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Tuesday Teaser - tempt us with your current read!
Paula is the new cop in town, replacing Cass Tuplin's son Dean, Cass encounters her for the first time in the chemist in Hustle..."Nice to meet you, the name's Paula," she said that day, standing straight and true in her navy uniform, mid-way along the sports tape and bandaids aisle.
I shook her hand. "I'm Cass. From Rusty Bore. So you've replaced Dean."
She leaned in. "Look, I want to reassure you that we're not all like that." She paused. "Yeah, everyone's already briefed me... word is he was pretty useless."
"Tuplin," I said.
"Yep, that was his name."
"Mine, as well."
"Oh?" She swallowed. "You're not... related though, are you?"
"Well, a bit. I'm his mother."
Live and Let Fry
by Sue Williams
I have just started
Out of Reach by Kendall TalbotMy teaser is from the first page as that is as far as I got:
Lily Bennett reached into the satchel at her side and placed her hand on the leather-bound journal that had triggered her travelling more than three thousands miles out of her comfort zone.
THERE WERE NO mice in the traps so Olive soaked dog food and sat on the back step and hand-fed the bird as she walked up and down her leg.
Little Gods by Jenny Ackland
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Out of Reach by Kendall TalbotMy teaser is from the first page as that is as far as I got:
Lily Bennett re..."
Really loved this one Sally!
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The Kookaburra Creek Cafe by Sandie Docker shortly.She ran as fast as she could.
'Where are you?' she screamed, her voice cracking.
Her throat hurt. Every gasp for air was difficult. She couldn't see very far through the thick black smoke, but she was sure she was close now. She had to be.
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Down Cemetery Road
by Mick Herron
Phrynne wrote: "“I’m from yeoman stock. Generations back, my family were farmers.’ ‘Generations back everybody’s family were farmers.” Down Cemetery Road
by ..."I wish my library had this! I have requested it.
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Just starting
Cooper Bartholomew Is Dead by Rebecca James so here is a very short teaser - the opening line:I never imagined I would die like this.
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My teaser this week is from
Children of Midgard by Siobhan Clark - set in Viking days:...The woman's heart was pounding in her chest, her legs ached from running but she knew she could not stop; the child was hidden and safe for now...
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Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
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"Then what are you doing here?" asked Jane. Phryne had tried to explain to her about the propriety of asking indirect questions but although Jane had understood the convention, she had no time for it.
Queen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood
Did we all miss yesterday??From The Hoarder (Renata is a cross-dresser and amateur detective):
'Now Gabriel is a murderer too?'
Renata fixes me with a glare, as if I'm wilfully annoying her. 'I didn't say that. But murdering usually runs in the family; it's an inherited condition, like a squint.'
'Is that really the case, Renata?'
She takes a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabs her forehead. Wigs often make her overheated and bad-tempered.
'It's a scientific fact,' she says. 'So the old man is right: his son probably does want to kill him.'
'Then he can get in line,' I murmur.
'You have to ask why his son wants to kill him?'
'Because his son is a psychopath, like his daddy?'
'He still needs a motive, Maud.'
I take a biscuit from the tin on the kitchen table. 'Since when do psychopaths need a motive?'
'Since always; even if it's because it's a Thursday or the voices just said so. Gabriel's motive is easy.' Renata is solemn-eyed. 'He wants to kill Daddy in retribution for murdering his mummy and the little faceless girl.
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So this is "We Forgot Wednesday" ;)
She tucked the note under Libby's bell, stuffed the folder back into her schoolbag and slung the bag onto her back before dragging her own bike out of the rack. That was when she heard the noise from behind the shed: a thud, and voices too. She dropped her bike, shrugged off her bag and went to investigate.
The Art of Friendship by Lisa Ireland
We forget Wednesday sounds good to me - was running around yesterday and when I got home I just sat in the chair and nodded off something I never ever do!!! I usually go out on Tuesday nights - but gave it a miss last night and listened to my body say "settle Sally"I have started
The Summer of New Beginnings by Bette Lee Crosby and really enjoying it (love all her books - so would have been shocked if I didn't like it!)Anyhow - two quotes from where I'm at - both on the same page - but I could relate SO strongly with them I had to share :)
...I simply don’t understand how the same parents can have two children who are so totally different. The girls were raised in the same household, and we didn’t make a bean of difference in how we treated them, but look at how it turned out...
and
...The sad thing is, regardless of what children do or say, they’re still your children, and you don’t stop loving them. Yes, there may be occasions when you scream and yell until you’re blue in the face, but even then, you don’t stop loving them...
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I was between books yesterday so here's something from my new read, Birthdays for the Dead by Stuart MacBride:The man on the landing smiled, showing off a set of yellowed teeth. His face was lopsided, angular, lumpy and twisted; covered with pockmarks and scar tissue. He was bloody huge too. ‘Ye can call us, “Mr Pain”.’
Seriously? Mr Pain?
The corners of my mouth twitched, but I got them under control. ‘So tell me, Mr Pain, this a social call, or an antisocial one?’
“My job is partly to establish that she had no animus against this powerful, attractive politician – the close friend of the prime minister; a man whose party she seeks to promote, for she works in the electoral events department, and whom she knows, intellectually, she should do everything to bolster. So why did she help set in train the events that have put him in the dock at the Old Bailey? She can only have done so because she knew it was morally right.”From Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
My teaser is from a book due to be released next month by an Aussie author - it is
The Book Ninja by Ali Berg:Dating is much like beginning a new book. First, there is trepidation. You ask yourself: What am I looking for in a book? What mood am I in? What are my friends reading? Work is picking up, do I really have the capacity to invest in the Wars and Peaces of this world, or should I be looking for something lighter, perhaps a little more The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyesque?
This teaser is from the start of chapter 5 - and I am just loving the whole comparison between choosing books and choosing a life partner :)
Fleet drops his cigarette unceremoniously and twists his foot, killing the last of its glow. 'These people are all batshit crazy. I know we weren't lucky enough to meet young Mr Wade in the flesh but he's starting to seem like the most normal of them all.''I know. My truth radar is all over the place.'
Fleet smirks but he cuffs me gently on the shoulder. 'Truth radar. We don't have those in the big smoke, champ. We just assume everyone is lying. Statistically it's more likely.'
Into the Night by Sarah Bailey
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The Black Box by Michael Connelly
It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men.Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
Ah yes, I remember that. I think the sequel is out soon. Pretty sure I gave my copy to Phrynne...
My current novel is about a woman who wakes up with prosopagnosia (the inability to recognise faces) after a night out. I close my eyes and take three deep, calming breaths before I dare look in the mirror again.
Nothing has changed.
The face reflected back at me is not mine.
It's impossible.
My curtain of long, blonde hair swishes as I turn my head from left to right. It's me. But it isn't. The features are not mine.
The Date by Louise Jensen
Sally906 wrote: "My teaser is from a book due to be released next month by an Aussie author - it is The Book Ninja by Ali Berg:Dating is much ..."
I loved that comparison too Sally. Especially the last part where the authors list four ways to end a relationship with a book that's just not working - made me chuckle :)
From
Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham:I'm all alone in the mortuary. Alone with the dead.
I assume that Price has locked the exit and that I'm stuck here for the night. I don't think I've ever been so excited - so happily excited - in my life.
He was wearing the jewel of his wardrobe, a high-quality Dolce & Gabbana suit made of thin virgin wool. Thus attired, Olli believed he could behave in a businesslike manner and not like an inmate off his meds the way he had the last time.Secret Passages in a Hillside Town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen
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The Phoenix of Kiymako by Ashley Capes
OK I know it's Friday...Harvey Beam is talking to his seventeen-year-old daughter Cate about parenting:
Beam looks at his daughter, who has the smallest hint of a smile in her eyes, and he gently punches her in the arm.
'I'm not that bad, am I?' he says.
'You were pretty shit at it most of the time,' Cate says, but now she offers him a smile to temper the moment.
'I was, wasn't I? Thank goodness you girls had your mum.'
'Who is not having her best year either,'
'Look,' says Harvey, realising this is probably the longest conversation he had had with Cate in recent years. 'She just wants what she thinks is best for you. She might be wrong about what is best for you, I don't know, but she's being tough because she loves you.'
'Right. Sure. Tough love. Do you love me?'
'Oh for shit's sake, Cate, of course I do."
'Poetic,' she says.
'More importantly,' Beam says, 'I like you.'
'Well,' says Cate, standing up and dusting off her legs. 'What's not to like?'
Afternoons with Harvey Beam by Carrie Cox
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It was dusk when Buddy pulled his Ford Bronco into the lot by the lake. Jack's was the only other car there, yet Buddy parked at the far end, thirty feet away. Jack watched him climb down from the driver's seat and waddle toward him, fixing that goddamn fedora on his head. Buddy took a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one.
The Nowhere Child by Christian White
Surprise, surprise - it's Tuesday and I am posting!!!My excerpt is from
Murder in Belgravia by Lynn Brittney.It is a historical mystery set in 1915
The MC is thinking about a young married suspect and her lot in life:
...At the age of eighteen they were thrust into a physical adult relationship with a virtual stranger, which often made them miserable for the rest of their lives. In Lady Harriet’s case it had ended in tragedy. The husband, turned by his war injuries and opioid drugs into a savage, which, whatever he had done to his young wife, had resulted in him lying dead in their bedroom with a pair of scissors through his heart...
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No Room for Regret by Janeen Ann O'Connell Set in Hobart Town in 1811 ->
From The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish. "she" is Ester, a young Jewess in mid-17th Century London. John is an actor, the son of a magistrate:She bit down on her lip until she tasted iron. “You mustn’t try to know me,” she said.
His brows arched high. “Why?” he said.
How to explain that for just an instant he’d reminded her of carved wooden angels she’s seen here and there in London, set high in lofty arches or on the posts of grand entrances – creatures whose faces shone with a mesmerizing trust? And each time she glimpsed such angels she felt certain that, should she but touch them, their innocence would dissolve.
She stood opposite John, wanting to turn away and wanting the feel of his hand on hers once more. “If you knew me,” she said, “you’ run from me.”
“Perhaps,” he said, “you think so only because you don’t know me.”
He stood before her, arms loose at his sides. It seemed to her that he’d just issued a challenge, though whether to her or to himself she didn’t know. She felt there was something she ought to say in response. Then she saw that what was required was that she say nothing.
Frances Metcalfe was not the type of woman who enjoyed large parties, especially large parties where you had to dress up in a costume. Given the choice, she would have stayed at home and pierced her own nipples with dull knitting needles, but fund-raisers for Forrester Academy were not optional. Despite the thirty-thousand-dollar tuition fee, the elite private school's coffers needed regular infusions of cash.Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding
Sure it’s fun,’ he says. ‘You meet lots of interesting people. Lots of opportunities to build your business knowledge. And when the cops are sniffin’ around, you really know you’re alive. You pull off some huge import right under their noses and you make the sales and you bank the profits and you turn around to your family and friends and say, “Goddamn, look at what you can achieve when you act as a team and you really stick to it.”Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
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Return to Roseglen by Helene Young - which I'm absolutely loving!
In some parts of the world dawn arrives with rosy fingers, to smooth away the creases left by night. But on Aldersgate Street in the London borough of Finsbury, it comes wearing safe-cracker's gloves, so as not to leave prints on window sills and doorknobs; it squints through keyholes, sizes up locks, and generally cases the joint ahead of approaching day.From
London Rules by Mick Herron
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In This Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear
my quote is from my current read
The Art of Friendship by Lisa IrelandHe was a quiet boy but had no trouble forming friendships. He’d never given them a moment’s worry.
Until now.
Libby’s stomach churned. What if she was wrong about her darling boy? What if she didn’t really know him at all? What if, despite following all the rules, she hadn’t raised the perfect child after all?
"I thought you said you knew how to drive one of these.""I'm just sayin' this here's a fancy rig. It got a cup holder and everything." She looked down at the floor. "It got a lot of pedals down there. What the heck is this big one?"
"That's the clutch."
"Yeah. it's all coming back to me. I used to drive my Uncle Jimmy's dump truck before I got established as a 'ho." She planted a Via Spiga on the clutch pedal and shifted.
"Here goes nothing."
The truck lurched forward and ground through a gear.
"That didn't sound good," I said.
"No problem," Lula said. "It don't matter if we lose a gear or two on account of this baby got a lot of them."
We drove slowly down the street.
"This here's a piece of cake," Lula said.
She turned a corner and took out a trash receptacle.
"Uh, you might have cut that corner a little tight," I said.
"Yeah, but did you see how smooth this beauty rolled over that garbage can? It's like driving a tank."
Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich
Stephanie Plum is always good for a laugh!
Just started
Nathan Fox: Seas of Blood by L. Brittney - is the third in a historical YA adventure series.My teaser: The omens were not good. Astrologers all over Europe stated that 1588 would be a terrible year. There were many eclipses of both the sun and the moon forecast and there were already rumours circulating about supernatural events – deformed children in France; bloody rain falling from the sky in Sweden; black magic in Germany causing torrential floods.
For those who aren't aware - 1588 was the year of the Spanish Armada!! It was great fleet (Invincible he called it) sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1588 to invade England in conjunction with a Spanish army from Flanders. England (Queen Elizabeth 1) won the battle and saved England and the Netherlands from possible absorption into the Spanish empire. Only 60 of Spain's original 130 ships made it back.
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Jake gave her a narrow look. 'No slipping off to the Villa on your own. We do this together, or not at all.'
Summer in San Remo by Evonne Wareham
"Isaac, I've been thinking. Perhaps I should apologise to Sparks.""Are you mad?"
"No. What if I went to see him and laid it all on the table? I apologise and I ask if we can wipe the slate clean. I'll say I'm prepared to eat humble pie and work with him."
Isaac's eyebrows shot up. "Humble pie isn't a dish I've ever seen you order, and after all that's happened, you're going to apologise to him? That's not the kind of thing you do, Erika."
She sighed. "Maybe it should be. I'm so stubborn and blunt with so many people. Maybe it's time to change..."
Last Breath by Robert Bryndza, and no, she doesn't really change much, LOL
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Sticks and Stones by Jo Jakeman so here's the opening words...I expected to feel free, unburdened, but when the curtains close around Phillip Rochester's satin-lined coffin, all I feel is indigestion.
"Can't you take the form of a human?" I said, placing the pitcher on a rack to dry. The motion caused me to notice a spot of blood on my amulet, and I removed it from my neck to wash it off. "It's creepy when you talk to me like that. Bird beaks are incapable of forming fricatives, you know."Hounded.
Jazzy wrote: "Do you mean to say, we bombed Russia by mistake? Nevil Shute - On the Beach
"LOL - oops!
Aussie Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Absolutist by John Boyne