Showing results by author "Robert W. Walker" in All Categories

He felt most alive when he watched them die - writing, breathless, gasping for oxygen that wasn't there. But, he could only draw out the pleasure for so long before his victims expired. And, then it was time to choose another. Death by asphyxiation. That's what Chicago medical examiner Dr. Dean Grant was forced to conclude by the gruesome evidence before him. Recognizing the work of a serial killer, Grant knew he'd have to move fast.

Just when Archeologist and Vampire Slayer, Dr. Abraham Stroud thinks he can take it easy, take a second seat on a dig in West Texas, he is wrong from the outset. Plagued by warnings he does not at first recognize, Abe soon finds himself in the thick of an attack on humankind by a pod of prehistoric, giant centipedes that have cultivated a taste beyond livestock to a taste for humans. The creatures are known to local Native Americans as "Burrowers" as they have seen them before, but for Abe and those around him, there is a brewing war anticipated and soon engaged.

Hauntings, banshees, incubi, nightmares, phobias, cyborg disease, hit men, serial killers, vampires, and more. The range of these 10 stories is wide and inclusive of many genres. Each story packs a one-two punch, and will leave the listener questioning what it means to be human from "A Snitch in Time" to "Human Error" and "Bed Bait & Beyond", these tales skewer what we think we know and supplant it with what we should have known from sentence one to end.

A spy working for religious organizations, Jere Wakely is summoned to Salem Village Parish, where it has become obvious to church authorities that there is serious trouble. He is reluctant to return to his hometown for many reasons, not the least being that his heart is broken, and he's worried about running into his former lover, Serena Nurse. During his investigation, he has no expectation that their love will be rekindled. But their renewed passion parallels a greater fire - one of terror amid the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

This is a short story dealing with an injustice, a town without patience or pity in 1912 for the last living slave woman in this town. Each of six scenes builds to a crescendo of action. It is an old story of injustice brought about by those in power toward the poorest and least powerful in the community. It is also a story of rage when the last straw is put on old, dear Aunt Tilley who has changed the diapers of those who want to remove her. Told in the best tradition of Mark Twain's more serious tales.

The sequel to Vampire Babies, book number nine in Bloodscreams Series, this is book number 10 Mindbreach. The return of Dr. Abe Stroud, vampire slayer and archaelogist.

Dr. Abraham Stroud, who has faced down monsters and supernatural beings from vampires and werewolves to man-sized spiders from space, as well as Satanipedes in Texas, a hero who has astrally traveled through time in search of the origin of evil, now faces a new kind of horrid threat. He's asked on/begged to come on a dig in a faraway ancient and foreign land near Malta...a dig that has uncovered a children's graveyard from ancient times; a cemetery of suspected vampire babies.

Texas Cherokee Detective Lucas Stonecoat is back, and with help from FBI profilers and police shrink Meredyth Sanger, now Lucas' wife, he is on the trail of a serial killer the press calls The Baby Slayer. It is a grisly if apt name given the killer. Lucas and his task force are soon on the track of the pedophile murdering monster, possibly the worst excuse for humanity that Lucas has ever come across. But all the systems of law enforcement have become obstacles to catching and keeping this particular suspect behind bars.

It is 1896 in Chicago - which means it has been three years since Inspector Alastair Ransom beat the charge of murder of a cleric, but his enemies have been working behind the scenes to hang him for the very same crime. Such a thing may appear impossible given double-jeopardy laws, but the Chicago Archdiocese and other powerful groups want Ransom's head. The book opens with this battle being waged by Ransom from behind bars.

When Ragnar Magnusson has to do battle with the high seas and an ancient mariner and navigator of the ship, part of his bravado is for Helga, also on board The Battlestormer. A young man on board with his three boyhood friends, Ragnar is singled out by the ship's navigator to become his apprentice in the art and science of navigating the oceans. Captain Leif Knutson is in search of the fabled Vinland the Good, exploring for King Sigurd, and he hopes to open up timber and ore trade in the newly found lands far to the west of Greenland.

When Samantha "Sam" Reason of the Chicago PD stumbles onto the case of her career, she, at first, is reluctant to share it with consultant and former FBI profile expert and medical examiner, Dr. Jessica Coran. The two strong-willed, personable lady detectives are soon working like a well-oiled machine to uncover the evidence of a ruthless cartel that barters in death - the product being snuff films.

Archaeologist and vampire slayer, Dr. Abraham Stroud faces the greatest challenge of his career, a battle in what appears an unending war fought on the astral plane against an enemy of ancient origin. There may be no winning against this eternal enemy of mankind, but Abe must do what he can to combat this evil of evils that stretches across time and dimension. This is a foe beyond vampires, beyond werewolves, zombies, and giant lampreys. This is a mind assassin.

When a new strain of "smart" spiders emerge in Chicago known as Chi-racnids, heads will roll, as these parasitic spiders make babies inside humans. Specifically inside human heads, until the weight of the growing horde inside the skull becomes too heavy for the brain stem and spinal cord to support.

Everything is calm in the city, so who needs the Senior Squad of retired detectives?...until trail bikers and kayakers are suddenly disappearing along a stretch of the Chicago River, disappearing into the river with a bizarre creature ripping them apart and feeding them to its babies. Neither dogs nor divers could lure the creature out into the light for capture or killing, until the Old Fart Squad comes up with a crazy plan involving a sacrificial goat. Can they put an end to the ravenous snake being in the river, and to capture or kill her offspring?

After the Gone Gorilla case, wherein a 450 lb. gorilla spirit rampages through the Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the Old Fart Squad of retired Chi-town detectives are charged with learning just what was going on at the curious, huge SPIRE Hole. This hole, a mile wide, was opened up in downtown, within the rich confines of the most expensive real estate in the city.

Psychic adventurer Jacob Koslor's body has been destroyed, hideously hacked to pieces by a bloodthirsty maniac. And his killer is under the power of a terrible evil - a supernatural force that can bend men to its will and make them relive their worst nightmares... fatally.

Dead on Writing is a collection of essays, tips, and instructions by award-winning fiction writer Robert. W. Walker, author of more than forty published novels. It covers the following topics: Craft and Execution: Sub-sets dealing with every aspect of the art (and science) of writing. From research, to character, setting, plot, and dialogue. This is where you earn your unofficial PhD in writing. Rewriting and Editing: And how to make a good book great.

Blood RitesThere seemed to be no reason behind the series of grisly murders plaguing Orlando. The victims were young and old, women and men, destitute and well-off. Only two shocking similarities linked the deceased; before dying, they had been horribly brutalized…and they were all found with their scalps removed.

In the dark corners of Houston's urban night world, Detective Lucas Stonecoat and police psychiatrist Meredyth Sanger have come across another prostitute mutilated by the Scalper - a killer who has turned a primitive act of barbarism into a grisly, modern-day ritual. The crimes have cut deep into Stonecoat's heart and soul. He understands their infamous place in history. But even Stonecoat can't fathom how far this elusive savage will go to fulfill an ancient tribal instinct...

The killer loved seeing his victims ablaze, gleefully watching as their bodies were consumed by hungry, merciless flames. Later his pulse would race at the sight of the orange glow in the night sky, and the sounds of the fire engines as they screamed toward the raging infernos he had created. Chicago coroner Dr. Dean Grant had seen many gruesome things in his time. But nothing had prepared him for the nightmares of smoldering horror that were spread out on the morgue slabs in front of him.