Praise for Joseph Onesta’s Writing in Long Shadows

Joseph Onesta’s Long Shadows introduces a fresh, emotionally grounded voice to the mystery genre. His writing is clean, deliberate, and quietly powerful—favoring character-driven suspense over flashy twists. Onesta excels at crafting atmosphere and authentic dialogue, drawing readers into small-town dynamics where secrets run deep and justice isn’t always simple.

With Adam Alba, Onesta gives us a reluctant hero worth following—flawed, observant, and fiercely principled. The story unfolds with subtle tension, unexpected warmth, and a deep sense of humanity. For readers who enjoy intelligent mysteries with heart, Long Shadows is the beginning of a series not to be missed.

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Adam Alba’s short bio

Adam Alba grew up in a working-class suburb of Pittsburgh. With both parents working long hours, he and his sister were largely raised by their Italian immigrant grandparents, who instilled in him an unshakable sense of fairness and justice.

A standout high school wrestler, Adam earned a college scholarship and seemed destined for the kind of success his family had always dreamed of. But a devastating injury in his final match shattered his athletic career and forever changed the course of his life.

Adrift and in pain, Adam slipped into years of self-destruction. He wandered from city to city, picking up odd jobs, falling into addiction, and collecting regrets like roadside souvenirs. Eventually, something in him shifted. Tired of drifting through a life without meaning, he began the hard climb out, determined to rebuild a life worth living.

Now in his thirties, Adam lives quietly and travels light. He works temporary gigs just enough to keep his head down and his hands busy. He’s not running from the law, but he’s not chasing anything, either. He stays just long enough to feel useful, but when things get too easy, too comfortable, or too complicated, he moves on.

Haunted by what he calls the shadow, Adam never quite knows if that creepy feeling of being watched is intuition, human instinct, or merely a vestige of the brain trauma he suffered.

Adam doesn’t seek out trouble. But when trouble finds him—as it always seems to—his instincts sharpen and his moral compass refuses to let him look away..

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Welcome to your next favorite mystery series.

When Adam Alba leaves the small Oklahoma town of Ur to start his next chapter in Broken Arrow, he's determined to build a quieter life-one without fewer complications. A new bartending job at the Creekstone Hotel promises stability, but on his second week, that fragile peace shatters when he discovers the body of a regular customer behind the dumpsters.

Candy had been more than just a lounge patron. She was a fellow traveler on the hard road to sobriety, careful and kind, the sort of person who never should have ended up dead. For Adam, her death reawakens old demons: the darkness that has stalked him since the accident that derailed his wrestling career, the "shadow feeling" that tells him he's never truly alone.

Drawn once again into the orbit of mystery and loss, Adam finds unexpected allies. Stevie Tramonto, an intuitive woman passionate about justice and fairness, Elvin Flemming, an ex-con Bible School student rebuilding his live and a tenacious detective who senses there's more to Adam than he lets on. As the investigation deepens, secrets buried in Broken Arrow's polite facades begin to surface: addiction, exploitation, and a network of quiet desperation that links the living to the dead.

But when clues point uncomfortably close to his own past, Adam must confront the possibility that the shadow following him isn't just in his mind, and that facing it may be the only way to bring justice to the woman he couldn't save.

Taut, atmospheric, and steeped in psychological insight, Shifting Shadows continues Joseph Onesta's acclaimed Adam Alba Mystery Series (Book Two, following Long Shadows). With compassion, humor, and a deep understanding of human frailty, Onesta delivers a suspenseful and moving story about redemption, connection, and the ways the past refuses to stay buried.