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Book Description

«The Will of the Wisp» is an action filled story of high stakes crime, intrigue, and tangled emotions.  Its characters, good and bad, are flawed. The novel opens with the narrator agreeing to administer the estate of a former lover who committed suicide, and quickly moves into multiple layers of deception and danger. As the mayhem mounts, a complex set of plots and counterplots is revealed, as is the persistence of love despite betrayal.

Excerpt

Chapter 1.

“When I let you speak, you may call me Lubich.”

It was as much trademark as alias. His real name had been discarded over ten years earlier.

“Let me be clear, Mr. Dempsey. You attempted to cheat us and are going to die after I extract the needed information…”

Dempsey squirmed, sputtering from behind his gag.

“Please, we are both professionals. After sufficient pain, you will answer my questions. I will then dispatch associates to verify your information. If you have told the truth, your passing will be painless and I not involve your wife and family. If you lie, I will resume my questioning on a group basis. Is this clear?”

Dempsey, eyes squinting, nodded.

“Good.” Lubich picked up a sixteen-ounce ball peen hammer, and swung it into the side of Dempsey’s left knee. The crunch and Dempsey’s muffled scream were satisfactory. Lubich bent down to inspect his work.  The shattered bones had not penetrated the skin. “Gut,” he muttered.

Lubich trained his men to use a ball peen hammer as precisely as a scalpel, and that sixteen ounce was the proper weight and size, not eight ounce, not twenty-four ounce. As Lubich raised his hammer to strike the right knee his cell phone rang. It was a call he had to take.

Dempsey was running from his nose and eyes as Lubich put down the hammer and tapped his phone.

“Ja.”

The conversation was in German.

“Have you finished?”

“Two more days.”

“You don’t have them. A situation has arisen which requires immediate attention. Specifics sent as usual. Leave this to our associates.”

“Ja,” Lubich said, and hung up. Then muttered “Scheisse” under his breath. He waved at a man standing in the background, who quick-stepped over to him.

“Herr Lubich?”

“I must leave immediately, Friedrich. Please take over for me.  You know the information we need?”

Friedrich smiled “Of course.”

“Another half-day of ministration should be sufficient. And Friedrich…”

“Ja, Herr Lubich?”

“Not too energetic. If the bones pierce the skin it will create a mess.”

Friedrich nodded. “I’ll make every effort.”

“Good.”

© Ed Ahern

Praise for «The Will of the Wisp»

Edward Ahern is a fresh and innovative storyteller who shows death isn’t the end of a mystery, but just the beginning. In The Will of the Wisp, Tom Sinclair receives a phone call saying his ex-lover, Angela Fuchs, died in a car crash, and he’s still listed as the executor of her estate. He has to travel into his painful past and fly to Illinois to settle her affairs. But, along the way, he finds out more than he bargained for. Angela was involved in some high-stakes affairs, and chasing after the truth puts Tom’s own life into danger. Wisp is a thrilling journey with quirky characters who slowly and reluctantly reveal their darkest and most twisted secrets as Tom gets to the bottom of the mystery. In The Will of the Wisp, the quirky characters can’t hide their twisted and dangerous secrets. You’ll be on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last. Highly recommend!

-Alison McBain, author of The Rose Queen and numerous other novels and stories, editor of Scribes Micro, publisher of Fairfield Scribes.

The first thing I noticed in Ed Ahern’s The Will of the Wisp is the detail. It rings true. Here is a man who knows what he’s talking about. Next, here is a man who knows how to tell his story. The prose is agile and innovative, and has a clarity that matches the intrigue of a brilliant story. As the plot develops, it is aided and abetted by a humorous touch seamlessly woven into the narrative. It’s a page-turner of the highest order. Read it and revel in the work of an author of great talent. Spend some time with this one. Read The Will of the Wisp for its intrigue. Read it for its adventure. Read it for its humor. Read it for its plot. But most of all, just read it. It’s wonderful.

-Emerson Gilmore, award-winning poet and author

A Recent Interview about the Craft of Writing and the Book:
Edward Ahern (Ep 24) by The Brewing Fiction Podcast

Kindle (also available in Paperback)

Author’s Biography

Edward Ahern resumed writing after a forty-year career in foreign intelligence and international sales. He has his original wife, but advises that after fifty-seven years, they are both out of warranty. He’s had five hundred fifty stories and poems and twelve books published so far. In addition to seven poetry collections and chapbooks, his titles include The Witch Made Me Do It (fairy and folk tales), The Witches’ Bane (supernatural horror), Capricious Visions and Cautionary Visions (collected speculative stories), and  of course, The Will of the Wisp. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of six review editors, and as lead editor at the Scribes Micro zine.