to talk to himself and his voice trembled. His head spun, his ears whined. If the man wasn’t killing her what was he doing? Why had she said get him out of here? Why were they naked like that?

Confused and terribly lonely, the boy moved on through the forest, jumping in terror at the crash of an animal running away, a flash of tawny fur. Even the Boys’ Home was better than this.

In late afternoon he came to a big place of empty, run-down tarpaper-covered buildings, some of their windows broken, tall grass spiking up from their concrete yards. He felt hungry and afraid, then angry at himself for feeling it. He snuck along one building and looked in a window hoping for something to eat, but there were only empty concrete floors, yellowed newspapers, rusty cans, torn tarpaper, and a broken toilet lying on its side. He slipped through a half-open door and stepped silently from room to room around broken bottles, boards with nails sticking up and chunks of fallen ceiling.

A window shattered overhead and he ducked into a closet, broken glass in his hair, deafened by his pounding heart, hoping whoever it was hadn’t seen him.

Maybe it was a bird hit that window. Stupid bird.

He tiptoed from the closet toward the door. Another window crashed. He ran stumbling over cans and bottles. Someone was shooting at him. At the door he halted, fearing what to do. Blood ran down his cheek onto his shirt. They were going to kill him.

Steps scuffed outside in the concrete courtyard. A kid. The kid picked up a rock and slung it. Glass shattered and the rock hopped across the floor inside.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mike Bond is the author of nearly a dozen bestselling novels and an ecologist, war and human rights journalist, award-winning poet, and international energy expert. His work spans more than thirty countries across seven continents, often drawn from firsthand experiences in remote, dangerous, and war-torn regions. His novels are praised worldwide for their intricate plots, vivid settings, and explosive pacing. His reporting has covered wars, revolutions, terrorism, and major environmental crises. Learn more at his website.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4qtsBxK

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57580047-america

INTRODUCTION:

Susie Black has written a series that sounds absolutely delightful. Death By Sample Size is Book 1 of the Holly Swimsuit Mystery series. I haven’t read them yet but, I already have this book in my possession and Susie Black was so generous that she also sent me a book for a giveaway! Check the bottom of this post for the details.

SYNOPSIS:

Everyone wanted her dead…but who actually killed her? The last thing swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected was to discover ruthless buying office big wig Bunny Frank’s corpse trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with a bikini stuffed down her throat. When Holly’s colleague is arrested for Bunny’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to find the real killer. Nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she matches wits with a wily murderer hellbent for revenge.

EXCERPT:

Before the first inkling of dawn, I said good morning to the nosy crane I shared my slip with as I hoisted myself over my houseboat’s forward deck. The halyards tinkled a soft sonata on my neighbors’ masts as the leeward wind luffed their sails. Damp fingers of morning fog curled over the dock and gave the briny air a chewy texture as I made my way to the gangplank.    

I entered the parking structure and dropped the top on my sixty-five pink Mustang convertible. I settled into the worn bucket seat and cranked the heater to the blast furnace level. I hit the radio button for the oldies station and jammed the volume loud enough to wake the dead. I crossed Admiralty Way and glugged a fortifying gulp of unleaded commuter mug coffee strong enough to peel two coats of paint off my car.

It’s not like I’m even a morning person. But if you’re from LA, the one thing you can always count on is that you’re gonna be stuck in traffic on the 405 whether you’re driving at three in the morning or three in the afternoon. The reality is either you’re gonna be two hours late or two days early. That’s how it is for us LALA Land commuters. What are ya gonna do? I traversed the Marina Freeway and merged into the heavy traffic already bottlenecked on the northbound 405. I crept along at a turtle’s pace for three miles till I transitioned eastbound onto I-10 and crawled my way downtown.
                                               ****

I finally arrived at the California Apparel Mart minutes before being on the road long enough to become the butt of the old joke. I was a young woman when the day began. My footfalls echoed in the near-empty underground parking garage. I got to the elevator bank and pressed the button. When the elevator doors opened, I had to stop myself short not to step on her. There was Bunny Frank, the buying office bigshot, lying diagonally across the car. Her legs were splayed out, and her back was propped against the corner. Her sightless eyes were wide open, and her arms reached out in a come-to-me baby pose. She was trussed up with shipping tape like a dressed Thanksgiving turkey, ready for the oven with a bikini stuffed in her mouth. A Gotham Swimwear hangtag drooped off her lower lip like a toe tag gone lost. Naturally, I burst out laughing.    

Before you label me incredibly weird or stone-cold, let me say genetics aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. If you’re lucky, you inherit your Aunt Bertha’s sexy long legs or your father’s ability to add a bazillion-dollar order in his head and get the total correct to the last penny. Without even breaking into a sweat, it’s easy to spout at least a million fabulous traits inheritable by the luck of the draw. Did I get those sexy long legs or the ability to add more than two plus two without a calculator? Noooooooooo. Lucky me. I inherited my Nana’s fear of death we overcompensated for it with the nervous habit of laughing. A hysterical reaction? Think Bozo the clown eulogizing your favorite aunt.

I craned my neck like a tortoise and checked around. Then I clamped a fist over my mouth. Cripes, how could I possibly explain my guffaws with Bunny lying there? Disappointment was simultaneously mixed with relief when there was no one else in the parking lot. Where was security when you needed them?

I toed the elevator door open and bent over Bunny. I’d seen enough CSI episodes to know not to touch her. She was stiff as a board, and I attributed the bluish tinge of her skin to the bikini crammed down her throat. I was no doctor, but I didn’t need an MD after my name to make this diagnosis. Bunny Frank was dead as the proverbial doorknob.

This was my first time almost tripping over a corpse, so if there was one, the protocol wasn’t clear. Send Bunny to the lobby? As if. Since the lobby wasn’t an option, I pressed the stop button. Of course, every ten seconds, the darned elevator pinged loudly as though begging me to let it complete its journey.

I was pretty freaked out; there I was, babbling to the body. “I should go for help, but I don’t wanna leave you here alone.” Naturally, Bunny Frank remained mute. She was way beyond giving a crap what I did or didn’t do.

I leaned over and read the name on the hangtag out loud in case she was interested in which brand of bikini she had lodged in her mouth. “Gotham Swimwear, a sample size ten. I’m gonna take a wild guess the style didn’t make it to your retailers, gotta get it on your floor list?” For someone never at a loss for words, Bunny Frank was as mum as a cloistered nun. “With you, the problem is the style was probably a real dog, and it still made the must-buy list.”

My eyes had a mind of their own as they strayed over to Bunny. I’d swear she was staring disdainfully back at me as though, somehow, I’d let her down. As if. Inside my head, Bunny snickered, “Oh, get over yourself.”  And they say God doesn’t have a sense of humor. Ha. I am living proof God has a rather perverted one. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susie Black – Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries. 

She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector and sailor. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect. 

Looking for more? Contact Susie at:

Website: www.authorsusieblack.com

E-mail: mysteries.authorsusieblack@gmail.com

GIVEAWAY:

Susie Black is graciously giving one epub copy of Death By Sample Size. If you would like to sign up for the giveaway of an epub of Death By Sample Size, send an email to me with your email address. I will assign a number to all entries and use a random generator to choose the winner. Good Luck!

INTRODUCTION:

A sense of unease drives Fire Feud by Thomas Roehlk, where professional obligation, family history, and unresolved violence intersect. The story unfolds through methodical revelations rather than sudden answers.

Following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a crime was committed that would ripple quietly through generations. More than a century later, its consequences resurface when a skeleton is uncovered at a modern construction site. Attorney Mandy Doucette is assigned to handle the legal ramifications, only to learn that the remains are linked through DNA to her own company and her boyfriend’s family.
Reggie, Mandy’s twin and an FBI forensic pathologist, traces the forensic evidence back to the long-dormant feud between two powerful families. As the sisters investigate, they uncover layers of fraud, betrayal, and concealed violence. Their pursuit of the truth places them in direct conflict with influential figures who are determined to keep the past hidden—no matter the cost.

QUESTIONS &ANSWERS

What sets your book apart from others in your genre?
I consider my genre as thriller, with the sub-genre of legal thriller. I have much respect for women in the corporate law world, and I believe my work shines a light on this type of character in the crowded world of thrillers.

What’s your favorite compliment you’ve received as a writer?
My favorite was from a review I received on my first book, Red Deuce. It was “Red Deuce shows the author’s behind-the-scenes understanding of how corporations work, making it seem all too credible. The plot keeps you guessing until the very end. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, he throws another curveball that leaves you eagerly flipping pages to uncover the truth.”

Why did you choose this setting/topic?
Choosing Chicago as a setting provides an amazing city with amazing history, and therefore amazing opportunities to build stories. My protagonist is a study in contrasts. She finds herself unable to poke the beast until it reveals its web of intrigue and illegality, and the story of intermingled crime and espionage allows the protagonist to push herself into solving the mystery.

Which author(s) most inspired you?
Michael Connelley, John Sandford and Steig Larsson.

Which three books would you bring to a desert island?
Caleb Carr’s The Alienist, Steig Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Erik Larson’s Devil In The White City.

INSPIRING MOMENT

Every now and then a moment surprises me as an author with the gift of a story’s beginning. Recently I visited the local library in my town in New York and found a wall-sized recreation of an 18th-century town map. Realizing what it was, I examined it to find the original farm where my house now sits. In that space was a small regular information tag containing the words “pirate attack 1783.” Having no idea that pirates were operating in Long Island Sound then, I decided I had to research the issue.

Luckily the librarian archivist was able (enthusiastically) to provide me with a 1939 newspaper article explaining that a local 17-year-old lad was murdered by a band of whaleboat pirates. Unfamiliar with the term I dug into local history for the Revolutionary War period and found a treasure trove of information. Whaleboat pirates were a common phenomenon in that era, as were privateers, and pirates were in their waning moments in the so-called Age of Sail. I had been toying for some time with the idea of writing a pirate story, and now I had been dealt my opening hand.

My dive into the rabbit hole of researching the whaleboat pirates revealed to me the world of privateering, the conflict between revolutionaries in colonial America and the loyalists who clung to King George III, and the incredible role played by the seagoing men of that period. Once I understood how nations and citizens interacted in this time period, I was able to fashion a protagonist and a story. He would spring from the end of the Seven Years War (America called it the French and Indian War) and play a central part in the story of the attack against a coastal family. The murder of the teenager would be the decisive conflict in my story and I could wrap it up with the final departure of the British Royal Navy from the then-occupied Long Island. This was at the sunset of the Revolutionary War.

Then I wondered why I should stop there. A second part of the continuing story could be to take my protagonist to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and witness the end of the pirate era. That presented me with a promising volume two of my story, ending after the War of 1812.

Then I wondered why I should stop there. Further research taught me that, in the mid 19th-century, piracy continued in the American Great Lakes. I was able to find history that enabled me to fashion a third part of my story with ancestors of my earlier protagonists roaming those lake waters.

From an innocent visit to the library, my inspiration evolved into a three-volume story of pirates and privateers from the Revolutionary War era through to the Civil War era. Now I just have to write it!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Thomas M. Roehlk is a retired corporate attorney from St. Charles, Illinois, whose career spans major international corporations in the defense sector, consumer products, transportation equipment, and financial services. He spent more than 20 years serving as general counsel and chief compliance officer for a public company, bringing deep real-world legal and corporate insight to his fiction. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and John Marshall Law School, Roehlk also holds a Master in Management degree from Northwestern University. A devoted endurance athlete, he has completed more than 100 marathons and ultramarathons worldwide, as well as ten Ironman triathlons. After 46 years in the Chicago metropolitan area, he and his wife now split their time between Florida and New York. Visit Thomas at his website.

Amazon: https://bit.ly/4rWQP4L

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243683449-fire-feud

SYNOPSIS:

When Bubby Welter is fifteen, his mother Carrie’s mental breakdown alters the course of their lives. Her illness creates emotional distance, leaving both mother and son isolated in different ways. As Carrie struggles internally, Bubby faces the external consequences of instability.

A failed robbery brings embarrassment, a close friendship teeters, and the realization that trust can be fragile takes hold. Searching for something solid, Bubby turns his attention to the father he never knew.

Take a Look at Me Now is a story about family disruption, emotional inertia, and the uncertain process of understanding who you are when the foundation beneath you begins to shift.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robert Crane is an American writer who writes literary fiction: short stories, novels, plays and poetry. He looks forward to putting out a novel which takes place in his adopted country of Norway. He wants his readers to be enlightened and moved by the stories. He feels good fiction seeks to expand a person’s perspective and engagement with the world.

REVIEW:

Wow! Don’t you just love it when an author you love writes a book in a new genre for them and knocks it out of the park? Especially when that genre is another of your favorites? Well, let me tell you that Ashley Farley wrote Dark Current Rising, the first book in the Sutherlin Files. It is a Crime Fiction and it was phenomenal! I think she did a fabulous job of creating the story line and the characters. There were a few twists in there that I did not see coming my way. I’m blown away that one of my favorite authors could veer off in another direction and make me love her books all the more.

Lane Sutherlin is a Detective and is headed to her hometown to look for her best friend Addie who has gone missing. Her father is a retired judge in the town and he is not quite himself these days. Lane had avoided telling anyone back home that she was recently divorced. I enjoyed meeting the new characters in this book. Some of them were those you would want as friends and some were part of the dark current that was under the surface of the town. 

In case you haven’t noticed by now or I’m new to you, I like a variety of genres and Crime, Mystery, Suspense and Thrillers are just a few. Ashley Farley writes a lot of Family Drama and Romance. I have to tell you that it was refreshing to see her voice in another genre that I love so much. 

If you are like me and like a variety of books to read, I think you should give this one a try. She certainly didn’t flop at her first try at Crime Fiction! I definitely will be looking forward to the next two books in this trilogy. So, pick up Dark Current Rising by Ashley Farley for your nightstand before the next book comes out. Until next time…Happy Reading!

Don’t forget to support the authors you read by leaving a review. Even a few words help.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. The opinions I have expressed are my own and I was not required to write a review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

SYNOPSIS:

A missing woman. A haunted detective. A town built on secrets.

When Detective Lane Sutherlin returns to Tidewell, Virginia, it isn’t by choice. She’s back in the small waterfront town she once called home to search for her childhood best friend, Addie, who’s vanished without a trace.

But coming home means more than chasing leads. Lane finds her father—the town’s respected former judge—slipping further into dementia. Old wounds with her brother flare, resentments deepen, and the house she grew up in feels less like a refuge and more like a reminder of everything she’s lost.

As Lane digs into Addie’s life, she uncovers more than she bargained for: a toxic marriage, whispered betrayals, and powerful men determined to protect their own. Every clue draws Lane closer to Tidewell’s polished elite—and to the rot lurking beneath their perfect façades. Soon she realizes Addie may not have been the only target.

In Tidewell, the past is never really past—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. Lane must untangle lies, face old enemies, and risk everything to bring the truth to light…even if it means becoming a target herself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Amazon Charts and USA Today bestselling author

Ashley Farley writes Southern women’s fiction about love, loss, and the quiet courage it takes to start over. Her stories follow everyday women—mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends—as they navigate life’s hardest moments and find their way back to hope.

A South Carolina native, Ashley’s heart still belongs to the Lowcountry, where moss-draped oaks meet salty air and Southern charm runs deep. She now writes from her waterfront home on Virginia’s Northern Neck, where she shares her days with family and two strong-willed Labradors, Emmie and Willa.

I’m so excited to help launch Dark Current Rising by Ashley Farley. It’s a gripping new coastal mystery filled with secrets, family ties, and small-town tension. Perfect for readers who love small-town secrets, emotional depth, and a story that pulls you in from page one.

📆 Releasing Tuesday, January 6
📚 Available in Kindle Unlimited

Dark Current Rising
Small town. Deep secrets. Dangerous truths.
When a woman goes missing in Tidewell, Virginia, Detective Lane Sutherlin is forced to confront a past she thought she’d left behind—and a town that protects its own at all costs.

🎁 Enter now to win one of 20 copies

⏳ Giveaway ends soon

👉https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/428034-dark-current-rising