An abandoned, rusted industrial factory with multiple tall smokestacks and old brick buildings, under a cloudy sky.

DEbut Novel

The book cover for 'Charles Manson and the Onion Factory' by John Vice features a black-and-white photograph of an industrial building with a tall chimney in a city setting. The title is displayed in large white 3D text, with the author's name in smaller white letters at the bottom.

In the shadow of a grim 1980s prison yard, twelve-year-old Bo’s life feels as fractured as the city he calls home. His mother is dead from an overdose, his father Hank is locked away for murder, and Bo’s only solace is a strange, otherworldly room of shimmering light he calls The Happy Place. 

At Keating Park, a patch of green nestled against one of the world’s largest prisons, Bo hears a chilling warning from a mysterious (and ghostly) inmate. Bo’s father Hank’s days are numbered, and its no simple illness that will claim him. Instead, the inmate references “Uncle Charlie” and the “Bats and Hammers” that somehow control Hank’s fate. Desperate for answers and to see his dying father, Bo’s grandparents allow him to meet with his father one last time. The prison visit leaves him shattered by his father’s cryptic words and direct rejection of his son. Alone and angry, Bo runs away from his grandma and stumbles into an abandoned onion factory, where a ragtag group of kids offers unexpected friendship—and a lead on the truth. 

What begins as an adventure through forgotten tunnels beneath the city soon becomes a terrifying discovery of corruption, psychological experiments, and the sinister forces that connect the prison and the onion factory. Bo’s search for the truth pits him against the prison warden, the ghost of former inmate Donald “Cinque” DeFreeze, and even Charles Manson himself. 

When his friends splinter under the weight of danger, Bo must summon a courage he never knew he had. With the lives of his loved ones on the line, he ventures into the prison for a final showdown with Manson.  

Charles Manson and the Onion Factory, is a haunting tale of punk rock, resilience, loyalty, and the light that can shine even in the darkest corners of the human spirit.