PAGE 1 OR DONE! by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

CHAPTER 1

TRUTH OR FANTASY?

Two years and one day after Nelson Bennett died, he rose from the dead.

Amidst the hundreds of people strolling down the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California he stood alone, hair dark brown, not prematurely gray like it used to be, and at least thirty pounds lighter.

“Nelson!” Jake yelled. “Nelson!” The man was about fifty feet away – close enough for Jake to clearly make out his features; far enough for Jake to wonder if he was hallucinating. There was no way Jake could ever forget or mistake Nelson’s face. It was the face of his older brother, his only brother and only sibling.

The man turned, stared straight at Jake, his blue eyes locking onto Jake’s blue eyes. Abruptly, he glanced over his shoulder, a startled look transforming his gaunt, clean-shaven face, and he placed his index finger in front of his lips. Then he pivoted, and like a snowflake landing on a hot windshield, melted away.

“Stop!” Jake hollered, shoving past two young couples walking in front of him, pushing his way through the endless crowd of people toward the spot where Nelson’s image had vanished.

There in front of the designer eyeglass store, Jake stretched his six-foot frame and stood on his tiptoes to see over the passing crowd. No sign of Nelson anywhere. How could there be? Nelson’s ashes were sitting on a shelf in his closet.

Jake took a deep breath and broke into a run. He knew his behavior was absurd and that Nelson was dead. He also knew what he had just seen.

That’s the rule when you’re not John Grisham, Michael Connolly, or Nelson DeMille etc. To join their hallowed ranks, you need readers, and to get readers you have to immediately engage them.

Like the first page of NINE NORTH? Click to buy it.

Love the book? Tell friends. Go on Amazon. Thanks in advance. Art

#Mysteythriller #lovestory #hidingonapsychunit #Hassidiclife

NINE NORTH, by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

Jake Bennett throws away his Ivy League education and the love of his life to be a writer. Three failed novels later, a crappy apartment, a battered car, and waiting tables to survive, he sees his dead brother on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. Hours later, he’s attacked by members of 14K, a brutal Hong-Kong-based Triad, and almost killed. To hide from his attackers, he gets himself admitted to Nine North, the psychiatric unit at New County Hospital. 

Like cozy mysteries? 

Two lovers you’ll never forget? 

A brilliant writer hiding out on a psychiatric unit in Los Angeles?

A Hong Kong Triad trying to kill him?

A psychiatrist who actually tries to figure out why his patients do what they do?

How the unconscious mind rules our behavior? 

High finance? 

Cryptocurrency?

You’ve got to read NINE NORTH, a mystery. It’ll blow you away.

#mystery #suspense #psychiatrists #lovestory