Ruben Gonzales was born and raised in East Los Angeles but has called NC home since 1976. After graduating from college he joined the Peace Corps and taught elementary school in a small village in Africa. During this time Ruben sold a short story to the BBC for world broadcast. Ruben was a finalist in the N.C. Writers Network 2018 Fiction Contest. Ruben retired from employment and now writes full-time and teaches part-time with the community college system. Ruben’s first book, “The Cottage on the Bay” is about a Civil War plantation family and their search for redemption. Much of Ruben’s novel is based on historical facts including many period photos, public records, and family letters. His second book, “Murder on Black Mountain”, the first in a series, is a mystery that takes place in a fictional town in the N.C. mountains that follows the life of an aura-reading photographer who returns to her small mountain hometown to open a photography business. The Lake Nebo Murder is the second in the series and we follow Emma as she begins her new life in Black Mountain and finds a murder mystery again engulfing her father. Death Under the Steeple is the third book in the series where we find Emma's father accused of a murdering a popular local pastor and follow Emma as she tracks down the real murderer. In his just released fourth book in his series, Murder at the Water Wheel, Emma must find out who killed the fiancé of her former sister-in law, to prove a man innocent.

Now, Ruben is adding to his popular Black Mountain Series with, "Cabana Bay", In his exciting new mystery series, we follow the exploits of Moli Soto, as she and her four-year-old son relocate to the Gulf Coast of Florida to help her uncle out as he restores a rundown motel. When Moli discovers a semi-comatose guest in one of the complex's cottages, she must solve the mystery before the local police close the motel, and her uncle loses all his retirement savings. And another book, Under the Tree of Life, an espionage tale of intrigue in Africa, published late last year.