As a new author and avid reader of mystery books, I spent five years creating and honing my first detective novel, "Butcher of Venice," selling now as an e-book and paperback on Amazon.

A serial killer is turning Venice, California into his personal recreational area. For private detective, Lenny Badger, it has been a year full of cruel moments since he caught his wife under the covers with their neighbor ~ a year complicated by the inexplicable disappearance of his new friend, Claudia Denton, and ending with the slaughter of Diane Jenkins, the wife of his current client. The deeper he probes into the kidnapping and murder, the more bodies pile up and he becomes LAPD's number one murder suspect.