I don’t always write serious historical fiction – I also dabble in darker, grittier stories writing as Ray Backley. Here are the three titles I currently have available on Kindle:

Slow Burning Lies – A Dark Psychological Thriller

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A coffee shop in Chicago is just closing. The last waitress goes to lock up.

But a man appears at the door, desperate to talk to her, to tell her Patrick’s story. He says she is the only person he can trust.

The waitress decides to let him come in, and he tells her a twisting tale of a man driven to the edge of madness by evil dreams.

But just who is Patrick? Some poor demented soul still suffering somewhere?

Or the man sitting in front of her?

(Note that this novel contains offensive language and violent scenes.)

Bad and Badder – Five Thrillers

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‘Bad and Badder’ is a collection of five gritty thrillers focussing on the more unsavoury people in society – their motivations, their victims, how they get their comeuppance, and how – just sometimes – they don’t.

In ‘A.B.C.’ a liaison between Shannon and Tyson is not quite what it seems. It all just has to go horribly wrong for one of them. But which one?

In ‘Desert Rat’ it’s Danny Freemont’s final business trip – his last chance to ‘see a little of the real country’. It quickly descends into a dry-throat Arabian nightmare where hope is in short supply.

‘Juked’ tells the story of Neeta Shah’s healthy cycle trip, and how it takes a very unhealthy turn, resulting in a cat and mouse battle of wits along the Pacific Highway.

‘Jack Slave’ is a tale of a bully who simply won’t seem to go away, and the drastic action that needs to be taken.

The final tale, ‘Crowe Ridge’, tells the story of how a person’s tainted history can come back to haunt them in the cruellest of ways.

Each story is between 40 and 50 pages long, and the collection is fully hyperlinked and bookmarked, with an author’s note after each story. (Note that all stories contain violence of one sort or another, that all except Crowe Ridge contain offensive language, and that A.B.C. contains scenes and descriptions of a sexual nature.)

Never Be Safe

She has a secret to keep.
He has a score to settle.
They can’t both win.

Catherine Brewer is happy and settled with what she always wanted: a loving husband, two cute little children, and a pleasant house. She also has a dangerous secret, a suppressed fragility, and a life about to be torn apart by her own history.

Vincent Lemont has just been freed from a long stretch in San Quentin. Memories of his incarceration run riot in his mind. He’s bitter, single-minded, and quite prepared to crush whoever and whatever stands in his path. He’s also way, way smarter than anyone gives him credit for.

Never Be Safe is a taut, no-frills suspense thriller, bristling with vengeance, purple with anger.