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Today Kathleen Fine, CamCat Books, and Rockstar Book Tours are
revealing the cover for GIRL ON TRIAL, his new Urban Fantasy which releases October
24, 2023! Check out the awesome cover and enter the giveaway!
On to the reveal!
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GIRL ON TRIAL
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by Kathleen Fine
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Pub. Date: October 24, 2023
Publisher: CamCat Books
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Pages: 304
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Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Bookshop, Indigo, BAM
Does doing one bad thing make you a
bad person?
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Sixteen-year-old Emily Keller, known
by the media as Keller the Killer, is accused of causing the deaths of four
family members, including young children. Emily is one of the youngest females
to be accused of a crime so heinous, making this the nation’s biggest trial of
the year. But what really happened that fateful night―and who’s responsible―is
anything but straightforward.
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Living in a trailer park in Baltimore
with her twin brother and alcoholic mother, Emily’s life hasn’t been easy.
She’s had to grow up fast, and like any teen, has made questionable decisions
in a desperate attempt to fit in with her peers. Will her mistakes amount to a
guilty verdict and a life in prison? It’s up to the jury to decide.
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For readers who enjoy Luckiest
Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, 13 Reasons Why by Jay
Asher, and One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus.
Enjoy this peek inside:
1
Trial Day 1: January 7, 2019
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The alarm on Emily’s phone chimed just as Sophie whispered in
her ear, “Wake up, Emawee. Wake up.” She opened her eyes widely, her body
covered in sweat, her sheets soaked yet again. “Time to wake up.” She
heard Sophie’s whisper get farther away, humming distantly from somewhere in
her dreams.
From somewhere in her nightmares.
As she turned off the alarm, she tried to overlook the
numerous text messages that’d surfaced from numbers she didn’t recognize.
“Die, killer”
“You’ll pay in hell for what you did.”
“Murderer”
How can people I don’t even know want me dead?
With shaky hands, she deleted the texts as a CNN report
popped up on her screen, updating her on the “Trial of the Year,” that was
beginning that day:
CNN Breaking News
The Biggest Trial of the Year Begins Today, January 7, 2019.
Emily Keller, also known by the media as Keller the Killer, is accused of
causing the deaths of four family members, two of them small children. Only 16
years old, Emily is one of the youngest females to be accused of a crime so
heinous.
Emily buried her face in her pillow, taking a deep breath.
She tried to hold back the habitual tears that were creeping out from the
corners of her eyes. I have to be strong today; no crying, she told
herself as she rubbed her temples slowly. I need to put on my protective
armor, or I’ll never make it through today alive. She reached under her
mattress, grabbed her orange pill bottle and gave it a shake, the rattling
sound of the tablets comforting her. She poured two pills onto her clammy palm
and placed them gently on her tongue. Protective armor.
“Emily?” her brother, Nate, quietly inched open the bedroom
door, “You awake? It’s time to start getting ready for court.”
Without looking up at him, she nodded as she rolled out of
bed, trying not to think about how wrong the prosecution had the facts and how
she could be sent to prison because of it. As she attempted to walk toward the
door, her ankle monitor snagged on her lavender bedsheet. She yanked the sheet
off in frustration and dragged her feet to the bathroom to prepare for the
first day of her new life.
Debbie and Nate were already waiting for her in Debbie’s
rumbling Toyota Camry when she stepped out of the trailer.
“It’s your turn for shotgun.” Emily opened the door to the
backseat where Nate was already buckled in.
“You can take it today,” he muttered, avoiding eye contact
with her.
“I don’t need pity shotgun just because I’m on trial for
murder, Nate,” Emily replied curtly as she reluctantly sat down in the front
seat. As she buckled her seat belt, she already regretted scolding Nate for
doing something kind. I’ll apologize to him later, she told herself.
Nate had been up with her until three o’clock that morning, listening to her
cry and consoling her. I don’t deserve him, she thought, squeezing her
eyes shut.
She rolled down her window and took a deep breath of fresh
morning air as her mom lit a Virginia Slim, her hands trembling. “Morning vodka
shot hasn’t kicked in yet?” Emily muttered under her breath as she turned on
the radio. Or maybe one shot doesn’t cut it anymore, Emily thought.
“What hasn’t kicked in?” Debbie asked as she ashed her
cigarette into an empty coke can, oblivious to Emily’s disrespectful comment.
“Coffee hasn’t kicked in yet?” Emily corrected herself as she
investigated her face in the cracked side mirror of the car. The face staring
back at Emily was swollen from weeks of nonstop crying. Although she’d put on
some of her mom’s waterproof mascara, she still looked like someone had run her
over with a truck. You’re so repulsive, she thought as she tried to comb
her drab chestnut hair with her fingers, squinting at her image through the
cracked glass. She wanted to disappear. Sink down into the seat of the car and
disappear forever.
As she pinched her upper cheekbones to give her face some
color, she glanced at Nate through the corner of the broken mirror, hoping he couldn’t
tell she was staring at him through the mosaic lens. Since he had headphones in
his ears, she assumed he was listening to a news podcast about the trial. The
expression on his face looked like it was straining to stay calm, but she could
read his emotions no matter how hard he tried to hide them. When you shared a
womb with someone, you knew everything they were feeling.
There was actually supposed to be three of them. Her dad had
left when he’d found out Debbie was pregnant with triplets. He’d said since he
didn’t want one baby, he definitely didn’t want three. Emily used to sometimes
think about how different her life would’ve been if their other brother hadn’t
died at birth. Maybe he would’ve punched Tom Swanson for dumping her two years
ago since Nate didn’t do a thing about it. Maybe he would’ve taught Emily to
throw a football since Nate was anti-athletics.
Maybe he could’ve stopped Emily before she lost herself.
Maybe he could’ve stopped this whole situation. Maybe no one would have died.
“Valerie told us to meet her around back when I spoke to her
on the phone last night,” Emily directed her mom as they pulled up to the
courthouse. Debbie nodded as she navigated her ancient car around to the back
of the building, avoiding the crowd hovering at the entrance.
“Shit, look at all of the people,” Nate announced as he
stared at the crowd and cameras surrounding the front of the building. No one
seemed to notice their rickety car escape past the swell to the rear parking
lot. Maybe they were expecting some sort of official-looking black SUV like
you see in crime movies and not our pathetic piece of tin, Emily
speculated, thinking about how some seniors at her school owned nicer cars than
her mom’s. She peeked down at her gray dress and nervously picked little lint
balls off it as her mom parked the car.
“You look fine, Em,” Debbie insisted as she opened a mini
bottle of vodka from her purse and took a swig, “That dress looks lovely on
you.” Debbie had spent her tip money to buy Emily “new” thrift store clothes
for the trial. Emily was now pulling at a seam on the edge of the dress, making
it unravel.
As she waited for her mom to finish her shot, she felt around
for the phone in her purse to make sure it was turned off. She’d turn it on
later that night once her mom and Nate were sleeping so she could read through
her texts and the news in privacy. That way, if she cried, no one would see
her. Strong people don’t cry, she told herself.
About Kathleen Fine:
Kathleen
Fine received her Master’s in Reading Education from Towson University and
Bachelor’s in Elementary Education from University of Maryland, College Park.
She is a member of the Maryland Writers Association, International Thriller
Writers, and Author’s Guild. When she’s not writing and selling real estate,
she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling to the Outer Banks, and of
course, reading anything she can get her hands on. She currently lives in
Baltimore, Maryland with her husband, three children, and Sussex Spaniel. Her
debut novel, Girl on Trial, will be released in the Fall of 2023.
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