Married to an uncaring, workaholic husband, Shylia Allred walks to alleviate stress and to consider her divorce. Typical of many abused spouses, she dreams of escape but always comes up with a reason to thwart her own plans. Then, as she's walking past the local parish hall just as an AA meeting is letting out, she literally bumps into Randall Sly. As they get to know each other, she comes to trust him completely. He's the one man who can bring a huge change to her life. But change isn't a...

A psychological suspense story set in southern Louisiana.

Would being a cannibal qualify for having an eating disorder? While under armed guard and being tended to in an ER, accused cannibal and murderer John Searcy, AKA Randall Sly, escapes custody and takes a nurse, Susan, hostage. Does he want her for her excellent body... or does he want her for the excellent tone of her body? In the piney woods near a railroad track, Searcy meets up with his brother Wayne and a new acquaintance known only as Jackson. Twists and turns abound. Susan escapes, a...

This is a psychological thriller by Eric Stringer. His friend Janie is a collector, but a collector of what?

What's a guy to do when he just narrowly avoided taking a bullet in the skull? Where can he hide? What can he do? Maybe he should sit in a dumpster for awhile and mull his future.

These ten intense short stories also are included in the five-story collections About Town and Rare Women."But Babies Are Just So Cute!" is a touching story of how human beings react to babies. All babies. Especially in this intense, perhaps humorous, short story.In "Mouth Watering," an SF short story, when Lisa Reddich stops by a small café for a plate of French fries, she's looking for a mouth-watering experience. What she finds is considerably more than she bargained for...

Some boys are reared by cruel fathers. For them, the beatings don't stop until they're old enough and large enough to fight back. Carson McCullers once wrote, "The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes." Duffy Griswold is just such a boy.

Mr. Kristen dreams of world domination. Finally his chance comes. He finds himself in a launch bunker with the red button before him. Yes, that red button. And what he launches will not soon be forgotten.

Johnny Marsden sets out for home after a few hours' fishing. His grandfather becomes concerned and goes out looking for him. But what happens with Johnny and his grandfather is far from anything you might expect.

What's a mobster punk to do when the detective he's talking with about an attempt on his life turns and walks away? Or worse yet, simple fades out and disappears?

This is a touching story of how human beings react to babies. All babies. Just remember that in Eric Stringer's world, very seldom is anything as it appears. No difference, maybe, in this intense, perhaps humorous, short story.

In this SF short story, Jim Cable, a professional recovery expert for System Retrieval Inc., has been sent onto the Grenlow, a Morgan-class interplanetary transport, to stabilize it and bring it home. He scans and checks every space on the ship, but the engine room holds a mystery he and System Retrieval Inc. didn't bargain for.