The Temple of the Ninth Daughter sits on a hill at the edge of Newton-upon-Sea, an aura of mystery lingering over its tall, gray silhouette. Villagers whisper about the treasure housed inside, protected by local Freemasons who are bound by clandestine oaths.
Dr. Alexandra Gladstone has no time for such nonsense. Between the patients in her surgery and the rounds she makes with her faithful dog, Zack, her days are busy enough. But Alexandra has no logical explanation when the Freemasons start dying, one by one, with no sign of foul play other than smears of blood on their Masonic aprons. And what to make of reports that a Knight Templar rides through the village before each passing?
After the constable disappears in the midst of the crisis, Alexandra reaches out to her dashing, diligent friend, Nicholas Forsythe, Lord Dunsford, for assistance. Is someone after the treasure, or might a more sinister game be afoot? In order to solve this puzzle, Alexandra must somehow catch a killer who shows no remorse—and leaves no witnesses.
Praise for Paula Paul’s Alexandra Gladstone mysteries
“I love the way real personalities from the past keep popping up to intermingle with Paul’s fictional characters.”—Lois Duncan, award-winning and bestselling author of Killing Mr. Griffin and I Know What You Did Last Summer
“A lively mixture of ruling-class murder, Victorian morals, and love.”—Bestselling author Tony Hillerman
“I would recommend this to fans of the Maisie Dobbs series. There’s a strong female character in a historical setting. She’s determined, logical, intelligent and faces an unusual situation.”—The Reader’s Hollow
About The Author
Award-winning novelist Paula Paul was born on her grandparents’ cotton farm near Shallowater, Texas, and graduated from a country high school near Maple, Texas. She earned a BA in journalism and has worked as a reporter for newspapers in both Texas and New Mexico. She’s been the recipient of state and national awards for her work as a journalist as well as a novelist. Her previous novels featuring Dr. Alexandra Gladstone, including Symptoms of Death, have appeared on bookstore and online bestseller lists. She is also the author of the Mystery by Design series, which she wrote as Paula Carter. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Fourteen
years ago, high school track star Sydney Adams was gunned down in
Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. The investigation yielded useless clues, and the
case went cold. But homicide detective Augustus Knox never gave up on finding
Sydney’s killer. Now, retired from the police force and with only months to
live, he enlists the help of private investigator Jocelyn Rush to clear the
case once and for all.
Armed with
little more than a theory as to who murdered Sydney, Jocelyn tries to lure a
killer into the open. But unraveling the mystery means facing off against a
cunning psychopath whose ruthlessness knows no bounds. When more bodies start
to pile up, Jocelyn has to decide just how far she’s willing to go to catch a
cold-blooded killer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPTS (Please choose only ONE to use with your post):
Excerpt One:
She stumbled, crying out as her left foot tangled with a
rogue tree root poking up through a crack in the concrete. Her hands shot out,
prepared to break her fall, but her legs stuttered, almost of their own
volition, finding purchase. She stopped, leaning against the offending tree.
Her chest heaved. Sweat ran down her forehead and into her eyes, irritating
them. Laughter erupted from her diaphragm. How many times had she run this
path? Hundreds. Sprained ankle by way of tree root was a rookie move. This was
exactly the problem. This distraction.
Pop.
It sounded like a firecracker and registered as a searing,
stabbing pain in the back of her right thigh. Like a hot poker. Before she
could react, another pop sounded, this one closer. Then two more. She suddenly
tasted dirt in her mouth, and her temple was resting on that damn tree root
before she could even begin to process what was happening to her. Her legs
wouldn’t work. Panic, hot and frenzied, closed in on her. What was happening?
“Help,” she said, but her voice came out small and squeaky.
She thought she heard footsteps approaching from behind. Sydney willed her legs
to move, to stand, to scramble, to run. She reached forward with her right arm,
feeling for the base of the tree. She had to get up. As her surroundings began
to fade to an inky, charcoal blackness, she felt a tug on her lower body.
“Please,” she croaked.
Then the darkness swallowed her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Lisa
Regan is an Amazon bestselling crime/suspense novelist. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and
Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University. She is a member of Sisters In Crime, Mystery
Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She lives in
Philadelphia with her husband and daughter.
Her debut novel, Finding Claire Fletcher won Best Heroine and was
runner up in Best Novel in the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook
Awards for 2013. Her second novel, Aberration won Best Twist in the 2014
eFestival of Words Best of the Independent Book Awards. Her third novel, Hold
Still was released by Thomas & Mercer in 2014 and has been translated
into German. She is at work on her fifth novel. Find out more at www.lisaregan.com.
All
the time, constantly. I was forever writing stories as far back as I can
remember. I had all these folders and scraps of paper everywhere. Finally, one
of my parents brought home a typewriter. I was totally hooked. I wrote 3 books
on that bad boy.
Where does most of your Character
inspiration come from?
With
Jocelyn Rush, I just imagine a woman who gets to say whatever she damn well
pleases without apology or filter. I imagine someone with all of my own
vulnerabilities and worries but with a whole lot more toughness.
Do some qualities of your characters
come from real people?
Sometimes.
I don’t ever set out to do it but I’m sure that qualities from people I’ve met
or know or encountered slip into my characters.
What was the inspiration for your book?
I
just wanted to do a book about a cold case that seemed pretty simple to solve
but then turned out to be a down-the-rabbit-hole type of adventure. The deeper
Jocelyn gets into the case, the more complex and off-the-charts crazy things
get.
What is your favorite spot to write?
Doctors’
waiting rooms. They’re quiet and you always get a ton of uninterrupted time to
write because wait times are almost always ridiculously long. If my appointment
is at 2 and I don’t get seen till 4 or 4:30 that’s two to two and a half
glorious uninterrupted hours of writing time. You can’t beat it.
What advice would you give budding
writers?
Write
as much as you can and use the internet to find other like-minded writers who
will help you along your journey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER
CODE
Lisa Regan will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble
GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25
Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn host.
Welcome to the Cover Reveal for K.S. Jones' upcoming release
Black Lightning!!
Book Information:
From the award-winning author of Shadow of the Hawk
Title: Black Lightning
Heartless Aunt Janis is elated at the prospect of becoming Samuel’s legal guardian. She is sure an orphan boy will elicit such an outpouring of public sympathy that her husband will win his Senate bid by a landslide. But when Grandpa Tate arrives, things don’t go as expected, especially when black lightning strikes!
Read an Excerpt:
Samuel stood beside his mother’s rain-speckled casket. He had cried his tears dry, so there was no point in trying to find more.
“Chin up, young man,” Aunt Janis said as her fingers nudged Samuel’s jaw upward. “Death is just part of life, and our photographer needs a good picture of you for the newspapers.”
A camera flashed, leaving Samuel’s red and swollen eyes burning as if stung by the sun instead of grief.
So many important days had come and gone without his father, but surely he would come home today, wouldn’t he? Samuel closed his eyes. He pretended his father was beside him holding his hand. They had a right to hold hands, he told himself. Not because he was ten, but because it was his mother’s funeral. Two years had passed since his father left, never to be seen again. Vanished, was the word his mother had used. Into thin air, she’d said.
“Take that silly thing off.” Aunt Janis flicked Samuel’s wood and bead necklace.
“No,” he said and shook his head. “My dad gave it to me.” It was a pinewood tile, the size of a domino shaved nickel-thin, which hung from a leather cord around his neck. Burned onto the front side of the wood was a lightning bolt. Its flipside bore the blackened imprint of a tribal dancer. It had a turquoise nugget and a shiny black hematite bead strung together on each side. His father had given the talisman to him with a promise: It will guide you and give you strength when you need it most.
Today, dressed in a black suit and starchy white shirt, Samuel wore it in hopes the promise was true.
Following his father’s puzzling disappearance and his mother’s death, ten-year-old Samuel Baker goes through the motions of living in a world turned upside down. He wears an Apache talisman, a long ago gift from his father, in hopes its promise of strength and guidance is true. But what he truly wants is the power to bring his parents back.
long, gray dress lay caked in mud. Tufts of brown hair jutted out from under her pink plaid scarf. Even though she stood a few feet from him, she had not spoken to Samuel since his mother’s death. Few people had. Everyone had words for Aunt Janis and they talked to Uncle Jack, but no one but Brian and a few classmates had spoken to him. Maybe talking to an orphan was harder than talking to a normal kid.
As mourners gathered, Samuel’s friend Brian came to stand beside him. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” Samuel answered without taking his eyes off the casket.
“Is that the necklace your dad gave you? You don’t usually wear it.” Brian’s wire-rimmed glasses slid down his straight arrow nose. He pushed them back up the bridge with one finger until they encircled his eyes again. “Can I see it? I promise I’ll give it right back.”
“It’s not a necklace.” Samuel pulled the leather cord off over his head, mussing his overgrown blond hair. “It’s a talisman.” He handed it to Brian. “My dad said it would help me, but it hasn’t done anything yet. I think it was just one of his stories. It’s probably just an old piece of scrap wood with a couple rocks tied to it.”
Brian shrugged after examining the piece then he handed it back to Samuel. “I think it’s cool. You should keep wearing it anyway.”
Nodding, Samuel hung the talisman around his neck again, but this time he dropped it down beneath his shirt where it was no longer visible. It felt warm against his skin.
“Has anybody told you where you’re going to live now?” Brian asked.
“Probably with Aunt Janis and Uncle Jack.”
Brian frowned. He kicked the tip of his shoe into the muddy soil. “They live so far away. Why can’t you just stay here and live with Mrs. Abel? She doesn’t have any kids.”
Mrs. Abel was their fourth grade teacher. She had plainly stated to all who would listen that her job was to teach the proper use of the English language to children who behaved properly. A babysitter, she had said, she was not. Today, she stood in the rain with the other mourners, eyeing the ground where the hem of her Praise:
“If you’ve forgotten the magic that lives in a child’s heart, this book will remind you. Black Lightning is a rare and beautiful mythic journey about one boy’s struggle with paralyzing grief and the powerful bonds that can carry a person through this world and beyond...” W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear USA TODAY and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors of People of the Thunder
Meet the Author:
Everyone has a story. Tell it so well that the world listens!
Karen (K.S.) Jones grew up in California, but now lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country northwest of San Antonio with her husband, Richard, and their dogs Jack Black, Libby Loo, and Red Bleu. Black Lightning is her first middle-grade novel. She credits her love of fantasy to the early influences of authors J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. Her award-winning first novel, Shadow of the Hawk, a Young Adult Historical, released in 2015.
These are really great little bamboo Hors D'oeuvre forks. Wee have a lot of family get togethers, since we all live within 1/2 hour of each other. Most of the time we get together for family meals other times we just have snacks. I love planning parties and not to blow my own horn but every one tells me I should open a restaurant with my cooking. For these family snack times we have a lot of little Hors D'oeuvres like stuffed cherry tomatoes, stuffed mushrooms, calabrese, cheese, meats and things like that. These forks come in very handy for these bite sized morsels. These can be used for serving and eating with, and they are cuter then a plastic fork, and no clean up like with metal forks. This particular pack of forks will be used for my Nieces wedding.
These forks are about 3 inches long, about 1 centimeter wide and 1/10 of an inch thick. They are made of bamboo so no wooden smell or taste.With 100 or 1000 in the pack there will be plenty for any party. These could also be used as steak or burger picks, there is a tab at the top you could color or write on, for rare, medium, or well done, as well as spicy or mild, depending on the foods you are using them with.
I received this product free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Synopsis: From USA TODAY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR RENEE ROSE…
The Don’s brother.
The girl who swore off all mafia ties.
Sophie steered clear of the mafia after her father’s involvement ended with his murder. Fifteen years later, Joey La Torre, the Don’s brother himself, shows up unannounced at her massage studio and wheedles his way into a date. She has no interest in aggressive, macho men like Joey, or so she tries to tell herself, but her body just doesn’t get the message. When Joey takes her in hand with a firm bare-bottomed spanking, she ought to be furious, instead, she’s aroused. As she explores her physical desires to be dominated, she tries to keep Joey at arm’s length emotionally.
Joey knows he wants Sophie for keeps from the moment he walks into her life. She is hot, classy and full of fire, even though submission turns her on. But his involvement in the mafia is a hard limit for her, bringing to conflict his own dedication to the Family, the code of silence and his relationship with his older brother. Can he reconcile his duty to the organization and his growing need for Sophie to remain in his life permanently?
DON'T MISS THE REST OF THE BOOKS IN THE BOSSMAN SERIES...
Synopsis: When hair stylist Lexi Tyler finds herself evicted from her apartment, her best friend sets her up with the mobster Bobby Manghini, knowing he likes to play sugar daddy. He offers her a luxury apartment overlooking the city and spending cash every time he sees her, but one thing is clear: he is the bossman.
Lexi soon discovers Bobby backs up his rules with firm, over the knee discipline, but he also takes responsibility for all her problems, giving her more support than she ever dreamed of having from a man
Mobster Bobby Manghini likes to be the man in control, particularly with women, which is why he prefers a mistress for sex, even though he’s no longer married. When he strikes a deal with Lexi to be at his beck and call, he finds in her the full package -- a hot, intelligent woman who is turned on by his dominance and willing to submit to his punishment. But when she finds out he doesn’t have a wife, she is hurt by the deception and severs all ties.
Can he prove to her their relationship meant more than a business arrangement? Or will he lose the one woman willing to give him everything he ever desired?
Publisher’s Note:This book contains spanking, anal sex and hot scenes that may keep you up late reading.
Synopsis: Temptation is too sweet when the don’s daughter offers her full submission, but when her father finds out, he’ll probably wind up swimming with the fishes.
Giving control of her body to Carlo Romano, underboss to her father, was dangerous. More dangerous than her hair-brained idea to take off her clothes at a strip club as a form of sex therapy. But the temptation outweighed the risk. Carlo made her feel sexy, alive and appealing, feelings she’d scarcely known after two years with her cheating and demoralizing ex-boyfriend.
Carlo couldn’t believe Summer — the don’s daughter — was dancing half-naked on the stage of a strip club. Nor could he believe she suggested he’d be the one to take a belt to her ass and set her straight. But he’d had a thing for Summer since the day he moved in with her family, fresh off a plane from Sicily. He couldn’t walk away from the opportunity to get up-close and intimate, and show her his dominant side.
Still, Summer may not be ready for a new relationship, and even if she is, there was the not-so-small matter of what her parents would say — her father would probably want to kill Carlo if he found out he’d seen her naked...
ABOUT RENEE ROSE
USA Today Bestselling Author Renee Rose is a naughty wordsmith who writes BDSM and spanking romance novels. Named Eroticon USA’s Next Top Erotic Author in 2013, she has also won The Romance Reviews Best Historical Romance, and Spanking Romance Reviews‘ Best Historical, Best Erotic, Best Ageplay and favorite author. She’s hit #1 on Amazon in the Erotic Paranormal and Sci-fi categories in the U.S. and U.K., is often found on the list of Amazon’s Top 100 Erotic Authors and is a regular columnist forWrite Sex Right. She also pens BDSM stories under the name Darling Adams.
Like
everyone at Merton Middle School, Karma Cooper’s smartphone is almost another
body part. She’s obsessed with her LIKES on Snappypic. When her parents shut
down her social media account and take away her smartphone, Karma’s whole world
crumbles. She has to figure out what she actually likes and how to live life
fully unplugged. This book will jumpstart conversations about how social media
is changing the ways tweens are growing up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
Two:
“So we’re come
up with a new punishment,” says Dad. “Something that will get your attention.”
Dad looks at
Mom and Mom looks at Dad and I can tell that they are a united front against
me. “We’re going to close your Snappypic account,” states Dad.
“What?” My stomach dips as if I’ve just
dropped from highest part of a roller coaster. I want to flop against the
nearest car in the parking lot. “You can’t do that. It’s my account. It’s
private. You can’t.” Every day, I get smiley faces and hearts and balloons and
LIKES. All of the time. Waking up and not being able to se what my followers
are up to? Being totally cut off like that? My parents might as well send me to
Antarctica because I’m going to be frozen out of everything. “This must be some
kind of hallucination,” I say. “The parents I know would never do this to me!”
“Karma, I’m
sorry,” says Mom. “But I think you are over-reacting. You knew the rules.”
“Please.” I
clasp my hands together. “Please, please. Please. I’ll do anything. I’ll
babysit Toby as much as you want. I’ll clean the house every single day. I’ll
make dinner I’ll—”
“It’s a final
decision,” says Dad.
“But I’m like…
a professional. I have more followers than some companies.”
“Exactly our
point, Karma,” says Mom. “You’re not a company. You’re our daughter and still a
kid. And I don’t really love this obsession of yours.”
The parking lot
is practically spinning. “You just don’t want me to grow up!”
I fling up my arms. “Please,” I beg. “Don’t do
this.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Hillary is the author
of the tween novel, THE HOT LIST (Simon & Schuster/M!X) which Booklist
says “captures the angst of young teen friendships and fragile identities.”
She’s also the author of the middle grade novel, THINGS ARE GONNA GET
UGLY (Simon & Schuster/M!X), a Justice Book-of-the-Month, which was
just optioned by Priority Pictures, and the forthcoming QUEEN OF
LIKES (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin M!X, April 2016), which is about
social media, as well as the humorous chapter book series, ALIEN CLONES FROM OUTER
SPACE(Simon & Schuster/Aladdin), a Children's
Book-of-the-Month Best Books for Children. Emmy-nominated Suppertime
Entertainment developed the books to become an animated television series and
it was sold to ABC Australia. Hillary’s young adult fiction has been published
in TEEN MAGAZINE and anthologized (MUDDVILLE DIARIES, Avon Books). She has
sold non-fiction and fiction projects to Klutz Press/Scholastic Books, The
Learning Company and John Muir Books. With her frequent writing partner, Steven
Arvanites, she has had film projects developed by Brooklyn Weaver’s Energy
Entertainment. Hillary got her start performing and writing sketch comedy
Off-Broadway, and was a Heideman Playwrighting Award Finalist.
Hillary holds a master's degree in education from
Temple University and a master’s of arts degree from Hollins University in
children's literature and writing. Currently, she’s a visiting professor of
children’s literature and writing at Hollins University.
Hillary
Homzie, author of Queen of Likes Interview for T’s Stuff
As a kid did you write
or make up stories?
As
a kid I definitely fell into the make up stories camp. I made up stories while
playing with dolls. They were all plastic but the kind with real-ish hair. One
day my mom gave me an antique porcelain doll to play with. She was beautiful in
this gorgeous wedding dress. And I decided the other dolls were jealous and
they took the fancy doll to the top of the stairs and pushed her down and she
smashed into a thousand pieces. Usually, when I played things didn’t end up
like this but I remember playing make-believe in a way where sometimes reality
and pretend blurred (obviously). My mother learned not to give me antiques to
play with after that. Most often, I played pretend out in the woods behind my
house, or with paper dolls I’d make or with my Barbies.
Where does most of your
character inspiration come from?
It’s
an amalgamation. I don’t actually steal someone’s personality and put it on the
page. Instead, I might take a little bit of this from some childhood friend, or
a little bit of that from one of my kids and a lot of that from myself. It’s a
mash-up sort of deal.
Do some qualities of
your characters come from real people? Well,
aspects, definitely. For example, Auggie in Queen
of Likes plays the uke and my middle son plays the uke (quite well,
actually). He’s a singer-songerwriter and he’s the one who plays the music in
the book trailer for the book. He’s also the lead singer of the alt-rock band
Secure the Sun, which gigs all around the Bay area. Karma’s little brother
LOVES Legos and my youngest son also loves Legos, although now that he turned
11 his Lego days are much less frequent. He’s morphed into making funny Youtube
videos.
What was the
inspiration for your book?
Well,
I noticed how my teen sons would discuss how many likes they were getting on,
let’s say, Instagram (although with Instagram it’s hearts but it’s the same
idea). And they’d be competitive about it. I realized how aware they were of
how many likes were being generated and comparing themselves to others. And I
went, aha—what if someone, a 12-year-old girl got really obsessed? What if she
suddenly developed a lot of followers and her self-worth was all about how
things were going on her social media account? And what if she posted things
not because she liked them but because it would generate likes? How would she
be affected if her parents took away her phone and cut off her social media
accounts? Wow, I thought, now there’s a story!
What is your favorite
spot to write?
In
my office, for sure. I like to have an ergonomic set-up so I don’t develop any
yucky writerly symptoms like carpal tunnel. And I’m one of those people who
prefers to write in total silence. So no, play lists for me. Now, if I’m doing
a writing exercise sometimes I like to take pen to paper, but in general I’m
writing on my Mac in my office.
What advice would you
give budding writers?
Read,
read, read. Write regularly. Read craft books. Develop a support system by
finding critique partners. Join writerly organizations. Read blogs like this!
Take a writing class. I teach in a summer MFA program—Hollins University
Graduate Program in Children’s Literature, Writing and Illustration, which I
highly recommend. It’s six weeks every summer (all of July and the first two
weeks of June). In addition, I teach online (interactive e-course) for the
Children’s Book Academy. Another great spot for writing course! Also, write
what you would like to read yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Hillary Homzie will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and
Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
, have appeared on bookstore and online bestseller lists. She is also the author of the Mystery by Design series, which she wrote as Paula Carter. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
