A pair of plantation slave ghosts are carrying out a mission of vengeance against the first-born sons of two old and prominent plantation families in Wainwright County, Mississippi. This tightly kept secret is exposed in a letter to "The File Room," a new cable and internet show that investigates and confirms supernatural phenomena. The program is sponsored by the recently exposed organization 'The Campus,' that has monitored and policed the supernatural world for over a century.

The show's producer, a descendant of the agency's founder, discovers evidence pointing to a renegade band within the agency, helping keep the families' dark secret. He is forced to "recruit" an old friend, a disgraced former TV reporter, sending him undercover on a "simple reconnaissance mission" to the post-Katrina landscape of Wainwright County. Dodging the local sherrif and the families was one thing, dealing with the unpredictable and deadly ghost Polly was another...

Banjo Strings is an epic and graphic tale of antebellum ghosts, ancient scandal, supernatural spies, and a den of iniquity amid the Red Maple and Magnolia trees.

Here's my latest promo, and Chapters 1 - 5 from the edited manuscript version as a novel excerpt.


Novel excerpt now available at the Amazon Kindle Store.

Also as:
PDA format files - , Promotional eBook -





"...I get a strong X-Files vibe from it, which is definitely a good thing. It also seems like the scope of the story widens with each of the first several episodes, so just as soon as I started to think I had a handle on the whole thing, it got even bigger, which was really exciting. Banjo Strings is definitely for mature audiences only, but if you can handle Falcon Twin, you can probably handle Banjo Strings."

Brenden Mecleary, creator, Falcon Twin online graphic novel.




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Send questions and comments to: novel [at] larrywinfield [dot] com


[4/10/08 - Authors Note (to those readers who've made it to ch. 19):
I made a continuity change in the end of the dock scene as
Anderson spots the strike team on radar, approaching the docks
from the north on foot. In the upcoming ch. 20 I altered the approach;
they remain in their vehicles as they enter the docks...

4/15/08 - even more important continuity change, as demonstrated
from the above note:
I have a big landmark name to correct. The area I've been referring to
as "the Memphis docks at Lake McKellar" is actually the International Port
of Memphis. The area many locals seem to refer to as the docks
is Riverport Harbor, which is more tourist oriented.]



(Right-click the chapter number to download)


Part I: November 2005

Chapter 1: Augustus' Ride

Chapter 2: Amanda's Plan

Chapter 3: Amanda Goes Down

Chapter 4: Rebecca's Taste

Part II: April 2006

Chapter 5: The File Room

Chapter 6: Meanwhile, in Las Vegas

Chapter 7: Six Tokes Later

Chapter 8: In Transit

Part III: Childsplay

Chapter 9: The Park

Chapter 10: The Breakout

Chapter 11: Park Road

Part IV: Day Three

Chapter 12: Day Three, Breakfast

Chapter 13: Day Three, Dottie's Cafe

Chapter 14: Camellias in Bloom

Part V: Bellbrook

Chapter 15: The Other Shoe

Chapter 16: Rabbit Hole

Chapter 17: Bellbrook

Chapter 18: Evidence

Chapter 19: Wharf St.

Part VI: Jacob's Ride

Chapter 20: Jacob's Ride




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Banjo Strings, copyright 2007 12.23 Press

Original photo for book cover, copyright andipantz.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s twisted imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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