Bitty is a canary whose courage more than makes up for his diminutive size. Of course, as a miner bird who detects deadly gas leaks in a West Virginia coal mine during the Depression, he is used to facing danger. Tired of perilous working conditions, he escapes and hops a coal train to the state capital to seek help in improving the plights of miners and their canaries. In the tradition of E.B. White, George Selden, and Beverly Cleary's Ralph S. Mouse, Madelyn Rosenberg has written a singular novel full of unforgettable characters.

One doctor's courageous fight to save a small town from a silent epidemic that threatened the community's future--and exposed a national health crisis. When Dr. Will Cooke, an idealistic young physician just out of medical training, set up practice in the small rural community of Austin, Indiana, he had no idea that much of the town was being torn apart by poverty, addiction, and life-threatening illnesses. But he soon found himself at the crossroads of two unprecedented health-care disasters: a national opioid epidemic and the worst drug-fueled HIV outbreak ever seen in rural America. Confronted with Austin's hidden secrets, Dr. Cooke decided he had to do something about them. In taking up the fight for Austin's people, however, he would have to battle some unanticipated foes: prejudice, political resistance, an entrenched bureaucracy--and the dark despair that threatened to overwhelm his own soul. Canary in the Coal Mine is a gripping account of the transformation of a man and his adopted community, a compelling and ultimately hopeful read in the vein of Hillbilly Elegy, Dreamland, and Educated.

Travel back to an era during the 1940's and early 1950's and experience life in a coal camp located in Southwest Virginia, As seen through the eyes of a young boy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Gentry ( Frankie ). Be a witness to the trials and tribulations, the joys and heartaches, and meet the unforgettable characters who contrbuted to the close-knit environment of the times.It's a story of life and death, happiness and sorrow, but most of all, it's a story of love.

In this novelette set in Matthew Wayne Selznick's storyworld The Sovereign Era, where the appearance of individuals with remarkable abilities changes the course of human destiny, author P. G. Holyfield presents a sequel to his own "Every Breath You Take" (featured in The Sovereign Era: Year One). Young telekinetic Stacey Miller disappeared under mysterious circumstances shortly after the violent events depicted in "Every Breath You Take." Days later, Sovereign Conduct Enforcement Teams (SCET) investigators Adoette Smith and Joshua Wolff team with a local police officer to track down the teen Sovereign before unknown antagonists decide her time has run out. When circumstances bring Adoette's violent, troubled past to the surface, will she be able to utilize her own Sovereign abilities in time to find Stacey Miller alive? THE SOVEREIGN ERA READING ORDER 0) Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights: How It All Got Started (free online serial) 1) Brave Men Run 2) The World Revolves Around You 3) The Sovereign Era: Year One 4) Canary In A Coal Mine 5) Pilgrimage 6) The News From Bewilder Pond

PI Pete Fortunato, half-Italian, half-Jewish, who suffers from anger management issues and insomnia, wakes up one morning with a bad taste in his mouth. This is never a good sign. Working out of a friend’s downtown real estate office, Fortunato, who spent a mysteriously short, forgettable stint as a cop in a small upstate New York town, lives from paycheck to paycheck. So, when a beautiful woman wants to hire him to find her husband, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. Within a day, Fortunato finds the husband in the apartment of his client’s young, stud lover. He’s been shot once in the head. Case closed. But when his client’s check bounces, and a couple of Albanian gangsters show up outside his building and kidnap him, hoping he’ll lead them to a large sum of money supposedly stolen by the dead man, he begins to realize there’s a good chance he’s been set up to take the fall for the murder and the theft of the money. This is only the beginning of a nightmare that gets him in trouble with the Albanian mob and sends him half-way across the country in an attempt to find money which can save his life. Praise for Canary in the Coal Mine “Salzberg has hit it out of the park. Love the writing style, and the story really draws you in. As with Salzberg’s prior works, he has a knack for making his heroes real, which makes their jeopardy real, too. So, say hello to Pete Fortunato, a modern PI who thinks on his feet and has moves that read like the noir version of Midnight Run.” —Tom Straw, author of the Richard Castle series (from the ABC show) and Buzz Killer “Salzberg writes hardboiled prose from a gritty stream of conscious. Peter Fortunato is an old school PI to be reckoned with.” —Sam Wiebe, award-winning author of Invisible Dead and Never Going Back “Charles Salzberg’s Canary in the Coal Mine is everything a reader wants in a great crime novel, and then some. The rat-a-tat cadence of the noir masters, seamlessly blended with the contemporary sensibilities of an author thoroughly in control of his craft. I liked this book so much I read it twice. No kidding. It’s that good.” —Baron R. Birtcher, multi-award winning and Los Angeles Times bestselling author “Canary in the Coal Mine is a terrific old-school crime novel with a machine gun pace. It delivers style and satisfaction on every page.” —Peter Blauner, New York Times bestselling author of Sunrise Highway and Slow Motion Riot “Charles Salzberg has created a fantastic literary PI: Pete Fortunato. Rash, blunt and prone to violence, you can’t help but turn the page to see what Fortunato will do next. Canary in the Coal Mine is great!” —James O. Born, New York Times bestselling author