Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Review for BROADCAST BLUES (Clare Carlson Mystery Book #6) by R.G. Belsky on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.
Below you will find a book synopsis, my book review, the author’s bio and social media links, and a Kingsumo giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Synopsis
Wendy Kyle took secrets to her grave—now, Clare Carlson is digging them up
New York City has no shortage of crime, making for a busy schedule for TV newswoman Clare Carlson. But not all crimes are created equal, and when an explosive planted in a car detonates and kills a woman, Clare knows it’ll be a huge story for her.
But it’s not only about the story—Clare also wants justice for the victim, Wendy Kyle. Wendy had sparked controversy as an NYPD officer, ultimately getting kicked off the force after making sexual harassment allegations and getting into a physical altercation with her boss. Then, she started a private investigations business, catering to women who suspected their husbands of cheating. Undoubtedly, Wendy had angered many people with her work, so the list of her suspected murderers is seemingly endless.
Despite the daunting investigation, Clare dives in headfirst. As she digs deeper, she attracts the attention of many rich and powerful people who will stop at nothing to keep her from breaking the truth about the death of Wendy Kyle—and exposing their personal secrets that Wendy took to her grave.
Genre: Mystery Published by: Oceanview Publishing Publication Date: January 2, 2024 Number of Pages: 320 ISBN: 9781608095315 ISBN10: 1608095312) Series: Clare Carlson Mystery Book 6
While all of the novels in the Clare Carlson Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:
Yesterday’s News Below the Fold The Last Scoop Beyond the Headlines It’s News to Me Broadcast Blues
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
BROADCAST BLUES (Clare Carlson Mystery Book #6) by R.G. Belsky is another intriguing and fast paced addition to this mystery/crime thriller series featuring New York journalist turned TV news director, Clare Carlson. While this is the sixth book in the series, each of these stories is easily read as a standalone mystery/thriller.
New York Channel 10 News Director Clare Carlson is waiting for a lead story for her six o’clock news broadcast and once again the news gods deliver. Wendy Kyle is a former NYCP officer turned private eye who is murdered by an explosive device planted on her car door. Clare begins to dig into Wendy’s death and her cases that are specifically geared to help women with cheating high-profile husbands. But Wendy also made many enemies while on at the NYPD before she was kicked off the force.
Clare is once again juggling her news director duties with her journalist inquisitiveness for a big story that she wants to break. With plenty of suspects and leads, Clare might have bitten off more than she can handle this time.
I am always excited to get a new Clare Carlson mystery book. The plot in each always pulls me in with multiple suspects, false leads, and red herrings to the point where I never guess the endings. Clare is such a perfectly flawed realistic character. I love Clare and the different perspective of having the crime being investigated by a journalist, rather than a detective for a change.
I highly recommend this mystery/crime thriller book and every book in this series.
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Author Bio
R.G. Belsky is an award-winning author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. His newest mystery, BROADCAST BLUES, was published on January 2 by Oceanview. It is the sixth in a series featuring Clare Carlson, the news director for a New York City TV station. The first book, Yesterday’s News, was named Best Mystery of 2018 at Deadly Ink. The second, Below the Fold, won the Foreward INDIES award for Best Mystery of 2019. Belsky has published 20 novels—all set in the New York city media world where he has had a long career as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. He also writes thrillers under the name Dana Perry. And he is a contributing writer for The Big Thrill magazine and BookTrib.
Instead of presents this Christmas, a true crime podcaster is opening up a cold case…
Madeline Martin has built a life for herself as the young owner of a thriving business, The Next Chapter Bookshop, despite her tragic childhood and now needing to care for her infirm father. When Harley Granger, a failed novelist turned true crime podcaster, drifts into her shop in the days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up events that Madeline would much rather forget. She’s the only surviving victim of Evan Handy, the man who was convicted of murdering her best friend Steph, and is suspected in the disappearance of two sisters, also good friends of Madeline’s, who have been missing for nearly a decade. It’s an investigation that has obsessed her father Sheriff James Martin right up until his stroke took his faculties.
Harley Granger has a gift for seeing things that others miss. He wasn’t much of a novelist, but his work as a true crime author and podcaster has earned him fame and wealth—and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Still, visiting Little Valley to be closer to his dying father has caused him to look into a case that many people think is closed—and some want reopened. And he has a lot of questions about the night Stephanie Cramer was killed, Ainsley and Sam Wallace disappeared, and Madeline Martin was left for dead, bleeding out on a riverbank.
Since Evan Handy went to jail, three other young women have gone missing, most recently a young college dropout named Lolly. Five young women missing in the same area in a decade. Are they connected? Was Evan Handy innocent after all? Or was there some else there that night? Someone who is still satisfying his dark appetites?
As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline and her childhood friend Badger return to a past they both hoped was dead—to find the missing Lolly and to answer questions that have haunted them both, discovering that the truth is more terrible and much closer to home than they think.
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS by Lisa Unger is a suspenseful thriller set a week before Christmas featuring the survivor of an attack from a sexual predator who killed one friend and is thought to be responsible for the disappearance of two sisters, also her friends, all on the same night. Now ten years later, she is having to relive that time in her life when a famous true-crime author and podcaster comes to town and is investigating the case. This story is a little longer than a normal novella, but shorter than a full-length novel.
This thriller is told by Maddie in the present and is interspersed with chapters that are memories from the past and then there are also chapters told by Harley as he tries to dig up new facts about the old case and the missing girls. There are plenty of plot twists that continually had me changing my mind about guilt and/or innocence of the suspects. Ms. Unger handled Maggie’s trauma and survivor’s guilt even these ten years later with empathy that made it feel believable. Overall, I was satisfied with the conclusion of the missing girls’ case, but unless I missed something somewhere, I do not understand who shot two characters at the end of the story. Other than that, I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller.
This is an engaging and suspenseful Christmas time short thriller.
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About the Author
Lisa Unger is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of twenty novels, including her latest SECLUDED CABIN SLEEPS SIX. With books published in thirty-three languages and millions of copies sold worldwide, she is regarded as a master of suspense.
Unger’s critically acclaimed novels have been featured on “Best Book” lists from the Today Show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly, People, Amazon, Goodreads, L.A. Times, The Boston Globe, Sun Sentinel, Tampa Bay Times and many others. She has been nominated for, or won, numerous awards including the Strand Critics, Audie, Hammett, Macavity, ITW Thriller, and Goodreads Choice. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few authors, including Agatha Christie. Her short fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Mystery and Suspense, and her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Travel+Leisure. Lisa is the current co-President of the International Thriller Writers organization. She lives on the west coast of Florida with her family.
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.
But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.
Complicating their efforts is Purity’s acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information—and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn.
As Jo’s investigation collides with the Martini Club’s maneuvers, Maggie’s hunt for answers will force her to revisit a clandestine career that spanned the globe, from Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned, but with the help of her friends—and the reluctant Jo Thibodeau—Maggie might just be able to save the life she’s built.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen has her venturing out from a traditional mystery to a spy thriller. In this story she expertly mixes spy drama with romance while adding some humor. Not only is this a riveting tale but the main character is very engaging as she tackles the ghosts of her past.
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement. Her final assignment left her very disillusioned. Out of the blue, she finds a young woman calling herself Bianca at her home looking for Diana Ward, another old CIA colleague of Maggie’s. Diana had a talent for making enemies, and Maggie blames her for the debacle in Malta that tore her life apart.
When Bianca’s body is dumped in her driveway and someone takes a few shots at her from across a field, Maggie connects the dots to the tragic case that led her to retire from the CIA. She enlists the help of her baby boomer drinking buddies, four ex-agents with a full assortment of tradecraft skills. The Martini Club, as the retired spies are called, realize that someone is seeking revenge on Maggie. They work together to identify and locate those people and are forced to revisit her role in a mission designed to flush out a Russian informant. It was the mission, Operation Cyrano, that changed Maggie’s life and the last one before she resigned. The story bounces between 18 years ago, 16 years ago, and the present, with locations across the globe.
The Martini Club also must match wits with Purity’s acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau who is investigating the murder and shooting. Jo is puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information and wonders how they seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn. She realizes there is more to this bunch than meets the eye and is frustrated at being outmaneuvered by them at every turn.
Readers will not want to put the book down as they search for answers along with Maggie and her retired CIA buddies. The book is refreshing and an entertaining departure from spy thrillers because the protagonists are senior citizens. The story is amusing, suspenseful, and at times intense.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for The Spy Coast?
Tess Gerritsen: I moved here thirty-three years ago and found out that the town has many retired spies. My husband, who is a medical doctor, had patients who used to work for the government but could not talk about what they did. We found out they were retired CIA including two who lived on my street.
EC: Did you think of the movie “Red?”
TG: I thought a lot of the Helen Mirren character. I did not want to deal with assassinations. What I wanted to write about is the tragedy of the last operation that has haunted the main
character, a spy, Maggie Bird. Maggie is made up. Yet, all the spies in the Martini Club are like those retired spies who live in Maine. They are smart and very educated.
EC: The setting in Maine-why?
TG: It is a beautiful setting. This location has many safe houses. We have an International Conference in this little town of 5,000 people. They bring in every year leaders, politicians, and foreign policy experts from around the world. They come and speak here every winter. The town has residents with a lot of international experience.
EC: How would you describe the two spies, Diana Ward versus Maggie Bird?
TG: Diana is a bit of a sociopath. She does what needs to be done and does not care about the consequences or morality. She is the equivalent of the assassins in so many spy novels. She is very efficient. Diana is not someone who could be trusted, not loyal, and self-centered. Everything is all about her. She might be a good spy but is a bad person. On the other hand, Maggie is a spy with a conscience. She is in it to help her country. She was forced to cross a line she did not want to cross. It moved into her personal life, which had everything fall apart for her. Maggie is loyal, calm, friendly, accomplished with a strong sense of morality.
EC: How would you compare the two teenage girls, Callie versus Bella?
TG: Callie is the ultimate innocent. She is a farm girl who is hungry for a mother. She likes to lean on Maggie. Callie is a very vulnerable character. Bella starts off as a vulnerable character but ends up as a nightmare in training. She is being groomed for a bad role because her father is a powerful Russian oligarch, Phillip Hardwicke. Her father sees her as a tool. Her mother is much more of a traditional mom who cares about her daughter. Yet, her mother is disappointed Bella is not more like her. Bella is disrespected by both parents.
EC: Why make Danny, Maggie’s husband, a doctor?
TG: I started off making him a professional chef. But I needed someone who had close contact with the bad guy. It did not feel right so I made him a doctor who would know Phillip’s most intimate secrets. He traveled with him. I gave Hardwicke a lifelong history of seizures.
EC: How would you describe Hardwicke?
TG: He wants power, money, and prestige. He likes to get his way and does not care who gets hurt. He is a control freak, obsessive, intense, cruel, and very smart.
EC: How would you describe the spies in The Martini Club reacting with the police chief Jo Thibodeau?
TG: They simultaneously are cooperative but also antagonistic. At the beginning Jo does not know who these people are, but later realize they are retired spooks. As time goes on in this book and the next, she realizes they are a big help to her.
EC: Did you get any movie deals?
TG: It has been optioned by Amazon for a television series. This is one of the reasons I went with this publisher. They attached a TV deal. There is already a screenwriter, and they are talking about who will play Maggie Bird.
EC: Next book?
TG: I am working on the sequel now. The second book will take place entirely in the town of Purity Maine. It will be titled The Summer Guests and is scheduled for the spring of 2025. It will still have the five retirees and the police chief. The plot has a family visiting in the summer whose teenage girl disappears, plus there is a cold case mystery. The sequel will be more of a classic mystery. If I do a third book that is when I will probably go back to the international setting again.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for RED LINE by Blake Rudman on this Black Tide Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Baltimore Police Detective Mitch Wilson wants a nice day out with his wife and son. Instead, they are all caught up in a catastrophic terrorist attack that has repercussions across the USA and triggers events that could alter the course of civilization.
Having lost everything, Mitch sets out to seek justice – and revenge and stumbles upon a global conspiracy.
On the other side of the world, renowned linguistic professor, Yasaman Karami, flees her native Iran for the freedom of the west; she holds one of the keys to defeating the terrorist organization.
Yasaman and Mitch’s worlds collide as, alongside federal agents and allies, they race against the clock to hunt down the terrorist masterminds and prevent worldwide catastrophe.
RED LINE by Blake Rudman is a chilling noir crime thriller based on a twisted and yet believable scheme that could change the governments and economics of the world as we know it. This thriller starts with the two disparate main characters, one in Baltimore and one in Tehran who come together to stop a worldwide catastrophe.
Baltimore Police Detective Mitch Wilson is enjoying the day by taking his wife and young son to the latest animated hit movie. He drops them off at the theater and goes to park the car when a suspicious man catches his attention. He realizes the man is headed for the theater and before Mitch can stop him, he detonates a suicide vest killing everyone. This is happening all over the U.S. where the new film is showing. Mitch is determined to exact revenge and uses information he has discovered to bribe his way onto the FBI team investigating the terror attack called the “Red Line”.
Yasaman Karami is an archeological linguist professor in Tehran, Iran. Her research has led her and her mentor to discover the origins of language. Her mentor is kidnapped for the knowledge they posses and now they are after Yasaman. She is running for her life and ends up being helped across the border and into the hands of the FBI team with Mitch when another Red Line attack hits Europe.
It is a fast paced and action filled race to discover who is responsible for the Red Line attacks and stop the global attack to come.
This is a scary and at the same time thought-provoking thriller. It has a noir feel to the writing style, two main characters that could not be more different and yet come together to make a believable team, and fast-paced action. I do wish Mitch and Yasamin had come together sooner in the story, but there was a lot to set up for the intricate plot and while there was action to keep me involved in the story until they did come together, when they did, I could not turn the pages fast enough. The idea of terrorists, who are not the type of terrorists we normally think of, and the use of super-charged subliminal messaging were just realistic enough to have me seriously cheering on the good guys. I liked the romantic elements and found they were well written for a thriller and not stereotypical.
I recommend this noir crime thriller with romantic elements for a exciting ‘save the world’ read and I will be looking forward to reading more books by this author.
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About the Author
Blake Rudman enjoyed a former, successful career in executive management, building his own companies from the ground up.
Success or not, Blake’s heart has always been in the written word, and the myriad ideas he spent much of his spare time jotting down in notebooks, Post-Its, and scraps of paper whenever the inspiration hit him.
Now a breakout author of five noir thriller novels – all to be published in 2023 – Blake’s destiny of becoming a writer of some renown is well under way.
When he’s not working diligently on his next novel, Blake spends quality time with his family and tropical fish.
After a shootout in Dubai left Hamza al Saud dead and elevated brilliant aeronautical engineer Qasim Nadar to hero status in England, everyone assumes the terrorist threat from al Qadar has been eliminated. Everyone except JSOC counter-terrorism analyst Whitney Watts. But when she decides to help MI6 penetrate Nadar’s secret network, Watts she gets a little too close to the truth and finds herself in a deadly situation not even her teammates from Tier One can save her from.
As Lieutenant Commander Keith “Chunk” Redman and the rest of Tier One fan out across London in search of Watts, Nadar prepares to unleash his most dangerous weapon yet—an advanced drone with artificial intelligence and stealth technology. To stop a horrifying attack on London, Chunk and his Navy SEAL brethren must seek help from an unexpected ally and find a way to stop a war machine that was designed to be unstoppable.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Sons of Valor, War Machine, the third book in the series, by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson finishes the overarching story of terrorist Qasim Nadar. They use their vast experience to write engrossing thrillers. Andrews worked as a nuclear engineer on naval submarines, while Wilson was a trauma surgeon embedded with the East Coast Navy SEALS.
In the stories, Nadar fools everyone and is considered a hero in England. Everyone that is except counter-terrorism analyst Whitney Watts. After getting a call from her MI6 counterpart Lucy Kim she flies to England to work with Lucy to try to out Nadar as a terrorist. Unfortunately, their investigation turns upside down and they are kidnapped by the terrorists. As Lieutenant Commander Keith “Chunk” Redman and the rest of Tier One travel across London in search of Watts, Nadar prepares to unleash his most dangerous weapon yet, an advanced drone with artificial intelligence and stealth technology.
The authors know how to keep the tension high with the suspense growing on each page. Readers will not want to put this epilogue down.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the series?
Jeffrey Wilson: We hope to continue the series as long as people continue to read them. This is a spin-off, a shared universe with the “Tier One Series.” The eighth book comes out next year. There was a minor character in the previous series, Chuck Redman, who was widely popular with the readers.
EC: What is the premise of the “Tier One Series?”
JW: The entire SEAL team gets wiped out because of leaked intelligence. The sole survivor gets a new identity, John Dempsey, and now is part of a covert operation task force.
Brian Andrews: The first book of that series came out in 2016. John Dempsey, the main character of that series, is not in the “Sons of Valor Series.” Although in the second book there are a lot of references. But there are other cross-over characters.
Elise Cooper: Did you base Chuck Redman on the real retired SEAL Jay Redman?
JW: He is a good friend of ours and we wanted to honor him. We do it a lot where we put those who we had a professional and personal relationship in our books. Chuck does not represent Jay, but we did it to honor our friendship.
EC: How did you get the idea for the current book, Sons of Valor III: War Machine?
BA: We tend to write our military thrillers as trilogies. The Qasim Nadar thread wraps up in this book. In the real world we like to give the antagonist characters some leeway to flush out their motives and organization. There is a great line, “Every villain is the hero of their own story.” We embrace this in our writing. It is not our point of view, but the character’s thoughts and actions..
JW: We do not like our bad guys to be two-dimensional cookie cutters unlike Dr. Evil. The risk is do readers have sympathy for a terrorist. We wanted to explore will Qasim do the right thing or take the path of evil. People will see his evolution through the books on becoming a Jihadi. In book 2 there was a clear path for him to take, but the one he takes should cause someone to hate him.
EC: Book 1 has this quote, “It is a shame that it takes personal losses and suffering for most men to find their courage.” This seems so relevant for those families that brutally lost loved ones in Israel on October 7th. Do you want to comment?
JW: This is a timely quote referencing how someone’s tragedy is tested under fire. It would be great if no one had to discover this about themselves. Think about the stories that came out of 9/11 and how heroic actions were displayed. I read amazing stories of how people were so incredibly brave on October 7th. A young female army officer went out in her PJs with her gun, joined up with someone else, and held off the terrorists, protecting their little village. There is such inspiration in these stories.
EC: What do you want readers to get out of the books?
JW: This is why we write these books, hoping people will have a new appreciation for the toll it takes on the operator: the relationship with one another and their families. We feel there is a higher reason we wrote the books, to honor the men/women we served with and to share that world.
EC: How would you describe Qasim?
BA: Qasim is cold-hearted, diabolical, and evil. He cares about his cause. He cemented himself as a person of significance in the local culture. In book 3, he has drunk the Kool-Aid, taking a leadership role in a terrorist organization. He must deal with personal problems, money, motivation, logistics, and must keep secrets. He wants a Caliphate where there must be a shift of power and take control.
JW: We want to show how the technology and information is different now. There is an information war going on the same time as a covert war. The operators are new but also the terrorists are more sophisticated. This is a different dynamic post 9/11. We wanted to explore what a new generation of terrorists looks like. They are multi-educated, bi-lingual, and tech savvy. It is also an infiltration of culture and society that is no longer just in the Middle East. This is a change in the real world which we wanted to write about. These are the battlefields of the 21st century.
EC: How would you describe Chuck Redman?
JW: Highly intelligent, tenacious, intuitive, mission and team before self.
EC: How would you describe Lucy?
BA: Whitney saw her as sad, intense, brave, focused, loyal, and cared about others concerns. When she faces mortal danger, she stands her ground.
EC: How would you describe Whitney?
BA: She takes initiative in this book. She found a lot of strength from Lucy. Her goal is to be part of the team.
JW: Both Lucy and Whitney are tenacious. We did not want to write Whitney as a one-woman killing machine taking out the bad guys single handedly or a mousey analyst who fades in the background. We pushed her out of her comfort zone, which she hated, but realized it made her tougher. She is someone who never quits. She is one of my favorite characters.
EC: What about the relationship between Whitney and Redman?
BA: They are both mirrors of the other. They recognize in the other characteristics they admire. Both are confident. There is a scene in the book where she is on the verge of physical collapse and starts to think about who the person would be she could rely on to get her out of this situation. Her subconscious understands it is Chuck because she does not realize her own inner strength. Over the first two books she grasps how much she admires and respects him. Chuck also tries to think what she would do when trying to rescue her. They both try to do what the other person would do when the other person is not there.
EC: Is the piece of equipment, Valkyrie, true?
JW: It is a drone and manned from the ground. There is technology in development that has the capability. We wanted to explore how much autonomy should AI have: should it include a kill decision?
BA: There are drones that can fly along fighter jets that augment pilots on missions. It is a stealth drone, with a vertical takeoff from anywhere. We had in the book what safeguards would the military program?
EC: Next books?
JW and BA:
The next Sons of Valor book does not have a date yet but there will be one.
There is a techno-thriller coming out in April, titled Four Minutes. A task force collects
Intelligence from the future to stop attacks in the present. They use this information to
try to stop the bad guys.
We will be writing the next Tom Clancy book titled Act of Defiance, coming out on the 40th
anniversary of the book Red October. A Russian super weapon is deployed at sea
and it’s up to Jack Ryan to find a countermove.
The next Tier 1 book comes out in July titled Ember, the name of the taskforce. The
taskforce does covert operations.
The fourth book in the Shepherds series comes out next fall. We explore combat and faith
with a speculative element. There is a supernatural spiritual warfare element that
blended into a covert ops’ thriller. This includes using scriptures of the Bible. It has
demons possess bad guys.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
The dangers of Alaska aren’t limited to storms, starvation, and grizzly bears. Sometimes the most dangerous thing is the person you love.
It’s summer in Alaska and the light surrounding the shipping-container-turned-storage shed where Liv Russo is being held prisoner is fuzzy and gray. Around her is thick forest and jagged mountains. In front of her, across a clearing, is a low-slung cabin with a single window that spills a wash of yellow light onto bare ground. Illuminated in that light is the father of her child, a man she once loved. A man who is now her jailor. Liv vows to do anything to escape.
Carrying her own secrets and a fierce need to protect her young son, Liv must navigate a new world where extreme weather, starvation, and dangerous wildlife are not the only threats she faces. With winter’s arrival imminent, she knows she must reckon with her past and the choices that brought her to the unforgiving Alaskan landscape if she is ever going to make it out alive.
A story of survival in the wilds of Alaska, The Beautiful and the Wild explores the question of whether we can ever truly know the person we love—or ourselves.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Beautiful and the Wild by Peggy Townsend is a riveting suspenseful mystery. There are secrets, the haunting terrain of Alaska, as well as hope. It is a fight for survival by a mother who dearly loves her son.
Liv Russo thought she was happily married until one day she became a hero. This opened knowledge of her past where she was shunned by all. Then her husband leaves to supposedly go on an outing and never returns. A detective informs Liv that her husband committed suicide. But this was also not true when she finds clues that he was alive and living in Alaska. She travels to a compound there with her developmentally disabled seven-year-old son Xander.
But her return is not a happy reunion. Mark has been shacking up with a young woman, Angela, and another woman, Diana who had a son with him, Rudy, ten years ago. Liv feels betrayed and angry and threatens to leave and go to the police to tell them he faked his death. Mark, her husband, locks her in a shipping container for weeks until she appears to acquiesce and agree to his lifestyle of an open relationship. But in truth she is biding her time until she can escape with her son. She must learn how to survive and navigate the Alaskan wilderness of extreme weather, possible starvation, and dangerous wildlife.
This is an exciting book that might remind readers of a “lock room” story that takes place in the Alaskan wild. There are some twists and turns with each character having secrets revealed as the story progresses.
Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Peggy Townsend: I am a journalist and have written about secrets: those who tried to conceal and those who tried to reveal. I was in our cabin and listening to a podcast about a guy who was a former Marine who stopped the assassination of Gerald Ford, someone in the “closet.” He was outted by the media with the result that his family shunned him. I thought how secrets can be so damaging. It spurred me to think what if someone did something heroic and it caused the darkest secrets to be revealed.
EC: Why the Alaska setting?
PT: I love Alaska. My husband and I spent seven weeks in our van traveling in Alaska. I was thinking how Alaska is the perfect place because it is so remote. If someone was to hide secrets that is where they would go. Having spent a lot of time in the wilderness and the back country. What I learned it to be in tune with nature and be aware of the surroundings. As the main character, Liv, develops she became more attuned with nature.
EC: How would you describe Liv?
PT: She is wounded and flawed. Liv is determined, resourceful, and gritty. All of this comes from her tough childhood. At times she felt humiliated, trapped, isolated, anxious, and yet was able to find her strength. Hardship was good for her because she discovered her true self. I was like that.
EC: How would you describe Mark?
PT: He is based on someone I once met. Someone I did not like very much. He was super handsome, charismatic, but had a hubris that brought him down. Mark is very manipulative and has the women bend to his will. He is aggressive, dark, obsessed, a loner, selfish, uncaring, chauvinistic, cocky, paranoid, and conceited. Yet, he was such a good dad and very creative.
EC: How would you describe the relationship between Liv and Mark?
PT: She felt betrayal, anger, and thought of him as a liar and cheater. He berated her. He liked to make her jealous. When they were first married, she was a follower. She did love him. Although he was flawed, he did have some good qualities. She made excuses for him at first. Later she saw how wrong she was.
EC: Role of the fox?
PT: I liked the idea that a vixen is used to describe a woman in unflattering terms, hard to manage. A fox is a beautiful creature. After Liv sees this fox, it gives her hope and inspiration.
EC: Role of the prison?
PT: I wanted her to have been in prison because of what happened to her mom, inspired by a true story. I wanted her to be able to survive being imprisoned in a container. Having been in prison she learned the terrible lesson, but this enabled her to find ways to cope, make a routine, avoid confrontations, and to figure out how to escape.
EC: Diana versus Angela?
PT: These two women and Liv are very different in how they approached the world. Angela is naïve, needy, young, and insecure. Diana is very independent. Liv is a caring mom. These women never became a sisterhood. I did a lot of research regarding open relationships. There was always a tension and jealousy underneath because of the open relationship. Diana did not care, Liv felt betrayal and would not go along, and Angela would do anything to get Mark’s approval and love.
EC: What about the book Mind, Self, Love by Kai Huang?
PT: I made this book up but did do research and reading on self-help books. Mark manipulated the women to seek his pleasure. He enjoyed having the power.
EC: Next book?
PT: It is also set in the wilderness. A young runaway meets a female recluse in the woods. Both are being hunted for different reasons. They are both trying to survive. My working title is Nobody is Missing. It will be released next year some time.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
