The Fall A Mystery by David Fulmer from Five Stones Press |
Following the shocking first scene, the story shifts to a Manhattan morning as Richard Zale happens upon a news story about yet another classic song being snapped up for an advertising campaign. He tells his wife of the marvelous moment when he and his childhood friend Joey Sesto first heard the song. That evening, with the song or his former friend still on his mind, he decides to make contact, only to learn from Joey’s sister Angela that he’s been dead for two weeks. It was he who had fallen to his death in the first scene. Staggered by the news and wracked with guilt, Richard travels back to his hometown of Wyanossing, PA to pay his respects. When he arrives, he is greeted by Angela and another drama begins, as the two of them have a secret history. Now a local attorney, she’s still grieving, and while grateful for the visit, she’s wary of Richard. It’s his intention to stay just long enough to pay his respects. However, he’s only in town a short while when old frictions and a new puzzle emerge. Officially, Joey’s death was ruled an accident. He was wandering around Nock Hill, an old stomping ground, when he stepped onto the jutting edge of Council Rock and then fell. Puzzled by this odd end and not quite willing to say goodbye, Richard decides to stay the rest of the day and that night as her guest. As he wanders around town, New York actor Richard Zale reverts to hometown boy Richie Zaleski; and Richie Zaleski wants to know how his friend Joey died. Though he’s no detective, Wyanossing is a small town and secrets live close to the surface. Once he starts poking around, former friends reappear to share suspicions of foul play, former enemies make it clear that they want him gone, and strangers drop tantalizing hints that things are not what they seem. He stays another day and night, and convinces Angela that there’s something amiss. With her cooperation, keeps digging, and finds out that Joey was spending a lot of time in the town library, poring over old maps. The story begins to take an ominous turn. His car is savagely vandalized. Someone takes a shot at Angela and him. Some locals pick a fight in a bar gets him arrested. He and Angela manage to keep their hands off each other as the mystery thickens, though the sexual tension between them is electric. Meanwhile, his wife in New York grows alarmed by the threats from parties unknown -- and from his one-time love. Undaunted, Richie continues on a dangerous trail. What he finds at the end of that road is a large and insidious evil that lurks in the shadows of the placid little borough. The story winds to a fever pitch and comes down to a gut- wrenching climax of blood and betrayal, with the lives of Richard and Angela and the final verdict of Joey’s death caught in the glare of one deadly moment. Release Date: March 15, 2010 Contact: FiveStonesPress@fivestonesllc.com www.fivestonesllc.com |
Rough voices mutter in the darkness and a body tumbles from an outcropping of rock to land on the railroad tracks hundreds of feet below. The night goes still again as a life ends in one sad breath. So begins, “The Fall” a mystery of murder that races the deepest bonds of friendship. |