M. Glenda Rosen - Dying to Be Beautiful series - 99¢ sale, excerpts & giveaway

BOOK ONE: WITHOUT A HEAD

Saturday Morning, 6:00am

The head in the sink stared up at her. Darcy Monroe, the owner of a popular, chic hair salon was used to this. Only this time, the head was there without a body.

Chapter One: The Murder

As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.

She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons. A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.

Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish setter sitting next to her.



Excerpt

Chapter 1
The Murder

Saturday, 6:10 A.M.

As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.

She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons.

A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.

Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish Setter sitting next to her.

As a well-respected private investigator in the area, she told the salon owner, “I’ll be right there, and don’t touch anything until the police arrive.”

Jenna knew they needed to secure the business as a crime scene and Coroner Doc Bishop and Head of Forensics Lara Stern had to be brought in as well.

“Troy, someone left a head, without the body, in a shampoo bowl at Darcy’s Salon. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

”Damn it, Jenna, I nearly spilled my coffee listening to this bizarre message. I’ll be there within the half hour. Meantime, I’ll ask Lara to get over there to check the crime scene for prints and other possible evidence and for Doc to arrange to bring the head to the morgue. We’ll want to look at it there, after he’s had a chance to determine how it was cut off and anything else he might find.”

Detective Johnson hung up.

He and Jenna had worked together and known each other for a long time. They clearly trusted each other. He knew she would follow police protocol at the crime scene.

Saturday, as always was an exceptionally busy day, “in season” at Darcy’s Salon, which is why she had gotten there so early. She always wanted the salon looking perfect, ready for stylists and clients, who this day had appointments beginning at 7 am.

Located off the main avenue of this posh resort at the East End of Long Island, less than ninety miles from Manhattan, the salon was known for catering to the rich and famous, as well as some of wanna-be customers, primping for weekend parties and fundraising events.

The salon was truly beautiful with warm color tones and soft matching leather client chairs facing gold (well, fake gold), trimmed mirrors. There was a reception area with the latest issues of fashion magazines from Paris and Rome, and a few of the more popular Hampton rags, like Dan’s Papers were spread out on a marble table, next to it a coffee machine offering gourmet flavored coffee and teas.

Most of the women who came to Darcy’s Salon had plenty of money, some from their own success, although others were arm candy for much older, wealthy men. Sometimes one of them would joke (maybe not) that they were “Dying To Be Beautiful” like some of the famous models and celebrities, many of who summered in the Hamptons.

“Jenna, you’ve seen how difficult and fussy they can be, and their egos—they’re constantly seeking confirmation of how beautiful they look. They want to come to a high-end salon, expecting to be treated like royalty. And believe me, we do.”

Darcy Monroe was only too glad to charge megabucks for her services since it included a whole lot of catering to their whims and demands. Beauty could indeed be expensive in The Hamptons. The chatter amongst the clients, the eight hair stylists, three manicurists and several assistants meant gossip was a basic ingredient of conversation. The story about the body without a head, and the head found in the salon, was sure to explode through The Hamptons. It certainly had all the elements of a soap opera.

“My god, Jenna, the gossip about this mess is going to be like a volcano spilling over this town.”

***

Dying to Be Beautiful: Without a Head can be purchased at:
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99¢ EBOOK SALE!

runs June 1-30, 2016 

Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 140
Release: February 1, 2016
Publisher: Lulu
ISBN: 9781483445304
Click to add to your Goodreads list.

***

BOOK TWO: FASHION QUEEN

Monday, 6:45am

Kevin Larson swam in his pool nearly every morning. Going on sixty-five, he prided himself on being in good shape.

Walking toward the small pool house, off to the left of the pool, he noticed a light was on. He was certain he turned it off the night before. Strange, he thought.

Even stranger, lying in a different sort of pool—blood—was his long time friend and lover, fashion designer Andre Yellen. Yellen was stuffed into one of the gowns he had designed and a wearing a blond wig.

The gown had been auctioned off the night before at a huge Hamptons fundraiser.

People in the Hamptons were certainly dying to be beautiful.



Excerpt

Chapter 1
THE GOWN

Monday, 7:30 a.m.

Detective Troy Johnson was at Larson’s house when Jenna arrived. He had covered the victim with a large beach towel until the coroner and forensics arrived. [deleted “He and”] Sergeant Stan Miller, who had taken the call, accompanied him and was presently attempting to hold back the media. They had heard about Yellen’s death on the police scanner, and in no time, the active crime scene was quite a wild sight.

It was 6:30 A.M. when she had received the call from Johnson that he was on his way to Kevin Larson’s house: “Jenna, there’s been a murder. Designer Andre Yellen, the Fashion Queen, was found dead this morning at the home of movie mogul Kevin Larson. He gave her the address and exactly where it was located, “past the windmill at the edge of Southampton.”

“More like the situation was at the edge of reason,” Jenna thought.

“Jenna, they’re acting like a bunch of hungry vultures. Help! These are your people. Well, they’re reporters like you used to be. The homeowner is either in shock or just completely uncooperative except for telling me where and when he found Yellen’s body.”

Jenna sighed, “Sure, I can’t say no to such a lovely invitation.”

The death of Andre Yellen was big news.

Andre Yellen was squeezed—really, truly squeezed—into a beautiful ocean blue, sleeveless, silk gown he had designed and donated for a fundraiser the evening before. The size-8 dress was torn at all the seams. Yellen, in his early fifties, 5’9” and clearly out of shape, was more like a size-18-plus, and stuffed into a dress way, way too small for him.

As a designer for major celebrities for nearly twenty-five years, Yellen was a man about town who loved both the ladies and the men, or so it had been gossiped around the East End of Long Island, also known as The Hamptons.

After all, this is THE HAMPTONS, and all sorts of lifestyles are accepted, where choices are supposedly not judged, and relationships are not restricted by conventional boundaries. Unfortunately, there are always those determined to exercise their own brand of severe judgment.

However, there was no evidence this murder had anything to do with narrow minds. Not yet, anyhow. In fact, it wasn’t clear at all what this murder was about—or who had committed it.

Private Investigator Jenna Preston was familiar with many celebrities who lived or vacationed on the East End. Before becoming an investigative reporter, she was entertainment and social events reporter for the local daily paper and had interviewed quite a few of the “anointed” as she had once called them. Gossip columnists covered the rest.

Jenna was regularly hired by law firms, insurance companies and businesses for corporate fraud issues. She also had an arrangement and relationship with the local police—especially when it came to murder investigations. Some of the people she had once written about also tried to hire her for personal investigations and for, what she considered, ridiculous reasons. Such complaints included some new fence being too high or people walking on the beach in front of someone’s home.

Most of these cases she didn’t accept.

“For me, it’s about justice. We all have reasons, even life experiences motivating our passions. I have mine for what I do,” Jenna told a local reporter whose paper was doing a story on crime in The Hamptons.

Jenna had a solid reputation for being smart, resourceful and most definitely charming—without an attitude—which was different from many of the people who summered in The Hamptons.

She did love nice clothes, including the red shoes or red boots she almost always wore.

“Hey,” she laughed once when Troy made fun of her red shoes, “you wear a cowboy hat most of the time, so don’t make fun of me, Tex.”

Jenna and Troy worked together professionally almost as soon as she had become a licensed private detective. It was a small police force, often stretched thin during the summer season. Because they actually had few experienced investigators, he had requested and been given approval by his captain to use a discretionary fund to hire Jenna on an as-needed basis. She was often a member of his investigative team, usually for murders.

Lately, there didn’t seem to be any shortage of them.

Slender and almost 5’5,” yet always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, sometimes pulled back in a ponytail when she was working. She also had deep blue eyes. With more than a hint of spunk and mischief about her, she was definitely considered attractive.

Jenna’s new romance, Dave, thought so!

***

Dying to Be Beautiful: Fashion Queen can be purchased at:
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99¢ EBOOK SALE!  

runs June 1-30, 2016 

Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 132
Release: June 1, 2016
Publisher: Lulu
ISBN: 9781483449159
Click to add to your Goodreads list.

***

About the Author

M. Glenda Rosen is the author of The Woman’s Business Therapist: Eliminate the MindBlocks and RoadBlocks to Success, and award-winning My Memoir Workbook. For over fifteen years, she helped numerous authors develop and market their books, and presented writing programs in New York, The Hamptons, New Mexico and Carmel, California, on “Encouraging and Supporting the Writer Within You!” She's the founder and owner of a successful marketing and public relations agency for twenty-five years.

Links to connect with M. Glenda:
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About the Giveaway

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Jerome Charyn - A Loaded Gun - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

We think we know Emily Dickinson: the Belle of Amherst, virginal, reclusive, and possibly mad. But in A Loaded Gun, Jerome Charyn introduces us to a different Emily Dickinson: the fierce, brilliant, and sexually charged poet who wrote:

My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—
…
Though I than He— may longer live
He longer must—than I—
For I have but the power to kill,
Without—the power to die—

Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson’s correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn’s literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at previously: as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today.



My Review

What sets this book apart is that the setting takes place almost exclusively inside a family home. Emily Dickinson rarely ventured outside of the Homestead in Amherst, spending practically her entire lifetime behind its walls. But she didn't live there alone. As it turns out, the dynamics within the Dickinson household provide all the drama author Jerome Charyn could ever need for this story.

Now a woman can do almost anything, even run for president, but the America of the nineteenth century was a vastly different place than the one we live in today. And because Emily Dickinson never married, never had children, never had the inclination to live like everyone else—she was effectively shunned. Which is why Charyn contends there was absolutely no way she could declare herself a writer, not when she was already viewed with a hefty share of suspicion and distrust.

She had an image to maintain since her father was a big shot at the local college, although he certainly wasn't an intellectual. The man was a tyrant, who beat his horse and ignored her mother. While vicariously living through her mother's pain, Dickinson, in turn, scorned her for accepting that kind of treatment, without bothering to fight back. So Emily took it upon herself to stand up to her father, not through verbal confrontation, but through her poetry. While her parents kept her child-like and dependent, she railed against her imprisonment. However, Charyn adroitly questions: Where else could she go?

She didn't have any novelists or philosophers in her family, no one she could talk to about her poetry. Instead, she took what was offered to her—the privacy and comfort of having the best room in the house, the shelter of having a roof over her head, and writing tools paid for by her father. In fact, her one and only possession was her devoted Newfoundland dog. It was a jail, but it was, as Charyn so aptly refers to it, a "Pearl Jail."

Dickinson was smart. She employed her cunning to survive in a man's world. She used what her father gave her, and had the means necessary to be the mistress of her interior time and space. She may not have been free, but she was able to enter the void from which her greatness sprung. Charyn even goes so far as to describe her as being impossible to live around, inferring that it might not have been so easy for her family to be cooped up with her either.

However, for a daughter whose parents never read a single one of her poems, it's worthwhile to note that the little comfort and security they did provide, allowed her to become one of the greatest poets of all time.

***

A Loaded Gun can be purchased at:
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Bellevue Literary Press

Prices/Formats: $11.99 ebook, $19.95 paperback
Genre: Literary Criticism
Pages: 265
Release: March 15, 2016
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
ISBN: 9781934137987
Click to add to your Goodreads list.

***

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Excerpts

CLICK HERE to read Excerpt One.

CLICK HERE to read Excerpt Two.


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Reading Groups

CLICK HERE for a Reading Guide.



About the Author

Jerome Charyn was born and raised on the mean streets of the Bronx. He graduated cum laude from Columbia College. He has taught at Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Rice, was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the City University of New York and is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the American University of Paris. Charyn is a Guggenheim Fellow and has twice won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His stories and articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Paris Review, Esquire, American Scholar, New York Review of Books, New York Times, Ellery Queen and many other publications. Charyn's most recent books are The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, I Am Abraham and Bitter Bronx: Thirteen Stories. His latest book is A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century.

Links to connect with Jerome:
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Kathleen Gerard - The Thing Is - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Can a woman mired deep in the throes of grief have her heart and soul rallied by a therapy dog named Prozac who possesses supernatural wisdom and a canine Mensa IQ? Meredith Mancuso is depressed. Ever since the death of her fiancé, she has shrunk from the world. Even with her successful writing career, she's not motivated to work. When her sister, Monica, begs for a favor, Meredith wants nothing more than to say no. But she’s ultimately roped into pet-sitting an orphaned Yorkshire terrier named Prozac. Blessed with spiritual wisdom and a high IQ, Prozac is an active pet therapy dog. To heal broken-hearted Meredith, he rallies his fan club at Evergreen Gardens, an independent living facility, where he visits each week. Prozac and the community of resilient older folks challenged by losses of their own propel Meredith, often against her will, back into the land of the living. Meredith learns that most people carry some sort of burden, but it's still possible to find meaning, purpose, and joy—and even love—along the way. THE THING IS—a perfect read for fans of General Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Romantic Comedy, and Dog and Pet Lovers!



My Review

I could immediately relate to this book—knowing it was set in a small town like Oak Park, New Jersey—because I'm very familiar with the middle class lifestyle captured in its pages. The ethnic-sounding last names. The love of the New York area sports teams. The crummy spring weather, thanks to winters that never end. All of these perfectly rendered details brought it all home for me, making the story seem much more real and poignant.

I really liked how the life of a writer in a small town is portrayed. Meredith Mancuso writes under the pen name Meredith St. John and has her photo airbrushed on the back of her romance novels, yet it's funny because everyone knows it's her. It's that kind of "everybody being in everyone else's business" that's indicative of small town life. Despite Meredith living off the grid (working from home and not having much of a social life), she still manages, much to her dismay, to draw attention to herself. She even becomes something of a local celebrity when she starts bringing Prozac the therapy dog to the local independent living facility. It's not long before she turns into the residents' most talked-about visitor.

Although Meredith doesn't venture far from home in this story, she does go on a journey of self-acceptance. She thinks her neighbors and those she comes in contact with automatically form a negative opinion about her because she's different. In her mind, they all view her as the crazy recluse writer from 22 Rosebush Lane. So she stays away from people because she's afraid to hear the unkind things she thinks they're saying about her. But the seniors she comes in contact with turn out to be her salvation. They're from a different era, one long before the advent of Facebook, when people would talk about each other, not necessarily to be mean, but because deep down they cared about each other and were willing to lend a hand to those in need. They don't mince words. They tell it to her straight. They like her writing. They like her. They just want her to get out more and live a little.

Meredith slowly begins taking their advice, venturing back into the real world after spending such a long time away from it. The story carries with it a heartwarming message. Sometimes all it takes is a gentle push, either through the nudge of a dog's nose or the tap of a cane to the back of the legs to get a person going again. It doesn't take much, just a little kindness where it's needed, a compliment here, a suggestion there. It's the kind of do-good-for-others inspiration that you don't find in most books nowadays, but it's something the world needs a lot more of.

***

The Thing Is can be purchased at:
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Prices/Formats: $5.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Pages: 299
Release: February 9, 2016
Publisher: Red Adept
ISBN: 9781940215587
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About the Author

Kathleen Gerard writes across genres. Her work has been awarded many literary prizes and has been published in magazines, journals, widely anthologized and broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). Kathleen writes and reviews books for Shelf Awareness. Kathleen's woman-in-jeopardy novel, IN TRANSIT, won "Best Romantic Fiction" at the New York Book Festival.

Links to connect with Kathleen:
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About the Giveaway

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Michael J. Bowler - Warrior Kids - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

The future looks bleak unless eighteen year-old Lance and his New Camelot Earth Warriors can save the planet from catastrophic climate change. Spurred by twelve year-olds Billy, Enya, Itzamna, and his ten-year-old brother, Chris, Lance creates a branch of Earth Warriors, a youth-led movement designed to save the earth from its greatest enemy – greed. His involvement leads to Earth Warrior crews springing up all across America. Millions of kids leap into action, paralyzing the country and alarming the rich and powerful. Having adopted his father’s philosophy of doing what’s right, rather than what’s easy, Lance makes serious enemies when he calls out New Camelot donors who represent fossil fuel or other polluting industries, and then barely escapes a series of "accidents” designed to kill him. When he challenges the United States Congress to step up and act immediately on the climate crisis, the attacks on him escalate. With the majority of America's kids on his side, Lance and his young Earth Warriors prepare for the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris, where they will call upon world leaders to stop talking about sustainability and start acting on it. But whoever wants him dead isn't giving up. Will Lance and his crew live long enough to even get to Paris? Warrior Kids is a standalone tale set within the Children of the Knight universe.



My Review

It's sad to think that the only exposure that some kids have to nature is by watching the Discovery Channel or thumbing through an issue of National Geographic.

The indignation behind such injustice is passionately expressed in Michael J. Bowler's latest novel, WARRIOR KIDS. He has his young characters go on a crusade to save the environment before it's too late. Lance, the adopted son of King Arthur, uses his clout for the good of others, getting the warriors exposure to the Pope, Congress, even the U.N.

"I want our young Earth Warriors to see what they're fighting for."

But the greatest gift Lance gives to his energetic troupe is a camping trip to Gila National Forest, a protected wilderness area in New Mexico. The kids are amazed at the sheer beauty they discover. Tilting back their heads, they see trees touching the sky. Removing their shoes, they relax and stick their feet in a gurgling stream. They're enraptured, having never experienced anything like it before.

"Let nature guide you. It won't steer you wrong."

A lot of the Earth Warriors are city kids who grew up in and around Los Angeles. Venturing into the forest reconnects them with a part of their humanity that's remained dormant until now. Spending time outdoors eases their minds and hearts.

"[They] never felt so human as [they] did that day, so in touch with all [their] senses."

And their reawakening couldn't have come at a better time. They're facing the monumental task of swaying politicians, delegates, CEOs—basically every adult in a position of power—to their side. But their most important task is convincing you, the reader, to implement just one of the numerous suggestions found at the end of the book into your own life.

WARRIOR KIDS is not a make believe story. It affects every single one of us, regardless if we live in Washington, Los Angeles, the forests of New Mexico or somewhere in between. We all need to be Earth Warriors, while there's still an earth to protect.

***

Warrior Kids can be purchased at:
Amazon

Formats: ebook, paperback
Genre: Middle Grade
Pages: 211
Release: October 6, 2015
Publisher: self-published
ISBN: 9780990871149
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Special message from the author:

THE eBOOK OF WARRIOR KIDS IS FREE FOR EDUCATORS. It is available in the following formats: PDF, Kindle (mobi), and ePub (Nook and iBooks). In addition, teachers can purchase the paperbacks at the per unit cost of $3.08 (plus shipping and applicable tax.) Educators can contact the author via the Warrior Kids Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1505241449796357/) or directly by email – stuntshark2.0@gmail.com. For paperback orders, the author will generate an invoice from Createspace (the physical publisher of the book) and payment can be made through PayPal. There is no profit motive and he will earn nothing off the paperbacks sold to teachers. Per unit cost and shipping rates are exactly as Createspace charges him – no markup. As an educator, he has always sought supplemental reading material that would engage his students on important issues. Having found very little, he decided to write one and make it readily available.


About the Author

Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of nine novels—A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time (Silver Medalist from Reader’s Favorite), and The Knight Cycle, comprised of five books: Children of the Knight (Gold Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), Running Through A Dark Place (Bronze Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), There Is No Fear, And The Children Shall Lead, Once Upon A Time In America; Spinner (Winner Hollywood Book Festival; Honorable Mention San Francisco Book Festival; Bronze Medal from Reader’s Favorite; Literary Classics Seal of Approval), and Warrior Kids.

His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.

He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master's in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills.

He partnered with two friends as producer, writer, and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II,” the reviews of which are much more fun than the actual movies.

He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook. He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles.

He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National” honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office.

His goal as a YA author is for teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world.

Links to connect with Michael:
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About the Giveaway

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Leta Serafim - When the Devil's Idle - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

In the Book of Revelation, written by St. John on the Greek island of Patmos, it was said a pale horse would appear whose rider was death, others would cry out for vengeance, and the stars of heaven would fall to the earth. Death does indeed come to Patmos when a German tourist is found murdered in the garden of one of the island’s fabled estates. Yiannis Patronas, Chief Officer of the Chios police, is called in to investigate. He summons his top detective, Giorgos Tembelos, and his friend and amateur sleuth, Papa Michalis, to assist him. What the policemen discover will disturb them long after the conclusion of the case. Only six people were at the house at the time of the murder—the gardener and housekeeper, the victim’s son and his wife and their two children, a boy of seven and a teenage girl of sixteen. All appear to be innocent. But access to the isolated estate is severely restricted. Surrounded by high walls, it has only one entrance: a metal gate that was bolted at the time of the crime. Patronas can only conclude that one of the six is a killer. He continues to probe, uncovering the family’s many secrets. Some are very old, others more recent. All are horrifying. But which of these secrets led to murder? Book 2 of the Greek Islands Mystery series, which began with The Devil Takes Half.



My Review

Greece and Germany aren't necessarily two countries that come to mind when one thinks of longtime bitter enemies.

But in Leta Serafim's WHEN THE DEVIL'S IDLE, she makes it clear lingering wounds are still festering from World War II. The savagery the Nazis inflicted on the Greek people—executing them, torturing them, humiliating them—will never be forgotten.

"Homicide was rare in Greece, the murder of a foreigner, rarer still."

So when a nation known for its aquamarine seas, its architecture, its philosophers is rocked by the vicious murder of a German national, the distaste Greeks still hold against their northern neighbor is brought to the forefront. And the holdover into the present day is mainly driven by economics.

"They're all over Patmos now. Couldn't get here with Hitler, so they bought their way in this time. Their weapon of choice, the Euro."

Greeks are embarrassed to be outnumbered in their own country. The detective assigned to the case can't even afford to purchase a voice recorder to collect evidence, so the victim's son has to lend him his. The discrepancy in their financial situations fuels their mutual mistrust. The German family thinks the Greek authorities are inept, incapable of solving the murder while the Greek cops resent the Germans for bringing more bloodshed to their shores, buying their way in to a land that doesn't want them there.

"Politicians from both countries might well get involved."

And the last thing Greece wants is for the killing to result in an international incident. The authorities want to keep it under the radar, but when they start looking into the victim's past, things get heated when the son alerts the German embassy, hoping to put a halt to the investigation to keep what's in the past, in the past.

Tensions are high as the tangled web that weaves the two cultures together through war, pain, and a deep sense of shame comes undone. Old hurts are brought to light, showing that no amount of reparation will ever be enough.

If the chance at establishing a new world rests with the young, what happens when they too end up with blood on their hands? Does the cycle of violence ever stop or does it keep going, generation after generation, seemingly without end?

***

When the Devil's Idle can be purchased at:
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Smashwords

Formats: $6.95 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Genre: Mystery Suspense Thriller
Pages: 192
Release: September 1, 2015
Publisher: Coffeetown Press
ISBN: 9781603819985
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


Excerpt

The police cruiser arrived later that day and Giorgos Tembelos and Papa Michalis disembarked, the priest inching down the ramp like a tortoise.

“I think the identity of the old man is the key,” Papa Michalis announced when they’d all gathered in a taverna to review the case. “I analyzed it and that is my conclusion. It simply cannot be anything else. It has elements of an Agatha Christie story, one of her locked-room mysteries like And Then There Was None. Nobody else had access; ergo, one of the people inside the estate, a family member or a servant, must be the guilty party.”

“Anyone could have gained access,” Patronas pointed out. “The Bechtels were careless. They didn’t keep the door locked and there were keys lying around everywhere.”

“No matter. It’s got to be one of them. We can interview other people forever, but it will eventually come back to them. Them and them alone.”

“I think Father is right,” Tembelos said. “The identity of the victim is the important thing here. There was nothing about him in any of the European databases I checked. I called our counterparts in Germany and asked them to run him through their system, but I doubt they’ll find anything. It’s like he never existed. We need to establish who he was. Could be he changed his name.”

“Why would he change his name?” Patronas wondered.

“I don’t know.“

The four of them were sitting outside by the water, it being too hot to venture inside. A haze hung over the sea, and the air was very still. Suddenly, a soft breeze rose up and stirred the tamarisk trees that lined the shore, setting their feathery branches in motion. Patronas liked the rustling sound the trees made, the relief the wind brought. It was almost as if he could hear the earth breathe.

I’ll go swimming tonight, he told himself, looking out at the harbor. Float on my back and look up at the stars. Frolic like a dolphin.

Maybe he’d ask Antigone Balis to join him. He pictured her dripping wet, that long hair of hers hanging down over one shoulder like Botticelli’s Venus. Adrift in his vision, he subsequently lost track of the conversation.

“Hey, boss, you with us?” Tembelos nudged him with his elbow.

Patronas made a show of straightening his back, stretching. “Sorry, it’s the heat. Always makes me sleepy.”

“You were grinning.”

“So what if I was? A man’s allowed to grin.”

“I don’t know, Yiannis,” the priest said. “I think when one is discussing a homicide, it might be better if one dispensed with grinning. At such a time, such behavior is unseemly. It makes one appear insensitive at the very least.”

“Thank you for that, Father. In the future, I will dispense with grinning.” He tapped his pencil on his notebook. “So, to sum up, we have nothing concrete in the case, no witnesses or physical evidence, nothing that will lead us to the killer.”

“Gardener’s clean,” Tembelos reported. “I ran his fingerprints and there was nothing. There was a match on the shoes, too, exactly like he told us.”

“What about the housekeeper, Maria Georgiou?”

“Same thing. The case is heating up. If we don’t catch the killer, it could get ugly. Ministry’s already clamoring for action.”

“We need to turn the housekeeper, Maria Georgiou, inside out, also the members of the family,” Patronas said. “Check their history. Something’s going on here, but as of yet, I haven’t established what it is.”

“You can’t rule out a random act of violence,” the priest said, “directed at them because of their nationality.”

“Worse would be if it were a case of mistaken identity,” Patronas said, “the killer targeting the owners—the Bauers—and killing one of their guests by mistake.”

He was thinking of Charlie Manson, who along with his disciples had wiped out six people without blinking an eye, not realizing his intended victim was a subletter. “Personally, I think someone targeted the family for reasons we don’t know. The cat, the old man. It stands to reason.”

“I’d start with the housekeeper,” Tembelos said. “What she said doesn’t add up. That bit about coming to Patmos on holiday and staying on as a maid.”

“Unlikely, Giorgos. She’s in her seventies.”

Papa Michalis continued to promote the locked room concept. Citing a case in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, he described how the killer had released a cobra through a fake vent and activated its poisonous energy by whistling. “ ‘Oh, my God, it was the band,’ the victim shouted, ‘the speckled band.’”

“Fiction, Father, fiction,” Patronas said impatiently. “Remember? We discussed it.”

“My point is if you are determined to kill someone, a lock is no deterrent. Sometimes murderers are ingenious. Using a cobra as a murder weapon is brilliant when you think about it. Absolutely brilliant. No fingerprints involved, no way to trace it back to you. The snake does all the work.”

“I repeat, Father, there is no snake involved here. A stone maybe, but no snake.”

“A stone? What makes you think that?”

And around they went again, weighing the possibilities. The victim had been hit on the head, but with what? A hammer or a rock? A shovel or pickax? Rock, scissors, paper.

Forget swimming, Patronas told himself. I might as well drown myself.

About the Author

Leta Serafim is the author of the Greek Islands Mystery series, published by the Coffeetown Press, as well as the historical novel, To Look on Death No More. She has visited over twenty-five islands in Greece and continues to divide her time between Boston and Greece.

Links to connect with Leta:
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Scott A. Lerner - The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Samuel Roberts, a lawyer in Champaign, Illinois, has just moved to a new home to escape the memories of his old place—the stray body parts left by evil entities as well as traces of his relationship with Susan, who left him because he couldn’t stop risking both their lives trying to save the world. That leaves Sam free to fall in love again. Sam falls hard, suspiciously hard, for Bridget Gillis, a beautiful fortune teller who also happens to be a witch and a member of a coven. The village that encompasses the coven was founded by Bridget’s great-great aunt, also named Bridget and a dead ringer for her descendant. The new relationship quickly gets complicated. It is two days before Halloween, and Bridget is about to be tried by her fellow witches for the crime of practicing dark magic involving the blood of children. The punishment is to be burned at the stake. Bridget needs an advocate, and Sam is the perfect man for the job.

Sam brings in Bob, who is suspicious of his best buddy’s sudden passion. The two of them have until the Witching Hour on Halloween to clear Bridget’s name and find out who is killing the local children. As they comb the area for clues, quiz the locals, and take a crash course in witchcraft and Wiccan customs, Sam and Bob can’t shake the question: is Bridget a good witch or a bad witch?

The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest is the fourth book in the Samuel Roberts Thriller series, which began with Cocaine Zombies and continued with Ruler of Demons and The Fraternity of the Soul Eater.

My Review

Fall.

It's a usually a happy time of year when children rustle through pumpkin patches, and tractors kick up dust harvesting the fields. It's sunlight on colorful leaves. It's apples from the orchard. It's heading out to the nearest farm and enjoying the last of what Mother Nature has to offer before the chill of winter sets in.

But Sam's not so lucky. He's already starting to feel the chill when he visits,

"A village populated by witches in the heart of Amish Country."

What he stumbles across is a community that's over a hundred years old with storefronts that resemble something out of an old Western—a candlemaker, a butcher, a booksmith. For Sam, his sense of disorientation is immediate.

"Perhaps that is why this place is so unsettling. It was the juxtaposition of the modern with the archaic."

The inhabitants who live in this isolated part of Champaign County aren't interested in pumpkin soup, pumpkin quiche or pumpkin ravioli. Instead, they're anxiously awaiting All Hallow's Eve to see if one of their own will be burned at the stake.

The quaint environment doesn't seem so quaint when Sam finds out that several Amish children in this rural part of Illinois have gone missing, never to be seen again. But the funny thing is not one parent has notified the authorities. Why? They've been placed under a spell not to.

Sam's heart goes out to these hard-working Amish families, even when they come at him with fear in their eyes, brandishing shotguns and yelling at him to get out. They make their living off the land, and now the land is turning against them. Their livestock is dying. Their crops are failing. Their children are being taken right out of their own homes. And they know the witches are to blame, even if they can't voice their suspicions aloud.

And that puts Sam in a quite a quandary. He's been hired by the witch accused of kidnapping these kids to defend her against the charges leveled at her by the community of elders. The witches want to put her to death because she's placing their very existence in jeopardy. She's put them at risk, exposing them to the outside world, and they're not going to let her get away with it. They intend to hold her accountable for the deaths of these children.

But their system of justice isn't exactly cut and dry. There's no sharing of evidence, no witness lists. There aren't even any legal precedents for Sam to follow.

"No one has ever broken a rule of the coven."

Until one of them sought immortality by hoping to consume the fruit of the Blood Thorn, much like Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Sam checks out this voracious plant firsthand, the ground around it is littered with the bones of its young victims, turning Sam's stomach like a twisted, new version of "Sweeney Todd."

"A spell or potion could help alleviate almost any problem in life."

But not for the witches. Not this time. The Blood Thorns' fruit is only ripe one day of the year—Halloween. And it's up to Sam to prove that one witch did not seek to betray the rest by plotting to consume its powers. Or did she?

***

The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Formats/Prices: $4.99 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 230
Release: October 31, 2015
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603812917
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Author and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Lerner’s first novel and the first Samuel Roberts Thriller, Cocaine Zombies, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. The second book in the series is Ruler of Demons. The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is book 3. Book 4, The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest, will be released on Halloween, 2015.

Links to connect with Scott:
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Blog Tour Site


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Scott A. Lerner - The Fraternity of the Soul Eater - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

It’s been a while since Samuel Roberts was called upon to save mankind, and he’s getting restless. His girlfriend Susan thinks he’s a danger junkie, and he’s worried he has a hero complex. He’s back to his usual small-town lawyerly duties in Champaign-Urbana, handling divorces and helping people beat DUI raps. But then a young fraternity pledge calls. During an initiation ceremony he witnessed the live sacrifice of a young woman, but he had so much alcohol in his system that no one believes him. Except Sam. Lately Egyptian lore has been creeping into his life, his dreams, and his movie preferences, and he’s pretty sure he knows why. Evil is knocking on his door again.

Is the call welcome? Why can’t Sam be satisfied with his comfortable legal practice and gorgeous redheaded girlfriend? Maybe it’s because he knows that, as inadequate as he may feel to the task, he and his friend Bob may be humanity’s only hope against ancient supernatural forces combined with modern genetic engineering. Come hell or high water. Or in this case, the underworld or subterranean pyramids.

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is the third book in the Samuel Roberts Thriller series, which began with Cocaine Zombies and continued with Ruler of Demons.

My Review

What would it feel like to step inside a pyramid?

Novelist Scott A. Lerner takes us there:

"The air was hot and dry, and I actually felt as though I was in the desert. It smelled like I imagined Egypt would smell, having never been there. The air was scented with sand and every spice I could think of—at least the ones that started with a C. I could smell cinnamon, cumin, cloves, cardamom, and coriander."

But this pyramid isn't in Egypt.

Oh no, it's hidden beneath a museum near the campus of the University of Illinois.

And it's a mystery how it was able to be constructed there without anyone knowing about it. The amount of laborers needed plus the cost to fund such an endeavor are astronomical.

So how did it come to exist? And more importantly what's its purpose?

It all starts with the super secret fraternity, Zeta Ankh Iota.

The inscription on their door reads:

"Death shall come on swift wings to him who enters without leave of the members." 

A similar warning was inscribed on the entrance to King Tut's tomb. And as fate would have it, the fraternity was founded in 1925 by Rupert Fall, a close friend and benefactor of Howard Carter, the man who discovered King Tut's tomb and died an early death many feel was the fulfillment of the curse for desecrating Tut's final resting place.

The frat house itself is a pre-Civil War Southern mansion underneath whose foundations run steam tunnels, first used during Prohibition to smuggle in booze. Now the subterranean passageways are utilized for bringing in abducted girls, snatched off campus, in order to be murdered and sacrificed on the stone altar to the ancient Egyptian god, Ammit, the soul eater.

Zeta Ankh Iota always wanted a pyramid, and now they have one.

With its completion:

"They will begin to select women to be mummified. To fulfill the pharaoh's needs for wives and servants in the next world."

To put things into perspective, prior fraternity members all live in areas like the shores of Lake Michigan—the wealthy, exclusive neighborhood the likes of basketball great Michael Jordan call home.

And it makes Samuel Roberts, the lawyer investigating these mysterious deaths, wonder:

"If in this neighborhood a Honda was more conspicuous that a Ferrari." 

The fraternity is even more exclusive than Harvard's Skull and Bones Society, the one that boasts having several presidents of the United States on its roster. Zeta Ankh Iota only accepts three new pledges every year, and those who are selected to join all go on to live lives of fame and fortune.

So when Sam's hippy, computer hacking friend, Bob, joins him to scope out the joint, it's no wonder he says:

"I felt about as welcome as a gay Jewish African-American man at a KKK rally."

These frat boys believe they can get away with these killings. Their fathers are too powerful, their families too influential. They're above the law. Taking a human life means nothing to them.  

"Sex-crazed, drug-addled rich kids who think the world owes them something."

Until one of their own, Chris Stevens, finds out he can't stomach what they're doing anymore, and reports their latest murder to the police. Except the cops do nothing about it. Instead they charge Chris with the crime of lying to law enforcement. That's when Chris knows he's in big trouble and turns to Sam for help. As Sam gets deeper and deeper into the case, what he unearths shocks him.

This college town is hiding a lot of secrets—secrets that Zeta Ankh Iota will stop at nothing to keep hidden.

***

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

Formats/Prices: $4.99 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 218
Release: June 1, 2015
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603812894
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Author and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Lerner’s first novel and the first Samuel Roberts Thriller, Cocaine Zombies, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. The second book in the series is Ruler of Demons. The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is book 3. Book 4, The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest, will be released on Halloween, 2015.

Links to connect with Scott:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


About the Giveaway

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