P.D. Workman's Blog, page 81
July 11, 2019
Freebie Round-up Vegan Baked Alaska and More Summer Reading
Summer is finally in full swing here. I’m enjoying being able to run and bike without multiple layers. And if you are looking for some beach reads or if you’re still working and need a mental vacation, pick up Vegan Baked Alaska and some of these freebies.
I am trying an experimental feature to add all of these books to your Amazon cart with one click. Be aware that some free offers may have expired or may not be available in all countries. Take a look at the contents of your cart before checking out.
Vegan Baked Alaska
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“At least you won’t be stumbling over any bodies on an Alaskan cruise.”
Mary Lou couldn’t have been more wrong. Of course Erin Price, gluten-free baker extraordinaire, would stumble over a body on the cruise she had won in the baking category at the Fall Fair. The trouble is, no one will believe her.
Even Terry Piper, dubbed Officer Handsome by Vic, has his doubts about what Erin claims to have seen.
Sparking an international incident wasn’t quite what Erin had planned for her relaxing vacation, but she is determined to prove that she saw what she did and to bring the culprits to justice.
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More Freebies
Here are some more freebies for your summer vacation.
Chocolate with a Side of Murder
A missing sister. A spooky abandoned house. A secret meeting. A rogue hypnotherapist. A love triangle. A cute corgi. And chocolate. Plenty of chocolate.
If this is your kind of cozy mystery then you’ll love Chocolate With A Side Of Murder.
Sabrina Daley is still haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her sister ten years before. Even though the case went cold long ago, she keeps holding out hope that one day she will discover what happened to her sister.
Sabrina’s life is turned upside down again when she discovers her friend’s dead body in the alley way behind her family’s coffee shop. If that isn’t bad enough, after a week of investigating, the local police appear to be stumped.
Terrified about a second case going cold in town, Sabrina decides to take matters into her own hands. She sets out on her own, determined not to give up until she has brought her friend’s killer to justice.
Bed Bugged
When Doodle’s “career change” lands him a job with a new boss, he’s not worried. Sniffing out bed bugs? Easy as pie. Well, easier, actually, as getting pie can be a problem for a dog. Doodle finds best part of the new job is Molly, the boss’s ten-year old daughter, who slips Doodle extra treats when she’s not snapping photos with the camera she carries everywhere. But Molly has secrets of her own. And when she enlists Doodle’s help to solve a crime, his nose and her camera lead them straight into danger.
Readers have called the Doodlebugged mysteries perfect of fans of Spencer Quinn’s popular Chet & Bernie mysteries, and best-selling author Virginia Smith called Bed-Bugged, “a first-rate mystery” and a “triumphant beginning to a series.”
Lucky Double
Everyone Has a Hidden Talent
For Lucky O’Toole it’s murder…solving it.
Surviving in Sin City takes cunning, a pair of five-inch heels, and a wiseass attitude. Lucky has mastered them all and has a pair of legs she uses to kick butt and turn heads.
As the Chief Problem Solver for the Babylon, Las Vegas’s most over-the-top destination, mischief is in her job description.
She’s good at her job.
She’s less good at life. But who has time for a life when there’s a killer on the loose?
A Hopeless Murder
It’s been one helluva morning…
And Hope hasn’t even found the body.
At least not yet.
After a twelve year absence, investigative reporter Hope Walker is back home.
In Hopeless, Idaho.
And it’s not going well.
It seems the town and its citizens haven’t changed much.
Still weird. Still nosy. And a few of them? Downright hateful.
And now Hope has a serious problem.
Because one of the hateful is dead.
And she’s the prime suspect.
Texas Troubles
Middle aged Professor Ollie Stratford’s been hounded by a psycho realtor, outrun by a bunch of grandma’s, taken advice from sock puppets, stuck in a brimming toilet bowl, and almost run out of college by a drunken professor. How is that for her first few days in a quiet little Texas town she never wanted to live in?
Thrust into the middle of a murder mystery with a dwindling pile of cash and very few leads Ollie starts digging. Along the way, she teams up with an oddball reporter, a dreadlocks flashing lawyer, a grandma who teaches mixed martial arts, and a stray dog named Bodie.
The Confectioner’s Guild
Wren knew her sweet treats could work wonders, but she never knew they could work magic. She barely has time to wrap her head around the stunning revelation when the head of the prestigious Confectioner’s Guild falls down dead before her. Poisoned by her cupcake.
Now facing murder charges in a magical world she doesn’t understand, Wren must discover who framed her or face the headsman’s axe. With the help of a handsome inspector and several new friends, Wren just might manage to learn the ropes, master her new powers, and find out who framed her. But when their search for clues leads to a deep-rooted conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, she realizes that the guild master isn’t the only one at risk of death by chocolate.
If Wren can’t bring the powerful culprit to justice, she and her friends will meet a bittersweet end.
Psychic Undercover (with the Undead)
Singers are a dime a dozen in Nashville, so despite her mama’s urging, psychic Ariana Ryder’s working her way towards a career in law enforcement at the FBI, one tray of fetched coffee at a time, instead. She’s got an extremely handsome boss, a dancing partner among the lab techs, and a solid year as the team rookie under her belt…
Right until the director gives her a big break, working undercover as a singer at a club to investigate why it’s being targeted by a serial killer. This might have worked better if the club didn’t happen to be a vampire nest.
Now, with the vampires’ investigator, Quil, on the case, the sparks are flying and the jurisdictional battle isn’t the only thing heating up as they race to solve the case before the killer strikes again!
Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse
Francesca Amaro moves back to her hometown of Cape Bay, Massachusetts, and takes over the family business, Antonia’s Italian Café. She spends her days making delicious artisan cappuccinos, until she stumbles upon her neighbor’s dead body. When the police discover Mr. Cardosi was poisoned, Francesca becomes a suspect.
The victim’s son, Matty, happens to be Francesca’s old high school friend. Together, they uncover the secrets of the locals in order to find the killer in their idyllic beach town.
Title for This Block
Bitsie George has always dreamed of owning her own bakery, so when she finds herself suddenly single after 27 years of marriage she jumps at the chance of fulfilling her dream. The only drawback to her new life as a baker is the dead electrician in her kitchen. Was he the victim of a tragic on-the-job accident, or is there something much more sinister afoot?
It’s up to Bitsie to find out with a little help from her sister-in-law Liz, her recently-retired-from-the-police-force brother Stan and her too-handsome-to-be-real shop assistant Anthony.
It’s not easy finding a murderer when your most compelling clue is a half-eaten raspberry ripple cupcake, but perhaps a pleasantly-plump cupcake connoisseur is the perfect woman for the job.
The Secret of Seaside
Paige Comber dreams of running off to Paris to train at the Cordon Bleu, but fresh out of college, she is stuck running her granny’s coffee shop in the small town of Seaside. It looks like a lousy summer until a handsome stranger named Nate arrives.
He’s here to help his Uncle Byron with his affairs, but when his uncle’s body washes up on the beach and Nate is thrown into prison, it is up to Paige to find out who might have been crazy enough to do it.
Arsenic in the Azaleas
After her ex-husband leaves her high and dry, former socialite Doreen Montgomery’s chance at a new life comes in the form of her grandmother, Nan’s, dilapidated old house in picturesque Kelowna … and the added job of caring for the animals Nan couldn’t take into assisted living with her: Thaddeus, the loquacious African gray parrot with a ripe vocabulary, and his buddy, Goliath, a monster-size cat with an equally monstrous attitude.
It’s the new start Doreen and her beloved basset hound, Mugs, desperately need. But, just as things start to look up for Doreen, Goliath the cat and Mugs the dog find a human finger in Nan’s overrun garden.
And not just a finger. Once the police start digging, the rest of the body turns up and turns out to be connected to an old unsolved crime.
With her grandmother as the prime suspect, Doreen soon finds herself stumbling over clues and getting on Corporal Mack Moreau’s last nerve, as she does her best to prove her beloved Nan innocent of murder.
From Garden to Grave
Verity Hawkes is a shut-in. After two years bunkered in her apartment, the only thing that gets her out is the disappearance of her beloved but eccentric aunt. As she takes over her aunt’s landscaping shop, she’ll need to go from hoarder to horticulturist in a hurry…
Her new home of Leafy Hollow is quaint, except for her most obnoxious client. When a series of freak accidents kills the customer, all signs point to Verity as the killer.
The hunt for answers is on, and Verity must question a tipsy carpenter, a bacon-peddling vegan restaurateur, and her dreamy landscaping competitor to keep her new life afloat. Failure to find the truth could put her back in a confined space for much more than two years…
Death of a Crafty Knitter
After solving a murder, gift shop owner Stormy Day is famous in Misty Falls.
When she lets a mysterious fortune teller offer romance advice, Stormy is drawn into a world of deception. When a body shows up, more secrets and lies follow, confounding the investigation.
Even Jeffrey, the mischievous Russian Blue cat, seems puzzled by the Death of the Crafty Knitter. As Stormy races to find the killer, the danger escalates, bringing the amateur sleuth and the cold-blooded killer face-to-face for a startling climax.
Patrick O’Donnell
Meet Patrick O’Donnell, the next first responder in my “Crime Fighters, Crime Writers” series!
Bio
Fiction and nonfiction author Sergeant Patrick O’Donnell has seen it all in his 24 years working for one of the largest police departments in the country. Now he helps crime/thriller authors write more authentic/accurate books and screenplays.
Cops and Writers
O’Donnell has just released Cops and Writers:
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Are you a civilian crime writer who wants to use picture perfect law enforcement details? Do you worry that your mystery novel or screenplay lacks credibility? Fiction and nonfiction author Sergeant Patrick O’Donnell has seen it all in his 24 years working for one of the largest police departments in the country. Now he’s here to help your writing honor the men and women who risk their lives in the line of duty.
Cops and Writers: From the Academy to the Street is your in-depth field guide for navigating the path from new recruit to seasoned patrol officer. Through O’Donnell’s accounts, you’ll get up close and personal with day-to-day challenges and out-of-the-ordinary emergencies including homicides, hostage situations, and bomb threats. Armed with this invaluable resource for decoding police jargon, tactics, and standard-issue gear, you’ll be well equipped to breathe new life into your stories.
In Cops and Writers , you’ll discover:
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Stories from O’Donnell’s years on the force to help give your book credibility How the academy and field training shapes rookies so you can mold convincing charactersPatrol officers’ daily routines and working conditions to infuse your fiction with added depthDifferent techniques for arresting and defending against criminal threats to bring readers even closer to the actionDifferent patrol units such as SWAT, K-9, Air Support, and Bomb Squad to add another layer of realism, and much, much more!
Cops and Writers is your all-in-one reference guide for giving your novel or screenplay much-needed street cred. If you like candid stories told with cop humor, technical details, and peering into the minds of those who serve and protect, then you’ll love Sergeant Patrick O’Donnell’s must-have handbook for crime fiction writers.
Where to find Patrick O’Donnell
You can find Patrick at https://www.copsandwriters.com
July 9, 2019
Excerpt from Dangerous Minds
Hopefully, you are enjoying your summer so far, whether you are on vacation or just continuing your usual routine. Have a look at what I am working on this summer. And be sure to come back this weekend for a round-up of freebies!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
Right now, I am reading Dangerous Minds by Janet Evanovich. It is the second book in the Knight and Moon series, and I have actually read the first one as well. I love the characters in this book. Evanovich writes lots of fun, quirky characters, and does not disappoint in this series. We’ve got an eccentric billionaire and the practical woman who tires without success to keep him stable and down to earth. There is a monk who has lost his island, and the billionaire’s cousin, a hanger-on who is eccentric in his own right. Put it together with an international threat, a secret society, and of course the missing (stolen) island, and you’ve got an Evanovich classic.
“If there is an intruder I’ll use my powers to cloud his mind so he won’t see me,” Emerson said.
Janet Evanovich, Dangerous Minds
“Awesome. Great plan. And what about me?”
“You have a big sword.”
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Buddhist monk Wayan Bagus lost his island of solitude and wants to get it back. The island was about two hundred miles northeast of Samoa. It had a mountain, beaches, a rain forest, and a volcano. And now it’s gone. Poof! Vanished without a trace.
Brilliant and boyishly charming Emerson Knight likes nothing better than solving an unsolvable, improbable mystery. And finding a missing island is better than Christmas morning in the Knight household. When clues lead to a dark and sinister secret that is being guarded by the National Park Service, Emerson will need to assemble a crack team for help. Since a crack team isn’t available, he enlists Riley Moon and his cousin Vernon. Riley Moon has a Harvard business degree and can shoot the eyes out of a grasshopper at fifty feet, but she can’t figure out how to escape the vortex of Emerson Knight’s odd life. Vernon has been Emerson’s loyal and enthusiastic partner in crime since childhood. He now lives in an RV behind Emerson’s house.
Together, this ragtag, mismatched trio will embark on a worldwide investigation that will expose a conspiracy one hundred years in the making.
July 4, 2019
Summer writing
Summer has arrived! Kids are out of school, people are taking vacation, and here in Calgary, the Stampede is about to begin (which of course means that there should be plenty of thunderstorms over the next week!) I don’t have any kids in school, we’re not planning any trips until September, and well, we don’t do Stampede or anything else with so many people in one place.
But I do like to participate in Camp Nanowrimo, and am currently “camping” while I write book #10 in the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series (tentatively “Muffins, Masks, Murder). Back from her Alaskan cruise, Erin is in need of a vacation from her vacation…
Following Muffins, Masks, Murder, I will be working on the next couple of books in the series.
Summer is also tick season! Here is a fun video I did for In the Tick of Time:
In the Tick of Time is currently free on Kindle, Kobo, and Apple Books! Pick up your copy today (if you dare!)
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I have a couple of young adult new releases over the summer. Gem, Himself, Alone releases this month on July 19, and June, Into the Light is coming out in August. Gem is a stand alone novel that has been in progress for a few years and is finally ready to see the light of day.
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And while I thought I was finished with the Between the Cracks series, after releasing Ronnie, readers were still asking for more. I explained that each child’s story had been told, and I wasn’t really planning for any more books to be added to the series. (Although, there are a couple of second-generation Simpsons who might still have stories to tell…)
But readers said they wanted to hear more about June. While June had a title role in June & Justin, that book was more from Justin’s perspective than June’s. My readers felt it made her out to be the ‘bad guy’ and accused me of abandoning her, not giving her a chance for a ‘happily ever after.’ So… after due consideration, I started to work on June’s recovery…
And don’t forget about the release of the Do No Harm medical thriller collection, which includes my first Kenzie Kirsch book, Unlawful Harvest. Join me for an online pre-launch party coming July 29!
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July 2, 2019
Excerpt from The Camel Club
With Canada Day and Independence Day this week, let me wish you a happy birthday! Be sure to check out my birthday blog for some great $0.99 and free books to add to your Kindle or eReader.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I have just started reading The Camel Club by David Baldacci. I have read one or two other books in the Camel Club series. There are some good characters; I am particularly enjoying the OCD member of the club, Milton Farb. But I am partial to characters with neurodiversities. Baldacci is always good for suspense and well-structured plots and clues. Lots of action and thrills.
They all knew him and were warily polite, as folks were with those who could suddenly turn on you. Stone always took great pains to show them respect. You were always deferential with people who carried machine guns.
David Baldacci, The Camel Club
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After witnessing a shocking murder, four conspiracy theorists team up with a Secret Service agent to uncover the government corruption that threatens to cause an international terrorism crisis in this New York Times bestselling thriller.
Welcome to THE CAMEL CLUB.
Existing at the fringes of Washington, D.C., the Club consists of four eccentric members. Led by a mysterious man known as “Oliver Stone,” they study conspiracy theories, current events, and the machinations of government to discover the “truth” behind the country’s actions. Their efforts bear little fruit–until the group witnesses a shocking murder…and becomes embroiled in an astounding, far-reaching conspiracy. Now the Club must join forces with a Secret Service agent to confront one of the most chilling spectacles ever to take place on American soil-an event that may trigger the ultimate war between two different worlds. And all that stands in the way of this apocalypse is five unexpected heroes.
June 28, 2019
The Healer
When advertising executive Erica Whittaker is diagnosed with terminal cancer, western medicine fails her. The only hope left for her to survive is controversial healer Arpan. She locates the man whose touch could heal her but finds he has retired from the limelight and refuses to treat her. Erica, consumed by stage four pancreatic cancer, is desperate and desperate people are no longer logical nor are they willing to take no for an answer. Arpan has retired for good reasons. casting more than the shadow of a doubt over his abilities. So begins a journey that will challenge them both as the past threatens to catch up with him as much as with her.
Shatter Proof is part of the Do No Harm collection, which is now available for preorder!
HBS Spotlight Author Interview
Do No Harm
ShatterProof
Judith Lucci Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon Best Selling Author
Newly retired Army physician and War College Professor Sonia Amon returns to war-torn Syria to open several village medical clinics and save lives – until is seems she can’t save her own…
Shatter Proof is part of the Do No Harm collection, which is now available for preorder!
HBS Spotlight Author Interview
Do No Harm
The Gamma Sequence
International bestselling author, Dan Altatorre.
Geneticist Lanaya Kim has evidence that a series of seemingly unrelated deaths were murders and not accidents, but coming forward with what she knows could make her a suspect or reveal herself to the unknown killer.
The Gamma Sequence is part of the Do No Harm collection, which is now available for preorder!
HBS Spotlight Author Interview
Do No Harm
June 27, 2019
Books for your birthday
It’s that time of year again. The arrival of my birthday, Canada Day, and Independence Day. Amazing that three such important birthdays fall so close together.
Even if you don’t live in Canada or the USA, consider this your birthday celebration too. I have rounded up some free and $0.99 books for you, so celebrate by filling your Kindle with some inexpensive summer reads!
My deals:
In the Tick of Time
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Things creep and crawl in the woods. Things that can wreak havoc with your life.
Things that can be deadly.
As an infectious disease expert for the DOH’s vector-borne disease division, Matt Malloy knows this. What he doesn’t know is who, or why, someone would want to deliberately infect innocent people. Adding insult to injury, his co-workers think he’s either paranoid or losing his mind because of erratic behavior and disordered sleep habits.
Behavior he can’t help. A traumatic head wound can have that effect on a man. He was clocked hard while interviewing a patient with Lyme disease weeks ago, and he’s still suffering from it.
But he’s definitely not crazy.
Or paranoid.
Someone is deliberately infecting people. Maybe even someone he knows. Very soon, that someone will know Matt’s on to him.
Can he prove his suspicions before he’s targeted, too?
A nail-biting, creepy-crawly, medical-thriller that fans of Robin Cook will devour because it could happen to you. Maybe it already has.
Read it today.
Free on Kobo and Apple Books , $0.99 on Kindle , free on Bookfunnel .
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Gluten-Free Murder
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Erin Price moves to Bald Eagle Falls, a place where everyone knows everyone as well as everyone else’s business, taking over the store left to her by her aunt to start up a gluten-free bakery. The grand opening is marred by just one thing, the death of her business rival, Angela Plaint. It appears that Angela was poisoned by one of Erin’s cupcakes, making her a prime suspect.
Equipped with cupcakes, her desire for the truth, and new bakery assistant Vicky’s help, Erin goes head-to-head against Detective Terry Piper to solve the murder. Rumors of treasure hunting, drug dealing, and a missing boy swirl around Bald Eagle Falls as Erin tries to sort the clues from the red herrings and find the killer before the killer can take care of her.
$0.99 on Kindle, $2.99 on Kobo, free with newsletter sign-up.
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And more…
What You Did
Former FBI-profiler, Eva Rae Thomas, faces the most personal case in her career, as bestselling author Willow Rose’s new hit series continues.
Three girls disappear on prom night at the local high school. One of them is the prom queen.
FBI profiler Eva Rae Thomas is chasing her long-lost sister when detective—and boyfriend—Matt Miller asks her to join the investigation of the three girls’ disappearance. They were last seen walking home together after the dance.
When the body of a young girl shows up in her backyard, Eva Rae knows she can no longer watch from the sidelines, and soon she realizes not only is she involved in this investigation, she’s also this killer’s target.
One Slip
When Connie Silverstein agreed to babysit her friend’s four-year-old son, she never dreamed it would end in disaster. Now the usually dependable medical student finds herself responsible for the boy’s near drowning and subsequent brain damage.
Connie is desperate to help the boy recover, but the grieving mother no longer trusts her. Consumed by guilt, Connie attempts to deaden her pain with alcohol. But there’s not enough vodka in the world to right the wrong she’s done. Family and friends attempt to intervene in her downward spiral, assuring her that tragic accidents can happen to anyone.
But only Connie knows the terrible secret that what happened was no accident.
Dead Witch on a Bridge
Is her magic strong enough to stop a killer?
On her first assignment as a demon-hunting witch, Alma was unable to kill. Now broke and unemployed at twenty-six, she lives in Silverpool, a remote town in a redwood forest north of San Francisco, where she sells magic-infused jewelry and tries to live a drama-free life.
When fairies draw her to the dead body of her ex-boyfriend, she must defend herself and the hidden power in Silverpool from an influx of supernatural trouble. The only way to make peace—and stay alive—is to find the killer.
Drawing upon years of formal magical training she’d rather forget, and using other abilities she’d like to keep secret, Alma goes up against bloodthirsty fae, a dangerously charming demon, her infamous father, and other ambitious witches with agendas of their own.
This time, an inability to kill might be not just the end of her job, but of her life…
Dead of Winter
When the fingers of dead women start showing up in the Supreme Court’s mail, ex-FBI Agent Jeremy Winter is brought back to the Bureau to aid in the investigation.
Agent Maggie Keeley, his girlfriend and now boss, leads the search for the serial killer. Together, Jeremy and Maggie learn the five remaining cities on the murderer’s list, but they have no idea when the killer will strike or whom he will target. When they stumble upon a clue at the scene of a young woman’s death, the case focuses on an abandoned ramshackle home in sparsely populated west Texas.
As the FBI closes in, the ante is upped in ways no one could have imagined, forcing Jeremy to choose between justice and revenge.
Don’t Lie to Me
When twelve-year-old Sophie Williams went on a Girl Scout summer camp, she never returned home.
Three months later, her body is found inside her sleeping bag in the most frequented area of Cocoa Beach, and the town is outraged.
The girl isn’t just any child. She’s the town’s most beloved surf idol, and it was believed that she could be the next Kelly Slater.
As another child, the son of a well-known senator is kidnapped, and the parents receive a disturbing video, FBI profiler Eva Rae Thomas — who has just returned to her hometown, divorced and out of a job — plunges into the investigation, breaking her promise to her children not to do police work again.
Local law enforcement, with her old flame Matt Miller in charge, are the ones who ask for her help in a case so unsettling that only she can solve it. But the deeper they dig, the deadlier it becomes for Matt and Eva Rae. Soon, everyone she holds dear is in grave danger as this case hits a little too close to home.
Arsenic in the Azaleas
After her ex-husband leaves her high and dry, former socialite Doreen Montgomery’s chance at a new life comes in the form of her grandmother, Nan’s, dilapidated old house in picturesque Kelowna … and the added job of caring for the animals Nan couldn’t take into assisted living with her: Thaddeus, the loquacious African gray parrot with a ripe vocabulary, and his buddy, Goliath, a monster-size cat with an equally monstrous attitude.
It’s the new start Doreen and her beloved basset hound, Mugs, desperately need. But, just as things start to look up for Doreen, Goliath the cat and Mugs the dog find a human finger in Nan’s overrun garden.
And not just a finger. Once the police start digging, the rest of the body turns up and turns out to be connected to an old unsolved crime.
With her grandmother as the prime suspect, Doreen soon finds herself stumbling over clues and getting on Corporal Mack Moreau’s last nerve, as she does her best to prove her beloved Nan innocent of murder.
Murder at the Old Abbey
White Monk Abbey is a local landmark and its resident patriarch, Caradoc Mansell, a foreboding presence. He runs his household and family as if he is still in the army. And he’s been known for rubbing people up the wrong way.
So, when he is found murdered, the challenge Chief Inspector Matt Lambert of the Newport police faces is that many people had a powerful grudge or good reason to want him dead.
And when it is discovered that Caradoc had children from dalliances in his youth, his family also fall under suspicion – their substantial inheritance having been put in doubt.
Honeymoon Cottage
Camilla Stewart’s ex-fiancé ripped her off and disappeared, leaving her to care for his eight-year-old son alone. But when she arrives in Pajaro Bay, she finds a village full of cute cottages, quirky characters… and a killer on the loose who is somehow linked to her, the young boy, and the darling little house known as the Honeymoon Cottage.
Free
Red Phoenix
In the aftermath of a series of student riots in Seoul, the U.S. Congress rushes a bill into law calling for the complete withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. This sets off a chain reaction: North Korea attacks across the DMZ, Russia supports North Korea, the Chinese remain neutral, and the United States fights again alongside its South Korean allies.
The full range of ground, air, and naval forces take part in vicious combat, first to hold off the North Korean onslaught, then drive them back.
Death of a Crafty Knitter
After solving a murder, gift shop owner Stormy Day is famous in Misty Falls.
When she lets a mysterious fortune teller offer romance advice, Stormy is drawn into a world of deception. When a body shows up, more secrets and lies follow, confounding the investigation.
Even Jeffrey, the mischievous Russian Blue cat, seems puzzled by the Death of the Crafty Knitter. As Stormy races to find the killer, the danger escalates, bringing the amateur sleuth and the cold-blooded killer face-to-face for a startling climax.
Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel
1932. Growing bored in the autumn of her years, Londoner Annabel Churchill decides to buy a private detective agency in a Dorset village. The purchase brings with it the eccentric Doris Pemberley and it’s not long before the two old ladies have their first case.
No one has made more enemies than the local busybody, Mrs Furzgate, but when she suffers a fatal fall at Piddleton Hotel everyone assumes it was an accident. The detective duo, Churchill and Pemberley, suspect murder and are soon on the case. But is it possible they’ll upset even more people than Mrs Furzgate managed to?
With the subtlety of two bulls in a china shop, Churchill and Pemberley employ unconventional sleuthing techniques. What appears to be a shortcoming is actually a skill: being consistently underestimated enables them to spring a clever surprise.
One Summer
Down-and-out pastry chef Star Bloom has no choice but to swallow her pride and take a job at a mom and pop diner. But the goofy antics of a fellow waiter and the attentions of a sexy patron are starting to lift her sour mood. When her new friends help her land a spot on a televised cooking show, she’s hopeful it’ll be the big break she needs to open up her own bakery.
Tyler Jackman would rather be animating cartoons than waiting tables. But when a blue-eyed beauty joins the diner staff, he starts counting down the hours to his next shift. Determined to get out of the friend zone, he hatches a plan to launch her dreams into the spotlight. But as his crush preps for the bake-off, Tyler faces his own tough competition in the battle to win her heart.
The Closer I Get
Tom is a successful author, but he’s struggling to finish his novel. His main distraction is an online admirer, Evie, who simply won’t leave him alone.
Evie is smart, well read and unstable; she lives with her father and her social-media friendships are not only her escape, but everything she has.
When she’s hit with a restraining order, her world is turned upside down, and Tom is free to live his life again, to concentrate on writing.
But things aren’t really adding up. For Tom is distracted but also addicted to his online relationships, and when they take a darker, more menacing turn, he feels powerless to change things. Because maybe he needs Evie more than he’s letting on.
Lady Justice and the Living Trust
On his deathbed, the ninety-year-old former bookkeeper for the Kansas City mafia names Walt as the successor trustee on his Living Trust.
An unsuspecting Walt soon discovers that his duties include keeping an eye on the heirs who must complete some very specific tasks before claiming their inheritance. When things start to go south, Walt soon learns that the heirs will resort to anything, including murder, to get their hands on their grandfather’s money.
And Then She Was Gone
The silhouette stood at the edge of the woods like a spider watching a fly enter its carefully crafted web. Only a few more steps and she’d be within its grasp.
Stacy Shaw has her whole life ahead of her. New job, new house and now a baby on the way–everything she’s ever hoped for is finally coming true. But on a warm summer night on the way home from work, she vanishes. The police race to find her, but the clues don’t add up. Conflicting facts emerge as her story twists and turns, sending the trail spiraling in all directions.
A hometown hero with a heart of gold, Jack Stratton was raised in a whorehouse by his prostitute mother. Jack seemed destined to become another statistic, but now his life has taken a turn for the better. Determined to escape his past, he’s headed for a career in law enforcement. When his foster mother asks him to look into the girl’s disappearance, Jack quickly gets drawn into a baffling mystery. As Jack digs deeper, everyone becomes a suspect–including himself.
Murder is a Monkey’s Game
Madi is horrified when she witnesses a strange, fatal paragliding incident. But when her private detective boyfriend, Lowell, arrives on the scene, he recognises the dead man right away.
Does someone know about Lowell’s dark past that he shared with the victim?
Who are the man and woman – who turn up in the village wearing suits and asking questions – really working for?
All of a sudden, Lowell is on the list of suspects for a crime where the only witness to murder is a monkey.
The Birthday Mystery
Jenny Starling is catering the twenty-first birthday party of upper-class twins, Alicia and Justin.
She arrives at their parents’ country house and is immediately met by the police. A young man has drowned in the pond. Was it an accident or murder?
But the birthday party goes ahead. Then just after midnight, everyone gathers for a champagne toast . . . and one of the guests falls down dead. The police are baffled and there is a whole party full of suspects.
When it comes to someone adding the extra ingredient of poison to her own precious recipes, Jenny isn’t going to take it lying down. She has a reputation to protect.
If She Saw
Kate’s brilliant mind and unrivaled ability to enter the mind of serial killers is just too indispensable, and the FBI needs her to crack this baffling case. Why were two couples found murdered, 50 miles apart, and in the same manner? What can they possibly have in common?
The answer, Kate realizes, is urgent—as she is certain the killer is about to strike again.
But in the deadly game of cat and mouse that follows, Kate, entering the dark canals of the killer’s twisted mind, may just find herself a moment too late.
The Last Cabin
Life has hardened Joanna Mercer, and she has spent the past four years since her husband’s death preparing herself against the uncertainties of life. After an EMP destroys the nation’s power grid, every ounce of that strength will be tested.
$0.99
Someone Else’s Daughter
THE SEARCHING MOTHER
Miranda Steele.
Feisty. Independent. Skeptical.
Thirteen years ago her abusive husband stole her baby and gave it up for adoption.
She comes to Atlanta to find her daughter.
THE PI
Wade Parker.
Ace detective.
Wealthy owner of the Parker Investigative Agency.
The most eligible forty-four-year-old bachelor in Atlanta.
Still mourning the death of his socialite wife, he must solve a disturbing murder case.
Before the killer strikes again.
THE MURDERER
A serial killer strangling young girls in a bizarre ritual.
Why?
She doesn’t need a man.
He needs to find a killer.
Together, can they save a thirteen year old girl?
Ice Cream with a Side of Danger
A family tragedy. A chilling final conversation. A sleuth pushed to the brink. And ice cream. Lots of ice cream.
Sabrina Carlson hasn’t spoken to her father since they had a big falling out.
In fact, as time goes by, she wonders if she will ever see him again.
So, when her father turns up dead one morning, Sabrina is shaken to her core.
As much as she wants to take time to grieve, she knows that isn’t possible while a killer is on the loose.
Truthfully, Sabrina won’t be able to rest until her father’s killer is brought to justice.
Unfortunately, her dad had a knack for making enemies.
Dangerous Places
When teenager Heather Young disappeared from the small town of Himmel, Wisconsin, everyone believed her boyfriend Eric had killed her—though her body was never found. Twenty years later, Eric’s little sister Sammy returns to town. She begs her childhood friend, true crime writer Leah Nash, to prove her brother isn’t a murderer.
But Sammy has no new evidence, and her brother doesn’t want Leah’s help. Leah says no—but she can’t help feeling guilty about it. That feeling gets much worse when Sammy is killed in a suspicious car accident. It’s then that the independent, irreverent, unstoppable Leah takes up her cause. The investigation leads Leah to some dark and dangerous places, and a shocking personal connection to the crime.
Close to the Bone
FBI Special Agent Cate Wilde is back home on a remote Pacific Northwest island when she gets the call: a teenager’s skeletal remains have been found on a nearby island.
Together with Tessa Black, a childhood friend turned local deputy, Cate confronts dreary weather and bleak leads to make sense of the death. The complications pile up as Cate is distracted by the coroner on the case—and by nagging memories that draw her twenty years into the past.
The remains suggest eerie similarities between this victim, and Cate and Tessa’s friend Samantha, who disappeared when she was fourteen.
Books for PTSD Awareness Day
June 27 is PTSD Awareness Day.
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For millions of people around the world, the most traumatic events of their lives have never ended. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a lingering reminder that turns every day into a potential minefield, with flashbacks and triggers potentially hidden around every corner. (From https://www.personalizedcause.com/health-awareness-cause-calendar/ptsd-awareness-month)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are psychiatric disorders that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault.
Old names for this disorder are shell-shock and combat fatigue, but they occur in many more people than just war vets. Victims of domestic and sexual assault and first-responders are two other classes of people who may be affected. Even something like a car accident can result in flashbacks and other symptoms.
Symptoms
A more detailed listing of the signs and symptoms of PTSD is included in the resources listed below.
Symptoms of PTSD fall into four categories. Specific symptoms can vary in severity.
What Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?
Intrusive thoughts such as repeated, involuntary memories; distressing dreams; or flashbacks of the traumatic event. Flashbacks may be so vivid that people feel they are re-living the traumatic experience or seeing it before their eyes.
Avoiding reminders of the traumatic event may include avoiding people, places, activities, objects and situations that bring on distressing memories. People may try to avoid remembering or thinking about the traumatic event. They may resist talking about what happened or how they feel about it.
Negative thoughts and feelings may include ongoing and distorted beliefs about oneself or others (e.g., “I am bad,” “No one can be trusted”); ongoing fear, horror, anger, guilt or shame; much less interest in activities previously enjoyed; or feeling detached or estranged from others.
Arousal and reactive symptoms may include being irritable and having angry outbursts; behaving recklessly or in a self-destructive way; being easily startled; or having problems concentrating or sleeping.
Symptoms may occur immediately following the traumatic event(s) or may not appear until years later.
Some Resources
Signs and Symptoms of PTSDTips To Get Out Of A PTSD EpisodeTreatment and recoveryPTSD and Veteran’s Symptoms
Statistical prevalence
PTSD is a much more common disorder than previous studies have suggested, occurring throughout all age groups – including children under the age of one. The lifetime risk for developing PTSD in U.S. adults is 3.5%. The lifetime prevalence of PTSD is lower for those of European, African, Asian, and Latin American cultures at 0.5%-1.0%. Increased rates of PTSD are notable in those who have jobs that place them at risk for being a part of a traumatic event, such as police officers, nurses, and firefighters. The highest rates for PTSD occur among sexual assault survivors, military veterans who have been in combat, and survivors of genocide.
https://www.therefuge-ahealingplace.com/ptsd-treatment/effects-symptoms-signs/
Books about PTSD
I have gathered together some books, mostly fiction with characters with PTSD and/or written by authors dealing with PTSD.
Before I get into the fiction, I want to link to a book list of non-fiction books studying or about treating PTSD, and highlight one non-fiction book recommended to me by a friend.
Here is the non-fiction book list provided by Questia:
https://www.questia.com/library/psychology/mental-health/post-traumatic-stress-syndrome
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: A Guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma
A writer friend of mine recommended this book as the only practical guide to overcoming c-PTSD that he had been able to find. This was the book that helped him to start working through is c-PTSD issues.
Amazon description
I have Complex PTSD and wrote this book from the perspective of someone who has experienced a great reduction of symptoms over the years. I also wrote it from the viewpoint of someone who has discovered many silver linings in the long, windy, bumpy road of recovering from c-PTSD.
I felt encouraged to write this book because of thousands of e-mail responses to the articles on my website that repeatedly expressed gratitude for the helpfulness of my work. An often echoed comment sounded like this: At last someone gets it. I can see now that I am not bad, defective or crazy…or alone!
The causes of c-PTSD range from severe neglect to monstrous abuse. Many survivors grow up in houses that are not homes – in families that are as loveless as orphanages and sometimes as dangerous.
If you felt unwanted, unliked, rejected, hated and/or despised for a lengthy portion of your childhood, trauma may be deeply ingrained in your mind, soul and body.
This book is a practical, user-friendly self-help guide to recovering from the lingering effects of childhood trauma, and to achieving a rich and fulfilling life. It is copiously illustrated with examples of my own and my clients’ journeys of recovering. This book is also for those who do not have c-PTSD but want to understand and help a loved one who does.
Writing a lot of books about abuse, I tend to have a lot of characters with PTSD or c-PTSD. I don’t want to take up too much space with my own, so I will just mention a couple with details, with links to some others.
About Loose the Dogs
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Starting with a first responder with PTSD, I have Loose the Dogs:
You’ll never look at your dog the same way again.
Seven dogs are adopted by families all across the country who do not know their history…
“Of one thing I am sure,” Glenn declares. “These dogs are perfectly harmless.”
Frank knew it wasn’t true.
He would never forget walking into that trailer. He saw it in his mind every time he closed his eyes. He woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, seeing those eyes and those teeth, screaming soundlessly, gasping for breath.
“He never saw those dogs. How could anyone make such a stupid decision, knowing what they did?”
Click the red button to buy direct, or find the store links here.
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$4.99
About Chloe
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The Between the Cracks series deals extensively with abuse, so you will see a lot of traumatic symptoms in all of them, but Chloe suffers particularly heinous abuse and has a lot of dissociation and depersonalization. She is helped by a child victims investigator (who is also at risk for PTSD with the cases he is exposed to on a daily basis) and an emotional support animal.
Chloe had always been the perfect daughter. Diligent, obedient, good at caring for the other children when Mom wasn’t home. She always worked hard and did everything she was asked.
But she couldn’t please her mother and the parade of stepfathers. It seemed like the harder she tried, the worse the abuse got.
Chloe had known for a long time that she was two people. The Chloe who watched and the Chloe who experienced. She had been watching for so long, she wasn’t sure she could feel anything anymore. But if she can’t overcome her past and start living in the real world, she knows she will lose herself forever.
Click the red button to buy direct, or find the store links here.
Placed on the In the Margins Committee Recommended Reads, 2018 by Library Services for Youth in Custody.
Read sample
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$5.99
Other books of mine with PTSD/c-PTSD characters:
Private Investigator Zachary Goldman in the Zachary Goldman Private Investigator series.Don’t Forget StevenMaking Her MarkTamara in the Tamara’s Teardrops series
And more books
Murder on Perry’s Island
One terrible night Detective Sergeant Marcus Lear exchanged gunshots with a 16-year-old burglary suspect. The boy was left a paraplegic. Marcus suffered PTSD and could no longer bring himself to carry a gun. Forced to resign the job he loved, Marcus returned to his historic family home on Perry’s Island to try to put his life back together.
Marcus had grown up there listening to the police chief’s stories of crime solving in the city. The chief’s stories inspired Marcus to leave the island and become the youngest detective in PD’s history. Marcus’s childhood best friend had been Jenny Gibbons, the Chief’s daughter, who was now an Ohio Wildlife Officer assigned to the island’s state park. She is determined to help Marcus face his pain and to reestablish their relationship. As they return home from an evening out, Jenny learns that the wife of an island businessman has been brutally murdered.
With Chief Gibbons away for the night, a desperate Jenny turns to Marcus to use his experience to preserve the crime scene. Marcus refuses at first, unwilling to have anything to do with police work that might force him to re-live recent events. Finally, he gives in to her pleas and agrees to supervise the crime scene just until the Chief can take over. Despite himself, Marcus is drawn deeper into the investigation. When a witness identifies a youth camp chaperone as the last person to be with the victim before her death, Marcus believes the man’s story of innocence.
Marcus is proven correct when the elderly housekeeper who helped raise him is left for dead in his own house and the historic mansion set on fire. The attack provides a personal aspect to the case that drives him to narrow down the suspects. Marcus’s single-minded pursuit of the killer while fighting his personal demons might cost him his own life!
What Happened to Lori
Three people.
Each has a secret.
Each has an agenda.
All three are liars.
One of them committed a terrible crime.
One of them is on the run.
More than one of them is a killer.
These three people are about to find out what happened to Lori.
And they’re going to wish they never did…
Crawford Hill
Protagonist with PTSD, written by an author dealing with PTSD.
Derek Crawford smiles pleasantly at the anger management counselor as the voices in his head beckon him into spiraling madness.
A burned-out and now unemployed child psychologist, Derek lives alone in the Victorian mansion on Crawford Hill. From his great-grandmother’s widow’s walk on the fourth floor he can watch the lights of Centerville blinking on as the sun sets over Lake
St. Clair.
From the basement he can enter his great-grandfather’s network of caves, and prowl beneath the homes of the unsuspecting town.
As he nears his 29th birthday, one voice is getting louder. More persistent. It’s the gravelly voice
of his old man, dead a dozen years but no less demanding than when he whipped his belt across Derek’s back.
Broken Monarch
In 1979 Glenn is a chef at the Silver Lake Inn when his experiences of lost time become inhabited by a violent and dangerous part of himself he doesn’t know.
A week before the First Lady of The United States visit to the restaurant, he meets Lindsey who holds the key to understanding what’s happening.
The clock is ticking as he uncovers the mystery of their shared past, his part in Project Monarch and the plot to kill the First Lady.
In the Canyon of Shadow and Light
In the bitter winter of 2004, New York Homicide Detective Alex Boswell finds himself juggling a trio of cases. There is the armed robbery of a Harlem grocery store, an autistic child dead in a care home, and an assistant district attorney found shot in an Upper West Side apartment.
Already a tattered veteran of the NYPD, Boswell is a man beset: the combined weight of his caseload and personal life grinding him down and destroying his health. Soon darker shadows and flashes of his past begin plaguing him, and he is terrified reality is crumbling away, while the criminal justice system itself seems ever more absurd and bewildering.
Murder Ready to Eat
This one features a murder victim with PTSD and the plight of homeless vets.
Crime fighting foodie, Scotti Fitzgerald, has found her sweet spot in life – running her dessert food truck by day and sleuthing for P.I. and mentor, Joe Enders, by night.
During the week she and wise-cracking sidekick Zelda, ramble around the San Fernando Valley hawking their home baked goods. They end their week by taking the left-over goodies to a few homeless vets who gather at the local park.
While working a boring divorce case for Joe, the girls stumble upon a connection between their target and the vets in the park. So when homeless buddy Ron, turns up dead a couple days later, Scotti’s inner investigator cries foul. The more she digs into Ron’s death, the more a mysterious person named Jody pops up. And though her relentless pursuit of justice for Ron puts a strain on her personal relationships she can’t seem to stop herself.
Past Aghast
This series features a main character with chronic, severe PTSD and is being developed into a TV series.
Is he the killer they say he is… or is he being framed?
Even Jack isn’t certain. While deployed to Iraq, Jack helplessly witnessed his true love, Major Lori Darden, RN, being ruthlessly murdered. Jack is left emotionally traumatized with severe PTSD and the Army forces him to retire. Jack’s PTSD flashbacks sometimes leave him unaware of his actions while under the influence of his unwelcome mental demon.
As the new Chairman of Anesthesia at Southern Medical Center, Jack thought he’d retired into the tame civilian job he’d dreamed of, but a series of bizarre murders and deaths have occurred at Southern Medical Center. Because of his mental health issues Jack becomes a person of interest and is swept into the investigation.
But an anonymous tipster helps Jack understand there’s something much more sinister going on than what he’s become aware of.
Red Hot
PTSD put her behind a desk. Now her new desk job might get her killed.
Fresh from the Afghan front, ex-military Emily Patrick is sent to the Mexican coast south of San Diego to extract an injured American firefighter.
But she’s not the only one looking for him.
And when her support system goes AWOL, things escalate quickly.
Now they’re outrunning the local cartel and to get them both out alive may just take a miracle. And a whole lot of bullets.
Rothaker
It takes the perfect student to commit the perfect crime.
Brooke Walton is a thriving medical student at Rothaker University, until she has a serious conflict with Rachael, a rival classmate. When Rachael mysteriously disappears, detectives descend on campus and the hunt for the truth begins.
Warning: this is a DARK thriller. Brooke Walton is brilliant, ambitious, and twisted.
365 Marks on the Wall
One bad decision leads to consequences that Lila couldn’t begin to fathom.
It was just a tube of lipstick. Lila didn’t think too much about it when she slipped it into her pocket at the mall. When a man grabbed her arm and accused her of shoplifting, her only thought was for the trouble she was going to be in with her parents over one stupid impulse.
But then she woke up chained to the wall in a dank, dark cellar.
In growing panic, she begins to understand the hell her world has just become.
Soon she won’t be the only one imprisoned in that cellar… but is that a good thing? Or will it just make everything worse? Can Lila survive the abuse and the torture? Will the other girls be strong enough to survive what Lila has already lived through?
Warning: contain some pretty serious abuse/dissociating/near death experiences
Rock-a-Bye Baby
An aunt’s worst nightmare…
In the city of Denver, a series of baby kidnappings has the town devastated. With no ransom demands and no contact from the perpetrators, local law enforcement is at a dead end. No motive equals no answers.
A cop’s personal obsession…
Charlene Taylor’s niece becomes a victim, and the LAPD detective is thrown headfirst into a whirlwind case with similarities to one from seven years earlier. Out of her jurisdiction, and with no friends or leads, Charlene must walk-the-line between cop and sister.
Who can she trust?
Charlene has to decide who’s an ally, and when an unlikely partner steps forward, they must race against the clock: because that critical 48 hour window has come and gone.
Read an Excerpt
Any other recommendations? Let me know in the comments below!
