The Man Who Sells Love

This story is set in a small southern town with queer, grotesque Southern characters where superstitious beliefs spread fear into a serial killer’s motives, giving him or her supernatural abilities to be anyone, especially someone loved.

Fist fighting, loyal, Johanna Smith is a young mama in love with her husband. He’s in love with someone else. Unfortunately, this is not Jo’s biggest problem. Young girls are popping up dead. Jo is the lead witness in a crime investigation. She overheard a murder eight years earlier with the same bloody signature: headless corpses, a lamb drawing, and signed: The Man Who Sells Love.

Things escalate when Jo’s husband becomes a suspect, her best friend is killed, her sister is attacked, and a possible new love interest for Jo becomes suspiciously shady. On top of all this, Jo feels like she’s being followed. She could be the next victim. Jo needs to solve the mystery. She can’t trust anyone except maybe her superstitious Grandma Mo who still believes in dark magic, and her husband’s alcoholic, handicapped friend. By the time Jo thinks she has it all worked out, her son is taken. Jo balls her fists and prepares for a fight she’s not sure she can win. 

This story is currently in the trenches waiting to be published. Image illustrated by Wendy O'Connell and book cover designed by Wendy.

Image painted by Wendy O'Connell and then later animated by AI.
Of course the book cover for Whalefall is a bit scarier and more appropriate to the story.
See review of book online and browse reviews to see Kraus's whale. 

 Whalefall by Daniel Kraus is a must read for folks who look want to dig at the heart of the human condition while marveling at the murky area between life and death and then still finding a connection. In the case of Jake, the protagonist diving for his father's bones, he looks for closure with a father from whom, he carried heavy dark resentment and guilt towards. On the surface, this is just a story about daddy issues and being swallowed by a whale, but beneath the surface this book has a whole Sidhartha feel to it revealing the human condition to be much more than a father/son relationship, but one with the entire universe. Battling the whale and Jake's issues with his dad were only part of the discoveries he uncovered inside the belly of the whale. Personally, and I'm not a marine biologist or anything, I found the whale intricacies to be fascinating, and I found the clever approaches to survival Macgyveresque - not cheesy, but interesting without knowing the true factoids behind it. I loved it! I am going to read more of Daniel Kraus. Whalefall is different in a 2024 world full of mimes. Try Kraus for Catina/Avatar scene. Great imagery and detail without becoming Moby Dickish. Again, Loved it!