Loiacono Literary Agency’s Melissa Carrigee takes on Paul Barra’s Astoria Nights!

IRVING, Texas - Jan. 9, 2016 - PRLog -- Loiacono Literary Agency’s Melissa Carrigee takes on Paul Barra’s Astoria Nights!

Terrence (Seamus) Muldoon can knock the fillings out of a man’s teeth with either hand, but he can’t prevent his jockey girlfriend from being murdered at Belmont. Read how this teacher-boxer redeems himself while also facing his toughest fight ever.

Life is comfortable for Catholic schoolteacher Terrence Muldoon. He owns his own house in Astoria, NY and a year-old Volvo, both paid for; his only dependent is a rescued greyhound. His avocation as a club fighter provides all the excitement he needs.

All that changes when his jockey girlfriend is killed. Muldoon is unable to save her and is driven to find out who wanted her dead, and why. Was she collateral damage? He teams up with a NYPD detective friend from his PAL days in an investigation that takes him to Myrtle Beach and the rural environs of South Carolina, into the world of Queens gangsters, down to the Brooklyn waterfront and out to Fire Island for a dramatic finale. As if his mission is not fraught with enough danger, he is training all the while for a fight with a man being touted as the next Ali. ESPN gives him only a puncher’s chance. The bout is an epic struggle of strategy versus raw talent.

Characters abound in the world of Seamus Muldoon (Terry’s ring name) — including his best friend, a Fordham Jesuit, and Clancy his salty trainer — making his story of righteous redemption fast-paced, frightening at times but always thrilling.

Paul A. Barra is a high school chemistry teacher with a BS from Niagara University and an MS from Loyola University of New Orleans. He also holds certifications from Clemson University (Advanced Placement biology) and the University of North Carolina (A. P. chem).

Barra was also a reporter with state newspapers and magazines, and was the senior staff writer for the Diocese of Charleston, winning many awards from the S. C. Press Association and from the Catholic Press Association.

He is a decorated veteran (Bronze Star with Combat V and the Combat Action Ribbon). He and his wife Joan have eight children and live with their burro, two alpacas, twenty-five chickens and a Catahoula Leopard hound in Reidville, Spartanburg County, South Carolina.

Barra’s publications include four supplementary science readers (Houghton-Mifflin), St. Joe’s Remarkable Journey (Tumblar House), The Secret of Maggie’s Swamp (Brownridge Press), A Death in the Hills (Argus Books) and The Mekong Junkman (Argus Books).

He is currently working on another children’s adventure novel and a novel about three southern priests in Charleston as the Civil War begins, including the real-life Rebel Bishop, who must solve a murder in the diocesan cathedral and resolve their personal issues with the Catholic Church’s involvement in slavery and secession. www.paulbarra.com

Loiacono Literary Agency - Melissa Carrigee www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com