ASIN: B014RQXMPW 20 reviews: Ave 4.4 out of 5 stars.
AMAZON BLURB
KIDNAPPING … MURDER … REVENGE
Donna and Hunter Gates appear to be the perfect power couple. He’s a wealthy New Orleans City Councilman. She’s a popular news anchor for a local TV station. One night when Hunter comes home, Donna and their two small children are gone. He asks NOPD Detective Frank Renzi to find them. Renzi soon uncovers a tangled web of lies.
Donna and Hunter both have dark secrets, secrets they will do anything to hide. Renzi fears Donna may already be dead. A ransom demand raises more questions. Is this a kidnapping? A cover-up for murder? Payback for past misdeeds? When one hostage is found brutally murdered, Renzi must unravel the Gates family secrets and find the killer before it’s too late.
Susan Fleet is also a huge music lover, so check out her website and learn more about her HERE.
If you would like to check out some of my reviews of her work, check out the links below:
I LOVE Lauren Carr’s romantic mysteries and I am delighted to be able to share Killer in the Band with you today.
There is also an awesome giveaway, so be sure to enter!
INTERVIEW WITH LAUREN CARR
I love learning about authors, their inspiration, their likes and dislikes and those funny little things that give me insight into their personality. I am so happy to have Lauren Carr here, sharing some thoughts about her books and herself. Welcome, Lauren.
Lauren Carr is the bestselling author of the Mac Faraday Mysteries, the Lovers in Crime Mysteries, and the Thorny Rose Mysteries. We caught up with the charming mystery writer during her most recent virtual book tour for Killer in the Band, the 3rd in the Lovers in Crime series.
Lauren, thank you so much for chatting with us. Right off the bat, I’m curious. Is it hard to break away from your successful Mac Faraday series to work on a different one?
Yes and no. I love Mac Faraday and the gang in Spencer, Maryland! But that’s not to say that I don’t love Joshua Thornton and Cameron Gates. The Lovers in Crime mysteries are set in Chester, West Virginia, the real small town where I grew up. Joshua Thornton was my first protagonist featured in my very first books, A Small Case of Murder and A Reunion to Die For. Returning to Joshua Thornton, Cameron Gates, and their family is very much like going home again.
Killer in the Band focuses a lot on J.J. Thornton, Jr., Joshua’s eldest son. Are you planning to take a new direction with the Lovers in Crime?
No, not at all. Joshua Thornton and Cameron Gates are the Lovers in Crime and they always will be. But, like real people, they don’t live in a vacuum. Joshua Thornton does have a family from his previous marriage who are going to insert themselves into Joshua’s marriage and the Lovers in Crime’s cases.
In Killer in the Band, J.J. returns home after graduating from law school and rekindles a romance with his first love, Suellen Russell, a woman twice his age. When it turns out she has information on one of Cameron’s cases, J.J. can’t not get involved.
When you sit down to write a book, a paragraph, or whatever you‘re working on at the moment, do you just sit down in front of the computer, or do you need an outline of some sort? Is there any other prep you need in order to organize your thoughts either before you write or in the process of writing?
I will think about a book, or a part of a book, for a long time before I sit down to write it. I thought about Killer in the Band for a couple of years before I sat down to write even one word.
For new books, I will have everything sorted out in my head, most especially the killer, how he or she did it, and how my protagonist captures them before I sit down to write it. These are the most important elements for me to have. If I don’t have those things sorted out, then I could end up halfway through a book and find that I have no ending, which would be a huge waste of my time.
I will write notes, but only to sort the mystery out in my mind. More than half of the time, I don’t even refer to them once I sit down to write. The process of writing out the notes helps to sort it out.
Who is your greatest inspiration to write? What person makes you believe in yourself, and how?
My mother and my husband. My mother was the first to encourage me to put my imagination on paper. It was easy since I have always been a big reader.
Also, my husband Jack, no matter how many rejections I would receive, always insisted that I keep on going—keep on writing. Even when I had writers block, he was there for me.
Do you have any aspirations to be similar or comparable to another author? Why?
Agatha Christie and Earl Stanley Gardner. They were my first favorite mystery authors, so they will always have a special place in my author’s heart. My complex mysteries have been compared to Agatha Christie and when that happens, it makes my whole day better.
What has been the biggest high since becoming a published author?
Seeing all of my books break through on Amazon to make the top one-hundred in sales in both cozy mysteries and police procedurals. When readers and reviewers began posting fabulous reviews, and even sending e-mails, I knew then that all those years of hard work and learning were worth it.
Has becoming an author changed you, or the way you think about certain things? If so, how?
I am definitely more confident about my writing. Also, I have become more open to other authors’ writing.
I turned down two offers from commercial publishers to independently publish It’s Murder, My Son, and I have never looked back. Before I decided to be an indie author, I was rejected by many literary agents and publishers for a variety of reasons. In a nutshell, they did not think that I could be a commercial success. One literary agent, a big one, told me how talented I was in a two-page letter, ending with a rejection because he did not know how to market me.
I did not fit into a box that they had created. But I have found an audience, and I am a success. Many indie authors, who commercial publishers and literary agents would refuse to talk to, have found audiences without the blessing of commercial publishers or literary agents.
This has made me believe that if you write what you love, even if it is not my cup of tea, or the cup of tea of a New York bigwig, then if you publish and market it correctly, there is an audience out there for you. It’s just a matter of bringing your work to them.
What is your greatest fear about being an author?
Writers block.
From the first word to the moment it became available for purchase, how long did it take you to write and publish Killer in the Band?
That is a very tricky question. I’ve been thinking about the plot for Killer in the Band for a couple of years. I’d say a year ago I sat down to start writing it, right after the release if Kill and Run, which features Joshua Thornton Jr’s twin, Murphy. I was more than halfway through writing the first draft when in March I was completely inspired by the presidential election to write Candidate for Murder. Since that book had such a timely theme, I had to set Killer in the Band aside. I returned to it in June.
I guess to answer your question, I don’t know.
And now, for something completely different…some slightly off-the-wall and possibly irrelevant questions. Feel free to answer as many or as few as you like!
What’s your favorite candy? Ice cream?
Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar King sized for candy. Rocky Road ice cream slathered in Magic Shell for ice cream.
Would the 8-year-old version of yourself kick your ass or praise you for what you’ve done with your life?
Praise me for what I have done, while sighing with relief because during my twenties & thirties, it was touch and go there.
Do you have any talents you haven’t shared with us?
I’m a gourmet cook and love it.
Imagine you’re the sole survivor of a plane crash at sea, and you awake stranded on a deserted and uncharted island in the Bermuda Triangle. Nobody knows you’re there, and you have nothing but the clothes on your back. You’re all alone, and there’s terrifying sounds coming from deep within the jungle. Late that night as you’re starving, a large suitcase washes up on the shore. You open it up. What’s in the suitcase?
A pink handgun with “Pink Lady” engraved on the muzzle, big box of dark chocolate to eat, a cell phone with all of the bars, and working laptop to write about my adventure while waiting for a ship full of handsome sailors to come save me.
What are you working on now?
Each series will continue to grow on their own with interconnecting mysteries occasionally. In January, there will be a new Thorny Rose Mystery, A Fine Year for Murder.
In A Fine Year for Murder, Jessica Faraday and her husband, Murphy Thornton, dive into the cold case murder at a family owned winery.
After ten months of marital bliss, Jessica Faraday and Murphy Thornton are still discovering and adjusting to their life together. Settled in their new home, everything appears to be perfect … except in the middle of the night when, in darkest shadows of her subconscious, a deep secret from Jessica’s past creeps to the surface to make her strike out at Murphy.
When investigative journalist Dallas Walker tells the couple about her latest case, known as the Pine Bridge Massacre, they realize Jessica may have witnessed the murder of a family living near a winery owned by distant relatives she was visiting and suppressed the memory.
Determined to uncover the truth and find justice for the murder victims, Jessica and Murphy return to the scene of the crime with Dallas Walker, a spunky bull-headed Texan. Can this family reunion bring closure for a community touched by tragedy or will this prickly get-together bring an end to the Thorny Rose couple?
As long as readers are clamoring for mysteries, I’ll be writing them.
MY REVIEW
OMG. She did it again. Lauren Carr has created another romantic suspense mystery that had me reading, ignoring my hubby and my mother, unable to put it down until the last page was read.
Killer in the Band is A Lovers in Crime Mystery that is chock full of wonderful characters, both human and animal. Her ability to bring them all to life is amazing. I laughed and cried, because she made me do it.
I cannot pick a favorite character. They are all amazing in their own way. It took me a little while to figure out the culprit(s). Even the bad guys have their reasons for doing for what they do and I could empathize with them…for a moment or two. BUT nothing justifies taking a life.
There is more than one mystery that will have to be solved and more than one villain. I felt so bad for both of them and that is when I know I have read a fantastic story.
Lauren does have a way of springing surprises on me that have my jaw hanging open, thinking, I sure didn’t see that one coming.
The animals…I just don’t know what to say. Some people do seem to have a special ability making it seem as if they talk to them. I do not want to spoil anything, but…have you ever looked in your critters eyes and wondered what they are really thinking?
The characters have trust issues that take time to work through, making it read like real life. I want to tell them…to be a go between and explain things, but that is not my place. I am just a spectator in this complicated story.
My emotion were high and low, happy and sad, and I was left with a good feeling when all was said and done.
I WANT MORE!!!!!!!
I received a copy of Killer in the Band from Lauren Carr.
Joshua’s eldest son, Joshua “J.J.” Thornton Jr., has graduated at the top of his class from law school and returns home to spend the summer studying for the bar exam. However, to Joshua’s and Cameron’s shock and dismay, J.J. moves into the main house at Russell Ridge Farm, the largest dairy farm in the Ohio Valley, to rekindle a romance with Suellen Russell, a onetime leader of a rock group who’s twice his age. Quickly, they learn that she has been keeping a deep dark secret.
The move brings long-buried tensions between the father and son to the surface. But when a brutal killer strikes, the Lovers in Crime must set all differences aside to solve the crime before J.J. ends up in the cross hairs of a murderer.
Praise for Lauren Carr’s Mysteries:
“Lauren Carr could give Agatha Christie a run for her money!” – Charlene Mabie-Gamble, Literary R&R
“As always, Lauren Carr brings an action-packed story that is almost impossible to put down. Her mystery plots have so many twists and turns that I didn’t know if I was coming or going. And the action just didn’t stop from the very beginning till the very end.” – Melina Mason, Melina’s Book Reviews
Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.
Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
. The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.
~~~
Black Water by T Jefferson Parker
I am a huge fan of T Jefferson Parker. I used to go to the library, pick an author and clear the shelf, bringing home huge piles of books. Picking up T Jefferson Parker is a no brainer.
This is the fabulous cover I have for my 1st edition hardcover published in 2002. I love the bubbling water.
She imagined touching him and being touched. Wondered how his cleanly shaven cheek would feel against her neck. Wondered how his wiry arms would feel around her, what his flat boxer’s chest would feel like against hers. Sometimes she’d picture him and herself together and she’d smile inwardly because he was two inches shorter than she was. This amused her and made her think of the famous actors she’s heard about who were shot from heightening angles. In particular Yul Brynner standing on a box in The kIng and I, according to her mother, who saw the movie something like twenty times.
(Page 56 in 1st edition hardcover published in 2002)
Book Beginnings
Archie pushed the gearshift into third and set his hand on her knee. Coast Highway, southbound. Man in the moon big and close, like he was tilting his head for a peek down into the convertible. Archie glanced up, couldn’t tell if the guy was smiling of frowning. didn’t care because Gwen’s skin was warm through the dress, a few degrees warmer than the breeze gusting through the car.
GOODREADS BLURB:Archie Wildcraft, a cop with a great career ahead of him, is found with a bullet in his brain, lying beside his murdered wife, Gwen. It looks like a botched murder-suicide, but Sergeant Merci Rayborn’s gut instincts tell her differently. As Archie holds on by a thread, Merci is drawn further into the Wildcrafts’ private lives and comes to believe that the young couple were deeply in love and that Archie’s been framed. When Archie vanishes from the hospital, it appears he’s on a vendetta, and it’s up to Merci to cover for him until she has a chance to solve the case on her own. Eventually, she’s led to the Russian mob and discovers awful secrets that she isn’t sure she wants to hand over to the heartless district attorney.
The Roma Series continues in Turning To Stone by Gabriel Valjan and starts out with a BANG!
I am on familiar ground with Turning To Stone…The Mob. I have read a lot of organized crime novels, and Turning To Stone has everything I look for…corruption, betrayal, brutality, wholesale slaughter and assassins, female, no less. I love that twist and, for me, it doesn’t happen often enough.
But this is not the organized crime of Al Capone’s day. They are going legit and manipulating events through money, so be careful about investing in the stock market. LOL
Gabriel Valjan’s series keeps getting better and better. The writing flows smoother for me, the pacing and suspense picking up to a level that makes it hard to put the book down.
Some surprising turns at the end make me realize how strong and determined Bianca and her cohorts are. They have questions and WILL NOT stop until they have the answers, no matter the cost to themselves.
I enjoyed Turning To Stone the most…so far…and I am so glad I stuck with the series!
Action packed with OMG moments. The brutal, tragic ending left me feeling very sad and I can hardly wait to see where we go from here.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Threading The Needle from Gabriel Valjan.
4 Stars
SYNOPSIS
Alabaster Black aka Bianca Nerini returns as an investigation into a public official’s assassination pits Bianca and her friends against a backdrop of financial speculation, female assassins on motorcycles, and the Camorra—the most ruthless of Italian organized crime gangs—in Gabriel Valjan’s TURNING TO STONE, the fourth book of the highly praised Roma series (Winter Goose Publishing; June 2015; softcover $15.99; Kindle / Nook, $5.99).
En route to a secret meeting, Aldo Giurlani—the regional commissioner of Lombardy in northern Italy and a specialist on organized crime—is assassinated in the middle of a public square.
More mysterious is the package sent to Giurlani’s hand-picked team of five top investigators within the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), the Italian law enforcement agency that investigates illegal financial transactions, from money laundering to drug trafficking. Within the package are five copies of a book entitled Man of Smoke written by Aldo Palazzeschi.
Then there is Bianca’s tenuous online contact with a mysterious online contact known as Loki, who delivers a cryptic message to her, takes on a new twist with the appearance of a brilliant young obsessive-compulsive man who joins her team.
Complicating matters even further, old enemies and, more problematically, Alabaster’s former employer—Rendition, a murky covert U.S. government agency that does more than just investigate financial crimes—still have grudges to bear against her.
As new mysteries unfold, Bianca’s group quickly discovers that Naples might just be the most dangerous city in Italy.
ABOUT GABRIEL VALJAN
Gabriel Valjan lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the Roma Series, available from Winter Goose Publishing. Gabriel has also written numerous short stories and essays found online and in print.
Harassment…oh, it is so much more than that…and I wonder if Brutus will go all Cujo on her as the past comes back to haunt her with characters that are so far out there, entitled, mean, cruel, deadly, and the mystery of Slenderman seems to come out of the computer and walk in real life…
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB: An engrossing thriller from an Amazon bestselling author! Ever heard of Slender Man?
They say he is always there. They say he is always watching. A tall guy in a suit and tie, with no face, and arms like tentacles.
Some say he is an online myth; others will go very far to prove he is real, so far that they might even kill for him.
Fanoe Island is busy with the mayoral election coming up, when suddenly, the sitting mayor is found killed. Rumors tell that a faceless man dressed in a suit and tie did it.
In Emma Frost’s house that she inherited from her grandmother, a box of letters is found that tells a story from a long time ago. A terrifying story revealing a painful chapter in the life of her own family half a century ago.
– Slender Man is a spine-chilling mystery from the bestselling author Willow Rose. It is the ninth in her Emma Frost-series.
. The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.
~~~
The Cabin by Carla Neggers is a thriller that will keep you warm on those cold winter nights.
When he came home that evening and told her about Alice’s arrest and never mentioned the tape, Susanna assumed the tape was no good, completely irrelevant – and that Alice hadn’t mentioned it to him. Why should she? She was on her way to prison, her career ruined. If there’s been anything useful on the tape, she’d have turned it over, if only to nail Beau McCarrity and prove herself right.
(Page 56 in paperback)
Book Beginnings
Susann Galway sipped her margarita and watched the countdown to midnight on the television above the bar at Jim’s Place, the small, dark pub just down the street from where she lived with her grandmother and twin teenage daughters. It had been a fixture in the neighborhood for as long as Susanna could remember.
GOODREADS BLURB: Vengeance, money and murder are menacing companions when they meet in the quiet stillness of an Adirondack winter.
Texas Ranger Jack Galway knows his wife Susanna loves him, so when their marriage hits a rough patch, he supports her decision to take their teenaged daughters to Boston for a break. But now a couple of weeks has turned into several months and Jack has had enough. He wants his family back.
Ex-convict Alice Parker left a mess back in Texas, and she’ll never forgive Jack Galway for killing her dream of ever becoming a Texas Ranger herself. Now, guided by greed and vengeance, she’s got her sights set on his family.
Packing up the girls and her grandmother, Susanna heads to a cabin in the Adirondacks, trying to escape her fears, her secrets . . . and maybe even the man she loves. Little does she realize they are being followed, only this time by her husband . . . and a murderer.
Onyx Webb, Book Three by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton
Publisher: Courage Crafters Inc. (Oct 22, 2015)
Category: Paranormal Suspense, Paranormal Romance, Supernatural Thriller, Ghosts
Tour Date: Oct and Nov, 2016
ISBN: 978-0990751830
ASIN: B0179RS90O
Available in: Print & ebook, 235 Pages
If you enjoyed the award winning Book One and Book Two, you will love Onyx Webb: Book Three!
As with Book Two, this next book promises to be just as twisted, dark, and creepy as the web of stories continues to be carefully constructed. Book Three continues to follow the billionaire Mulvaney family including Koda’s obsession with the ghost girl and his grandfather Declan’s sordid history with the mob, paranormal show hosts Cryer and Fudge, and of course the story of Onyx Webb whose life may finally be ended.
As unrelated as it all seems, the web is slowly being strung together so that the full story of every character and most importantly, the stunning conclusion for Onyx Webb herself will eventually be revealed.
MY REVIEW FOR BOOK I
Onyx Webb, Book I laid a solid foundation for the series.There is so much going on, that I feel I will not be able to rest until I know the whole story.
I am excited to continue the Onyx Web series. The writing style, with each person telling their story had me confused in the beginning, but now that I am getting the hang of it, I am loving it.
The combination of mystery and murder, hauntings and ghosts, the paranormal and supernatural, keeps the action and suspense moving right along.
The complex characters have become familiar to me and I am very curious and concerned for their well being. They all have flaws that make some of their decisions seem harsh and wrong.
I knew someone would die. I thought it would be Onyx and I sure didn’t see the authors taking the route they did. Great job throwing that twist in there and I think they will have many more surprises in store for me.
I am loving Katherine, and her solution to the horrific goings on at the orphanage seem like the only way to go.
The story gets heavier, more complicated, and I get more and more involved with each page I read.
4 Stars
MY REVIEW FOR BOOK III
I am so glad I already have Book III, so I didn’t have to wait to find out what was coming next. Each book has gotten better, for me. I am hooked and this is one series I will read to the end.
Started right out with a murder. How can I not love that?
So much action and the suspense climbs to a new level. Sometimes it seems the characters have no redeeming qualities, but the bad they do is forced on them, other times they feel obligated, want revenge or to avenge the wrong done to someone they know. I feel I need to let go of my attempts to judge them and try to walk a mile in their shoes.
And now for the tragedy…
OMG I can’t believe the authors did that!!! Fabulous, horrific! I am so sad for…
The developing story has reached a mind blowing level…engrossing, nailbiting, sit on the edge of your seat intense reading…unputdownable…
It is rare that I read a series that keeps getting better and better but Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton have far surpassed my expectations with Onyx Web and I can’t ask for any more than that!
5 Stars
Praise for Onyx Webb Series by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton
Onyx Webb: Book One was selected as a Horror/Suspense Finalist in the 2016 IAN Book of the Year Awards!
“This is an interesting story. I liked how you could follow the different people and just knew that there was more to the story. Onyx keeps adding hints that make it feel like it is linked together. I liked all of the characters; they were descriptive and kept me wanting to find out more about them. I admit that I liked Onyx the best so I loved her story and narrations more than Juniper and Koda’s stories. 5 stars”- JBronder Book Reviews
” I found my new favorite book when I opened the first pages of ONYX WEBB. There is not a dropped thread in this exciting, engrossing, riveting, incredible paranormal, suspenseful, supernatural, mysterious, time-switching, multi-character serial…I realize how Dickens’ audience must have felt, hanging on from week to week with bated breath for the newest installment…ONYX WEBB is a story in a class by itself. I can see it becoming a cult classic–and why not? I certainly plan to read it over and over and over again…because in the words of Jacqueline Susann: “Once is not enough. 5 Stars”- Mallory Heart Reviews
“A must read! Onyx Webb Book 2 offers so much to readers. Suspense is so thick readers will go crazy with what will happen next as they follow each of the interesting characters. The characters pop out from the pages and create an air of drama and adventure that will keep readers turning the pages.”- Danielle Urban
” I raved about the first installment with a five star review. The second one is even better and I am completely hooked. I am repeating myself when I say that the writing and pacing are terrific and that all the main characters are very well drawn and realistic Some are very likable and some not. Highly recommended. 5 stars”- James Tepper, Vine Voice
“As the author’s promised, these next three episodes start tying together the characters from past to future. I knew things were going to be revealed. I knew it would get darker, scarier. And I knew there would be new mysteries and questions. What I didn’t expect was for this story to explode. I couldn’t believe how excited, grossed out, and happy I became. I can’t begin to imagine! Every time I thought I knew something, especially about Onyx, I was given another enigma.
As old characters entered the story, and new ones were introduced, I got more excited to read what was in store for them. These authors pull no punches. So many breath stealing scenes make these some excellent new episodes I promise you, it’s hypnotic and unpredictable. Oh, and addictive. I should also point out, it’s meant to be read in order so make sure you start at the beginning. 5 stars” Laura Thomas, FuOnlyKnew
About Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton
Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz are a married writing team. Most well known for their business fables, they’re professional speakers who teach audiences on how to overcome fear of failure and rejection. The Onyx Webb Series is their first serious dive into fiction.
Richard and Andrea have been in love with creating stories together since they met almost twenty years ago and even spent some time in Hollywood writing screenplays, being represented by the producer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Their favorite genres are suspense, thriller, crime and anything of a paranormal nature which is how Onyx Webb turned into a mash-up of all their favorites!
She Bites by Roger Arsht & Caitlin Hawker has such a cool cover and fantastic blurb, there is no way I could pass on this vigilante thriller novel. I would like to thank Roger, Caitlin and Archway Publishing for the opportunity to read and review She Bites.
She Bites has a bit of a twist, so keep reading to find out why.
Does this cover talk to you as loud as it talks to me?
She Bites by Roger Arsht & Caitlin Hawker is my kind of thriller. I am always on the lookout for a new twist to a familiar story and they supply a fantastic one.
She Bites is action packed from the get-go and I love it. Dog fighting is a cruel ‘sport’ and I do not understand how anyone can get any enjoyment from treating an animal that only wants to please with such cruelty.
Want to take a walk on the dark side…read on.
Dr Robyn Sparks is not only a veterinarian, but a vigilante, doling out punishment to animal abusers. Having critters in a book adds a special little something for me and increases my enjoyment.
I love that Robyn Sparks cares so much for animals that she will stand up for them when others don’t. She is a strong, determined woman, and after my own heart.
She wants them to feel the pain and she dishes it out with a vengeance. She is a female Dexter.
Would I go that far? Would you?
Have you pissed her off? Wellllll, if you have, she will be paying you a visit and She Bites. It WILL be hazardous to your health!
When Jack Williams, a detective with his own issues, comes into her life, it becomes even more complicated.
Two damaged souls are drawn together…by a dog. Their terrors may be different, but their motives are the same.
Is one bad and the other good? Yin and yang?
When dealing with vigilantism, moral questions are raised.
Justice…is it legal…illegal? What would happen if everyone took the law into their own hands?
I don’t see how this can end well, but I want it to.
The writing makes the story flow smoothly and the suspense is a nail biter. How can he not figure out what is really going on with her? How can she keep her secret? Will the authors be able to put their thinking caps on and come up with an ending that I will be happy with, yet find ‘believable?’ That you will find ‘believable? All I can say is…you will have to read it for yourself to find out.
I love it, will highly recommend it, and I will be looking for more of their work.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of She Bites from Roger Arsht, Caitlin Hawker and Archway Publishing.
4 Stars
.
GOODREADS BLURB: Dr. Robyn Sparks is a veterinarian with a dark secret: she moonlights as a self-appointed vigilante, who deals her own brand of justice to animal abusers by murdering them. If you do bad things to dogs, Robyn does bad things to you.
She Bites tells the story of a talented veterinarian who dispenses brutal judgment. Her work with sick and injured animals provides Robyn with a view of life’s most tender moments as well as a view of man’s most brutal behaviors.
Robyn’s regular habit of sending bad people to the pet crematorium is interrupted when she meets Jack Williams, a damaged detective who is fighting his own demons. Their relationship is a roller coaster ride of tangled emotions and legal close calls.
Ultimately, Robyn has to make a choice: whether to continue down her destructive path and kill a twisted psychopath turned professional dog fight promoter, or to pursue a romance with a cop who believes morality is best served by the hand of the law.
By our estimate, there are tens of thousands of dog fighters in the U.S., forcing hundreds of thousands of dogs to train, fight, and suffer every year. – The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), 2016
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
About Roger Arsht
Roger Arsht is a mild-mannered high school English teacher by day, but dons his writerly cloak after class and pens the darker side of life. His noir thrillers ask some hard questions about corruption and violence in the world, and what to do about it.
Roger wrote his first novel A Slam Dunk, when, while watching sports, it became illogical to him that a man could don a uniform on Sunday and be a hero, then the rest of the week engage in illegal activities or violence. Knowing his book needed a darker element of writing, he contacted a former student of his, who was loaded with talent, but also horrified him with her scary stories. Caitlin Hawker stepped up to the job and a collaboration was born.
When he’s not writing or hanging out in high school (his favorite place to be,) Roger loves to fish, golf, travel and cook, not necessarily in that order. He and his wife have two grown sons, and live in Park City, Utah with their Golden Retriever rescue dog, Pumpkin.
About Caitlin Hawker
Caitlin Hawker is a self-described “dark” person who loves horror movies and the study of humanity’s darker side. It took her awhile to learn to read and write, until her dad described to her that letters were pictures, and then suddenly it all made sense. Now a prolific writer, she began penning noir fiction in high school, in typical dark, brooding teenager fashion, which scared her teachers. What was a hobby later turned into a career when Roger Arsht walked into the college bookstore where she was working and asked her to help him write a book.
When she isn’t writing, she makes costumes and dabbles in art. Caitlin is a connoisseur of all things weird, and loves to collect facts. Her latest discovery is that the last duel in France was with hot air balloons and shotguns, which ended up setting a field full of sheep on fire.
She and her husband live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Caitlin is planning for the day when she can get a dog.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of booksandabeat.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
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She Bites by Roger Arsht & Caitlin Hawker has such a cool cover and fantastic blurb, there is no way I could pass on this vigilante thriller novel. I would like to thank Roger, Caitlin and Archway Publishing for the opportunity to read and review She Bites.
She Bites has a bit of a twist, so keep reading to find out why.
I will be reviewing this tomorrow. Be sure and come check it out!
Does this cover talk to you as loud as it talks to me?
“Could I…um, I know the date didn’t go that well tonight. Maybe I could come in for coffee, and we could see if we could slavage it?” He smiles, his eyes leveled at her breats.
Something shifted inside her, and she grinned maliciously. “Sure. Come on in.”
(page 8 in paperback)
I’m thinking he will regret that. 👿
She Bites covers a brutal topic – dogfighting.
GOODREADS BLURB: Dr. Robyn Sparks is a veterinarian with a dark secret: she moonlights as a self-appointed vigilante, who deals her own brand of justice to animal abusers by murdering them. If you do bad things to dogs, Robyn does bad things to you.
She Bites tells the story of a talented veterinarian who dispenses brutal judgment. Her work with sick and injured animals provides Robyn with a view of life’s most tender moments as well as a view of man’s most brutal behaviors.
Robyn’s regular habit of sending bad people to the pet crematorium is interrupted when she meets Jack Williams, a damaged detective who is fighting his own demons. Their relationship is a roller coaster ride of tangled emotions and legal close calls.
Ultimately, Robyn has to make a choice: whether to continue down her destructive path and kill a twisted psychopath turned professional dog fight promoter, or to pursue a romance with a cop who believes morality is best served by the hand of the law.
By our estimate, there are tens of thousands of dog fighters in the U.S., forcing hundreds of thousands of dogs to train, fight, and suffer every year. – The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), 2016
I was drawn into the Roma Series because of the fabulous covers and the storyline.
It made me think of Kathy Reichs and the the TV series, Bones, with her forensic anthropology, only for a character that specializes in forensic accounting.
We continue our adventure in Milan, Italy and bullets will fly.
The Roma Series continues in Threading The Needle by Gabriel Valjan. I am excited to see what Bianca and her band of cohorts will encounter next in Milan, Italy.
We are back with some familiar characters and the stakes are higher than ever. Conspiracy is alive and well.
The infighting between the police for territory and jurisdiction and the political machinations dog down their investigation into the murders and mystery. Politics is a dirty business and heads will fall, bodies too.
Gotta be pretty sharp to run the gauntlet and find the answers.
A little manipulation can be in order, and it does keep me on the hook as I try to figure out why they do what they do sometimes..
As the mystery unfolds, I think Bianca, a forensic accounting cyber nerd, has the answers, but…
Sometimes there is so much going on, I lose track of where I’m going. Am I purposely being mislead so I can’t find the answers?
Is it just me that I feel like I am being schooled rather than on a journey for my own entertainment? If you enjoy step by step police procedurals and some a glimpse into Italy’s history, this is for you.
I love the concept of this series so much, I wonder why I am having such difficulty with it. Is it because of the location…Italy and all that entails, their customs and history?
I took a little time and read other things between the books, but to see if it makes a difference, I will be diving right into Turning To Stone, Book IV. I believe these books can stand alone, but if you want to know all the details of the continuing characters, start at the beginning.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Threading The Needle from Gabriel Valjan.
Milan, Italy. Bianca’s curiosity gets a young university student murdered, but not before he gives her a file that details a secret weapon under development with defense contractor Adastra. Guilt may drive her to find justice for the slain Charlie Brooks, but she is warned by the mysterious Loki to stay away from this case that runs deep with conspiracy. Bianca must find a way to uncover government secrets and corporate alliances without returning Italy to one of its darkest hours, the decades of daily terrorism known as the “Years of Lead.”
ABOUT GABRIEL VALJAN
Gabriel Valjan lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the Roma Series, available from Winter Goose Publishing. Gabriel has also written numerous short stories and essays found online and in print.
5 Stars
The Friday 56 is hosted by 
so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Onyx Webb, Book Three by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton
