Thriller

Cul-de-Sac by Liz Crowe

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

Cul-de-sac

Synopsis (from Amazon):

Welcome to Connelly Court. A secluded, old money neighborhood, harboring a web of desires and deceit behind pristine facades and manicured lawns, where the lives of a group of neighbors, bound by their shared secrets and unconventional lifestyle, are about to unravel.

 Michael and Amelia Ross move into their dream home, and get drawn into the seductive allure. But their house once belonged to a family whose lives were seemingly ruined by their participation, which leads Amelia to question everything about her new-found friends. Suspicions run rampant as the close-knit group turns on each other. Lies, betrayals, and hidden agendas are revealed, ripping apart the fabric that once bound the group together.

 “Cul-de-Sac” is a dark tale of marriage, friendship, desire, and betrayal, where nothing is as it seems, and the truth may be more shocking than anyone could have imagined. Discover the twisted secrets of Connelly Court in this chilling domestic suspense novel that will leave you questioning just how well you truly know—or should know—your neighbors.

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The Water Tower by Amy Young

~ Erika K ~ 4 Comments

The Water Tower: A Lakeview Mystery by Amy Young

About The Water Tower

Synopsis:

Josie Ashbury was a successful Hollywood actress with a booming career—until an on-set breakdown sends her back to her small Ohio hometown to recover. Taking a job teaching at her old high school, Josie is beginning to put the pieces of her life back together when one of her students dies under suspicious circumstances. The police close the case quickly, without any real answers. Josie is determined to find the truth behind the girl’s death.

At the same time, Josie is battling demons of her own. As she faces debilitating insomnia that leaves her with gaps in her memory, she dives into the tangled secrets surrounding the investigation. When she finally unravels the web, she discovers that the truth lies much closer to home than she could have ever imagined.

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The Water Tower is a mystery/thriller about Josie, a former actress turned drama teacher in a small Ohio town, who finds the body of one of her students dead and decides to investigate.

This was an enjoyable read and I really appreciated Josie’s determination to do the right thing for the dead girl even when everyone else seemed ready to write her death off as an accident or suicide. She was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery even with everything with all of her own problems that she was trying to cope with. This was a good start to what looks like it may be a new series.

Read on for an excerpt from the book and your chance to win a copy!

Excerpt

She stood on the water tower, looking at the skyline she had only observed from the ground. You really could see the whole town from up here. Funny how your whole life can fit into one 360-degree glance. Peering down at the ground, she was no longer able to see individual blades of grass, all of them blurring into a sea of perfect emerald green. To her right was the roof of Lakeview High School, looking small from this vantage point. She felt as though if she leaned over far enough, she could almost touch it. But that was ridiculous; the school had to be several hundred feet away. Her vision came in and out of focus as she swayed, thinking about her life, her past, her future… Reaching out her slender arm, she twirled her wrist. She could hardly wait for graduation when, everyone said, “real life” would begin. “I can’t wait to get out of here,” her friends exclaimed, dreaming of big cities and even bigger lives in far-off places: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, anywhere but here. But she knew they would return, just like their parents, raising 2.5 kids with a Labradoodle and a balding husband in one of the best-little-suburbs in the country. Was it really so bad? She watched all these super-educated women who had given up their careers to stay home and clean up after the kids and drive to soccer practice, instead of changing the world as they’d so hopefully planned when plotting their escape years earlier. Was that her fate? Was that what awaited her now? Dozens of similar thoughts swirled and crashed like waves in front of her, mixing in a fantastic spray of colors, lights, and sounds.

About the Author

Amy Young is an author, comedian, and actor based in Cleveland. After spending a decade in Los Angeles working in the entertainment industry and writing her debut novel, The Water Tower, she returned to Ohio to be closer to family. Amy is working on her second book, a thriller, and in her free time she enjoys going to the theatre, bingeing reality TV, and spending time with her husband and many, many cats. She has a B.A. in English from Kenyon College.

Author Links

Webpage: http://www.authoramyyoung.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoramyyoung
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/authoramyyoung
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amypcomedy
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/AmyPYoung1
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/36651982.Amy_Young

Purchase Links Amazon Barnes & Noble Apple Books-A-Million Kobo IndieBound

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Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win a signed copy of The Water Tower and a bookmark

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS

July 5 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT

July 5 – StoreyBook Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST

July 6 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

July 6 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – SPOTLIGHT

July 7 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT

July 7 – Rebecca M. Douglass, Author – REVIEW

July 8 – Brooke Blogs – CHARACTER GUEST POST

July 8 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

July 9 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 10 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW

July 11 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

July 11 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT

July 12 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT  

July 13 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 14 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT

July 15 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT

July 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT

July 16 – Indie Author Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

July 17 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW

July 18 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – REVIEW

Dying Declaration by Solange Ritchie

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

About Dying Declaration

Synopsis:

Dr. Catherine “Cat” Powers is FBI Forensic pathologist and special agent with an uncanny sixth sense for bringing murders to justice.

During a vacation in Belize with her young son, Joey, Cat gets a phone call from her boss. Young prostitutes are being picked up, murdered and left for dead in the Florida Everglades. The first victim does not fit the killer’s modus operandi. She was a legal secretary working for the Fort Lauderdale based international law firm, Black and Knight.

As Cat investigates this and other deaths, they lead back to the firm’s henchmen and to its partners. With the help of another firm employee, Cat discovers a secret web of murder, illicit drugs, prostitution, sex trafficking, corruption and more. The firm’s partners intend to kill anyone who can lead the law back to them, including Cat.

As the body count grows, powerful people will make decisions that will change lives. Decisions that will destroy families. As Cat uncovers the conspiracy, only one partner, the mastermind, will become Cat’s ally. She will walk away, after seeing that the others are brought to justice.

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Misfire by Tammy Euliano

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Misfire CoverSynopsis:

A device that can save a life is also one that can end it

 Kadence, a new type of implanted defibrillator, misfires in a patient visiting University Hospital for a routine medical procedure—causing the heart rhythm problem it’s meant to correct. Dr. Kate Downey, an experienced anesthesiologist, resuscitates the patient, but she grows concerned for a loved one who recently received the same device—her beloved Great-Aunt Irm.

 When a second device misfires, Kate turns to Nikki Yarborough, her friend and Aunt Irm’s cardiologist. Though Nikki helps protect Kate’s aunt, she is prevented from alerting other patients by the corporate greed of her department chairman. As the inventor of the device and part owner of MDI, the company he formed to commercialize it, he claims that the device misfires are due to a soon-to-be-corrected software bug. Kate learns his claim is false.

 The misfires continue as Christian O’Donnell, a friend and lawyer, comes to town to facilitate the sale of MDI. Kate and Nikki are drawn into a race to find the source of the malfunctions, but threats to Nikki and a mysterious murder complicate their progress. Are the seemingly random shocks misfires, or are they attacks?

 A jaw-dropping twist causes her to rethink everything she once thought she knew, but Kate will stop at nothing to protect her aunt and the other patients whose life-saving devices could turn on them at any moment.

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Guest Post from Weldon Burge, Author of Harvester of Sorrow

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

Final Cover_Harvester of Sorrow_Weldon Burge (2)Synopsis: A whirlwind of tragic, terrifying events…
A vodoun priest is brutally slain in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
On American soil, a man stands atop his car—naked from the waist down—and suddenly succumbs to a mysterious death.
Within the silence of a state park, an abducted child is found dead; yet another in a series of similar slayings.
In the small city of New Warfield, ODs have skyrocketed from the use of cocaine tainted with an undetermined substance.
Detective Ezekiel Marrs may just have the wealth of strength and skills needed to fight these dark forces, to uncover the facts behind these hideous cases and how they relate to one another. With his team, Ezekiel takes on the immense task of putting the pieces together…making the connections that will hopefully solve this puzzle and stop the seemingly endless death and destruction.
But when Ezekiel and his fellow police officers find themselves facing two of the most vicious adversaries they’ve ever encountered, more lives hang in the balance as they battle to survive a deadly, inevitable confrontation with unimaginable evil.

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Spotlight – The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

9780593334232Synopsis:

Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found–but she’s still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting.

When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it’s an opportunity to start over with her three daughters–Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she’s frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed.

Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she’s initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers–except she’s still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she’ll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn’t realize just how much the truth will change her

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The Ice Coven by Max Seeck

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

The Ice Coven (Jessica Niemi, #2)Synopsis:

Investigator Jessica Niemi is in a race against time to find the link between a body with strange markings that has washed up on a frigid shore in Finland and two mysterious disappearances in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Witch Hunter.

Six months have passed since Jessica’s encounter with the mysterious serial-killing coven of witches and the death of her mentor Erne. Her nightmares about her mother and the witchcraft that undid her have only gotten worse, but she’s doing what she can to stay focused. Her homicide squad, now under new leadership, has been given a murder case and a new series of disappearances to investigate. A young woman’s corpse has washed up on an icy beach, and two famous Instagram influencers have gone missing at the same time.

The missing influencers and the murdered woman all have ties to a sinister cult. Jessica finds an eerie painting–of a lighthouse on a frigid island–as she investigates and under the picture is a gruesome poem detailing a murder. The nightmares about her dead mother have intensified and seem all too real, making Jessica wonder if the woman might be trying to tell her something about the killings. And as Jessica works frantically to solve her latest case, her terrifying past and the coven of witches that almost killed her shockingly reemerge and threaten to destroy her. 

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My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa – Excerpt

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

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Synopsis:

Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…

Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she’ll never live up to them.

Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma’s darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.

Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there’s no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place.

Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater danger than ever before?

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Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost by Lindsay Marcott – Excerpt, Guest Post, & Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

Mrs. Rochester's Ghost

About the Book

Title: Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost

Author: Lindsay Marcott

Release Date: August 1, 2021

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Summary

Jane has lost everything: job, mother, relationship, even her home. A friend calls to offer an unusual deal—a cottage above the crashing surf of Big Sur on the estate of his employer, Evan Rochester. In return, Jane will tutor his teenage daughter. She accepts.

But nothing is quite as it seems at the Rochester estate. Though he’s been accused of murdering his glamorous and troubled wife, Evan Rochester insists she drowned herself. Jane is skeptical, but she still finds herself falling for the brilliant and secretive entrepreneur and growing close to his daughter.

And yet her deepening feelings for Evan can’t disguise dark suspicions aroused when a ghostly presence repeatedly appears in the night’s mist and fog. Jane embarks on an intense search for answers and uncovers evidence that soon puts Evan’s innocence into question. She’s determined to discover what really happened that fateful night, but what will the truth cost her?

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Guest Post from Samiksha Bhattacharjee – Author of Legal Crime

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

Legal Crime Goodreads Synopsis:

Written by a thirteen-year-old author, this exciting and captivating page-turner transports you into the fascinating story of sixteen-year-old aspiring singer Fiona Watson who runs away from her family, oblivious to the dangers outside her shielded comfort zone. As she journeys through her new world, leaving her past behind and determined to find a new identity, she uncovers surprising secrets buried deep within her long ago…


How do her new friends link to her past? What secrets are they hiding behind their misleading smiles? How much of herself has she really left behind? And how will she cope when she realises that she has made a huge mistake… one that could ruin her forever? 

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