It’s 1978, college is done and Stephen Kylemore is on track for the next phase of an ordered life: a job, a wife, hopefully a dog. But he believes adventure must still be possible and sees one chance to wander like the heroes in the novels he loves. His father erupts; his girlfriend dumps him; he has no money or any real plan. But what’s an odyssey without obstacles? He packs a tent and buys a one-way ticket to London. He hitchhikes and sleeps in the woods while he looks for work and sees the sights of Europe from the cheap seats. His companions on the road are paperbacks and the ghost of a lost brother. He learns resilience. Instinct guides him through scary moments until chance eases the way and introduces friends and romance. But he knows he must inevitably confront the tension and passion he left behind. “Full-hearted. This debut novel captures the naiveté of a young, wide-eyed American traveling overseas for the first time. Ried has created a believable and likable first-person narrator that speaks with a simple sincerity. An emotionally engaging travel novel that will prove difficult to put down.” – Kirkus Reviews “Another world. I found myself a new traveling companion. In a book about physical and life-travel, I found comfort and friendship through characters that blended reality and fiction... it is part travel guide, life-guide, food for the soul, fantasy. Vivid imagery, fluid writing, captivating—more than once I sat on the bench in the subway, letting yet another train stop and go on without me so that I could continue exploring Europe's back roads and adventures.” – Amazon Reader Review “Put down you smartphone and enjoy this book. This is a story for those who yearn for timeless memories before the digital and GPS world took over our lives. A wonderful journey crafted in exceptionally well written prose leaving the reader anxious for every new chapter.” – Amazon Reader Review “Riveting European Backpack Adventure. One reason I became engrossed in the book was that I was living through the author's post college European adventure that I never took by myself.” – Amazon Reader Review

Five Ferries

Literature & Fiction

Ried, William Michael

Literary

CKBooks Publishing

Review\nBackstory is an "exciting thriller...that compares rewriting the past to bolster one's own narrative to the concept of fake news," as a series of "betrayals, alliances, lies, and secrets show how the past is never truly past." - BookLife Reviews\n"An original and deftly crafted novel that is an inherently riveting read from cover to cover, Backstory showcases author William Michael Ried's genuine flair for the kind of narrative storytelling style that brings his characters to life and holds the reader's rapt attention from first page to last." - Midwest Book Review\n"Backstory is a smart, fast-paced, edgy whodunnit/ whodiditagain that keeps the reader guessing until the very end." - BookLife Prize Critic's Report\n"A deftly written and fully engaging novel that showcases the author's genuine flair for originality, Backstory by William Michael Ried is an unreservedly recommended." - Small Press Bookwatch Review\nBackstory displays "exemplary writing style and near-perfect pacing. While the story is unique in topic and theme, it will still have strong appeal for most readers of mysteries." - Judge, 29th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards\n"Backstory is a masterpiece, an intriguing read with a perfect blend of anger, resentment, love, hatred, excitement, and displeasure." - OnlineBookClub Review\nBookLife Prize Critic's Report: 
Ried's Backstory is a smart, fast-paced, edgy whodunnit/ whodiditagain. The novel features the kind of overprivileged New Yorkers it's a pleasure to detest as readers turn yet another page to see just how entitled and amoral they can possibly get.Ried is as smooth and confident a writer as any of his well-educated characters. He writes with the certainty of one who knows just this world and just these people.The device of a professor of "revisionist history" who is continually revising his own somewhat murky past is a happy one, particularly in the era of "fake news." The novel keeps the reader guessing until the very end.A murder mystery with elements of a modern-day Liasons Dangereuses, the fun of this book lies in judging the narcissistic, entitled villains. While these are, in a sense, stock characters, there's a reason for that; this version of NYC is a town filled with the ostentatiously successful who are simultaneously deeply shallow.\nMidwest Book Review:\nAn original and deftly crafted novel that is an inherently riveting read from cover to cover, "Backstory" showcases author William Michael Ried's genuine flair for the kind of narrative storytelling style that brings his characters to life and holds the reader's rapt attention from first page to last.\nAnsel Tone has been named “The Golden Boy of Popular History.” He teaches propaganda at Columbia University and writes Redux Revisionist History best-sellers. His looks and family wealth help him to hawk his books on late night talk shows. He speaks to packed auditoriums. Undergraduates are said to swoon over his lectures. The public sees a professor who drives fast cars and runs with glamorous women, but his personal life is poised between an overbearing father and a son he hardly knows. Ansel spent his junior year at Trinity College in Dublin, on a campus cloaked in four centuries of student pranks and mayhem. Twelve years later a classmate comes to New York and organizes a reunion. Ansel attends mostly to see how time has treated the beautiful Tess, his girlfriend that year who married their classmate, Charlie. Charlie and Tess live in “Mountain House” in the Hudson Valley. She’s a big-firm lawyer. He’s trying to replicate the success of his first novel and overcome the train-wreck of his second. At the reunion Charlie announces he will fictionalize the story of how he won Tess away from Ansel. He’ll change the facts to improve the story, but he first wants help remembering what really happened. Ansel panics. Digging into the past could reveal secrets that could overturn his life, and so he sets out t

Backstory: a novel

Dramas & Plays

CK Books Publishing

Having it all is great, until everything comes crashing down.\nAtticus Forester is the son of a billionaire, living a life of privilege between a Manhattan townhouse and Pandion, the family compound on the coast of Maine. But young Atticus misses a flight on his father’s jet, and that changes everything.\nSuddenly alone and on the street, Atticus must fend for himself armed only with his wits. He crashes in a Loisaida tenement and invents one scheme after another to feed himself and his dog. But tragedy piles upon tragedy when the jet crash is ruled sabotage, his father’s empire collapses, and a killer stalks what’s left of his family. Now Atticus must face the fact that everything he believed to be true is a lie, and he must find a way to save the ones he loves. 
William Michael Ried, the award-winner author of Five Ferries and Backstory, has written a new genre-bending mystery of puzzlement, betrayal and love that will keep you turning pages until the very end.

Pandion

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Two Degrees: A Climate Change Novel

Genre Fiction

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