Dead End / Psycho Logic

In his Anthony Award nominated short story "Dead End", author Craig Faustus Buck introduces Johno Beltran, a former homicide detective who fell from grace when a stupid mistake allowed a rich, sadistic sex killer to go free. This story begins four years after the trial with Johno now living out of his car and working as a parking attendant at a celebrity haunt called Kama Sushi. One night, the man who got away with murder, wealthy plastic surgeon Dr. Luke Vico, drives into the Kama Sushi lot and Johno is forced to park his $100,000 car. The humiliating reunion leads Johno down a dark, twisty road toward a deadly collision between paranoia and reality. The noir suspense thriller novella, Psycho Logic, picks up where "Dead End" leaves off. Alyssa Lido lives down the beach from Dr. Vico. She meets Johno as a result of his ill-fated clash with the infamous killer. The sexual voodoo between Johno and Alyssa is powerful, her marriage to her former psychiatrist notwithstanding. Alyssa suspects her husband, who once treated her for paranoia, of manipulating some of his more vulnerable patients for sex. When a porn star patient is found dead, Johno is convinced that the shrink killed her to cover up his sex-crimes and that Alyssa is next on his hit list. As events spiral out of control, Johno and Alyssa are sucked into a vortex of blackmail, pornography, torture, betrayal, vengeance, love, guilt, passion, murder, muscle cars and valet parking.


Genre: Mystery