The Blood Thief, Vol. 1: The Short Happy Life of Alex Rose - Softcover

Close III, Charles L.

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798999329301

Publisher: Blue Crown Bunny, 2025

Synopsis

When you grow up surrounded by monsters, what's the real thing to be afraid of?

Alex Rose, a thief haunted since boyhood by the ghosts of his past as well as the ghosts of people who have passed away, is trying to get out of the game. But to do that he needs to pull off one final score.

Raised in the margins of San Diego by his charming but troubled father A.J., Alex grows up seeing what others can’t. Spirits follow him. Secrets shape him. Under the mentorship of the dangerous David Moreau, he learns the art of the con and just how deep the darkness goes.

A near-death encounter with a ravenous apparition and a doomed romance with Moreau’s daughter, Jenny, who sees ghosts of her own, leave him scarred but searching for redemption.

When he finds love with Korey, a woman untouched by his past, Alex finally sees a way out. But one last heist—tied to a deadly contagion and a force known only as the Firstborn of Death—could cost him everything.

Told with raw honesty and dark humor, The Short Happy Life of Alex Rose is a gritty, supernatural confessional about legacy, love, and whether any of us can banish the ghosts that we’re haunted by.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Lawrence Close III got this story rolling during the pandemic when he should have been working on his capstone project for his master's degree at Johns Hopkins in NGO management. He wrote enough to fill two books and still managed to pull straight A's and graduate with high honors. The Blood Thief, Vol. 1 is sort of his first book. He also wrote a Jack Kerouac style novel about his crazy times living in Mexico and Russia, but he felt it was a little self-indulgent and will probably revise it at some point when he gets all the fictional characters spinning around in his brain a home on paper. Vol. 2 of Alex Rose's adventures is well on the way!Charlie cares deeply about giving back to the community and believes that doing unto others as you would have them do to you is the best way to live. When he isn't volunteering for a nonprofit, you can find him skating Pride parades with a synchronized dance crew, practicing jian-fa, learning the piano or turntables, and climbing cliffs and gym walls like a savagely dazzling, inappropriately velvet-wearing creature of the night.

Edition details

• Publisher: Blue Crown Bunny
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798999329301
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 370