Tony Flaner is a malingering part-time comedian, full-time sarcastic, who’s never had it hard, and never finished a thing in his life. He’s had twelve years to prepare for his divorce and didn’t. He had his entire life to choose a career and hasn’t. Now time’s up, and he’s in a world of trouble. But it gets worse—a first date and a drunken party ends with Tony facing prison for the murder of a girl he hardly knew. But other than that, it was a pretty great party.. To save himself, wise-cracking Tony must discover who the mysterious girl was, what she was involved in and what the hell she saw in him in the first place. Their lives are linked together at the ends of a Chinese finger trap, like life and death, friends and enemies, arugula quiche and pigs knuckles. Winner of the League of Utah Writers Diamond Quill for Best Book of the Year.
Author
Johnny Worthen is an award-winning, best-selling author of books and stories. A Utah Writer of the Year. Trained in modern literary criticism and cultural studies, he writes upmarket multi-genre fiction, symbolized by his love of tie-dye and good words. “I write what I like to read,” he says. “This guarantees me at least one fan.” Johnny is best known (so far) for his award winning, nationally acclaimed, best-selling young adult novel, ELEANOR, THE UNSEEN. It is a great book and if you haven’t read it, you need to. Johnny’s debut novel, the adult occult thriller, BEATRYSEL along with its companion story DR. STUART’S HEART explores the darker sides of love and Magick. CELESTE, THE UNSEEN BOOK 2, continues Eleanor’s story as she tries to maintain a life in Jamesford, while distant events and local suspicion conspire to threaten everything. DAVID, THE UNSEEN BOOK 3, sees the powerful transformative conclusion of this awarding series as Eleanor learns her past and builds her future. Johnny’s entry into mystery with THE BRAND DEMAND won a Silver Quill Award from the League of Utah Writers in the best novel category, while, his genre-bending comedy noire, THE FINGER TRAP, introduces Tony Flaner, a flawed slacker every-man detective who can’t throw a punch but can slay a room with sarcasm. Johnny's short stories appear in a number of anthologies including the Dark Fiction LITTLE VISIBLE DELIGHT (The Point), Utah Horror, OLD SCRATCH AND OWL HOOTS (Keep Sweet), IT CAME FROM THE GREAT SALT LAKE (May 15th), Utah Fantasy, SECRETS & DOORS (A Thousand Secret Doors), HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT (The Lost Curse of the Witch's Nest) and the limited edition commemorate Salt Lake Comic Con anthology HEROIC: TALES OF THE EXTRAORDINARY (The Grape Whisperer). Johnny lectures and teaches about writing and life whenever anyone will listen. He edits professionally for Omnium Gatherum, a dark fiction press. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with his wife, sons and a cat.
