CamCat Books

Milo is dead. And Nellie Bly has to write his obituary. Not exactly what she was hoping for when she left her post as the local weather girl in Kansas for a posh Southern California beach side community. But as more and more upstanding citizens of La Joya turn up dead in ghastly ways, Nellie and her pals at the Coastal Crier join forces with Detective Wendy Nakamura to follow the murderous trail of a ruthless cartel that traffics in endangered wildlife. When Nellie’s eccentric landlady, former B-movie actress, Dame Catherine Cavendish, begins to drop hints that threaten to bring to light the dark secrets of the village, unsettling incidents begin happening at the Cavendish estate, endangering the motley crew of scribes. Greed, betrayal, vengeance, gangsters and old Hollywood glamour make for great copy – if Nellie can stay alive long enough to meet her deadline.  Dead on My Feet is a quirky tongue-in-cheek adventure that will leave you breathless.

Suffering from writer's block, Michael Schatten books himself into a remote beachside cabin to find inspiration. Exploring the nearby town, he stumbles upon an antique shop, purchases a quaint typewriter, and begins to type a short story. On a walk on the beach the next day, he stumbles upon a dilapidated house just like the one he described in his story. And at lunch in a diner he overhears other patrons talk, using the very lines he composed the night before. What is going on? Has he entered the twilight zone? Gone mad? Or purchased a magic typewriter? Soon he realizes that his typewriter is a secret Cold War weapon and connects to a powerful computer capable of converting fiction to reality. Trouble is, there are others. Schatten must pit his writing skills against those of an acclaimed Russian author bent on subjugating the world, and he has only seven days to foil the plot.

A girl of the desert and a jinni born long ago by the sea, both enslaved to the Salt King—but with this capricious magic, only one can be set free. As a daughter of the Salt King, Emel ought to be among the most powerful women in the desert. Instead, she and her sisters have less freedom than even her father's slaves ... for the Salt King uses his own daughters to seduce visiting noblemen into becoming powerful allies by marriage. Escape from her father’s court seems impossible, and Emel dreams of a life where she can choose her fate. When members of a secret rebellion attack, Emel stumbles upon an alluring escape route: her father’s best-kept secret—a wish-granting jinni, Saalim. But in the land of the Salt King, wishes are never what they seem. Saalim’s magic is volatile. Emel could lose everything with a wish for her freedom as the rebellion intensifies around her. She soon finds herself playing a dangerous game that pits dreams against responsibility and love against the promise of freedom. As she finds herself drawn to the jinni for more than his magic, captivated by both him and the world he shows her outside her desert village, she has to decide if freedom is worth the loss of her family, her home and Saalim, the only man she’s ever loved.

Justice Kasric's world is turned upside down when her father forcibly bundles the entire family into carriages in the middle of the night and carts them off to a strange mansion on the outskirts of London. The Faerie are invading-and the Kasric siblings don't even have a chance to stay neutral, because different members of their family are working for opposite sides. But Justice isn't your average fifteen-year-old girl growing up in Victorian London. She's an irrepressible scoundrel, and she always has a plan. These qualities have ostracized her from the rest of the family before now, but even her older siblings look to her to help them escape. Justice certainly isn't going to stay locked up once she discovers the world of Faerie, especially once she and her siblings discover magical talents they never knew they had.

Rachel Drake is on the run from the man who killed her husband. She never leaves her safe haven in an anonymous doorman building, until one night a phone call sends her running. On her way to the garage, she is murdered in the elevator. But her story doesn’t end there.  She finds herself in the afterlife, tethered to her death spot, her reach tied to the adjacent apartments. As she rides the elevator up and down, the lives of the residents intertwine. Every one of them has a dark secret. An aging trophy wife whose husband strays. A surgeon guarding a locked room. A TV medium who may be a fraud. An ordinary man with a mysterious hobby. Compelled to spend eternity observing her neighbors, she realizes that any one of them could be her killer.  And then, her best friend shows up to investigate her murder.

Eight-grader Penny Preston thought she knew how to handle the Bodach, the spirits from the 5th dimension. But suddenly something is attacking the structure of the multiverse. Left unchecked, the attack will tear the fabric separating the dimensions and destroy the universe in a cataclysmic cosmic crunch. As the stress on the fabric grows, higher-dimensional energy escapes into Piper Falls, NY, re-energizing the Bodach. Emboldened, they use their regained powers to wreak havoc on the small town.   The extra energy draws several new higher-dimensional entities to Piper Falls. One of them, a former Bodach commander, seeks to rally her followers and avenge her defeat at the hands of King Arthur more than 1,600 years ago by re-establishing her rule. The energy also attracts an especially destructive ethereal Celtic spirit, which has a special taste for ancient artifacts and exotic nuclear particles. The last of the new arrivals is a mysterious and conflicted shape-shifter? a spy known as Newiddyn. The interactions of the newcomers and their empowered brethren with the town's residents results in chaos and brings paranormal researcher Darin Kolchak back to town. Teamed with the Deputy Sheriff, their high technology investigation leads them to the local lab conducting state of the art nuclear fusion experiments. The same lab where Penny's parents work. Penny and her friends must again dodge detection, as they sort out the capabilities and intentions of these powerful entities. One bad choice or wrong step risks unleashing the apocalypse of the Darkest Day.

As crown princess of Marghazar, Durkhanai Miangul will do anything to protect her people and her land. When her grandfather, the Badshah, is blamed for a deadly assault on the summit of neighboring leaders, the tribes call for his head. To assuage cries for war, the Badshah opens Marghazar’s gates to foreigners for the first time in centuries, in a sign of good faith. Enter Ambassador Asfandyar Afridi, a wry foreigner who admits outright that he is a spy. And yet, Durkhanai has to make him her ally to expose those truly responsible for the attack. When a mysterious illness spreads through the village and the imperialists push hard on her borders, she must sort through the ever shifting loyalties at court and her growing feelings for Asfandyar. Will she be able to leave the antics of a spoiled princess behind and become what her people need—a queen?

When Penny solves the riddle of an unbreakable knot in time, she unwittingly releases two time-travelers from the distant past into Piper Falls. The town is plagued by a series of baffling events related to the appearance of a strange elf-like creature. Penny's science teacher and mentor, Mr. Myrdin, recognizes him as the Coch Coblyn. An evil spirit from Celtic myth with a penchant for igniting city destroying fires.Compounding the mystery is the discovery of a prehistoric scepter, made of impossibly pure silver that's intertwined with Seneca creation myth and Master Poe's past.  The silver scepter draws the sole survivor from the ancient civilization that created it to Piper Falls.  After traveling forward thousands of years in time, he plans to take the scepter back to his own time and save his people from the cataclysm that destroyed them.Stumped by the escalating pranks of the Coch Coblyn, the Deputy Sheriff contacts his good friend, Darin Kolchak, a paranormal investigator.  Kolchak answers the call by bringing the latest in ghost-hunting technology to town in his refurbished U-haul.  Kolchak's methods may not be conventional, but they lead him dangerously close to the truth. Penny and her friends race to unravel the secrets of the artifact, dodge detection, and prevent either of the new arrivals from using it to return to power.

Skid doesn’t believe in ghosts or time travel or any of that nonsense. A circus runaway-turned-bouncer, she believes in hard work, self-defense, and good strong coffee. Then one day an annoying theoretical physicist named Dave pops into the seat next to her at her least favorite Kansas City bar and disappears into thin air when she punches him (he totally deserved it).Now, street names are changing, Skid’s favorite muffins are swapping frosting flavors, Dave keeps reappearing in odd places like the old Sanderson murder house—and that’s only the start of her problems.Something in the world has gone wrong. Terribly wrong. Absolutely &#*$&ed up.Someone has the nastiest versions of every conceivable reality at their fingertips, and they're not afraid to smash them together. With the help of a smooth-talking haunted house owner and a linebacker-sized Dungeons and Dragons-loving baker, Skid and Dave set out to save the world from whatever scientific experiment has sent them all dimension-hopping against their will. It probably means the world is screwed.Jason Offutt writes books. This is infinitely better than what his father trained him to do, which was to drink beer and shout at the television. He is best known for science fiction, such as his end-of-the-world zombie novel Bad Day for the Apocalypse (a curious work that doesn't include zombies), his paranormal non-fiction like Chasing American Monsters (that does), and his book of humor How to Kill Monsters Using Common Household Objects. He teaches university journalism, cooks for his family, and wastes much of his writing time trying to keep the cat off his lap. You can find more about Jason at his website, www.jasonoffutt.com. There are no pictures of his cat Gary, and it serves him right.

The future of the nation rests on one man’s birthmark.Fulford College is broke. In a desperate attempt to keep its doors open, the Florida based college joins forces with the Mafia to establish a scholarship program. This program, however, comes with a new set of students selected by the Mafia and a secret new curriculum. Little did this liberal arts college know, it was now home to the very first criminal education program in the nation. These brave students are now entering their senior year at Fulford during an election year. This class of well-trained criminals volunteers to work the election: half working for the Democratic campaign and half for the Republican campaign. Using the methods they learned in their sophistry class and other courses in corruption, their assignment is to help rig the presidential election in the Democratic candidate’s favor—Vice President Harold Griswold.But when the vice president is kidnapped and replaced with a doppelgänger, things start to go awry in Washington DC. Who is this man in the White House with Hal Griswold’s face? What is the Mafia up to? And how could one identifiable feature ruin it all?

Captain Alfred Lowenstein was known as many things during his glamorous and gaudy life. Companion of the Bath, friend of kings, an aviator and sportsman, a maker and loser of fortunes, and most favorably, a multi-millionaire. That is, until his mysterious death.On a July evening in 1928, Lowenstein boarded his aircraft with six others to travel from England to Brussels. He never arrived. While flying over the English Channel, Lowenstein fell through an exit door of the airplane on his way to the lavatory.People were quick to explain his mysterious death. Many said his fall was an accident while others speculated that he jumped from the plane to commit suicide. And of course, there were the more sinister theories claiming that someone pushed him out of the aircraft. But who? And why?Investigative journalist William Norris develops a theory of how and why this prominent, rich, and famous man died so violently without any explanation or official investigation. Did Lowenstein fall, did he jump, or was he pushed from his own aircraft?The Man Who Fell from the Sky contains excitement and mystery as Norris researches the business tycoon’s life, death, and aftermath of his demise and comes to a conclusion of how Alfred Lowenstein vanished into thin air.

A modern Gothic tale of a woman obsessed with her lover's taxidermy creatures and haunted by her past.When Scarlett meets taxidermist Henry, a passionate love affair commences. One year later, on Christmas Day, Scarlett recalls the ebb and flow of their intense relationship and tries to unravel her obsession with Henry's taxidermy creatures and the influence of his rival, Felix. Both enchanted and entrapped by the isolated rural environment on the Somerset moorland she calls home, Scarlett reaches out to her only remaining family, twin brother Rhett, to make sense of the secrets they share. Soon Scarlett realizes that past promises have far reaching consequences. Drenched in the torrential rains of rural South West England and the sensual pleasures of the characters, The Taxidermist's Lover lures you ever deeper into Scarlett's delightfully eerie world.

The legacy of a failed regime rises from the deep.Indomitable marine biologist Chris Black is looking forward to six quiet months of scientific research off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. But when on a routine dive Chris discovers the wreck of a fishing vessel that disappeared during a storm decades earlier, he inadvertently clashes with the ghost of South Africa's Apartheid. Thousands of gold Krugerrand provide powerful motivation for treachery everywhere, and Chris is forced to take a careful look at those he trusts most. Racing against time, he must find out who is providing critical information to the criminals ... before too much innocent blood is shed.""Opening this book is like diving with sharks. Big sharks. At night. In a hurricane. What next?"" -Stephen Palumbi, scientist and author of The Death and Life of Monterey Bay

Alexandra Quinn and Rio Mondragon run a successful magician-for-hire business where they break spells and hexes for their clients. But they are always under the watchful eye of the Bureau of Magical Affairs, who want to pass a law requiring all magic users to wear scarlet letters. Luckily, Quinn is involved with a BMA agent and is able to get away with any violation. When Quinn and Rio's old classmate-wealthy club owner and convicted dark wizard Devin Rayne-hires them to find out who is trying to kill him, the three are thrown into a chaotic and magical adventure.But Quinn has a personal vendetta against their new client. Convinced that Rayne and his dark magic were involved in the death of her boyfriend ten years ago, makes their partnership very complicated. The two must put their differences aside, however, when they discover a lead in their investigation.When Quinn finally learns the truth of what happened that night ten years ago, she uncovers a darker connection to their present case. The three are in a magical battle for their lives, but who will survive?

Jason Verne is an All-American Hero. As the first man to set foot on Mars after a solo journey into space, he quickly became a familiar figure in every living room. His good-will and human courage won over the hearts of many, including the daughter of world-famous televangelist, Timothy Grayson. His meteoric rise didn’t end there. While settling into the limelight with his wife and new baby Timmy, he became the perfect candidate to move into the White House. But this kind of fame and power comes at a price. The midnight kidnapping of Timmy Verne leaves the world aghast. Who would commit the capital offence of breaking the Lindbergh Law? Then veteran reporter Albert Choate notices suspicious parallels between the kidnapping of the president-elect’s only child and another event that occurred almost a hundred years ago—the Lindbergh Kidnapping. History seems to be repeating itself. Is this some sort of twisted coincidence, or could the Trial of the Century be occurring all over again for some other sinister purpose?

Jude and his friends are penniless, jobless, and spend most of their days at the Shack bartering for booze. They have known each other for years, yet they don't know much about each other. That is until the group of misfits embark on a twenty-four hour adventure to fulfill the wish of a six-year old boy. Toby has spent most of his life in hospitals fighting a rare cancer. All he wants for his birthday is a blue bicycle, but his mother can't even afford to buy him a birthday cake. Jude and his friends make it their mission to grant this little boy's birthday wish, but how will they raise enough money before sunset tomorrow? Raising a hundred dollars in one night is not an easy task for beach bums with no jobs, so the five friends need to try everything they can think of from asking for donations to a car wash. They even attempt to build a boat to catch fish they can sell.Along the way, their drive, compassion, and courage transforms them from a band of misfits into genuine heroes. If they succeed, their lives could change forever.