Books by "Joseph D'Agnese"
5 books found
A cocky ad exec gets his comeuppance when his wife wins a handyman in a cereal box contest. (Note: "The Box Top Man" is a short story. It is also available in the author's 10-story collection, Daggyland #2.) * * * Cal’s got the sweetest life. A cushy career in advertising. The sweetest little wifey. The sweetest baby girl. And the sweetest spread in the sweetest suburb imaginable. Everything a guy could want. Except a Box Top Man. It’s a gimmick the guys in the office palmed off on a big cereal company. If you send in your box tops and win the contest, you get an all-expenses-paid servant. To cook breakfast for the kids. To tidy up su casa. To fix every little thing around the house. Maid, chef, and handyman—all in one. You know—someone to stay at home with the wife and family when you’re off making the big bucks. What could go wrong? Like Cheever gone from bad to worse, crime writer D’Agnese gives us a trippy fantasy that dwells in the realm of suburban surreal. * * * “D’Agnese writes the most unusual and interesting books.” —Bookviews
Determined to exact revenge on an unfaithful husband, a beautiful witch has a dying wish: to be buried in a glass-topped tomb so the sun can always look upon her corpse. Inspired by a true story. ("Sunshine Lady" is a short story. It is also included in the author's 6-story collection, Arm of Darkness.) * * * Letitia Huger knows her time on this earth is short. The year is 1887. Her lungs are rebelling against her, and the man she loves has run away with another woman. Wracked with pain, Letitia races against time and nature to get her affairs in order. First order of business: design a tomb that allows the light of the sun to shine on her face forever. Second: use her witchcraft to curse her husband and his kin for all time. Third: die—and await the horrific ghostly reckoning. * * * This Daggyland Dark Single is just one of six short stories in the ARM OF DARKNESS collection. The full collection contains six short stories of horror: "Skullworm," "Roadhouse," "Glow," "Kin," "Sunshine Lady," and the origin story, "Arm of Darkness."
A troubled police captain. A teenaged witch. A small town's only hope for vengeance. Matteo Scarpone is a modern-day Job. A man more sinned against than sinning. Once a cool-headed logician and the pride of Rome's carabinieri, he's devastated when disaster rocks his world. He is a lost man. Beaten. Shaken. HAUNTED. Shunned as an embarrassment, he is exiled to a tiny Italian village in the sticks—a hamlet, a burg, a borgo. But in this land of vineyards and olive groves, life is far from idyllic. Murder, greed, and hate taint the soil once tread by the Etruscans. Now the young captain must unravel a series of murders that pit him against a cynical evil and force him to use a power —A GIFT —A CURSE that he has long denied. The Marshal of the Borgo follows in the grand tradition of diabolically clever Italian mysteries—but with a fearsome twist. Part whodunit, part ghost story, The Marshal of the Borgo is a most unusual paranormal tale by a recent winner of the Derringer Award for Short Mystery Fiction. Readers who dream of the dolce vita and enjoy the work of Magdalen Nabb, Andrea Camilleri, Michael Dibdin, and Donna Leon will absolutely love this evocative, sun-drenched story in the life of Captain Scarpone. Pick up the The Marshal of the Borgo today and discover an adventure filled with vino, witchcraft, and murder!
Two brothers stumble upon a website so entrancing that it marks them for death. ("Glow" is a short story. It is also available in the author's 6-story Arm of Darkness collection.) * * * Identical twins are supposed to think alike. Alan and Walt don’t. When a stranger gifts them the URL to a mysterious glowing website, the two brothers are mesmerized by the new electronic drug. In the right hands, such a website could be worth millions. If it doesn’t kill you first. * * * This Daggyland Dark Single is just one of six short stories in the ARM OF DARKNESS collection. The full collection contains six short stories of horror: "Skullworm," "Roadhouse," "Glow," "Kin," "Sunshine Lady," and the origin story, "Arm of Darkness."
A self-absorbed shrink is haunted by a childhood crime. (Note: "Fork in the Heart" is a short story. It is also available in the author's 10-story collection, Daggyland #2.) * * * Some kids shoplift from strangers. Others just boost from the ones they love. When he was just a kid, Toby committed a single act that sentenced him to a life of therapy. Every day, inside four tight walls, he relives his crime again and again. Not with a shrink. It’s worse than that: he is the shrink. Like Cheever gone from bad to worse, crime writer D’Agnese gives us a troubling story of sins that go unpunished but not unforgotten. * * * “D’Agnese writes the most unusual and interesting books.” —Bookviews