Amazon Pinned - A Kentucky True Crime Amazon.com Category:  Crime Publisher: Outskirts Press ISBN-10:  1478712198 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 386 Copyright: March 12, 2013 ISBN-13: 9781478712190 Price: $8.99 (eBook) A lonely, retired New Yorker meets a woman online and finds he is trapped by a 'black widow' lover.  Mark Casey, a native New Yorker and a gentleman, wants to get out of his home state and live in another part of the world. He is attracted to a small town Kentucky woman named Roxie, whom he meets on the Internet. This woman seems to be the girl of his dreams - beautiful, sensual, ambitious and funny. After having a series of talks via the Internet and by phone, he decides to pay her a visit at her Kentucky home. The meeting is magic. They fall head over heels for each other and decide to live together. Mark packs up all of his belongings and moves into her beautiful house; anticipating a life of bliss. But there are immediate problems as soon as he gets to his new abode. They fight, where they never did before. Roxie lies to him constantly. Their once raging sexual relationship has turned sour and they are now sleeping apart from each other. What could have caused this abyss between them, which was once a dream? Six weeks after moving his possessions and his life away from his home town and into her world, Mark is charged with a heinous crime and in the course of the investigation by the local police, a large cache of illegal drugs is found. Mark is arrested, charged with these crimes and while he is in custody, Roxie packs up the house, taking all of her personal furnishings, as well as all of Mark's possessions, and moves out of state. Unfortunately, Mark's nightmare doesn't end there. This is the true story of flagrant injustice in a small country town. These horrifying accusations strain Mark's family and friends trust, while calling their most cherished beliefs into serious question. The story rapidly moves along and tracks the actions of Mark himself, as well as the motivations of the calculating Roxie, the local police force, the Kentucky State Police, the county attorney, the Kentucky Attorney General and even the legal tenets of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. While many truths are revealed, also exposed is the extent that some will go to dominate, possess, hold power and even cover-up their actions. This story runs from where it all began, up to Mark's jury trial on crimes he didn't commit. For anyone who has ever dreamed of living in small-town USA and getting away from the rat-race of metropolis, this tale of one man's battle against the good 'ol boys may cause you to reconsider possibilities in a new light. Excerpt (Excerpt from ‘Pinned! – An Injustice in Kentucky’ – Charles W. Massie) She went into the kitchen and got herself another drink and then came back outside and loaded up another bowl. I realized that at this rate, it was no wonder we had to continually restock the liquor cabinet. Even though I wasn’t really counting, I could tell by her swagger that Roxie was starting to get boxed again. “You mentioned something about the guy who shot himself the other night.” I asked. “How did he end up here?” “Terry.” She mused. “Terry was a great old man that I met in the nursing home when I worked there. He loved me and used to get me presents all the time. He hated the nursing home because he was pretty independent and had to give up his double-wide trailer when he got so bad that he couldn’t take care of himself.” “Was he bedridden?” I asked. “No, as a matter of fact he was quite mobile. I finally asked him if he would like to live with me at this house. It was a lot cheaper than the money he was paying the nursing home and I could take better care of him. He jumped at the chance and moved in about a week afterward. Between the money I made at the nursing home and the money he paid me for living here, I was doing alright.” “He must have had a few bucks himself.” I commented. “Oh yes, he had quite a little nest egg. He felt sorry for me having to pay the mortgage on the house after my divorce, so he went out, got qualified and bought this house from me.” “Wait a minute. I thought you owned this house.” “Technically I do,” She said. “He gave me this house on a quit-claim deed before he died. He said that if anything ever happened to him, he wanted to make sure I had a place to live.” “How long did he last?” “He died about a week later. He blew his brains out with a shotgun. I told you that story.” “Well, I’m confused,” I said, “why would a man get a mortgage on a house and then kill himself.” “A lot can happen with thread.” She remarked. “What do you mean?” “Oh, forget it. You know how I sometimes ramble; especially when I drink. Let’s talk about something else. How long were you married Mark?” “We were married for 4 years but the relationship was a lot longer,” I said. “We dated on and off for 10 years then she got married. I moved out to Washington State for work and when I came back a year later, she was going through a divorce. We hooked up again and lived together for 3 years before getting married.” “Why did you get divorced?” Roxie asked. “When I got married, my wife was a manager in Kmart.” I said. “Shortly afterward, she quit her job and was taking a series of low paying jobs that put her on the road a lot. She was doing inventory control jobs. Meanwhile, I was busting my ass trying to manage two appliance stores. We had sold our house and were living in an apartment complex. She started having an affair with the guy that lived below us. Plus, both of us were pretty good at hitting the bottle, so the combination spelt disaster.” “Did you ever cheat on her?” She asked. “Never,” I said. “I had plenty of opportunity and one time she came into a local bar and I was talking with some barfly. She went ballistic. But truth was, I never cheated.” “I cheated twice when I was married.” she told me, “my ex was out of town a lot and I just got lonely living here all alone.” “Were they just a sexual fling or a regular affair?” I asked. “One was just a fling but the other was going on until I moved back here in the spring.” She admitted. “He’s a public official and he’s married, so we had to be pretty careful.” “Well, that’s one way to keep the law off your back,” I said, “unless, of course, you liked him on your back.” “You are one sick son of a bitch,” She said. “Why does everything have to be a joke to you?” “What?” I questioned. “You’re bitching because I’m witty?” “No, Mark,” she continued. “I’m bitching because you think you have to be a comedian all the time. I get sick of it.” “Sorry,” I said. I really didn’t think I should have to put up with this kind of verbal abuse, just because I was quick with a comeback. As a matter of fact, she had frequently said that I was the funniest guy she had ever dated and now I’m finding out that she is sick of my wit. I couldn’t help wonder what else she was sick of. “Look,” I said, “I’m sorry if I offended you in some way. My wit has always been sharp and sometimes it’s faster than my brain works. But it was just a snappy comeback and I didn’t mean anything personal. But you’re the one that had the affair, not me.” “Fuck you asshole.” She shouted. She got up and bolted into the house. I sat there in amazement and wondered whether or not I had made a mistake about Roxie’s mental state. She flipped from hot to cold in a heartbeat and at this particular moment she was in hot mode. There is no way that anyone should have taken offense to a truthful statement like I made. Like the old story goes; sometimes the truth hurts, But damn it, it wasn’t my fault ... I guess there won’t be any sugar cookies for Mark tonight. And I was still bothered by our earlier conversation about her ex-roommate Terry. Something just did not add up and she was way too quick to get off the subject. Had Terry been her lover also? It seemed hard to believe that she would tie up with a 78-year-old man but for all I knew, he belonged to the Viagra club. Stranger things have happened. That night I slept on the couch to avoid provoking more confrontation with Roxie. Maybe it was the alcohol or maybe she had a degree of bi-polarity. Either way, I wasn’t going to do anything to accelerate her obvious mood swings. THE FULL VERSION OF ‘PINNED!’ IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.STARSHOWPUBLICATIONS.COM

Literary Liter
I actually picked up this book after reading it's sequel Stains on the Gavel. Stains tells the story of Mark, who has been wrongfully incarcerated. Pinned is the back story. It's the story of how Mark fell in love with a woman, Roxie, over the internet, moved to Kentucky, and became 'pinned'. Keep in mind that this is all based on a true story. It's one man's fight against a woman who 'done him wrong' and the 'good ole boys' in the Kentucky judicial system.

For me, I was fascinated with the second book, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why. It wasn't a bad book, but I've read better. Something about it just kept me hooked, addicted. I was interested in finding out Mark's back story and how he ended up in his situation in Stained, but I also was hoping for further insight on exactly what it was that made Stained so fascinating to me. I found it!

First of all, this is an intriguing story. If you read one of the books, you simply have to pick up the other and read either the back story or the continuation. It really is an interesting saga. You'll find yourself flipping page after page to find out what happens next, even though it really isn't an edge of your seat kind of thrill.

So, here's the fascination. I've never read a character like Mark before. The entire story is told from Mark's point of view. The thing is, that we really get to see Mark's perception of himself, which is unusual to this degree. For example, Mark and Roxie will be having an argument. Mark will say or do something that will make me cringe. Usually, it's something that I would never put up with. Then Roxie would retaliate and say something hateful or go off pouting. Sounds like a normal argument, right? The interesting thing is that Mark then can't figure out why Roxie is so upset and begins to think she's 8 crayons short of a box. As readers, we get to see Mark from our point of view, but also from his point of view, which can be two drastically different things.

Also, once I picked up Pinned and read it, it changed how I felt about the second book. In the second one, I felt a modicum of sympathy for Mark and just couldn't comprehend how people like Roxie get away with it, or live with themselves. After reading the first book and finding out how everything really went down, I actually felt a little sorry for Roxie. I'm not saying she's in the right, or the wrong, just that I didn't see her as the cold and calculating woman that I found in the second book.

Read it for yourself and judge! Who's at fault here? Is Roxie a psychotic people user or did Mark really do the things he's accused of? Though this book was originally written to warn people of what can happen, if you look at it from a fictional perspective, it turns into a fascinating 'well, who's the bad guy?' sort of book.