BRYAN GRULEY – Purgatory Bay
He’s a graduate of Notre Dame, an avid hockey player, and an amateur musician. As the former Chicago bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, he shared in the Pulitzer Prize given to the Wall Street Journal in 2002 for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Over the course of his writing career, he has written both compelling fiction and award-winning non-fiction. His Starvation Lake Trilogy was an Edgar Award Finalist. In November 2019, readers were introduced to a city living in the long shadows of the powerful, founding family, the Bleaks.
Today’s adventure takes us back to Bleak Harbor, as our tour guide, Bryan Gruley introduces us to another long time resident, wrestling with the truth of her past. Straight out of the heart of Chicago, where the days are overcast and the winds are blowin’ cold… please welcome, Bryan Gruley…
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Preview & Order Bryan’s Books:
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The centerpiece of discussion for this PDI Adventure…
Jubilee Rathman is a straight-A student and star soccer goalie destined for Princeton until her family is brutally murdered. Twelve years later, she lives in a virtual fortress on Purgatory Bay near Bleak Harbor, plotting revenge on the people she considers responsible.
In her crosshairs is former reporter Michaela “Mikey” Deming, who Jubilee believes got her family in trouble with the Detroit mob. As retribution, Jubilee kidnaps Mikey’s sister and daughter, and that’s just the start in her ruthless quest for justice.
Bleak Harbor police chief Katya Malone, still reeling from her failure to find a kidnapped boy, leads the investigation. She’s determined to keep history from repeating, but Jubilee is more cunning than Malone can imagine… Purgatory Bay is book #2 in the Bleak Harbor Series.
SEE FULL BOOK SUMMARY & REVIEWS ON AMAZON…
Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audio
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Book #1 in the Bleak Harbor series
Summertime in Bleak Harbor means tourists, overpriced restaurants, and the Dragonfly Festival. One day before the much-awaited and equally chaotic celebration, Danny Peters, the youngest member of the family that founded the town five generations ago, disappears.
When Danny’s mother, Carey, and stepfather, Pete, receive a photo of their brilliant, autistic, and socially withdrawn son tied to a chair, they fear the worst. But there’s also more to the story. Someone is sending them ominous texts and emails filled with information no one else should have. Could the secrets they’ve kept hidden—even from one another—have led to Danny’s abduction?
SEE FULL BOOK SUMMARY & REVIEWS ON AMAZON…
Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audio
…AMAZON LINK…
Book #1 in the Starvation Lake Trilogy…
In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake—the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation’s legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn’s accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder.
Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the Detroit Times. In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach’s dreams and earning the town’s enmity. Now he’s investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town’s past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets—secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep…
SEE FULL BOOK SUMMARY & REVIEWS ON AMAZON…
Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audio
…AMAZON LINK…
Book #2 in the Starvation Lake Trilogy…
When Gracie McBride, the wild girl who had left town eighteen years earlier, is found dead in an apparent suicide shortly after her homecoming, it sends shock waves through her native Starvation Lake. Gus Carpenter, executive editor of the Pine County Pilot, sets out to solve the mystery with the help of his old flame and now girlfriend, Pine County sheriff deputy Darlene Esper. As Gus and Darlene investigate, they can’t help but question if Gracie’s troubled life really ended in suicide or if the suspicious crime-scene evidence adds up to murder.
But in such a small town it’s impossible to be an impartial investigator—Gracie was Gus’s second cousin; Darlene’s best friend; and the lover of Gus’s oldest pal, Soupy Campbell. Yet with all the bad blood between Gus and Gracie over the years, Gus is easily distracted by other problems. His employer is trying to push him out, the locals are annoyed that his stories have halted construction on a new hockey rink, and Darlene’s estranged husband has returned to reclaim his wife…
SEE FULL BOOK SUMMARY & REVIEWS ON AMAZON…
Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audio
…AMAZON LINK…
Book #3 in the Starvation Lake Trilogy…
Mysterious break-ins are plaguing the small town of Starvation Lake. While elderly residents are out playing bingo, someone is slipping into their homes to rifle through financial and personal files. The “Bingo Night Burglaries” leave the entire town uneasy.
When a break-in escalates to murder, Gus Carpenter, editor of the Pine County Pilot, is forced to investigate the most difficult story of his life. Not only is the victim his ex-girlfriend Darlene’s mother, but her body was found in the home of Bea Carpenter—Gus’s mother. Suffering from worsening dementia, Bea remembers little of the break-in.
Gus sets out to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when the story leads him to a lockbox his mother has kept secret for years…
SEE FULL BOOK SUMMARY & REVIEWS ON AMAZON…
Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audio
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Mailing Address for the show –
Mark DeWayne Combs / Public Display of Imagination
463063 State Road 200 Unit #1473
Yulee, FL 32097
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Preview & Order Mark’s Motivational Books on Amazon:
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What is a goal? It’s been defined in many ways, most of them so complex that things get fuzzy and complicated. Put simply, a goal is something you want to do. PUSH is designed to help readers think about things more simply. Identify your goals and put forth the simple, dedicated effort to achieve them. Having acheived one goal, it becomes easier to pursue others. We tend to make it complex. PUSH seeks to make it simple.
PUSH is designed to help each reader find their own personal pathway of identity and, having found it, pursue their dreams in a simple, attainable fashion that leads to achievement. Broken into a handful of easy-to-read essays, PUSH mixes humor, common sense, and thought-provoking insight in an effort to give each reader the opportunity to see for themselves why they have absolutely no shot at ever being ordinary.
Available in Paperback & Ebook
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You’re being watched… You may not realize it, and the person watching you may never clue you in, but you’re being watched. It happens each day in the most undetectable way. Somewhere, someone is watching.
You touch more lives and topple more dominoes than you could ever imagine. For someone, you are the light in their darkness or the example to which they aspire. Completely disconnecting from the society in which we live is impossible. Even in death, our lives continue to touch others, both in the moment and as time slowly passes.
Don’t Forget Your Cape doesn’t dance off into the fancy world of who each person can be. I’ve always left that “think your way to wonderful” philosophy to other writers. It just doesn’t suit me and I’d bet that it doesn’t really suit you either. I’d rather be a part of a face-to-face journey that cuts through the fog and connects me with who I am. That’s where my value can be found and that’s where this journey takes each reader.
Available in Paperback & Ebook
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“Sing like no one’s listening, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth.” There’s a brilliant irony in that quote; no one claims authorship and no one seems to be able to identify its true origin. Although the world is very familiar with this song and dance, no one knows the singer or the dancer.
Why do you do what you do? It’s a useful question to ponder. If you knew that no one would hear your song, would you still sing? Knowing that the chairs in the auditorium will be empty, will you still take the stage and dance just as enthusiastically?
HELLO… Is This On? explores why we do what we do and speaks to our ability to develop self-trust and quiet confidence, even in the face of daunting circumstances or, in some cases, no measurable response at all.
Available in Paperback & Ebook
Preview and Order Mark's Motivational Books on Amazon:
What is a goal? It’s been defined in many ways, most of them so complex that things get fuzzy and complicated. Put simply, a goal is something you want to do. PUSH is designed to help readers think about things more simply. Identify your goals and put forth the simple, dedicated effort to achieve them.
You may not realize it, but you’re being watched. It happens each day in the most undetectable way. Somewhere, someone is watching. You touch more lives and topple more dominoes than you could ever imagine. For someone, you are the light in their darkness or the example to which they aspire.
Why do you do what you do? It’s a useful question to ponder. If you knew that no one would hear your song, would you still sing? Knowing that the chairs in the auditorium will be empty, will you still take the stage and dance just as enthusiastically? Explore why you do what you do and develop self-trust and quiet confidence.