Eighteen-year-old Eddie Nye was bound for U.S.C. and a bright future that fateful summer in the Bahamas. But somebody set Eddie up. Instead of four years of higher education, he did fifteen behind bars for drug smuggling. Eddie went in innocent, but with three prison murders under his belt, he comes out dangerous. Although all he wants is to stay clean, Eddie’s future won’t be that easy. The nightmares of his past–corruption, greed, and most of all a stunning betrayal–are on a collision course with a daring plot hatched in a prison cell. To learn the secret of his own life, half-hidden in an ancient mariner’s saga, Eddie must face the hardest choice a free man can make.

1995 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Mystery Novel

Selected Reviews

“Consistently interesting and suspenseful, his thriller’s shocking outcome is revealed only on the very last page.”
– Publishers Weekly

“Can you imagine what it must be like to step out of prison, a free man, after 15 years behind bars? Especially when you were innocent in the first place. Eddie Nye is our hero here, and he does just that, and makes it his first priority to find the criminals who got him locked away….A tough, entertaining thriller.”
– Manchester Evening News

“Lights Out is a beautifully crafted book which takes us through the dirty waters that underly modern America without sullying the reader in the process, as do so many contemporary crime novels.
Lights Out is a thriller with that indefinable something extra which lifts it way above most in the genre.”
– Brisbane Sunday Mail

“[Lights Out] moves steadily toward the most compelling, and disturbing, of conclusions.”
– Boston Globe

“Guaranteed to keep you up.”
– Houston Post

“Intriguing… Surprising”
– Philadelphia Inquirer