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A Return to Normalcy
Harley Basil is a world traveler with a very dark secret. A seemingly well-mannered man, Harley even fools himself at times, but in the end the voices in his head always win out.
It's late November, 1909 in Washington D.C., and a serial killer is on the loose. Having made his yearly excursion south from Philadelphia to Washington for the weekend, Harley is content to once and for all find love. But when his Alice turns the tables on him, the real Harley Basil surfaces and finds himself stuck between two worlds: the one he knows, the other a perceived sense of reality. Harley must navigate the darkness of the Churchill Hotel to discover what is real and what is not, and he will find the answers to his questions somewhere between life and death.
Virgil Dabney is a law-abiding, well-respected attorney who is left to deal with Harley's estate. But the more he learns about Harley Basil, the less Virgil wants to share with others. A slow pull into Harley's world ends with a sharp fall with Virgil picking up where Harley has left off.
It's late November, 1909 in Washington D.C., and a serial killer is on the loose. Having made his yearly excursion south from Philadelphia to Washington for the weekend, Harley is content to once and for all find love. But when his Alice turns the tables on him, the real Harley Basil surfaces and finds himself stuck between two worlds: the one he knows, the other a perceived sense of reality. Harley must navigate the darkness of the Churchill Hotel to discover what is real and what is not, and he will find the answers to his questions somewhere between life and death.
Virgil Dabney is a law-abiding, well-respected attorney who is left to deal with Harley's estate. But the more he learns about Harley Basil, the less Virgil wants to share with others. A slow pull into Harley's world ends with a sharp fall with Virgil picking up where Harley has left off.
25 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 5, 2014
10 people want to read
About the author
C.A. McGroarty
4 books44 followersStruggle, Redemption, Second Chance, Faith, Forgiveness…these are the things I write about.
I write stories that provide inspiration and hope for my readers. My characters know what it’s like to fight for something they believe in, they long for a second chance, they seek redemption and want forgiveness, all the while living life between the edge of reason and failure…sanity and madness.
I write stories about complicated characters with flawed backgrounds. People who have failed or made grave mistakes, yet find the fortitude to get up every day, face their plight and make something of what is left.
I invite you to read my work and in doing so I promise you will always be entertained. My stories provide unique perspective, provoke thought, and ultimately restore people’s faith in human beings.
We all take this ride just once…
I write stories that provide inspiration and hope for my readers. My characters know what it’s like to fight for something they believe in, they long for a second chance, they seek redemption and want forgiveness, all the while living life between the edge of reason and failure…sanity and madness.
I write stories about complicated characters with flawed backgrounds. People who have failed or made grave mistakes, yet find the fortitude to get up every day, face their plight and make something of what is left.
I invite you to read my work and in doing so I promise you will always be entertained. My stories provide unique perspective, provoke thought, and ultimately restore people’s faith in human beings.
We all take this ride just once…
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 16, 2014
They still have no idea how he, Harley Basil, met his end.
. . . the more Virgil Dabney learned of Harley Basil, the less he wanted to share
As always with C. A. McGroarty, Destiny with a capital D, takes the lead role. An eerie sense of the active, generative, presence of the future's shaping power in the present pervades every twist and turn in the author's tantalising teaser introducing his Harley Basil Chronicles.
Whether steaming open his neighbours mail or tap dancing on - can it be - his mother's grave, Harley never ceases to enthral in this blackly comic, foreboding and doom laden, narrative. Expertly layered for maximum, delicious, moments of anticipatory frisson as he lays down the deeds the executor of his will, Virgil, will pick up, savour and one day, who knows, emulate.
Harley Basil, novelist manque, killer, memoirist, deceased, chose his legal executor well, divined the nature of his future discipleship, what he had been predestined to become through the administration of a psychopath's estate.
Master and acolyte move closer to confessional. The voyeuristic, voracious, appetite of Virgil's hunger for the deeds of his principal - the horror and beauty of his crimes - render the lawyer ripe for possession. As he avidly courts spiritual peril and, increasingly aware of the foreordained nature of his executorship, opens his psyche to the forces of darkness, ripening his soul for evil and imminent plunge into depravity.
Virgil Dabney is destined to break bad - doesn't he know it - doesn't he love it - he can't wait.
And I can't wait to read all about it.
. . . the more Virgil Dabney learned of Harley Basil, the less he wanted to share
As always with C. A. McGroarty, Destiny with a capital D, takes the lead role. An eerie sense of the active, generative, presence of the future's shaping power in the present pervades every twist and turn in the author's tantalising teaser introducing his Harley Basil Chronicles.
Whether steaming open his neighbours mail or tap dancing on - can it be - his mother's grave, Harley never ceases to enthral in this blackly comic, foreboding and doom laden, narrative. Expertly layered for maximum, delicious, moments of anticipatory frisson as he lays down the deeds the executor of his will, Virgil, will pick up, savour and one day, who knows, emulate.
Harley Basil, novelist manque, killer, memoirist, deceased, chose his legal executor well, divined the nature of his future discipleship, what he had been predestined to become through the administration of a psychopath's estate.
Master and acolyte move closer to confessional. The voyeuristic, voracious, appetite of Virgil's hunger for the deeds of his principal - the horror and beauty of his crimes - render the lawyer ripe for possession. As he avidly courts spiritual peril and, increasingly aware of the foreordained nature of his executorship, opens his psyche to the forces of darkness, ripening his soul for evil and imminent plunge into depravity.
Virgil Dabney is destined to break bad - doesn't he know it - doesn't he love it - he can't wait.
And I can't wait to read all about it.
August 8, 2014
This is a cracking little read. Beautifully described and with compelling, strange characters. I am looking forward to seeing where McGroarty goes next with the Harley Basil chronicles and just before the 2nd story comes out, I'll be giving this a re-read. Which is very unusual for me and a testament to the quality of the story.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews