#suspense #thriller – Page 7 – Avonna Loves Genres

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: What Remains by Wendy Walker

Book Description

She saved his life. Now he‘ll never let her go.

Detective Elise Sutton is drawn to cold cases. Each crime is a puzzle to solve, pulled from the past. Elise looks for cracks in the surface and has become an expert on how murderers slip up and give themselves away. She has dedicated her life to creating a sense of order, at work with her ex-marine partner; at home with her husband and two young daughters; and within, battling her own demons. Elise has everything under control, until one afternoon, when she walks into a department store and is forced to make a terrible choice: to save one life, she will have to take another.

Elise is hailed as a hero, but she doesn’t feel like one. Steeped in guilt, and on a leave of absence from work, she’s numb, even to her husband and daughters, until she connects with Wade Austin, the tall man whose life she saved. But Elise soon realizes that he isn’t who he says he is. In fact, Wade Austin isn’t even his real name. The tall man is a ghost, one who will set off a terrifying game of cat and mouse, threatening Elise and the people she loves most.

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Elise’s Thoughts

What Remains by Wendy Walker is part procedural, part domestic suspense, part mystery, and a cat/mouse thriller between a policewoman and a stalker.

The story opens with Cold Case Detective Elise Sutton stopping at a department store to buy her children a gift. She hears gunshots and is confronted by an active shooter. One man is about to shoot another, so she decides to make the choice to take one life to save the other. Elise is very shaken having killed someone, even if it was necessary to save other lives. As a detective who works cold cases, she has little need to fire her weapon in the line of duty. She is hailed as a hero, but she doesn’t feel like one. Steeped in guilt, and on a leave of absence from work, she’s numb, even to her husband and daughters, until she connects with Wade Austin, the tall man, whose life she saved. She asks him if it was a good shooting, which saved his life.

But this meeting will put her life in turmoil even though Wade, known as The Tall Man, hails her as a hero. She is guilt ridden that she took a life and tells him more about herself than she should. The problem is Wade is not his real name and when she tries to find him, he becomes a ghost.

This is where the story takes a turn and deals with the psychological aftermath of a shooting. Elise comes to grip with letting her guard down with a total stranger who is hellbent on ruining her life unless she gives into his demands of spending their life together. He begins stalking her and threatening the people she loves including her husband, daughters, and police partner. It now becomes a dangerous, twisted, and deadly game between Elise and the man she saved.

This is an edgy, intense, and chilling novel where readers take a journey with Elise. Readers will not be able to put the book down.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?

Wendy Walker: I was listening to the news years ago and heard about a shooting in Boulder Colorado in a grocery store. Listening to the bystanders interviewed it was so clear they suffered a trauma. I wondered what happened to them. This is where the title, What Remains, comes from. This was a sudden acute trauma and I wondered what happens to people emotionally. This is where the character was born and from there, I decided to make her a police officer, Elise.

EC: The steps of trauma?

WW: I found it interesting to find these stages. In the research, some had seven stages, some six, some five. Someone’s brain goes through this process of what happened. I put in the books these steps: shock, denial, pain, guilt, anger, bargaining, depression, then an upward swing toward acceptance and hope. I had Elise, obsessed with finding one of those caught up in the store to try to put her mind at ease about the shooting. She feels isolated and alone because she has stopped herself from going through these stages.

EC: How would you describe Elise, the police officer?

WW: She has an internal conflict after being hailed a hero, yet she has tremendous guilt and doubt about the shot she took killing the shooter. She tends toward having anguish, is a puzzle solver because she can control it, vulnerable, and a risk taker. Before the shooting she is confident and happy with her life.

EC: What about after the shooting?

WW: What happened really shakes her and changes her. As a police officer she second guessed herself. She is strong, tough, capable, and protects herself. I do not see her as a victim. She is kind of a bad ass because she decided to use her weapon to save people’s lives. She feels tormented, puts herself in danger, feels alone, and has secrets. Elise feels isolated, which comes from the shooting because she sees life darker. There is a disconnect from her emotional brain and thinking brain. The book has a scene where the psychiatrist tells her, ‘The worst kind of loneliness is to be with people you love and feel that they don’t see you, then to be alone. It is more painful.’

EC: Readers understand what a stalker does?

WW: Stalkers are irrational. The like to target, humiliate, create fear, and the victim feels helpless. They are compulsive, torment, play a game of wits, and love the control. If they cannot have someone in their life this is the way they do it. There is no end game because the victim will never be with them. They need to have it in that moment, a connection with the person being stalked. It is just in the moment. They crave power over that person.

EC: How would you describe Wade, the stalker?

WW: He is fragile and is in a compromised emotional state when he enters the store. In the store his behavior is less than heroic. His self-esteem is shattered. The focus on Elise is because he has “rescue worship,” which is based on obsession. He believes that the shooting was meant to be to connect him with Elise. He did not see it as random. Being connected to Elise is essential for Wade’s emotional survival. He is also ruthless and violent because he is desperate and loses control.

EC: The role of her partner and husband?

WW: Rowan is her police partner and is meant to be someone who witnesses what she is going through. He ends up helping her and keeps her secrets. He is the other man in her life even though there is no romance but is protective of her.

Mitch, her husband, had an affair that they are trying to overcome. With this dynamic it makes it easier for Wade to torment her and to get at her because of this vulnerability. What they managed to rebuild is challenging and being exploited by Wade. What Elise loves about Mitch is that he is protective, strong, and supportive. He is trying to understand what she is going through but does not.

EC: Next books?

WW: American Girl was an audible original in 2021. It is coming to print in October. There is a TV option for it. An autistic 17-year-old in a small town witnesses a crime, the death of a wealthy business owner. It is a fast-paced thriller. It was inspired by the Tom Petty song, “American Girl.”

Next year there will be an audio play called Mad Love. It is a psychological thriller. A con man is married to a wealthy widow and is found murdered in his bed and she is shot and in a coma.

Also, next year there will be a new novel coming out in 2024 titled Kill Me Softly. It is a play on the song, “Killing Me Softly.” It is about a serial killer who is targeting middle aged women and making it appear like suicides. A young feminist researcher comes to believe there is a serial killer.

THANK YOU!!

***

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.

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Reckoning by Baron Birtcher

RECKONING

by Baron Birtcher

September 4 – 29, 2023 Virtual Book Tour

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for RECKONING by Baron Birtcher on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.

Below you will find a book synopsis, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author bio and social media links. Enjoy!

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Book Synopsis

Ty Dawson is a small-town sheriff with big-city problems, in this riveting crime thriller from the award-winning author of Fistful of Rain.

As lawman, rancher, and Korean War veteran, Ty Dawson has his share of problems in the southern Oregon county he calls home. Despite how rural it is, Meriwether can’t keep modernity at bay. The 1970s have changed the United States—and Meriwether won’t be spared.

A standoff looms when the US Fish & Wildlife Service seeks to separate longtime cattleman KC Sheridan from his water supply—ensuring the death of his livestock. If that’s not enough trouble, a Portland detective is found dead in a fly-fishing resort cabin. Though the Portland police, including the victim’s own partner, are eager to write off the tragedy as a suicide, Ty has his own thoughts on the matter—as well as evidence that points to murder. His suspicions soon mire him in a swamp of corruption that threatens nearly everyone around him. Turns out that greed and evil are contagious—and they take down men both great and small . . .

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123226006-reckoning?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=36Qh6a5Bzl&rank=1

Reckoning

Genre: Neo-western crime thriller
Published by: Open Road Integrated Media
Publication Date: June 2023
Number of Pages: 300
ISBN: 978-1-5040-8280-8
Series: Sheriff Ty Dawson Series, #3

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

RECKONING (Ty Dawson Mysteries Book #3) by Baron Birtcher is a twisted suspenseful thriller/historical mystery/police procedural mash-up featuring a rural county Oregon sheriff and rancher set the late 1970’s that kept me reading well into the night. This is the third book in the Ty Dawson series, but I was able to easily read it as a standalone.

Sheriff Ty Dawson is a Korean war veteran, rancher, and rural Meriweather County sheriff in southern Oregon. Ty gets called out to an elderly neighbor’s ranch belonging to KC Sheridan and his wife when the US Fish & Wildlife Service fences off the longtime water supply for his cattle. Sheridan’s wife’s brother lost his ranch to the government and is now instigating his militia friends to make a stand to save KC’s ranch.

At the same time, a Portland detective is found dead in a resort cabin. His partner and the chief of police in Portland all want the death classified as a suicide and the case closed. Ty and the medical examiner know he was murdered, and he is willing to fight against the PPD to discover the truth.

Ty and his deputies work to keep the standoff at the Sheridan ranch from escalating, while also following leads in the murdered detective case. Ty is determined to find the truth, but it will cost him.

I love Ty Dawson and now want to go back and read the first two books in the series. He loves his wife and daughter, still has nightmares from his time in Korea, and has a strong sense of justice that must be satisfied. Set in the late 1970’s, historical references, significant events and lack of current technology are all intertwined throughout the story without slowing the pace. The two investigations are intricately plotted and perfectly paced. I was surprised to learn how the two investigations are tied together at the climax of this story. Greed, political corruption, drugs, and prostitution are all in abundance in this investigation with plenty of twists that keep you guessing. This is a new to me author that I am very happy to have found.

I highly recommend this addition to the series, and I am looking forward to reading more Ty Dawson books in the future.

***

Excerpt

Prelude:

A TRANSITIVE NIGHTFALL

NO CHILD IS brought into this world with any knowledge of true evil. This they learn over the passage of time. In my experience as a Sheriff, and as a rancher, I have found this precept to be true.

Time passes nevertheless, even if it passes slowly. Here in rural southern Oregon, sometimes it seemed as if it hadn’t moved at all, advancing without touching Meriwether County, except with glancing blows.

That is, until the day it caught up with us all, and came down like a goddamn hammer.

CHAPTER ONE

ORDINARILY, AUTUMN IN Meriwether County would come in hard and sudden, like a stone hurled through a window. But this year it snuck in slow and mild, lingered there deceitfully while we waited for the axe to come down.

The sky that morning was turquoise, empty of clouds, the altitude strung with elongated V’s of migrating geese and a single contrail that resembled a surgical scar, the narrows between the high valley walls opening onto a broad vista of rangeland some distance below. I had expected ice patches to have formed on the pavement overnight, but the weather had remained stubbornly dry, even as temperatures closed in on the low thirties. I tipped open the wind-wing and let the chill air blow through the cab of my pickup as I stretched, and drank off the last dregs of coffee I had brought for the long southward drive from the town of Meridian.

I had received a phone call at home the night before from an unusually distressed KC Sheridan. I had known KC for as long as I can remember, a pragmatic and taciturn cattleman whose family history in the area dated back to the late 1800s, much like that of my own. Three generations of Sheridans had stretched fence wire, planted feed-grass and run rough stock across deeded ranchland that measured its acreage in the tens of thousands, and whose boundaries straddled two separate counties, one of which was my jurisdiction.

But the decade of the ’70s thus far had not been any kinder or gentler to cowboys than to anyone else, and KC and his wife, Irene, had found themselves increasingly subject to the fulminations and intimidation of both local and federal government. While the Sheridan ranch had once numbered itself among a dozen privately held agricultural properties in the region, KC now found himself surrounded on three sides by a federally designated wildlife refuge that had swollen to encompass well over three hundred square miles; a bird sanctuary originally conceived under the auspices of President Theodore Roosevelt’s white house. All of which would have been perfectly fine and acceptable to the Sheridan family, given the understanding that the scarce water supply that ultimately fed into the bird sanctuary belonged to the Sheridans by legal covenant, as it had for nearly a century.

I turned off the paved two-lane and onto a gravel service road, headed in the direction of the ridgeline where KC sat silhouetted against the bright backdrop of clear sky, mounted astride his chestnut roping horse. KC climbed out of the saddle as I parked a short distance away, switched off the ignition and stepped down from my truck. KC trailed the horse behind him as he moved in my direction, took off his hat and ran a forearm across his brow, then pressed it back onto his head. His hair and his eyes shared a similar shade of gunmetal grey, and the hardscrabble nature of his existence as a rancher had been recorded in the deep lines of his face.

“What the hell am I supposed to do about these goings-on, Sheriff?” KC asked, and cocked his brim in the general direction of a reservoir that was the size of a small mountain lake. Two men wearing construction hardhats were surveying a line on the near shore where a third man studied a roll of blueprints he had unfurled across the hood of his work truck.

“Is that who I think it is?” I asked.

“They aim to fence off my water. My cows won’t last a week in this weather.”

“Have you talked to them, KC?”

He nodded.

“’Bout as useful as standing in a bucket and trying to lift yourself up by the handle. It’s the reason I finally called you, Ty. I didn’t know what else to do.”

The vein on KC’s temple palpitated as he cut his eyes toward the foothills and spat.

“I’ll have a word with them,” I said. “You wait here.”

A wintry wind had begun to blow down from the pass, pushing channels through the dry grass and the sweet scents of juniper and scrub pine. A harrier swept down out of a cluster of black oaks and made a series of low passes across the flats.

I averted my eyes as the sun glinted off the US Department of Fish & Wildlife shield affixed to the driver side door of a government-issue Chevy Suburban. The man studying the blueprints didn’t bother to lift his head or look at me as I stepped up beside him.

“Care to tell me why you and your men are trespassing on private ranch land?” I asked.

The man sighed, scrutinizing me over the frames of a pair of steel-rimmed reading glasses. He had a face that put me in mind of an apple carving, and a physique that resembled a burlap sack filled with claw hammers.

“Who the hell are you now?” he asked.

“Ty Dawson, Sheriff of Meriwether County. That’s the name of the county you’re standing in.”

He took off his reading glasses and slipped them into his shirt pocket, hitched a work boot onto the Suburban’s bumper and offered me an approximation of a smile.

“Well, Sheriff, I’m with Fish and Wildlife—that’s an agency of the federal government, as I’m sure you’re aware—and I have a work order that says I’m supposed to put up a fence. And that’s exactly what me and my crew are doing here.”

I gestured upslope, where KC Sheridan stood watching us, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“You’re on that man’s private property,” I said.

The government man made no move to acknowledge KC.

“I don’t split hairs over those types of details, Sheriff. The work order I’ve got lays out the metes and bounds of the line, and me and my crew just install the fence where it says to. It ain’t brain surgery.”

“Scoot over and let me have a look at that site map.”

“I oughtta radio this in.”

“You do whatever you think you need to,” I said. “But do it while I’m looking at your map.”

He lifted his chin and looked as though he was conducting a dialogue with himself, then finally stepped to one side. I studied the blueprint for a few moments, looked out across the rock-studded range and got my bearings.

“Looks to me like the boundary line for the bird refuge is at least a hundred yards to the other side of this reservoir,” I said. “Your map is mismarked.”

“The agency doesn’t mismark maps, Sheriff.”

“They sure as hell mismarked this one. You need to stop your work until this gets sorted out.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Care to repeat that? There’s clearly been a mistake.”

“No mistake. You need to step away, Sheriff.”

“Let me explain something to you,” I said, removing my sunglasses. “It’s the law in the State of Oregon that the water that comes up on Mr. Sheridan’s property belongs to Mr. Sheridan. Period. If you fence off his reservoir—especially this late in the season—you’re not only stealing his water, you’re murdering his herd.”

The agency man lifted his foot off the bumper, set his feet wide and faced off with me. He slid both hands into the back pockets of his canvas overalls and rocked back on his heels.

“Now it’s my turn to try to explain something to you, Sheriff: I been given a job to do, and I intend to do it. If you don’t walk away right this minute and leave me to it, I will be forced to radio this in. Long and the short of it is, the guys who will come out here after me will have badges, too. And their badges are bigger than yours.”

“I won’t allow you to trespass onto private property, steal this man’s water and kill his livestock.”

He glanced at his two crewmen staking the line then turned his attention back to me.

“You going to arrest us?” he asked.

“What is it with you agency people? Why is it that your first inclination is to slam the pedal all the way to the floor?”

“When me and the boys come back out here, it won’t just be the three of us no more.”

“I’m finished talking about this,” I said. “Pack up your gear and go.”

I could feel his eyes boring holes into the back of my head as I picked my way back up the incline where Sheridan stood waiting for me.

“I can tell by your stride that you had the same kind of dialogue experience I had with that fella,” KC said.

“Bureaucrats with hardhats.”

“I ain’t no cupcake, Dawson. But, you know that those sonsabitches have been tweaking my nose for years.”

“Those men are part of a federal agency, KC, make no mistake. If you’re not careful, they’ll try to roll right over the top of you.”

“What do you call what they’re doing right now? I don’t intend to lay down for it.”

“I’m not saying you should.”

“What, then?”

“Get on the phone and call Judge Yates up in Salem,” I said. “Ask him if he can slap an injunction on these clowns until we get it sorted out.”

Sheridan’s horse pinned back his ears and began to shuffle his forelegs, responding to the tone our conversation had taken. KC calmed the animal with a caress of its neck, dipped into the pocket of his wool coat, snapped off a few pieces of carrot and fed it to the gelding from the flat of his palm.

“I’ll do it, Ty, but I swear to god—”

“KC, you call me before you do anything else, you understand?”

***

Author Bio

Baron R Birtcher is the LA TIMES and IMBA BESTSELLING author of the hardboiled Mike Travis series (Roadhouse Blues, Ruby Tuesday, Angels Fall, and Hard Latitudes), the award-winning Ty Dawson series (South California Purples, Fistful Of Rain, and Reckoning), as well as the critically-lauded stand-alone, RAIN DOGS.

Baron is a five-time winner of the SILVER FALCHION AWARD, and the WINNER of 2018’s Killer Nashville READERS CHOICE AWARD, as well as 2019’s BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR for Fistful Of Rain.

He has also had the honor of having been named a finalist for the NERO AWARD, the LEFTY AWARD, the FOREWORD INDIE AWARD, the 2016 BEST BOOK AWARD, the Pacific Northwest’s regional SPOTTED OWL AWARD, and the CLAYMORE AWARD.

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BaronRBirtcher/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/reckoning-by-baron-birtcher

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/974486.Baron_R_Birtcher

Purchase Links

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier

Book Description

When the nouveau riche Parker family moves to an exclusive community in the heart of Southern California, they believe it’s their chance at a fresh start. Heather Parker is determined to give her daughters the life she never had—starting with horses.

She signs them up for riding lessons at Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian, where horses are a lifestyle. Heather becomes a “Barn Mom,” part of a group of wealthy women who hang at the stables, drink wine, and prepare their daughters for competition.

It’s not long before the Parker family is fully enmeshed in the horse world—from mean girl cliques to barn romances and dark secrets. With the end of summer horse show fast approaching, the pressure is on, and these mothers will stop at nothing to give their daughters everything they deserve.

Before the summer is over, lies will turn lethal, accidents will happen, and someone will end up dead.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Girls and Their Horses by Eliza Jane Brazier is more than just a book about horses. Readers should think about sports travel teams and stage mothers. Those parents who try to put their own dreams on their children and push them to succeed, even when the dream does not seem realistic. The book explores the world of competitive horse jumping, with overbearing mothers who push their children to compete, toxic coaches, and mean girls.

The story opens with a suspicious death at a horse show. Throughout the book readers are trying to figure out who has been killed since the author does not reveal the victim until late in the story. This adds to the suspense along with other accidents that put some of the girls in danger.

Besides the murder there is also bullying. One of the families, the Parkers, have joined the Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian Center, to make a fresh start. They left their Texas home because the youngest daughter, Maple, was constantly being bullied. Besides Maple, readers get the perspective of her sister Piper, her mom Heather, and some of the other families, Vera, and Pamela. While all appear superficial at the beginning of the book as readers get to know the characters they begin to like and dislike them.

Then there are the men in the story. Kieran, the owner of the center and the head trainer appears to only care about his prestige. Douglas works with the horses and is involved with some of the female characters. The father of Piper and Maple, Jeff, is only concerned about making money.

Anyone who has never read Brazier should start with this book. It is a fabulous story involving smoldering tension, manipulation, poisonous female friendships, and wealthy power dynamics, a depiction on the elite world of teen horse competitions.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Are you a horse person?

Eliza Jane Brazier: I live ten minutes from Rancho Santa Fe. I worked in the horse industry for several years as a working student, a rider in a training program, and a riding instructor. I would observe the different dynamics between parents and children, which is what was the original spark for this book. There were some incidents where a mom wanted to pass her dream of riding horses to her child.

EC: Do you think in the beginning of the book the characters appeared superficial?

EJB: My characters might have presented themselves that way. I want to write my characters taking a journey. In the beginning of the book as in most cases when someone first meets a person that person can appear superficial. It is only after the reader gets to know them, spending more time with them, they see the characters reveal themselves in a natural way.

EC: How would you describe Mable?

EJB: Bullied, which affected her. She went along to get along. Very anxious, jealous, with an attitude of woe is me. She idolizes her mom, is jealous of her sister Piper, and feels unlikeable.

EC: You describe the bullying affect?

EJB: Yes. Bullies tease, push people around, and humiliate them. By complaining or showing fear the bullies are energized. I was bullied. The scene in the book happened to me, where someone pulled me down by my hair and threw me on the ground. I wanted to show how a parent feels powerless and helpless in those type of situations. The bullying motivated Heather, Maple’s mom, because she really wants to help her child, but does not know how.

EC: How would describe Piper?

EJB: She is a go-getter, a problem solver, lonely, and tried to hide her feelings about horses.

EC: How about Heather?

EJB: She wants good things for her children and is very supportive. She does not see herself as a good mom. Heather is affected by being abandoned as a child. She has not dealt with her past and is not happy in her marriage. By marrying Jeff, Heather thought she would be safe and secure with him, someone to count on. They never had any romance or love in the relationship. Her focus is on making her children happy instead of making herself happy. Heather has lost herself as a person.

EC: What about Heather’s relationship with her daughters?

EJB: She can be pushy and controlling. Eventually she realizes this and tries to back down. Her journey is the backbone of the whole book. The premise is a mom’s influence over their children and how they should yield it. No parent should be completely hands off yet should not be domineering. The other mom, Pamela, lets her daughter Vida do whatever she wants and then there is Heather, who tries to figure out where she is as a parent.

EC: How would you describe Vida and her relationship with her mom?

EJB: A bully, self-centered, devious, basically a complete mean girl. Her mom Pamela related more to Maple than Vida.

EC: Can you explain why the mother quote?

EJB: You are referring to this one. “You would worry and torment and impact your kids for the rest of their lives. They would blame you for everything. They would blame you for nothing.” I have eight brothers and sisters, with thirty nieces and nephews. I get to observe many different dynamics between parents and their children. As people get older, they realize it is not about a right or wrong decision, but which decision will be the least harmful. With parenting the consequences are huge and somewhat scary because it affects someone’s life. The characters in the book have a complicated relationship with their parents.

EC: How would you describe Kieran, the owner of the Equestrian?

EJB: He thought himself of G-d, is obsessed, narcissist, manipulative, controlling, and intimidating. All that mattered to him are the horses.

EC: He abused humans, but did he also abuse horses?

EJB: Many readers who are not familiar with horses might think he abused them. ACE is a commonly used horse tranquilizer, which he gave the horse Commotion. It is something commonly used. It is administered to calm a horse, especially after an injury. ACE is a mild sedative. This does not mask a horse’s injury.

EC: Douglas played an important role in the story?

EJB: He was confident, patient, sensitive, passionate, and charming. But he was also desperate to be loved.

EC: What was the role of the horses?

EJB: They are beautiful and smart, powerful, and can help someone. I put in this book quote, “Anyone that did not believe in magic, had never written a horse.” The horse Commotion brought Piper out of her shell, but also created jealousy among the girls. Through Commotion everyone projected their dreams. Maybe Douglas and Piper appreciated the horse as a separate being, but they also wanted to see how they can achieve their dreams through the horse. Both looked on the horse as a friend.

EC: What about any movies/TV shows?

EJB: There is something in the works.

EC: Next book?

EJB: I went into a different direction. It is about a guy and gal who meet on an overnight sleeper train going from Florence to Paris. They have a flirtation, but he disappears. Both are contract killers. It has murder, romance, and adventure. It should be out the end of the summer next year.

THANK YOU!!

***

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The Torching by Kerry Peresta

The Torching

by Kerry Peresta

May 8 – June 2, 2023 Virtual Book Tour

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE TORCHING (Olivia Callahan Suspense Book #3) by Kerry Peresta on this Partners In Crime Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a Kingsumo giveaway. Enjoy!

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Book Description

Mysterious fires. A haunting past. A secret file.

Three years ago, Olivia Callahan endured an assault that resulted in a devastating brain injury. She survived, but she couldn’t remember anything about her life or who she was. Now, she’s determined to build a bridge between the past she lost and the life she must reclaim.

When Olivia crosses paths with PI Tom Stark, she is drawn to the investigative field, and becomes his intern. She finds a heavily redacted, forty-five-year-old file locked in his desk drawer that mentions her mother as a young woman. Why had her mentor hidden the file from her, and why had he never mentioned a case involving her mother?

As Olivia moves forward with her fledgling career, a string of mysterious fires moves through the community, puzzling the Baltimore Arson Investigative Unit. One of the fires strikes Olivia’s beloved farmhouse in rural Maryland. Now, in addition to uncovering the secrets bound within the redacted file, she becomes convinced that the fires happening around the area are disturbing calling cards…and they’re meant for her.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123230539-the-torching?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=9ubnsNg1v5&rank=1

The Torching

Genre: Traditional mystery or Suspense
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: March 2023
Number of Pages: 323
ISBN: 978-1-68512-323-9
Series: The Olivia Callahan Suspense series, 3 | Each is a Stand Alone Novel

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE TORCHING (Olivia Callahan Suspense Book #3) by Kerry Peresta is a suspense filled P.I. mystery featuring Olivia Callahan who is three years out from a traumatic brain injury. This is the third book in the series, but it can be read as a standalone book. The Torching features her working in her new profession as a P.I., while the previous two books, The Awakening and The Rising while suspense/thrillers also are focused on her recovery and the rebuilding of her life as she works to discover who harmed her.

With the passing of her P.I. mentor, Tom Stark, Olivia discovers a 45-year-old redacted file that mentions her mother’s name. Her mother has never mentioned any past connection to Tom or Tom to her.

Even as she works to discover the secrets from the old file, she is the victim of arson. Several more fires are set in her community and after the fires, she receives a bouquet of flowers from someone with ties to the on-line Facebook group who follow her because of her fame.

Arson, political corruption, family secrets, obsession and murder all come together in this mystery.

I enjoyed the continuing evolution of Oliva, both personally and professionally. I feel all the characters are fully fleshed and believable, but I have read the previous two books and it does make it slightly easier to keep track of all the family and friends. I am a dog lover and love the addition of Marlowe, Olivia’s rescue dog. There are several mysteries all intertwined with surprising plot twists and gripping suspense.

This is an engaging addition to the series, and I am looking forward to seeing where the author takes Olivia next.

***

Excerpt

Smoke assailed us halfway up my long, winding, driveway. A dingy, gray film coated my windshield. I jabbed the brake to slow down, but my trembling foot slipped off the brake. Lilly gave me a look that broke my heart.

The surging, ballooning smoke hurled itself at us like angry fog. Visibility fell to near-zero the longer I drove. I slowed to a crawl. We inched along the lane until the strobing white-and-red lights cut through the smoke. I counted two fire engines and one black SUV on the lane as I approached. A couple of firefighters raced into my house. My door lay on the porch in three pieces, and an axe was propped against the wall. Each firefighter wore oxygen tanks attached to large, anteater-shaped masks. With their cumbersome, reflective-striped protective gear and masks, they looked more suited to step on the moon than inside my beloved Maryland farmhouse.

I brought my car to a shuddering halt.

We stepped out. I put my arm around Lilly.

Vaporous clouds of smoke cloaked my house. A couple of firefighters worked with giant, yellow firehoses. The men had divided themselves into teams, and the muted shouts told me some of them were behind the house. Flames leapt toward the sky from the backside of the roof. I counted six firefighters working on the house that I could see—plus the ones in the back. Tears trickled down my cheeks, and a terrifying thought struck—what about my cat?

“Lilly,” I said, my voice shaky, “Where was Riot when you last saw him?”

Lily’s face went white. “Mom…”

I grabbed her by the shoulders. “No, no…Riot’s smart. He will have found safety. I’ll find him. Stay here.”

I ran across the yard to a woman dressed in navy slacks and a white shirt with metal glinting on the front and official-looking patches on the arms. “I’m the owner,” I yelled over the whump of igniting flames, batting my way through smoke.

She shook my hand and identified herself as the public information officer. “Sorry to meet under these circumstances, but glad you were out of the home. We have it controlled. The team inside is checking to make sure it was contained. As far as we can tell, the seat of the fire is in the attic. Give us thirty minutes, okay? But ma’am, I’ll need you to stay back. Our investigator will be here soon. She’ll let you know when it’s safe to go inside.”

“My cat’s in there,” I yelled. “Can you have someone look for him?”

She spoke into a radio.

The smoke started to let up. Three hoses trained on the roof gushed out torrents of water. The huge flames stretching into the sky began to shrink. Radio chatter stuttered around the space. The firefighters stayed in constant contact, radios slung across their chests with a strap that held a mic.

These guys would not know where to look for Riot.

With an apologetic glance at Lilly, I skirted around the trucks, avoided the PIO, and dashed across the yard, up the front porch stairs, and into the house.

“MOM,” Lilly wailed through the billowy smoke.

Coughing, I ran inside. “Riot,” I screamed. “Riot, I’m here, buddy.”

I looked behind the couch. Underneath the dining room table. On top of his cat tree. Underneath the wingback chair. He wasn’t in any of his favorite spots. I plowed through the murkiness and melting sheetrock.

A bullhorn blared, “Ma’am. We need you to exit the building.” “Now!”

My throat was closing. My eyes stung like crazy. I needed to find him and get the heck out.

I scrambled into the kitchen and opened the lower cupboards, then the uppers. Searched the seats of the barstools, underneath the kitchen table. My heart thrashed like a wrecking ball in my chest. “Riot? I’m here, boy. Come on out,” I begged. A timid sound reached my ears. I waited. I heard it again, louder.

A shaggy, orange head appeared on top of the cabinets. I climbed up, grabbed him, and raced out the back door. The backyard firefighter team made group gestures that I interpreted as ‘get the hell out of here and let us do our job, ma’am’.

I zigzagged through the first responder obstacle course to my car, blinded by the strobing lights. Lilly spurted fresh tears and held out her arms for Riot. We watched in silence as the flames soared into the sky. After a while, we heard less commotion from the firefighters and the smoke around us grew white and wispy.

A very red-faced PIO barreled toward me. “I need you to stay out of the house until our investigator has completed the investigation.”

I wiped my sooty hands on my pants. “Your guys wouldn’t have found my cat. Riot would have been scared to death by the way they look. I didn’t have a choice.”

She told me the fire investigator had arrived, and under no circumstances was I to enter the home without her permission.

Lilly held Riot tight against her chest.

“Thought you hated this cat,” I joked.

“Whatever, Mom,” she said.

A small, thickset, woman with short hair approached.

“Mrs. Callahan?”

“It’s Ms. I’m the owner.”

“Good news, Ms. Callahan. The rear quadrant of the roof and attic sustained most of the damage. The firefighters are checking the ceiling of the second floor now, for hot spots. I think you got lucky.”

“It didn’t spread?”

She smiled her assurances. “They’re going to clean up here and have a final look around. They’ll let me know when it’s safe to go in.” She stuck out a hand. “I’m Tasha Jackson, fire investigator. I work with these goofballs.” She grinned.

I shook her hand.

In the background, firefighters wrapped hoses. A couple of them worked the hydrant. Another walked the perimeter of my home. Instead of the burble of radios, most of them had ditched the headgear. A man got out of the black SUV and strode toward the PIO. After a few minutes of speaking with her, he approached me. He introduced himself as the Battalion Chief, told me he was sorry the fire had interrupted such an important occasion, and if there was anything they could do…to call the PIO. She wiggled her fingers at me, then went to talk to the camera crews and TV reporters that had crashed the scene. His expression somber, the Battalion Chief handed me his business card.

“If you need them, Red Cross services are available for three nights at a local motel and $600 gift cards for each displaced person. Please contact your insurance company immediately, they’ll do their own investigation.”

I gave him a blank look and took his card.

“Our investigator will talk about next steps, and ask you some questions to complete her report. Please remember not to go inside the area of damage alone, Ms. Callahan. Do you have somewhere to stay?”

With a sigh, I glanced over my shoulder toward my compact, office on the corner of Worthington Avenue and my property. I could stay in the office guest bedroom, and Lilly could stay at my neighbor’s house. “Yeah. We do. Is the…do you think the bedrooms in my house are okay? Can we get some clothes?”

He yelled a couple of names and asked them to check. They walked toward my house. The porch that stretched across the front of my house looked as if someone couldn’t decide whether to drown it or blow it up.

The public information officer waved off the reporters as she walked in my direction. One of the firefighters stared at me so long it became uncomfortable. I groaned. Was he one of them? A cult fan of the ‘Mercy’s Miracle’ persona? Why had I thought it was a good idea to write a book? After the publisher’s marketing department flew me all over the country for publicity events, the book hit the bestseller list and stayed there. The story of my survival and struggle to re-create my life had developed a rabid following.

I gave the firefighter a hard stare. He dropped his gaze. Reporters screamed questions at me from a distance. The PIO did her best to keep them under control.

I longed for a normal life.

My mind flew back. I closed my eyes, remembering.

The first few days, waking up in the hospital panicked and breathless and unable to move; the second week, when I’d begun to see flickers of light, the third week, when my fingers twitched and hope sprang to life. Neurology interns stealing in and out of my room at odd hours to see the ‘miracle’ restoration. I remembered my daughters’ first visits and the terrified looks on their faces when they realized I didn’t remember them. The fourth and fifth weeks, when physical therapists did everything they could to help restore my mobility and speech.

I could still visualize the reporters closing in on me. Waving their microphones in my face before I could even form a coherent sentence. I remembered watching my mom herding my daughters to my room on the fifth floor of the hospital, and the television crews that formed a tight knot around them as they made their way to the entrance of the hospital.

My youngest daughter had burst into my hospital room with an excited smile. “Reporters are dying to talk to you, Mom! Get ready.”

I rubbed my eyes and sighed.

Reporters were a plague to be avoided, now.

“Olivia? Are you okay?” The PIO looked at me in concern.
I blinked. “Sorry. Yeah. I’m okay.”

She held out her cell. “Create contact info for me?”

I entered my number, and my neighbor Callie’s, for good measure. The two firefighters that had inspected the bedrooms returned with a thumbs-up. “Bedrooms look good. Stairs are intact.”

The PIO smiled at me, tilted her head toward the reporters. “I didn’t realize you were that Olivia Callahan.”

I attempted a smile. She was trying to be nice. She had no idea that I hated the notoriety.

She handed me her card. “If you need anything. I mean it.” She left.

Lilly put her hand on my shoulder. “Mom? Everybody’s leaving. Now what?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. How do I accept this new reality?

***

Author Bio

Kerry Peresta is the author of the Olivia Callahan Suspense series. “The Torching,” book three, releases March, 2023, and books four and five in 2024 and 2025. Her standalone suspense thriller, “Back Before Dawn,” releases May, 2023. Additional writing credits include a popular newspaper and e-zine humor column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009—2011); the short story “The Day the Migraine Died,” published in Rock, Roll, and Ruin: A Triangle Sisters in Crime Anthology, articles published in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, South Carolina Writers Association, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Kerry is the mother of four adult children, and spent thirty years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, copywriter, and editor. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her working out, riding her bike or kayaking, enjoying the beaches of Hilton Head Island, or cuddling her two cats, Agnes and Felix. She and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island in 2015.

Social Media Links

www.KerryPeresta.net
Goodreads
BookBub – @kerryperesta
Instagram – @kerryperesta
Twitter – @kerryperesta
Facebook – @klperesta

Purchase Links

Amazon

Goodreads

***

KINGSUMO GIVEAWAY LINK

https://kingsumo.com/g/xp3nxk/the-torching-by-kerry-peresta

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Deep Tide by Laura Griffin

Book Description

With two brothers on the police force, Leyla Breda is well aware of the rising crime in her small beach town, but she never expected it to show up on her doorstep. When Leyla finds one of her employees murdered in the alley behind her coffee shop, she’s deeply shaken, and as a new law enforcement officer in town begins to circle her place of business, her instincts only sharpen.

Sean Moran is on an undercover assignment. The seaside community of Lost Beach may look like a picturesque postcard, but his team suspects it’s a point of intersection for several crime syndicates that the FBI has been investigating for years. Even so, when the brash and beautiful Leyla Breda starts bossing him around, he’s immediately intrigued. He knows her brothers want him to back off, but every time he sees her, he feels more of a spark.

Leyla’s connections in the local community and Sean’s skills allow them to go deeper into the case together than they would be able to go alone. But when a single crime spirals into something much darker, Sean’s carefully planned mission takes a deadly turn.

***

Elise’s Thoughts

Deep Tide by Laura Griffin is the fourth book in the “Texas Murder Files” series. As with the other three, readers will not be disappointed. The stories have likeable characters and intense action.

The heroine Leyla Breda is the sister of two local police officers, Joel, and Owen. She meets the hero, FBI Special Agent Sean Moran, at the wedding of her brother Joel. But Sean is also there as an undercover agent to investigate a tech billionaire believed to be associated with multiple crime syndicates.

Leyla runs both a popular coffee shop and a pastry shop. After finding that one of her employees was brutally murdered, Leyla and Sean team up to find the killer. She puts herself in dangerous situations which increase exponentially when she tries to help Sean with the undercover mission.

Readers are awarded a bonus because there is not just one strong heroine in the story, but two. Nicole Lawson is assigned as the lead detective on the case. She is young, the only woman on the police force, and has great instincts. At first, she and Sean butt heads, but over time they realize they can trust each other and begin to work together. Nicole and her partner Emmett discover that the murder could be linked to a case Sean is working on.

Along with the budding romance between Sean and Leyla, there is intense action, suspense, and chemistry between characters that are off the charts. Readers will have to hold on to their hats as Griffin takes them on a thrilling roller coaster ride.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: The idea for the story?

Laura Griffin: The main character has been in previous books in the series. Readers wanted to know when Leyla would get a book. This is her story, but also pulls together all the other characters from previous books. Thus, a wedding between Joel and Miranda where Leyla is the chef who caters the wedding. It was a lot of fun to write.

EC: You made Leyla a chef, are you a cook?

LG: My mother-in-law used to be a caterer. I did some research about working in an industrial kitchen and took some cooking classes as well. I learned how to decorate a cake. This was one of my most favorite forms of research. One of the things I learned to make was a puffy French sandwich cookie called Macaron. They are tricky to make. I am a cook but not a gourmet cook like Leyla.

EC: How would you describe Leyla?

LG: She is guarded and does not wear her emotions on her sleeve. She is cynical when it comes to relationships. Sometimes she is prickly, competitive, and controlling. Leyla uses food to express her love for people.

EC: How would you describe Sean?

LG: Very determined and smart.

EC: What about the relationship between her and Sean?

LG: She is immediately attracted to him. Sean can chip away her hard exterior. He is protective of her but not in the same way as her brothers. They want to shield her from everything. He was tenacious while she was evasive. She does not have a lot of trust in men. At first, she writes Sean off, but he is persistent.

EC: There was a scene in the book where she jumps forty feet into water -is that realistic?

LG: I did some research, and it is possible without getting severely injured. It depends on the circumstances and how someone falls.

EC: Inner law enforcement rivalry?

LG: I had the rivalry with my characters Nicole, who is on the police force, and Sean, who is FBI. She thought he was territorial, pushy, possessive, and petty. She has worked with the FBI in the past and found them to be very controlling, but Sean shows her he will share information. The investigation moved forward because of their partnership. He dispelled the stereotypic FBI agent.

EC: Encrypted phone apps?

LG: It is based on something that really happened. There are encrypted phone apps used by criminal organizations to shield themselves. It is a double edged sword. It can also shield journalists who are investigating these criminal organizations. The reporter in the story shows how he uses these apps that protects him, where he is invisible. This is how a lot of technology is used: either for good or nefarious reasons. This is a moral gray area.

EC: The next books?

LG: It is titled, The Last Close Call, a stand-alone suspense novel. It takes place in central Texas with the topic of genetic genealogy. The heroine uses DNA to trace people. It comes out in October.

The next book in “The Texas Murder File Series” is Nicole and Emmett’s story, out in the spring.

THANK YOU!!

***

+10

Feature Post and Book Review: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Book Description

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27833670-dark-matter?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=WC5EKSgQDH&rank=1

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch is an exciting mash-up of sci-fi, technothriller, suspense, action, and romance that grabbed me from page one and the next thing I knew the sun was coming up. WOW!

Jason Dessen is a physicist who teaches at a local college. His wife Daniela gave up her career in art to teach private lessons and stay home with their son, Charlie, when they found out she was pregnant fifteen years ago. They are an average, but happy couple and family. Jason goes to the local bar by his brownstone to congratulate his former roommate on winning a prestigious scientific award and on his way home he is abducted. Then….(Sorry, but you have to read or listen to the book to experience the rest of this rollercoaster ride and have your mind blown.)

This story is such a great mix of genres and if you are worried about not liking sci-fi, don’t be because this is also a story of the roads not taken in our lives, second chances and love. There are a few times when the explanation of some the principles of physics slows the pace a bit, but I like these nerdy types of discussions about metaverses and parallel universes. You can skim them and not miss anything important in the overall plot. This is a story that I suggest you make time for because you are going to keep turning the pages.

I highly recommend this amazing cross genre book and I will definitely be checking out more of this author’s work!

***

About the Author

Blake Crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His novels include the New York Times bestseller Dark Matter, and the internationally bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, which was adapted into a television series for FOX. Crouch also created the TNT show Good Behavior, based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. His latest book is Recursion, a sci-fi thriller about memory, and will be published in June 2019. He has written more than a dozen novels that have been translated into over thirty languages and his short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Crouch lives in Colorado with his family.

Social Media Links

Website: https://blakecrouch.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blakecrouchauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/blakecrouch1

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/blake-crouch