K.A.R.E.N. (scheduled release date: March 26th, 2022) - Paperback

On a sunny day in Big Sur, California, five people wander into a coffee shop intending to get their daily caffeine fix. Instead, they witness a disturbing verbal altercation between two customers. Slurs and innuendos are exchanged between the two adversaries and the normally quaint coffee shop fills with a tension that's thicker than the scent of java swirling in the air.

The scene becomes combustible when one of the combatants pulls out a cellphone to film the incident. When police officers arrive on the scene and interview the five witnesses: Kim - an African-American nurse; Amy - a Caucasian suburban housewife; Richard - the Caucasian conservative coffee shop owner; Ernesto - a hardworking Mexican laborer who is an undocumented immigrant; and Nigel - an African-American businessman who has "issues" with black millennials like the one involved in the incident; they are stumped. Five witnesses offer five shockingly different accounts of the same incident. Which perspective is right? Which perspective will the officers believe...and why?

Bestselling Author, Brian W. Smith, returns with a thought-provoking novel that will cement his position as one of the best writers of his generation. Written in the first person perspective of each character, readers will be left screaming at the pages, choosing sides, and questioning their own belief system by the time they reach the shocking ending.