Pendelton Wallace on Happiness & Motivation #Mystery #Thriller #AmWriting

Tell us a bit about your family.  

I have a rather unconventional family. My father is of Scottish heritage; my mother’s parents came from Mexico. I grew up with a foot in both worlds.

When I was little, we interacted mainly with my mother’s family. I remember my first day of kindergarten. There were all these kids with yellow worms growing from their heads. I had never seen a blond before.

But somehow, I’m not a Latino. My Spanish is poor, but I can make myself understood. I stand out as a gringo in Mexico and fit into American culture.

How do you work through self-doubts and fear? 

This is a really tough question because I rarely have self-doubts or fear. If you read my first book Blue Water & Me, Tall Tales of Adventures With My Father, you will see that Papa exorcised fear and self-doubt from me at an early age.

I’m kind of like the bumble bee. Scientist have proven mathematically that a bumble bee can’t fly. Someone just forgot to tell it to the bumble bee. I don’t know what I can’t do, so I just go ahead and do it.

What scares you the most? 

Dogs. I can honestly say that the only thing in the world that I have ever been afraid of is dogs. When I was three years old I was attacked by two German Sheppards. To this day, the sight of a German Sheppard makes my blood run cold.

This is particularly important since Dawn, my significant other, had two Great Danes when I met her. Like everything else in my life, I swallowed my fear and just plunged ahead.

What makes you happiest? 

Wow! There are so many things that make me happy it’s really hard to choose. Sailing on a downwind reach off the coast of Baja California with just Dawn on my boat was one of the best experiences of my life.

How could you ask for more? The temperatures were in the eighties, we had about a fifteen knot wind on our quarter, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Pods of dolphin and whale played with us for days. We were off shore far enough that we couldn’t see land. We had the world to ourselves.

What’s your greatest character strength? 

Honesty. I value honesty and loyalty above all other traits. When I meet a person, I assume that they are honest. I give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise. Once a person has been dishonest with me, I can never trust them again.

I have been told by employers that my honesty is a flaw. They said that I was too honest for my own good. They wanted me to lie for them and I wouldn’t. I also did not spend many more years at that job.

What’s your weakest character trait? 

Self-control. I know I have a problem with food. I’ve been fighting my weight most of my life. For me, food is like a drug. I’m hooked. Even though I know I shouldn’t be eating that greasy bacon for breakfast, if it is there, I will take it.

Why do you write? 

Because I have to. My mind is overflowing with stories. I just have to get them down on paper (or under glass).

I write character sketches and a fifteen to twenty page outline before I begin writing the book. Then I sit down to write. By this time, my sub-conscious knows the story and the characters and the words just flow from my fingers. I almost never think about what I’m writing.

I’m as enrapt as any reader as I see the story unfold in front of me. Sometimes it surprises me.

In The Inside Passage, I thought that Meagan was a certain kind of person, but as the story unfolded in front of me, she refused to be pigeon holed. She evolved and changed into a whole different person by the end of the book.

Have you always enjoyed writing? 

Yes. When I was in the sixth grade the teacher gave us an assignment to write “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” I wrote thirty pages.

What motivates you to write? 

Ego. I have all of these stories that need to be told and I have enough ego to think that somebody might like to read them.

What writing are you most proud of?

I think that I am growing and improving as a writer with everything I write. I think that Hacker for Hire is my best work yet, but I’m the most proud of Blue Water & Me, Tall Tales of Adventures With My Father.

Blue Water is a tribute to my father and it may not be as polished as my later works, but it will probably always be my favorite.

If Clive Cussler had written Ugly Betty, it would be Hacker for Hire. 

Hacker for Hire, a suspense novel about corporate greed and industrial espionage, is the second book in a series about Latino computer security analyst Ted Higuera and his best friend, para-legal Chris Hardwick. 

The goofy, off-beat Ted Higuera, son of Mexican immigrants, grew up in East LA. An unlikely football scholarship brought him to Seattle. 

Chris, Ted’s college roommate, grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father is the head of one of Seattle’s most prestigious law firms. 

Ted’s first job out of college leads him into the world of organized crime where he faces a brutal beating. After being rescued by beautiful private investigator Catrina Flaherty, Ted decides to go to work for her. 

Catrina is hired by a large computer corporation to find a leak in their corporate boardroom when the previous consultant is found floating in Elliot Bay. 

Ted discovers that Chris’s firm has been retained by their prime suspect. Now he and Chris are working opposite sides of the same case. 

Ted and Catrina are led deep into Seattle’s Hi-Tech world as they stalk the killer. But the killer is also hunting them. Can Ted find the killer before the killer finds him? 

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Genre – Mystery, Thriller

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Pendelton Wallace on Facebook

Website www.pennwallace.com

#Excerpt from ANNA'S SECRET by @MargaretWestlie #AmReading #Historical #Mystery

Angus walked home that evening through the gathering dusk. The red clay path was dark with dew. Overhead, the first stars shone through the last of the clear sunset, and the moon steadily gained in brightness, already beginning to cast deep shadows all around. In the woods an owl hooted, and then was silent. A dark shadow winged its way overhead, the wind of its passing ruffling Angus’ grey hair. It plummeted to earth. A sharp squeak, and the shadow rose again clutching a field mouse in its claws.

It was on a night such as this that Anna was murdered, thought Angus. For all I defended him to Paddy, I hope that Ian had nothing to do with it.

A branch fell in the woods across the brook. Angus started. It was nothing, he reassured himself. He quickened his pace. The noise came again. I still have to go through those woods to get home. I wish I had a stick with me, he thought, trying to calm his heart. He trudged onward. I could go around by Lochie’s. It would take me longer, but it would be all open country.

He reached the fork in the track and stopped, still undecided about his route. Mary’ll be worried about me if I’m too late. I promised her I’d be back before sunset and it’s already past that. I stayed too long at Ian’s. He started down the path toward the woods. A creak and another thump, louder than the last, sounded, and Angus retraced his steps and took the path by Lochie’s. Mary’ll just have to worry.

Murder’s a terrible thing, he thought as he swung past Lochie’s barnyard. The dog challenged him with bared fangs and a low growl. Angus stopped in his tracks. “Quiet, Buster, it’s only me.” He held out his hand to the dog. The dog continued to growl.

Lochie came to the door, his bulky figure silhouetted in the door frame by the candle within. “Who’s out there?” he shouted over the fierce barking of the dog.

“It’s me,” replied Angus from the moon shadows by the barn. The dog stopped growling and snuffled around his feet. He pushed it away and trudged across the dooryard.

“Is that you then, Angus?” Lochie peered out into the moon-bright yard. “You’re a long way from home.”

Angus laughed. “Aye, I was over at Ian’s and I stayed too long. I didn’t want to walk home through the woods so I came this way.”

Lochie sighed. “It’s a terrible thing when a man can’t even walk out at night without fearing for his life. Will you come in?”

“Not tonight, thanks. I promised Mary I wouldn’t be long and I’m already later than I’d planned.”

“She’ll be worried about you,” said Lochie, “and about herself too, no doubt.”

“No doubt.” Angus turned once again toward home. …

He climbed the little hill on the other side of the brook. In the distance he could see William MacMillan’s farmhouse. The candlelight glowed softly from the kitchen window. He’ll be reading just now. Angus pictured William poring over the heavy Gaelic Bible, his thick and calloused finger underlining each phrase, his left hand stroking his long brown beard streaked now with grey. Eliza would be sitting in the rocker, rocking gently to and fro, her hands folded in her lap, her thumbs turning one around the other as she stared into the dark shadows in the corners of the kitchen listening to the rise and fall of her husband’s voice. It’s the only time of the day that she’ll be idle, thought Angus.

Anna Gillis, the midwife and neighbour in Mattie’s Story, has been found killed. The close-knit community is deeply shaken by this eruption of violence, and neighbours come together to help one another and to discover the perpetrator. But the answer lies Anna’s secret, long guarded by Old Annie, the last of the original Selkirk Settlers, and the protagonist of An Irregular Marriage. Join the community! Read Anna’s Secret and other novels by Margaret A. Westlie.

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre – Fiction, Mystery, Historical

Rating – G

More details about the author

 Connect with Margaret Westlie on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.margaretwestlie.com

A Journey Inside the Mind of Belinda Vasquez @MagicProse #Romance #Suspense #GoodReads

My mind is like my office, cluttered with creativity. On one wall are two sets of book shelves sweeping the ceiling. A few of the shelves are filled with papers scribbled with writing for various books that will one day be written. There is one shelf reserved for notebooks where each notebook contains notes or writing for a particular book. I have piles of notes on the table next to me. These piles are for my current book I’m working on and for my next book.

I believe the mind has more than one subconscious. My theory is that the brain has a layer of them and I have a subconscious for each book I plan to write or have partially written. For me, writer’s block doesn’t exist. If I get stuck, I simply forget about it, knowing that the next morning, the writing will be there. My subconscious has written it while I was sleeping.

There are two times my mind likes to write. One, of course, is when I’m sitting in front of the computer deliberately writing but never forcing the words. The second time is, sometimes, when I’m relaxed. I’ll be at my Zumba class exercising and suddenly my subconscious will start writing. Dialogue or narration comes spilling out. Sentences, paragraphs, or plot will disappear if not put on paper as soon as possible. My mind only comes up with it once and then moves onto another part of the book.

When I go out to eat, I often have to write on napkins because my mind decides to become creative in the middle of a chicken salad sandwich.

I have piles of scribbling. I try to get organized and write in a notebook. I’ve got two notebooks laying around with writing for my current book. I have ten notebooks dedicated to future books with scribbling that came out as fully-written prose.

When I begin a new book, I go through the scribbling to find what’s already been written. Sometimes it’s dialogue or prose, or plot, or character development, or a sketchy outline of the story. Often it’s the ending of the book or the beginning.

My brain, also, likes to write when I’m driving. I’ve had to pull into parking lots to scribble on pads of paper. This doesn’t happen often any more since I no longer have to commute to a job but write full time. I once tried a tape recorder, but a different part of the brain does speech. As soon as I open my mouth, the writing vanishes from my subconscious, and I can’t remember a word or what it was even about. But if I write with my subconscious, the words flow.

When I’m trying to go to sleep, my mind will start writing occasionally. I have to keep getting up and scribbling on the notebook I keep on my nightstand. I sometimes finally tell my brain to shut up so I can sleep.

If I’m beginning a new book, my brain will go nuts and the words and voices spill out like a fountain.

The last thing Miranda ever expected was to see her brother’s ghost at the fallen Twin Towers.

It’s bad enough survivor Christopher Michaels scares her with claims that if one dies violently, his ghost will haunt the place that holds his name. And to top it all, one of those thousands of ghosts follows Miranda to her hotel. The only certainty is the ghost grabbing her under the covers is not Jake.

Their parents’ deaths separated Miranda from Jake when they were kids. Michaels insists Jake brought them together and it’s no coincidence that of thousands mourning at Ground Zero, it’s his best friend she bumps into. Some best friend. Michaels is more like a moocher. The cheapskate never has money, just a blood-stained wallet he broods over. Miranda has no choice but to hang out with the weird Michaels in order to unravel her brother’s past.

As Miranda spends time with Michaels, she begins to wonder who he really is. Against her better judgment, Miranda becomes emotionally entangled with Michaels, a bitter alcoholic with a secret linked to her brother and that blood-stained wallet.

I Will Always Love You is part mystery, suspense and romance, a novel that will keep the reader turning the pages!

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Genre – Suspense, Mystery, Romance

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Belinda Vasquez Garcia on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://belindavasquezgarcia.com/

Kevin Sterling on What Motivates Him to Write @KsterlingWriter #AmWriting #Mystery #Suspense

1. What motivates you to write? So many things, really.  But the biggest inspiration is the prospect of bringing joy and entertainment to other people’s lives. The author/reader connection is incredibly intimate, and it’s thrilling to share that with so many people. Then there’s the creative process of forming stories, inventing characters and bringing it all to life through fun writing, all of which gets me so excited that I can hardly wait to get to my study every morning.  I know, in my heart, that it’s truly what I’m meant to do.
2. What writing are you most proud of? Definitely my Jack Lazar Series, which will initially consist of 10 books, all of which I’ve already mapped out. After that, we’ll see what the fans want. People can check out the first six covers and storylines at my website: www.jacklazar.com.
3. Tell us about your family.  When it comes to family, I consider myself truly blessed. First and foremost, I married my beautiful soul mate, and my writing career would not be possible without her consultation, love and support. I also adore her entire family, and I have it on good authority that they like me, too! I have a fantastic son, whose life mission is to do his part to help the world, and my mother is a sweet, loving person to whom I am very close. My father was born and raised in Germany, but he met my mother in Amarillo, Texas when he was a high school exchange student. His father (my grandfather) was a senator in Germany before the Nazis took over; and once they did, he refused to cooperate with them. So he picked up the family and moved to a town called Kiel on the Baltic Sea where he worked with the underground against Hitler. There are streets and monuments all over Germany to honor him.
4. How do you work through self-doubts and fear?  That’s an easy answer – meditation. Fear and self-doubt are products of the ego, and they arise when we lose connection with our higher self. Meditation helps us regain that connection, and it opens up the paths to creativity, too! But I think it’s also important to point out here that indie publishing is HARD, and there are a hundred reasons to quit for every one reason to stick with it. But sticking with it, especially when things look bleak and discouraging is exactly what successful indie authors have done. If you’re a good writer creating books that people want to read, work with a crackerjack editor who helps you polish them in to solid works, and invest the requisite time and creativity on marketing, it’s just a matter of time (and a backlist of books) before you reach success.
5. What makes you the happiest? My first thought is spending time with the people I love, which is absolutely true. But I must admit that the release day of each of my books was pretty darn fantastic. The amount of work to make that happen is huge, and there are so many times throughout the process when you just don’t think you’re going to make it, as any published author will tell you, so the feeling of accomplishment is just incredible.
6. What’s your greatest character strength? Probably my ability to remain calm and lucid in difficult situations. My family and friends regard me as someone they can come to for advice and strength when they need it the most, and it always makes me feel good to help them.
7. What’s your weakest character trait? Definitely my inflated ego, but I’m really working on it. I swear!
8. What are you most proud of in your personal life? My son, Preston. He completed both his undergraduate and law degrees in a fraction of the usual timeframe and now serves the people at the Texas State Capitol, earning a much lower income than he would have made at a law firm. He truly cares about others and is dedicated to helping the world, and I am so proud of him for all of that.
9. What books did you love growing up? My favorite book back then was Airport by Arthur Haley. I’ve always been an airplane and travel fanatic and had the unique opportunity to spend many of my summers in Europe growing up. So reading about all the intricacies of commercial aviation in combination with Haley’s gripping story really hit my buttons. I also ate up every single James Bond novel by Ian Fleming.
10. Who is your favorite author? That is so hard to say because I appreciate different things about so many authors. But if I had to pick one, perhaps it would be John Grisham. He does a great job of building a complex story while writing in a style that is quick and easy to read, and I do my best to emulate that style in my own writing. Like Grisham, I want readers to feel like things are speeding along, that they’re not getting bogged down with excessive details, and it won’t take long to reach a resolution to the suspense keeping them on the edge. But then, there’s always something else to take its place! Otherwise, what’s the point in turning the page?

1. 

   "James Bond Meets Fifty Shades of Grey"

   Immerse yourself in the world class novels that combine action, mystery & suspense with tantalizing and tastefully written erotica. You’ll find all your sensibilities roused at once with Kevin Sterling’s ultra-sexy, action-packed Jack Lazar Series.

   In this fourth action-packed thriller, Jack travels to Denmark for a business venture, but what seems to be a textbook transaction turns into a nightmare after he gets involved with Katarina, a vivacious Danish girl who apparently lacks a moral compass, not to mention an off button. After naively believing their liaison was just a random encounter, Jack discovers she’s connected to his business deal, and there’s a dangerous political group with skin in the game, too.
   
   
   Katarina makes a convincing case of being a victim, not part of the conspiracy, but can Jack really trust her?
   
   
   The firestorm gets out of control as Jack digs deeper, unearths the convoluted plot behind it all, and discovers that innocent people are being heartlessly killed. He’s not only horrified by the reason why it’s happening, but how it’s being done, and there appears to be no way to stop it from occurring again.
   
   
   Then the scheme’s real objective emerges, launching Jack into action with intelligence operatives to prevent it. But that’s not so easy with assassins on Jack’s tail, forcing him to struggle for survival while trying to prevent Katarina from getting caught in the crossfire.
   
   
   Buy Now @ Amazon
   Genre – Action, Mystery, Suspense
   Rating – R
   More details about the author
   Connect with Kevin Sterling on Facebook & Twitter

@KellenBurden Shares Life Experiences, Writing & Family #Mystery #Thriller #MustRead

Q. Why do you write?

A. I’ve always had stories to tell. Since I could talk, I’ve had stories to tell and an imagination to get me into trouble. Writing just seemed like a good outlet for it. I’ve wanted to be an author since I knew I had to pick something to be.

Q. What books did you love growing up?

A. The First book I ever remember being in love with was Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton.

Q. What book genre of books do you adore?

A. As an adolescent and into my teens I used to love reading Zombie books and Aliens or Predator novelizations. Anything that was an adaptation of a movie that I loved. They were easy to digest and really kept me engrossed in a time when there was a lot of competition for my attention. Now I’ll read almost anything.

Q. What book should everybody read at least once?

A. The Old Man and the Sea. It’s brutal and cruel and the essence of us.

Q. Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you now live?

A. I grew up in a small town in California, near the water. I loved the water and I’d surf in the ocean and stare out at the horizon and watch the sun set and let the waves thump me into the sand. I still love the water. My town became too small though and it became clear that there was nowhere for me to go in it. Not if I wanted to do the things that I wanted to do. I moved to Denver, Colorado with my girlfriend and we rented a room in a beautiful brick building off one of the most infamous streets in the Denver Metro area. I got a job doing Undercover Loss Prevention work for grocery stores in the area and in the process I met the people who would become the characters in my book. I got in fights in the snow in parking lots over kit kat bars, and wrote in my backyard while our chickens pecked for worms and learned and learned and learned. When it was time for me to leave again I did. I went back to California and from there to Portland OR, where I joined the Army National Guard and finished my book. My new job as an investigator promoted me and moved me to Washington, which is where I live now.

Q. How did you develop your writing?

A. It took my whole life. I’m still developing it. In every terrible, ridiculous thing that I write there’s a lesson. If I pay attention, the next thing is less terrible and ridiculous.

Q. Is your family supportive? Do your friends support you?

A. My family and friends are my everything. They aren’t support of, so much as they carry me. I would be nowhere without them.

Q. Do you plan to publish more books?

A. Yes, many more.

Q. What other jobs have you had in your life?

A. I’ve been everywhere from golf cart attendant to private investigator, shoplifter fighter, I was even a rock climbing instructor for a year.   

Q. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

A. I really love the city that I’m in. Seattle is a beautiful city and I really love the feel of the Northwest area. But there will always be a place in my heart for Denver.

Q. Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge and thank for their support?
A. I would like to thank my girlfriend for putting up with me talking about nothing but this ridiculous book for a year of our lives. My parents for supporting me in all of my insane endeavors.

Q. Every writer has their own idea of what a successful career in writing is, what does success in writing look like to you?

A. A successful career in writing, to me, is like anything people can be successful in. Me, happy with what I’ve done.

Sebastian Parks is drowning in a flood of his own creation. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, he's wracked with night terrors and an anger that he can't abate. Unemployable and uninterested in anything resembling a normal job, Parks makes his living in fugitive apprehension, finding wanted felons on Facebook and thumping them into custody with his ex-military buddies John Harkin and Eric "Etch" Echevarria. When the body of a teenage Muslim boy is found in front of a downtown Denver nightclub Parks, Harkin and Etch are called on to do what they do best: Find bad men and make them pay. 

First-time author Kellen Burden serves up edgy humor, brutal action and characters you can't get enough of. Flash Bang will keep you turning pages until the end.

Received "Honorable Mention at Los Angeles Book Festival 2014"

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Thriller, Mystery

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Kellen Burden on Facebook

Message of the Pendant by Thomas Thorpe #Mystery #Historical #Thriller

At 9:23 A.M., a scream echoed down the hallway. Julia, the upstairs maid, ran to the stairway, breathlessly imploring guests below.”Come quick! I think she’s dead!”

William reached the landing a half step ahead of Sir Winthrop. The two raced up stairs, reaching Lady Carlisle’s doorway behind several other responders. By the time Elizabeth arrived, the two men bent over a motionless figure on Lady Carlisle’s bed.

As she approached, she could see the victim still dressed in a party gown, now heavily stained with blood.

Elizabeth gasped.”What has happened to Lady Carlisle?”

“It is not my Aunt, Elizabeth. It is Louisa Hurst with a serving knife in her back,” William answered.

At that moment, Madeline entered the room. The tall, dark-haired woman pushed by Elizabeth and stepped next to William. Her face turned ashen and she fainted at the sight of her sister. Sir Winthrop lifted her to a nearby chair and called for water. Charles arrived looking horrified as he surveyed the scene. He reached over to clutch Madeline and helped her drink.

A crowd of onlookers had gathered in the doorway. Someone requested to wake Arthur, still asleep in another room. A servant was dispatched to fetch Doctor Gracepool and the constable of Langdon, some twenty miles away. As the group of guests milled about the bedroom, Elizabeth’s eye caught a reflection near the foot of the bed. Reaching down, she discovered a small pendant the size of her thumb carved with a fleur de lis emblem. Turning it over, she gasped at the inscription on the back.

Colombe du Paix. Bonaparte. 

William Darmon and wife Elizabeth were powerful figures who in 1818 set society’s pace from expansive grounds known as Mayfair Hall. When a family member is murdered, a mysterious pendant is found containing a long lost request by Napoleon Bonaparte for an American mission to burn down Parliament buildings. The couple sets out on an action filled pursuit of the killer. While interviewing Henry Clay in post-war Maryland about the failed mission, they uncover evidence of a conspiracy to free the Emperor from exile. The Darmons infiltrate the cadre, but a shipwreck off the coast of Scotland, a firestorm at the Darmon’s Manor and a harrowing assault on the Island of St. Helena loom before the mystery can be unraveled.

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Genre – Mystery, Historical, Thriller

Rating – PG

More details about the author

Connect with Thomas Thorpe on Facebook

Website www.darmonmysteries.com

Quickie Author Chat with Kevin Sterling @ksterlingwriter #Mystery #Suspense #AmReading

What makes you the happiest? Spending time with the people I love.

What’s your greatest character strength? Probably my ability to remain calm and lucid in difficult situations. My family and friends regard me as someone they can come to for advice and strength when they need it the most, and it always makes me feel good to help them.

What’s your weakest character trait? Definitely my inflated ego, but I’m really working on it!

What are you most proud of in your personal life? My son, Preston. He completed both his undergraduate and law degrees in a fraction of the usual timeframe and now serves the people at the Texas State Capitol, earning a much lower salary than he would have made at a law firm. He truly cares about others, and I am so proud of him for that.

What books did you love growing up? My favorite book back then was Airport by Arthur Haley. I’ve always been an airplane and travel fanatic and had the unique opportunity to spend many of my summers in Europe growing up, so reading about all the intricacies of commercial aviation in combination with Haley’s gripping story really hit my buttons. I also ate up every single James Bond novel by Ian Fleming.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Action, Mystery, Suspense

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Kevin Sterling on Facebook and Twitter

Dance For A Dead Princess by Deborah Hawkins @DeborahHawk3 #Romance #Mystery

PROLOGUE Mid-April 2010, Paris

In the gray spring rain, he stood in the Place d'Alma staring down at the tunnel where she had vanished from his life on the last night of August 1997. He came here whenever he was in Paris. He counted the pillars until he reached number thirteen, the one that had taken her life. Tears formed behind his eyes, as they always did in this place. But he refused to let them overflow. Instead, he took a long breath of fresh rain mixed with the exhaust of cars speeding through the tunnel.

When the big black Mercedes entered its skid that horrible night, his last living link to Deborah had been taken from him. Diana and Deborah, West Heath girls, friends forever. Deborah had been dead since 1994, but he had lost her long before she became his wife, three years after he met her at Diana's wedding to the Prince of Wales in 1981. How many nights had he spent talking to Diana about his marriage, about her marriage, about his guilt over Deborah, and about the impossibility of being in love? Too many to count. He ached to tell her now how empty his life had become without either of them.

He stared down the long, gray tunnel, wondering as always what she had felt as she had slipped away from everyone who loved her. Had she struggled against it, as Deborah had? Or had her torn and broken heart quietly accepted its fate? No, he doubted that. She'd have fought to stay with her boys. Diana hadn't gone into death quietly. That January, she'd had a warning of what was coming. She'd recorded a video tape naming her assassins and had given it to someone in America for safekeeping. But she would never tell him who it was. Too dangerous, she always insisted. If you had it, they'd come after you, too. Leave it alone, Nicholas. The tape is safer out of England.

His phone abruptly interrupted with a text message from his assistant. He was late for a meeting of the Burnham Trust at the Trust's Paris headquarters, and everyone was waiting. Well, they could wait. All day and all night if he wanted. He was the Eighteenth Duke of Burnham and the second richest man in England after the Duke of Westminster, and he'd be late if he decided to be. He hadn't wanted to be a duke but having been forced into the job, he was going to enjoy every possible perk.

As soon as the news of Diana's death reached him, he'd vowed to find her tape and make it public. No luck for the last thirteen years, but his latest operative had just come up with a stellar lead at last. It was so stellar that not only was he pretty sure he was going to find the tape, he was also going to have the opportunity to unload the decaying family seat in Kent and exact his well-deserved revenge upon his father, the Seventeenth Duke.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Contemporary Romance,Mystery

Rating – G

More details about the author and the book

Connect with Deborah Hawkins on Facebook

Website http://deborahlhawkins.com/

#Romance #Book Feature - Dance for a Dead Princess by Deborah Hawkins @DeborahHawk3

In January 1997, Princess Diana received a phone call telling her she would be assassinated. She recorded the information on a secret video tape, naming her killer and gave it to a trusted friend in America for safekeeping. It has never been found.

Diana's close friend, Nicholas Carey, the 18th Duke of Burnham and second richest man in England, has vowed to find the tape and expose her killer. After years of searching, he discovers Diana gave the tape to British socialite Mari Cuniff, who died in New York under mysterious circumstances. He believes Wall Street attorney Taylor Collins, the executor of Mari's estate, has possession of it. He lures Taylor to England by promising to sell his ancestral home in Kent, Burnham Abbey, to one of her clients, a boarding school for American girls. Nicholas has dated actresses and models since the death of his wife, ten years earlier, and has no interest in falling in love again. But he is immediately and unexpectedly overwhelmed with feelings for Taylor at their first meeting.

Taylor, unaware that Diana's tape is in her long-time friend and client's estate and nursing her hurt over her broken engagement to a fellow attorney in her firm, brands Nicholas supremely spoiled and selfish. She is in a hurry to finish the sale of the Abbey and return to New York. But while working in the Abbey's library, Taylor uncovers the diary of Thomas Carey, a knight at the court of Henry VIII and the first Duke of Burnham.

As she reads Thomas' agonizing struggle to save the love of his life and the mother of his child from being forced to become Henry's mistress, she begins to see Nicholas in a new light as he battles to save his sixteen-year-old ward Lucy, who is desperately unhappy and addicted to cocaine. But just as Taylor's feelings for Nicholas become clear and at the moment she realizes she is in possession of Diana's voice from the grave, she learns that Nicholas may be Lucy's father and responsible for his wife's death at the Abbey at the time of Lucy's birth. When Nicholas is arrested for Lucy's murder and taken to Wandsworth Prison, Taylor sets out to learn the truth about Nicholas, his late wife, and the death of the Princess of Wales.

Dance for A Dead Princess is a the story of two great loves that created and preserved a family that has lasted for five hundred years.

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Genre – Contemporary Romance,Mystery

Rating – G

More details about the author

Connect with Deborah Hawkins on Facebook 

Website http://deborahlhawkins.com/