Welcome to My 31 Days Of Thrills And Chills 2019! I did this the last couple of years and so excited to do it again. I’ll be sharing reviews and lots of extra spooky stuff every day leading up to Halloween. I hope you’ll join me!
I’m sharing all kinds of books, movies, and other spooky stuff for every day in October. Gots to get those scares on for the 31st!
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Fossil River
by Jock Miller
Genre: Horror / Thriller
My Review
The United States is on the brink of disaster. They are running out of oil and it’s only a matter of time before the country goes dark. When a huge deposit of oil is discovered in a remote Alaskan National Reserve, the choice is simple. Plunder the park, but try to leave the smallest footprint possible. Only problem is, something has already made a claim on the land. Something ancient and deadly.
I wasn’t going to tell you what the ancient creatures were, but the blurb gives it away. It’s dinosaurs. Smart ones. They can perform coordinated attacks. Are almost impossible to defend against. And they don’t like us in their territory. That’s my kind of story and I ate this up. And how fun that the very thing we get oil from is the very thing that bars our access.
There are plenty of characters. Those that become dinosaur chum. Those that fight for protecting the dinosaurs. And Those that want to go in and bomb them back into extinction. And those caught in the middle. I really became attached to some. And that made for thrilling reading.
Lots of books give you bits and pieces about the creatures they feature. In Fossil River you get lots of up close and personal encounters. There are plenty of tense scenes. Especially when they start to encounter the dinosaurs. A military team goes in and things get nuts. I accepted that some of the characters I liked would meet their end. And so would some of the dinosaurs. It saddened me. But the suspense was greater because of those very things.
I liked this one a lot. Read it twice. And will probably read it again when I’m in the mood for some dinosaur mayhem.
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Synopsis
Fossil fuel has an ageless affinity with dinosaurs. To create oil, dinosaurs died. Now the tables are turning!
The perfect energy storm is sweeping over the United States: Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown has paralyzed nuclear expansion globally, BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill has stalled deep water drilling, Arab oil countries are in turmoil causing doubt about access to future oil, the intensity of hurricanes hitting the Gulf’s oil rigs and refineries has intensified due to global warming, and the nation’s Strategic Oil Supply is riding on empty.
As the energy storm intensifies, the nation’s access to Arab oil, once supplying over sixty percent of our fossil fuel, is being threatened causing people to panic for lack of gas at the pumps, stranding cars across the country and inciting riots.
The U.S. Military is forced to cut back air, land, and sea operations sucking up 58% of every barrel of oil to protect the nation; U.S. commercial airlines are forced to limit flights for lack of jet fuel; and businesses are challenged to power up their factories, and offices as the U.S. Department of Energy desperately tries to provide a balance of electric power from the network of aged power plants and transmission lines that power up the nation.
The United States must find new sources of domestic fossil fuel urgently or face an energy crisis that will plunge the nation into a deep depression worse than 1929.
The energy storm is very real and happening this very moment. But, at the last moment of desperation, the United States discovers the world’s largest fossil fuel deposit found in a remote inaccessible mountain range within Alaska’s Noatak National Preserve surrounding six and a half million acres.
Preventing access to the oil is a colony of living fossil dinosaurs that will protect its territory to the death.
Nobody gets out alive; nobody can identify the predator–until Dr. Kimberly Fulton, Curator of Paleontology at New York’s Museum of Natural History, is flown into the inaccessible area by Scott Chandler, the Marine veteran helicopter pilot who’s the Park’s Manager of Wildlife. All hell breaks loose when Fulton’s teenage son and his girlfriend vanish into the Park.
Will the nation’s military be paralyzed for lack of mobility fuel, and will people across America run out of gas and be stranded, or will the U.S. Military succeed in penetrating this remote mountain range in northwestern Alaska to restore fossil fuel supplies in time to save the nation from the worst energy driven catastrophe in recorded history?
Title: THE NINTH SESSION: A PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE NOVEL Author: Deborah Serani Publisher: TouchPoint Press Pages: 190 Genre: Psychological Suspense/Thriller
My Review
First off, I have to mention the cover. How perfect for this suspenseful story. And a psychological thriller it is. From the opening scene where Dr. Alicia Reese finds her new patient having a full blown panic attack, I could tell the author was writing from personal knowledge about dealing with situations like this.
Hopefully, not quite like this. The patient is seriously disturbed and the more sessions they have, the more dark it becomes. Soon Alicia is put in an ethical position that could cost her her life.
I was caught up from the opening pages and raced to the finish. The more I read, the more I needed to read. The suspense built. Had to know what Lucas would reveal next. What was he planning in that disturbed mind of his? How would Alicia handle him and the professional situation she was put in?
Each step closer to answers kept me on edge. A fast, furious psychological thriller indeed and I’ll be watching for more from this author.
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BOOK BLURB
Dr. Alicia Reese, a recent widow and a CODA – a child of Deaf Adults, takes on a new patient. Lucas Ferro reveals the reason for his consultation is that he wasn’t really open with his previous therapist. After gaining Reese’s trust, he shares aspects of his life that are clearly disturbing – experiences that create anxiety and panic, but also reveal horrifying psychopathology. Instead of referring Ferro elsewhere, Reese chooses to continue working with him, feeling reinvigorated by the challenge of his case.
As sessions progress, and Ferro’s disclosures become more menacing, Reese finds herself wedged between the cold hard frame of professional ethics and the integrity of personal truth – and learns just how far she’s willing to go, willing to risk and willing to lose to do the right thing.
Deborah Serani is an award-winning author and psychologist who has been in practice for thirty years. She is also a professor at Adelphi University and is a go-to media expert for psychological issues. Her interviews can be found in Newsday, Psychology Today, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and affiliate radio programs at CBS and NPR, among others. Dr. Serani has also been a technical advisor for the NBC television show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The recurring character, Judge D. Serani, was named after her.
Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for Homo Roboticus organized by Goddess Fish Promotions.
Check out the synopsis and enjoy the peek inside.
Mayet Ligad Yuhico will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Don’t forget to enter!
And be sure to click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Homo Roboticus
by Mayet Ligad Yuhico
Synopsis
US Colony Agent Brice O’ Rourke is traumatised as a child when half the world disappears as waters rose because of climate change and when North Korea unleashed sentient human like droid soldiers to conquer lands for their hungry people.
When the US Congress passed laws allowing the Homo Roboticus Sollus and Aequilavum programs, Brice gains Ira, a sister, and meets a fellow droid agent Lee Jae Sung who saves her life during a mission.
As a new President wins on an anti-robotist, authoritarian stance vowing a pre-machine existence, will Brice defy her own government and risk her life to save loved ones from extinction?
“Homo Roboticus is a richly-imagined cautionary tale of a future earth in which long-feared climate disaster has actually happened, the world’s population is permanently at war, and robots have become almost more human than their creators.” –Susan Krawitz, author of Viva, Rose!, a Sydney Taylor Honor winner, National Jewish Book Award debut fiction finalist, and Spur Award finalist
Enjoy this peek inside:
Brice entered the glass portal. Whoosh! She closed her eyes as a machine sucked her thin suit and headgear from her body. And then the safety lights flashed, and she entered the safe house.
Its coolness was a welcome respite from the heat outside. Naked, she sat on a pod-shaped chair, closed her eyes, and waited for the rest of the ritual. A squadron of tiny cleaning machines whirred around her, thin brushes entering the crevices of her face and body, scrubbing them clean of toxic ash. When they flew away, spray jets descended from the ceiling and water cascaded down, washing away any debris. When the safety lights flashed again, she stood and stepped forward into drying gusts of air. With the flash of a single green light, she was cleared to leave the portal.
Her dark blue suit was hanging inside a cabinet by the door. As she dressed, she tried not to think how much she loathed this stiff, ugly, utilitarian garment. Instead, she turned her focus to the notes she would write about the Agni landscape. “Day 15. Han Machina survivor #2817 interview notes in Annex V. Still no daylight due to smog, pollutants enter the crevices of the body’s orifices, need for a mask 24/7. UNINHABITABLE.”
As always, a thin whirring Bee, her mechanical electronic monitor, had stood by during the cleaning ritual and was now hovering at its usual arm’s-length distance from her head. That soft, buzzing noise was her constant companion. There was nothing she could do that wouldn’t be observed by the Colony. She turned away from the Bee, as if to block out its presence.
About Author Mayet Ligad Yuhico
Mayet Ligad Yuhico is the author of FOURTEEN DAYS, a work of romantic contemporary fiction published in 2011.
Based in Singapore since 2012, Mayet has shifted to the genre of speculative fiction in her new novel, HOMO ROBOTICUS, to ponder on the consequences of global warming and climate change.
Now available: the chilling start to the high-octane, can’t-put-it-down
Leine Basso thriller series.
A deadly assassin. A perpetual target. A double-cross she never saw coming…
They say the truth will set you free, but what if it kills you first?
Leine eliminates terrorists for a living. After a routine assassination
almost gets her killed, she chalks it up to a fluke. Her lover and
fellow assassin, Carlos, has another idea altogether. He thinks their
boss is setting them up for a fall.
When Carlos goes missing and a bombing thwarts another mission, Leine
suspects the stakes are far higher than she could ever imagine, and
wonders if the man in charge might have it in for her after all.
If you like no-nonsense heroines, page-turning plots, and twists you
won’t see coming, then you’ll love D.V. Berkom’s tension-filled
series.
Download A Killing Truth to find out how the story began…
“[Leine Basso] is a sassy, kick-arse, no-nonsense,
I’ll-eat-your-balls-for-breakfast type of woman. She simply rocks.
Berkom’s books are ones when you almost forget to breathe. They’re
fast-paced, taut with tension and sheer joy from start to
finish.” ~Cath’n’Kindle Book Reviews
“[A Killing Truth] introduces one of modern fiction’s deadliest
heroes…”~Reviewer Charles A. Ray
“This is my third Leine Basso, and like the others, the action never lets
up. Leine is the female Jack Reacher only she does it all without
being 6’5″ and weighing 265 pounds, so that makes her more
incredible. If you like page-turners, you’ll love this book.”~
Polly Iyer, bestselling suspense author
“A Killing Truth would make an excellent introduction to D.V. Berkom’s
writing…she’s one of my favorites… love how she just puts you
right in the pages and you just don’t want to end.”~Hornfan2
“The Leine Basso series by DV Berkom is jam-packed with action and
adventure and Leine Basso is one bad*** protagonist…” Fundinmental Book Reviews
“As someone who has read all of the other current Leine Basso books
first, I can say that A Killing Truth had me in suspense the entire
time.” Maranda, Amazon Reviewer
“Non-stop twists and turns. An excellent thriller that pits Leine
against not only international criminals but her own boss.” ~USMC-Mike
“What the world needs now is more female characters like bad ass Leine
Basso. Bought the trio of books that follow this one because of how
much I enjoyed the plot and twists along the way.” ~shzann
A former assassin is drawn into the twisted game of a serial killer who
may be a grisly remnant from her past.
What happens when a reality show turns deadly?
Determined to leave her old life behind, retired assassin Leine Basso accepts
a job working security at one of television’s most popular reality
shows, Serial Date. When a contestant is found dead in the prop
closet, it appears the killer is one of the ‘bachelors’ on the show-
an ex-con billed as a serial killer- but the detective in charge of
the case isn’t so sure.
When Leine’s estranged daughter is abducted by a man claiming to be the
real killer, she’s forced to rely on old skills to find her. She soon
realizes the murderer may be a grisly remnant from her past and
she’ll need to use all of her cunning to stop him…
…and rescue her daughter.
If you like black humor, no-nonsense heroines, and heart-stopping
action, you’ll love Serial Date. Download it today!
“If you like fast-paced action, great lead characters, and don’t mind a
few F-bombs and the occasional gore, DV Berkom is the author for you.” ~
BloodWrites
“Serial Date has everything a mystery/thriller needs to be successful,
fast-paced and action packed, strong and memorable characters and a
story that will grab you from beginning to end…” ~ Confessions of a Reader
“Why should you read it? In a nutshell it’s a fast-paced, non-linear story
with some creepy elements mashed together with a splash of romance
and dark humour. What’s not to like?” ~Indie eBooks
Dangerous obsessions take center stage when a former assassin and a homicide
detective race against the clock to find a missing girl before she’s
sold to the highest bidder.
Identified as a person of interest in three cold case murders she didn’t commit,
and required to stay in L.A., retired assassin Leine Basso accepts a
temporary position as a security specialist for A-list actor Miles
Fournier. Soon, a woman contacts Miles, claiming to be his long-lost
sister. Her twelve-year-old daughter, Mara, has been abducted and
she’s desperate to get her back.
Leine learns from a contact that Mara escaped, but the traffickers are
determined to track her down and deliver her to their powerful
client. Running out of time, Leine must find Mara before they do, or
she will be lost forever.
“…I was thrilled with this book. I did not want it to end. I was on the
edge of my seat at the end! Seriously a nail-bitter!”
~ April Holgate, Amazon Top 50 Reviewer
“Tight dialogue and nonstop action marks a novel that establishes new
benchmarks for action thrillers. This is a solid five-star novel that
you won’t want to miss.” ~Ray’s Ramblings
“An intelligent thriller worthy of the Big Screen…” ~ BloodWrites
A retired assassin is called in when a celebration south of the border
turns into a nightmare.
Everything’s for sale…
Former assassin Leine Basso is
hired by a wealthy Beverly Hills power couple to find their missing
daughter, Elise, last seen partying with her boyfriend at a club in
Tijuana. At first, police believe the two teenagers are the victims
of a carjacking. But when Leine finds their missing vehicle with a
mutilated body inside, and the local cartel warns her away, she knows
if Elise isn’t already dead, she will be soon, or worse.
In the lethal world of organized crime, there’s always a worse.
As Leine races to uncover the reason behind Elise Bennett’s
disappearance, she must also battle the powerful interests fighting
to keep her from the truth.
Praise for the Leine Basso Thriller series:
“Now this, this is what thrillers are made of: grit, spunk, and
no-nonsense unputdownability…Quite simply: Brilliant ” ~ Cath ‘n Kindle Book Reviews
“…Ms. Berkom gives us a badass heroine that’s fun to root for. Once Leine
discovers what is happening, there is no stopping her…an edge of
your seat thriller that delivers!” ~ Night Owl Reviews
“Without a doubt one of the most engaging, complex and enthralling mysteries
that had me totally in its grip…” ~ Confessions of a Reader
“Taken fans will be overjoyed with this gritty thriller…following Basso as she
works her tradecraft is a pleasure…” ~ BestThrillers.com
“A really exciting heroine for action thriller fans everywhere, but a
long overdue tough and plausible literary role-model for women.”~ Ajoobacats Book Reviews
An adventurous young backpacker, captured and sold. A black market
merchant who will stop at nothing to amass the power he craves. The
one woman who can stop him before he destroys everything…
Haunted by memories of an op gone bad, former assassin Leine Basso
travels to Bangkok in search of a missing backpacker. With help from an old
contact, she discovers the man responsible for the girl’s
disappearance is connected to a violent Hong Kong triad and is the
linchpin of an extensive trafficking network—both animal and human.
Making enemies isn’t new for Leine, but making one in the triad is—she
soon finds herself a prisoner on board a cargo ship headed for sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure her survival and to continue her hunt for the missing girl,
she must join forces with Derek, an ivory poacher who promises to
help her.
Ready to stay up all night? Everybody’s favorite assassin is back with a
vengeance in this high-octane, can’t-put-it-down espionage thriller.
Espionage.
Deception. A nation on the brink of war…
Just when former assassin Leine Basso thinks she’s free from the
business of death, a desperate call from a friend drags her back into
the dark world of espionage and arms dealers.
“Sucks you in on page one and doesn’t set you free until the end. Another
sure-fire winner in a spectacular series.”
~Tim Tigner, International Bestselling Author of the Kyle Achilles series
“D.V. Berkom has created one kick-ass heroine in Leine Basso–a woman who
can do it all in the dog-kill-dog world of international espionage.” ~ J. Carson Black, New York Times Bestselling Author
“Warning:
once started, The Last Deception is difficult to put down…[T]he
globe-trotting Leine uncovers acts of international espionage that
lead her on a desperate hunt for an elusive spy that could bring down
the world.” Midwest Book Review
A former assassin, battling her demons. A sinister enemy, determined to
destroy her. A wily street kid caught in the middle.
Former assassin Leine Basso is fresh off an assignment rescuing an American
teenager from a terrorist group in Libya when she thwarts the murder
of a street kid in Tripoli. Leine agrees to help the girl, but must
first visit a refugee camp to uncover the reason behind a rash of
mysterious abductions.
Leaving the camp, Leine comes under a surprise attack–but only a handful of
people knew her true mission. The more she discovers about the
abductions, the more of a target she becomes, forcing her to revisit
a dark and violent past she thought she’d left behind. But it’s
easy–too easy to fall back into her old ways.
And that could get her killed.
Will Leine be able to survive a dark return?
If you like gritty, fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down thrillers with an
action-packed story ripped from the headlines, then you’ll love Dark
Return. Download your copy today!
Praise for Dark Return:
“I couldn’t put it down. My entire Saturday has been spent reading
Dark Return.” ~Sharon Simms
“One of the best reads to come out in this genre in quite awhile. You
won’t want to put this book down.” ~Yvonne Reddy
“Excellent.
There is no other way to describe it. I read it in one go it was that
good. Leine is one hell of a badass.” ~Silver Surfer
“Dark Return was a thrill-a-minute, page-turning suspense that never lets
up with action and intrigue. The author, DV Berkom, is a master when
it comes to character development and the story line.” ~ Paula Lopez
“DV Berkom has honed her skills as writer to such a fine art that it is
indeed very difficult to tear yourself away from any of her books.”
~Manie Killian
“Fast paced and full of action, this book will keep you both entertained
and intrigued from start to finish. Highly recommended!!” ~Derek Williams
“This book will captivate you from the first paragraph to the last. It is
full of action and non-stop adventure…” ~txdoc
“Best book in the series, they just keep getting better and better!! Read
them from the first in the series or just jump in here. Brilliant
read.” ~ Sally Sanders
“Berkom has matured as a solid writer with similarities to Mark Greaney, Mark
Dawson (John Milton series), and a whisper of Barry Eisler.”
~Library Champion
Former assassin Leine Basso has severed ties with everyone she loves to keep
them safe while she hunts for the ruthless terrorist, Salome. There
are rumblings that the French-born assassin is planning another
attack and Leine’s determined to stop her before it’s too late.
Can Leine thwart her plans, or will Salome’s own twisted vengeance mean
the end for Leine and everyone she loves?
From London to Edinburgh to the City of Angels, Salome’s making a
comeback—and that comeback includes killing Leine.
A kidnapped girl. A ruthless criminal who preys on the innocent. Two
killers who will stop at nothing to bring him down.
Former assassin Leine Basso was supposed to be in sunny LA, watching the
first class of operatives graduate from the new anti-trafficking
academy. Instead, she’s in North Dakota in the middle of a brutal
winter, helping old friend Derek van der Haar track down and
eliminate a deadly group of criminals hell-bent on providing young
girls to the highest bidder.
The closer Leine and Derek get to the organization, the more dangerous
the mission becomes. Soon, it’s evident that the traffickers are
playing for keeps—and don’t care who they kill.
In a story ripped from the headlines, Dakota Burn reveals the dark
underbelly of the Bakken oil fields, where human life is a commodity
and outlaws still rule.
If you enjoy books by Mark Dawson, Barry Eisler, and Mark Greaney,
you’ll love D.V. Berkom. Download this gritty, action-packed
thriller today!
DV Berkom is the USA Today bestselling author of two action-packed
thriller series featuring strong female leads (Leine Basso and Kate
Jones). Her love of creating resilient, kick-ass women characters
stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, mysteries, and
thrillers, and longing to find the female equivalent within those pages.
Raised in the Midwest, she earned a BA in political science and promptly
moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Several years and many
adventures later, she wrote her first novel and was hooked. The Kate
Jones adventure thriller, Bad Spirits, was first published in 2010 as
an online serial, and was immediately popular with Kindle and Nook
fans. Dead of Winter, Death Rites, and Touring for Death soon
followed before she began the far grittier Leine Basso thriller
series in early 2012 with Serial Date.
DV currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Mark, and
several imaginary characters who like to tell her what to do.
Former FBI profiler Eva Rae Thomas returns in Willow Rose’s most
hair-raising thriller yet.
Ex-agent Eva Rae Thomas is on the run. The past month she has done
things she never knew she was capable of while hunting for her
kidnapped daughter.
Eva Rae has risked everything,
-her career,
-her newfound love,
-her freedom.
She’s looking for the man they call the Iron Fist.
The trail has led her to Miami.
Meanwhile, Miami is under attack. Hundreds of passengers in the Metrorail are
exposed to a deathly nerve gas on a peaceful Monday morning. When Eva
Rae Thomas sees her daughter on the surveillance footage from the
attack, she knows it is no coincidence. But by the time she uncovers
the chilling truth of how it is all connected, it might be too late.
NEVER EVER is the third book in the Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Series
and can be read as a standalone.
The Queen of Scream aka Willow Rose is a #1 Amazon Best-selling Author
and an Amazon ALL-star Author of more than 60 novels.
She writes Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Horror,
Supernatural thrillers, and Fantasy.
Willow’s books are fast-paced, nail-biting pageturners with twists you won’t
see coming. Several of her books have reached the Kindle top 10 of
ALL books in the US, UK, and Canada. She has sold more than three
million books.
Willow lives on Florida’s Space Coast with her husband and two daughters.
When she is not writing or reading, you will find her surfing and
watch the dolphins play in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
A GRIPPING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FOR FANS OF KING AND
KOONTZ!
“RIVETING”–Kirkus Reviews
What price would you pay for success?
A lightning bolt out-of the blue, on an otherwise sunny afternoon,
transports author Alexa Wainwright to an alternate universe where the
characters from her novels are given the breadth of life. Having just
made a vow that she would do whatever it took to once again achieve
the international acclaim of her debut novel, Alexa doesn’t realize
how ominously that vow would be tested. In this altered reality,
she’s introduced to media mogul King Blakemore who offers her an
extremely lucrative book contract with guarantees that her work will
become a best-selling blockbuster. Given his appearance, odd
mannerisms, and aura of evil Alexa wonders if King Blakemore might be
the Devil himself.
At first, she shrugs off her doubts
about this peculiar publisher and very lucrative book deal offer
because the temptation of riches and refound fame is too
strong. Suddenly, the contract’s been signed. Now what can she
do? Alexa realizes she’s trapped in an underworld of evil from
which she desperately wants to escape. Her iron-clad book contract
changes its wording whenever she thinks of a loophole and King always
seems one step ahead of her. Desperate to get her life back, she
devises schemes to untether herself from this hellish existence to no
avail. She laments the old adage, Be careful what you wish for.
Buy this book if you’re a reader who loves a page-turning,
heart-stopping, psychological thriller with some magical realism
thrown in.
I get so much satisfaction in the writing process. I take care to
choose just the right word, to make sure each sentence has the right
cadence. I appreciate other writers who respect the craft in this
way, and I hope my readers do so with me. Writing is a need, a desire
for expression, and springs from well within my subconscious mind.
Thoughts rise up, scenes rise up and blend in with the over-arching
story. These thoughts emerge whenever they want to and wherever I am
and probably not when I am at the computer. The computer is for the
craft, the technique. The thoughts come during walks, or while
driving the car, or at the grocery store. I am the willing recipient
of these thoughts and so they seek me out. It’s a mystery this
business and art of writing and it keeps me enthralled.
The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!
My 56 for this week is from:
Marred
Grafton County #1
by Sue Coletta
Genre: Suspense / Thriller
From page 56% in the eBook.
To eliminate forced entry she checked for tool marks on the front and back doors. Then she scrambled upstairs to the master bedroom and searched for anything that resembled blood.
The place was spotless. No sign of assault. Or worse, a murder.
As Frankie rounded the corner, she smelled the bleach.
I just got my hands on the entire series and can’t wait to read them!
~~~~~
Synopsis
When a serial killer breaks into the home of bestselling author, Sage Quintano, she barely escapes with her life. Her husband, Niko, a homicide detective, insists they move to rural New Hampshire, where he accepts a position as Grafton County Sheriff.
Sage buries secrets from that night—secrets she swears to take to her deathbed.
Three years of anguish and painful memories pass, and a grisly murder case lands on Niko’s desk. A strange caller torments Sage—she can’t outrun the past.
When Sage’s twin sister suddenly goes missing, Sage searches Niko’s case files and discovers similarities to the Boston killer. A sadistic psychopath is preying on innocent
women, marring their bodies in unspeakable ways. And now, he has her sister.
Cryptic clues. Hidden messages. Is the killer hinting at his identity? Or is he trying to lure Sage into a deadly trap to end his reign of terror with a matching set of corpses?
***FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING THE MAN FROM TAURED COMES A COMPANION
NOVEL EXPLORING NEW DIMENSIONS OF HORROR***
The tiny town of Knorr, PA, is one of those places where the walls
between this reality and others is very thin. It draws people from
all over the world and sometimes things slip through from our world
into others while sometimes things slip from other worlds into our
own. Nightmare things.
During World War II an experiment was done using a steam engine to see if
entering another dimension could create instant transportation of
goods and men from one place to another. It unlocked a nightmare from
another dimension and only agents from the agency IDEA were able to
stop reality from unraveling. The train, known as The Wraith,
disappeared along with the scientist who built it.
Now, in present day, a young man hears the distant sound of a train
whistle. The rundown train station at the end of the wooded path is
somehow regenerating. Plus, people in and around Knorr are acting a
little stranger than normal.
The Wraith is coming back, but it’s not coming alone.
Bryan W. Alaspa is a Chicago born and bred author of both fiction and
non-fiction works. He has been writing since he sat down at his
mother’s electric typewriter back in the third grade and pounded out
his first three-page short story. He spent time studying journalism
and other forms of writing. He turned to writing as his full-time
career in 2006 when he began writing freelance, online and began
writing novels and books.
He is the author of over 30 books of
both fiction and non-fiction and numerous short stories and
articles.
Mr. Alaspa writes true crime, history, horror,
thrillers, mysteries, detective stories and tales about the
supernatural.
I’ve always been fascinated about Lizzie Borden. People are divided on whether she did the crimes or not. I’m no expert so I cant decide either. It took place so long ago we’ll never know. That’s why I grab books about her whenever I come across them. I immediately snatched this up without even reading the synopsis. If I had, I might have realized this was more of a fictional character study on the Borden family than much to do with the crime itself and the trial.
It got off to a slow start and I pushed on to see where the author was taking the story. What I got was a peek through the keyhole to what the Borden’s family dynamics might have been like. Dark and disturbing indeed.
The story may have been different from what I was expecting, but I did enjoy reading about Lizzie and her family from a different angle.
.
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Did she do it?
A hundred years ago, it was the Trial of the Century. A young woman
stood accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother in a
crime so heinous that it became a benchmark in human tragedy.
A hundred years later, the Lizzie Borden case still resounds in the
imagination. There are those who staunchly defend Lizzie’s
innocence while others vehemently declare that she did it, and that
the murder was justified.
In Elizabeth Engstrom’s brilliant novel, the dark psychology of the
Borden household is laid bare. Lizzie, her sister Emma and their
parents Andrew and Abby Borden, are sharply illuminated—as are the
paranoia and concealed hatred that secretly ruled the family.
Domestic violence and dysfunctional families are not inventions of
modern times.
“Every door in the Borden house is metaphorically locked, and each room holds
the terrible secrets of its occupant…Engstrom skillfully and subtly
builds a psychological plot, moving the reader inexorably toward the
anticipated savage denouement.” —Publishers Weekly
Elizabeth (Liz) Engstrom grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois (a Chicago suburb
where she lived with her father) and Kaysville, Utah (north of Salt
Lake City, where she lived with her mother). After graduating from
high school in Illinois, she ventured west in a serious search for
acceptable weather, eventually settling in Honolulu. She attended
college and worked as an advertising copywriter.
After eight years on Oahu, she moved to Maui, found a business partner and
opened an advertising agency. One husband, two children and five
years later, she sold the agency to her partner and had enough seed
money to try her hand at full time fiction writing, her lifelong
dream. With the help of her mentor, science fiction great Theodore
Sturgeon, When Darkness Loves Us was published.
Engstrom moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1986, where she lives with her husband Al
Cratty, the legendary muskie fisherman, and their Duck Tolling
Retriever, Jook. Liz holds a BA in English Literature and Creative
Writing and a Master of Arts in Applied Theology, both from
Marylhurst University. A recluse at heart, she still emerges into
public occasionally to speak at a writers conference, or to teach a
class on various aspects of writing the novel, essay, article or
short story. An avid knitter and gardener, she is on faculty at the
University of Phoenix and is always working on the next book.
The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!
My 56 for this week is from:
The Invisible Heiress
by Kathleen O’Donnell
Genre: Psychological Thriller
From 56% in the eBook.
“You also lost a child. A son?” Smiley said.
An outside observer might think they were two dads, commiserating. Like a dog that knows an earthquake’s coming I sensed a low volt current moving through the air.
~~~~~
Synopsis
From two-time Book of the Year finalist Kathleen O’Donnell comes a gripping psychological thriller filled with unexpected twists.
A psychiatric patient with a dark secret
Preston Blair, a blogger with a dark sense of humor, is committed to a private psychiatric hospital, accused of a shocking crime. Her father Todd’s influence as a D.A. has kept her from prison, but her sanity remains on a knife-edge.
A therapist with an agenda
Preston’s therapist, Isabel, is too preoccupied working her latest con on a rich, married, sadomasochistic secret lover, to care about Preston’s problems, even when Preston tells her that her socialite mother, Harrison Blair, had committed an unthinkable crime herself years before—one that might help explain Preston’s own misdeeds.
A shocking secret that begs to be told
When Preston’s absent husband, Brendan, suddenly turns up and tries to prove her innocence, tragedy strikes. Preston’s convinced her parents were involved, but it turns out to be much more complicated. As Preston delves deeper into the mystery, her head clears and a devastating event that she had long erased from her muddled mind comes rushing back.
A killer that cannot be stopped
Stumbling onto video evidence, which exposes a killer’s greed and lust for power, Preston finds her own life is in danger from a surprising and once trusted source. She discovers that the truth hurts. It just might be the death of her.
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Jessica Knoll will love Kathleen O’Donnell.
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