Albuquerque indie author Daniel P. Douglas has released Blood Wing: A Cold War Noir Thriller, the second entry in the Jack Morrison's Blood & Bourbon Mystery Files, following Blood Tide: A Harbor Noir Thriller. The novella, named one of ten finalists in the inaugural ProWritingAid Novel Beginnings Contest, is now available in eBook and paperback.
Set in January 1951, Blood Wing follows ex-LAPD detective turned private investigator Jack Morrison as he probes the death of a Black night-shift janitor at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant in Long Beach. The company dismisses it as an industrial accident and closes the case without interviewing the widow. The victim's family hires Morrison because the dead man's brother once shared a foxhole with him in Italy during the Gothic Line campaign in 1944. As Morrison digs deeper behind the plant's windowless concrete walls, he uncovers a Cold War espionage operation and a murder that the federal government will classify into official nonexistence. The story centers on the widow who refuses to accept a lie and a federal prosecutor who can pursue the spying but cannot restore the man who died, exploring what justice means when the official record never tells the truth. The investigation navigates the McCarthy era and the Lavender Scare, the period purge of suspected homosexuals from federal and defense employment.
Selected from 14,570 entries worldwide, Blood Wing advanced through a longlist of 183 to a shortlist of ten finalists judged on opening pages, voice, and character. The contest is run by ProWritingAid, the writing-software and education company. "Being a finalist for the Novel Beginnings Contest is one of the most meaningful moments in my writing life," Douglas said. "I'm grateful to ProWritingAid, the contest readers, and the judges for recognizing Blood Wing."
A novella of roughly 25,000 words, Blood Wing is a complete story readable in a single sitting and requires no prior reading, serving as an entry point to the series. Readers can find Morrison's first case in Blood Tide, set on the Los Angeles waterfront. The novel's release highlights the growing trend of indie authors gaining recognition through major contests, offering readers access to high-quality, self-published works that tackle historical injustices and complex themes.
