The Crushing: New Suspense

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The Crushing: New Suspense

The Crushing, by Kerry Peresta

Author Guest Post + Book & Author Info + A Giveaway!

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The Crushing The victim of a vicious assault six years ago that resulted in a traumatic brain injury, Olivia Callahan is now a private investigator with her own firm. The assault that almost took her life resulted in a spectacular metamorphosis. No longer the shy, passive introvert she once was, she’s become a driving and determined force. However, the lack of impulse control caused by her rewired brain causes her to run toward trouble instead of away from it.

When Olivia sends her colleague, Sherry, to the Florida panhandle to find a missing friend, Hannah; the search takes Sherry into the dark heart of an abusive, hostage situation. The man Hannah married is cruel, dangerous, and well-connected. Olivia reels in her favorite cop—Sergeant Hunter Faraday—for a discreet assist, and it soon becomes clear that Hannah’s new husband is adept at waging war against anything that blocks his way.

While rescuing Hannah is Olivia’s primary goal, her incarcerated ex-husband has other plans. He’s collected friends who support his obsessive need to punish her for her role in his murder conviction, and a time bomb is ticking.

As Olivia and Sherry battle to save Hannah, try to neutralize the fiendish plan of an ex bent on revenge, and endure a terrifying race for their lives through the Florida wetlands; a final betrayal waits patiently in the dark. Smiling.

Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Number of Pages: 310
ISBN: 978-1-68512-770-1
Series: Olivia Callahan Suspense, Book Four

To purchase your copy of The Crushing, click any of the following links: Amazon | Goodreads | Level Best BooksThe Crushing Guest Post by Kerry Peresta Should a Protagonist be Likeable?

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘likeable’? For me, I think of a person possessing a winsome expression, a good personality, a sense of style, and is reasonably good-looking. In short, the person is perfect. And, this is the problem for me: who is going to relate to the “perfect” person?

I’m not particularly drawn to books featuring a main character who does no wrong; who is so blatantly bland he offends no one. My critique group and I have had disagreements over this, and finally decided the protagonist should be ‘relatable’, and doesn’t have to be ‘likeable’. However, one reader’s ‘relatable’ may be another reader’s ‘detestable’.

So. This is a writer’s dilemma, isn’t it? Creating an interesting, relatable character who inspires readers to buy all the books about that character.

I keep these wisdom-nuggets in my mind as I forge ahead with my protagonists, who are based on real people I’ve known, with exaggerated traits or flaws that make them (more) interesting. Obviously, we cannot please every reader and are not meant to, but we can carve out a lane for ourselves which readers will recognize. I want my readers to enjoy my protagonist with each book they purchase. Story is important, of course, as is setting and plot. However, I feel the protagonist is the linchpin that holds it all together. If they don’t find the protagonist interesting, the book is cast aside. We do our readers no favors when we write what we think everyone wants, i.e. the flavor of the month approach; nor do I think it works when we grab a character from a popular story from the past, (it worked then, maybe it’ll work now!) tweak the character with our own eccentricities, and release them into the world. A character should not be contrived, based on someone else’s success, or based on current market trends. Our protagonists should seem real to us, flesh-and-blood-and-bone; living, breathing vessels in whom we feel comfortable pouring our essence. This is how a three-dimensional character is born.

The Crushing I’ve read a multitude of writing articles about how to develop a three-dimensional characters, and don’t remember ever writing a one-dimensional character in my life. It feels unnatural to write a ‘stick figure’, other than the characters meant to melt into the background. If I don’t feel a deep connection to my protagonist or antagonist, I back out of my story and think about why. Sometimes, we have to go back, take a closer look, and ‘fill in the blanks’ on a character, because we’ve gotten focused on racing through the draft, and other times we may have to scrap that character and build a different one. Often, for me, one of the secondary characters rises to prominence in my head, and if I’m working on a series, she has a bigger part of the plotline in the next book. My new release, The Crushing, features Hannah, a friend of Olivia Callahan, my protagonist. I enjoyed fleshing her out and bringing her into focus. As it turned out, bringing her into focus revealed more flaws and cracks in her psyche than I could have predicted!

I gave up on crafting a protagonist with a bent toward making her “likeable” a long time ago. I can’t even write my stories with this thought uppermost in mind. I would rather people cheer for my character as she fights her way through seemingly insurmountable obstacles and wounds in her spirit. My stories focus on the journey, and I am candid about my protagonist’s flaws and struggles. Most of us have clawed our way back from devastation, chaos, or disappointment. These experiences are invaluable in writing an authentic character, so use the emotions! These touchpoints help the reader feel empathy. If you don’t already do it, I encourage you to be as transparent as possible with your protagonists’ choices, good or bad; and let their soul breathe. Your reader will feel it.

I would love to connect with you! Please stay in touch, visit my website, here.

Kerry Peresta — Author of The Crushing

Kerry Peresta is a suspense novelist, and her releases include The Deadening, The Rising, The Torching, and The Crushing, books one-four in the Olivia Callahan Suspense series; and Back Before Dawn, a standalone thriller, all published by Level Best Books Publishing. Her magazine articles have appeared in Hilton Head’s Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, editor, and copywriter.

She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, South Carolina Writers Association, Pat Conroy Literary Center, International Thriller Writers, and the Sisters in Crime organization. Kerry is the mother of four adult kids, a flock of grandkids, and three cats.

She and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island in 2015.

To learn more about Kerry, click on any of the following links: kerryperesta.com Goodreads BookBub – @kerryperesta Amazon Author Page Instagram – @kerryperesta Twitter/X – @kerryperesta Facebook Author Page & Facebook Personal Page

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