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Violent crime remains an escalating social crisis in modern society. In our cities, suburbs, even our rural areas, violence erupts with little regard for socioeconomic class, race, or religion, leaving no subculture unaffected. Rather than engage in a purely academic analysis of violence, this work uses documentary and realistic fiction as a methodology. Whether it is the school teacher who watches his student suffer at the hands of cruel adolescents, or the 9/11 hijacker stricken by conscience before his fateful suicide mission, the characters from the six short stories in this collection attempt to uncover something significant about the nature of violence and how, in its own unique way, the concept of power plays a persuasive and often pivotal role in the cycle of brutality we see plaguing our society every day.

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Don DiPaulo, M.A. studied creative writing at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He currently writes and teaches outside Philadelphia.

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