Diabetes in Fiction

Rock climbing is now a blood sport. Detective Inspector Nick Dixon’s former climbing partner, Jake Fayter, is dead. Killed in a fall whilst practising a new route on High Rock, Cheddar Gorge. Convinced that Jake would not have made such a simple mistake, Nick Dixon starts digging and uncovers a web of intrigue and criminal activity that will rock the sleepy seaside town of Burnham-on-Sea to its core. As the body count rises, Dixon is forced to break every rule in the book and put his own life on the line to bring the killer out into the open. A fast paced crime thriller that will leave you gasping for breath, AS THE CROW FLIES is a spine tingling introduction for DI Nick Dixon and a spectacular debut novel from crime fiction writer, Damien Boyd.

These stories, all set in nearby towns in the Alabama Black Belt a swath of dark soil that runs west to east through the central part of the state explore the history, culture, and human spirit of the people who live there, and those that came before them and were shaped by the same rich and corrupted geography. In the title story, a teenage girl wants desperately to escape her self-destructive mother and comes to realize the hay-bale art she can see from their house may hold a key to her future, if she can divine it. The novella ‘Playing War’ tells the story of a wife who’s just learned the hunting accident her husband was involved in years earlier was not exactly an accident. ‘Haints at Noon,’ written in the form of a 1930s slave narrative, tells the story of a couple trying to endure that ‘peculiar institution.’ The past and present are joined here in stories that demonstrate the never-ending struggle for understanding and connection.

Dr. Cameran Young knew her assignment wouldn’t be easy. As lead biologist on the Environment Impact Assessment team, her findings would determine the future of a large mining project in the northern Canadian bush. She expected rough conditions and hostile miners–but she didn’t expect to find a dead body her first day on the job. Former SAS Sergeant Daniel Fox forged a career as a helicopter pilot, working as far from the rest of the human race as possible. The thrill of flying makes his civilian life bearable, and he lives by his mantra: don’t get involved. But when he’s charged with transporting the biologist to her research vessel, he can’t help but get involved in the murder investigation–and with Cameran, who awakens emotions he’s desperate to suppress. In the harsh and rugged wilderness, Daniel and Cameran must battle their intense and growing attraction while keeping ahead of a killer who will stop at nothing to silence her…

Life in New York City is fantastic for ambitious investment banker, Paul, his successful artist wife, Candice, and their beautiful and talented daughter, Sally. They are the model of an affluent, high-powered urban couple — until the day the carefully constructed wall of their secrets comes crashing down. Paul and Candice have been venturing into the gray areas of monogamy, and during a passionate escapade, Paul discovers that Candice has been a closet drug addict for the better part of their relationship. Resisting to face his own denial, having to deal with his suddenly weakening health, facing death and grasping at the threads of his failing relationship with his daughter, Paul needs a revelation. When he joins a cutting edge research project on the effects of stress, Paul discovers that there isn’t much of a difference between an addict, like his wife, and himself, who chooses to badly manage his type one diabetes. The New York City Marathon becomes the riveting and unexpected backdrop for the new bright life about to begin. GOOD LIKE THIS is a passionate story about family, commitment, self-discovery, the connection between body and mind, and the difference between "high and happy."

Karen Hollander is a celebrated attorney who recently removed herself from consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her reasons have their roots in 1968—an episode she’s managed to keep secret for more than forty years. Now, with the imminent publication of her memoir, she’s about to let the world in on that shocking secret—as soon as she can track down the answers to a few crucial last questions. As junior-high-school kids back in the early sixties, Karen and her two best friends, Chuck and Alex, roamed suburban Chicago on their bikes looking for intrigue and excitement. Inspired by the exotic romance of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, they acted out elaborate spy missions pitting themselves against imaginary Cold War villains. As friendship carries them through childhood and on to college—in a polarized late-sixties America riven by war and race as well as sex, drugs, and rock and roll—the bad guys cease to be the creatures of make-believe. Caught up in the fervor of that extraordinary and uncanny time, they find themselves swept into a dangerous new game with the highest possible stakes. Today, only a handful of people are left who know what happened. As Karen reconstructs the past and reconciles the girl she was then with the woman she is now, finally sharing pieces of her secret past with her national-security-cowboy boyfriend and activist granddaughter, the power of memory and history and luck become clear. A resonant coming-of-age story and a thrilling political mystery.