Mike Friedman

The dreams arrive, un-invited. Eli Baker is visited by the dead, and they always have one request of him: find out the truth about their deaths. Melanie Hooper is missing and yet, as an orphan, there is no one missing Melanie Hooper. Her co-workers find it odd that she left, and unsettling for sure, but she is, after all, an adult, and perhaps she simply decided to start a new life somewhere else. With no body or suspicious circumstances to go by, the Seattle police do not consider Melanie's disappearance to be sinister at all. But Eli Baker has dreams, and Melanie Hooper has visited him in one, along with four other orphans who are also missing. The search is on, and Eli Baker is the right man to delve into the case of the missing orphans. However, Eli soon finds that evil acts are not only performed by evil men, but by Evil itself. Eli, his girlfriend Liz, and his deadly friend Striker are about to face off against a foe the likes of which they have never encountered. "Shadows Over A Hangman's Noose" is the third in the "Shadows" series. It will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about the sinister shadows of life. William D. Holland is the author of four previous novels, one non-fiction book about the craft of writing, and five novellas in the "Billy the Kid" chronicles. He can be found hanging out on his website https: //artistrywithwords.com/ when he isn't tending to his urban farm in Olympia, Washington.

Almost a year ago Billy the Kid left his home in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, and he left it in a hurry, having just killed the Russian mob boss. Obviously it is to his advantage not to return to the Big Apple. Since then he has made a life for himself and his common law wife, under assumed identities, in Jackson, Wyoming. It's a good life and they have a child and, by God, life is pretty special when mobsters aren't shooting at you and people think you are dead....but then.... Billy receives a phone call from a friend of his in New York. Billy's friend Mindi, a hooker by trade, has been beaten, knifed and raped by four Italians under orders from Val Checkers, the ruling mafia boss in charge of prostitution in the Burroughs. Mindi and Mindi's friend, Paula, are asking for help, and if there's one thing Billy can't ignore it's harm done to his family or friends. The Kid packs a bag, kisses his wife and baby goodbye and flies back to New York. It's time for some frontier justice, Billy-style. "Home is a Dangerous Place" is the fourth installment of the Billy the Kid Chronicles.

The third in the "Billy the Kid" series finds our ass-kicking anti-hero trying his damndest to stay out of trouble and walk a peaceful path. After all, his common-law wife, Genna, is expecting a child soon, and she has strongly suggested to Billy that his child will need a healthy father around for years to come, and maybe he should find ways to fix problems without violence. Easier said than done, as we find out in this novella. Billy is asked to find the missing sister of a good friend of his. The young woman joined a religious group nine months earlier and hasn't contacted her family in three months. The family is worried and that means it's time for Billy to do his thing. But can Billy find the woman and bring her home without violence? One look at the two-legged monster guarding the religious cult's compound suggests this might not be an exercise in non-violence for Billy.