Showing results by author "James Hankins" in All Categories

Convulsed by a civilizational crisis, the great thinkers of the Renaissance set out to reconceive the nature of society. Corrupt and reckless tyrants sowing discord and ruling through fear; elites who prized wealth and status over the common good; military leaders waging endless wars. Their solution was simple and radical. They would rebuild their city, and their civilization, by transforming the moral character of its citizens. Soulcraft, they believed, was a precondition of successful statecraft.

In Drawn, a mysterious little boy has begun appearing in the paintings of an artist who can't remember ever actually seeing him. A partially blind, disfigured agoraphobic who suffers crippling panic attacks if he even tries to leave his apartment is forced out by an unseen entity. A lonely widower begins to suffer terrifying nightmares that his long-missing, presumed-dead son is still alive and in mortal danger. A young runaway realizes that a man he thought was his traveling companion is actually his captor...and a predator.

When Caitlin Sommers finds herself alone in a deserted parking lot with blood on her clothes and no memory of the past few months, it seems like one of the nightmares that have tormented her for years...but it's all too real. Desperate to learn the truth about where she's been and what has happened to her but terrified of what she may find, Caitlin embarks on a search for answers.

In one hand,small-time crook Stokes holds a backpack stuffed with someone else's money--$350,000 of it. In the other hand, Stokes has a cell phone, which he found with the money. On the line a little girl he doesn't know asks, "Daddy? Are you coming to get me? They say if you give them the money, they'll let you take me home."

Five days ago, aspiring crime novelist Jason Swike awoke chained to the wall of a run-down horse stable, convinced he would soon die at the hands of Crackerjack, the infamous serial killer who had terrorized the residents of Massachusetts for the past year - capturing and tormenting men, painting whimsical designs on their faces before shattering their bones and ending their lives. Just when death seems inevitable, Jason, with the help of another captive, manages to kill the madman and escape.

Charlie Beckham is a rising star among federal prosecutors until, on the morning of the most important court day of his career, a deranged homeless man turns Charlie's life upside with a single word. He calls Charlie by a secret nickname known by only one other person in the world - Charlie's brother Jake, who went missing thirteen years ago. Charlie has a hundred questions but the homeless man disappears before Charlie can ask a single one.

Just two years ago, the media turned Detective John Spader into a hero. He'd caught a twisted serial killer terrorizing Massachusetts, and the "Jack of Spades," as the media dubbed Spader, was born. But when the murderer walked free on a technicality - free to kill again - the public turned on Spader. Now a new serial killer is on the loose. He wears the silly, gap-toothed, grinning mask of Galaxo, Starboy Avenger! - a cartoon alien of unparalleled popularity with children.

Vermont’s promising young governor, Andrew Kane, is at another public meet-and-greet when a stranger from the crowd slips him a cell phone and whispers, “Keep this with you...keep it secret...you’re going to need it after the arrest.” Hours later, Andrew’s brother, Tyler, is taken into custody - framed for the brutal murder of a young woman - and Andrew discovers there is only one way to free him: answer the mysterious phone and agree to a blackmailer’s demands. All the governor has to do to make it all go away is compromise everything he stands for and grant a full pardon to a convicted felon.

Spencer Ellis is a homeless man who only a few years earlier was a successful real estate salesman. Successful until he met the "woman of his dreams" who turned his life into a living hell; marrying him, divorcing him, and then taking his kids away. Now, years later, he is homeless and sees his ex-wife living the high life in a fancy restaurant. He follows her with plans of violent revenge. Can he fight off his inner demons and spare her life?