"I'd finished describing my surprise at how easy it was to identify Dave since - after all - he'd been pulled from a river after drowning. I'd thought he'd be bloated or discolored, but he'd looked like himself. Then out of nowhere, Schwartz had asked me if Dave had often gone night fishing alone, and I'd gone suddenly mute."
Common sense tells Cattleya Hoskin that her reporter ex-husband wouldn't have gone out night-fishing by himself in the middle of an investigation. The unaccommodating local authorities see it differently. In an effort to prove them wrong, Cattleya enlists the help of...

How can you find common ground when a loved one no longer believes in God? Without ever insisting that atheism is the correct conclusion, "Believe It" strives to bridge the disconnect between the devout and the debunkers. Featuring quotes and arguments found throughout the history of skepticism from Epicurus to Sam Harris and beyond, "Believe It" lays out a line of reasoning and analysis designed to illuminate the thinking that inspires a godless worldview. Broken down into three parts, J. David Core here examines from an atheist's POV the fundamentals of disbelief; likely refutations of some...

Fair Play features three full length novellas, Overlord, Counterfeit, and Confessions of the Cuckold, each a stand-alone story in the Lupa Schwartz universe. Cattleya Hoskin has settled into the Schwartz residence and into her new gig chronicling Schwartz's exploits for Gamut Magazine. With cases running dry, she takes matters into her own hands and pushes Schwartz to investigate a case that has the entire country buzzing, the on-air poisoning of a reality game show contestant on Cattleya's favorite TV program, Overlord. Schwartz next takes Cattleya undercover to investigate the death of a...

When Lupa Schwartz learns of the murders of several Wiccans and neo-pagans from his friend Melanie, he quickly realizes that the two other murder cases he is working, the deaths by crucifixion (one inverted) of two Catholic clergy, are part of a series of killings by the same murderer - a serial killer who is martyring his or her victims according to the traditions of their disparate religious disciplines. Lupa sets out first to prove his theory, and second to capture the fellow atheist he alone is convinced is responsible for these grisly deaths.

When an autopsy finds traces of the banned insecticide Chlordane in the anointing oil on the corpse of a local big-wig, Pittsburgh police bring Lupa Schwartz, an outspoken non-believer, into an investigation focused on a well-liked local clergyman. Worried that the police are planning to use him as a political fall-guy, Schwartz coerces Cattleya Hoskin, a magazine reporter with a connection to his family's past, to chronicle his process and squelch any misgiving that his atheist world-view influenced the outcome. Suspicion in the case is focused on Fr. Coneely, an outspoken euthanasia...

After surviving a vicious attack, magazine reporter Cattleya Hoskin learns that her ex-boyfriend, Ulric, has gone missing having left only a coded message the police cannot decipher. Digging deeper, she learns that he'd been working with the man who got her injured on the last story she covered, Pittsburgh PI Lupa Schwartz. The two men had been trying to covertly unravel a centuries-old scheme, but the conspirators found him out and drove Ulric underground. To complicate matters, a mystery woman arrives with a tale of peril linking her to the same nefarious plot. In order to protect this...

These 8 Tales of classic noir are all brought together in one place for the first time.