John Gaspard Books in Order

John Gaspard and Dale Newton explain how to produce a feature film for less than $30,000. Their practical account covers scripting, budgeting, financing, casting, production, and distribution, with forms to support filmmakers planning similarly inexpensive projects.

Drawing on interviews about thirty-three films, John Gaspard examines how directors make movies with limited money. Filmmakers including Roger Corman, Steven Soderbergh, and Jon Favreau discuss practical choices, production problems, and lessons from working on modest budgets.

This guide explores screenwriting for films made on limited budgets through interviews with working writers. It examines how early writing choices can shape production costs while preserving the characters, structure, and storytelling a script needs.

John Gaspard gathers advice from filmmakers about developing and completing movies. The interviews address getting started, writing scripts, preparing productions, working through filming and postproduction, and finding distribution, with emphasis on decisions drawn from professional experience.

Mystery novelist Barbara Thomas and veteran Ripper expert Henry McHugh become reluctant collaborators when a modern killer recreates the 1888 murders. Their competing theories must help identify the copycat amid publishing rivalries and an obsessive research community.

After magician Eli Marks publicly debunks a psychic, murders in the psychic community leave clues pointing toward him. With his ex-wife's detective husband investigating and a new romantic interest complicating matters, Eli must expose the deception.

Eli Marks's high school reunion brings an old crush and a troubling series of deaths back into his life. A former classmate, now a movie star, fears performing a potentially fatal bullet catch for his latest film.

Eli Marks spots a corpse in a theater's projection booth, creating a locked-room puzzle. As he investigates how the body got there, a rival magician unsettles his confidence and threatens both his professional standing and his relationship.

A corporate event leaves magician Eli Marks facing what appears to be a murder-suicide. Sorting out who killed whom requires him to look beyond the obvious evidence and apply his understanding of performance, deception, and misdirection.

When a magician dies during an act at the Mall of America, Eli Marks takes over the daily show. Further deaths make the replacement job increasingly dangerous and force Eli to investigate the performers around him.

Eli accompanies Uncle Harry to London, where murders among older magicians place Harry under suspicion. A chief suspect supposedly died thirty years earlier, while the theft of Eli's routine adds another complication to their trip.

Sherlock Holmes's greyhound, Septimus, narrates an investigation into the Baskerville family's troubles. As a new baronet faces the legend of a supernatural hound, Septimus follows the danger across the moors from a distinctly canine perspective.

Two sponsors are murdered at a charity gala attended by eight hundred guests, leaving Eli Marks to untangle the crime. His ex-wife and a familiar detective complicate an investigation that must progress before everyone leaves.

Through interviews with eleven women working in film and television, John Gaspard explores building and sustaining a career. Directors, actors, writers, editors, and executives discuss entering the industry and navigating the demands of their work.

As Eli Marks prepares to close his magic shop, a customer arrives with an unusual request: make a tuba disappear. The seemingly simple problem becomes a matter of life and death that demands quick thinking.

Edward Stone's quiet life changes when he searches for the missing sword Excalibur. A journey involving Stonehenge and Loch Ness draws him into a world of magic, where hostile forces have designs on the legendary weapon.

Carl, Ebenezer Scrooge’s greyhound, narrates a Christmas Eve disturbed by Marley’s ghost and three supernatural visitors. Following his master through visions of past, present, and future, the dog offers a new perspective on Scrooge’s resistance to kindness.

Leah Sexton returns to St. Paul to direct community theater after setbacks in New York. A murdered critic and a suspicious accident involving her leading actress force Leah to investigate while stepping into the production and confronting an unwelcome former boyfriend.

Leah Sexton’s auditions for The Importance of Being Earnest become a murder investigation when one actor dies and another disappears. She must untangle the crimes while rebuilding her cast, with opening night approaching and the remaining performers unsettled.

The director and star of a community production of A Christmas Carol is found dead, leaving Leah Sexton to take charge. Discovering another body among stored scenery forces her to investigate before the holiday show brings further danger.

Magician Eli Marks encounters suspicious deaths, impossible attacks, and crimes involving valuable objects in twelve short mysteries. His investigations range from unsettling funerals to dangerous magic lessons, testing whether an understanding of illusion can expose the people behind seemingly inexplicable events.

Thirteen-year-old Eli moves in with his magician uncle and begins learning the craft while encountering a sequence of puzzling mysteries. Readers can follow his efforts to understand deceptive appearances, then explore illustrated instructions for ten magic tricks.