It’s been a long journey for Marshall James. Beginning with ‘Murder at the Paisley Parrot,’ through ‘Beautiful Corpse,’ and now ‘Final Audition,‘ the conclusion of the series. Time marches on for everyone, as it clearly has for Marshall. He’s come full circle, and in this final story he’s given the opportunity to have the ending he’d been denied so many years ago. Will the conclusion of the story bring joy, sorrow, or something else entirely? Find out as Marshall takes us back to a 1980s Los Angeles forgotten by most, a New York City as current as the squeal of subway tracks at dawn, and a bridge he had to cross between them one last time. Now available on Amazon.

One of my main projects next year is a sequel to ‘A House in the Woods.‘ It’s called ‘A House in Woods 2: The Devil’s Due,’ and it reunites us with Laurel and Jeremy Calloway two years after the first book. This time Laurel knows the stakes could not be higher, and this time she’s determined to win. But will she? Will the strange townspeople of Strickland, New Jersey, get what they want, or will Laurel destroy them all to prevent it?

With the exception of the third Marshall James Thriller, ‘Final Audition‘ (which Frank is reading now and LOVES!), I intend to do a lot of writing under the name M.A. McNease. I just like it, and I need to refresh my creative life a little. Those are my initials. The books are all listed under both names. My Kindle Vella serial, ‘I, Warlock,‘ is coming out under that name, and I have lots more in mind over the next couple years. So … here’s the cover for the Kindle edition.

Stay tuned for links, details and info: I’ll be writing my first Kindle Vella serial, coming very soon. AND it’s under my “other” name, MA McNease. It’s my party, I’ll try if I want to.

For 5 days only! From October 27 – 31 you can download A House in the Woods, and Black Cat White Paws: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, free on Kindle. Treat yourself to a supernatural chiller where fear has a home in the woods, and the first book in the Maggie Dahl mystery series. They’ll keep you up reading till the witching hour.

(The second Maggie Dahl book, Open Secrets, is available now on Amazon, and the upcoming A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due will be out in 2023!)

About ‘A House in the Woods‘

“Country living is Hell.”

Laurel and Jeremy Calloway have longed for a new life away from the chaos and confusion of New York City. Driving along a country road in New Jersey with a young real estate agent in the back seat, they almost miss it: a small house in the woods for sale. Laurel immediately thinks this could be the house for them, the house of their dreams, where a simpler life awaits. Laurel can finish her debut novel. Jeremy can look for a job in Philadelphia just an hour away. Stopping to take a look at the property, they meet the house’s caretaker, Eileen, and within a few weeks they find themselves the very lucky owners of their ideal home. But who are the mysterious old couple who’d put the house up for sale, having moved out months ago? Is Eileen more than a friendly neighbor? Who are the townspeople they meet, who all seem aware of the young couple now living in the house in the woods? And is it the house of their dreams, or of their nightmares?

I’ll be bundled up on the porch at the Frenchtown Bookshop (Frenchtown, NJ) later this morning with a stack of my Maggie Dahl Mysteries. Stop and say hello!

Cat with magnifying glass sleuth hat cartoon style.  Those are the words I typed into my image creator at DALL.E 2, part of OpenAI.com.

From their website:

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity.

We will attempt to directly build safe and beneficial AGI, but will also consider our mission fulfilled if our work aids others to achieve this outcome.

DALL·E 2 can create original, realistic images and art from a text description. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles.

And I just did this one: fish on a bicycle paiting style. It doesn’t cost anything, either. Try it out!

It’s not a gender-neutral thing. It’s not even a pen name, since I’ve always written under my own name, and MA are my initials. Once I finish up the last Marshall James thriller, and the sequel to A House in the Woods, I’ll be using the name MA McNease. No periods. I just feel like some renewal, and I’ve never been fond of the name Mark. (It was Marshall at birth and later changed when I was adopted.) Stay tuned. I may put out A House the the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due, under the new moniker, I’m not sure yet. Just keeping it all interesting for myself. – Mark/MA

For five days, from October 1 – 5, you can enjoy nine (9!) of my mysteries and thrillers FREE on Kindle. Just CLICK ON MY AMAZON PAGE or one of the book links below and start downloading for your killer Halloween reads.

Kyle Callahan Mysteries
Murder at Pride Lodge
Pride and Perilous
Death by Pride
Death in the Headlights
Kill Switch
Last Room at the Cliff’s Edge
Reservation for Murder

Marshall James Thrillers
Murder at the Paisley Parrot
Beautiful Corpse

Stop by the Frenchtown Bookshop and meet the author – me! – on the spacious covered front porch. I’ll have my newest book, Open Secrets: A Maggie Dahl Mystery, as well as Black Cat White Paws, the first in the series. Let’s introduce ourselves and solve a murder or two!