Category: Mystery

Feature Post: The Girl in the Moss by Loreth Anne White

   

I am very happy to share this author interview with Loreth Anne White discussing her new book THE GIRL IN THE MOSS and her writing. After the interview, you will find a summary of the story, the author’s biography, links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!

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Loreth Anne White Interview

Congratulations on your new release! Tell us a bit about it.

THE GIRL IN THE MOSS is a cold case mystery/thriller that kicks off when a shallow grave in a mossy forest exposes the bones of a decades-old secret that begins to threaten a small community with lethal consequence. Early reviews have described the story as dark, atmospheric, and twisty with a “shocking conclusion”. While it can be read alone, THE GIRL IN THE MOSS is book 3 in the Angie Pallorino series, and the series has a romantic relationship thread playing out over the arc of the 3 books.

A larger philosophical question around cold case detecting also plays throughout this book. As one Goodreads reviewer wrote: “If history allows those in grief to move forward with their lives, trying to breath new life into a cold case threatens to upend everything for survivors. On the other hand, those who have gotten away with murder are eluding justice. Angie clearly represents Justice in this book, even at times when nearly everyone is against her and when some of the opposition’s arguments makes some sense.”

So yes, Angie is dogged, but hopefully for good reason—she knows how vital it was to her own sense of well-being to get to the bottom of her own cold case. She’d like to help others find similar closure.  And justice is something she can believe in.

You just love to put your heroine in mortal danger! Even on vacation Angie is somehow drawn into a missing persons cold case that has her fighting for her life. What is it about romantic suspense that fuels your creative juices?

I’ve always loved to read suspense with intrepid heroines who risk their lives, or who must face impossible odds to survive. It came naturally to try and write what I like to read.

One of the best things about your novels is the careful attention you give to both your couple and the crime that is being investigated. How do achieve this balance?

Thank you! I try to find a way to make the relationship an integral part of the case and vice versa, so that you can’t really pull one part of the story out without collapsing the whole thing.

 Your writing includes some in depth information about police procedures — in the case of this novel how to secure a crime scene. What type of research have you done in order to realistically write these scenes?

I’ve done many workshops with various branches of law enforcement, plus I do lots of reading of homicide investigation manuals which have been written to teach cops.

Even as an ex-cop, Angie often finds herself in dangerous situations. What draws her to the dark crimes she investigates? Is there anything else she wants to do with her life?

 Angie has a passion particularly for helping young women hurt by heinous crimes. This in part is because of her own past, even if she didn’t really know it at first. She’s dead set on running her own PI agency now, where she can pick her cases and still march to her own drum. And because of her reputation, some of those darker cases are going to pick her.

Maddocks has a fine line he must walk — as a homicide detective he has the duty to his squad, but he also feels a pull to include Angie in his work. How does he reconcile these two competing forces?

At the end of this book, they find a happy medium. Angie will work her own PI cases, many of them cold cases. And while there will be times the lines of her investigations cross with Maddocks’s police work, it will be more collaborative.

What can readers expect next from you?

THE DARK BONES is the working title of my next project. It’s an atmospheric mystery/suspense/romance set in ranching country in the B.C. interior, and while it is a standalone, it links to A DARK LURE, which was an Amazon #1 bestseller. I’ve had many, many readers write to ask for a linked book, and I hope THE DARK BONES hits all those same notes that A DARK LURE did. If all goes to plan—and things do yet all have to slot into place—the book will see the shelves early next summer.

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About the Book

Title: The Girl in the Moss

Author: Loreth Anne White

Release Date: June 12, 2018

Publisher: Montlake Romance

Summary

Disgraced ex-cop Angie Pallorino is determined to make a new start for herself as a private investigator. But first, she and her lover, newly promoted homicide detective James Maddocks, attempt a quiet getaway to rekindle a romance struggling in the shadows of their careers. The peace doesn’t last long when human skeletal remains are found in a nearby mossy grove.

This decades-old mystery is just what Angie needs to establish her new career—even as it thrusts her and Maddocks back into the media spotlight, once again endangering their tenuous relationship.

Then, when Angie’s inquiry into the old crime intersects with a cold case from her own policing past—one that a detective on Maddocks’s new team is working—the investigation takes a startling twist. It puts more than Angie’s last shot at redemption and a future with Maddocks at risk. The mystery of the girl in the moss could kill her.

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Author Biography

Loreth Anne White is an award-winning, bestselling author of romantic suspense, thrillers, and mysteries, including The Drowned Girls and The Lullaby Girl, the first two books in the Angie Pallorino series. Winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mainstream Mystery/Suspense, Loreth is also a three-time RITA finalist, plus a recipient of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Romantic Crown for Best Romantic Suspense and Best Book Overall, and a Booksellers’ Best finalist. A former journalist who has worked in both South Africa and Canada, she now resides in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest with her family. When not writing, she skis, bikes, and hikes the trails with her dog, doing her best to avoid the bears (albeit unsuccessfully). Learn more at www.lorethannewhite.com.

 

Author Social Media Links

Website: http://www.lorethannewhite.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Loreth.Anne.White

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Loreth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/150272.Loreth_Anne_White

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Rafflecopter Giveaway

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Book Review: Dying Truth by Angela Marsons

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

DYING TRUTH (D.I. Kim Stone, #8) by Angela Marsons is a tour de force!

With every book in the Kim Stone series, I have come to love all of the characters more.  I have been intrigued and tricked by the mystery/crime plotlines. In book #8, Ms. Marsons covers the short time period of six days which left me with a severe book hangover and the knowledge that I will remember this Kim Stone book far into the future.

Heathcrest is a prestigious private school for children of the elite in British society. Perfect appearance is everything, but a crime from the past has come back to haunt the children of today. D.I. Kim Stone takes a call of a potential jumper. When she arrives on the scene, the broken body of Sadie Winter is on the ground, but Kim cannot justify what she sees with the testimony of witnesses. Soon after, another child is dead and Kim and her team know they must hurry to find who in Heathcrest is killing the children.

Ms. Marsons covers many emotional hot topic issues in this book. Heathcrest displays the divide between private education for the rich and public education. Scholarship students are accepted, but always know they are different. Peer pressure, bullying and the expectations of parents are laid bare in a forthright manner. The pros and cons of secret societies that last for a lifetime plays a major role in a murder from the past tied to the murders in the present. The topic of “if a child can kill” is also covered candidly.

Beside the riveting and emotional intertwined plots from past and present in this book, I always read this series to catch up on some of my favorite characters. Kim and her team not only have to solve this case, but Kim also has to turn in her personnel evaluations. Kim, Bryant, Kevin and Stacey are each very different and yet when put together make the perfect unit. After eight books, I have watched each character grow and become more vivid, but there is a gut-wrenching shake up at the end of this book. Was it needed? That is for each reader to decide, but in my opinion it was entirely believable when you consider that character’s growth and personality.

I am looking forward to the next book in this series. While I may never get over some of the emotional wreckage from this one, I want more!

Thanks very much to Bookouture and Net Galley for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: No Darker Place by Debra Webb

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

NO DARKER PLACE (Shades of Death #1) by Debra Webb is an intense, psychological thriller with a sadistic serial killer who had me checking my own doors before bed. This is an edge of your seat read. (Please Be Aware: This book does contain graphic violence. I would also suggest that you read the prequel, The Blackest Crimson first.)

Detective Bobbie Gentry has recovered physically and returned to duty after her escape from the notorious serial killer, The Storyteller. Mentally, she has only one goal, find and kill the killer who destroyed her family.

Nick Shade understands Bobbie’s desire for vengeance. He has a secret past of his own. He is on the hunt for The Storyteller and he knows his best chance of catching him is to stay close to Bobbie, the only person to survive The Storyteller. Nick is finding it difficult to stay emotionally uninvolved as Bobbie becomes more and more reckless as people she knows become victims.

Will Nick protect Bobbie from herself even if his target gets away? Bobbie has to decide if she can trust this stranger, who can read her so well. Can both of these broken people come together to stop The Storyteller from finishing Bobbie’s story?

This thriller has so many psychological twists and turns in all of the characters, not just the serial killer. At times it can be almost too intense and yet, I could not put it down. Bobbie’s backstory is heart wrenching. Nick’s backstory is being revealed gradually throughout the book and I was continually surprised. The Storyteller is terrifying.

I am really looking forward to reading more in this series to see how Bobbie and Nick proceed forward with their lives.

Book Review: The Blackest Crimson by Debra Webb

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

WOW!

This prequel is a gut twisting, edge of your seat, unable to put down read to Debra Webb’s new Shades of Death series.

THE BLACKEST CRIMSON (Shades of Death #0.5) introduces us to a demented serial killer known as The Storyteller. Once a year, he takes a victim and tortures her for weeks as he tattoos a story on her back before dumping the body in another state in a public location. He leaves no DNA, no one knows who he is because all of his victims are dead.

Detective Bobbie Gentry was excited to be involved in working The Storyteller case with the FBI. After his latest murder and no new leads, everyone believes he will move on for another year. Bobbie is ready for a break from the intense case. Her husband, and small son are looking to celebrating Christmas with her, but The Storyteller has plans for her, too.

On Christmas Eve, Bobbie has her world destroyed. The Storyteller abducts her after killing her husband. He is obsessed with Bobbie and breaks his pattern to have her. As she is tortured for weeks and becomes resigned to her death, he makes a mistake. Can she escape the fate of all his other victims?

This is a very fast paced and intense read. I was done in one short sitting and could not put it down. The characters are compelling and realistic. I cannot wait to get the first full length book in this series. Bobbie and The Storyteller are not done with each other.

Book Review: Deadly Secrets by Robert Brynzda

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

DEADLY SECRETS (Detective Erika Foster, #6) by Robert Brynzda is another highly addictive addition to the series. I wait anxiously for each of these books to come out so that I can be completely engrossed in a new crime mystery and catch up on all of the characters that I have come to love.

DCI Erika Foster is still recovering from her last case and is finding this Christmas season especially difficult emotionally. Rather than deal with what is sure to be an emotion packed Christmas lunch with the Marsh family, she takes the lead in a horrific murder of a young burlesque dancer. As Erika and her team start to work the case, they find that their murder case may overlap with a separate series of attacks in the same neighborhood. All of the victims have been attacked by a frightening specter in black wearing an old fashioned gas mask.

As the case progresses, Erika receives a call from up north that her father-in-law has had a medical emergency. DI Kate Moss is promoted to handle the case. As the clues come together and the case heats up, Moss finds herself stumbling into a dangerous situation with a soulless madman who will do anything not to be caught.

This book has Erika facing some very difficult personal problems and decisions. Mr. Brynzda humanizes Erika in this story more than in any other. Putting Moss in charge shows her vulnerabilities and strengths in her work and home life. Peterson is back to work and brings a new personal twist to his story. The whole team is facing dynamic personal changes in future storylines.

What appears to be one plot, turns into two diverging plotlines. Each has twists and surprises that had me guessing until the end. It is a fast paced read that kept me turning the pages and hating to set the book down. These books can be read as standalone crime fiction mysteries, but the continued growth and interactions between all of the main characters makes me glad that I read them in order. This is a series that continues to engage, surprise and be on my “Must Read” list!

Thanks very much to Bookouture and Net Galley for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Butterfly Conspiracy by Vivian Conroy

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE BUTTERFLY CONSPIRACY (A Merriweather and Royston Mystery #1) by Vivian Conroy is an entertaining historical cozy mystery that pulled me in from the start. I love mysteries set in Victorian times, with all the new discoveries and inventions and the societal conventions that are still in place, but on the verge of change. This is a great start to a new historical cozy mystery series that is both fast paced and easy to read.

Miss Merula Merriweather would much rather be in her conservatory hatching exotic butterflies and studying all things zoological than worrying about the latest fashions and balls. Left as a toddler to be raised by her mother’s sister and husband, Merula has been encouraged in her interests by her uncle. Because of the times in which they live, her uncle Rupert must take credit for her discoveries and accomplishments.

When she releases her latest hatchling at a meeting of the Zoological Society to prove it is real, it lands on Lady Sophia’s arm and she immediately falls over dead. Uncle Rupert, who everyone believes is the true butterfly expert, is immediately accused of her murder and arrested. Merula believes that her butterfly had nothing to do with Lady Sophia’s death, but how to prove it?

Lord Raven Royston feels responsible for the arrest of Merula’s uncle and believes the authorities will come after her when they find out she is the true butterfly expert. It was because of his belief the butterfly was fake that Merula released it at the meeting. Lord Raven helps Merula to escape the police and they both start to try to piece together the real cause and reason for Lady Sophia’s death.

I love Merula and Raven! The author has brought the main characters to life in description and dialogue. Each has a partial backstory revealed during the book that added depth and I am sure will lead to future adventures. Throughout the book their friendship grows and I hope it will turn into more in future books. The secondary characters of Galileo, Bowsprit and Lamb add to the realism of this time period and its class system. This is a great cast of characters that I am looking forward to following into future mysteries. The plot was full of red herrings and I felt the execution of the murder was ingenious. I cannot wait for the next book in this series!

Thank you so much to Crooked Lane Books and Net Galley for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.