Private Hell is a powerful, emotionally charged novel inspired by real events—exploring the psychological reality of abuse, the complexity of survival, and the strength it takes to reclaim a life.
In this deeply personal work, Donna Carbone brings the same authenticity and insight that define her crime fiction, offering a story where the line between past and present, safety and danger, is never as clear as it seems.
Some escapes come with a cost. Others come too late.
Diana Ciccone believed her life moved in cycles. The first twenty-five years were a nightmare—shaped by a dysfunctional childhood and a brutal, abusive marriage that left scars no one could see. The next twenty-five felt like redemption. A second chance. A life she never thought she’d have. Now, years later, that illusion is shattered. Because the past she escaped has found its way back. And this time, it may finish what it started.
As Diana is pulled once again into a world of control, fear, and manipulation, she turns to the only people who might be able to help her break free—an attorney who knows how to fight, and an investigator who knows how to uncover the truth. But survival is never simple. And the most dangerous evil isn’t always the one you recognize. It’s the one you thought you’d already escaped.
The themes of survival, resilience, and justice explored in Private Hell continue in Donna Carbone’s Cat Leigh and Marci Welles crime series, where two female homicide detectives confront cases that echo the realities behind the fiction.
Private Hell is a semi-autobiographical novel. Order it at amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/k8vvk424
Available in paperback and for Kindle
Charlie's Molasses
Inspired by real events, this haunting crime novel explores power, silence, and the dark legacy of a place that refuses to be forgotten. In this gripping departure from traditional crime fiction, Donna Carbone blends history, suspense, and psychological tension into a story where the past is never truly past.
Some places don’t forget. And some stories refuse to stay buried.
Forty-four miles from Palm Beach lies the remains of Bryant—a once-thriving community now reduced to silence, secrets, and the echoes of a forgotten past. But history has a way of resurfacing. Whispers of a powerful dynasty still linger. So do the stories no one wanted told—stories of control, fear, and a brutality that turned human lives into warnings. Among them is a legend passed down in hushed voices: of a man taken in the night, marked for punishment, and left to a fate so horrifying it became part of the land itself.
Most dismissed it as myth. Until the past begins to bleed into the present. As long-buried truths rise to the surface, the line between legend and reality disappears—and what once happened in Bryant may not be finished. Because some ghosts don’t haunt. They wait.
Like all of Donna Carbone’s work, Charlie’s Molasses explores the long shadow of violence and the resilience of those who survive it—themes that carry through her Cat Leigh and Marci Welles crime series and the novel Private Hell.
Order Charlie’s Molasses at amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/y2n2jnp9
Available in paperback and for Kindle
ORDER BREAD AND BULLETS DIRECTLY FROM DONNA AND GET AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY
Bread and Bullets: The Rosario Liotta Story
Bread and Bullets is the story of both a crime and a conviction gone wrong!
In 2003, Rosario Liotta killed a mob associate in self-defense during an attempted shake down. The killing took place shortly before the Stand Your Ground laws went into effect in Florida. As a result, at trial in 2005 he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In time, the authorities learned that the associate was the hit man who had murdered Miami Subs founder and SunCruz Casino Lines mogul, Gus Boulis. Because of the shooting, Rosario was dragged into that case.
Now a free man, Rosario told his story to Donna Carbone - the same story he told throughout his trial - complete with all the details the prosecution never allowed the jury to hear. Donna turned his words into a powerful book of crime, prosecution and conviction gone terribly wrong.
If you think you are tough enough to survive prison, think again. Nothing you have seen or heard is remotely close to the horrors of incarceration, especially when you are jailed for a crime you did not commit.
To order Bread and Bullets: The Rosario Liotta Story contact Donna directly and she will send you an autographed copy. The profits from the sale of this book benefit the Palm Beach Institute for the Entertainment Arts, a non-profit which helped people to live their dreams - not their fears.
Email: donnamcarbone@gmail.com