BURN – A Year-round Place to Die For
BURN – A Year-round Place to Die For is the story a security consultant for a vacationing senator who’s running for president, set against the backdrop of islanders struggling to find a decent place to live. The island, beautiful as it is, does not present an easy way of life for those to settle and work there. Real estate is expensive, and after all, it is an island, so there is only so much of it. Summer rents are too attractive for those who own houses, and year-round islanders are forced to move twice a year or more as they, and their families, endure the Vineyard shuffle.
Jack Rotenborough, senator from New Jersey, vacations on the island and takes up the cause of those who need a year-round place to live. Senator Rotenborough is also the leading candidate for president among the GOP, opposing CIA director Dr. Kirsten Loring, the Democratic front runner. Meanwhile, an eco-activist group from the Pacific Northwest, calling itself the Radical Order of Freedom Seekers (ROOFS) has targeted the mega-mansions of Martha’s Vineyard left unoccupied during the winter months, setting them afire and burning them from their roofs down to the ground.
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and Kindle digital editions
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check out the first few chapters
from Holly Nadler’s review in the MV Times: “…the drama and the action just keep comin’ atcha…unputdownable….”
BUZZD – The Bee Kill Conspiracy
Set in the scenic natural beauty of Martha’s Vineyard, BUZZD – The Bee Kill Conspiracy tells the story of corporate greed, mercenary killing and a new agricultural chemical that endangers the island ecosystem. Afghan war vet and special ops marine, Sam Hill uncovers the truth about the death of an EPA official, swarmed by killer bees. Sam finds a single loose thread and pulls on it until he unravels a national conspiracy that could threaten the entire planet.
Available on Amazon in print
and Kindle digital editions
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check out the first few chapters
“…plenty of stingers to go around, but the action is also as laid back as a rumpled beach towel drying on the line.”
— The Vineyard Gazette
“…a strap-on-your-seatbelt-white-knuckle-thrill-ride…”
— The Martha’s Vineyard Times
XOC – The White Shark Murders
In the spring of 2013, Sepiessa Press launched XOC as a serial novel by Michael West. Sepiessa Press ran the eighty episodes on the WordPress blog site to coincide with the run up to the vote in the town of Oak Bluffs — whether to require the annual shark tournament convert to a catch-and-release format. The measure carried.
What’s XOC about? Every year a bunch of drunken yahoos set out in their very expensive fishing yachts from Oak Bluffs harbor on the Vineyard in pursuit of sharks, which they catch, kill, string up on a gallows, gut and chop into pieces, but not before cutting out their jaws. That is the setting against which XOC – The White Shark Murders plays out the story of a young man returning from service in Afghanistan. In his own words,
“…entering a world that, once again, was not what I expected, embarking on a week that would change my life. The people I met and their passions, their petty disputes and crooked schemes converged on the town of Cottage City over the span of those few fateful days. As the great storyteller once said, Fate was working its ass off when it got us all together. And it was an explosive combination.”
Available on Amazon in print
and Kindle digital editions
You can click on the image to go
check out the first few chapters
“Jaws was a simple, primal conflict: man vs. shark. In Xoc, also set on Martha’s Vineyard, Michael West serves up a shark tournament, eco-protesters, a shark gambling ring, corrupt officials, mobsters and, for a hero, an ex-Marine who’s not quite over Afghanistan. This time, not surprisingly, it’s not just the beaches that aren’t safe.”
— Jesse Kornbluth, HeadButler.com and Huffington Post
“Within the context of current ecological imperatives, XOC offers a highly engaging synthesis of suspense, romance and humor. This gritty and smartly crafted novel brings new meaning to the expression ‘going fishing with the family.’”
— Steve Maxner, VAST Coordinator
“In Xoc Michael West has found a perfect setting for a thriller with eco-political freight. The Monster Shark Tournament on Martha’s Vineyard — only slightly fictionalized to give the author some clever leeway — is laid out for us in all its massive corruption and lunacy. The good guys are darn-tootin’ good, and the bad guys are suitably scary. At last the Vineyard, after decades of producing mystery writers of the teapot cozy has its own Randy Wayne White.”
— Holly Nadler, author of Vineyard Confidential and Haunted Island