Keno is twenty-three, a high-school dropout working as a rent collector for a slum landlord. Apart from hitting on the office secretary, Cass, Keno's life is bleak. His job takes him into sad, mean places where kids wail, drunks fight and women get beaten up. He works his territory with Jaco, who's tougher and shiftier than any of the folks they're sent to shake rent out of. One night Keno and Jaco finally catch up to one of their targets. But she'll never pay. She's dead. Battered almost beyond recognition. But they recognize her killer, and Jaco comes up with a scheme to blackmail him. Now Keno has to decide who he is-bill collector or blackmailer. Or could he even be the good guy? Will he run or will he stay? In the end, will trusting himself help him outmaneuver a psychopathic killer? This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for older teen readers and adults who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don't like to read!

Gina Lopez is twenty-six, a postal worker during the week, a mud wrestler on weekends. Gina's also a recent widow, though she is not exactly mourning the death of her abusive husband Chico. Instead, she's anxiously awaiting the life-insurance settlement that will pay off his gambling debts. After that she's hoping to take her mud-wrestling skills out of small-town-Ontario bars and down to the more lucrative US circuit. And then Marcia Beekland enters her life. Marcia has video evidence that appears to implicate Gina in Chico's death. Faced with the likelihood of a jail sentence and the certain loss of the insurance settlement, Gina succumbs to Marcia's blackmail demands. And what Marcia wants is that Gina kill her husband Stanley. What follows is a comic mystery caper that will keep readers both laughing and eagerly reading to discover what is really behind Marcia's increasingly crazed demands. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for older teen readers and adults who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don't like to read!