Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Andreina Cordani | Conversations in Character with Charley Sale
Author Guest / November 6, 2023

Book Title: THE TWELVE DAYS OF MURDER Character Name: Charley Sale   How would you describe your family or your childhood? I’m from a loving family, but very ordinary. I lost my mom when I was a teenager. My dad works as a chef, often to very wealthy families, and as a child I’d often go along with him and sit in these vast kitchens marveling at how different life must be for the people who live there.   What was your greatest talent? I always loved acting. It’s why I joined the Murder Masquerade Society at college – I loved the chance to dress up, step out of my old personality and become someone different for the night. There were lavish costumes, gorgeous locations and fiendish plots and for a while it was so much fun. But that was before they all turned against me, before Karl went missing.   Significant other? I try not to think about Matt. We’ve split up but I’m still sleeping on his sofa – I need money for a deposit to rent a new place, which is why I’ve accepted Karl’s sister’s offer. Karl disappeared at our last Murder Masquerade twelve years ago…

John Harrison | The Ghost of a Murdered Woman Escapes to Seek Revenge
Author Guest / August 17, 2023

1–What is the title of your latest release? PASSING THROUGH VEILS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A young woman trying to put herself back together after a nervous breakdown moves into a neglected Georgetown town house with the intention of restoring it, and herself. When she discovers a false wall and the hidden mysteries there, the veil between the real and surreal is pierced, and the ghost of the woman murdered here escapes to seek revenge. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? It was always going to be set in D.C. The intersection of politics, business, money and ghosts was just too provocative to pass up. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I’m not sure she’d want to hang out with me is the better question. She is complicated, provocative, outspoken, and precocious. I’m kind of a square. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Super smart. Ironic. Untamed. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Character informs plot, not the other way around. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I find that I can’t help myself writing…

Susan Furlong | A Psychological Net of Death and Secrets
Author Guest / July 17, 2023

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE KILLER’S WIFE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A serial killer, a woman on the run, and an obsessive parole officer tangle in a psychological net of death and secrets. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? In college, I worked a summer in northwest Montana and got to know the area. When it came time to write a setting for The Killer’s Wife, I knew I needed a small, isolated town with a lot of places for a killer to hide. I thought of Eureka, Montana, located on the backside of Glacier Park, surrounded by the Kootenai Forest, and the last stop before crossing into Canada. It’s a perfect place for a serial killer to go off grid and wait for his next victim, so I made it the model for my fictional town of Joy, Montana. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I would definitely hang out with Kerry Grey, my main protagonist. She’s a woman who’s been delt a bad hand in life and spent time in prison but is trying to make a fresh start for…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: BETWEEN TWO STRANGERS by Kate White
Jen's Jewels / May 12, 2023

Jennifer Vido: What’s the inspiration behind your latest release, BETWEEN TWO STRANGERS? Kate White: I get germs for book ideas from all sorts of places – news headlines, snippets of overheard conversation, memories, and so forth. But with BETWEEN TWO STRANGERS, the germ originated from a really crazy experience I had. After my mother died, the brother of mine who was her executor learned from the bank that a fairly substantial check from her small estate was sent to a woman whose name we didn’t recognize. My brothers and I were stunned. Who was this person? Did our mother have a secret we never knew about? After a family discussion, one of my other brothers recalled that the last name of this woman was the former married name of a much-married relative of ours. When approached, she admitted she’d received the check and had assumed my mother simply wanted to leave her something, which was a stretch for sure. Further exploration revealed that the whole thing was a terrible bank error. A new check was issued to my brothers and me, and though the bank had the right to ask for the money back from this woman, they never did….

Kimberly Belle | Author-Reader Match: THE PERSONAL ASSISTANT
Author Guest / November 29, 2022

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Kimberly Belle!   Writes: I write suspenseful stories featuring strong, complex women. Normal, ordinary women like you and me live their lives when thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Like Alex, for example, the Instagram influencer in THE PERSONAL ASSISTANT whose life gets turned upside down when a post goes viral in the worst possible way. But when she calls her assistant AC, she’s vanished. Soon the police declare her missing, and they come looking to Alex and her family for clues. Yes, The Personal Assistant is suspenseful, but at the heart, it’s a story about a married couple and a husband who’s carrying some pretty big secrets. When Alex’s career starts to crash and burn all around them, her problems shine a spotlight on what her husband has been hiding. How Alex and her husband respond to her getting canceled is a big part of what makes her story so thrilling.   About: I’m a Southern girl at heart, and it’s something that shines through…

J.M. Lee | Exclusive Excerpt: BROKEN SUMMER
Excerpt / September 2, 2022

The forty A4 sheets seemed to be an excerpt from a novel. It depicted a personal relationship between a nineteen-year-old high school girl and a famous painter who was nearly forty. It described the love of the precocious girl and her betrayal by the self-centered artist, told from the painter’s wife’s point of view. The portrayal of the artist was nuanced. Although his behavior toward the young woman was clearly inappropriate, there was a side to him that made the reader want to understand him, maybe even excuse him. However, no matter how much he was portrayed as a naive artist, that did not change the fact that a man over forty was using a young woman. His seemingly plausible artistic sensibilities and uncontrollable emotions were nothing more than selfish acts that eventually ruined the lives of the women who loved him. In the end, he was a single-minded man who thought only about painting, a shameless man who habitually used women for artistic inspiration. The narrator was embarrassed by her husband’s betrayal and felt a deep bond with the girl who had been abandoned by him. Both the wife and the girl shared a feeling of hostility toward him….

Carol Goodman Interview – Psychological Suspense with Golden Age Mystery and Horror Inspiration
Author Guest , Interviews / July 11, 2022

Although I’m normally a cozy mystery fan, I love the themes of isolation and dark secrets. Plus, the remote island thing is giving me definite Agatha Christie vibes, mixed with classic virus horror films. What are you most hoping to convey with your book THE DISINVITED GUEST? Agatha Christie was definitely an inspiration, specifically her And Then There Were None, of course.  I wanted to convey the heightened tension of finding yourself in an isolated setting that may seem idyllic but then becomes threatening when you can’t leave, and bad things start happening.  The idea of a group of people who have come together to shelter during a pandemic and then discover that the greater threat comes from within seemed to me the perfect creepy turn.  I also just want to say that I love cozies, too, and one of the things I like best about them is the way an entire world gets built to contain the characters.  My world just happens to trend toward the darker.   Because this story seems like a psychological suspense novel, can you say if there are answers and resolution at the end, or if things are left more open ended? I think…

Elissa Grossell Dickey | Exclusive Excerpt: IRIS IN THE DARK
Excerpt / June 10, 2022

Rural Minnesota     Eight years ago   I creep across the parking lot of the aging gas station, eyes adjusting quickly to the darkness. We go out only when it’s dark because it’s easier to hide. I don’t mind anymore. I’d rather hide now, rather tuck away the parts of myself I have left. I’m almost to the door, beckoned by the glow of fluorescent light, the promise of air- conditioning. But a low whistle makes me turn back—he’s watching, always watching. I shiver as I push the door open, stepping into soft music and crisp air, like entering another world. “Evening,” the attendant calls from behind the red counter.   The greeting jolts me, and I turn quickly down an aisle, remembering my warning: Don’t take too long. I rub my tender wrist—proof of my last mistake—then absently pull down the sleeve of my ratty flannel. I cross to the back corner, then walk the perimeter, staring intently into each cooler as if deciding which soft drink to purchase. In my peripheral vision, though, I’m scanning, checking, as I’ve been taught. Suddenly the bathroom door creaks open behind me. A giggling toddler bounds out, followed by a frazzled-looking…

Susan Speranza | Exclusive Excerpt: ICE OUT
Author Spotlight , Excerpt / May 27, 2022

Francesca watched in horror as her husband ran from the lake, from her, and from Addie, disappearing into the advancing shadows. For a moment, she comforted herself with the belief that he was going for help, but the moment faded as quickly as it had come. Hope dissolved into panic and despair. In her heart, she understood the truth. He had answered her tearful pleas with nothing but a hurtful, intractable silence. A silence that flew over the lake toward her, landing like a purposeful blow, striking her to her core. A silence that inflicted a mortal wound from which she knew she would never recover. He hadn’t once looked back at her or the lake. He just ran. Away from her and Addie, leaving them both to die. She was overcome with sorrow and a crushing fear. She wanted to find Addie, to help her and to save her, but she felt her physical self weakening. The more exhausted she grew and the more fearful, the more she thrashed about in the water. — “No, no,” Dominic cautions as he tries to stop her. “Don’t struggle so much. You need to just relax. Relax.” “It’s too deep,” she frets as Dominic puts his arms around her and guides his six-year-old daughter to the middle…

4 Must-Watch Crime Series Set in Small Towns
Author Guest / April 18, 2022

I’ve always been fascinated by mysteries and thrillers set in small towns. I’m sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up in a small university town in rural Quebec. My town seemed quite enough – but that was only because my parents did a good job of keeping its rumors and scandals under wraps. Like every other small town, it harbored its share of secrets, and by the time I was a teenager, I’d come to understand that you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.   In DEAD WIND, the third mystery in my Shana Merchant series, Senior Investigator Shana Merchant pulls back the veil on the Thousand Islands of upstate New York and Ontario, and discovers that her new community is concealing secrets and grudges that some people think are worth killing for. If you love a small-town mystery, here are four crime fiction series to watch, all of which have a similar vibe to DEAD WIND. Shetland   Based on the excellent crime fiction series by British mystery writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland isn’t just set in a small town, but on small islands. The series follows Detective Inspector Jimmy…