Posted in excerpt, Interview, mystery, suspense, Thriller on February 22, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

It should have been an otherwise uneventful Sunday morning for Charleston attorney Noah Parks. Perhaps a trip to the beach or a run with his new Australian Shepherd, Austin. But with a cryptic voicemail, everything changes.

A client has vanished, leaving nothing behind as a clue to where he may be. Neither his family, friends, nor neighbors are able to provide help.”

Turning to his friend Emmett Gabriel, Charleston’s newest police detective, Parks can only watch as what started with a simple voicemail takes on a sinister life of its own.

Parks soon finds himself entangled in an affair that spans centuries, going back to the time of Charleston’s birth.

With a focus on learning his client’s fate, Parks will soon find himself facing a mystery that will not only be a test of his wits but leaves him challenged in ways he never imagined.

Facing down twists, turns, betrayals, and traditions of honor, will he break The Code?

 

 

Amazon * Rivers Turn Press

 

Excerpt

 

He looked into my eyes with something that could only be described as desperation. Suddenly, his look of despair faded as if a veil was lifted from his face. He stopped speaking and stood straight. His hands stopped moving, and he looked at each of them, turning them over, back to palm, as he examined them. He raised his head back to my eyes. As he looked at me, in an instant, the fearful look drained from his face, replacing it, a blank, expressionless gaze took hold of his features. He moved his eyes to my hand on his bicep, then shifted his gaze back to my face. He slowly twisted his arm from my slight grasp. He spoke slowly and methodically.

“No, Cash didn’t call. No one called. There was nothing from Cash.”

“But you just said…”

“I didn’t say anything. Nothing,” he said as he turned and faced the rear of the lot.

 

 

Interview with Sean

 

Thanks for the interview, Sean! Your book, THE CODE, sounds absolutely awesome. Can you tell us the story behind that intriguing title?

 

Sean: The title comes from a best selling publication from way back in 1838. The Code, the Noah Parks work, as with my prior books, is a murder mystery, but the foundation for the reason behind the murders goes back to the ideas in the 1838 book. I came across the 1838 book in some reading I was doing after The Solicitor, my second book, was released, and that started the basis for the plot that would become my third book.

 

Can you tell us a little about your main characters?

Sean: There are three main characters in The Code that are consistent throughout all of my mysteries.

Noah Parks – he is a Charleston, South Carolina attorney who has been practicing law for several years during the period of the events in The Code. An early morning phone call from a relative of one of his clients that sets in motion the story that is The Code. Noah doesn’t set out to be a detective and I would say he does not consider himself a detective, but is always curious to get to the bottom of a mystery.

Austin – he is Noah’s Australian Shepherd. In The Code, he was just adopted and has been living with Noah for about six months. He was a mainstay in my prior two books, and as I was researching The Code, I found some intriguing historical ties to canines, so it was logical to work those into the plot with Austin. As well, every character has a back story, and The Code starts Austin’s.

Emmett Gabriel – or Gabriel as he is known, is a Charleston Police officer. He has just been made a detective, and the murders in The Code are his first major cases. Gabriel and Noah, even though they grew up in Charleston, had never met prior to being randomly assigned as roommates at The University of South Carolina. They became fast friends and remain so.

 

Where is your book set and why did you choose that particular location?

 

Sean: The Code, like all of my books, is set primarily in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve lived in the area for most of my life and love the city. It was logical for me to use it as the setting for my books. Unlike my first two books, The Trust and The Solicitor, which have scenes in other parts of the South Carolina coast, The Code occurs entirely in the Holy City as Charleston is known.

 

What part would you say was the most exciting to write?

 

Sean: It is tough for me to isolate any one part of the book as y favorite, though there are several scenes with Austin that I really enjoyed, Noah’s scenes, as the book is in first person, are always fun to create as well. I enjoyed the final scenes with Noah that began to close the book. However, the most two enjoyable things about the writing process for The Code were the research that allowed me to begin to craft the plot and, since The Code is a prequel, it was tremendously enjoyable seeing the character’s back story develop.

 

What’s next for you?

 

Sean: I became fascinated with the research behind The Code. Being able to have the historical underpinning and foundation that creates a mystery within a mystery was something that I really enjoyed. As a result, I have another idea I am researching that will be the next Noah Parks book. No title as of yet, but it will follow next in time after The Code.

 

 

About the Author

 

 

Sean Keefer is the award-winning author of three legal thrillers, The Trust, The Solicitor, and The Code, all set in and around coastal South Carolina.

He is also the author of Mediation in the Family Courts of South Carolina, a legal treatise on family law mediation.

He lives and writes in Charleston, South Carolina.

In addition to his writing, Sean is a recording and performing guitarist/singer/songwriter of Americana and Alt-Country music. Watch him sing Carolina Sunset which was inspired by his latest book, The Code. Listen here!

 

 

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in 5 paws, mystery, Review, suspense, Thriller on February 5, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

Someone is operating the largest stock market insider trading scheme in the history of the United States. The perpetrator of the scheme has hidden their identity through elusive actions. However, the perpetrator may not have planned on a brilliant FBI forensic accountant, Dr. Kimberly King, leading the investigation to uncover their identity and to put them out of business and into jail.

 

 

Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Smashwords

 

 

Review

 

I loved this book! It helps that I used to work in the securities industry and understood a lot of what was happening regarding the stock trades and the investigation into insider trading.

This book is told from several different viewpoints. We have Harley Ross, a busboy that is receiving letters with stock picks, an unknown person collecting checks and flying to the Caymans, and the FBI perspective. I really enjoyed the various perspectives because they added depth to the story and added complexity when sorting out the details in my mind and trying to uncover the mystery person. I will say that the truth was never on my radar until closer to the very end.

Dr. Kimberly King, the new employee in the fraud division of the FBI, is a smart woman and loves digging into mysteries, much like her hero, Nancy Drew. I could relate to her love for mysteries and solving puzzles. She is also a very likable character and is able to make friends wherever she goes. Considering her background, she is very down-to-earth and approachable. I’d like to think that we would be friends and bond over mysteries, forensic accounting, and consignment shops.

I don’t know if this will be a series, but I think it would be fun to follow K.K. during her journey with the FBI and the different fraud cases that they investigate.

I will admit that I might have stayed up just a little too late finishing this book. But it was worth it for the journey!

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Peter Davidson is the author or co-author of thirty-one books published by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Perigee/Putnam Publishers, Haworth Press, Sweet Memories Publishing, and Northwestern Publishing.  His works include fiction, nonfiction, college textbooks, and children’s picture books.

For more than two decades, Davidson was one of America’s most active writer’s seminar presenters, having presented 637 one-day seminars in a 15-state area from Minnesota to Tennessee and Colorado to Illinois.  Davidson has owned small businesses, including a professional recording studio, has sold real estate, and taught business courses in a community college.  Whatever else was going on in his life, Davidson kept on writing.

 

 Twitter * LinkedIn * Goodreads

 

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Posted in excerpt, Family, suspense, Thriller, women on January 26, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

On the surface, Delilah Reddick’s life looks perfect. Her husband is a pillar of the community, and with her as his quietly supportive wife, they appear to be the picture of success and happiness. But there are deep cracks in the foundation, dark secrets Delilah has never shared with anyone.

Delilah knows what her husband is capable of when the evil inside him finds its way to the surface, but running would only delay the inevitable. Chase would hunt her to the ends of the earth before allowing her to take his only son from him. Delilah would rather die than leave her fourteen-year-old behind, but when her son begins displaying his father’s violent tendencies, she knows she must act.

In her quest to save her son, Delilah sets off a chain of events that could rock the community and reveal the darkest secret of them all. After years of staying quiet, Delilah must find her voice before her husband silences her forever.

 

 

Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Google * Audible

 

 

Excerpt

 

CHAPTER 1

 

“How long you gonna let him do this?” Carmen’s voice is quiet, not betraying the rage just beneath her words. I let her touch the cloth to the swelling ridge along my jaw and then my nose. I draw in a sharp breath as she dips the cloth into the sink, tinging the water pink.

All I can do is lift my hand in answer. It is such an old conversation, but I have nobody else to go to. At least she will let me lick my wounds and hide until I have to go back home.

“He’s gonna kill you, Delilah.” Carmen’s voice breaks, lifting over the truth of it. She dabs again at my face then sets the cloth aside.

Carmen is right. I know he has it in him. I wouldn’t be his first victim. The thought is through my mind before I can catch it and shove it down. He doesn’t know I suspect him of that killing all those years ago, or I would already be dead. I went along with him as if I hadn’t seen him come into the bar looking wild, as if I hadn’t seen the wet spot on his shirt. I hadn’t wanted to see it. So when he insisted that he’d been in the bar all night, with me, I nodded. Even when the police asked me alone, I said he was with me. Does that make me an accomplice?

Carmen runs her thumbs down the bridge of my nose. I close my eyes, uncomfortable at her scrutinizing gaze. “I don’t think it’s broken. But you should go to the hospital.”

“And say what? I was hit by a car?”

“No. Turn the bastard in. Press charges. Put his ass in jail.”

I shake my head, and it swims. I reach out to steady myself. Getting rid of him sounds so easy, slipping from her mouth. I’ve walked through that scenario before, working out details for an escape that would never happen. I can’t just go into a courtroom and let them fillet my private life for the world to see. I don’t live like Carmen, bold and full of confidence. I need my doors and windows shuttered and don’t want some lawyer airing our dirty laundry. I keep my voice small and my eyes turned away from conflict. Going to the police might hurt Jackson, ruin his childhood. I shudder to think of the media’s headlines on our family—on the sordid life of Chase Reddick, prominent local business leader, and the accusations made by his quiet, nearly invisible wife.

Carmen wouldn’t understand what’s at stake. She isn’t a mother. She won’t keep a relationship past the first bump, let alone through a knockdown.

“It’s not that easy. To just walk away.” My words feel fat coming through my busted lip, past the swelling of my jaw. “We’ve got a son.”

“Yeah, great. What is he learning? To cower or beat people.”

“That’s not fair.”

Carmen shakes her head and moves on to work on my eye. The sting makes me swallow further protests behind my teeth. My mind reels. What am I teaching Jackson? He doesn’t know. He’s never seen. Every time a stray bruise creeps past the edge of my collar or down past the sleeve on my arm, I just tell him I walked into a door or tripped coming up the stairs or that I didn’t know how that one happened. Hadn’t even realized it was there. I had given him each lie with a self-deprecating smile. But he’s not stupid, and he’s not a baby anymore. He has eyes.

 

About the Author

 

Angie Gallion has been a stage actor, an anti-money laundering investigator, a photographer, and a paralegal. She has lived in Illinois, California, Missouri, and Georgia and has traveled to Greece, the Dominican Republic, Scotland, and Ireland. She dreams of traveling when her children are grown, and she and her husband can set out into the world. She is currently rooted outside of Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, their children, and their two French Bulldogs.

Angie’s writings often deal with personal growth through tragedy or trauma. She explores complex relationships, often set against the backdrop of addiction or mental illness. Her first novel, Intoxic, was the 2016 bronze medalist in the Readers Favorite for General Fiction. That book was a twenty-five-year adventure in self-doubt and hesitation.

 

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Posted in 4 paws, Family, Giveaway, Review, suspense, Thriller on January 23, 2023

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

Indiana, January 2010.

It’s a hot summer’s day in 1984 when twelve-year-old Gilly and her friend Sally find a dead new-born in a shoebox in the cemetery of their tiny town. Deciding to keep their discovery a secret, they bury the body in Gilly’s yard.

The results are disastrous. Flowers are mysteriously left on strollers. Two local children disappear and end up dead. A suspect is arrested and confesses, blaming the deaths on the girls’ having taken the dead baby.

Gilly grows up but is haunted by what’s happened. As a young woman, she flees the town and its memories, going all the way to Japan.

Returning with her Japanese husband Toshi to attend her mother’s funeral, Gilly finds the past is not past. She’s threatened, and someone is putting flowers on strollers again.

When another child is abducted, Gilly knows she must discover the truth about what happened all those years ago before more lives are lost.

 

 

Amazon * Amazon UK

 

Read for Free via Kindle Unlimited

 

 

Praise

 

“Both a drama and a thriller, full of twists and human insight.”-Thomas Waugh

“The immediate declaration of past events, the discovery and concealment of the dead baby, provides a gripping start to this book.
The story is simple yet powerful, immediately drawing the reader into a world that identifies the challenges of growing up in a small town in Indiana.
The book tackles the casual racism that is often overlooked, with great clarity. Although this is a crime novel it is also a powerful story about how a single childhood event can influence the future.
It compels you to share the history and become part of the small-town network. Through a nexus of characters, we see how relationships that are made in our formative years, affect our lives.
The story is more than a crime novel. It also serves to gives a fascinating insight into life in a small town in the USA, through the eyes of somebody who never really wanted to return.”-ReallyPoshScouser, Amazon

“Lea O’Harra offers us a whodunnit set in a Japan labouring under the weight of cultural imperialism, a country where the characters find that their friends and lovers are really strangers and imperfect ones at that…-Nick Sweet, author of the Inspector Velázquez series

’With her deep knowledge of Japanese culture, superb writing, and sensitivity to human foibles. O’Harra has crafted a cross-cultural whodunnit sure to please Japanophiles and mystery lovers alike.”-Suzanne Kamata, author of Losing Kei

 

Awards

 

Autumn 2017 “Lady First” was awarded ‘finalist’ status in the crime fiction section of the Beverly Hill Book Awards.

‘Lady First’ was also a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards in 2018.

 

 

Review

 

This was quite an interesting tale, split between the past and the present, with details slow to be released to explain what is going on in this tiny town.

This story is filled with unlikeable characters, dysfunctional families, and a secret that is trying to come out but not very successfully.

Gilly (aka Gillian, aka Mouse) has returned home for her mother’s funeral. She is living in Japan with her husband, who is quite obnoxious. I’m really not sure how she has stayed married to him for nine years. Once back in Bryon, the past comes rushing back, and Gilly has to face the truth.

A lot of this book seemed quite unbelievable. How could two young girls find a dead baby and then not tell anyone? That seemed very bizarre. Obviously, it is eating away at the girls, or at least it does Gilly. Even decades later, when she is back in town, it comes up. Since this is something she hasn’t told her husband, Toshi, he can’t understand anything about her past, her family or why it is a secret. While I get where he is coming from, don’t we all have secrets from our past? Why does everything have to be shared with a spouse if it doesn’t impact them?

There are so many secrets surrounding this little town, and Gilly seems to be in the middle of everything. This makes her look guilty when it is really just coincidental timing with her return to town. However, there are other secrets just dying to get out, and how they impact what is happening in the little town now.

It does take about 2/3 of the book before the past is revealed. Until that point, there are some references but no real explanation of what happened. I believe this is what is called a slow burn. I call it annoying! I wanted to understand how the past impacted the present, but there was no revelation of what happened or why.

However, once the details are revealed, it is a very fast-paced finish to the end of the book. There are some tense moments for Gilly in the last third of the book. Some of the actions of other characters might leave you dumbfounded.

Outside of the mystery, we also see the interactions between Gilly and her brothers. While they were supportive of each other as children, or as much as they could be at that young age, they have all changed, and not necessarily for the better. Nick is self-absorbed, Harry tends to put his head in the sand, and Gilly continues to be bullied. I wondered if there would be any change in that dynamic by the end of the book.

Despite my frustration at the slow pace (because I want to know everything now!), I found myself engaged in this story and wondering how it would turn out.

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Lea O’Harra has published three crime fiction novels set in rural modern-day Japan: Imperfect Strangers (2015); Progeny (2016); and Lady First (2017). These comprise the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue Murder Mystery’ series originally published by Endeavour Press (UK). She has also had a story included in Best Asian Crime Fiction published by Kitaab Press (Singapore) in 2020.

In the spring of 2022 Sharpe Books reissued the Inoue mystery series and, in September 2022, published Lea O’Harra’s fourth novel, Dead Reckoning, a stand-alone set in her tiny hometown in the American Midwest.

 

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Instagram * Pinterest

 

 

Giveaway

 

This giveaway is for 3 book copies and is open worldwide.

This giveaway ends on February 1, 2023 midnight, pacific time.

Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Posted in 5 paws, Review, Thriller on January 4, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

It was supposed to be a simple heist. But running with art thieves could get them killed.

San Francisco. Disgraced investigative journalist Camden Swanson spends his nights guzzling beer and penning nonsensical poetry. Forced into working as a museum guard after writing a drug-addled story that lost him his job, his life takes a wild twist when he’s offered a huge sum to help steal his employer’s prized Matisse statues. But when someone else mysteriously snatches the sculptures first, Camden’s beautiful benefactor accuses him of the crime and demands he return them … or die.

Unable to persuade the vengeful femme fatale that he didn’t double-cross her, Camden engages the help of Veronica Zarcarsky, a recent journalism school grad. When they discover a shocking secret and everything they’ve learned turns out to be a lie, Swanson suffers a brutal attack and his partner is nearly murdered. Can the ragtag duo crack the case before they end up in the obituaries?

 

 

Amazon * B&N * Bookshop

 

 

Review

 

I was quite surprised by the depth of this book, the characters, the plot, and the outcome. I don’t think I knew what I was getting into when I started this book, but once the suspense of the art heist and what was really going on came to light, it intrigued me even more than I would have expected.

Camden is a character that you will love and hate all at the same time. He threw away a promising career as a journalist and now works as a security guard in an art gallery. You can see his faults, and while you might commiserate with him, he put himself into his current position. But throughout the story, you can see him grow and change for the better. Perhaps the situation he finds himself in lends itself to that growth.

This situation also is a boon for Veronica. Veronica wanted to be Nellie Bly but hasn’t found the right way into this field. That is until the art heist and the drama surrounding the situation. But can she write a story that is worthy of the situation and potential readers?

This is thriller-esque, at least compared to the normal thrillers I read. But don’t let that fool you! There is danger, chases, deceit, and so much more.

Definitely worth the read, and we give it 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Michael Ostrowski is the author of the critically acclaimed mystery-thriller Lost in the Fog, as well as the humorous yet gritty Hollywood novel A Model Community. Born and raised just outside of Boston, he is a New Englander at heart and an alum of both Boston University and Emerson College. Since graduating he has wandered far from home, residing at different times in Key West, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, and now Miami Beach.

Travel is a passion, and in 2019 Michael walked 550 miles across France and Spain on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, and then journeyed throughout Portugal before sailing across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. He chronicled those adventures and more in his blog, Get Lost in the Fog.

Michael was inspired to write Lost in the Fog from his days working as a guard at an art museum, where he combated boredom by scribbling nonsensical poems and ideas for a heist in a tiny notebook, to the dismay of his supervisors. Book number two in the series moves from foggy San Francisco to sunny Hawaii, and the third will take place on the trails of the Camino de Santiago.

 

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Posted in Spotlight, Thriller on January 2, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

Los Angeles, 1962. Dr. Wiley McCoy has a successful medical practice, movie-star good looks, and a substance abuse problem. When a young woman dies on his operating table, his life and career are destroyed. Romulo DaVinci is a conniving Voodoo shaman with supernatural powers to resurrect the dead. The disgraced doctor and the medical adventurer are thrown together on a gonzo journey through the seminal events of the 1960’s including the JFK assassination, the Apollo moon landing, and the Manson killings. Along the way, they commandeer a U.S. nuclear submarine and encounter real-life characters from bonkers plutocrat Howard Hughes to ruthless Haitian leader Papa Doc Duvalier.

The Thresher Ghost is a carnival ride through a tumultuous decade—its music, its conspiracies, and its scandals—as McCoy and DaVinci cross oceans and medical boundaries in a duel between science and magic.

 

 

Amazon

 

Read for Free via Kindle Unlimited

 

 

About the Author

 

Spencer Compton was raised in New York City. He spent the summer of 1969 working as a bartender at London’s Chelsea Drugstore where he watched the Apollo moon landing alongside cheering patrons. After graduating from NYU Film School, he made independent feature films and music videos and was a screenwriter on the cult classic Cocaine Cowboys starring Andy Warhol and Jack Palance. He then went to law school and became a real estate attorney. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York.

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Posted in 4 paws, Review, suspense, Thriller on October 23, 2022

 

 

Synopsis

 

Secrets, suspense, and a missing sister—who may not want to be found—are at the center of Brianna Cole’s latest enthralling multicultural drama. Will appeal to fans of psychological suspense, gritty drama, and readers of De’Nesha Diamond, Kiki Swinson, Saundra, Wahida Clark, Ashley & JaQuavis, Victoria Christopher Murray, and Shelly Ellis.

“That’s not my sister.” Overwhelmed by shock and relief, those are the only words Deven can muster when she is called to identify the body of a suicide victim. A body she was informed was her sister, Kennedy. But as she stares at the lifeless stranger, she’s filled with questions: Who is this woman? Why was Deven listed as family? And most important, where is Kennedy? Her intuition tells her just one thing: this can’t be a total coincidence.

Desperate to put the pieces together, Deven launches her own investigation. Soon, she finds herself tangled in a web of secrets and lies so twisted that it blurs the lines between fact and fiction. And between the sister she thought she knew and the one who seems to have many hidden, dangerous lives. But only Kennedy would have the answers to increasingly urgent questions. Just one possibility is clear: Kennedy isn’t missing. Maybe she just doesn’t want to be found. And maybe you can never truly know another person. Even your own sister.

 

 

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Review

 

What if everything you thought to be true was turned upside down?

This new thriller from Briana Cole threw several plot twists at me that kept me guessing for most of the book. Every now and then, I did guess a few of the twists, but definitely not the major one at the end.

Devan is the main character and it is primarily her POV that this story is told. There are a few sections that share parts of her sister’s diary entries. The story is primarily in the present, but there are flashbacks to her past with her parents and her sister. We don’t learn the full story of her sister and why they lost touch for so many years until much later as the story is unravelling.

I sympathized with Devan, but at the same time she let herself be taken advantage of by the people in her life. She let her boyfriend take advantage of her, personally, I think he was a narcissist. But not to worry, he gets his later in the book. There are people that care about her, but it takes her a little while to fully trust them and their motives. Actually, there are many characters that are hard to trust and for good reason as you will learn.

While Devan’s world is turned upside down, she also learns more about herself and that she is stronger than she realizes.

There is so much more that could possibly be told in this story, but unless there is a sequel, we will just have to make up our own future for Devan and the rest.

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Briana Cole is an acclaimed author, motivational speaker, sex educator, and actress. Her novels are known for exploring unconventional relationships and making readers question all expectations about love, lust, and monogamy. An Atlanta native, she graduated cum laude from Georgia Southern University and is a proud member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Her motto and ultimate drive toward success is a famous quote from Mae West: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

 

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Posted in Giveaway, Guest Post, Historical, Thriller, Trailer on October 17, 2022

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

It’s 1939. Jane Benjamon’s got five days at sea to solve the murder of a Wimbledon champion’s coach and submit a gossip column that tells the truth. If not the facts.

On the brink of World War II, Jane wants to have it all. By day she hustles as a scruffy, tomboy cub reporter. By night she secretly struggles to raise her toddler sister, Elsie, and protect her from their mother.

But Jane’s got a plan: she’ll become the San Francisco Prospect’s first gossip columnist and make enough money to care for Elsie.

Jane finagles her way to the women’s championship at Wimbledon, starring her hometown’s tennis phenom and cover girl Tommie O’Rourke. Jane plans to write her first column there. But then she witnesses Edith “Coach” Carlson, Tommie’s closest companion, drop dead in the stands of apparent heart attack, and her plan is blown.

​Sailing home on the RMS Queen Mary, Jane veers between competing instincts: Should she write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie’s persona and career? Or should she work to uncover the truth of Coach’s death and its connection to a larger conspiracy involving US participation in the coming war?

Putting away her menswear and donning first-class ballgowns, Jane discovers what upper-class status hides, protects, and destroys. Ultimately—like nations around the globe in 1939—she must choose what she’ll give up in order to do what’s right.

 

 

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Scribd ~ Chirp ~ Amazon (audiobook)

 

 

Guest Post

 

She makes a very good boy and a very difficult girl

 

Recently a reader said in a book club discussion, “Jane Benjamin makes a good sleuth because she has so many male traits.” (Jane is in the habit of wearing men’s-style clothes in the 1940s.)  That got me thinking. What are Jane’s so-called “male traits” and how are they related to her sleuthing?

 

Jane can be:

Ambitious—She so ferociously wants to achieve her goal that she won’t easily let go of the task. This is good for you if her goal is to help you. Not so good if helping you gets in the way of her goal.

Selfish—She doesn’t get easily derailed from her own needs by the things other people want or need her to do. Sometimes a victim will especially benefit when the victim’s needs align with Jane’s, or when Jane’s experience leads her to feel empathy for a victim with whom she has something in common.

Impetuous—She doesn’t lallygag around, worrying about the ramifications of her actions. If she thinks she’d better jump a gorge, then she jumps, and saves worrying what might have happened for later. This can be helpful in an emergency. But also mighty dangerous.

Mendacious—She is gifted at lying. This means she can wriggle her way out of a bad spot. It also means, when combined with her selfishness, she can avoid reflecting on her own behavior. (At least until the end of the book.)

Heroic—Jane does not see herself as a bystander. She believes in her own ability to be the one who makes the difference, even when that belief isn’t entirely justified. But on most occasions, she won’t sit by and let something bad happen. She’ll do what others are afraid of doing because she knows it’s right and needs doing.

I like the list this reader provoked. But I doubt one thing. Why are these male traits? I’m thinking plenty of girls and women behave this way. Yet we’re surprised and a little judgmental when they do.

That’s why I’m glad Jane is a tomboy, a little freer to be herself.

 

 

Trailer

 


 

About the Author

 

Shelley grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She recently retired from teaching writing at Sacramento State University and still consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children, as well as on the board of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Copy Boy is her first Jane Benjamin Novel. Tomboy is her second. The third, Working Girl, will come out in November 2023. Her writing has been a finalist in the Sarton Book Awards, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, the American Fiction Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. She and her husband live in Sacramento with many photos of their out-of-town sons and their wonderful partners.

 

Website  ~  Twitter ~  Facebook ~ InstagramBookBub ~ Goodreads

 

 

 

Meet the Narrator

 

April Doty is a classically trained actress with a BFA from Syracuse University. She is a voice actor and the narrator of 26 books. Born in Virginia, educated in New York, seasoned in London and settled in Spain, April Doty brings the sound of a rich and varied life experience to her narration. The character of Jane came to life in her home studio on the Costa del Sol.

 

WebsiteTwitterLinkedIn ~ SoundCloud

 

 

 

Giveaway

 

Win signed copies of COPY BOY and TOMBOY, audible download codes for each, a $20 Starbucks card, a woman’s fedora, moleskin notebook, and Sarasa pen. (one winner)

USA only

ends Oct 28

 

TOM BOY (a Jane Benjamin novel) Book Tour Giveaway


Posted in excerpt, suspense, Thriller on September 29, 2022

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

How do you track down a killer when he has no face?

The corpse of a millionaire antique collector is found in New York on the eve of a major auction. The last thing he saw in the darkness, seconds before his grisly demise, was something that terrified him beyond imagination and was enough to end his life. But was it a man or was it a ghost?

Now detective Kevin Kris must draw on all of his considerable skills in what amounts to the most challenging case of his career, as he sets out to track a murderer who is known as The Man With No Face.

Capable of causing paralyzing fear and death just by his appearance, is the Man With No Face really the embodiment of an ancient Greek monster? And what is the connection between an ancient medallion and a secret project codenamed Chimera 68?

The fate of millions of people rely on just one man to solve an unfathomable riddle.

This cozy, fast-paced, who dunnit mystery is packed full of unexpected twists and turns that will leave you as breathless as Kris, as he tries to keep pace with a foe who is every bit his equal.

 

 

Purchase the book

 

 

Excerpt

 

“The inspector told me that my father went out at 11.30 p.m. and caught a cab to an unknown destination,” Edmund replied.

“Did the police tell you anything else?” asked Kris.

“Only that they found a single clue at the scene of the crime, and I don’t have any idea how it could have got there,” said Edmund, slowly. “There was a book on his chest.”

“What book?”

“Mythical Creatures of Ancient Greece. It was published in New York this year and was opened at the page on Chimera.”

“A monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a serpent for a tail. The offspring of Typhon and Echidna that was slain by Bellerophon, at the command of King Iobates.” Kris nodded. “Was your father interested in Ancient Greek legends?”

“He didn’t know anything about them.” Edmund shook his head. “On the page it was open at, someone had made a simple, pencil sketch of a king on his throne, and some woman…”

 

 

About the Authors

 

Jake is digital marketer and fan of healthy, active lifestyle. He is keen on sport, cinema, books and self-development. Jake belives in power of positive thinking and phisical jerks.

Kate is a teacher. She loves cooking, growing plants, spending time with her family and her lovely pets.

Jake & Kate are creative duo. Besides writing fiction books they developed other creative projects like boardgame and journal for cinema lovers.

 

Website

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Comments Off on Excerpt – Codename Chimera 68 by Jake & Kate Persey #mystery #suspense #thriller #action
Posted in 5 paws, fiction, Futuristic, Review, Supernatural, Thriller, Time Travel on September 23, 2022

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

“It is a dreadful thing to be possessed, to be invaded by a spirit woman who commands your body and soul and looks out at the world through your eyes. It happened to me in 1778. Pray it will never happen to you.”

Adele’s diary tells the story of her domination by an incubus Lynne, a serving girl in a London ale house who died a violent death and commandeered Adele’s body for eight years. Can Adele be held responsible for Lynne’s crimes? Will the evil spirit return and renew her tyranny over Adele’s mind?

Lynne has moved on into the 21st century, but the transmigration has left her emotions flat. Lynne is eager to go back to her first life and experience once more the passion she felt for her lover, Jack. To do so, she needs a channel to the past: the manuscript of Adele’s diary, if only she can find it.

A time-slip novel set in contemporary Los Angeles and 18th century London, The Loneliness of the Time Traveller is a story of love, crime, and adventure combined with fantasy, a little bit of Jane Austen-style irony, and a healthy serving of social criticism.

 

 

Amazon * Indiebound * Bookshop.org * Inanna Publications & Education

 

 

 

Praise

 

“This is a fast-paced page turner. A suspenseful, thrilling roller coaster ride with lots of twisty, loopy sections. Head Games is an apt title for this enthralling read. “- Joy Renee, Joy Story

“Identity’s a big theme in this work, so if you’ve ever felt you were someone other than yourself, if you thought you might like to try living in someone else’s skin, if you’ve wondered whether your friends and loved ones were not exactly who they claimed to be, then this psychological labyrinth might just be your winding road to a good read”.- Carole Giangrande, Words to Go

“This was a book that grabbed me from the start. It’s a period in history that offered much to the world but also had some of man’s darkest moments. Due to that it does provide rich material for a novelist and Ms. Rummel does an excellent job of taking her reader on a dangerous journey through the twists and turns of what many faced during the time. The characters are well developed and defined. The scenes are well described and I found myself feeling like I was actually walking the streets with the characters of the book.”-Patty, Books Cooks Looks

“To live during such tumultuous times would be horrible. You would have to be careful of every word that came out of your mouth. That might be easy when you are alert, but what about when you are so tired that you can’t even think? This book made me thankful that I was born in America in the 20th century. Any fan of riveting historical fiction will get lost in this book from page one.”-Lisa, Lisa’s Writopia

 

 

Excerpt

 

NOSTALGIA.  It started a week ago in New York, at a farewell party the Shearers gave me.  Maybe I should call it a good-riddance party because I wasn’t popular at Argus Investments. My success left a bitter taste in the mouths of my colleagues. Bitch! they said behind my back, but I caught them in the act. Bitch was hovering in the air.

Stockbrokers are realists. They believe in statistics, in calculable risks, in tangible facts. They don’t believe in telepathy and the ability to read a person’s mind. But that’s my forte. Thoughts are visible to me, whether they come out as words or remain tucked away in people’s minds. I see them swirling around their heads, little puffs of vapour merging with other people’s thoughts, turning into clusters, becoming trends.  I know what people think, about me, about currencies, about real estate, tar sands, copper mines, steel production, oil platforms. That’s how I made my money on the stock market, predicting the next big thing, spying on the thoughts of traders and investors, watching the aura of greed tremble in the air and build toward a boom, or the fears gather and burst the bubble. That’s how I knew it was the right time to leave Argus Investments and cash out. The market was at its peak. The downward slide started two days after I sold my holdings. The rancour among my former partners was palpable. They resented my perfect timing. I could see the question in their eyes, casting an opaque shadow: How the fuck did she know? It couldn’t have been pure luck.  She must have a hook-up. — I do. Reading people’s minds is my hook-up.

So the Shearers put themselves out and gave me a party. They thought it was a good investment.  I might be useful to them in future.  I could see the idea sticking up from Dan’s head like the crest of a Mohawk: Let’s keep on friendly terms with Lynne. She’s got connections. Smiles were painted on every face around the table and reflected in the gleaming silverware. Thoughts coiled around every head, wound tightly to prevent them from unravelling and turning into slippery words. It was a perfectly staged party. There were enough flowers for a wedding or a funeral. The caterers had planned the dinner to the last delicious detail, although gourmet food and vintage wines are wasted on this crowd. They are hungry only for stock market news.

“So what’s up next, Lynne?” Dan Shearer asked me.

The conversation around us stopped as people leaned in to hear my answer.

“Just moving on,” I said.

They thought it was a metaphor, as in: moving on to a new company, to new investments. No, I meant it literally, as in: transmigration. I suppose Dan Shearer would call that a hook-up, too.  If he believed in paranormal phenomena such as time travel and switching bodies.

When I reach the point of ennui, when success no longer keeps away boredom, I make my move. It’s a natural cycle. The current begins to flow in the right direction, the winds pick up, impatience runs in my veins like sap. It’s the season to slough off my old body and slip into a new skin, to enter new territory. I know the danger, but I can’t resist the call. Reading people’s minds and migrating into their bodies are, shall we say, related activities. One is only a brief incursion — a hit-and-run operation to prey on their thoughts. The other involves all-out war, a battle for total control, the permanent occupation of a foreign body. You become them. They become you. Timing is crucial in transmigration. The battle begins when the body’s owner has reached a low point and is ready to cede control to Death. That’s when I make my move and contest his take-over bid. It’s an operation that requires a high level of competence. I’ve honed my transmigration skills over more than two centuries and still can’t say that I’ve perfected the method. It’s always risky. You have to take into account a large number of variables when you challenge Death for control over a body. You have to time your entry exactly and strike with military precision. One mistake, and you are in a disaster zone. Death wins, you die. But there is glory in fighting Death, a poetic beauty in the glint of danger, the rush of blood, the terror of an uncertain fate, and in the end, the exhilaration of victory.  I’ve never lost a battle yet. I am a survivor.

“Not giving anything away?” Dan said and smiled a knowing smile.

I smiled back at him.

“Sorry, Dan, but that’s confidential for the time being.”

I don’t remember the rest of the conversation because my attention was arrested by a painting on the opposite wall. When Dan leaned forward to talk to me, it came into full view and hit me between the eyes – that’s what it felt like, a violent knock, someone demanding to get into my head. What I saw was a large white canvas. In the upper left corner was a tangle of green letters like graffiti marking gang territory. In the centre of the painting, a gash spurted tiny blood-red letters that said LA to NY, NY to LA. It looked like an itinerary, and I recognized the thing that had punched me in the head: nostalgia. I’d moved to New York from Los Angeles twelve years ago. Was I nostalgic for L.A., for a time when my interests were more genteel, when I studied history at UCLA and worked as an intern at the Clarkson Rare Book Library? Yes, those memories played into my nostalgia, but for some reason the painting on the wall had triggered a longing for something further back.  It was nostalgia for my first life, in London, two centuries ago. I wanted to go home. I wanted to see Jack again. For some inexplicable reason, when I looked at that painting, Jack’s name flared up in my brain, a lick of fire. I ran hot and cold. I could feel his mouth on mine, making me shiver with pleasure.  I could hear his voice in my ear, an urgent whisper making my heart beat faster: Come back, Lynne!

Perhaps the cliché is true, and you can’t go home again. In my travels I’ve always moved on.  I don’t know how to reverse the flow of time, or let’s say, I tried it once, in Los Angeles twelve years ago, and it didn’t work, but when I looked at that painting in Dan Shearer’s apartment, I made a decision: I’ll give it another try.  I’ll find a way to go back home to London, to my first life.

 

 

Guest Review by Nora

 

19th century London. A world that is easy enough for some, but heinously difficult for others. This is the story of two young woman from different worlds that come together in a very unexpected way.

Lynne is a serving girl from the seedy side of the city. In love with a criminal, she is suddenly murdered one day by an enemy of her lover, Jack. Somehow, though, her spirit survives beyond death. You see, Lynne is what is called a ‘transmigrant.’ A spirit that is able to migrate between bodies to keep themselves alive.

Lynne is only able to enter bodies that are dying, and, as such, she finds a girl named Adele who is suffering from a life-threatening fever. Making herself right at home in Adele’s body, Lynne spends the next eight years slowing gaining control over the poor girl and ruining her life.

After Lynne leaves Adele to move onto someone else, the latter woman writes a memoir about her experiences with the body-snatching evil spirit. And, after centuries of spanning the globe, taking others lives and eventually moving on when she gets bored or the body loses it’s luster, Lynne finds herself desperate to return to Adele’s life—and she decides to use Adele’s original manuscript to do it.

Lynne believes that touching the words that Adele wrote will allow her to time travel back to the 19th century, and she is willing to do whatever it takes to obtain the manuscript and test her theory.

Having read one of Erika Rummel’s books before, I’ve come to know her as a very talented author especially in respect to her ability to write historical scenes. The scenes that looked back at Adele’s life were some of my favorites in this book, and so well written that they momentarily made me forget I wasn’t reading a novel from that era.

This is Rummel’s first foray into science fiction and she hit a home run! I want to give this more stars, but I will have to settle for five, since that is the standard. Do not miss out on this captivating novel!

 

 

About the Author

 

Award winning author, Erika Rummel has taught history at the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo.

She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in villages in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria.

She has published eight novels and more than a dozen books on social history of the Renaissance. A recipient of international fellowships and literary awards, she was honored in 2018 with a lifetime achievement award by the Renaissance Society of America.

 

Website * Blog * Twitter

 

 

Giveaway

This giveaway is for 2 print copies and is open to Canada and the U.S. only.

This giveaway ends on October 8, 2022 midnight, pacific time.

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