Robert W. Stephens - Author & Filmmaker

Robert W. Stephens - Author & Filmmaker

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ALOHA MEANS GOODBYE

Ruckman Road by Robert W. Stephens
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RUCKMAN ROAD

An Alex Penfield Novel

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Latest Release
The Eighth Order
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MURDER ON MAUI BOOKS



ALOHA MEANS GOODBYE

A gruesome murder. A friend framed. One detective races to stop another bloody masterpiece…

Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford just lost his job, his girl, and his chance at a relaxing island vacation. When the brutal murder of a celebrity artist is pinned on his friend, Poe refuses to lose his best buddy to the Maui penitentiary. As he works his way down the gallery guest list, he navigates through bloated egos, heated rivalries, and more than a few eccentric personalities along the way. But he never expected the hunt for truth to reveal a second chance at love…

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WEDDING DAY DEAD

A marital murder. A guest list of suspects. Just another night on Maui…

Edgar Allan "Poe" Rutherford has just started his new life on Maui. He's moved in with his best friend and he's dating the woman of his dreams. But when Detective Alana Hu's ex-boyfriend comes to town, Poe discovers more than a few secrets that rain down on his corner of paradise. It's all he can think about until a member of the wedding party is fatally stabbed.

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BLOOD LIKE THE SETTING SUN

A death threat. A birthright on reserve. Can Poe stop a wealthy hotel mogul from checking out?

Edgar Allan "Poe" Rutherford is Maui's hottest freelance detective. When an elderly hotel mogul claims to have received threatening letters, Poe chalks it up to old age. But as the threats continue to escalate, he investigates the real possibility that one of her adult children heirs wants her dead… but which one?

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HOT SUN COLD KILLER

An old murder. A new threat. Can Poe find the killer before it’s too late?

Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford is Maui’s best unlicensed private investigator. When a client asks Poe to look into a decade-old death on the beach, he can’t help but be intrigued. The police ruled it a suicide, but it’s up to him to prove otherwise.

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CHOICE TO KILL

A murder close to home. A case that seems open and shut. Will Poe’s rush to judgment make his fiancé the next victim?

Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford didn’t think twice when he took his fiancé’s case. After all, Detective Alana Hu had known the victim since childhood. Besides, the evidence is easy to decode: all signs point to the victim’s estranged husband.

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SUNSET DEAD

A murdered mistress. A wrongful arrest. Can Poe and Alana take down a killer from both sides of the law?

Edgar Allan "Poe" Rutherford is out of the private investigator game. He couldn't stand to take another case after his last one nearly killed his wife. When he's accused of murdering his supposed mistress, he's forced back into a familiar role to prove his innocence. But can he do it from behind bars?

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OCEAN OF GUILT

A murdered bride. A suspicious groom. Can Poe catch the killer before the anchor drops?
 
Edgar Allan "Poe" Rutherford is ready to dive back into his work as Maui’s top private investigator. But before he can unpack his suitcase, his sister-in-law begs him to photograph her client’s extravagant nautical wedding. Poe is confident he can handle the wedding party from hell, until he finds the bride’s dead body on the top deck…

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THE TEQUILA KILLINGS

A deadly fall. A dodgy past. Can Poe uncover the truth before a match made in paradise ends in disaster?
 
Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford has the luxury of picking and choosing the cases that spark his curiosity. So when his love-struck mother-in-law demands he trail her latest squeeze, he thinks he’s wasting his time. Until a mysterious woman from the boyfriend’s past falls off his balcony to her death.
 
As he digs deeper, he discovers a chain of underground connections starting with a rising tide of corruption in Miami and washing up on Maui’s white sandy beaches. But Poe’s solved enough cases to know dodgy dealings don’t necessarily make the man a murderer…

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WAVE OF DECEPTION

A beach execution. A devastating hurricane. Can Maui's best PI solve the case without his family members becoming the prime suspects? Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford is used to weathering difficult cases. And since one of the victims is his sister-in-law’s abusive ex, Poe hopes nobody looks too hard at his own compelling motive…

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THE LAST KILL

Lights. Camera. Murder. When lies become reality, can Poe find the truth before a killer strikes again?
As Maui’s best private investigator, Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford understands the importance of keeping a low profile. That becomes impossible when a new reality TV show comes to the island, which features an eccentric handful of divorcees looking for love. But when one of the women is poisoned to death, the show’s production comes to a grinding halt.…

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MOUNTAIN OF LIES

A cold body. A warm paradise. A murder with more than one culprit. Private investigator Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford is worried. His latest client may have committed homicide, and sharing his suspicions with his detective wife is an argument he’d rather not have. But when she arrests his new employer, catching the true perpetrator means keeping it in the family. Never one to let loose ends go untied, Poe’s off-the-record investigation uncovers another suspect connected to foul play from years before. And now he’s not sure if he’s solving one lethal crime or two.

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RICH AND DEAD

Texas Hold ’em in paradise. A table full of suspects. The minimum bet could cost him his life.

PI Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford is tired of taking down murderers. So when a detective comes to him with a suspicious case of a millionaire who drove off a Maui cliff, he declines her request for help. But when the victim’s scorned lover demands money in exchange for information, Poe is pulled back into the game.

Demanding answers from the selfish vulture, the relentless private eye uncovers a connection to a high-seas, high-stakes illicit poker ring. And after he discovers the vicious men involved, he’s convinced the death was no accident. But to find the murderer, the charming PI needs to get on the yacht and take a seat at the table…

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POE'S FIRST LAW

He’s used to catching crooks, not proving their innocence. Can this Hawaiian investigator say aloha to the real killer?

Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford knows his personal connection to a crime boss is wrong. But when she needs his PI expertise to solve a reopened cold case, he can’t refuse the woman who feels like family. The only catch… the police are convinced she’s the murderer.....
 

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DARK THRILLER BOOKS



RUCKMAN ROAD

To solve an eerie murder, one detective must break a cardinal rule: never let the case get personal…

Alex Penfield's gunshot wounds have healed, but the shock remains raw. Working the beat could be just what the detective needs to clear his head. But when a corpse washes up on the Chesapeake Bay, Penfield's first case back could send him spiraling…

As Penfield and his partner examine the dead man's fortress of a house, an army of surveillance cameras takes the mystery to another level. When the detective sees gruesome visions that the cameras fail to capture, he begins to wonder if his past has caught up with him. To solve the murder, Penfield makes a call on a psychic who may or may not be out to kill him…

His desperate attempt to catch a killer may solve the case, but will he lose his sanity in the process?

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DEAD RISE

Detective Alex Penfield has to solve a murder case before it happens. His own…

Retirement never suited Detective Alex Penfield, but there’s nothing like a death omen to get you back in the saddle. A psychic colleague warns the detective that his own murder is coming. When a local death bears an eerie resemblance to the psychic’s vision, he can’t help but get involved.

As the body count rises, the case only gets more unfathomable. Witnesses report ghastly encounters with a man sporting half a face. And the only living survivor from a deadly boat ride claims he knows who’s to blame. There’s only one problem: the suspect’s been dead for 20 years.

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THE ETERNAL

Detective Alex Penfield has put away plenty of serial killers. He never expected to protect one.

Detective Alex Penfield is no stranger to crime scenes. But when he tracks down a killer, he discovers she’s in a whole different league. And this assassin is far from alone. It turns out that Penfield’s detective skills have uncovered a secret government program that’s better left buried. And the men and women of that program have put a target on his back. To survive the day, Penfield’s only chance is to trust a ruthless killer. He hopes his risky choice won’t be the last one he ever makes.

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NATURE OF DARKNESS

The murders scarred him for life. Can he face it again when a copycat resumes the butchery?

Detective Alex Penfield’s hope for humanity hangs by a slender thread of justice. But even slamming the darkly disturbing serial killer behind bars can’t make up for the brutal loss of his dear friend ten years ago. And he vows she won’t have died in vain when he’s recruited by the FBI to catch a vicious predator with the same blood-soaked calling card...

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THE EIGHTH ORDER

He stared death in the face and lived. But will his quest to save a precious life claim his last breath?

Detective Alex Penfield knows he needs more than logic to save lives. So he’s plagued by hopelessness after discovering his psychic partner is fast losing a battle with terminal cancer. But his own demise comes swiftly when he steps in to protect a mysterious man… and dies in a hail of assassins’ bullets....

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NATURE OF EVIL

Rome, 1948. Italy reels in the aftermath of World War II. Chaos and depression reign, and it’s fertile ground for a killer to strike. Twenty women are brutally murdered, their throats slit and their faces removed with surgical precision. Then the murders stop as abruptly as they started, and the horrifying crimes and their victims are lost to history.

Now over sixty years later, the killings have begun again. This time in America. All of the new victims share common traits. They’re all prostitutes, all have criminal records, and all are left in public places where their mutilated corpses can be discovered quickly.  The city is in a panic as the monster dubbed “MAI” by the media seems to murder at will...

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DRAYTON DIARIES

Jon Drayton has no idea of the power lying dormant inside him. He had lived an ordinary life, but everything changes the night of the accident. His sister’s car is demolished by a drunk driver, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down. But with simply the touch of his hand, Drayton heals her. He has no idea how he did it, and soon everyone is calling it a miracle.

Less than a week later, someone attempts to murder Drayton...

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VIDEOS



HOUSE OF FALLEN

Three tales…One ancient evil.

“Go tell the Watchers of Heaven, who have deserted their lofty sky, that they shall petition for forgiveness forever, but shall never obtain mercy or peace.” Book of Enoch

House of Fallen is a gothic thriller that combines the hunt for prophetic truth with mythical horror in three intertwining tales. Inspired by the Book of Enoch, House of Fallen invites you down a worm hole of ancient mysteries, surprising twists, and violent clashes as old as evil itself...

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THE HOUSE BEHIND THE WALL

Jess didn’t understand what was happening to her. She wondered if she might be going crazy. The footsteps. The door creaks. The inescapable feeling that someone is watching you. But there was never anyone there.

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INTERVIEWS WITH THE AUTHOR

Interview clips about my books.

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BACKGROUND

  • Robert W. Stephens
Robert W. Stephens

I’m an author and a filmmaker. My writing career started at a small video production company where I did all sorts of odd tasks, including sweeping the production studio floor, painting the greenscreen wall, checking out rental equipment, etc.

My “break,” such as it was, came when we were producing a television pilot for a news magazine show. The producer needed several commercial scripts written and produced for the show. He hadn’t budgeted for this, so he asked me if I was willing to write these scripts since he knew I had a degree in English. I jumped at the chance, even though it was a less than glamorous assignment. After all, it beat sweeping that floor. It also opened the door for me to start writing, directing and producing commercials and videos. That experience led to another job at a larger production company where I did work for companies like Marriott, Westin, Lockheed Martin, Dollar Tree, and many other large Fortune 500 companies.

After getting a fair amount of experience telling other company’s stories, I decided I wanted to produce my own ideas. I’ve written, directed, and produced three major independent video projects so far, including two films called House of Fallen and The House Behind the Wall. You can see the trailers for both those films on this website.

I also wrote and produced a television pilot for a travel series called Artist on Location. The pilot didn’t get picked up, but it did inspire me to start my path toward writing novels. My wife and I shot the pilot on Maui, and our experiences during the production was what led me to write the book, Aloha Means Goodbye. Check out the video on this website for more details. It’s a pretty funny story.

I hadn’t intended the book to be a series, but I fell in love with the characters by the time the book was completed. The Murder on Maui Mysteries are now my main book series. I’ve recently started a second series about a detective named Alex Penfield. These books are darker than the Maui mysteries, and they have a fair amount of the paranormal mixed into their storylines.

I still produce both videos and books. Nevertheless, I find myself drawn to the novels more and more since I’m only limited by my imagination. I have loved writing them. I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as well.

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I love hearing from readers, so drop me a line.

E-mail: rwsauthor@outlook.com

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