Carl Reader: 44 books

The story of William Penn is one of great personal tragedy as well as great ability and courage in the face of religious persecution. In England in the seventeenth century, Penn was jailed six times for his beliefs as a Quaker, yet through his connections at court and his deep understanding, good...

A terrified elf no bigger than a dime hides in a boy's ear to escape from the dangers of the world. Despite the boy's plea for the visitor to leave, Elias stays and slowly reveals a magical identity. A friendship grows between the two, and through a hair-raising adventure courage is restored to elf...

Now We Know Why You Died, a play, is a dark psychological crime thriller in three acts set in New York City before the Twin Towers fell, when everybody seemed to be their own worst enemies. Allie Slayton, a disturbed and burnt-out private detective and veteran working by fax, phone and computer from...

Joshua Skettleton, a narcoleptic Confederate soldier, is bat-shit crazy. The hope that he'll see his son Josh again and the friendship of another soldier, Jeb Charles, help him to cling to some semblance of humanity while the rank butchery, race, religious hatred and greed of the rich tear his soul...

Allie Slayton might be a feminist detective, but the situation he faces in Mamba In A Basket forces him to make use of all the dark skills he learned as a Vietnam veteran and former college football player. An ancient African woman brings a body part to his office in North Philadelphia and commands...

Forced to move to Montana with her parents' murderers, half-mad Maggie climbs the walls of her home at night, only to discover blood-spitting vampires trapped in vats on her roof. A lover helps her discover her powers, and the two brave severe attacks to save her brother and fly hordes of trapped...

These tales, written by an elf, tell of Santa's exploits at the North Pole and at various places across the globe. Set on Christmas Eve and Christmas, the stories detail Santa's love of his work, his wife Clara, the elves and elf-children but most of all, the children of the world. Santa finds a bride,...

Gatsby Girls, a sequel to the classic novel The Great Gatsby, continues the saga of a Jazz Age dream gone wrong, that of Jay Gatsby for Daisy Buchanan. The dreamer is dead, but Daisy is unrepentant and plans an abortion before leaving her drunken, abusive husband, Tom. She enlists the help of a gangster,...

These short stories are about people behaving and perceiving badly ... a young man drives women out of existence when he disrobes them ... a toddler wants to stab her mother after what's she's seen in the bedroom and on TV ... a clever bartender and waitress outwit a dangerous ex-con ... a sexually...

Red Lights for Six Nights is a kind of Last Tango in Amsterdam set mostly in that city's famous red light district. After a devastating divorce, a middle-aged man visits the district to see if he can regain his manhood and passion by screwing as many whores as possible. The novel includes realistic...

Based on the Odyssey, D'eannuosity, A Woman Warrior's Odyssey in Iraq, is the story of D'eannu Christensen, a spy dropped into Iraq two years before that conflict began. The novel starts ten years later when her daughter, T'Deannu, begins a search for the mother lost to her ever since her childhood....

Babbit Rabbit, Jr. lives alone with his mother and has to learn to be a big rabbit all by himself. In these stories, he mistakes a snake for a carrot, helps build a garden of delicious vegetables, falls in love, eats too much carrot pie and learns valuable lessons. Babbit, Jr. is just like you were when you were young. He learns things the hard way.

As the title suggests, this offering contains three stories of the strange and grotesque. In "His Angels He Charges With Error" a priest is determined to discover why his brother, also a priest, committed suicide. He's forced to confront a bloody ghost who turned out to be someone he did not...

A spring morning in Montana is shattered when Joseph Smith, a namesake nephew of the founder of the Mormon religion and fundamentalist, emerges from his tepee and his young wife is shot dead at his feet. He races after his wife's murderer but kills Three Pigs before he finds out why the man murdered...