When 18 year-old Laural embarks on her midwest college odyssey she envisions promising new beginnings. Instead, her lifeline perilously crosses paths with a murderous malcontent. Blossoming love and collegiate discovery risk certain demise,  poisoned by weaponized milkweed toxin, and a psychopath’s animosity toward humankind.

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Teaming with her track mate Jackie, a pageant trained, Krav Maga ready renaissance woman, Laurel must navigate a treacherous web of secrets, spun with venomous intent, and artistic deception.

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Inside a campus where nature can heal or kill, and faith must be nurtured to survive, the truth may be the most poisonous thing of all.

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Stay tuned for further adventures of Laural N. Hardy in C. Scott Howe’s new thriller, The Knives of Northcastle.

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In her first year of medical school, Laural crosses paths with a barbarous Butcher, who is pruning the city’s populace.

Fear tastes like a rusty knife when a fisherman‘s net ensnares a perfectly preserved foot captaining its faux diamond- studded tennis shoe across the  English Channel hell-bent on escaping Northcastle and the bloody river Tyne.

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While skeletons sink and cannot swim, they do not drown-without a story!