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Cover of Hell's Heart by Dana J. Summers

In Oakley, Florida, in 2005. Frank Jackson and Diane Ferguson are killed with a pipe wrench. The problem? Frank and Diane have no connection. Guy Fowler was convicted but claims to have been drunk at home when the murders occurred. Fingerprints on the wrench say otherwise. Retired police officer Bart Long, now riddled with cancer, believes Fowler is innocent. As a last request, he asks his son, small-town cop Jake Long to find the real killer…

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Drawn and Buried cover

Political cartoons are suppose to tick people off not drive them to violence. Tim Ryder finds out the pen is not only tighter than the sword, but is the sword. Tim Ryder is trying to bury the past, but, it’s a stubborn corpse. Seven years ago he drew a cartoon series the earned him a Pulitzer, but drove a presidential candidate to kill himself by putting a bullet in his head. After drinking himself to out of the profession, Ryder moved to Orlando, Florida and began drawing for a small daily. But his troubles expand like a fat man at a free buffet.

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Downhill Fast cover

Aging hit man Lou Braga is losing his touch. Bad back, cloudy eyes, and clogged arteries. The last job he took was a flat-out fiasco. In the world of contract killing, he’s gone from top notch to cheap joke. He’d be happy to kick back and live out his time smoking cigars and drinking scotch. But Mia, his only daughter, is on Benny ‘Graves’ Epstein’s radar. And that means her life span just got shorter. Benny would off his own mother if there was a buck in it. Sending Mia away is only part of the answer, because Benny has eyes everywhere. Lou knows the only sure way to protect her…

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Cover of Simon Crumb and the Ghost of Blaine Street

There was a time when Simon Crumb didn’t believe in ghosts. That was before he accepted a dare by the school bullies to go into a haunted house for a selfie. There, he’s confronted by a vengeful spirit.  He manages to escape. But as he races home on his bike, he realizes the ghost has hitched a ride with him.

In his phone.

First-place Royal Palm award winner in the middle-grade category presented by The Florida Writers Association.

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The dark and the Dead cover

Haley McGlinn has a car trunk full of light bulbs and a purse full of flashlights. She has good reason to fear the dark. Five years ago she survived a vicious serial killer. When another murder shocks the city bearing the signature of Haley’s attacker she wrestles with her own questions as she finds herself wrestling with the possibility that the only man she trusts could be the killer!

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Dana J. Summers
Dana J. Summers
Author, Cartoonist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dana Summers is a Massachusetts native, who grew up in the northeast, Dana attended the Art Institute of Boston. Dana is a syndicated cartoonist for forty years; his comic strips include ‘The Middletons’ and ‘Bound & Gagged’ and award-winning editorial cartoons.

“Don’t think you can sit down and write a novel without a bit of education. I wasted years thinking I could do this on my own. If you don’t persevere, you’ll never make it. So don’t give up.”

AWARDS

Drawn and Buried 

  • Freddie Award for best hard boiled mystery Sleuthfest Mystery Writers of America
  • First place Royal Palm Award for best suspense novel. Florida Writers Association

Dark and the Dead 

  • Finalist Royal Palm Award for best suspense novel

Downhill Fast

  • First place Royal Palm Award for best suspense novel
  • First place Award for best thriller
  • And unpublished book of the year
  • Royal Palm Awards Florida Writers Association.

Dana J. Summers is an award-winning editorial cartoonist. He also writes and draws two nationally and internationally syndicated comic strips, ‘Bound & Gagged’ and ‘The Middletons’. He lives in Orlando with his wife Mary Jane and his dog, Gracie.

Dana with 3 books