James / Ventola

A novel by James Ventola

Project
Abort

Unmasking Kingpin — Book One

Outside the gates, crime climbs and infrastructure rots.

Project Abort cover art — a burning mansion behind iron gates

After a failed kidnapping attempt shatters what remains of normal life, seventeen-year-old Bill Morello is sent to Burnell Preparatory, a private boarding school on the promise of safety. Outside the gates, crime climbs and infrastructure rots.

As government institutions stall and fracture, danger fills the spaces they no longer control. When students and staff begin to disappear, fear spreads through the school. Nobody at the school seems eager to ask the right questions, and Bill doesn't feel any safer at the school.

Bill is drawn into a group led by Finn, a brilliant but disillusioned son of corporate tycoons, that refuses to accept the version of reality being sold. As they dig deeper, the investigation turns from paranoia to conspiracy. They realize the school is being used — its students leveraged in a conflict far beyond its walls.

The Trilogy

Three books.
One truth they can’t hide.

The Unmasking Kingpin Trilogy

Book I

Project Abort

“The system created the perfect weapon. Now he's their biggest risk.”

Available now

Paperback — May 12, 2026

Read on Amazon →

Book II

Finding Ghost

“They told him it was paranoia. They were already inside his life.”

Forthcoming

Release date TBA

Book III

The Kingpin

“Power doesn't corrupt. It reveals.”

Forthcoming

Release date TBA

James Ventola

James Ventola

James Ventola writes literary thrillers set at the seam between institutions and the people they fail to hold.

Project Abort is his debut novel and the first volume of the Unmasking Kingpin trilogy — three books in all, with the second and third forthcoming.