Testing the Prisoner

Redemption only comes once in an after lifetime.

Daniel Masenda thought he had made peace with his dark past when he left his home for a better life fourteen years ago. As the mayor of a small, tranquil town along Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Daniel has everything he ever wanted—until a series of haunting visions, coupled with the death of his estranged mother, pits him against two ghostly entities at war with one another. Each has its own agenda as they force Daniel to relive moments from his violent youth and push him to the edge of insanity. As his idyllic life begins to unravel, will he be able to decipher the message behind the hauntings before they destroy not only him, but the soul of someone he left behind?


“A darkly personal supernatural psycho-thriller … Phil Giunta confronts the blurred border between love and hate hidden within the human heart in this promising, ultimately hopeful first novel.”
—Howard Weinstein, NYT Bestselling author of Galloway's Gamble and longtime Star Trek writer


"...Testing the Prisoner is so much more brilliant than just a terrific piece of fiction. It’s about the crossroads that we all eventually end up at and the decisions we make when we get there... The character development is masterfully done, with character growth of not only the protagonist, but almost every single character in the story, and you will come away, after going through hell with the characters, gaining a huge amount of understanding..." —As reviewed on Hellnotes.com by Carson Buckingham, author of Noble Rot and Too Late for Prayin'

FIRST PLACE - Pennsylvania Press Club 2024 Communications Contest

WINNER - International Impact Book Award 2024

SECOND PLACE - National Federation of Press Women 2024 Communications Contest

SECOND PLACE - The BookFest Spring 2024 Competition

FINALIST - American Book Fest 2023 Best Book Awards

Phil Giunta enjoys crafting powerful fiction that changes lives and inspires readers. His novels include the paranormal mysteries Testing the Prisoner, By Your Side, and Like Mother, Like Daughters. His short stories appear in such anthologies as Love on the Edge, Scary Stuff, A Plague of Shadows, Beach Nights, Beach Pulp, the Middle of Eternity series, and many more.

He is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group.

Phil is currently working on his next paranormal mystery novel while plotting his triumphant escape from the pressures of corporate America where he has been imprisoned for over twenty-five years. Visit Phil's website at www.philgiunta.com.

Find him on Facebook: @writerphilgiunta and Twitter: @philgiunta71