Books published by Stark House Press

The first time Ben Parker meets Johnny Angel, Ben is blowing bass with Daddy Halloway and the Hot Babies. Angel angles into the band by acing out the drummer. Parker's got a bad feeling about Angel, but has to hire him anyway. Johnny Angel, raised from the school of hard knocks, doesn't let anyone or any scruple get in his way. First, he steals Daddy's band, then he steals his daughter, Blanche. Then WWII happens-Parker serves, but Johnny cops a gay plea and gets out. When Parker gets back he hooks up with a talented but tubercular composer named Con Conners. And a sultry singer, Ginger. But Johnny Angel is right behind him, ready to do whatever it takes to climb to the top on someone else's talent, be it beg, borrow or steal... even kill. This is the ruthless story of the music business told from the inside, starting from the days of swing jazz to bebop, all the way to rock'n'roll.

Abby Marquise and her team mates at the Society for the Security of Reality stand between mankind and the "other." Faeries, selkies, werewolves, ghosts, ghouls... all of the creatures mankind refuses to admit exist. Abby knows firsthand that they are real. She fights her personal demons as she fights the "other" -- with determination, hope, and spunk. After solving the disappearance of hundreds of children only a month ago, Abby is suddenly thrust into fighting the unknown once again. This time, it's the faeries who have invaded Chicago. And these are not the fae of your childhood stories. These are dark magic-wielders, capable of murder and committed to obtaining power over the mortal world. All Abby needs to do is find out who is helping them, solve the gruesome murders, and rebuild a relationship with her teenage son while keeping herself and her team mates alive.

A lone driver picks up a beautiful woman and gets more than he bargained for, and the perfect heist is made complicated when a drunken neighbor climbs in the wrong window. From the author of Clean Break, filmed in 1956 by Stanley Kubrick as The Killing.

THE GIRL ON THE BEST SELLER LIST Gloria Whealdon resents them all, the whole town full of snooty hypocrites and self-righteous bores. She resents her husband Milo the most, the way he is always excusing her unsophistications to everyone. And then there's her contemptible neighbors, Fern and Freddy Fulton, and their ugly daughter, Virginia. And Jay Mannerheim, so smug in his pretense of being a doctor when everyone knows he's only a psychologist. And Min Stewart, always looking down on her as if she owned the town. Gloria hates them until she can't keep it in any longer. So she writes a novel, and exposes all their weaknesses, all their secrets. Population 12,360 is her revenge, and it becomes a best seller. Now the feeling is mutual-Gloria becomes a sensation, the town pariah. Is it any surprise that someone might want to get even?

THE OLD BATTLE-AXIt all starts with a lie. Mrs. Herriott's sister Madge has come back from Europe for a visit, but is found dead on the sidewalk outside the gate the next morning. Mrs. Herriott is only trying to protect her sister's reputation when she tells the police that she has no idea who the dead woman is. But one lie leads to another. Silas, her chauffeur, aids her in the lie. Her niece Carla even dresses up like her sister to continue the deception. But why is everyone trying to keep Madge's death such a secret? Before long Mrs. Herriott is caught up in a web of deception that seems to have no end. In this world of lies, is there anyone who can be trusted? And more importantly, is there anyone who should be trusted?DARK POWER"The Châlet was a house easy to get into, but not so easy to leave. . ." Diana Leonard comes to the Châlet at the invitation of her long-lost uncle, but soon finds that her visions of a family reunion are shattered by feelings of dread and suspicion. HerAunt Emma is a stern, domineering woman, a professor of psychology who conducts experiments on two cretin children who live with her. Uncle Peter himself is either a fool or a sadist, and Di can't figure out which. Their son, her cousin Miles, is a guilt-ridden alcoholic, his confidence long ago destroyed by his manipulating mother. And then there's her grandfather Rufus, a rich eccentric who comes to stay but who spends every moment in fear for his life from the rest of the family. It will take every ounce of Diana's courage to survive her stay in the Châlet-and an even greater act of will to survive her family.