Showing results by author "Rod Kackley" in All Categories

He was a cop. She was his daughter. One of them wasn’t walking away. James Bradford wore the badge in St. Isidore for thirty-five years. He broke up bar fights, kept the town quiet—and never once had to draw his weapon. Until the night his daughter came home. Amanda Petrocelli’s got a record longer than Main Street, a husband with blood on his hands, and two kids caught in the middle. When they show up armed and angry, James doesn’t call for backup. He goes for the gun safe. In a town where loyalty is currency and regret comes due at midnight, this is one cop’s last stand—...

They took the woman Ron Delaney loves. Now he’s running out of time to get her back alive. When a routine job turns deadly, private investigator Ron Delaney is pulled into a brutal fight against men who don’t make threats — they erase problems. As bodies begin to fall across the streets of Detroit, Delaney finds himself chasing a trail of violence that leads straight into the heart of organized crime. Every lead brings more blood. Every answer raises the stakes. With the clock running out and no one left to trust, Delaney is forced to make choices that will cost him everything — his...

They were inseparable—until one ended up dead. Emma Brown and her best friend set out for a night of fun. Only one came back. Now Major Crimes Division Inspectors Scarlett Gauthier and her seasoned partner, William Gagnon, must unravel the chilling truth behind Emma’s murder—a young woman beaten and strangled with bare hands and a leather belt. The brutality suggests a man. But what if that assumption is dead wrong? As the investigation cuts deeper, long-buried secrets begin to surface—about jealousy, obsession, and the fragile line between love and betrayal. Scarlett’s ...

Detroit was supposed to be a stopover. It became a war zone. Private investigator Ron Delaney and his war buddy Casey come to Detroit chasing answers—and collide with something far more dangerous: a Russian crime operation cleaning house and leaving bodies behind. Then Ginny vanishes. With the police sidelined and the mob closing ranks, Ron is forced to operate outside the law in a city where loyalty is currency and hesitation gets you killed. Every lead tightens the noose. Every move risks turning Ginny into collateral damage. Detroit doesn’t reward heroes. It buries them. No Place for...

He. Was. Not. Thinking. With. His. BRAIN! Caleb makes a grave mistake by inviting his crush, Kalie, to spend a night in the infamous Suicide Forest. It was a decision made on impulse, not reason. Now, they're both trapped in a place filled with malevolent spirits, demons, ghosts, and other supernatural entities. Caleb must find a way out of the forest and protect Kalie, but she's nowhere to be found. Panic sets in as Caleb realizes the gravity of the situation. Could Kalie be dead? Or worse, could she be enjoying the dark and eerie environment of the Suicide Forest? As Caleb searches for ...

She just wanted noodles. What she got was terror on her doorstep. It was late. The neon was dead. The delivery app promised warmth, convenience… safety. But when the bag arrived, it wasn’t the friendly driver she expected—it was a man lying in shadow, boots pointed at her door, silent, watching. Then others appeared. They didn’t knock. They didn’t speak. They just waited. In St. Isidore, some deliveries never arrive… and some never leave. One wrong order could be your last. She Never Delivered: From The St. Isidore Noir Collection is noir the way it was meant to be—fast, mean,...

February 20, 2016 — Kalamazoo, Michigan. An ordinary Uber shift turned into a citywide nightmare. Jason Dalton seemed like any other driver on the road. But as he ferried passengers across Kalamazoo, Dalton became convinced that something had taken over his iPhone — a flashing app icon that shifted from red to black, a digital signal he believed was commanding him to kill. Minutes later, he began executing strangers at random, turning the city into a hunting ground and leaving police scrambling to understand the pattern behind the chaos. By the end of the night, eight people had been ...

The mayor had a mistress, a wife who knew too much, and a secret he’d kill to keep. When a body turns up at a sleazy motel on the edge of town, the whole rotten heart of St. Isidore starts to bleed. The cops want it buried. The mayor wants it forgotten. But someone’s talking—and the truth has a nasty habit of crawling into the light. She was beautiful, dangerous, and smarter than any man in the room. He was powerful, cornered, and ready to make a deal with the devil. His wife? Cold as ice and twice as deadly. Lust. Lies. And one hell of a mess. This isn’t politics. This is The Case ...

She married for money. She plotted for more. But the insurance policy had other ideas... Chantel Fletcher’s specialty is husbands. Her problem is cash. When her third husband turns out to be worth $2.5 million dead, she makes the leap from trophy wife to cold-blooded conspirator. With a mountain of debt and a dangerous past catching up to her, Chantel enlists her teenage daughter and a dim-witted ex-con to help pull the trigger on the perfect murder. But this is St. Isidore—a town that chews up second chances and spits out twisted endings. And when the cops come knocking, Chantel ...

Lies, Lust, and always, Consequences Cathy and Phil, high school sweethearts, reunite after years apart, reigniting a love that refuses to die. The catch? They're married. But not to each other. As their passion ignites, Cathy confides in her best friend Jan, only to discover Jan's hidden secrets. Cathy's own marriage to Tom holds another enigma. In this captivating short story, the delicate balance between truth and deception unravels, leaving readers questioning the lies we tell ourselves and the ones we keep hidden. Can love survive when secrets threaten to shatter it all?

Murder or mistake? When kayaker Vincent Viafore drowned in the icy Hudson River, investigators quickly turned to the woman who loved him most — his fiancée, Angelika Graswald. Prosecutors said she pulled the plug on his kayak and left him to die in the storm-tossed waves. Angelika insisted it was an accident. But after an eleven-hour police interrogation, a disputed confession, and sensational headlines branding her a “femme fatale,” the case spiraled into one of New York’s most controversial true crime sagas. She Cries Alone is a Shocking True Crime Story that pulls you inside the...

A Digital Predator. A Missing Woman. A Race Against Time. A woman vanishes online. A digital predator is watching. And every second brings another life closer to ending. When Emily Underwood disappears in front of thousands of loyal followers, the police dismiss it as another runaway influencer chasing attention. But Emily’s fans know something is wrong—terribly wrong—and they turn to the only people who will listen: the struggling St. Isidore Chronicle. Joy is a reporter who is desperate for a story big enough to revive her career—and to save the small-town newspaper that’s ...

She was bound. Gagged. Stabbed with a screwdriver. Then strangled with a necktie. March 1948. Post-war New York was rebuilding, hopeful, alive. Inside a small apartment, that optimism shattered when Vera Lotito was discovered brutally murdered. At first, suspicion fell close to home. But as detectives worked the case, something far more disturbing emerged — a killing that appeared sudden, violent, and seemingly random. In The Murder of Vera Lotito, Rod Kackley reconstructs a chilling post-war homicide that tested the limits of police persistence. The crime scene was savage and deeply ...

“Murder’s Always Murder: 67 Shocking True Crime Stories” is a gripping true crime collection that takes you deep into the darkest corners of human nature. Featuring a chilling array of true crime cases, this book explores the horrifying acts committed by ordinary people and notorious killers alike. From gruesome homicides and serial killings to twisted crimes of passion, these stories span decades and delve into some of the most shocking and disturbing cases from across the globe. 67 Shocking True Crime Stories The Murder of Rebecca Landrith The Murder of Ronda Mechelle Blaylock The ...

They loved. They lied. They killed. And the truth is more twisted than fiction. Four real murders. Two unforgettable women. One chilling true crime collection. In this gripping true crime anthology, bestselling author Rod Kackley takes you deep inside two harrowing cases—where love, trust, and cold-blooded murder collide. Story One: He’s Dead, Now What? One woman. One gun. Two dead men. Goidsargi Estibaliz Carranza Zabala—“Esti” to her friends—was the soft-spoken woman serving gelato in a cozy Vienna ice cream shop. But behind her quiet smile was a dark secret: murder. Killing ...

Three shocking true crime stories of murder, online predators, and hookups gone wrong—gritty tales of Craigslist killers, Tinder dates, and survival in the digital age. In the age of online hookups, every click carries risk. Behind glowing screens and anonymous ads, predators hunt—and sometimes, the price of desire is death. A Hookup To Die For — A middle-aged man meets a teenage boy through Craigslist. One wants sex, the other money. The deal ends in blood. She Deserved Better — Young, pregnant, and desperate, Brooke turns to Craigslist for help. Instead, she finds “Hard Mike”...

Some people borrow books from the library. Benjamin Kalinowski does something… different. In the quiet town of St. Isidore, Benjamin Kalinowski follows a simple routine. Twice a week he walks to the public library and returns with his arms stacked high with books. Young Adam King, a fellow book lover, begins to notice. And the more he sees Mr. Kalinowski carrying those towering stacks of books home, the more he wonders what the quiet old man is doing with them. When Adam finally uncovers the truth, he realizes it’s far more remarkable than he ever imagined—and it will shape the way he...

Exciting news—I’ve teamed up with Jersey Shore Entertainment to bring Murder! Molly & The Mob to the screen! This is just the beginning, with more of my true crime stories lined up for adaptation. Murder! Molly & The Mob: A 1950s Shocking True Crime Story by Rod Kackley plunges into the heart of one of America’s most chilling unsolved mysteries. Set in Joliet, Illinois—a town on the edge of Chicago’s criminal empire—this gripping narrative follows the life and sudden disappearance of Molly Zelko, a crusading journalist whose fierce editorials took aim at the mobsters and ...

He wasn’t looking for love. He was looking for control. Craigslist gave him exactly what he wanted. When eighteen-year-old Brooke crossed paths with a man known online as “Hard Mike,” it wasn’t romance, curiosity, or recklessness that brought them together. It was opportunity—and a predator who recognized it instantly. What began as a casual online exchange quickly turned into something far more dangerous. Behind the anonymity of Craigslist, a thirty-one-year-old man with a growing appetite for domination discovered how easily the internet could be used to hunt. Each interaction ...

THE NIGHT SHE VANISHED In November 2018, thirty-one-year-old Ashley Young disappeared after a night out in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her friends searched. Her mother called everyone she knew. And then the truth began to surface — piece by horrifying piece. THE DISCOVERY Under a blood-stained tarp in a basement, police uncovered a torso. No head. No hands. No feet. Within days, the evidence led to Jared Chance — Ashley’s friend, her killer, and a man who refused to reveal where he hid the rest of her body. #JUSTICE FOR ASHLEY This haunting true crime story follows the investigation, ...