Red Thread

It is a sweltering summer morning in New Jersey and an appalling sight awaits Ben O’Shaughnessy…

When he arrives in ‘The Embroidery Capital of the World’ to drop the roughs off for some new products, he soon finds the body of a young sketcher, her slender form tilted sideways, her hands balled up into fists.

And that’s not all - her mouth is crudely stitched shut with red embroidery thread.

Ben, who also writes a gossip column as ‘Mr Knowbody’ for the Jersey Journal, is shocked and pained.

But nobody appears to want to find out who murdered Nikki and why – no one except him that is.

Though the embroidery business paid the rent, Ben’s secret life as Mr Knowbody kept him sane.

Could Mr Knowbody unknot the thread?

He certainly has more than a passing acquaintance with the seedy underbelly of glamour capitals like New York and his is a world where everyone is fighting to keep their head above water.

It is a world of ultimate human exploitation, where the trappings of civilised life – local politicians, businessmen, law enforcement, the Church – are exposed as merely skin deep when Mr Knowbody starts poking his unwanted nose in.

And when Nikki’s mother Hazel doesn’t seem to react when she learns of her daughter’s death, Mr Knowbody can’t help wondering…what secret could she be hiding?

Red Thread is a riveting read, peppered with the humour and satisfyingly taut structure of Ernest Hemingway.

Praise for Mark Rogers

‘Chilling and intriguing in equal measures’ – Thomas Waugh

Mark Rogers is a writer and artist whose literary heroes include Charles Bukowski, Willie Vlautin and Charles Portis. He lives most of the year in Baja California, Mexico with his Sinaloa-born wife, Sophy. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Village Voice and other publications and his travel journalism has taken him to 54 countries.