Novelist · Supernatural suspense · Historical fiction · Dark comedy
RichardEttinger
A seventh-grader who can stop a heart without touching it.
The Button SituationA family of psychics working 1898 London for profit.
London CallingsA psychic assassin with a suitcase of cash, on a flight that is about to be skyjacked.
The Briscoe Situation
Five novels of supernatural suspense with a dark sense of humor, from a former television producer and film editor.
Latest release · The Briscoe Continuum
The Briscoe Situation
Philadelphia, autumn 1964. Julius Briscoe is a young man with a unique skill set, a suitcase full of cash, and a seat on a flight to Chicago.
His brother just made partner at a white-shoe Chicago law firm and needs half a million dollars for the buy-in. Julius has exactly that, courtesy of his career as a psychic assassin. Family is family. Then the skyjackers show up.
Hardboiled crime, dark comedy and paranormal intrigue, mixed into something completely its own.
- Series
- The Briscoe Continuum, book 2
- Set in
- Autumn 1964
- Route
- Philadelphia to Chicago
- Genre
- Crime, dark comedy, paranormal
Five novels
Two series. A family of psychics crossing Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, and a boy in 1958 who finds out what his mind can do.
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The Button Situation
Cornered by a gang member with a knife, thirteen-year-old Julius reaches into the boy's mind, and his heart simply stops.
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The Briscoe Situation
Julius flies to Chicago with half a million dollars for his brother's law partnership. Then the skyjackers show up.
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Start here
The Button Situation
It opens in 1958 with Julius at thirteen. The Briscoe Situation picks him up six years later.
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Supernatural Selection
From Ukraine to Paris, the family's wagon train barters with villagers and frees the captives of slave traders.
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London Callings
The Zolotos reach London, still bound for America, and Jacob and Myron learn to use their psychic power for profit.
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American Psychics
If psychics were real, would they hide from ridicule, or make their fortunes with their gifts?
Story order
Every book placed by the year its story is set. Drag the playhead along the ruler, or pick a clip.
Playhead
1958
V2 · Briscoe Continuum
Book 1 · The Briscoe Continuum
The Button Situation
1958. From small-town back alleys to J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.
Cornered by a gang member with a knife, thirteen-year-old Julius reaches into the boy's mind, and his heart simply stops.
Between books
No book is set in this year.
About · In his own words
I’m a tenured baby boomer.
I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia in the late fifties and early sixties, and studied Film and Television Production at Columbia College.
After two years in the US Army, I landed a job writing for a supermarket tabloid in Chicago. My first broadcast job was with the ABC affiliate in Boston, and I went on to work for television stations in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh. Then I moved into post-production, editing for production houses in Pittsburgh, Toledo, Fort Wayne and Denver. I am retired and living in Desert Hot Springs, California.
Credits
- Grew up
- Suburbs of Philadelphia, late 1950s and early 1960s
- Studied
- Film and Television Production, Columbia College
- Served
- United States Army, two years
- Wrote
- Supermarket tabloid, Chicago
- Broadcast
- ABC affiliate, Boston. Stations in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh
- Edited
- Post-production in Pittsburgh, Toledo, Fort Wayne and Denver
- Now
- Writing novels in Desert Hot Springs, California
Newsletter
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