Welcome to Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast and another three chapters of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

Marshall James arrives in New York and gets his first look at Muscles, the gym where he’ll be working, courtesy of Trent. He’s told the previous manager had to go away and has not been seen since. The new one, Leland, can’t quite hide his interest in Marshall. And Trent makes it clear, without raising his voice, that everyone in the room knows exactly where the lines are.

New York is a city that demands a verdict, and Marshall’s is immediate. He loves it, against his better judgment. But love doesn’t mean safety. Trapped in Trent’s luxury apartment with a man whose pager never stops buzzing and whose overseas calls carry the unmistakable sound of crime, Marshall knows he needs to run. He just needs money first, and a map.

Meanwhile, back in the future, Marshall and his husband Boo arrive at a bed and breakfast in Lambertville. Their host Kyle Callahan jokes that their room is the “murder suite” and it’s been been good for business. Marshall will soon learn the truth of it, as they explore the river town they just might move to.

Welcome to The Twist Podcast, Episode 322. Spring has officially arrived, and Mark and Rick are celebrating the season with a jam-packed episode. We kick things off with some springtime conversation — what’s blooming, what’s buzzing, and what’s got us looking forward to warmer days ahead.

Then it’s time for the Twist Hit List, our own humble ‘must’ list, covering TV, films, books, food, and culture.  Listener favorite Jo is back with a new Letter from Jo, with her trademark wisdom and humor. And in this week’s featured interview Rick talks with Courtney Bryan for Part One of a wide-ranging conversation about artificial intelligence.

All that and more on this week’s The Twist. Subscribe, share, and join the conversation.

THIS WEEK’S SURVEY

TAKE THE SURVEY

Another spring is here. What to you want to do first?

Get more active without the sweaters and thermals
Garden, plant, walk in the grass, open the windows
Clean out and start fresh (figuratively if not literally)
Nothing — I like my routine as it is
Wait impatiently for summer
Something else (please say what in the comments)

Because the universe clearly has a sense of humor.

♈ Aries 🔥
This week you will feel a sudden urge to reorganize something. It may be your closet. It may be your entire life. Start with the closet.

♉ Taurus 🌿
Someone will tell you that you’re stubborn. You will calmly explain that you are consistent. Then you will continue doing exactly what you were doing.

♊ Gemini 🌀
You’ll have three ideas at once this week. Two will be brilliant. One will involve ordering something online at 2 a.m.

♋ Cancer 🌙
Your nurturing instincts kick in this week. Just remember: feeding people is generous, but feeding them again because they “look thin” may cause concern.

♌ Leo 🦁
You will receive attention this week. You will pretend to be humble about it for approximately twelve seconds.

Welcome to The Twist Podcast, Episode 321. Join co-hosts Mark and Rick as we adjust to the time change, check out Mark’s trip to Philadelphia, hear Rick’s interview with Guns to Gardens, and find out what listeners spend on their pets.

Welcome back to Fearsome Fiction, and to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

When we last left Marshall, he was stepping into a world he wasn’t sure he could step back out of. Now in New York City he’s about to find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Chapter Thirteen drops Marshall into Trent’s world with all its chrome and white leather and carefully curated secrets. The apartment on the Upper East Side tells you everything you need to know about how far Trent has come, and how far he’s willing to go to stay there.

Chapter Fourteen takes us downtown to the Village in all its complicated glory. The AIDS crisis hangs over everything like bad weather. The neighborhood is changing, the gays are moving north to Chelsea, and the yuppies are moving in behind them. Trent walks him through his little empire , a bar called Tipsy’s, a gym called Muscles, and the growing sense that whoever Trent is laundering money for is not someone you want to disappoint.

Chapter Fifteen brings us forward in time to Lambertville, New Jersey where Marshall and Boo arrive at Passion House Bed and Breakfast. A man named Kyle Callahan tends flowers on the porch. His handyman Justin helps. His husband Danny waits inside. It appears a new day may be at hand.

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 Fearsome Fiction, and to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

In the next three chapters, Marshall’s fresh start in New York takes a sharp, unsettling turn. What begins as a nostalgic breakfast in a familiar Manhattan diner becomes something far more dangerous when Trent finally hints at the truth behind his sudden wealth. Laundromats? Not exactly. And the “job” he has in mind for Marshall may come with consequences neither of them can fully control .

As the charm of Trent’s polished world gives way to whispers, bodyguards, locked lobbies, and carefully managed secrets, Marshall realizes he may have stepped into something darker than he imagined. And just when the walls begin to close in, we shift—back to Lambertville. Back to Boo. Back to the choices that will define what kind of man Marshall becomes.

A new city. A dangerous offer. And a past that refuses to stay in the rearview mirror.

Settle in… the flight’s about to get turbulent.