Darkroom

Some Photographs Speak for the Dead

Art curator Kelly Durrell searches for her missing friend, a talented but unstable photographer, and becomes entangled in a demimonde of powerful people who will do anything to protect their secrets. If you like suspenseful thrillers with unexpected plot twists, a strong sense of place, and characters that one reader describes as “so well-drawn you’d swear they were relatives,” you’ll love Mary Maddox’s dark, compelling novel. Learn more…

A Night Owl Reviews Top Pick: “Sensational!…A haunting novel full of suspense and not a little terror.”

Hailed by Best Thrillers as “one of the year’s best crime thrillers.”

Talion (The Daemon World, Prequel)

Meet the Professor of Death

Meet Rad Sanders, the most terrifying serial killer you will ever encounter, in a thriller unlike any you have ever read… A gripping, intense tale of friendship, family and dark desires, TALION is a book that will make you want to sleep with all the lights on – if you can sleep at all. Learn more…

“Silence of the Lambs meets The Turn of the Screw . . .  The story is propelled by suspense, and made delicious by Maddox’s Ray Bradbury-like gift for deft, deep-shadowed description.”
–Charleston Times-Courier

Daemon Seer (The Daemon World, Book I)

The Darkest of Dark Fantasy

Awarded the Awesome Indies Seal of Excellence

As a teenager, Lu Darlington attracted national attention when she and her friend Lisa escaped a sadistic killer known as the Professor of Death. She never told anyone about the daemon who saved her life that day. Ten years later, Lisa shows up at Lu’s door, fleeing another psychopath stalker. But Lisa’s not the only one seeking Lu after all this time. One by one, the daemons descend… Learn more…

“Terrifyingly brilliant — dark twisted and totally taboo”
— Pavarti K. Tyler, author of WHITE CHALK

“Intense and not for the faint of heart”
— Robert Chazz Chase, author of THIS PLAGUE OF DAYS

“Smilin’ Mike”

Anthologized in Awesome All Shorts: Last Days, Lost Ways

Indulge your taste for good fiction with this short story anthology by authors with bold new voices. Though from diverse genres, the stories share a contemporary and contemplative feel that will linger long after the reader has read the last one. Awesome Allshorts showcases talented authors from around the globe, many whose novels have received multiple honors, including Awesome Indies approved status. Learn more…

“Yubi: A Love Story”

Free eBook

When Daniele got her first job out of college, her brother drove several hundred miles to help her move into her apartment. The day before he headed back home, he bought her a parakeet. “You’ll need company,” he said, “since you’ll probably stay home and read every night.” He softened the criticism with a wry smile. It worried him that Daniele had so few friends and such a lack of interest in men. She had taken a job so far away from him or any of their family, it seemed like a deliberate ploy to cut herself off from their love and support.

She inspected the tiny bird crouched miserably on the bottom of his cage. His feathers, white and arctic blue marked with gray shell patterns, made her think of northern fjords. “I don’t think they allow pets here, Michael.”

“They allow birds. I checked with your landlord.”

Her eyes met Michael’s with the tenderness and hostility that had made their love a wrestling match through childhood and a contest of wills ever since. “Running my life again, huh?”

“Saving your life if you let me.

“Mandarian Training School”

Published at Huffington Post

She has forgotten their names, but she remembers the nicknames Zitrina gave them.

“Zitrina” was the nickname inflicted on Zitrina by herself. Her pale czarina complexion bloomed with pimples that would leave scars. She had crimped and watery eyes, a nose as blunt as a doorknob, lips that resembled two pinkish worms. Her Howdy-Doody brainpan balanced atop her spindly neck like an egg on the point of a needle, denying gravity. She rustled in Pacific breezes, her flesh desiccated by viruses and germs. When she entered the National Science Foundation’s summer math program for gifted high-school students, she was recovering from her fourth bout with mono. Sunlight made her faint, Zitrina said. Institutional food made her want to vomit. Coarse fabrics made her break out in a rash. If a bee ever stung her, she would die. She was more delicate than a princess and uglier than a toad. Zitrina hated the nine other girls in the program, not for being prettier, but for having as many brains as she did. No longer could she gaze in a mirror and tell herself that she was the brightest of them all.