In these three chapters of Night Flight to Murder Town, Marshall James finds himself waking up on the couch of Colin Griffin — a sharp-witted escort who becomes his unlikely confidant — and paying the price of admission: the truth. Marshall lays out his history, from his Hollywood past to the body he found that morning, and Colin listens without calling the police. Meanwhile, in a counterpoint chapter set in the present, Marshall and his partner Boo enjoy a deceptively quiet afternoon in Lambertville and New Hope — a brief, tender interlude that feels worlds away from what’s unfolding in New York City.

Back in the past, the stakes suddenly escalate. A breaking news report out of Manhattan reveals that Senator Daniel Roth — the powerful man Trent Stoffer had been secretly involved with — has fallen twelve stories to his death from his apartment near the United Nations. With his old flame dead and a senator now gone, Marshall grows convinced that his presence in New York is no accident. He’s been here before — marked as a patsy, caught in someone else’s design. And so he does what Marshall James always does: he heads straight for the scene of the crime.

True Crime Tuesdays — A Fearsome Fiction Feature: Shot by a Killer Clown

It was Memorial Day weekend, 1990, in Wellington, Florida. Marlene Warren answered her front door to find a clown holding flowers and balloons — and was shot in the face at point-blank range. The clown got back in the car and drove away. Marlene died two days later.

The case had a suspect almost immediately. It had circumstantial evidence. It had motive. What it didn’t have — for twenty-seven years — was enough to make an arrest. This week on True Crime Tuesdays, we follow one of the most bizarre cold cases in American history from a quiet Florida neighborhood in 1990 all the way to a courthouse in 2023, and a prison release that left a victim’s family without the justice they deserved.

Fearsome Fiction is produced by MadeMark Media. New episodes every Tuesday.

Today we continue our serialized audio journey through one of the great classics of detective fiction: The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux — presented here in the Vivid Press Edition.

First published in 1907, this novel gave the world one of its most enduring puzzles: a woman attacked in a room locked from the inside, with no possible means of escape for her assailant. No hidden doors. No passable windows. No explanation — until a brilliant young reporter named Joseph Rouletabille decides to find one.

If you’ve never read it, you’re in for something special. If you have, welcome back to one of the finest locked-room mysteries ever written.

In today’s episode, we bring you Chapters Seven through Ten.

Sit back, settle in, and enjoy “The Mystery of the Yellow Room” by Gaston Leroux. Narration provided by Wondervox.

In addition to my weekly 3-chapter installments of ‘Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller,’ I’m offering up three extra-long listens of ‘Fatal Mistake: A Harry Hell Novella.’ It’s the first of three novellas planned that take us on the wild journey that is Harry Hell’s life. Queer, dystopian, fearsome.

Fatal Mistake opens in a dying, collapsed world — a ruined island city divided between the fortified enclave of Eastward, where the privileged few cling to order, and the brutal wastelands outside its walls: the Ruins and the Slopes, where survival is the only law.

Two storylines run in parallel. In the present, we meet Harry Hell — a former elite assassin who has spent five years hunting the most dangerous woman alive: a killer known only as Nectar. The story begins with her turning the tables on two of his men sent to find her, slitting one’s throat and sending the other back with a message. Harry is cold, purposeful, and consumed by a single obsession — avenging the death of Raul, his partner and the only person he ever loved, who Nectar killed.

In addition to my weekly 3-chapter installments of ‘Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller,’ I’m offering up three extra-long listens of ‘Fatal Mistake: A Harry Hell Novella.’ It’s the first of three novellas planned that take us on the wild journey that is Harry Hell’s life. Queer, dystopian, fearsome.

Fatal Mistake opens in a dying, collapsed world — a ruined island city divided between the fortified enclave of Eastward, where the privileged few cling to order, and the brutal wastelands outside its walls: the Ruins and the Slopes, where survival is the only law.

Two storylines run in parallel. In the present, we meet Harry Hell — a former elite assassin who has spent five years hunting the most dangerous woman alive: a killer known only as Nectar. The story begins with her turning the tables on two of his men sent to find her, slitting one’s throat and sending the other back with a message. Harry is cold, purposeful, and consumed by a single obsession — avenging the death of Raul, his partner and the only person he ever loved, who Nectar killed.

Welcome back to the Fearsome Fiction Podcast. One of my offerings is the weekly serialization of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller, book 4. This week, we dive into Chapters Seven through Nine of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller. Marshall leaves behind Hollywood—and a heartbreaking goodbye—to chase a new life in New York City. But from a turbulent red-eye flight to a sunrise over Manhattan, it’s clear this isn’t just a fresh start. With Trent waiting at the gate, a mysterious chauffeur, and whispers of danger already in the air, Marshall’s arrival in the City may be the beginning of something far more complicated—and far more dangerous—than he ever imagined.

Let’s step into the night flight… and what’s waiting on the other side.

Mysteries. Thrillers. Rare Finds.

I’ve renewed, refreshed, and rebranded my fiction podcast, and I’m thrilled to welcome you to the new Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast. Each week I’ll be sharing several chapters of my own harrowing fiction, the kind of stories that creep under your skin and refuse to leave, along with rare and forgotten gems, and select works from other authors whose voices deserve to be heard in the dark.

If you love mysteries with pulse, thrillers with heart, and stories that don’t behave themselves, you’re in exactly the right place.

You can purchase the entire audiobook HERE.

Or listen on Spotify Premium HERE.

This week: Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 1 – 3)

Marshall James returns in Night Flight to Murder Town, Book 4 in the series. He’s thinking about leaving New York City with his husband for a quieter life, away from the relentless pace of the nation’s largest city. But how did he get here in the first place?

After three stories detailing his harrowing Hollywood past — where lovers, losers, and more than one serial killer nearly ended his life before he could make something of it — Marshall finally tells us how and why he left LaLa Land for Gotham.

This is the origin story beneath the scars. The turning point. The night everything changed.