40 Thieves

Enter the mind of career-criminal Dakoda Smith, a city crook who has been mentored by a savvy, European cat-burglar. After being out foxed by his mentor for one million dollars, in diamonds, Dakoda applies the skills he has learned to orchestrate a burglary ring that emerges into a band of well-organized thieves.

Within Dakoda's heart is dishonor, and with this dishonor, he baits his gang deeper into more sophisticated crimes. All the while, he bids his time until he can, one day, undermine his band of thieves and disappear in the wind--with a fortune--like his mentor once did to him.

--40 Theives

The One: A Convict's Christmas

The cell door opens to an unknown writer. The writer is writing to the family of a prisoner who has been murdered, on Chrismas day. The writer is a close friend of the deceased man and wants to make sure that the man's family knows the truth about what has happened to their loved one.

The deseased prisoner's name is Rondu Graves, a convict that has spent many years in prison. As a youth, he has been raised in a family that holds the Christmas holiday, in high esteem. After a Chrismas heist goes wrong, Rondu finds himself in prison and outcasted from his family. From his prison cell, Rondu has a distaste for prison and the holiday season, especially, Christmas. This distaste comepels him to steal thousands of dollars worth of Christmas packages from fellow prisoners--upon doing so, he is murdered.

The unknown writer writes about Rondu's time in prison as he tries to explain to the family why Rondu has been murdered and who has murdered him. Throughout the story, prisoners can be seen writing in their cells, one of which is the unknown writer, the friend of Rondu.

As the writer continues to write, he sketches out the lives of prisoners who might've murdered Rondu, for they all have the same motive--Rondu has stolen from them. The readers soon find themselves in a two-fold mystery, who is the unknown writer and who has killed Rondu.

All is revealed in the end . . .