Daniel Hecht
A former musician, he played the guitar, Daniel Hecht is now a writer who uses elements of horror in almost everything he writes.
Title List | Links | Series Page
 Bones of the Barbary Coast  |
Bones of the Barbary Coast (A Cree Black Novel #3)Author: Hecht, Daniel |
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In this thrilling novel set in two periods of San Francisco history, Cree Black confronts the mystery of one of the strangest victims of the Great Quake. Bert Marchetti, an old family friend of Cree’s and an SFPD homicide inspector, has asked Cree to help investigate a human skeleton recently unearthed in the foundation of a fine Victorian home — apparently the bones of a victim of the 1906 earthquake. The bones have been sent to UC Berkeley for analysis, where their peculiar characteristics have intrigued the forensic anthropology team. They call the skeleton Wolfman. Who was the wolfman? What caused his anatomical deformities, and how did he end up in that grand hilltop home? Cree’s historical research takes her back to the unholy glory days of the Barbary Coast, old San Francisco’s infamous red-light district. As she assists at the forensics lab, she also begins to realize that Bert Marchetti’s involvement with the case is more complex than he has let on. Her narrative is illuminated by entries from the 1889 diary of Lydia Schweitzer, a Victorian woman with her own secrets — and her own compelling interest in the person who would come to be known as the wolfman. A vivid and elegantly plotted thriller that reveals San Francisco’s hidden face across two centuries, Bones of the Barbary Coast tells the story of two women determined to face human nature’s darkest aspects with courage and compassion. |
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 Land of Echoes  |
Land of Echoes (A Cree Black Novel #2)Author: Hecht, Daniel |
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 Land of Echoes  |
Land of Echoes (A Cree Black Novel #2)Author: Hecht, Daniel |
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 Land of Echoes  |
Land of Echoes (A Cree Black Novel #2)Author: Hecht, Daniel |
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From the Editors of Barnes and Noble: Teenager Tommy Keeday suffers strange and dangerous seizures while a student at a school for gifted Native Americans in New Mexico and is believed to be possessed by an evil Navajo spirit. Seattle-based parapsychologist Cree Black is asked to study and save the boy. Along with her team of ghost hunters, she uses her own empathic skills to delve into the dark secrets of the teachers and fellow students who might have something to do with Tommy’s illness. Hecht makes a bold effort to give readers believable investigations into the supernatural. Cree considers and applies theories involving magnetic fields, mysterious energies, genetics, and geographical forces. The narrative is leavened with a great many separate back-stories, as several fascinating Navajo myths and local legends are discussed in depth. This plausible, spooky, and grabbing mixture of solid detective work and paranormal chills is highly recommended. |
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 City of Masks  |
City of Masks (A Cree Black Novel #1)Author: Hecht, Daniel |
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 City of Masks  |
City of Masks (A Cree Black Novel #1)Author: Hecht, Daniel |
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 City of Masks  |
City of Masks (A Cree Black Novel #1)Author: Hecht, Daniel |
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Cree Black didn’t believe in ghosts until she encountered her dead husband. Now she not only sees ghosts, she feels, hears, and even talks to them. Seeking answers to life’s mysteries as well as to riddles from her past, she’s putting her newfound abilities to use. Based out of Seattle, Cree and her partner are detectives of the spirit, scientific ghost busters who study ghosts as they try to exorcise them from people’s lives. But the ghost in their latest client’s life has Cree fearing for her own. The 150-year-old Beauforte House, in New Orleans’s Garden District, has more than a few secrets. Once the home of one of the city’s most influential families, the house has long stood empty, until Lila Beauforte resumes residence and begins to see some of those secrets literally come to life. Tormented by an insidious and violent presence, Lila finds herself trapped in a life increasingly filled with forgotten childhood terrors. Using an unconventional take on psychology and a powerful natural empathy with Lila, Cree finds herself navigating the dangerous worlds of spirit and memory as they clash in a terrorizing tale of murder and mistaken identity. |
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 Skull Session  |
Skull SessionAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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 Skull Session  |
Skull SessionAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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 Skull Session  |
Skull SessionAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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From the Editors of Barnes and Noble: Paul Skoglund is hired by his aunt to restore order to the magnificent house. He suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, which, despite his brilliant mind, keeps him underemployed and frustrated. In addition to the social hardships he faces because of his handicaps, his ex-wife is using his condition against him to obtain sole custody of their son, Mark. Paul hasn’t seen his wealthy aunt in years, but her 19th-century hunting lodge has been ravaged, and she refuses to allow anyone outside the family to take on the repairs. As Paul and his girlfriend, Lia, start the reconstruction, they can’t help but wonder what caused such chaos. Their search for answers takes them to the cutting edge of biomedical research, from the science of genetics to Viking legends. As they delve deeper into his family’s past, Paul must face the darker side of his own nature as he braves the possibility that he may destroy himself in order to save those he loves. |
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Thriller/Mystery by Daniel Hecht
 Puppets  |
PuppetsAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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 Puppets  |
PuppetsAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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The police called him Howdy Doody, after the famous TV puppet of the 1950s: three victims in New Jersey, three in Manhattan, another in the Bronx, hung up with strings attached to their limbs, like puppets. The thirteen-month spree ended dramatically when the New York police caught the murderer in the act. Case closed — or so it seems until state police detective Mo Ford finds another victim, killed and arranged in exactly the same way. Is it a copycat crime, or did the police catch the wrong man? As Mo investigates, the accumulating evidence hints at something far more frightening — a deeply buried secret involving U.S. intelligence agencies and a horrific experiment with human beings. With so many forces behind the scenes, who is the real puppet master? Mo Ford first appeared in Skull Session. This marks his second appearance and, according to the author, can be seen as a prequel or a sequel, of sorts. |
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 The Babel Effect  |
The Babel EffectAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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 The Babel Effect  |
The Babel EffectAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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 The Babel Effect  |
The Babel EffectAuthor: Hecht, Daniel |
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From the Editors of Barnes and Noble: Jess, Ryan, and their select team of experts begin by interviewing a number of death row inmates, all of whom seem to share one common characteristic: a lack of empathy so profound it allows them to “objectify” — and therefore devalue — their fellow human beings. The project has barely gotten under way when events intervene, and Ryan finds himself face-to-face with the violence he is attempting to study. Called to Africa on an unrelated matter, he is captured and held hostage by a predatory faction leader. After several weeks of brutal solitary confinement, he returns to his home to find that Jess — his very pregnant wife — is gone. According to colleagues, Jess has recently made an undisclosed breakthrough in her study of violent behavior — behavior she has labeled “the Babel effect” — and has been kidnapped in the wake of that breakthrough. The bulk of the subsequent narrative concerns Ryan’s attempts to identify the kidnappers by following in Jess’s footsteps and reconstructing the stages of her research. The result of all this is an intricate, hugely ambitious novel that artfully mingles classic, ticking-clock suspense with cutting-edge speculation. En route to its conclusion in the Conradian heart of Central Africa, The Babel Effect offers a provocative analysis of our biological predisposition to ethical behavior, while simultaneously raising a corollary question: What forces — cultural, viral, environmental — have corrupted our sense of common humanity and turned so many of us into killers? Daniel Hecht, who is clearly a writer to watch, addresses that question with sympathy, imagination, and an informed intelligence. In The Babel Effect, he has given us an illuminating, viscerally exciting novel about what it means to be truly human. I cannot recommend it highly enough. |
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Summary:
Title List:
1. Skull Session
2. Babel Effect
3. City of Masks
4. Land of Echoes
5. Puppets
6. Bones of the Barbary Coast
Title List: The Cree Black Series
1. City of Masks
2. Land of Echoes
3. Bones of the Barbary Coast
Weblinks List:
Daniel Hecht — Official Site
Series Page Link:
The Cree Black Series
