BLOOD AND MASCARA
COMING July 9th, 2024
Iris is watching Bronze.
Bronze is following Carolyn.
Carolyn is sleeping with Billy.
Now Billy is dead and a killer is coming for them all.
Washington, DC, 1997:
A city stumbling toward recovery after a decade of violence, drugs, AIDS, and exodus. Bronze Goldberg—a soft-boiled private detective in a hard-boiled world—scrapes out a living stalking the steps of cheating spouses while bearing the trauma of the past like an open wound. But his latest assignment, surveilling the indiscretions of a stunning femme fatale, has entangled him in the murder of an up-and-coming congressman and made him the target of an unstoppable assassin. Meanwhile, the spiraling chaos of Bronze’s dangerous adventures has attracted the obsessive attention of his landlord, Iris Margaryan, a brilliant romance novelist who may hold the missing piece in the puzzle of Bronze’s fatal past. Can Bronze survive long enough to reach the ultimate truth?
A gripping noir mystery—both intensely provocative and darkly thrilling—Blood and Mascara descends into the depths of the human soul before exploding in an ending too shocking to ever forget.
HOP-ABOUT: The Adventures of Benny the Bunny and Mr. Rabbit
A 2021 Kirkus Reviews' Best Book of the Year
"Colin Krainin achieves something remarkable in his accomplished and poignant novel, giving a profound emotional and spiritual range to his stuffed-animal characters ... An extraordinarily moving, powerful tale about the resilience of grace and the joy of friendship." ~Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
If Mr. Rabbit had to change one thing in his life—well, he wouldn’t. His best friend Benny the Bunny could not agree more. The two wawas enjoy a vibrant life together on the Upper West Side of New York City. Their cozy days are filled with flowers, friends, and fresh strawberries smothered in whipped cream.
That all changes when Benny’s past comes knocking on the door of Apartment 1K in the form of Custerd the Cat. He’s orange. He’s outrageous. He’s Boca Raton’s leading feline bon vivant. And he is a cat with a plan.
The wawas soon find themselves on a journey to find a lost friend that takes them across the Australian outback to a grand fortress, mysterious and dark. Will the wawas confront their greatest fears in order to find their friend? Or, like so many other wawas before them, will they end up lost without any hope of being found?