This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Please click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Showing posts with label crime fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime fiction. Show all posts
Thursday, August 15, 2024
The Lonely Australian of the Asian Night
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Please click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Monday, February 5, 2024
Shooter's - Book Tour
A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 8
Crime Fiction
Date Published: 1/8/2024
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
And the Devil Walks Away
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Shooters! - Teaser
A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 8
Crime Fiction
Date Published: 1/8/2024
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Shooters!
A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 8
Crime Fiction
Date Published: 1/8/2024
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Crime Paradise
Noir Crime/Murder Mystery
Date Published: December 12, 2023
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
After his girlfriend ditches him at a concert, private investigator Boise Montague makes the latest bad mistake in a long line of them. Only this time, instead of waking up with a hangover and some woman he doesn’t know, he wakes up with a hangover on a Caribbean beach, along with three women...
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Sister! Book Tour
A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 7
Crime Fiction
Date to be Published: Dec 5, 2022
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
What do you do when you find out your twin sister is a stone-cold killer? Love her anyway!
Monday, December 5, 2022
Sister! - Release Blitz
A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 7
Crime Fiction
Date to be Published: Dec 5, 2022
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
What do you do when you find out your twin sister is a stone-cold killer? Love her anyway!
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Sister! a Natalie McMasters Mystery
A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 7
Crime Fiction
Date to be Published: Dec 5, 2022
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
The Worst Kind of Truth
Detective
Katie MacLeod has her hands full.
It has been four years since her promotion to detective, and after paying her
dues in property crimes investigations, she has made it to the Major Crimes
unit. This is where the highest profile cases land—homicides, robberies,
serious assaults, and sexual assaults.
Katie catches two rape cases almost back-to-back. One victim is a prostitute
with an unknown suspect… who Katie fears may be gearing up for more assaults.
The other victim is a college student who has accused her boyfriend, a popular
baseball player, of raping her at a party.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
The Orientation of Dylan Woodger
Solving mysteries is never easy. Dealing with an infuriated mob boss and acute amnesia only makes it worse.
"The Orientation of Dylan Woodger" is the story of a young man who is torn between his capacity to do evil and his desire to do what’s right. This book explores racism and feminism, and addresses controversial topics such as male rape, hate crimes, and misogyny toward women. Readers may be disturbed by the characters, but the book aspires to be hopeful, as these characters ultimately succeed in finding some measure of humanity.
Sunday, August 8, 2021
Killers - Blitz
#6 of the Natalie McMasters Mysteries
Crime Fiction
Release Date: Aug 9, 2021
Her dead father once asked, “What did you do to make God sad, Nattie?”
Natalie McMasters is a twentysomething college student who just wants to get on with her life, and she’s got to wonder. Her dear friend lies dead and the crazed killer responsible now has Nattie on his short list. Her only choice? Cancel him before he cancels her!
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Killers - Cover Reveal
#6 of the Natalie McMasters Mysteries
Crime Fiction
Release Date: Aug 9, 2021
Her dead father once asked, “What did you do to make God sad, Nattie?”
Natalie McMasters is a twentysomething college student who just wants to get on with her life, and she’s got to wonder. Her dear friend lies dead and the crazed killer responsible now has Nattie on his short list. Her only choice? Cancel him before he cancels her!
Friday, February 19, 2021
Symphony Road
Symphony Road
by Gabriel Valjan
February 1-28, 2021 Tour
Synopsis:
Trouble comes in threes for Shane Cleary, a former police officer and now, a PI.
Arson. A Missing Person. A cold case.
Two of his clients whom he shouldn’t trust, he does, and the third, whom he should, he can’t.
Shane is up against crooked cops, a notorious slumlord and a mafia boss who want what they want, and then there’s the good guys who may or may not be what they seem...
Thursday, February 18, 2021
JC's Cure for Cancer
“Amelia Hartliss Mysteries” series, Book 17
Crime Fiction Mystery Thriller (with some Romance)
Date Published: April 11th 2018
What would you want the world to give you if you discovered the cure for cancer? Jeremy Ceremony thinks he's done just that, and he wants cash. Some people are calling him 'Jermy Cer-money' because of it. Strangely, Melia has never heard of the man, but several people she does know, love, and care about are afflicted by the disease and she would really like it if none of them died. Well, some do and some don't. Why that should be is a mystery. It's also a mystery that Salford seems overrun by people with grudges, eager to settle scores and balance the books, maybe quickly, while they are still alive. If only Mickey was here to help her, but Melia is alone - not for the first time - facing a terrifying old adversary, someone whose feelings for her have only just been realised. What is she going to do, now and in the future? Some people say she needs to move on, and apply for that top job at the Unit. But for the life of her, Melia can't seem to make up her mind about anything. Maybe Deputy Director Caulfield will have to do the thinking for her. (If only he would stop finding bombs in bags, life would be so much simpler - and last longer.)
Friday, September 18, 2020
The White Field
Crime Fiction, Urban Fiction, Noir, Drama
Release Date: September 18, 2020
Publisher: TouchPoint Press
The White Field is a fast-paced journey of a man, Tom, fresh out of prison and trying desperately to rebuild his life. But he is caught by mysterious, unseen forces beyond his knowledge or control...
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Justice Gone
I'm proud to present
Nicolas Lombardi Jr.'s 
award-winning book
JUSTICE GONE
WINNER OF FIVE AWARDS
2020 INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD
NEW YORK CITY BIG BOOK AWARD 2019
2019 AMERICAN FICTION AWARD
NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCY AWARD - Best
Legal Thriller of 2019
SILVER MEDAL WINNER 2019 READERS' FAVORITES
AWARDS
Chosen by Wiki.ezvid.com among their list
of 10 Gripping and Intelligent Legal Thrillers
The courtroom scenes are wonderfully
written...the characters are well described and the author paints a picture of
each in the mind of the reader...Strong plot, strong characters and a strong
writing style that I really enjoyed. This one is a definite
"thumbs-up." Strongly recommend! I look forward to reading additional
works by N. Lombardi, Jr.
Kim M
Aalaie, Author's Den
One of my favorite suspense novels of the year. It will make you question the legal system.
The Eclectic
Review
The courtroom action is excellent, trimmed to the most gripping parts of the trial, with plenty of emotional impact...a fairly realistic portrayal of the way small-town US society works...a fast-moving story with plenty of dramatic moments, and a big twist in the final pages.
Crime
Review
An act of police brutality hurls a small town into a turmoil of rage and fear, igniting a relentless witch hunt and ending in the trial of the decade.
"When a
homeless war veteran is beaten to death by the police, stormy protests ensue,
engulfing a small New Jersey town. Soon after, three cops are gunned down.
A multi-state manhunt is underway for a cop killer on the loose. And Dr. Tessa Thorpe, a veteran's counselor, is caught up in the chase.
Donald Darfield, an African-American Iraqi war vet, war-time buddy of the beaten man, and one of Tessa's patients, is holed up in a mountain cabin. Tessa, acting on instinct, sets off to find him, but the swarm of law enforcement officers gets there first, leading to Darfield's dramatic capture.
Now, the only people separating him from the lethal needle of state justice are Tessa and ageing blind lawyer, Nathaniel Bodine. Can they untangle the web tightening around Darfield in time, when the press and the justice system are baying for revenge?”
MY REVIEW...
Sometimes when you begin a book, you just know it’s going to be something you want to read. I’m not exactly sure how to describe that feeling. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an exciting scene that starts in the first paragraph. I think it is the flow of the writing, the kind that keeps your interest. This book had that flow, at least it did until it blasted me in the face with action. Wow, what a start for a novel. I was appreciative of his writing; mad at the story and the injustice. I was a little of everything and that is because the author and his words made me that way. That means having the talent to write mere words on paper and create a huge amount of emotion in your readers.
Injustice, unfairness, unwarranted violence, our cops and
our military, are easy subjects to write about and evoke emotions as I said in
the previous paragraph. They are also subjects to create interesting characters
around. That happened here and some really enjoyable characters came out of
this book. characters you hope to read more about.
Lombardi Jr. has at least 2 other books published that I can
see ratings on, and all seem to be well rated.
5 Stars of my very few 5-star reviews of the year.
Note: I have communicated with Nicolas Lombardi and I have to tell you, not only is he an excellent author but he's a good, kind man.
Like his Facebook page. Read his book and leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. He deserves it.
about Nicolas Lombardi Jr...
N. Lombardi Jr, the N for Nicholas, has spent over half his life in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, working as a groundwater geologist. Nick can speak five languages: Swahili, Thai, Lao, Chinese, and Khmer (Cambodian).
In 1997, while visiting Lao People's Democratic Republic, he witnessed the remnants of a secret war that had been waged for nine years, among which were children wounded from leftover cluster bombs. Driven by what he saw, he worked on The Plain of Jars for the next eight years.
Nick maintains a website with content that spans most aspects of the novel: The Secret War, Laotian culture, Buddhism etc. http://plainofjars.net
His second novel, Journey Towards a Falling Sun, is set in the wild frontier of northern Kenya.
His latest novel, Justice Gone was inspired by the fatal beating of a homeless man by police.
Nick now lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Visit his goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6982373.N_Lombardi_Jr_
BUY LINKS
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Goodreads
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository
Waterstones
Kobo
Amazon India
AUTHOR LINKS
Facebook
Goodreads
jhp phone +44 07596 324867
01962 735802
Monday, August 17, 2020
The Man in the Black Fedora
Tom Johnson will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
See below to sign up for the Giveaway.
I think this fun to read book teeters right on the edge of the black noir and pulp fiction genres. Or you could just look at it as a hard-boiled character playing out a mystery and only call it a good suspenseful mystery.
No matter your preference it still “boils down” to be a fast moving read with lots of action and twists and turns. Definitely reminds me of watching a good old movie. Maybe that’s why the “black noir” genre stuck in my mind. Worth your time to read for sure.
Monday, June 15, 2020
Wired by the FBI
See below to sign up for the Giveaway.
My review...
Was he a good or bad guy? Well, we know he was a good guy
maybe...but we know he was a bad guy too. I thought this was interesting reading
as a story even though it was basically a true account. I also thought there was
a lot of food for thought and coffee hour type discussion created by the
circumstances. It was interesting how many people had different opinions when I
described the gist of the character.
I suppose as far as a character is concerned you can already
tell that sometimes I liked him and sometimes not. Then again, I think maybe
that’s what this story is about. I think Painter “painted” a more than likely, very
realistic picture of both prison and of his true to life character. A character
that could never seem to pass up a deal, even when he knew it was wrong. It was
frustrating at times, not the reading...the character. Can’t change things to come
out as you’d like though...not to fit into a story that is real.
Overall, a gritty, but interesting read, well worth my time.
read an excerpt...
Something’s wrong, my intuition told me, as I stepped out of
the stairwell and into the chaotic frenzy of the main hallway running under
Division One of the Cook County jail.
Letter from the author CLICK HERE
about Glenn Painter...
Glenn Painter
is single and lives in Central Florida.
He became interested in writing at an early age but did not make it his
career until 2014 when he published his first book, Beyond the Sentence.
Glenn has written this story from the notes by the man who actually lived it. However,
Glenn has also founded a company, ‘Prisoner Civil Right Services.’ He is an advocate for incarcerated individuals who have had their rights violated. He is in constant contact with these individuals, their families and the council. Most of his stories are inspired by ‘factual events’ that have happened to these individuals. This makes his stories both fiction and non-fiction.
Glenn says that writing is very challenging, and you must love the trials and tribulations that come with it. He believes that patience, perseverance and determination are required essentials to see a book through to being published. The journey is just as important as the destination.
Website: http://www.gapainter.com
Amazon Author
Page:
https://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Painter/e/B00NETNKU6%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9875593.Glenn_Painter
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/author2663
Buy links:
https://www.amazon.com/Wired-F-B-I-Deal-Signed-Devil-ebook/dp/B07WS6DQBT
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wired-by-the-fbi-glenn-painter/1132504339
Additionally the book will be discounted during the tour. The eBook will be $2.99 and the print copy will be discounted 40% on Amazon.
More "stuff" about Glenn Painter...
Q/Can you describe your dream home?
A Big walk-in closet with a house built around it!
Q/If we were to come to your house for a meal, what would
you give us to eat?
Look at the spread I had for Christmas
Does the photo below answer this question????
Last year a man I sold 3 Cadillac’s too wrote a letter to my
boss. A few quotes are written
below. It’s too long to write the whole
thing.
I am a
retired Cadillac salesman having been in the business over 30 years.
I have
stumbled across a salesman I consider to be quite different.
His name
is Glenn Painter.
I have
bought 3 new Cadillacs from Glenn this past year and
I
have recommended him to many others.
I live
about 20 miles from the dealership, but Glenn is well worth the driving time.
He has
gone out of his way to make my wife and myself totally satisfied with our new
Car purchases.
He speaks
very articulate and is very knowledgeable.
If I
owned a dealership today, I wish I had a Glenn Painter as one of my
salespeople.
I found
out when I bought my cars from Glenn that he is also an author.
My hats
off to Glenn.
Q/Say your publisher has offered to fly you anywhere in
the world to do research on an upcoming book, where would you most likely want
to go?
I would want to go wherever the contents of the book took
place i.e./ the book I am working on now took place in a small town in the
State of Washington, so that’s where I should go to do research and talk with
people who might have any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the event
that took place.
Q/Who designed the book cover for the book touring?
Actually, I designed the book cover with great ideas and
input from my Mother. We both did
research on the internet until we came up with what we thought ‘fit the story
line’ the best.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Friday, June 5, 2020
Danger in Plain Sight
Danger in Plain Sight
by Burt Weissbourd
on Tour June 1-30, 2020
Synopsis:
It took fourteen years to construct a safe world for her and her son--and only one night for her ex to unravel it.
Celebrated Seattle restaurateur Callie James is more than a little thrown when her ex-husband, French investigative reporter Daniel Odile-Grand, shows up after fourteen years asking for her help. Even more disturbing: as she throws him out, Daniel is deliberately hit by a car, hurled through the front window of her restaurant--broken, bloody and unconscious. He flees from the hospital and breaks into Callie's apartment, where he passes out. Reluctantly, Callie hides him. When she gets back to her restaurant, two assassins walk in, insisting that she find Daniel for them by tonight or pay the consequences.
Overwhelmed and hopelessly out of her depth, Callie hires the only man she knows who can help her: Cash Logan, her former bartender, a man she had arrested for smuggling ivory through her restaurant two years earlier, and who still hasn't forgiven her.
The assassins blow up her restaurant. It's Callie's nightmare. And the worst is yet to come as she and her unlikely, incompatible ally discover that the most perilous dangers are far closer to home than they'd imagined.
Book Details:
Genre: Thriller
Published by: Blue City Press
Publication Date: May 5th 2020
Number of Pages: 224
ISBN: 1733438211 (ISBN13: 9781733438216)
Series: A Callie James Thriller, 1
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Read an excerpt:
It was 1:15 a.m. when Kelly and Gray returned. They must have been watching, because they came in as the last patron left. Will showed them to the bar, where Callie was waiting at her table. They sat facing her, different suits this time. Gray wore a thin gold square-link chain around his neck and a matching gold earring—stylish and expensive. Kelly wore a similar gold necklace with a floating diamond solitaire pendant. As Will was asking where their suits had been made, Callie interrupted. “A drink?”
“Another time,” Gray said, all business now. “Have you found Daniel Odile-Grand?”
“No, as I said before, I have no idea where he is.”
“That’s unacceptable,” he said matter-of-factly. He turned to his partner, who nodded, regretfully smiling her agreement.
Callie was prepared. Cash had told her to hit her “ice mode” button—a phrase he’d coined for her chilliness when irritated—at any sign of trouble. He’d recognize that and take it from there. “I beg your pardon?” she replied, classic subzero. She sipped her tepid San Pellegrino with lime.
“As I explained, urgent matters are at stake.” Gray waved his hand to include the dining room downstairs. “I’m told this fine restaurant is underinsured.”
“Yo, Callie.” Cash had materialized behind her, carrying chips and guacamole for the table. “I thought you said we were well insured.”
“We are, in fact, well insured,” she agreed.
Cash leaned in. His physical presence didn’t seem to faze these people. “So we don’t need insurance, then, we’re fine,” he pointed out.
Gray leaned in, too, measuring Cash, finding him wanting. “Listen carefully, cowboy, this is not your concern.” He said it slowly, advising a dim-witted child.
Kelly shook her head and spoke for the first time. “No, surely not.”
Cash’s eyes locked onto Gray’s. “Then this is your unlucky day, pardner. From now on, to get to the lady, you go through me.” He flashed a shit-eating grin. “Did you call me Cowboy?”
Gray grinned ever so slightly. Kelly smiled, picture perfect.
“Cowboy?” Cash repeated, frowning now as he emptied the bowl of guacamole on Gray’s cream-colored silk suit.
Gray was up, going for his gun. He fell to the floor, writhing, when Andre planted his metal prosthetic in the hit man’s groin. Cash already had Kelly’s arms pinned at her sides. Andre took her gun from its shoulder holster and trained it on Gray, who was on the floor, covered with guacamole.
“Let this go,” Cash told Gray. “You don’t want a war. Not with me.”
“Nice suit,” Andre added, and lifted Gray’s gold necklace with the black metal toe of his prosthetic leg. “Love the bling.”
More from Danger in Plain Sight
Cash closed his eyes. He had to do something to divert his mind from these horrific insects. He turned away, stretched his sore arms, flexed his tense back, focusing on Callie. Callie James . . . Okay, it was working. Picturing her face, the corners of his mouth turned up and his spirits soared.
Callie James . . . Why did he feel so wholly in love with her?
He stood, arms extended behind him, as he considered his on-again, off-again history with women.
Women found him attractive, and he’d been with many of them. His relationships, however, rarely lasted as long as he expected. There was some part of himself that he held back, and women sensed this and eventually moved on or asked for more of a commitment than he could make. Over time, he realized that it wasn’t a part — like a piece — but rather some portion of his unusual intensity. He understood that he was very accepting of other people and only offered as much as a woman looked for — some essential emotional minimum — to sustain the relationship. It wasn’t a conscious decision. It was a strong, keenly sensitive person’s way of protecting a partner from unwanted, possibly unsettling intensity. It’s who he was. Everything that he did, he did well but sparingly. So in some way he didn’t understand, he was choosing women who were less intense than he was.
Callie was the first woman he’d ever been with who demanded one hundred percent at all times. She was relentless, and even when she wasn’t aware of it, every bit as intense as he was. He didn’t hold anything back with her — yet she always wanted an explanation, an elaboration, an argument, or an answer to a difficult question. She’d never idealized him, that’s for sure. And he never pretended with her. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but the out-of-the-blue way this had happened between them, the strength of it, was something entirely new for him. Did he trust it? Yes, unequivocally. Did he know why? Yes, unequivocally again — it was because Callie James could never be untrue to herself.
Cash sat down, and turning back, he watched the horrible insects squirming in the jar.
No, he couldn’t lose her. Not now.
He opened the back door and then led Christy up the stairs to apartment 2D. Will opened the apartment door, held it for her. Christy came through the door into the living room. Will closed the door behind her.
“Christy,” Callie called from where she’d been standing behind the door.
When Christy turned, confused, Callie whispered, “You miserable bitch,” and she fired two barbed, dart-like electrodes from her Taser into Christy’s chest. The electrodes created a circuit in the body, essentially hijacking the central nervous system, causing neuromuscular incapacitation.
Christy fell to the floor, writhing in uncontrollable muscle spasms. When the writhing stopped and she’d curled into the fetal position, Callie and Will cuffed her hands behind her back.
When they were able to get her on her feet, Callie said, “We’re trading you for Cash Logan and Amjad Hasim.”
“What are you talking about?”
Callie slapped her, as hard as she was able. The blow tore Christy’s lower lip, drawing blood, and bruised her cheek. Callie hadn’t planned to do that—it was her second time, and she’d never hit anyone nearly so hard in her life—but red-hot rage was coursing through her veins. She was trembling, though her ever-present anxiety had receded, and she sure as hell didn’t feel helpless.
“Are you crazy?” Christy cried out.
“Don’t even try that. I know what you and Avi have done—to Daniel, to my restaurant, to my friend Doc. You almost killed us all on the boat. And now you have Cash, damn you!”
Christy’s face changed; she got it—Callie had somehow put it together. “You low-life skanky cunt, I’ll kill you myself.” Christy spit in Callie’s face.
Callie slapped her again, a fierce crack, astonished, yet again, by the rage she felt welling inside. And in that moment, she understood that her usual internal restraints—her rules and regulations—were no longer in place. It was as if an anvil had been cut loose from around her neck.
Blood dripped from Christy’s lip, her left eye was partially closed, and tears streamed down her face.
Callie stepped closer. “If anything happens to Cash, if you hurt him again, I’ll kill you, Christy Ben-Meyer. I swear that on my son’s life.”
Five minutes later Christy was standing on a stool in the center of the room. Her hands were cuffed behind her back. Her feet were bound. Her mouth was covered with duct tape. There was a noose around her neck that was tightly tied off to the pair of sturdy eyehooks that Will had screwed into the ceiling beam earlier. Christy’s head was tilted back and up; the rope was that tight. Another rope was tied to the leg of the stool. If the stool were pulled out from under Christy’s feet, she would hang.
Callie held a handgun to Christy’s kneecap.
Will was shooting a video with Callie’s iPhone.
Callie spoke to the camera. “Avi Ben-Meyer, I promise you that I will shoot out Christy’s left kneecap in fifteen minutes if you haven’t arranged the exchange with Itzac by then. In thirty minutes, I’ll shoot out her other kneecap and hang her. Believe me on this — if Cash Logan is hurt in any way, I’ll torture her without mercy before she dies.” Callie nodded, done. She walked to a corner of the room, fighting for breath. Dear God! What had she just said? Torture Christy? Damn it, if they hurt Cash . . . She gasped — she’d never even known that she could have feelings like that.
Will placed a calming hand on her back, and he gave her the phone. Callie noted the time, then sent the video to Itzac.
More from Danger in Plain Sight
The martinis arrived, each one with an extra inch of refill in a glass tumbler. “The angel’s share,” Cash explained. He raised his drink, a toast. “To you, Callie, to what you could become.”
She clicked his glass with hers. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You have a shot at extraordinary.”
“You think so?”
“Possibly. But it’s an entirely different kind of extraordinary than turning-me-over-to-the-cops-for-smuggling-erotic-netsuke-into-your-restaurant extraordinary.”
“I deserve that. Jesus what an unforgiving, righteous gal I was.” She raised a palm. “Your words. And you were right. I’m sorry.” She touched his arm. “I was mean-spirited, foolish—just plain wrong — and I’ll always regret that.”
“Suppose we let that go.” Cash raised his glass again.
She touched her glass to his. “Thank you.”
“Speaking of regrets, honestly, I never anticipated that this past week would be so difficult—the anxiety, hiding Lew, the mace, the damage to your restaurant, the explosives on the boat . . . It was especially hard to lose Doc . . .” He let it drift.
She nodded, found his eyes. “I misjudged you early on . . . Conventional thinking sometimes blinds me—how you look, how you dress, what your job is. Long story short, you’re not at all what you seem. I listened carefully to you with Detective Samter today. You’re so smart, so able in the world. And in your way, though you’d never admit it, you try to get it right. Yes, you present whatever you’re proposing as practical, a calculated, opportunistic thing. What I’m learning, though, is that with you that’s also, as you see it—after carefully weighing pros and cons—the best for all involved. Or as I would say it, theright thing. How you get there is often confusing to me, but you do get there, way ahead of me, and, well, I admire you.”
“Thank you . . . That’s a two-way deal.” Cash watched her, surprised by her expressiveness. “Truthfully, this past week, I underestimated you. You’ve been right there, as hard as that must have been for you. You kept defying my expectations. Just when I was ready to give up on you, you did the smart thing, the hard thing, under protest, but you did it. And now, I’m watching you in the eye of a serious storm, just when I’d expect you to cave in, fall apart. But no, you manage. You even stand tall. Callie, you have a fine, strong heart.”
She smiled. “I’m a restaurateur. I never knew what to do outside my restaurant. I was always afraid.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“It took a lot of work and a huge amount of energy to accomplish that deception. I mean you can’t imagine what it was like for me to find you — ask for your help — at the Dragon. It was all I could do to look at you, to keep even a semblance of composure.”
“And that’s changing?”
“Yes, I think so. I hope so.”
“How did this happen?”
“It’s you, Terry.” She looked at him, eyes serious. “In your tenacious, patient way, you dragged me—kicking and screaming—out into the world, step by baby step, and though it’s every bit as frightening and even more unsettling than I imagined it, I’m okay with it. Yeah, I’m even getting my sea legs.”
“Bravo, then, Callie James. To both of us.”
She raised her glass. They toasted silently.
“Truthfully, Cash, at times I even like it out here.”
“Well, it suits you.” Cash watched her smile.
“I even like talking with you . . . And I was never a talker.”
“I’m guessing we have some great, contentious conversations ahead of us.”
“I like the idea of that.”
“Likewise.”
“Cash and Frosty, tête-à-tête.”
He took her small, delicate hands in his big, busted-up mitts.
Their kiss was tender, sweet, Cash thought. After, there were tears in Callie’s eyes.
***
Excerpt from Danger in Plain Sight by Burt Weissbourd. Copyright 2020 by Burt Weissbourd. Reproduced with permission from Burt Weissbourd. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Burt Weissbourd is a novelist and former screenwriter and producer of feature films. He was born in 1949 and graduated cum laude from Yale University, with honors in psychology. His book, Danger in Plain Sight, published on May 15th 2020, is the first book in his new Callie James thriller series. His earlier books include Inside Passage, Teaser, Minos, and In Velvet, all of which will be reissued in Fall 2020.
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