MYSTERY NOVELS
The novel that started the John Keegan Series.
When New York City's most famous man dies by suicide, questions arise. Ronald Mullins had it all, with no hints he was suicidal.
Keegan and his partner investigate, and discover layers of corruption that lead to the top of city government. When Keegan pushes, he finds himself in handcuffs.
Suspended and left on his own, Keegan pushes to find the truth, not realizing he may end his career, and his life.
Children's books
Check out my childrens fantasy series, The Dream Fighter Chronicles. They are written for children and adults, aged 8 and up.
The Dream Fighter Chronicles at Amazon
A serial killer is loose in New York City. When the latest victim is the granddaughter of a prominent Senator, pressure mounts to find the killer at all costs.
Keegan gets thrust into a series of murders looking more and more like the workings of the serial killer. The mayor fears the murders will affect his successful anti-crime initiative. Keegan's boss, passed over for a promotion, is eager to put this case to rest and secure a position higher up in the department.
Keegan's partner is distracted by problems at home. At first he attempts to close the case prematurely, then, he disengages himself from the investigation, leaving Keegan to come to his own conclusions about the case and his partner. He won't like the results.
The daughter of a famous scientist is found strangled in Central Park... A drug dealer is brutally murdered in his apartment...
NYPD Detective John Keegan is drawn to the first case but instead is assigned to the second. Investigating drug dealers is not what he became a cop for. In a sense, he figures, whoever killed Konstantin 'K-Drugs' Volkyv did the city a favor. Over time, he will realize the two cases are connected. As more criminals end up dead, he'll also discover that a vigilante is running loose in New York, determined to end the lives of an underground crime syndicate. While he secretly applauds the killer's work, Keegan knows he must stop him. It will take more than he is willing to give to do so.
New York City gets caught off guard by the brutal murder of actor Patrick Dillons. Homicide detective John Keegan returns to the job he walked away from and his first case lands him in the media spotlight. Adjusting to his new life as a husband and father, Keegan attempts to investigate a case he isn't ready for.
Though beloved, Dillons' life points to several suspects. Keegan investigates with his new partner and old friend, Karl Lavin, and they quickly discover Dillons manufactured an image for the public while living a vastly different life in private. When Keegan gets handed shocking information on the actor he must keep secret, he finds himself embedded in a web of lies, causing trouble on the job and at home.
The Down Side illustrates the difficulty investigating a high-profile murder, along with the secrets all people keep. From the highly detailed murder scene to the involvement of players ranging from drug dealers to high-level government officials, this mystery will keep readers guessing until the very end who killed Dillons.
Months after the Dillons investigation, John Keegan gets thrust back into the 'game' he played with an informant. Contacted via anonymous text, Keegan and the informant play a game of cat and mouse, and it takes a while before Keegan realizes which role he plays.
Similar murders occur within his precinct, and each time, his informant has significant evidence regarding the crime. While trying to solve the cases he is assigned, and helping other detectives with the others, Keegan attempts to investigate this mysterious helper and come to conclusions about his or her intentions.
The killings continue as Keegan discovers the killer's ultimate target, and he must risk everything, including his own sanity, to stop the killer before it is too late.
Release date: November 2020
The impossible happened. John Keegan got promoted. True to form, he half-accepts the promotion, choosing to work cases while he runs the Homicide department. It's a recipe for disaster.
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A new case comes in. Keith Canton, certified 'maker' and 'tech guru' is found in his posh apartment, strangled with piano wire, an extremely low-tech way to kill someone. Keegan takes the case, brings old partner Karl Lavin along, and discovers Canton led a wildly disparate life. A workaholic by day, he engaged in an online game enhanced by psychadelic drugs at night. When the case reveals Canton coded VR memory experiences for high-powered clients, Keegan and Lavin see reality shift before their eyes.
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What happens in alternate reality seemingly does not stay there. There are people who will pay large sums to escape reality and others to mine the information revealed in that escape. Which side was Canton on and why did someone choke the life out of him?
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Never Look Back explores the digital footprint we leave and the dangers of not knowing the rules of the game.
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COMING 2021
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SCI-FI NOVELS
A new series, The Virium Saga- Due July 2016
This first book, New Dawn, tells the story of Earth 150 years after an apocalypse. A young woman with special abilities is thrust from her encampment and sent out into the wilderness.
Once in the wild, she realizes the long-held beliefs of her people are completely wrong. Although much of the Earth may be lost, humanity has survived, and an entire universe is out there to be discovered.
Humans had used a moon mineral, Virium, to enhance their DNA. This has led to a fracturing of mankind, and Beveny must discover the path to salvation, for herself, and the people she has lived with all her life.
The world she encounters is not friendly. She will need to harness her newfound abilities, and decide how to handle the various life forms she encounters on her quest to disvover the truth of mankind's past, and future.
Welcome to my website. I am a college English (Humanities) professor and a mystery and childrens fiction writer.
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No more Assistant Professor! I am now Associate Professor of English and Director of Technical and Professional Communication at New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York. I have received tenure as well and this marks a major milestone in my career. I don't feel like much will change but there is a sense of exhale.
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Over the last year, I have worked hard trying to modify classes for online learning. I will spend the summer going over course design and finding ways to make online classes and asynchronous elements more engaging. A lot of it is trial and error but I've found involving students from the beginning effective. Polling them and seeing how a specific class is handling this new modality works wonders.
Since I started full-time at NYIT, I have published twelve articles, including several on developing video games for learning in the composition classroom. My project Perchance seeks to re-imagine ancillary literature learning tools like Cliff Notes to become a more usable (and more used) form of learning. Check out the development of Perchance: A 3D Hamlet Mystery here.
My teaching interests lie in first-year composition, in introducing students to college writing and finding creative ways to make such courses engaging, and technical writing, as I have discovered these courses attract students of all backgrounds. I didn't like boring classes when I went to school, so I attempt to prevent my students from suffering the same in my classroom. Technology and its impact on our scoiety as well as the teaching of writing intrigues me, and I spend much of my research time devoted to exploring its uses. I have found, for instance, a direct correlation between the use of technological aids in the classroom and improved student writing, particularly for international students and second-language learners. I have written a paper on using virtual reality (VR) to help students experience and better understand sense of place in writing. It will be published in Computers and Composition later this year. You can see some of my other papers over at Academia.edu They range from using smartphones as writing devices to video games as literature and strategies to make writing more accessible to all students.
I find teaching writing helps students across their college careers and life. Formulating an argument or just finding a way to say what we want/think effectively improves all areas of our lives. A quick look around social media can easily illustrate how more of us could use some help here. Students know how to engage, and most merely need a better focus on how to do that more effectively.That's what I bring to the classroom: writing instruction with real-world implications that students can relate to. They work on the skills they will need in their careers while in my classroom. The days of using pen and paper are almost behind us, so I shift the emphasis to the media we all interface with daily. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of digital and social media are incorporated into my classes, and students respond positively to their use in writing instruction. Maybe I am helping improve the Twitter-verse one class at a time. That would be a good start.
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I write murder mysteries and childrens fantasy books and always look to incorporate my experiences writing in these and other genres into my pedagogy. I believe an intersection lies between creative writing and composition, and try to use this tool to make my classes more interactive. There still should be a strong distinction between the two, but I've found some overlapping really helps students put words on the page. With the addition of using mobile technology to have students writing anywhere and everywhere, I've seen a tremendous increase in student productivity. One habit I have is to show students my early drafts, so they can see that writing, even a big project like a novel, does not involve some magical process or comes from only natural talent. I let them see my imperfections so they can realize theirs differ little. They grasp the writing process a little better after I do this.
If you've come looking for my book series, you can head to this page, or click the book tab above that can give you a small sample of my writing.
Please feel free to have a look around. I'll be adding new things from time to time, and hope you enjoy your stay. You can always contact me at jmisak@nyit.edu
John Misak