Meet & Greet with Peter O’Keefe

In “Counted with the Dead”, author Peter O’Keefe writes about a Detroit hitman, Jack, who has grown disgusted with his job and wants to turn his life around. Will Jack be able to make the switch to average citizen? Grab a copy and find out!

Peter will be at Blue House Books on Saturday, October 19th between Noon to 3 p.m. to chat with readers about his debut horror novel and sign copies! Check out our website for more details: https://www.blue-house-books.com/events/545320241019.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Jack Killeen is done killing. The Detroit hitman has grown disgusted with his job and wants to turn his life around. Unfortunately for him, it’s too late: A mad surgeon has created a monster from the bodies of Killeen’s victims and the creature is animated by the damaged brain of Jack’s final target, Victor Moravian.

Now the Mob wants him dead, the cops want a piece of him, and his hard-nosed parish priest refuses to grant him absolution until he atones for his crimes. Complicating matters, Jack is in love with Marlene, Moravian’s widow, who wants him to use his particular set of skills to find her “missing” husband.

Jack’s only ally is his closeted factory worker brother Marty, whose homosexuality has strained their once close relationship and complicated the hitman’s relationship with his Mob bosses. Together they navigate the city’s underbelly and bitter racial divisions as they track the beast through the post-apocalyptic ruins of late ’90s Detroit.

It’s remorseless killing machine vs. ruthless professional killer as Jack struggles to protect his family, destroy the monster, and somehow achieve absolution for his crimes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter O’Keefe currently resides in Racine, Wisconsin. His first novel Counted With the Dead—a horror/crime hybrid that reimagines the Frankenstein myth set in the racial cauldron of late 90’s Detroit—was released by Grendel Press in June of 2024. Peter’s short story “By Their Works You Will Know Them” is part of the Bishop Rider Lives Anthology from Down & Out Press. Other authors in the collection include S. A. Cosby and Laurel Hightower.

Peter started out writing for George Romero’s Tales From the Darkside and has since worked as a Hollywood screenwriter, optioned numerous original screenplays, and written TV movies for German networks. His narrative short films have screened at a variety of film festivals and Peter’s documentary about visual artists in the Midwest, Dreaming In Public, Making Art In the Real World was awarded a Chicago Regional Emmy. His short stories have appeared in various literary and online journals and anthologies. Along the way he has worked as a video writer/producer, commercial director, bartender, office temp, road worker, night janitor, postal clerk, loading dock worker, warehouse grunt, store clerk, busboy, parking attendant, zoo train conductor, production assistant, copywriter, journalist, and grant writer.