Jersey Heat (Kindle Edition)
By Joseph D'Agnese
Review & Description
Excerpt from Jersey Heat by Joseph D’Agnese
“I’m not saying I wouldn’t have done the same thing,” he said. “Guy pisses you off, you want to hurt him. That’s common sense. I wouldn’t have done it now. Now is not a good time.”
“I feel bad about it,” she confessed.
“Feel bad? Feel bad? Answer me this. Did he hurt you?”
She bit her bottom lip, considered it. “Yeah. He did. He was hurting me.”
Mulcek smiled, something he rarely did. His teeth gleamed against the blackness. He stepped closer to her. She could feel his breath in her face, the sweat rising off his skin.
“How did it feel,” he whispered, “when you took the power back? How’d you feel when you hurt him?”
Her mind flashed an image: Her victim’s lips blowing blood bubbles…Horror etched upon his face…
She didn’t have to think.
“It felt great,” she said.
***
It’s a hazy, hot, and humid summer in New Jersey, circa 1993.
No mobile phones.
No Internet.
No Caller ID.
No DVDs.
No terrorists.
And the environment isn’t cool.
Luke Mulcek calls himself a businessman. He’s actually a thug in a suit, a former Brooklyn kid, ex-boxer, and mechanic who made good. Luke’s got an in at the water company in a piece of shit town, where he’s concocted a $200 million land deal to build condos on the reservoir. Ramming the plan through the town’s planning board is the tricky part. Shadow Lakes isn’t Brooklyn, and even before page one Mulcek has decided to cut through the red tape the way he would have done in the old neighborhood.
With payoffs, threats, blackmail — and murder.
A retired cop and a young slacker are all that stand between Mulck and his violent grasp at the good life.
Mulcek’s undoing — and the key to this environmental thriller — is a creature from the skies, bred by nature to be the ultimate killing machine.
The strength of this book lies in its voices: Cops, thugs, Brits, gigolos, ghetto kids, scientists and lawyers all come to life in a world that feels part Elmore Leonard, part Carl Hiassen, and 100 percent New Jersey.
This eBook gives you two bonuses:
* Your purchase entitles you to a coupon good for a free copy of the author’s nonfiction eBook, The Scientist & the Sociopath: True Science Stories.
* A free, 3-chapter excerpt of the new horror novel, Haven House, by author Stuart Connelly.
Note: The mystery/thriller JERSEY HEAT is 77,000 words, and contains sex, violence, and profanity. The excerpt from the novel HAVEN HOUSE is 6,900 words, and contains scenes of horrific literary violence. The nonfiction eBook THE SCIENTIST & THE SOCIOPATH is 47,000 words, and contains scenes of real-life scientists talking intelligently about science-y things. A total of more than 130,000 words are yours with the purchase of this eBook.
PRAISE
“D’Agnese writes the most unusual and interesting books.”—Bookviews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning journalist JOSEPH D’AGNESE has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous popular science magazines. He’s author of THE MONEY BOOK FOR FREELANCERS, PART-TIMERS & THE SELF-EMPLOYED (Random House); SIGNING THEIR LIVES AWAY: THE FAME & MISFORTUNE OF THE MEN WHO SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (Quirk); SIGNING THEIR RIGHTS AWAY (Quirk), and the children’s picture book, BLOCKHEAD: THE LIFE OF FIBONACCI (Holt). His website is josephdagnese.com.
Excerpt from Jersey Heat by Joseph D’Agnese
“I’m not saying I wouldn’t have done the same thing,” he said. “Guy pisses you off, you want to hurt him. That’s common sense. I wouldn’t have done it now. Now is not a good time.”
“I feel bad about it,” she confessed.
“Feel bad? Feel bad? Answer me this. Did he hurt you?”
She bit her bottom lip, considered it. “Yeah. He did. He was hurting me.”
Mulcek smiled, something he rarely did. His teeth gleamed against the blackness. He stepped closer to her. She could feel his breath in her face, the sweat rising off his skin.
“How did it feel,” he whispered, “when you took the power back? How’d you feel when you hurt him?”
Her mind flashed an image: Her victim’s lips blowing blood bubbles…Horror etched upon his face…
She didn’t have to think.
“It felt great,” she said.
***
It’s a hazy, hot, and humid summer in New Jersey, circa 1993.
No mobile phones.
No Internet.
No Caller ID.
No DVDs.
No terrorists.
And the environment isn’t cool.
Luke Mulcek calls himself a businessman. He’s actually a thug in a suit, a former Brooklyn kid, ex-boxer, and mechanic who made good. Luke’s got an in at the water company in a piece of shit town, where he’s concocted a $200 million land deal to build condos on the reservoir. Ramming the plan through the town’s planning board is the tricky part. Shadow Lakes isn’t Brooklyn, and even before page one Mulcek has decided to cut through the red tape the way he would have done in the old neighborhood.
With payoffs, threats, blackmail — and murder.
A retired cop and a young slacker are all that stand between Mulck and his violent grasp at the good life.
Mulcek’s undoing — and the key to this environmental thriller — is a creature from the skies, bred by nature to be the ultimate killing machine.
The strength of this book lies in its voices: Cops, thugs, Brits, gigolos, ghetto kids, scientists and lawyers all come to life in a world that feels part Elmore Leonard, part Carl Hiassen, and 100 percent New Jersey.
This eBook gives you two bonuses:
* Your purchase entitles you to a coupon good for a free copy of the author’s nonfiction eBook, The Scientist & the Sociopath: True Science Stories.
* A free, 3-chapter excerpt of the new horror novel, Haven House, by author Stuart Connelly.
Note: The mystery/thriller JERSEY HEAT is 77,000 words, and contains sex, violence, and profanity. The excerpt from the novel HAVEN HOUSE is 6,900 words, and contains scenes of horrific literary violence. The nonfiction eBook THE SCIENTIST & THE SOCIOPATH is 47,000 words, and contains scenes of real-life scientists talking intelligently about science-y things. A total of more than 130,000 words are yours with the purchase of this eBook.
PRAISE
“D’Agnese writes the most unusual and interesting books.”—Bookviews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning journalist JOSEPH D’AGNESE has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous popular science magazines. He’s author of THE MONEY BOOK FOR FREELANCERS, PART-TIMERS & THE SELF-EMPLOYED (Random House); SIGNING THEIR LIVES AWAY: THE FAME & MISFORTUNE OF THE MEN WHO SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (Quirk); SIGNING THEIR RIGHTS AWAY (Quirk), and the children’s picture book, BLOCKHEAD: THE LIFE OF FIBONACCI (Holt). His website is josephdagnese.com.
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