Steven SA Sidor Books In Order

Publication Order of Booth City Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of The Institute for Singular Antiquities Books

Author Steven Sidor lives near Chicago with his family and has written the critically acclaimed novels “Bone Factory” and “Skin River”.

Under the name SA Sidor, he writes supernatural historical adventures, writing the “Institute for Singular Antiquities”. When writing under his own name, he writes mystery novels, the first of which, titled “Skin River”, was released in the year 2004.

“Skin River” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2004. Buddy Bayes is a man with a shadowy past that is attempting desperately to get a second chance at a peaceful life as a tavern owner in Gunnar, Wisconsin, a small town. Buddy has traded his connections within the Chicago underworld for the loose friendship of some locals that frequent his bar. Before too long, with the aid of a single mom, who works at his bar as a waitress, Buddy begins to trust that he has lost himself in just the kind of new life he imagined for himself.

His hopes to have a completely new life are entirely shattered, though, when he finds the severed hand of some missing college student. He falls headlong into this harrowing situation which Buddy is convinced that it is his own past coming back to haunt him. While the events unfold, it starts becoming clear that things are not at all what they appear to be, and jumping to conclusions is a disastrous mistake to make due to the true nature of Buddy’s situation slowly comes into focus.

This is a dark and moody tale and one where things such as virtue are just relative terms. Sidor wrote an easy and quick read and the bad guy is very interesting. Sidor builds some terrifying tension while focusing on the psychology of the killer, rather than dwell on different gross out stuff.

“Bone Factory” is the second stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2005. The decrepit cut-rate hotels and aging riverboat casinos that line the murky waters running through downtown Booth City reveal the underbelly of a Midwestern city that is down on its luck. Booth is filled with lonely souls that are all looking for their last shot at happiness in what appears to be the most unlikely place on all of earth. Instead they are trapped in a never-ending cycle of true despair and false hope, permanent desolation and temporary sobriety.

A pair of these souls, Ike Horner and Eliza Ochoa (homicide cops), are at the scene of a body dump in a downtown park. They are crouching over the freezing corpse of yet another deceased working girl. She has been cut up in all of the most delicate of places. That makes it understandable that Eliza and Ike miss, at first, the most telling of this routine morning in Booth City: she is not actually female.

The pair of detectives go over the final days of a young hooker’s life, pushed on more by dogged determination than mere sleuthing power. The facts take them deep into a conspiracy that is quickly unraveling from Booth’s darkest holes to the fringes of its most influential families. The investigation hurtles on toward its stunning and violent conclusion, Eliza and Ike remain intent on proving, maybe just to themselves and at a substantial personal cost, that justice is actually possible in Booth City.

The novel brings things to a nice and surprising conclusion. What hooked some is the way characters are defined by their actions and setting. Sidor’s books wind up being very atmospheric, dark and dreary, snowy and stormy just miserable for the characters involved.

“The Mirror’s Edge” is the third stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2008. Two year old twins are taken out of their Chicago home on their birthday at noon, never to be seen ever again. The kidnappers never make contact with the family. It is a crime that haunts the city, and devastates those that are left behind.

While the anniversary of the kidnapping approaches, Jase Deering (a freelance journalist) starts to investigate a case that has gone cold for the cops. What he discovers is a paranoid ex-nanny that had ‘mirrorrorrim’ hacked into her flesh on the fateful day and a trail that leads to Aubrey Hart Morick, a fabled figure. Morick, who has been dead for many years, was iconic as a practitioner of the black arts whose legacies are a son, called Graham and a scandalous reputation.

More and more sure that Graham Morick is more than just the innocent, simple man he is claiming to be, Jase finds the line between natural and supernatural starting to get blurred. His dogged hunt for the truth could cost him, as well as everybody he holds dear, more than he is able to bear.

This novel is chilling and compelling, it gives everything a reader could want: driving narrative, strong characters, and suspense that keeps you on edge. This is both challenging and unconventional, yet still very human and engaging, it is a spectacular novel coming from a talented writer.

“Pitch Dark” is the fourth stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2011. It is Christmas Eve and Vera Coffey is currently on the run. She does not know the guys that are after her. She has never seen these men before, but has seen the horrors they have committed on the folks that don’t give them just what they want. Vera has got something they wanted very badly. She would give it up if it were not the very same thing keeping her alive.

The Larkins have known the toll that violence takes on a family since they were trapped inside of a madman’s shooting rampage. For twenty years now, they have been coping with that trauma. On a cold and lonely morning in winter, Vera collapses at their roadside motel. She has brought something with her. Together, they are going to have to make a final stand against an evil that has trailed them further than anybody could have ever imagined.