Every Secret Thing: A Ross Duncan Novel: Volume 7 (Ross Duncan Novels) - Tapa blanda

The California Tule fog sits oppressively over the small town of Gentryville but it seems it has not deterred the antics of corrupt politicians, greedy developers and canny mobsters as they go about their business as usual.

Duncan Ross, enroute to San Francisco and in town, is drawn to help Carmelita back home to her father after being stranded by her boyfriend, the boxer Joey Cosimo. Joey is manipulated through drugs by the local mayor and mobster, Tony Vargas. As Duncan slowly discovers the secrets of the town, he tries to stay alive and protect Carmelita and Joey but the body count increases as the stakes get higher. Mobsters from Detroit come into Gentryville to disrupt Vargas’ plans and to seek revenge from a past killing but as the violence mounts, Duncan finds himself at the centre of an even larger plan to usurp control of the Hetch Hetchy Water System.

Underpinning this violence and crisp noir dialogue is the human tragedy borne of the desperate lives some people lead and the secrets they keep, with Duncan in his ever continuing quest to find the redemption he craves yet finding himself ever more deeply entrenched in the lawless killings of the competing mobsters and corrupt state enterprises.

Christopher Bartley, a pen name, is an American clinical psychologist and behavioral scientist. He is a professor at the University of Hawaii in Hilo, Hawaii, and also McNair Scholar and director of clinical research at The Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas. He conducts clinical trials, epidemiology, mental health services studies, neuroscience, and historical research with psychiatric inpatients, prisoners, and combat veterans. He has authored over 250 scientific publications, including a recent graduate textbook on psychopathology and papers on posttraumatic stress disorder, military suicides, alcoholism, and psychiatric illnesses among Union Forces during the U.S. Civil War. During his career he has consulted to US Congressmen, various elements of the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, the National Board of Medical Examiners, healthcare systems and universities, criminal and civil trial lawyers, and private philanthropists in Houston and Washington, D.C. He has also published commentaries in the National Review, Psychology Today, Huffington Post, New York Times, and Time Magazine. He has had an interest in American history since hearing a first-hand account of the Battle of San Juan Hill from his great-grandfather as a child and learning about his father’s military service during the Vietnam War. He is fascinated with the history of the Civil War, jazz, prohibition, gangsters, depression era bank robbers, baseball, and the people who live in America and make it what it is. The 1930s are a period of special interest to him. He does not smoke, though he enjoys fine whiskies and gin martinis. This is his seventh Ross Duncan novel. His eighth, Naked Shall I Return, will be published soon. His email address is rossduncan32@gmail.com. He also can be “liked” on Facebook (facebook.com/christobartley) and “followed” on Twitter (@christobartley).