Lead Story

About the Book

When Miami television news reporter Arland Hunter is given a temporary opportunity to be lead anchor at his station he resorts to extreme measures in order to make his ascension permanent. He combines a relentless assault on his competitors and uses unorthodox news reporting techniques to capture and cement his position.

He enthusiastically enters into a secret pact with a ruthless and sadistic Miami based serial killer. They forge a clandestine alliance and begin to feed off each other’s strengths and vulnerabilities in order for both men to increase their profiles and achieve their own selfish goals.

Although their pact initially creates an illusion of success, it inevitably is doomed for failure. In the end, we find that desperate people will sometimes go to extraordinary lengths in order to keep their new found wealth and status while others will kill repeatedly to grasp their desired “15 minutes of fame.”

About the Author

Edward R. Laden, Sr. was born in St. Louis, Missouri.  As a young man he loved to read, perform on stage and travel.  A tour of duty in the U.S. Air Force gave him the opportunity to travel to Alaska and several foreign countries including Canada, Mexico, Spain, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Returning home to St. Louis he worked his way through several unfulfilling jobs and decided to pursue his career in a new city.   Moving to Miami in 1976 he joined the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department and rose through the ranks from firefighter to Division Chief, retiring in 2003 after more than 27 years of public service. 

Post retirement, Mr. Laden still lives in Miami and is currently expanding his love of writing mystery novels into other fields such as screenplays, broadcasting and public relation endeavors.