A sixteen-year-old, solitary girl, Olivia, feels guilty about her younger brother’s death. Her mother, Evelyn, a glamorous woman and artist, silently blames her for the accident. They sojourn on the tropical island of St. Croix. Evelyn begins an affair with the charismatic hotel owner, and Olivia meets a mysterious Czechoslovakian widow, Sofiya, with whom she forges a bond when they recognize their mutual grief. After after a series of dramatic conversations, long-buried secrets are revealed. Two love affairs. Nazis. Ravensbrück concentration camp. Conflict, jealousy, kindness, tenderness. A rescue and a resurrection. All woven together in a haunting work of literary fiction set in 1966.

“An engaging and well-written story of a young woman discovering the mysteries of human relationships, love, and adulthood. Set on a beautiful Caribbean island and peppered with references to characters, places, and events there, I felt like I was a confidant to the emotions and experiences of a friend.”—Lisa Cantrell, administrator, “St. Croix Memories”

“The novel is a heart-wrenching treatise of teen angst and relationships damaged by trauma, set in the beautiful and well-remembered Virgin Islands. It gently portrays how chance-met friends can help us to deal with adversity.”—J.A. Lordi (writing as Tinker Marne), author of Sunken Treachery

Heliotrope Books. Pub Date: September 15, 2022 / 6 x 9 inches. $17.00 paperback and $8.99 eBook. Cover design by Laury A. Egan. Cover photograph by Jill Dedinsky.

Leslie Chase, a young and impoverished composer, receives a grant and use of an ocean-side Maine house from her patron so she may complete her first opera. As she struggles with loneliness and winter snowstorms, Leslie meets a handsome but troubled man, Matti, and becomes enmeshed with him and his enigmatic relationship with her benefactor. When three opera singers visit, one of them, Sasha, flirts with Leslie, evoking Leslie’s sexual ambivalence and traumatic memories of an affair between her mother and another woman that inspired her opera’s subject: the relationships of Vita Sackville-West with Violet Keppel Trefusis and Virginia Woolf. As the emotional and physical spaces between the characters compress, mysteries are forced to the surface.

“A rich, moving novel with deep characters and a heroine who is struggling to understand herself as a woman, as a creative artist, and as a person dealing with relationship ambivalence. These interwoven, messy, beautiful lives make for great drama, with a structure that resembles an opera within an opera. As a composer, I really relate to Leslie and find much truth in her worries about deadlines, how people will react to her opera, and her fears of failure. Her passion to create a work about Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, and Violet Trefusis feels authentic, and the written lyrics make me hear music. Though the book is set in 1994, the power disparity between an older male patron and a younger female artist is especially timely. A riveting book from beginning to end!”—Jenni Brandon, composer of 3 Paderewskis: An Opera in One Act

“A thoroughly enjoyable page-turner that captures and grips the reader's attention from the outset, with richly delineated characters and vivid on-and-offstage drama.”— Patrizia DeCarmine Conte, mezzo-soprano

Literary Wanderlust, LLC. Pub Date: January 1, 2022 / 6 x 9 inches / 208 pages. $14.99 paperback, ISBN: 978-1-942856-98-6, and $4.99 eBook, ISBN: 1942856989. Cover design by Laury A. Egan. Illustration courtesy of Shutterstock.

Ever dream of finding the perfect lover? When Alexandra Wyatt meets Marnie Hardwick, she is thrilled that her solitary, unhappy existence has ended. After several blissful months, the two women buy a house set deep in a dense pine forest. However, the landscape soon dissolves from idyllic to disturbing as Alex begins to suspect that the relationship is an illusory trap. Fueled by jealousy, anger, and curiosity, Alex rushes into a bizarre intersection of past and present that holds treacherous consequences.

A psychological suspense, Doublecrossed, explores betrayal, revenge, and the ambiguous nature of sexual relationships as it triangulates between homosexuality, heterosexuality, and desires that usually remain hidden. The novel also deals with the complex role of “victim” and how a victim finds courage to survive.

“A psychological thriller that drops you in the middle of an intense relationship which turns disturbing…As the blissful honeymoon phase fades, the protagonist's concerns grow for whether she knows her lover at all. Laury Egan's descriptions will place you in the thick of Alex's world, wondering what will happen next. Be prepared for this story to burrow in your mind and set up shop. It will linger long after you finish reading.”—Jazzy Mitchell, author of Leveling Up

“… filled with twists, turns and roller-coaster drops, making the reading experience nothing short of captivating. When the narrative quickly picks up speed and goes from simple to complex, readers can’t look away. They have no choice but to turn pages late into the night.”—Women Using Words

Desert Palm Press. Pub Date: April 2, 2022 / 6 x 9 inches.230 pages. Paperback ($18.50) ISBN: 978-`95421-3227 and eBook ($7.50) ISBN: 978-195421-3234 (10% discount eBooks from publisher, code: 10DPP). Cover design by Laury A. Egan. Cover photograph by Angela Previte.

In 1964, four teenagers meet during a sailing class. Jessie is fourteen, an intelligent and solitary girl, who dreams of becoming a writer. When she sees nineteen-year-old Lindsay, the instructor, standing on a dock, sunlight illuminating her blond hair and blue eyes, Jessie falls in love but is too afraid of her feelings and what they mean. In an attempt to reassure herself she is “normal,” Jessie becomes involved with two boys in the class: Kenny, also fourteen, a darkly handsome and flirtatious guy, and Calvin, a year younger, who will be in their freshman class because he’s academically brilliant. On the first day of sailing, Cal is smitten with Jessie, though he is hindered by shyness. As the romantic relationships take unexpected twists, Jessie, Lindsay, Calvin, and Kenny relate their individual stories, their hopes, fears, and longings, all the while being buffeted by intense pressures. Set in coastal New Jersey, the plot roams from its beautiful rivers to lush scenes in St. Thomas and Vietnam’s jungles during the war.

NineStar Press. Pub Date: November 30, 2021 / 5 x 8 inches. Paperback: 322 pages, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-64890-352-6. EBook: 212 pages, $6.99 eBook: ISBN 978-1-64890-351-9. Cover photograph by Laury A. Egan. Cover design by Laury A. Egan and Jaycee DeLorenzo.

A fresh twist on a triangular relationship. A novel about compassion, generosity, love, selfishness, grief, bravery, sacrifice. A romance, an elegy, a reckoning. Literary fiction with light touches of magical realism. Psychotherapist Elizabeth (Bess) Lynch makes a sojourn to Cape Cod to deal with her impending demise from pancreatic cancer. While swimming in the ocean, she encounters an incandescently handsome man, Stephen, who is mourning the recent loss of his husband to leukemia. She invites him to dinner, and together they find solace in a tender affair. Then, Bess’ son Nathan arrives at the cottage and explodes Bess’ serenity.

“…a story for anyone contemplating the meaning of death, life, and everything in between: fear, regret, desire, hope, acceptance. A novel written with deep compassion and beautiful storytelling.”—Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade

“This captivating novel reflects the realities of life’s challenges and normalizes the conversation about end of life, illustrating a way to find peace with our own impermanence.”—J. Redwing Keyssar, RN, author of Last Acts of Kindness: Lessons for the Living from the Bedsides of the Dying

Heliotrope Books / Pub Date: April 29, 2021 / 6 x 9 inches, 208 pages. ISBN: 978-1-942762-72-0 (paper), 978-1-942762-73-7 (eBook). $16.00 Paperback, $8.99 eBook. Available from Amazon, bookstores, or signed copies from the author. Cover design by Laury A. Egan (photograph: Angela Previte)

The black figure entered the viewfinder just as Dana Fox squeezed the shutter. The figure hadn’t been there a second before. He wasn’t there a second after. While leading a photography workshop on picturesque Mykonos, instructor Dana Fox is entranced by the brilliant light of the Greek island as well as by the dark beauty, Cybele Karabélias, a local policewoman. But her idyllic sojourn takes an ominous turn when a series of gruesome murders rock the town. Heedless of the possible dangers surrounding her, Dana continues to document the isle in sunlit photographs, unaware of the killer edging closer, hungry for closure and the evidence she unknowingly possesses.

“A clever, tense thriller with a surprise ending!”—Kathi Isserman, former reviewer, Curve Magazine

“…this breezy little thriller requires a longish afternoon, some cheese and olives with a bit of ouzo (or grappa, if you prefer), and a light breeze blowing through your backyard. Reads like this are what summer’s all about.”—Jerry L. Wheeler, Out in Print

Interlude Press / Pub Date: March 3, 2020 / 6 x 9 inches, 250 pages. ISBN: 978-1-945053-95-5 (paper), ISBN: 978-1-945053-96-2 (eBook). $17.95 Paperback, $6.99 eBook. Available from: Interlude Press   Amazon and Signed copies from the author Cover photograph by Laury A. Egan

The deck has always been stacked against you. Then an attractive woman promises love, respect, employment, and a home. Wouldn’t you be hooked? Jango Jacks is. Jango is a fifty-three-year-old Korean War vet, itinerant worker, and sweet-natured fellow who left kith and kin in Kentucky decades ago. On a hot August day in 1984, he lands in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsyl-
vania, pockets empty, hungry, and in need of a job. After answering an ad for a farmhand, he is hired by a recent widow, Audrey Dalton, and is immediately charmed by her; surprisingly, Audrey also seems entranced and prepares him a candlelit dinner, which turns into an evening of love. Jango considers ending his tumbleweed ways and settling down after decades of roaming…until the next morning, when he is shocked to learn he’s ensnared in a dangerous trap. A dark, twisted version of The Bridges of Madison County.

“I cannot recall a novel so perfectly menacing. I shivered at the metaphoric iceberg I’d glimpsed, sensing it was a fraction of the terror that lies below.”—Karla Linn Merrifield, Psyche's Scroll

Sunbury Press / Pub Date: December 6, 2019 / 6 x 9 inches, 192 pages. ISBN: 978-1-946501-08-0 (paper). $16.95 Paperback, $4.99 eBook. Available from: Sunbury Press Amazon
and Signed copies from the author.

“A campy, hilarious, fast-paced indulgence that’s addictively entertaining. Dynamic, colorful characters add flair to a story full of snappy dialogue and rapid-fire action.” —Kirkus Reviews

A talented opera singer, Gilbert Eugene Rose, moonlights as a drag queen and diva divine, Kiri De Uwana, in order to pay his rent. However, Gil is dying to become famous on the New York operatic stage; unfortunately he might get his wish when he lands lead roles as a soprano and tenor in separate productions and is also hired to sing Handel by a dangerous female gangster who is at war with the producer of one of the two operas. Suddenly, happy-go-lucky Gil finds himself stranded in the middle of Mobster Boulevard, aflutter in heels, dresses, and wigs, with only his wits for protection and a new romance for inspiration.

“Audacious and brilliantly adventurous, this book reads like a madcap opera, illuminating a beautifully controlled zany cast of characters. Egan reminds us of how essential such fun and joyful storytelling can be, leaving us smiling and wanting more.”—Martin Hyatt, author of Beautiful Gravity

“I felt a smile on my face the entire time I read Fabulous! Forget the world of reality and come away with Laury Egan to a world you have never visited before."—Amos Lassen

“…a rapid-fire juggling act that gets quirkier and funnier as the pages turn. Well written prose. Snappy dialogue. Delightful characters. Fiendishly inventive. And ultimately profound. Laury A. Egan has written an utterly enchanting book…”—Alan Chin, author of Surviving Mortality

Tiny Fox Press / Pub Date: September 25, 2018 / 6 x 9 inches, 228 pages. ISBN: 978-1-946501-08-0 (paper). $14.95 Paperback, $5.95 eBook. Available from: Tiny Fox Press and Signed copies from the author Cover design and photograph by Laury A. Egan

“In this brilliantly written novel, a girl who lives with her con-artist grandfather, after her parents have gone wandering, hopes to lead a more honest life but must scheme to get by...Charlie looks much older than her 14 years when she dresses up and puts on makeup, enough to fool a social worker who comes to call. Charlie and Grandpa run a moonshine business and the Glory Alleluia Chapel to make ends meet, and Grandpa has started a small pyramid scheme that helps Charlie stay afloat after he dies. Between that and insurance fraud, he’s buried money all over his large wooded property. Hoping to avoid an orphanage, Charlie hides Grandpa’s body and stashes the cash. A 30-ish cowboy type, Blake, turns up after an affair with Charlie’s absent mother; he clearly knows about the buried money and uses that knowledge as leverage. As much a grifter as Grandpa ever was, he builds up the family religion business by passing off Charlie as a miracle worker. Can Charlie escape him too and pursue her own dreams of becoming a writer? Egan tells the story in Charlie’s first-person countrified style, but with True Grit–style lofty grammar and sentence structure, in keeping with Charlie’s abundant talent. It’s this highly literary, easily accessible writing that lifts this story to the very top of the heap. Simply delicious fun from start to finish.”—© Kirkus Reviews, Vicky Smith (starred review)

“I found Egan's writing to be wonderfully evocative. I loved reading The Outcast Oracle…If this is the quality of fiction that the Humanist Press is putting out, I am definitely going to be seeking more of it. And more of Egan's works, too.”—© LibraryThing

Read Chapter One from The Outcast Oracle

Humanist Press / Pub Date: September 30, 2013 / 5.5 x 8.5 inches, 214 pages. ISBN: 978-0-931779-36-7 (paper) ISBN: 978-0-931779-37-4 (eBook) $13.95 Paperback. $7.99 eBook. Available from: Humanist Press Amazon Kindle Barnes & Noble Nook Google Play and Signed copies from the author. Cover design and photograph by Laury A. Egan

The 23 stories in the collection deal with the metaphorical concept of fog as a state produced by grief, mental illness, love, anger, dementia, pain, prejudice, or dreams and how the human being refracts reality through these diffused prisms. Protagonists struggle with psychological and physical distortions that lead them down problematic paths, whether due to jealousy or desire in the case of lovers or hypothermia experienced by a fallen mountain climber. In the story, “Fog,” set in Ireland, the narrator encounters the real thing.

“Laury Egan has the capacity for human understanding which has always defined the top writers of short fiction. In Fog and Other Stories, she has produced a collection of tales which both entertain and matter to the soul of the reader. Brava!”—T.D. Johnston, Short Story America

“Fog and Other Stories is a mixed-genre collection of rich, provocative tales. From ruminations on the repercussions of time to mind-bending excursions into the supernatural, examinations of cruelty and kindness to incisive relationship studies, Egan’s stories are a satisfying blend of style, plot, and characterization—and exhibit a deep understanding of human nature.”—Greg Miller, author of Scaring the Crows

“I found myself stopping after each story and grazing on the beauty of words and the strong characters. Each story kept gathering strength. Egan loves her characters, their humanity shining through, creating each with an honesty and emotion that infuses the plots with a truth held dear.”—R. D. Hartwell

Read "Fergus" from Fog and Other Stories

Humanist Press / Pub Date (revised edition) September 30, 2013 / 5.5 x 8.5 inches, 258 pages. ISBN: 978-0-931779-43-5 (paper). ISBN: 978-0-931779-44-2 (eBook). $13.95 Paperback, $7.99 eBook. Available from: Humanist Press
Amazon Kindle Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Nook and Signed copies from the author Cover design and photograph by Laury A. Egan

While spending autumn in Venice, a young American artist, Jenny Kidd, hopes to create a portfolio of paintings to launch her career and establish her independence from her tyrannical father. At the Guggenheim Collection, she encounters a colorful British woman, Randi, who impetuously invites her to a masked ball at the Palazzo Barbon. There, she meets the seductive Caterina Barbon and her brother, Sebastiano, who entice Jenny into a world of glittering façades that cloak sexual perversion, art forgery, and murder. As Jenny struggles between her attraction to Caterina and her growing awareness that she is trapped within the beautiful walls of the palazzo, she discovers an inner strength and spirit worthy of her infamous pirate ancestor.

“Some [books] are little gems, like Laury A. Egan’s atmospheric Jenny Kidd. A top-notch thriller that takes on art forgery, murder and incest, Jenny Kidd spins its web as languidly as an afternoon by the canals. Egan’s descriptions of the food, the art, and the general atmosphere are as purposeful as they are evocative. Her prose is full-bodied and elegant, and she makes prosecco and prosciutto as sumptuous as the work of Titian and Tintoretto. Jenny herself is also well-rounded—a woman seeking independence, anxious to make her own way in the world yet still dependent on her parents for the funds to do so. Venice represents freedom for her, which is why the robbery, the kidnapping and her eventual imprisonment within the walls of the palazzo seem so brutally unjust in those surroundings. And you couldn’t ask for more worldly, dangerous, perverse, and utterly charming villains than Caterina and Sebastiano. As delicious as Egan’s writing is when it comes to describing masked balls, four-course lunches, and miniatures painted in pastels, she also knows how to propel a mean action scene. The last twenty pages or so are a breathless rush of dark passageways, tense interrogations, and perfectly executed gore that leave you gasping and satisfied.”—Jerry L. Wheeler, © 2012

“The beginning chapters of the book are filled with desire, seduction, and sexual obsession. While the story starts slowly due to the author’s careful and intricate construction of the plot elements, eventually the pace picks up. The plot becomes precise and at times dizzying in its twists and turns. Speaking for myself, once I had reached the half-way point in the book, I found it impossible to put it down…Not only does her book offer a riveting story, but her sentences have a cadence that will carry you along.”—Martha Miller, Gay & Lesbian Review

Read Chapter One from Jenny Kidd

Vagabondage Press / Pub Date: November 2012 / 5.25 x 8 inches, 214 pages. $14.95 Trade Paperback. ISBN: 9780615687612. $14.95 Paperback, $4.99 eBook. Available from: Vagabondage Press Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Powell's Books and Signed copies from the author

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