Boston, Massachusetts; the first blackout city in the United States after the anti-technology revolution. Anti-technology cult radicals took over the city, and instead of dealing with them, the government closed it off, declaring Boston as a 'blackout zone'. No technology, machinery, or advanced devices permitted. Avel Vysotsky will do anything for money. He's Boston's famed moneylender, a loan shark, and he will do anything to collect what's his. Those living in the blackout zone have named him 'King of the Rats' because his methods are dirty, but his intelligence is sharp. He hides in the shadows, always waiting, always watching to get what he's owed. Sterling Fakara is a hired hand. His skills in combat outmatch most, and he's not subtle about it. When Avel hires him to be his own personal 'guard dog', Sterling jumps at the chance, because what Avel doesn't know, is that Sterling is an undercover cop, on a mission to rid the blackout parts of the country from crime before it begins to bleed out of the blackout zones. When a new moneylender suddenly appears in Avel's territory, an all-out war breaks loose. Avel refuses to make room for any other lenders, he never did like sharing, and Sterling decides to stick with Avel, wanting to take down both lenders at once. Both Avel and Sterling are greedy for two different things, and Sterling quickly realizes the effects of Boston, and of a blackout zone in general. With every day he spends with Avel, his morality twists into greed, and it isn't long before Avel's grip on him begins to change his desires for the worse.

There is no politician above him. There is no authority to end him. There will never be a man with a status higher than his. He is Virtus Lux. He is the Bone Cutter. The most ruthless one in history. His job? Remove the corruption of the United States government, one kill at a time. His goal? Get a wife to establish the Bone Harvester. Every Bone Cutter needs a Bone Harvester at their side. So, why is it that every wife of his ends up dead? He is the threat parents tell their kids at night. The murderer nobody wants to face. After all, he killed six of his wives. His heart shows no evidence of being real, perhaps he was even born without one. Wasn't he? Being a Bone Cutter is his greatest dream. Isn't it? All six of his wives ended up dead. Didn't they? Who, above anything else, is Uri Ruben; the young man who stands by his side throughout every interview, and media coverage? And are they even a man at all?

On November 3rd, 2006, an anomaly occurred. An incidence so rare, the world has never witnessed such a thing. On that peculiar night, a star fell, and along with it, so did a living, breathing boy. Rosie Cardel was only seven the night the star boy fell onto her family's farm. Her parents being asleep at the hour, didn't realize their daughter left the house in the middle of the night to see what it was that fell out of the sky. It was then, that Rosie met Icah, the alien boy who lived in the fallen star. He was a kind boy, he looked human, but he wasn't human. Icah, having no idea what to do after his star fell, decided to do exactly what his elders taught him if he ever found himself stranded on Earth. He linked himself, all of himself, his heart, and breath, and thoughts, and body to Rosie. Allowing him to live within her body, her mind, and the brink of her soul. Rosie, ecstatic at first that she has a new friend that will never leave her side, soon realizes as she gets older, that having an unearthly being dwelling inside you is dangerous, and not the marvel she thought it was, especially when the government gets involved.

In a desperate attempt to secure a roof over her younger sister's head, nineteen year old Allie Winthrop takes a job that no one else seemed too eager to apply for. The job is a maid position for a well to do family who had made a fortune in both the ranching and railroad industries. Her bosses, Mr. and Mrs. Treadwell, aren't exactly the friendliest of people. Pure snobs truly is what they are, but Allie is used to being looked down on by the wealthy. All she cares about is that the jobs pays well and offers room and board to not only her but her sister, Amelia. The Treadwell's had even agreed to allow Amelia to get schooling from the woman they employed to teach their own children. Life with the Treadwell's is better than the life that Allie and Amelia had known before and Allie feels content and secure until Amelia starts speaking of a man in the attic. Spurred by her sisters stories and by the Treadwell's startling reactions to her questions about the attic, Allie decides to take a look for herself. What she discovers there will change her life forever.

When a strange advertisement appears on the local newspaper asking for compliant females willing to interview and connect with the minds of the worlds worst serial killers, Aria Black thinks it nothing short of an exaggeration. She applies for the job in order to spice up her monochrome lifestyle and let loose of her past. She receives the biggest shock of her life. That shock comes in the form of a man infamously known as Banshee. © bincus, 2017. recognitions: wattys shortlisted 2018. featured in mystery. #1 in mystery/thriller 2019.

February 19th, 2018 He is test subject Three-eleven-thirteen. Ellie for short. He's human. Remarkable. He can breathe freely, no tubes. His heart has adapted to beating on it's own. He opened his eyes yesterday, we looked at one another. He looked at me, truly looked at me. My daughter, Ripley, tried speaking with him, but he didn't understand. I will have her keep working with him. He will speak. February 23rd, 2018 He is standing. His bones are still fragile, but he is gaining muscle rapidly. This is incredible progress in such little time. Everything is going as planned, though his fingernails are black. They weren't black yesterday. March 13th, 2018 Ellie attacked Ripley last night. He will be kept in restraints from now on. March 27th, 2018 My God he is strong. The mysterious blackness that had formed in his fingernails is now flowing in his veins. Whatever this black liquid is, it's possessing him. April 4th, 2018 He bit me last night. I can feel the mystery in my veins. What is this? April 5th, 2018 Test subject three-eleven-thirteen, Ellie, will no longer be a patient of mine. I have locked him up in a cell in my lab. I fear him. He will stay in that cell for God knows how long until he starves to death. I am a coward. April 6th, 2018 I can't tolerate this. I think I'm truly losing it. My memories, my spirit, I feel them being eaten by this black virus. I have to end this tonight. I have to end myself tonight. I have too. Ripley, my sweet daughter, I love you baby. I am sorry for creating that abomination. I am so sorry.

Inanis Messor is The Bone Cutter. He's America's most fierce and cursed celebrity. He's America's modern prophet. He's America's very own murderous darling. Inanis's job is to broadcast a live death on public television once a month, as a sacrifice to the public. Every month on the 15th, Inanis steps on a large, vibrant stage, in front of dozens of cameras, and executes a living political individual as repentance for the sins of America's government. It keeps the public satisfied. It keeps the government from having to own up to their mistakes. Mirea Dhalmi is the daughter of a famous state governor; a man who involves himself in every political discussion the media has to offer. But when he's chosen to be Inanis's next victim, Mirea desperately pleads with The Bone Cutter to spare his life. Inanis agrees, but at a price. Mirea must now become his bride, his public display. She becomes The Bone Harvester, the woman who stands beside The Bone Cutter on the bloody stage that is broadcasted throughout public television. The unfortunate woman who stands beside the celebrity who kills in front of the nation.

On January ninth, 1996, a boy with an odd skeleton was unfortunately born into existence. With his homeless mother in need of cash, and too terrified to look at the child she gave birth too, she sold him to 'Mr. Father's Family of Freaks'; a popular circus show that obsesses over real-born monsters. This boy, born with no worth, sold into labor, and raised as a show, was taught that he was the mis-creation of man. He gives children nightmares, and make women scream, and never once was he told that it wasn't his fault. His name, is Cousin Ignominy. The clown with a deformed body. Bexley Valentino, an innocent seventeen year old, who doesn't believe in monsters, realizes just how important of a man Cousin Ignominy is. After seeing his show, and wallowing in her broken heart for the clown, she soon finds herself trying to break him out. She wants to show him how important it is to feel. How important it is to admire the world, but it doesn't take long for her to realize maybe he was locked up for a reason. ~~~ "You don't kill. You don't kill. You don't kill. If you learn that, you will remember where your morals stand. Hit them, bite them, burn them alive, but don't kill. Don't you ever go that low."

"If they aren't pretty when they are dead, then why bother keeping the bodies in my cemetery? Just burn them. Burn all of them, and give me the charming ones." I laughed at how psychotic he sounded; or even how psychotic he was."You're young, why do you even own your own cemetery? That can't even be legal." "Why bother concerning yourself over my affairs? This cemetery-" he quickly corrected himself, "My cemetery is the most luxurious and ravishing of them all." He bent down, and began to whisper in my ear, "And I know, that you, my lamb, understand my funeral style, don't you?"

Cain Luther is mad. Truly, voluntarily mad. He's obsessed with mutilation, creation, and absolute discovery. His goal is to create a chemical that the government will fear. To create something that the American people want more than anything else. A chemical to rid all of life's problems. He's willing to die for this experiment, and little do they know; he is. Cain is addicted to injecting himself with the deadly failures his studies produce. His body is quickly falling apart, as his bones have become so brittle you could break them with no effort at all. His eyesight is dimming each day, he'll soon be blind, and his muscles are so weak, he doesn't have the strength to carry himself most days. He is a walking test subject. His body struggled to hold life. Doctors warn he will die in no less than a year if he keeps this up. So can Ophelia Alvarado, a college student who just so happens to be his roommate, have what it takes to save Cain from voluntary suicide? Can she save him from his own man-made plague?