title: Raptures: Tales of Darkness and Light
author: Charles Watts
description: Early in his career, Charles Watts had an underground play (Visigoths) produced in Los Angeles, which led to script writing contracts for several TV series. He fled Hollywood, got an MFA in poetry, and went to Iran to teach literature. For five years, he edited Seizure, a magazine of poetry and fiction. He has been a cab driver, worked in refugee camps in Southeast Asia and Central America, and owned a tour company. He has published stories and poems in a broad range of literary journals. Karma in the High Peaks, an anthology from Ra Press that included ten of his poems, won the Peoples Choice Award for best book of 2010 from the Adirondack Center for Writing.
zlib_text: ![image](images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  _[Also by Michael Connelly](contents.xhtml#frontmatter-01)_
  
  
  _Fiction_
  
  
  The Black Echo
  
  
  The Black Ice
  
  
  The Concrete Blonde
  
  
  The Last Coyote
  
  
  The Poet
  
  
  Trunk Music
  
  
  Blood Work
  
  
  Angels Flight
  
  
  Void Moon
  
  
  A Darkness More Than Night
  
  
  City of Bones
  
  
  Chasing the Dime
  
  
  Lost Light
  
  
  The Narrows
  
  
  The Closers
  
  
  The Lincoln Lawyer
  
  
  Echo Park
  
  
  The Overlook
  
  
  The Brass Verdict
  
  
  The Scarecrow
  
  
  Nine Dragons
  
  
  The Reversal
  
  
  The Fifth Witness
  
  
  The Drop
  
  
  The Black Box
  
  
  The Gods of Guilt
  
  
  The Burning Room
  
  
  The Crossing
  
  
  The Wrong Side of Goodbye
  
  
  _Non-fiction_
  
  
  Crime Beat
  
  
  _Ebooks_
  
  
  Suicide Run
  
  
  Angle of Investigation
  
  
  Mulholland Dive
  
  
  The Safe Man
  
  
  Switchblade
  
  
  [Dedication](contents.xhtml#dedi)
  
  
  _In Honor of Sgt. Steve Owen  
  Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department  
  Executed, shot through the badge, October 5, 2016_
  
  
  ![Image](images/tit.jpg)
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  [Title Page](title.xhtml)
  
  
  [Dedication](dedication.xhtml)
  
  
  [Chapter 1](chapter01.x