Declan "Mac" MacManus
Created by D. Daniel Judson

Depressed, brooding self-destructive DECLAN "MAC" MacMANUS is circling the drain, a piss-poor part-time peeper living in a shabby apartment above a bar in oh-so-trendy Southampton, New York. His best friends are Eddie, a Jamaican cabbie and Augie Haskell, a disgraced DEA agent slowly trying to recuperate from injuries suffered when he took on a a drug dealer.

In his first appearance, The Bone Orchard (2002) , Augie is taken on by slick private eye Frank Gannon, who then decides to hire Mac as well, to keep an eye on Augie, who's still not a hundred percent. Working a domestic case, the pair witness a bizarre single-car accident. Investigating the fatal crash, Mac and Auggie follow a trail that seemingly leads to a murder conspiracy and a widespread corruption scandal that may rip the lid off their smalltown, and will definitely change Mac's (and Auggie's) lives for good.

A prequel of sorts, The Poisoned Rose, is already out, as you read this.

Pump it up.

UNDER OATH

• "... all I can say is that Joe Kurtz, the protagonist of Dan Simmons' Hard Freeze, is a mere girly-boy compared to Declan MacManus of The Bone Orchard. MacManus absorbs more punishment in about ten pages of the book than Mike Hammer in his entire career. After that, things really get rough for him. If Simmons' book was over the top, this one's out there in the stratosphere."
  (Bill Crider)
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• "(The Bone Orchard) is wonderfully written (and) the character of Mac is poignantly painted. It makes your heart ache to look at his lonely life. He has deliberately removed himself from participating in the world in a kind of self-exile, but yet he shows an unwavering loyalty to the people he cares about... I predict a long and successful career for Judson. He has the rare ability to establish a mood and develop memorable characters within a complex and involving plot. This is an impressive debut novel and one that I enjoyed very much.
  (Maddy Van Hertbruggen)
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• "A vivid cast of characters and a frightening plot packed with dead bodies combine to make Judson's atmospheric debut thriller one of the year's more memorable reads... Judson's plot is packed with intrigue, and his telling of the story most of which takes place during the hours between dusk and dawn is brilliant. Using sparse language to create lush, cinematic images, Judson transforms his colorful yet generally unlikable characters into empathetic creatures. What's more, the story unfolds slowly and beautifully, revealing critical character details only when the plot demands them. A dark tapestry of life gone mad in a trendy Hamptons summer town, this promising debut is ripe for a big-screen adaptation.
  (Publishers Weekly)
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• "... this is a great hardboiled debut with a noir atmosphere. Trust me, try this one."
  (Gary Warren Niebuhr)

NOVELS

• The Bone Orchard (2002)..Buy this book
• The Poisoned Rose (2002)..Buy this book

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.