Brad Parks

When he hears residents of a Newark neighborhood are getting sick-and even dying-from a strange disease, investigative reporter Carter Ross dives into the story-so deep he comes down with the illness himself. With even more motivation to track down the source of the disease, Carter soon hits upon a nearby construction site. But when the project's developer is found dead, and his mob ties surface, Carter knows he's looking at a story much bigger-and...

Shamus and Nero award-winning author Brad Parks takes readers back to the beginning of investigative reporter Carter Ross's career with this intriguing prequel short story. Only 24 years old and still a wide-eyed reporter for a tiny backwater newspaper, Ross is getting his crack at the big leagues with an interview at New Jersey's largest paper, The Eagle-Examiner. If-that is-he nails the interview and the on-the-spot writing test. Ross has never...

In a rash of carjackings, Newark becomes newsworthy when one such theft ends in the murder of a wealthy banking executive. The affable, wisecracking Ross is assigned the story. To balance his reporting, he finds a Nigerian immigrant of more modest means who was also killed during a recent carjacking. It turns out the two victims knew each other, sharing an unexplained round of golf at a country club shortly before their deaths. When his unborn child...

"Judge Scott Sampson doesn't brag about having a perfect life, but the evidence is clear: A prestigious job. A beloved family. On an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, he is about to pick up his six-year-old twins to go swimming when his wife, Alison, texts him that she'll get the kids from school instead. It's not until she gets home later that Scott realizes she doesn't have the children. And she never sent the text. Then the phone rings, and every parent's...

"Disaster, Melanie Barrick was once told, is always closer than you know. It was a lesson she learned the hard way growing up in the constant upheaval of foster care. But now that she's survived into adulthood--with a loving husband, a steady job, and a beautiful baby boy named Alex--she thought that turmoil was behind her. Until one Tuesday evening when she goes to pick up Alex from childcare only to discover he's been removed by Social Services....

When her husband, a quantum physicist, goes missing in the midst of a strange, violent seizure, Brigid Bronik discovers that his research had gained unwanted attention and wonders if the very same physics that endangered him could actually be used to save his life. Quantum physicist Matt Bronik is suffering from strange, violent seizures that medical science seems powerless to explain. He doesn't think these fits could be related to his research,...

"The latest entry in Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger's popular Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery series, featuring fifteen talented authors and a multitude of new cases for Arthur Conan Doyle's most acclaimed detective. Sherlock Holmes has not only captivated readers for more than a century and a quarter, he has fascinated writers as well. Almost immediately, the detective's genius, mastery, and heroism became the standard by which other creators...