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by J. a. Castagno (Author)
Panama Canal Zone Police Detective Dan Casey, a product of Irish immigrant parents, must solve a series of murders. A shooting, stabbing or beating would have been a piece of cake for a rookie. A gruesome crime committed by a four hundred year old woman, feared by the locals, is not a case he welcomes. Claw marks on the throat of the first victim leads everyone to believe it was a large jungle cat. Casey and his friend Lou know better. Large black jaguars don't take seven hundred mile trips north to stalk their prey. When under stress, Casey often consults a leprechaun figurine given to him by his mother. He doesn't believe in spirits, phantoms, or ghosts, and has no intention to start now, but he needs help. His Panamanian wife, Alisa, points him in the right direction. A sorceress, who practices a Caribbean offshoot of Obeah, a type of voodoo, may help him.
Author Biography
Jim Castagno retired after thirty-one years of government service as a U. S. Army Special Forces officer and a Criminal Investigator with the U. S. Marshals Service Witness Security Program. He is certified by a U.S. District Court as an expert in the federal government's Witness Security operations and procedures. As a U. S. Marshals Service instructor, he trained Italy's first Witness Security Specialist and consulted with the Carabinieri and the Italian National Police during the development of Italy's Witness Security Program. He was born In Boston, Massachusetts and lived in six countries. He has traveled extensively, visiting over twenty-five countries in Europe, Asia and Central and South America. Jim is a dual citizen of the United States and Italy, and occasionally spends time with his family in the small town of Filetta di San Cipriano Picentino, in the mountains outside Salerno, Italy. Jim writes fiction and in 2010 completed his fifth feature length screenplay. Each of his screenplays are now written as novellas. His stories are created from sights, sounds and a lifetime of personal experiences. A visit to the Greek temples at UNESCO World Heritage Site at Paestum, talk of a four hundred-year-old woman with claws, experiences of his father during World War II, and over twenty years chasing fugitives and protecting witnesses, form gripping tales of intrigue, struggle, and perseverance. He is the winner of the Fantasy Category at the 2011 Endas International Screenwriting Competition in Genoa Italy, a screenplay finalist in the 2014 GI Film Festival, and a quarter-finalist in the 2009 StoryPros International Screenplay Contest. Jim lives in Florida with his wife, two Papillons named Andrew and Linus, and a bird called Sky.
