Author Description

Product Description New York City's Alphabet City is a magnet for desperate hustlers, con men, and last-chance addicts. Payton Sherwood knows that scene. But Payton also lives by a white-knight creed derived from the heroes of Golden Age detective fiction. And like those renowned hardboiled private eyes, he is riddled with loss--the loss of an old love who still exists in daydreams, and the loss of a city he barely recognizes. Payton takes a wrong turn on a side street and stumbles into trouble in the form of three bull-necked heavies and a tough sixteen-year-old runaway named Gloria Manlow. After taking a savage beating, he tracks Gloria through Alphabet City, where the shadows that frighten aren't those that shade the street, but rather the soul. Payton's dusk-to-dawn nightmare on the wild side is about to begin--and nothing will stop it but death. About the Author Russell Atwood attended the American University of Washington, DC, where he cofounded the student magazine American Library. Afterward, he served as the managing editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He has worked as an off-Broadway house manager at the Orpheum and Westwide Theatres, and also as an editor at A&E Monthly Magazine, writing the "Mystery Page" column. In 1996 he published his first mystery short story which introduced Payton Sherwood in "Ellery Queen: East of A." Sherwood continues his adventures in Russell Atwood's debut novel. The author lives in the East Village of New York City.Adams Morgan is a theater-trained actor who has appeared in venues around the United States. He has also narrated for National Public Radio and performed radio dramas and historical reenactments. He lives in New York City.