Stan Washburn: 6 books

A serial rapist works a defined area in a college town. He prepares his entrances while his victims are absentunlocking windows or doors, positioning things to climb on silently, scouting out the locations of lights and phones so he can disconnect them later. Then he leaves, and returns when his...

The near future. The country is in turmoil, and abortion is illegal. Pregnant, 16-year-old Kelsey appeals to police sergeant Joy Banta for help. Joy knows Kelsey only slightly, and the sentence for assisting is harsh, but she agrees. The simple solutions don’t work out. A bungled abortion procedure...

President Johnson described the war in Vietnam as “Just the biggest damn mess I ever saw.” Nevertheless, he proceeded to escalate, and the confusion, bungling, slaughter, and destruction dragged on for years. A high school student, Eddie, is caught demonstrating against the war, drafted, and whisked...

At the bottom of the recent Great Recession, Nicole (the luckiest girl), desperate to save her struggling business, is inveigled into investing in the cocaine trade. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, and flounders. Meanwhile, Nicole’s dealer, Halfnose, pressures a teenager, Alec, into making...

Paul, an odd misfit, kidnaps Jeremy, a 5-year-old boy, to be his companion, but finds that becoming friends is harder than he expected. Meanwhile, Jeremy’s much-blamed teen babysitter, Essie, runs away in despair. Soon she is working in a restaurant while living secretly in the crawl space above...

Nate Ritzo, an ardent young painter of the purist persuasion, and Egg Donner, whose art goes for splash, contend for success in the tumultious and often preposterous New York art scene, where painting is as susceptible to the whims of fashion as restaurants or handbags. Neither quality nor vehemence...