In these three chapters of Night Flight to Murder Town, Marshall James finds himself waking up on the couch of Colin Griffin — a sharp-witted escort who becomes his unlikely confidant — and paying the price of admission: the truth. Marshall lays out his history, from his Hollywood past to the body he found that morning, and Colin listens without calling the police. Meanwhile, in a counterpoint chapter set in the present, Marshall and his partner Boo enjoy a deceptively quiet afternoon in Lambertville and New Hope — a brief, tender interlude that feels worlds away from what’s unfolding in New York City.

Back in the past, the stakes suddenly escalate. A breaking news report out of Manhattan reveals that Senator Daniel Roth — the powerful man Trent Stoffer had been secretly involved with — has fallen twelve stories to his death from his apartment near the United Nations. With his old flame dead and a senator now gone, Marshall grows convinced that his presence in New York is no accident. He’s been here before — marked as a patsy, caught in someone else’s design. And so he does what Marshall James always does: he heads straight for the scene of the crime.

Marshall James: Chapters Twenty-Five Through Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Five finds Marshall waking up in Leland’s apartment the morning after a drug-fueled night he remembers all too clearly. Filled with regret, he dresses, slips out, and returns to Trent Stoffer’s Upper East Side apartment — where he finds the place ransacked and Trent dead, bound and tortured in his bedroom. Knowing the police will eventually trace him to the scene, Marshall grabs a hidden computer disk from his suitcase and disappears into the New York morning — just as Carlton the doorman picks up the phone.

Chapter Twenty-Six steps out of the thriller’s timeline for a quieter moment, as Marshall and Boo walk the streets of Lambertville, taking in Bridge Street, the Brightside Diner, and the unhurried pace of small-town life. For the first time in a long time, Marshall feels something loosen. He begins to think Lambertville might be exactly the change he needs.

Chapter Twenty-Seven brings us back to the immediate crisis. With nowhere to go and the clock ticking, Marshall makes his way to the Big Cup coffee shop in Chelsea, where he encounters Colin — a young, sharp-eyed escort with a gift for reading people. Out of options and running on fumes, Marshall accepts Colin’s offer of a couch and a few hours of sleep, knowing he’s going to have to tell someone the truth very soon.

Welcome back to Fearsome Fiction, and to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

When we last left Marshall, he was finding his footing in a New York City that was as thrilling as it was foreign — a city that moved faster than he did, that asked more of him than he expected, and that seemed to be keeping secrets at every turn.

In tonight’s chapters, those secrets begin to take on weight. Trent hands Marshall a small yellow envelope — a floppy disk he calls “insurance” — and refuses to say more. It’s the kind of thing a man hands off only when he’s afraid of what might happen to it. Or to him.

Marshall puts the envelope away and goes on with his evening, because what else do you do? You put on a borrowed coat, you navigate your first New York City subway ride — tokens and all — and you head to Chelsea for what you tell yourself is just dinner. And maybe something more.

What he finds at Leland’s apartment, though, isn’t dinner. It’s a little white pill and a great deal of persuasion. And with one small word — sure — Marshall James crosses a line he can’t uncross.

Chapters twenty-two, twenty-three, and twenty-four. A disk full of secrets. A train into the dark. And the first of many falls to come.

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Welcome back to Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast, with Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller, chapters nineteen through twenty-one.

It’s 1992, and Marshall James is forty blocks into his first real walk through New York City — down through Chelsea, where hope is spilling out onto the sidewalk in front of every coffee bar. He’s thirty-three, starting over, and beginning to believe that might actually be possible.

That belief gets complicated fast. A tour of Muscles Gym leads to a dinner invitation from Leland Jenner that Marshall knows he shouldn’t accept — and accepts anyway. Meanwhile, he learns that Trent has his own standing Tuesday arrangement with a certain Senator Daniel Roth.

Then we jump forward. Marshall and his partner Boo arrive in Lambertville to look into the murder of a famous author — last seen alive at the bed and breakfast where they’re now unpacking. The canal, the locked rooms, and a housekeeper with perfect comic timing are all waiting for them.

Chapters Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One. Night Flight to Murder Town.

Welcome to Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast and another three chapters of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

Marshall James arrives in New York and gets his first look at Muscles, the gym where he’ll be working, courtesy of Trent. He’s told the previous manager had to go away and has not been seen since. The new one, Leland, can’t quite hide his interest in Marshall. And Trent makes it clear, without raising his voice, that everyone in the room knows exactly where the lines are.

New York is a city that demands a verdict, and Marshall’s is immediate. He loves it, against his better judgment. But love doesn’t mean safety. Trapped in Trent’s luxury apartment with a man whose pager never stops buzzing and whose overseas calls carry the unmistakable sound of crime, Marshall knows he needs to run. He just needs money first, and a map.

Meanwhile, back in the future, Marshall and his husband Boo arrive at a bed and breakfast in Lambertville. Their host Kyle Callahan jokes that their room is the “murder suite” and it’s been been good for business. Marshall will soon learn the truth of it, as they explore the river town they just might move to.

Welcome back to Fearsome Fiction, and to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.

In the next three chapters, Marshall’s fresh start in New York takes a sharp, unsettling turn. What begins as a nostalgic breakfast in a familiar Manhattan diner becomes something far more dangerous when Trent finally hints at the truth behind his sudden wealth. Laundromats? Not exactly. And the “job” he has in mind for Marshall may come with consequences neither of them can fully control .

As the charm of Trent’s polished world gives way to whispers, bodyguards, locked lobbies, and carefully managed secrets, Marshall realizes he may have stepped into something darker than he imagined. And just when the walls begin to close in, we shift—back to Lambertville. Back to Boo. Back to the choices that will define what kind of man Marshall becomes.

A new city. A dangerous offer. And a past that refuses to stay in the rearview mirror.

Settle in… the flight’s about to get turbulent.

Welcome back to the Fearsome Fiction Podcast. One of my offerings is the weekly serialization of Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller, book 4. This week, we dive into Chapters Seven through Nine of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller. Marshall leaves behind Hollywood—and a heartbreaking goodbye—to chase a new life in New York City. But from a turbulent red-eye flight to a sunrise over Manhattan, it’s clear this isn’t just a fresh start. With Trent waiting at the gate, a mysterious chauffeur, and whispers of danger already in the air, Marshall’s arrival in the City may be the beginning of something far more complicated—and far more dangerous—than he ever imagined.

Let’s step into the night flight… and what’s waiting on the other side.

Welcome back to the Fearsome Fiction Podcast. One of my offerings is the weekly serialization of Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller, book 4. This week Chapters Four through Six take us from the fading shadows of Los Angeles to the restless pulse of New York—and toward a future neither Marshall nor Boo can quite see coming. Marshall says goodbye to a dying friend and the ghosts of his Hollywood past, turns down one last temptation on a city bus, and boards a flight east with more regret than luggage. Years later, settled into marriage and New York life, he finds himself facing a different kind of fear: leaving behind the city that became his identity. Love, loss, survival, and the uneasy sense that life is about to shift again—these chapters mark the end of one era and the trembling beginning of another.

Mysteries. Thrillers. Rare Finds.

I’ve renewed, refreshed, and rebranded my fiction podcast, and I’m thrilled to welcome you to the new Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast. Each week I’ll be sharing several chapters of my own harrowing fiction, the kind of stories that creep under your skin and refuse to leave, along with rare and forgotten gems, and select works from other authors whose voices deserve to be heard in the dark.

If you love mysteries with pulse, thrillers with heart, and stories that don’t behave themselves, you’re in exactly the right place.

You can purchase the entire audiobook HERE.

Or listen on Spotify Premium HERE.

This week: Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 1 – 3)

Marshall James returns in Night Flight to Murder Town, Book 4 in the series. He’s thinking about leaving New York City with his husband for a quieter life, away from the relentless pace of the nation’s largest city. But how did he get here in the first place?

After three stories detailing his harrowing Hollywood past — where lovers, losers, and more than one serial killer nearly ended his life before he could make something of it — Marshall finally tells us how and why he left LaLa Land for Gotham.

This is the origin story beneath the scars. The turning point. The night everything changed.