With not one, but two debut books this year, Guillermo X. Márquez is a rising star in the publishing world. Books Illuminated has published two of his works: EVIL’S EDEN: Only Murders in Los Angeles and DISPOSSESSED: A Very L.A. Ghost Story.
EVIL’S EDEN: Only Murders in Los Angeles
His first, a hybrid true-crime/horror, EVIL’S EDEN: Only Murders in Los Angeles is an agile combination of chilling L.A. true crimes and a fictional telling of the birth of a sinister enterprise. In this scintillating book, Márquez dives into the sordid history of murder in Los Angeles through some of its most infamous cases, offering new takes on motives, methods, cover-ups, and perpetrators. Identifying common threads and root causes, the author offers solutions to some of L.A.’s most infamous crimes.
EVIL’S EDEN transcends common true-crime voyeurism with a curated collection of Los Angeles mayhem. The writer turns noir myths on their heads, connecting the dots on the evidence board to reveal new angles on “whodunit” and why.
Shivved between the real-world horrors is the fictional fable of one particular evil spanning continents and generations. A dynasty in the land of infinite sunshine began in the usual manner: with a theft and a lie. The first Fitzhampton rose from fabricated origins at an Irish port in 1842, heading west to America to escape a bevy of misdeeds. His American-born son moved west to Southern California where, fueled by unfettered greed and carnal appetites, he built an empire upon the bones of the swindled and murdered. The Fitzhamptons became a vaunted early Los Angeles founding family, and their legacy of perfected wickedness lives on.
With his diabolical brew of L.A. true crimes and a torqued tale of one particular malevolence, Márquez explores cults, drugs, graphic crime scenes, homophobia, kidnapping, mutilation, mass deaths, mental illness, racial conflict, rape, robbery, bad parenting, substance abuse, suicide, victim blaming, and all things murder and mayhem. Readers sensitive to these elements, please take note as you prepare to enter Evil’s Eden.
DISPOSSESSED: A Very L.A. Ghost Story
Márquez did not stop with this amazingly insightful and uniquely executed true crime book. He has also just released his supernatural comedy novel, DISPOSSESSED: A Very L.A. Ghost Story.
In his electrifying and hilarious new book, Márquez deep-dives into life, love, and loathing in Los Angeles, a place of unbounded promise rooted in unfiltered evil. DISPOSSESSED centers on a young Hispanic Angeleno, Alex Olvera, and his tempestuous love for lily-white Tempest Wirth, as they death-spiral into homeownership under the spell of a decrepit Victorian with a grisly past.
In the run-up to the holidays, Alex and Tempest are secretly apartment-hunting, defying parental edicts. But an overpriced, tumbledown rent-to-own Victorian mansion beguiles Tempest the moment she touches its antique Victrola. Soon, Alex is bedeviled by endless repairs, money woes… and is their janky love nest haunted? As their finances unravel, they fight to keep the house. Then, Tempest falls under the thrall of a malevolent, if impossibly hunky, force. Alex uncovers the grisly secrets of the home’s first owners, a vaunted L.A. founding family. Now, the house wants Alex out, so it can have Tempest to itself. Alex and his geeky friends must rescue Tempest from the ghostly fiend, even if she doesn’t love him anymore — but how? Underpinned by the Victorian era treacheries of a fictional robber baron, DISPOSSESSED weaves the torrid tale of a modern-day triangle among a boy, a girl, and a thing long dead.
Says Márquez, “It’s about depravity, debauchery, life’s firsts, infidelity, inequality, broken hearts, oppression, possession, corporate takeovers, land theft, privilege, paucity, murder most foul, family feuds, friendship, the high cost of living, and kicking demon ass. So yes — it’s a comedy.”
About
Publisher Books Illuminated, LLC specializes in acquiring polished manuscripts for rapid turnaround to market. All acquisitions are selected for entertainment value, as well as ancillary market potential for motion pictures, streaming series, animated series, music, fine art, comics, graphic novels, audiobooks, toys, games, and fashions. Popular titles include speculative fiction BAMBOO: A Post-Apocalyptic Odyssey by Clark Hilton, climate action how-to 2 Weeks 2 Utopia: Let’s Mend the World in 14 Days by Felicia Fairhope, children’s tale The Odd Ms. Bodkins and the Big Crunch by Brother Goose, and supernatural comedy DISPOSSESSED: A Very L.A. Ghost Story by Guillermo X. Márquez. For more information and how to purchase, see BooksIlluminated.com.
Author Guillermo X. Marquez, known to his crew as “GX,” spins tales that explore the human condition in all its sweet and spicy flavors. When he’s not burrowing into the rot of Los Angeles, he can be spotted on his eternal quest for the perfect veggie taco. Márquez is mapping out a TV series based on EVIL’S EDEN and promoting his supernatural comedy novel, DISPOSSESSED: A Very L.A. Ghost Story. To find out more, see GXMarquez.com
