Patrick Coyle

Catherine Kelly, recently paroled after a four year stint in prison for manslaughter, returns to the scene of the crime in her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska seeking a fresh start.

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Twenty-two year old Catherine Kelly burns down a house, killing the man who raped her when she was 15. She goes to prison for it. Four years later she is granted parole on the condition she take a test for admission to MENSA, a society of people with advanced IQ’s, then attend a court-mandated meeting once a week.

Upon arrival back in her hometown, Catherine finds a MENSA meeting full of self-described “nerds” who are fascinated by her status as an ex-con.

She goes to work as a bookkeeper for an old friend from prison, Diamond Devaney, who owns an organic, soul-food deli on the rough and tumble East Side. It’s here she discovers why Diamond’s business is failing: a trusted employee has been stealing from Diamond. So the two ex-cons set up a sting operation.

She attends a production of Death of a Salesman with her MENSA group and is shocked to discover her estranged father has the lead role. She confronts him during a public talkback-session with the cast following the performance and makes a scene, which just ups her status as the exotic bad girl of MENSA.

She attends a party and is pursued by an attractive man of wealth and taste—until she learns that it’s her status as an ex-con he is mainly attracted to, exactly what she is attempting to move beyond.

She encounters a man on the street that she is attracted to, a man who shares her love of books and libraries, a polite and charming man struggling with addiction. So she begins to spy on him.

Catherine finally realizes that to move beyond her past she needs to confront it. But she is afraid. Then an unlikely ally shows up to assist, her estranged, absentee, ne’er-do-well father, Willy Loman himself.

Mary Sullivan holds a man responsible for her daughter’s death by overdose, a man she has never met, a man her daughter never met, an elusive man who has been on the lam for 21 years. She wants to find him...that’s as far as her planning has taken her. This obsession is all that stands between her and self-destruction. She buys a gun and sets out.

Tommy Gallagher has been on the run from his past for two decades. Now in his mid forties he is tired of running. Then the universe delivers a one-two punch in the form of a young woman named Kim appearing at his door claiming to be his biological daughter, and what appears to be a chance meeting with a beautiful woman named Mary in the Tam O’ Shanter Saloon, a woman talking about "starting over," "telling the truth," and kissing him like he hasn’t been kissed in a long time.

Tommy’s instinct is to run but he does not, such is his interest in the mysterious Mary and his need to know the truth about Kim. Mary is torn between her desire to destroy the man she holds responsible for the death of her daughter and a shameful, untenable attraction she feels for him. She is also mysteriously drawn to the young woman claiming to be his biological daughter.

Love and sex, secrets and lies, grief and ecstasy intermingle in Patrick Coyle’s explosive YEAR OF BAD MEN, a femme-noir.

It is Laura Grace’s 50th birthday, a therapist on the far ledge of the Great Resignation. To combat burnout she begins a writing project using one of her client’s confidential downloads for material. Lines between reality, sanity, ethics, love, and lust slowly disappear as Laura travels deeper into the dark neighborhood of her imagination, unearthing her own long buried secrets along the way.

Two 30 something kids are having a hard time growing up, being with each other, and being without each other.

Leo is Irish Catholic and living in the shadow of his famous father, a published novelist and head of the English Department at the local college. Leo's rowdy mode of rebellion was charming in his 20's. Now in his late 30's and beginning to face the consequences of serious addiction issues, his act has become a little sad. Leo is a talented musician.

Brigid, in spite of her name, is Jewish. She was born on St. Patrick's Day and her father named her after the patron saint of Ireland, just before abandoning his wife and newborn daughter. Brigid's mother decided she needed to love her daughter for two which resulted in Brigid feeling smothered. Now in her late 30's, she is still trying to come out from under her over-bearing mother. She too struggles with addiction, compounded by an eating disorder. Brigid is a talented writer.

WIND AND RAIN is the sad, funny, infuriating, wonderful story of two smart misfits who keep finding and losing each other.