top of page

THE BOOKS

 

John King is the author of the novel Maid of Honor, a tale of love, betrayal, and suspense, Blackjack 21 Stories, The Trophy Wife, and The Big Mouth, a crime suspense thriller set in New York City and New Jersey. His latest novel, The Moon Will Not Rise is the story of an eighteen-year-old girl's coming of age in the summer of 1972. The common thread within King's work is the strong emotional bonds between his characters and their intense expectations and misconceptions of each other. Expectations and misconceptions that can lead to unexpected and sometimes tragic consequences.

The Big Mouth: A Novel of Crime and Suspense

ISBN-13-978-1499660180

​

Suspense fans should enjoy John King’s novel, The Big Mouth. It’s a crime thriller about a well-to-do New Jersey man who foolishly brags about his wealth and high cash position to win a political argument at a holiday party. Big mistake. He might win the argument, but he loses the war. Seems not everyone in the room is as well-to-do or honest. In fact, some are downright criminal. Rex Jones’s big mouth makes him the target for a group of lowlifes who plan to use his wife, Lena, and daughter, Laurie, as leverage to extort his cash. Can Rex save his family? Does he even have the ability to go up against these violent thugs? The Big Mouth is a novel about ordinary people in jeopardy of losing everything they cherish. It is a story where character is fate. Some will rise to the occasion while others fail. It is also about family. Their petty jealousies, arguments, and how in spite of their resentments they can come together when one of their own is in danger. It’s a fast and spare, cinematic read, reminiscent of the late Elmore Leonard, detailing the conception, plotting, and execution of a heinous crime where not everything goes as planned, and the outcome unpredictable.

The Trophy Wife: Tales of Love Gone Wrong

ISBN-13-978-1522791478

​

To his friends, Matt and Gaby, Jeff had it all: a multi-million dollar business, a swank upper east-side apartment, and a beautiful stunning young wife, Erica. But things were not as they seemed. When Jeff returned from a month in France without his wife, could they believe the heartbreaking story he told? Had Erica really left him for another man, a French film producer, after only one day of sailing on the man's yacht? Was she that flighty and unfaithful? When Gaby hears news from her sister in Marseilles, she starts to wonder if something more sinister has happened.
The Trophy Wife is one of three novellas where John King explores love both lost and found. Also included is The Last Word, where a young couple's miscommunication leads to an unwanted breakup and acts of sexual violence. And
Roxanne, where the neglected husband of a workaholic lawyer searches for love and
finds it in a mysterious young Latina, but the consequences are both unexpected
and violent.
These three novellas each contain tragic elements: some simply of lost love, others as great as murder, and all with unpredictable and surprising endings.
The Trophy Wife was formerly published as Hat Trick 3 Novellas.

Blackjack 21 Stories

ISBN-13-978-1497554221

​

In a truly diverse collection, John King's stories cross over many genres: mainstream, crime, literary, horror, thriller, suspense and even the apocalyptic. Some are contemporary, others historical, and most have unexpected twists which readers will enjoy. What are these stories about? Here's a list: Love, death, family, betrayal, murder, disappointment, jealousy, pride, sacrifice, alienation, acne, alcoholics, nightmares, nurses, nude models, nuclear accidents, college, liars, loneliness, loose wives, mickey finns, racism, redheads, drug addicts, teachers, cowards, cannibalism, cobras, soldiers, cheaters, gay bashers, porn stars, D-day, road rage, oil spills, Elephant Man's disease, James Joyce, the holocaust, and Halloween. These stories run a gamut of experience, the seven deadly sins, and a few of the virtues too. Each is different, new, and fresh.

Maid of Honor: A Novel of Betrayal and Suspense

ISBN-13-978-1499670776

​

John King's second novel, Maid of Honor, is a tale of questionable love, money, and betrayal. Ben Taylor was having the time of his life in college. He was young, popular, and handsome. When he receives a letter from a strange girl admonishing him for publicly snubbing her after being introduced, he is puzzled. He doesn't recognize her name. Who is this woman, Paige Montgomery? He seeks her out, and so begins an intense relationship founded on callow selfish desire--a relationship that will lead to marriage, wealth, stature, and ultimately heartbreak, betrayal, and murder. Maid of Honor is narrated by the young Ben. In his eyes, he is not a calculating opportunist who marries the frumpy, but adoring, Paige for her money. He is as much a victim as she. And who is Evelyn, Paige's beautiful cousin, maid of honor, and archrival? Is she paying for her wild lifestyle as the trapped wife of a violent abusive criminal? Is she worthy of rescue? Maid of Honor is a suspense thriller and love story that climbs to a great height only to come crashing down in a frantic shattering end.

The Moon Will Not Rise

ISBN-13-978-1977741011

​

Eighteen-year-old Ellen Parker had just finished her freshman year. She thought the summer of 1972 was going to be her best. She was going to live with her boyfriend in his fraternity house. But on the day of the big move, she finds herself cruelly deserted by him. On a sudden whim, he has taken off with his friends to drive cross-country, leaving only a note ending their affair.

Rejected and heartbroken, and now homeless, as well as out of work, Ellen searches desperately for a place to stay. Just as time is about to run out, by a strange stroke of luck, Ellen finds a post as the live-in girl Friday to a sixty-five-year-old veteran of the Pacific War.

Tom Harris appears to be a nice enough man, and knows much of the world, especially exotic Japan. But as the summer progresses, Ellen notices things that strike her as odd and even suspicious,  like the strange noises she sometimes hears late at night coming from the locked attic turret. Noises that Tom denies exist and refuses to investigate.

Yet at the same time, Ellen finds herself growing more and more attracted to this rather youthful senior who refuses to say just what happened to him in the war, and in Japan as part of the American occupation force.

But before the summer is out, Ellen will learn the answers to her questions, and that even decent people can have deep dark secrets.

The Moon Will Not Rise is the story of a young woman’s education and coming of age in the 1970s. It is the story of Ellen Parker’s fight not to crumble at the cruel betrayal and desertion by her careless boyfriend, but gather her inner strength and come out victorious.

The Moon Will Not Rise is part 70s time capsule, part WWII history, part mystery and romance. It is John King’s third novel.

bottom of page