Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The 13th Hour : Chaos by Richard Doetsch

The 13th Hour: Chaos

by Richard Doetsch

September 5 – 30, 2022  Virtual Book Tour

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE 13th HOUR : CHAOS by Richard Doetsch on this Partners In Crime Virtual 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. Good luck on the giveaway and enjoy!

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Book Description

A Mesmerizing Thriller Told in Reverse

On a warm Fourth of July in the quiet town of Byram Hills, Nick Quinn watches as his wife and daughter die in an unprecedented terrorist attack. Amid the disaster, Nick is approached by a dying friend who hands Nick an antique pocket watch.

Emotionally shattered and desperate, Nick takes the watch and is shocked to find himself propelled back in time to where he was an hour ago, before the attack on his town. Quickly stopping the course of events, his relief is shattered as life spirals in an even more tragic direction.

At the top of each hour, the watch sends Nick back two hours to live one hour again, a backwards march to relive each hour of his day. A twelve-hour journey providing precious but limited time to protect Julia and Katy and uncover the source of the ever growing threat.

But each time Nick thinks he’s solved the crime and secured the future, he uncovers new levels of deception, agony, and betrayal, ultimately revealing a far more sinister plot with unexpected players and grim, global consequences.

If Nick hasn’t set things right by the 13th hour, not only will his wife and daughter be lost forever to the chaos, but an even greater catastrophe will be unleashed upon the world.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62353512-13th-hour-chaos?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=PGr3Tqi85h&rank=11

The 13th Hour Chaos

Genre: Time Travel Thriller
Published by: Permuted Press
Publication Date: May 3rd 2022
Number of Pages: 384
ISBN: 1637583060 (ISBN13: 9781637583067)
Series: A Nick Quinn Thriller; The 13th Hour Series

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE 13th HOUR: CHAOS (The Nick Quinn Thriller Book #2) by Richard Doetsch is an exciting and fast-paced time travel thriller featuring Nick Quinn. This story is the second in the series but can easily be read as a standalone thriller.

Nick Quinn is celebrating with his family and friends at the town’s Fourth of July party when one of his best friends appears telling Nick to take his backpack and pocket watch as he dies from a gunshot wound at his feet. Nick knows what the pocket watch does, but before he can even consider going back in time to save his friend, a terrorist attack leaves everyone he loves dead.

As Nick travels back two hours, he begins to discover betrayal, deception and a plot that will have worldwide consequences. Each time he goes back in time, he discovers another unexpected twist in the hours he repeats. Unless he can set everything right before The 13th Hour his wife and daughter could be lost forever and the world thrown into war.

I really loved this edge-of-your-seat thriller. The time travel plot was unique with the characters only able to go back at two-hour intervals and not just anywhere in time. The plotting was done in a unique way which had Nick and Zane having to keep changing what they were doing in the future because of the changes they caused in the past. It sounds confusing, but as you read it, it is makes sense and keeps you turning the pages. Nick is a likable protagonist with close friends who are always there for him and his family no matter the consequences and the antagonists were all deceptive with personal motives which keep you guessing. Zane is a great pivotal character that I hated, felt sorry for and then was happy for him in the end.

This time travel thriller is well worth the read and I hope there will be more in this series.

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Excerpt

from Chapter 1

…[A side door opened, and a man stumbled through, looking barely coherent, and fell into Nick’s arms. His clothes were wet, his salt-and-pepper hair damp. Shocked, Nick realized he knew the man and knew him well. It was his close friend Paul Dreyfus, who had been at the top of the guest list and uncharacteristically late.

Nick supported his friend’s sagging weight and led him to a large couch on the far side of the lobby, where Dreyfus collapsed heavily. 

“Are you okay?” Nick asked Paul. “What the hell happened?”

“Listen to me,” Dreyfus whispered.

As Nick let go of his friend, he saw blood covering his hands. Quickly, Nick ripped open Dreyfus’s shirt, revealing what looked like a bullet wound to the chest. 

“Oh my God,” Nick breathed. “Julia?”

Julia was immediately at his side. 

“Bonnie,” Julia turned to the babysitter, “could you take Katy to the bathroom in the back?”

Bonnie averted her eyes as she pulled Katy down through the back hall.

“What happened?” Nick asked his friend again.

Dreyfus pulled the strap of a dark leather satchel from about his neck and shoulder and looped it over Nick’s. “Listen to me, Nick. Listen very carefully….” Dreyfus paused to breathe, struggling to get the words out. “Don’t let that bag out of your sight…. He’s coming for you. He’s…coming for Julia.”

“Who? What are you talking about?”

Dreyfus reached into the bag and withdrew a single picture that made Nick’s blood run cold. It was an image of a man floating against the rocky shoreline of a lake, water lapping at his body, his face having lost all color, the skin white and curdled like rotted cheese, lips blue, cracked, and wet. There was no question that the man had died a painful death. In fact, he had almost surely drowned, his wet body and vacant stare leaving little doubt about the means of his demise. 

Nick tried to catch his panicked breath. He knew the man, knew him well, better than anyone: he was looking into his own lifeless eyes.

“You all die….” Dreyfus whispered.

Julia turned to Nick, her skin flushing red as confusion filled her eyes. “Nick?” Her voice trembled.

Nick stared at Dreyfus, the impossibility of his words echoing in his head.

“You, Julia….” Dreyfus struggled to draw another breath. “Katy. Everyone.”

Nick turned and looked through the glass doors at the gathered crowd, which listened in rapt attention to the senator’s speech. Everyone Nick cared about was here, most listening to political rhetoric they couldn’t care less about. They were all attending as a favor to Nick and Julia.

“When?” Nick whispered to his dying friend.

Dreyfus seized Nick’s hand, locking eyes with him. “It’s all in the bag.”

“What’s in the bag?”

“You have to find me….” Dreyfus’s words sounded like a plea. 

“I don’t understand…find you where?”

“I’m so sorry—”

A sudden roar exploded from the room, cheers and applause, as if the senator had concluded the speech of his life. The rising voices of the now-standing audience only amplified Nick’s dread.

And then a rumble shook the world, deep and foreboding. 

Another rumble, an explosion, like a bomb, and then another and another and another….

The crowd fell silent, eyes darting about in confusion. New York was not the land of earthquakes, but the shaking earth said otherwise. Deep heavy rumblings seemed to roll the flagstone floor.

“Nick?” Julia looked around the lobby in fear as a hum began to grow. “What the hell is that?”

As the rumble grew in intensity, a collective panic took over the reception room, chaos filling the air as everyone tried to flee from the unknown with incoherent screams of fear, cramming through the doors to escape whatever danger was approaching.

The deep roar grew deafening, drowning out the screams, shaking the castle’s foundations. And then, as if hell had been unleashed, the reception room’s outer windows shattered; incomprehensibly, a wall of water drove through the space, rising toward the ceiling in seconds. Like a tidal wave, the barrage of water tore the room apart. Tables, chairs, fixtures, and carpets spun into a churning maelstrom. Men and woman were scooped up, helplessly tossed about, bodies hurled and twisted into dark whirlpools.

The light of day dimmed as the wall sconces winked out. Emergency lights reacted to the loss of power, their bright halogen rays flicking on, impervious to the water’s assault within their clear plastic housings, their beams like shafts of lightning, piercing the murky, rising, roiling waters. 

An enormous howl of wind groaned as air was driven from the building, its gusts sweeping the water’s surface into blinding mist. Husbands and wives, friends and neighbors were quickly swept away, their screams doused as they were pulled under and sucked out through the narrow window openings like water through a drain. 

From behind the thick glass doors, Nick and Julia watched in horror as their friends drowned, their twisted bodies becoming human flotsam and jetsam before being sucked out through the shattered picture windows on a violent tide into oblivion.

The lobby had already become a deep pool, the waters rising to Nick and Julia’s shoulders. Then, as if a tornado had struck, the glass doors were torn from their moorings and thrown into the tidal flow. A rush of water quickly rose toward the ceiling, sweeping Dreyfus’s body away.

Water filled the vestibule, its polished granite walls momentarily looking like an Italian pool. The couch where Dreyfus had lain, the tables and chairs splintered in the onslaught, all flushed through the main doors, carried on a raging current. 

“Katy!” Julia screamed. 

In the rising water, Nick swam for the bathroom where Katy and Bonnie had gone, the leather satchel looped about his body complicating the impossible task. The bathroom was at the far end of the vestibule, sequestered in a corner where the water’s attack had been delayed by the turns of the hallway. But the small, high windows now exploded, water pouring through as if from the spigots of heaven. 

Julia swam hard in the same direction, battling the raging waters that rose higher and higher. She fought with all her might, kicking and pulling against the current, but the suction created by the millions of gallons of flowing water took hold of her. Despite all her years of swimming, in spite of her natural strength, she was losing, drawn inch by inch toward the door where death awaited.

Nick caught hold of her hand, his other arm wrapped tightly around a chandelier overhead. They were pulled and tossed by the water as it rose, pushing them up against the ceiling. Holding on with all his strength, Nick pulled her to him, but the suction made her feel like a two-ton weight, straining his arms, his grip.

“Hold on!” Nick yelled as their heads banged the ceiling, the water continuing to rise around them.

“We have to get Katy!” Julia struggled to hold on as Nick fought with every fiber of his being to not let her slip away.

“Mommy!” Katy’s cry pierced the cacophony of churning waters.

“Katy!” Julia screamed back. “Mommy’s coming!” 

As the water pulled at them, Nick and Julia’s eyes locked in an unspoken understanding of what was happening. In order to get to Katy, to have any hope of saving her….

“Let me go,” Julia pleaded. “Save Katy, please. Please save Katy.”

Nick looked deep into his wife’s eyes; he couldn’t bear to do what she was asking. She was everything to him, his life, his heart. She was his soul.

“No,” Nick said. “Hold on.”

“It’s okay,” she said, holding his gaze. “Let me go.”

With her free hand, she grasped Nick’s fingers and gently pried them loose. 

And with their eyes still locked, she released Nick’s hand. Her body, caught in the suction, instantly disappeared.  

Despite the agony in his heart, Nick turned his body toward the bathroom. He reached and caught hold of one of the brass wall sconces mounted on the granite wall as the water continued its rise, only an inch of breathable air remaining. 

Nick plunged under, into the current. The brass sconces lined the wall leading to the bathroom like a horizontal ladder. Hand over hand he pulled himself along, fighting with all his might, his arms burning with the impossible effort.

He briefly surfaced. “Katy!” he screamed in the narrow airway as he gulped sweet oxygen. “I’m coming!”

But the force of the current, the draw of the millions of gallons of water flowing through the building, had grown tenfold. Sapped of strength, Nick dug deep within himself…he couldn’t let her die, he wouldn’t fail her.

“Peas, Daddy!” Katy cried from up ahead. “Peas.…”

As the rising water squeezed away the last bit of air, Nick took a deep breath and dived under again.

He spotted the door, its giant brass handle gleaming with the refracted beams of the emergency lights. The thick mahogany portal opened outward, seated against a heavy metal frame, its design still withstanding the building pressure of the rising waters. But Nick knew it wouldn’t hold for long, the waters were surely pouring under the door, through any and every crack as it sought the path of least resistance. 

“Daddy!”

Even under the churning water, Nick could hear Katy’s cry.

The violence of the current grew unbeatable. The weight of the satchel around his neck, like a bag of lead; his lungs burning, fighting the rush of water that pulled at him like a colossal magnet.

Nick reached for the handle of the door, his fingertips swiping the brass; straining for purchase, he planted his legs against the wall and used his last bit of strength to grasp the door.

The fire in his lungs pushed him to the brink, twinkling spots dancing before his eyes as his brain thirsted for oxygen.

And the suction caught hold of him, yanking him away, pulling him backwards toward the shattered windows.

With utter despair, his heart broken, having failed his wife and daughter, Nick knew he would join them in death.

Unable to resist, he gasped, and the water invaded his lungs….

And his world fell to darkness.]

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Author Bio

Richard Doetsch is the author of six international bestsellers published in twenty-eight countries, with several acquired for film and television. He is an adrenaline junkie with a passion for kitesurfing, skydiving, SCUBA diving, triathlons, and defying gravity in Zero G aircraft. He has served as CEO, president, and director in the real-estate industry, managing, creating, and preserving more than 50,000 units of affordable housing with an emphasis on social and community programs.

He is married to his childhood sweetheart, Virginia, who is the impetus and inspiration behind everything he writes.

Social Media Links

RichardDoetsch.com
Goodreads
BookBub
Instagram – @richarddoetsch
Twitter – @richarddoetsch
Facebook – @richarddoetsch

Purchase Links

Amazon  

Barnes & Noble 

Apple Books 

Goodreads

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KINGSUMO GIVEAWAY

https://kingsumo.com/g/1em5nv/the-13th-hour-chaos-by-richard-doetsch

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: When She Dreams by Amanda Quick

Book Description

Maggie Lodge, assistant to the reclusive advice columnist known only as Dear Aunt Cornelia to her readers, hires down-but-not-quite-out private eye Sam Sage to help track down the person who is blackmailing her employer. Maggie and Sam are a mismatched pair. As far as Sam is concerned, Maggie is reckless and in over her head. She is not what he had in mind for a client but he can’t afford to be choosy. Maggie, on the other hand, is convinced that Sam is badly in need of guidance and good advice. She does not hesitate to give him both.

In spite of the verbal fireworks between them, they are fiercely attracted to each other, but each is convinced it would be a mistake to let passion take over. They are, after all, keeping secrets from each other. Sam is haunted by his past, which includes a marriage shattered by betrayal and violence. Maggie is troubled by intense and vivid dreams–dreams that she can sometimes control. There are those who want to run experiments on her and use her for their own purposes, while others think she should be committed to an asylum.

When the pair discovers someone is impersonating Aunt Cornelia at a conference on psychic dreaming and a woman dies at the conference, the door is opened to a dangerous web of blackmail and murder. Secrets from the past are revealed, leaving Maggie and Sam in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance.

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Elise’s Thoughts

When She Dreams by Amanda Quick, is a story with lies, murder, blackmail, and drugs. This series takes place during the 1930’s in the small town of Burning Cove, California with some recurring characters.

The opening scene sets the atmosphere for the rest of the plot.  Maggie Lodge enters the office of Dr. Oxlade for a session about her lucid dreams. Unbeknownst to her, he gives her a drug called the enhancer. He is hoping to control her dreams, actions, and mind. As Maggie is fighting the effects of the drug, she barely escapes from the office.

Lucid dreams become almost a character in the story. People dreaming are aware that they are dreaming. During the dream someone may gain some amount of control over it to try to become aware of their consciousness.

Maggie must also deal with the fact that someone is blackmailing her employer, Dear Aunt Cornelia, an advice columnist. She hires private eye and former policeman Sam Sage to help find the blackmailer.  The investigation leads them to a conference on psychic dreaming where Maggie realizes Dr. Oxlade is also attending. It seems some women who were lucid dreamers are being killed.  As tensions rise and the murders increase, Maggie and Sam realize they are in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance. They enlist the help of the series recurring characters Raina Kirk, a private detective and investigator, plus Luther Pell, to find information that will help to connect all the murdered women.

The relationship between Maggie and Sam is a delight. Their snarky, intimate, verbal fireworks conversations are enjoyable. But they also realize there is a passionate chemistry between them. What they must overcome are the secrets kept from each other. Both are haunted by their pasts.

Once again readers will not be disappointed with this 1930s mystery. This intriguing and suspenseful story is full of twists. A bonus is how Quick intertwined the information about lucid dreaming into the story.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Amanda Quick: The story idea comes from the fact that I am personally intrigued with dreaming. One of the most interesting types is lucid dreaming where someone knows they are dreaming.  The goal is to control the dream and solve problems that someone could not solve while awake. For example, rewrite nightmares or sad dreams to find peace. This was a hot topic in the thirties. Now on online there are many people looking it up.  It is like waking up before falling off a cliff or in my case learning to fly.

EC: There are all types of dreams in the book, what are the differences?

AQ: Lucid dreaming is real. Astral projection is junk science, pure fantasy.  It is when someone thinks they can travel in their dreams as their soul moves to another location. Latent psychic senses have someone believing they have a psychic vibe yet are not aware of it. This is also a scam.

EC:  How would you describe Maggie?

AQ:  Maggie is a lucid dreamer who can control her dreams, which allows her to see things in a different light.  She is adventurous, outgoing, and a modern woman. She is very smart, independent, bold, a little reckless, unpredictable, and confident. Maggie wants to do the right thing and wants to find answers.

EC:  Why does she have an aversion to marriage?

AQ: She had a very close call when her fiancé wanted to marry her for her money and then he was going to send her off to an asylum. In those days it was not hard to get a woman committed against her will. This is why she is wary of marriage.

EC:  Sam Sage versus Sam Spade?

AQ: I did not even try to hide it and had fun playing off the character.  I was going for the iconic 1930s hardboiled private eye.  My character Sam Sage is much nicer and a lot more honorable. Sam Spade is from The Maltese Falcon, an American icon.  I put this quote in the book, Sam Spade is “arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic ass, with the moral code of an alley cat…he isn’t interested in justice…and a lousy detective.” His goal is to prove he is the smartest guy in the room. I wanted my character to be in the same occupation but with better personality traits.

EC:  How would you describe Sam Sage?

AQ:  He is really interested in justice and doing the right thing.  Sam is the classic good guy, very protective.  Some people see him as world weary and wise cracking.

EC:  What about the relationship between Maggie and Sam?

AQ:  They play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses.  She is reckless and he is a ‘by the books guy’.  They are very passionate about each other.  Each sees the underlying strength of the other and trusts each other.

EC:  Next books?

AQ:  It will be another Jayne Castle Dust Bunny book, a futuristic romantic suspense novel, titled, Sweet Water and the Witch, coming out September 30th.  The next Amanda Quick book is out a year from now, titled The Bride Wore White.  A woman wakes up in the honeymoon suite with a dead body next to her. Raina Kirk and Luther Pell have become the anchor characters for the series and will be in every book as cameo players.

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.