Since completing the third Frank Nagler story, “The Weight of Living,” due to be released April 25, I’ve been thinking about what’s next for Frank and his guys.

In “Weight” Nagler searches for the identify of a young girl discovered one cold March night in a grocery store Dumpster.

 She is shoeless, wearing a tank top and shorts and does not speak.

The search for her identify introduces Nagler to a family with a deep and dark history, and brings new threats to Nagler and his circle.

To those few who have read the manuscript (Thank you!) it is clear the story ends somewhat abruptly and leaves some issues unresolved.

While in a series such as this, some things are always unresolved and provide lead-ins to the next story, even I knew this was more abrupt than usual.

So what to do next?

What I’m going to try to do is bracket the three existing books, “The Swamps of Jersey,” “A Game Called Dead,” and “The Weight of Living.”

Anita Dugan-Moore, the talented artist who designed the covers for the books, suggested that she’d like to read the original Charlie Adams serial-killer story, a case that haunts Nagler throughout the series.

That would a classic prequel, since that case took place in story-time, twenty years before the current series. It would include the hunt for Adams and the death of Martha, Nagler’s young wife.

That story would also delve into Nagler’s anti-social, nearly depressive personality.

It will be a challenge to write that story, since some of the details have leaked into the other stories.

But writing is about challenges.

Anyway, I have a working title: “Lock Down.”

The title suggests what happens to both Nagler and the city of Ironton.

The story beyond “The Weight of Living” I’ve figured out, has to start almost immediately in story time after the end of “Weight,” and needs to address the emotional cost of that story.  I haven’t chosen a crime scheme, but it will have to be something unique to the series.

Again, I at least have a working title, or at least, a concept:  “Breaking the Darkness,” “Escaping the Darkness,”  something, something The Darkness… you get the idea.

The third book in the series, “The Weight of Living,” will be published by Imzadi Publishing On April 25.

The first two Nagler stories are available at:

Amazon: http://goo.gl/hVQIII

Kobo: https://goo.gl/bgLH6v

NOOK: http://goo.gl/WnQjtr

http://www.walmart.com

The books are also available at the at the following libraries: Morris County Library; Somerset County Library System; Bernardsville Public Library; Hunterdon County Public Library; Mount Olive Public Library;  Phillipsburg; Warren County, Franklin branch; Mount Arlington; Wharton; Dover; Hackettstown;  Clark, Parsippany and the Ramsey library, as part of the Bergen County Cooperative Library System.

Also at:  Bobby’s News and Gifts, 618 Main Street, Boonton.

The Clinton Book Shop, 12 E. Main Street, Clinton. http://www.clintonbookshop.com/

Sparta Books, 29 Theatre Center, Sparta. http://www.spartabooks.com/

For information on independent book sellers visit, http://www.indiebound.org/