Novels by Paul Barra

It's 1967, Tran Thi Linh wants to partner with Gil Ford as the PI tries to solve the Case of the Pigeon-Blood Rubies in the wilds of eastern Wyoming. An obstacle stands in her way: she is dying in the Mekong delta. Ford rescues her, however, and so begins the tale known as SGT. FORD'S WIDOW, a modern Western and an oddball love story set in a milieu of action and danger. By the end of their adventure, Linh is a criminal justice legend locally, who bows to fellow westerners—and has them bowing back. 

OCTOBER 1ST 2024

PERMANENT PRESS 2024

The second in a Kindle Unlimited series;

A Big Percy Pletcher thriller

June 13th 2024

Big Percy Pletcher, a cargo boat captain and locally famous crime fighter, finds murder and intrigue on his home island off the coast of Maine when an oysterman’s body with a blood beard is found in the snow of Angel Wood. He discovers a carved 500-year-old silver spoon, part of a lost set worth seven figures, and is soon engaged with history, chicanery, and danger on the high seas that shake the insular culture of island and mainland both. Strong women push Percy to his limits; strong men plot his demise.

PJ'S SELF-PUBLISHING 2024

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

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

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