Archive for September 4, 2018

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Grounds For Remorse
A Tallie Graver Mystery #2
by Misty Simon
Genre: Cozy Mystery 
 
No more cheating . . .
Best friends Tallie Graver and Gina Laudermilch both seem to spend a lot
of time around urns. For Tallie, they’re part and parcel of the
family business, Graver’s Funeral Home. Even though she’s traded
ashes for dusting with her own cleaning business, she still works
part-time for her folks and lives above the funeral parlor. For Gina,
they’re the vessels that con-tain her heavenly brew at her coffee
shop, Bean There, Done That. And both women are learning that owning
a business can make finding time for romance challenging.
But when Gina’s new beau turns out to have a wife, who barges into the
coffee shop to take him home, she can’t contain her bitterness and
loudly threatens to poison his cup or boil him in a vat of coffee. So
when Mr. Wrong turns up dead at the bottom of a staircase inside
Gina’s locked home, she finds herself at the top of the police’s
suspect list. Tallie needs to sweep in to save her friend. But she’ll
need to watch her step, or she may go from being a funeral home
employee to becoming their next client . . .
 
 
Cremains of the Day
A Tallie Graver Mystery #1
 
There’s no reverse on the hearse . . .
For Tallulah Graver, marrying wealthy Waldo Phillips seemed like the best
way out of the family business, the Graver Funeral Home. But when her
marriage falls apart and Tallie is left with next to nothing, she
turns to cleaning houses to make ends meet. As humbling as it is to
tidy the mansions of the snobby socialites she used to call friends,
at least she doesn’t have to be around dead bodies. Until . . .
She discovers one of her employers lying in a closet with a knife
sticking out of her chest. This unpleasant shock seems to be part of
a web of weird experiences: Tallie’s friend Gina’s shop is broken
into, her ex is stun-gunned where it hurts the most, and now she’s
receiving flowers from the dead woman. Granted the deliveryman is
handsome, but seriously, that’s enough to cast a pall over anyone’s
day. Now Tallie needs to dig deep to clean up this mess—before she
finds herself in a grave situation.
You’ll be cheering as the clues pileup in this creative cozy mystery.”
New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon
 
 
Misty Simon is the author of Cremains of the Day and Grounds
for Remorse in the Tallie Graver Mystery series. She loves a
good story and decided one day that she would try her hand at it.
Eventually she got it right. There’s nothing better in the world
than making someone laugh, and she hopes everyone at least snickers
in the right places when reading her books. She lives with her
husband, daughter and three insane dogs in Central Pennsylvania where
she is hard at work on her next novel or three. 
 
 
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Wild Spirits of the Hollow
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by Lea Ryan
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Wild Spirits of the Hollow by [Ryan, Lea]
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Genre: Contemporary fantasy/Supernatural fiction

Publisher: NightLark Publishing

Date of Publication: 08/28/2018

ISBN: 1721041397 / ASIN: B07DN3CH9H

Number of pages: 163 / Word Count: 43000

Cover Artist: RL Bender

An ancient evil is murdering residents in the isolated village of Mistwalk. Can Shannon survive long enough to save them all?

Synopsis

Shannon lies to almost everyone she meets. When she gets lost and winds up trapped in an Appalachian valley village, her lies don’t get her far.

Mistwalk Vale may look like a fairy tale, but nightmares lurk in the shadows.

Villagers are dying grisly deaths, their bodies reduced to bones and left in the streets for their friends and family to find. Worse, some people suspect that Shannon is involved. They accuse her of coming from the tribe of vicious earth witches down in the hollow.

A man named Owen believes Shannon is innocent. He tries to protect her as best he can, but there’s only so much he can do. She feels herself falling for him, despite her plan to leave as soon as she gets an opportunity.

Caught between angry mobs and an ancient darkness, she will be forced to fight for her survival. Can she save herself and the village before evil consumes them all?

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Excerpt from Chapter 1
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I stood at the edge of the trees, staring at the light deep within the forest. Between it and
me, a sea of shadow concealed the underbrush and all that lurked there. This
forest, like many other forests, would have its insects, snakes, tangles of
who-knew-what, maybe wildcats or some other thing ready to pounce on and maim
me.
After hours of walking along a secluded, mountain highway, my brain was thoroughly scrambled.
I knew enough to know that, and I knew enough to not fully trust what I was
seeing.
It might be a lie, the light, a mirage conjured by some desperate part of my mind. I’d told
enough lies to others, why not myself?
A fantasy of stumbling upon a cabin with friendly occupants swam through my mind. They’d
have food left over from dinner, a plate they’d be happy to hand over to
someone who really needed it, and I did really need it. Lunch was a distant
memory, as well as the Skittles from my backpack, my bottle of water. If I made
it anywhere alive, I would really have to reevaluate my packing priorities.
I sighed. Unless I wanted to sleep next to the highway, that light was my only hope. I adjusted
my backpack straps and stepped into the trees.
I plodded through the darkness in high tops that weren’t made for terrain any more
intense than a mall floor. I also regretted wearing shorts and a t-shirt
because there was no trail, only weeds and trees and rustling sounds made by
small animals nearby.
All the while, the light in the distance remained bright, burning my eyes, but I kept my
sights on it because that was hope, even if it never seemed to get any closer.
I kept my mind off my creepy surroundings by considering who I would be for the people who
awaited me. Had someone picked me up as I attempted to hitchhike, that lucky
individual would’ve had the opportunity to hang out with a model, who was on
her way to Miami.
Everybody likes to hang out with famous people and people who are about to be famous. I’ve
noticed this before. When I tell them whatever version of the story I’d
concocted for the evening, their eyes would light up as if I had offered to
take them along to fame and fortune.
The model story was my go-to. I was lanky and odd looking in a way that some people found
attractive or interesting, at the very least, plausible model material. This
was not the person I would be in the cabin. I didn’t have the energy to keep up
the behaviors that went along with that lie.
Models didn’t eat substantial food. Models ate iceberg lettuce and drank lemon, cucumber
water. My model did, anyway.
There in the woods with possible food ahead of me, there was no way I could keep that up. I
didn’t care what food someone shoved under my nose. The idea of grilled opossum
made my mouth water. Boiled weeds? Fine. I’d eat anything.

 

I tried to come up with another story, but the most compelling at that moment was my own.
Broken car. Girl wandering the woods in hope of finding food and shelter. I was
filthy and growing filthier by the minute. If I had scissors in my backpack, I
would’ve chopped off at least half of my long, brown hair just to get rid of
the tangles. That evening, I wouldn’t have to fake a look of utter desperation.
So I let the story be what it was.
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About the Author:
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Lea Ryan is the author of several books and stories. She writes about the strange and the dark, as well as the light and love and strives to immerse readers in vivid fictional worlds. She currently lives in Indiana with assorted family members and various pets. Her website and blog can be found at www.LeaRyan.com.
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