Listed below are previously published works crafted by Paul Barra. Ranging from incredibly detailed fictional thrillers to objective mysteries surrounding historical events, these stories are the result of a hardworking author sharing his unique perspective.
Big Anthony Tagliabue is a local character whose fiancée Agnes Ann owns a stable on the eponymous offshore island. She is secretly training a promising filly for the track when she discovers that Tagliabue also harbors a secret: he's a deep cover operative who is called to duty when a Russian spy ship transits the coast on her way back to St. Petersburg. Giselle, his enigmatic and exotic handler, intimates that his mission to rescue a defector from the Leonov might also ameliorate his thirst to find the killers of his mate. Agnes Ann is not so sure about Giselle. The result is a tense tale of high seas adventure off Georges Bank, racing drama at Saratoga, bloodletting in the north woods and intrigue on Westfarrow Island. Tagliabue is a bona fide modern day hero with a big right hand and a fast gun hand. His literary thriller will keep you reading in thrall until the last page.
THE PERMANENT PRESS 2019
Learn about Church history via a new historical novel featuring the bishop of both Carolinas from 1858-1882, a man of strong faith and many talents, and a slave owner. Even so, Bishop Patrick Lynch was a favorite of the Vatican. How did he defend slavery? What was he doing at sea on the open deck of a blockade-runner in 1864? Why did today’s diocese bury the Lynch Collection in her archives?
BLACK OPAL BOOKS 2017
It’s the story of a schoolteacher, Seamus Muldoon, who moonlights as a prizefighter. He knows the belt he holds as heavyweight champion of the New York Boxing Association is pretty much a meaningless title in the alphabet soup that professional boxing has evolved into, but it’s enough to entice “the next Ali” into a bout. Before the fight takes place, Muldoon’s jockey girlfriend is killed at Belmont Park and he is driven to solve the crime. Characters abound in the world of this protagonist, including Clancy, his salty trainer, Kirchener, a rumpled detective friend from his PAL days, and Fr. Tommy Greene, his best friend since high school and a Fordham Jesuit. Muldoon journeys from the mean streets of Queens to the wilds of South Carolina to Fire Island—with stops, and drama, in-between. All the while, he is training for the biggest fight of his career and trying to keep his students alive in a violent world.
BLACK OPAL BOOKS 2015
The protagonist of “A Death in the Hills” is a former NYPD detective who moves to the Black Hills after a traumatic episode in New York. After settling in as a teacher for a few years, George Bosco is importuned by the town fathers of Quickwater, South Dakota, to spend his summer building a legal case against a bully who is terrorizing the town. In Part II, during a Shane-like confrontation, the bully is assassinated and Bosco must now solve the murder. Although the shooting occurred in town on the busiest shopping day of the week, no one will admit to being a witness. Bosco’s investigation uncovers secrets and intrigues in the lands of the Lakota, from the gaming industry in Deadwood to greenie activists to the private affairs of ranchers and townsmen and the women of the Hills. It all comes crashing to an end during a dramatic denouement in an animal sanctuary.
ARGUS BOOKS 2014
Given the choice between the secular fundamentalism of public schools and the watered-down bashful Catholicism of today's parochial schools, it's no surprise that more families are turning to alternative means for educating their children in the Faith. However, neither the government nor Catholic archdioceses are willing to cede their control over education, and thus have implemented their own measures to prevent families from taking the matter into their own hands. St. Joe's is a real-life story of a group of parents, who after many obstacles, were finally able to control their kid's education by forming their own Catholic high school under the local archdiocese.
"St. Joe's Remarkable Journey is truly a remarkable books. Bravo Paul Barra! Bravo St. Joe's!" - Joseph Pearce, Editor of St. Austin Review
(nonfiction)
TUMBLAR HOUSE 2012
In this middle-grade mystery-adventure, a twelve-year-old girl discovers a grave injustice in the 1980s South when a neighbor is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Penny must find the courage to use her unique gift - her uncanny ability to foresee the future - to thwart a crazed desperado and find a treasure that will prove her neighbor’s innocence.
middle grade reader (ages 9-12)
BROWNRIDGE PUBLISHING 2012
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