I’ve written a lot of things in my life—blogs, business plans, scathing emails, and the occasional apology to my wife—but nothing hits quite like fiction. It’s where I get to play God, kill off bad guys, break hearts, and occasionally light things on fire.
Two of my recent books—Cross My Heart & Hope to Die (let’s call it “Heart”) and Turn Around & Die (aka “Turn”)—are siblings in the Greg Newsome series. Same DNA, different moods. One book is drinking bourbon alone while staring at a framed photo of your ex. The other is cracking wise while cleaning a Glock before a business meeting.
Let’s break it down.
Emotion vs Action
Heart opens with heartbreak, gunfire, and a goodbye letter that’s basically an emotional grenade. Greg gets shot. Nina kills a guy. Then she ghostwrites the most soul-crushing breakup letter since Adele’s Someone Like You. It’s an exploration of loss, trauma, and what happens when the people you love can’t afford to love you back.
Turn, on the other hand, starts with Greg waking from a PTSD-fueled nightmare and deciding—over French press coffee, naturally—to take out the monster in his dreams. This book is about unfinished business, calculated vengeance, and leaning into danger with eyes wide open and middle fingers raised.
Writing Style
Both books are me through and through—blunt, dry, occasionally sentimental, and allergic to purple prose. But Turn is tighter. The pacing is leaner. The jokes land cleaner. The stakes ramp up faster. If Heart is a fine whiskey, Turn is a whiskey-fueled road trip with a trunk full of burner phones.
The Plot Thickens (But Differently)
In Heart, Greg is recovering. From bullets. From Nina. From the realization that being good at danger makes you bad at stability. It’s less spy thriller, more emotional autopsy—though don’t worry, there are still Russians, guns, and enough FBI drama to keep things spicy.
In Turn, Greg flips the switch. It’s mission time. He goes full Jason Bourne meets Gordon Ramsay—smart, lethal, and occasionally yelling at people about their business plans. He teams up with Sentinel Shield, cuts deals with the Santinis, and signs on to save a Fortune 500 company while planning an assassination. As one does.
Philosophy, But Make It Fun
Both books sprinkle in some deeper stuff—identity, morality, legacy, love. But Heart wears its emotions on its sleeve. It asks, “What do you do when the right thing and the safe thing aren’t the same thing?”
Turn answers that question: “You do the dangerous thing anyway, but with backup.”
Also, yes—there’s a Seneca quote. Because if you’re gonna take out a Russian mobster, you may as well do it with a little Stoic flair.
So Which One’s Better?
That depends.
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If you want heartbreak, healing, and emotional resonance that hits like a sucker punch: go with Cross My Heart & Hope to Die.
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If you want revenge, adrenaline, and Greg Newsome in full “don’t poke the bear” mode: Turn Around & Die is your jam.
Or, you know, read both. One will make you cry. The other will make you want to book a Krav Maga class.
Final Thoughts
Some stories come from the gut. Others come from the scars. Heart is the book I had to write. Turn is the book I wanted to write. Together, they show both sides of Greg Newsome—the man who loses, and the man who doesn’t let it break him.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go write the next chapter. The ghosts aren’t done talking yet.
Why not go here and buy them all!
