Gratitude

I have been away from writing, particularly this blog, for more than a month, and I am truly sorry for my absence. I have been dealing with an arthritic hip that doesn’t allow me to sit for a long time, and it has put a crimp in all my writing. I received a cortisone shot yesterday with a steroid, so that should hold me over until my hip replacement in approximately three months. Unfortunately, I have to wait that long, because there have been studies that if the surgery takes place before the three months is up- giving time for the shot and steroid to leave my system- there is a risk of infection. I’ll keep you posted. 

Tomorrow, Thursday, is Thanksgiving Day. On Saturday, November 25, I turn seventy. Seventy! That’s old, I think, and I’m feeling every year.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the family members I’ve lost over the years. My mom and dad, and four sisters, Donna, Mary, Betty and Joanne. My son, Wil. I am happy I could spend time with and develop a friendship with Mary, who passed away recently. 

Honestly, I long for the opportunity to just make a phone call to my mom. So much over the years have been unsaid, though I could mend fences before she passed away. But too much time was wasted. Same with my three other sisters. And unfortunately, with my son. Perhaps that is one of my biggest regrets and something that will haunt me to my death.

But with Thanksgiving tomorrow and with my birthday on Saturday, I have a great deal of gratitude to spend, something that if spent freely, it never runs out. Never.

All in all, I’m thankful for my past- all of it. It made me who I am. Those friends whom I’m still friends with, thanks for hanging with me all these years. Those who, for whatever reason, drifted away, I thank you for the time we did get to spend together, and I only wish you the best as each day dawns, and each sun sets.

As Frank sang, regrets, I had a few (something along those lines). Mistakes, more than the regrets. But each mistake shaped me, toughened me, and proved to me I am not invincible, but that I’m tough enough to overcome, pick myself up, and move on. 

I’ve learned that grass in not greener elsewhere. Perhaps this lesson(s) occurred too late, but I learned, eventually, that grass is grass. It’s green where I water it, that’s all. Watered with love, with patience, with kindness, with understanding, with sweat and toil. It’s greener when it shared and truly lived on in togetherness. 

Each job wasn’t a job to me. Some were more enjoyable than others, but always, always, there were the kids I learned from more than they learned from me, the professionals I worked with, knowing they gave me more than I gave them. I wasn’t the best by any measure, but I know I wasn’t the worst. I did my best, and that’s all that one can do.

I failed at “retirement” three times now, each time coming back to work I enjoy, to the kids I get to work with. My latest reunites me with my wife, Kim, at the school she where she works. It’s only three days a week, but still. Kim and I met in California when I was a counselor and she was a PE and health teacher and coach. Oddly, both of us were from Wisconsin, and I went to school only ten miles away from where she lived. But it took us years and a move to California to find each other, fall in love, and have three wonderful kids together. I have tremendous gratitude for all of it.

Probably the biggest lesson I learned in these almost 70 years is that we shouldn't wait to express gratitude, to feel gratitude, to express, give, and show love. To express, show, and give kindness. To not judge, but to forgive and move past and beyond. Something to think about …

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!

From the Lewis House and Family to Each of You and to Yours, Have a Wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving! God Bless each of you!

To My Readers:

Connect with me on Social Media:

Author Website at: https://www.jrlewisauthor.com    

Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Joseph.Lewis.Author

Instagram at: https://www.Instagram.com/joseph.lewis.author

Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Lewis/e/B01FWB9AOI / 

Fan Mail is now available FOR FREE and it can be found at Book Funnel and at this link: https://books.bookfunnel.com/endofsummerbookblowout/enp4tnldmk

My Books, Their Descriptions, and Links to Purchase

The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:  https://amzn.to/34nXBH5  

FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they don’t know one another, the lives of FBI Kelliher, 11-year-old Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two boys become interwoven with the same thread that Pete Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their lives are in jeopardy as each search for a way out.     

Book One of the Lives Trilogy, Stolen Lives: Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! Best Thriller’s Editor’s Pick! Best Thrillers Runner Up Award Winner!  https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ 

Two thirteen-year-old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they’ll end up like all the others- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. And the possibility exists that one of his team members might be involved.

Book Two of the Lives Trilogy, Shattered Lives: https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2

Six men escaped and are out for revenge. The boys, recently freed from captivity, are in danger and so are their families, but they don’t know it. The FBI has no clues, no leads, and nothing to go on and because of that, cannot protect them.                                       

Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:  http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives 

A 14-year-old boy knows the end is coming. What he doesn’t know is when, where, or by whom. Without that knowledge, the FBI cannot protect him or his family. And he cannot protect himself, his father, or his brothers.                                                  

Caught in a Web: A PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by BestThrillers http://bit.ly/2WO3kka

Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Caught-in-Web-Joseph-Lewis-audiobook/dp/B07RP42BXH/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1700666203&sr=8-1

Bodies of high school and middle school kids are found dead from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. MS-13, a violent gang originating in California, controls the drug, sex, and gun trades along the I-94 and I-43 corridors and the Milwaukee Metro area. They send an enforcer, Ricardo Fuentes from Chicago to Waukesha to find out who is cutting in on their business, shut it down and teach them a lesson. But he has an ulterior motive: find and kill a fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay, who had killed his cousin the previous summer.

Spiral Into Darkness: Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!  https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm

He blends in and is successful, intelligent, and methodical. He has a list and has murdered eight on it so far. There is no discernible pattern, no clues, and there are no leads. The only thing the FBI and local police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face- gruesome and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any message coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in their own world, do not know they are the next targets. Neither does their family, and neither does law enforcement.

Betrayed: A Best Thriller’s 1^st Place Award for Crime Fiction! Maxy Award Runner-Up! A Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner!  https://amzn.to/2EKHudx

Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback!  https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS 

A late-night phone call, a missing kid, a murdered family, but no one is willing to talk. A promise is made and kept, but it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old boy. Seeing is not believing. No one can be trusted, and the hunters become the hunted.

Blaze In, Blaze Out – Best Action Fiction Book of 2022- Best Thrillers! Reader’s Favorite Runner Up! Literary Titan Gold Book Award! https://amzn.to/34lNllP

Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Blaze-In-Out/dp/B0C6FKHJZ8/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1700665936&sr=8-1

Detectives Eiselmann and O’Connor thought the conviction of a Ukrainian gang lord meant the end, but it was only the beginning. They forgot that revenge knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness never worries about collateral damage. A target is a target, and in the end, the target will die. Eiselmann and O’Connor become the hunted, but they don’t know by whom or when they will strike.

Fan Mail – New Release! A Reader’s Favorite Silver Book Award! Maxy Award Finalist! Eric Hoffer Award Nominee! Literary Titan Silver Book Award!  https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS 

A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad.

As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart.

Would he once again have to put himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he?

Fan Mail is a Coming-of-Age story embedded in a Thriller-Crime-Mystery.

https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS

Photo Courtesy of Ann and Unsplash

 

Pride

In the last part of August, I developed a sciatic nerve problem. At first, it was “just one of those things” one deals with, and I firmly believed it would go away in time. It usually did, but this time, it didn’t. It got worse. Much worse. 

I don’t know what started it, and so far, nothing has worked. I was on three different medications, now only two. The medications didn’t do much, anyway. It was like throwing marshmallows at a tank. I went to urgent care twice and scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. 

Degenerative arthritis, the x-rays showed. The orthopedic specialist said it was moderate to severe. I asked for an MRI, but she said I needed to try physical therapy first. Okay, I’ll try it. 

I go in twice a week for therapy, and I do the exercises he prescribed for me at home. At night, I’m on a heating pad and my legs are propped up with a pillow when I try to sleep. So far, nothing has worked. 

I know I’m not in great shape, but I’ve lost twenty-five pounds, and I try to watch what I eat. Mostly, I watch how much I eat and have cut down considerably.

This November, I turn seventy-years-old, which is still pretty young. My oldest living sister is in her eighties, and my oldest brother is seventy-seven and both are still going strong. 

I’ve always been self-sufficient, but I am finding it is the little things that bother me. 

I now walk with a cane, and I sincerely hope it is temporary. But it bothers me that my leg is not strong enough to use on its own. I am also finding it too painful to put the sock and shoe on my left foot. Kim has to help. I swallow my pride and ask her for help. 

I am also finding it excruciating to drive even a short distance. It doesn’t matter if I drive or if I am a passenger. The pain is almost unbearable, and that is no exaggeration at all. 

The little things, the things I have taken for granted just about my entire life, I cannot do at least for this short time. I pray it is only for a short time. I have taken pride in being self-sufficient. 

Pride.

Asking for help when I need it. Not driving, but being a passenger. Sometimes sleeping on the couch because I’m afraid my tossing and turning might wake up Kim. Worrying my body is giving away well before it is supposed to. Feeling old before I am old … at least in my mind.

I know I’m on the backside of the mountain, but sixty-nine soon to be seventy is too young, isn’t it? There is still too much I want to do, need to do. Again, I’m hoping and praying this condition is only temporary and not long term. It should be short term. I mean, I’ve had issues with sciatica before and it always went away in a week or two. I don’t understand why this time it lingers.

I guess the point, and I’ve repeated this in most every post, is to appreciate the here and now. To take delight in sunrises and sunsets. Appreciate the smell of freshly cut grass, of homemade bread. To make sure those who are dear to you, know they are dear to you by letting them know not only with words, but with your actions. Because you never know when the next opportunity might be the last opportunity. Something to think about …

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference! 

To My Readers:

Connect with me on Social Media:

Author Website at: https://www.jrlewisauthor.com    

Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Joseph.Lewis.Author

Instagram at: https://www.Instagram.com/joseph.lewis.author

Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Lewis/e/B01FWB9AOI / 

Fan Mail is now available FOR FREE and it can be found at Book Funnel and at this link: https://books.bookfunnel.com/endofsummerbookblowout/enp4tnldmk

Fan Mail: A Reader’s Favorite Silver Book Award Winner! A Maxy Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Award Nominee, and a Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner!  

A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad. 

As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart.   

Would he once again have to put himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he? 

Fan Mail is a coming-of-age story embedded in a tight thriller-mystery. It is told through Brian’s eyes, who holds his brothers and his family, first and foremost, in his heart. This time, it might cost him his life.

You can leave a rating and review at this link after you read it: https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS

My other books in order of most recent to oldest:

Blaze In, Blaze Out: Best Action Crime Thriller of 2022 by Best Thrillers! A Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Readers’ Favorite Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!

Blaze In, Blaze Out is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://www.audible.com/acx-promo\

Eiselmann and O’Connor thought the conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime family, meant the end. It was only the beginning. They forgot that revenge knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness never worries about collateral damage. Andruko hired contract killers to go after and kill O’Connor and Eiselmann.

The killers can be anyone and be anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care nothing of collateral damage. Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the end, the target must die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP 

Betrayed: Two Top Shelf Awards: 1^st Place Fiction-Mystery; and Runner-Up Fiction-Crime; A PenCraft 1^st Place Winner for Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!

Betrayed is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS 

A late-night phone call, a missing kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking. A promise is made and kept, but it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old boy. Greed can be all-consuming, and seeing is not believing. No one can be trusted, and the hunters become the hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx

Spiral Into Darkness: Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!

Would you recognize a serial killer if one spoke to you? Vincent and Shirley didn’t, and now they’re dead!

He blends in, is successful, intelligent, and methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people. There is no discernible pattern, no clues, and no leads. The only thing the FBI and local police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face- gruesome and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any message coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in their own world, do not know they are the next targets, and neither does their family or local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm 

Caught in a Web: A PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by BestThrillers.com 

Caught in a Web is also available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka

They found the bodies of high school and middle school kids dead from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. A violent gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the I-94 and I-43 corridors. They send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting in on their business, shut it down and teach them a lesson. But he has an ulterior motive: find and kill a fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay. 

Detectives Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor and Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the drugs, shut down the ring, and find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696  

The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:

FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they live in separate parts of the country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two boys become interwoven with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their futures grow dark as each search for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5  

Book One, Stolen Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers! Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!

Two thirteen-year-old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they will end up like the other kids they found- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. To make the investigation that much tougher, Kelliher suspects that one of his team members might be involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ   

Book Two of the Lives Trilogy, Shattered Lives:

The boys are home, but now they have to fit back in with their families and friends. Their parents and the FBI thought the boys were safe. They were until people began dying. Now the hunt is on for six dangerous and desperate men who vow revenge. With no leads and nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and wait. A dangerous game that threatens not only the boys, but their families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2 
 
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:

Three dangerous men with nothing to lose offer a handsome reward to anyone willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett McGovern. He does not know that he, his younger brother, and a friend are targets. More than anyone, these three men vow to kill George, whom they blame for forcing them to run and hide. A fun vacation turns into a nightmare and ends where it started, back on the Navajo Nation Reservation, high on a mesa held sacred by George and his grandfather. Outnumbered and outgunned, George will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his adoptive father and his adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who these men are? Or where they are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared for betrayal that leads to his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives   

Photos courtesy of Road Trip with Raj.

 

Home

I have decided a long time ago that where one lives is a house, but a house is not necessarily a home. It can be, but often it is not.

To me, a home is where there is light and love, hope and dreams. A home is not only a place where one is comfortable, but where one is comforting. There is satisfaction in a home that one doesn’t necessarily have in a house. 

I’ve lived in multiple states in my lifetime, sometimes by myself, and sometimes with my wife and kids. Each was an experience, to be sure, and I think I am who I am because of these experiences.

At age twenty-two, my first job as a professional was in Wyoming. Not the pretty part with mountains and lakes, but the east, central sand hills that surrounded the small dots (sometimes called towns, but truly hardly qualified as such) of Yoder, Veteran, Hawk Springs, and Huntley. The “big” city nearby was Torrington, and a bit further to the east is Scottsbluff, Nebraska. I could always drive forty-five minutes or an hour to Cheyenne, or several hours south to Denver, but why? 

I split time living in Yoder and Torrington by myself for three years while I taught and coached. After winning a state championship, I was recruited to coach at the collegiate level, so I moved to Omaha and was a graduate assistant at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. My job was recruiting and scouting, but I found the time to earn a master’s degree in counseling, besides working three jobs just to keep myself barely financially afloat. 

After, I came back to my home state of Wisconsin, where I taught and coached for five years before becoming a counselor in a neighboring district. I lived about nine enjoyable months with my brother Jim and his family before moving to an apartment or two. After six years, I moved to California because, well, I had never been there, and at that time, I was interested in writing and movies and such. 

It was in California where I met my wife and together, raised three kids before moving back to Wisconsin.

I think that was the first time in a long, long time I stumbled on the concept of home. That was where Kim, and Wil, and Hannah, and Emily were. That was my home. It didn’t matter if it was one of the two houses we rented or the house Kim and I built in the high desert, I had a home. 

Home.

The concept of home crystallized for me two weeks ago at the service of my sister, Mary, when her daughter Annie gave her tribute to her mom. What she said was simple and pure, yet so deeply moving and sad, that it hit home to me. Annie said, and I’m paraphrasing rather poorly, “My mom was my home, and now that she’s gone, I don’t have a home anymore.” 

It bears repeating: “My mom was my home, and now that’s she’s gone, I don’t have a home anymore.” 

Yes.

A home isn’t four walls and a roof, though in part, I guess, it is. But like Jesus said in Luke 12:34, “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” 

For Annie, it was her mom and my sister, Mary. Mary was Annie’s “home.”

For me, my home is Kim, my two daughters Hannah and Emily, and Hannah’s husband Alex and their child- my grandson Mason, and Emily’s fiancée Q. My home is my son Wil and his wife Maria.

It doesn’t matter the house we live in or where that house is. My home, my heart, and my treasure, are and will always be my wife and my kids. It doesn’t matter how old I am or how old they are. They are my home and will always be: my home. Something to think about …

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference! 

To My Readers:

Connect with me on Social Media:

Author Website at: https://www.jrlewisauthor.com    

Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Joseph.Lewis.Author

Instagram at: https://www.Instagram.com/joseph.lewis.author

Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Lewis/e/B01FWB9AOI / 

As I mentioned at the beginning, Fan Mail is now available FOR FREE and it can be found at Book Funnel and at this link: https://books.bookfunnel.com/endofsummerbookblowout/enp4tnldmk

Fan Mail: A Reader’s Favorite Silver Book Award Winner! A Maxy Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Award Nominee, and a Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner!  

A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad. 

As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart.   

Would he once again have to put himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he? 

Fan Mail is a coming-of-age story embedded in a tight thriller-mystery. It is told through Brian’s eyes, who holds his brothers and his family, first and foremost, in his heart. This time, it might cost him his life.

You can leave a rating and review at this link after you read it: https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS

My other books in order of most recent to oldest:

Blaze In, Blaze Out: Best Action Crime Thriller of 2022 by Best Thrillers! A Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Readers’ Favorite Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!

Blaze In, Blaze Out is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://www.audible.com/acx-promo\

Eiselmann and O’Connor thought the conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime family, meant the end. It was only the beginning. They forgot that revenge knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness never worries about collateral damage. Andruko hired contract killers to go after and kill O’Connor and Eiselmann.

The killers can be anyone and be anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care nothing of collateral damage. Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the end, the target must die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP 

Betrayed: Two Top Shelf Awards: 1^st Place Fiction-Mystery; and Runner-Up Fiction-Crime; A PenCraft 1^st Place Winner for Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!

Betrayed is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS 

A late-night phone call, a missing kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking. A promise is made and kept, but it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old boy. Greed can be all-consuming, and seeing is not believing. No one can be trusted, and the hunters become the hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx

Spiral Into Darkness: Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!

Would you recognize a serial killer if one spoke to you? Vincent and Shirley didn’t, and now they’re dead!

He blends in, is successful, intelligent, and methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people. There is no discernible pattern, no clues, and no leads. The only thing the FBI and local police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face- gruesome and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any message coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in their own world, do not know they are the next targets, and neither does their family or local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm 

Caught in a Web: A PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by BestThrillers.com 

Caught in a Web is also available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka

They found the bodies of high school and middle school kids dead from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. A violent gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the I-94 and I-43 corridors. They send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting in on their business, shut it down and teach them a lesson. But he has an ulterior motive: find and kill a fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay. 

Detectives Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor and Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the drugs, shut down the ring, and find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696  

The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:

FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they live in separate parts of the country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two boys become interwoven with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their futures grow dark as each search for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5  

Book One, Stolen Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers! Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!

Two thirteen-year-old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they will end up like the other kids they found- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. To make the investigation that much tougher, Kelliher suspects that one of his team members might be involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ   

Book Two of the Lives Trilogy, Shattered Lives:

The boys are home, but now they have to fit back in with their families and friends. Their parents and the FBI thought the boys were safe. They were until people began dying. Now the hunt is on for six dangerous and desperate men who vow revenge. With no leads and nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and wait. A dangerous game that threatens not only the boys, but their families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2 
 
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:

Three dangerous men with nothing to lose offer a handsome reward to anyone willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett McGovern. He does not know that he, his younger brother, and a friend are targets. More than anyone, these three men vow to kill George, whom they blame for forcing them to run and hide. A fun vacation turns into a nightmare and ends where it started, back on the Navajo Nation Reservation, high on a mesa held sacred by George and his grandfather. Outnumbered and outgunned, George will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his adoptive father and his adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who these men are? Or where they are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared for betrayal that leads to his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives   

Photos courtesy of Luke Stackpoole, Taylor Maine, and the Lewis Family