Come join me at N. N. Light’s Best
Bookish Event of 2021, where Mrs. Spinney’s Secret is featured. Enjoy a delightful
excerpt about bad lobsters, and enter to win an Amazon gift card.
Here’s the link:
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/post/mrs-spinney-s-secret-bb21
Milo Everhart and her artist friends fight City Hall when it
threatens to sell their beloved Torpedo Factory Art Center to a big box store
magnate. Things get complicated when their greatest adversary turns out to be
the man Milo loves, and even more complicated when too many murder victims turn
up.
Old Town Alexandria at Christmas
Blurb:
It’s just before Christmas, and Milo Everhart has two
needlepoint stockings, a cross-stitch purse, and three canvases to finish for
her clients. Waiting out the rain in a pub, she is captivated by the handsome
man next to her, but blocking the road to romance are two mysterious corpses who
turn up in the tower of her Torpedo Factory Art Center. As if that weren’t
enough, a second crisis erupts—a proposal to gut her beloved Art Center.
Tristram Brodie, hard-driving corporate lawyer and former
Marine, is focused on his plan to convert the Torpedo Factory into a box store.
He is drawn to the beautiful woman sitting next to him, but their mutual
attraction will be frustrated by both the murders and his intentions. As they
edge closer to love, they must find a way to overcome both their differences
and the still-fresh memory of her late husband.
Artful Dodging: the Torpedo Factory
Murders
Wild
Rose Press, 7/20/2016; Imprint Crimson Rose
Theme(s):
Mystery/Cozy Mystery
Contemporary romantic Suspense, M/F, 2 flames
Ebook,
66,830 words; Print 268 p
Excerpt (G): The Body
“Hello! Hello? 911?”
“Please state the nature of
your emergency.”
“A body. There’s a b…b…body.”
The word came out as a gurgle.
“Yes, ma’am. Now tell me where
you are.”
Milo looked wildly around the
darkened corridor. “Second floor. No lights.”
“Ma’am? Second floor of what?”
“Oh, er, the Torpedo Factory. I
ran downstairs. I…”
“The Torpedo Factory? You mean
the building at 105 North Union Street?”
Milo almost snapped, “How many
torpedo factories do you know?” but thought better of it. “Yes.”
“All right, ma’am. Now, you say
you’ve found a body? Is it dead?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course
it’s dead. Dead. A dead body. In the office.”
“The office?”
“The tower. Look, can you send the
police? I’m all alone in the building. Except for the body, of course. I mean,
it’s pitch black in here. Please?” She knew she sounded less than rational, but
weren’t 911 operators trained to weed out the gibberish and cut to the chase?
“I’ve already sent out a call.
The police should be arriving any minute. Now, will they be able to enter the
building?”
“Oh! Er. I don’t know. Archie’s
already locked up.”
“Archie?”
“The super. He’s long gone,
though.”
“Can you get to a door to let
them in?”
Milo’s shoes must have found
bubble gum on the floor all by themselves, since they appeared to be stuck.
“I…uh…I can’t get to the doors.” Nothing but silence on the other end. She must think I’m lazy. Or a coward. I’ll
bet she knows how to wait people out, to force them to do her bidding. “I’m
not lazy, miss. I’m just…I’m
wondering. What if the murderer is hiding somewhere, still in the building?”
“Murderer? You think the victim
was murdered?”
Every CSI show she’d ever watched, plus a couple of X Files, fast-forwarded through her brain. Somewhere in the reruns
she found the answer. “I don’t know. That’s for the experts to decide.” Thank you, Gil Grissom.
“Okay, ma’am. Listen to me
carefully. If the building is locked, the police will have to break the door
down, but first they’ll have to go to a judge and get a search warrant. So you
see, the quickest way they can help you is if you let them in. Now, do you
think you can go down the stairs to the door?”
Milo drew in a long, ragged
breath, holding it until her head began to spin. As she let it out, she
managed, “Yes. I’m on the landing. Can you stay on the line with me in case I’m
attacked?”
“I sure will.”
Milo felt her way with one hand
toward the middle stairwell. “I’m on the stairs now. Now I’m walking down the
stairs.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The central staircase of the
factory only had a single metal railing and thus was exposed to the entire main
hall. If anyone still lurked in the building he could easily see (and hear)
her. She stopped halfway down and looked across the main lobby to the front
entrance, a set of doublewide, glass-paned sliding doors. “There are flashing
lights and sirens coming from Union Street.”
“Yes, ma’am. That would be the
police.”
Well, duh.
Artful Dodging
is available in ebook and print. Find it here:
Hidden Gem Cover Reveal!
My new creation, Hidden Gem: the Secret of St. Augustine, is
only awaiting a release date from the fabulous Wild Rose Press. To get you
salivating, here’s the fabulous cover from Tina Stout:
This is the story:
Barnaby and Philo’s story begins with very bad chili and a
dead body.
Barnaby is in St. Augustine, Florida, to teach a college seminar, and plans to
use The Secret—a treasure hunt book—as a framework for his class. He enlists
Philo Brice, owner of an antique map store, to aid him in seeking clues in the
historic sites of the ancient city.
Together they face murderers, thieves, thugs, and fanatics, heightening their
already strong attraction to each other. Can they solve the puzzle and unearth
the treasure before the villains do? Philo and Barnaby pursue several twisting
paths and false leads before arriving at a startling conclusion.
Lights! Camera! Action! Hollywood comes to Amity Landing, trailing corpses.
Mrs.
Spinney’s Secret is featured on N N Light’s Trick or Treat Bonanza today!
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/post/mrs-spinney-s-secret-tot
Read all about it and enter to win a
$75 Amazon gift card. See you there!
See you there!
Why does the botanist claim he’s found
a missing link between birds & dinosaurs? Is the biologist searching for a
mythical monster or a living fossil? Why did the eccentric millionaire bring
his prototype telescope to the jungle? Find out in Orion’s Foot.
Orion’s
Foot: Myth, Mystery, and Romance in the Amazon is featured on N. N. Light’s
Trick or Treat Bonanza today!
Do Drop By to Read & Win!
Here's a photo of me with Minion the Monkey:
I’m part of NN Light’s Trick or Treat Book Bonanza October 26 AND 28!
All Month Long: N. N. Light’s Book Heaven is hosting the third annual Trick or Treat Book Bonanza. Great books—great prizes. This year we are offering a $75 Amazon gift card.
It all takes place here: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/trick-or-treat-book-bonanza
Save these dates: October 26 and October 28. You’ll get a teaser and a bit more about my mystery/romances.
On October 26: Mrs. Spinney’s Secret
Coming to of the upcoming Books on the Beach event at the
Clearwater Hilton? I’m excited! Come find me at Table 43. I thought I’d showcase one or two of the books I’ll be featuring at the fest—so
you’ll get a taste of what’s in store.
Orion’s Foot: Myth, Mystery, and Romance in the Amazon.
Orion’s Foot is available in both print and ebook If you
want to pick up a copy early—here the buy link that will take you to any online
store you choose: https://books2read.com/OrionsFoot
N. N. Light’s Book Heaven is
hosting the third annual Trick or Treat Book Bonanza. Great books—great prizes.
This year we are offering a $75 Amazon gift card.
It all takes place here: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/trick-or-treat-book-bonanza
Save these dates: October 26 and October 28. You’ll get a teaser and a bit more about my mystery/romances:
and Orion’s Foot: Myth, Mystery, and Romance in the Amazon
Thursday’s Children, a book by an old friend, Elisabeth
Pendley, is an unexpectedly compelling memoir of a young teacher at a
disadvantaged elementary school in the South in the 1960s. Thursday’s
Children left me distressed but hopeful. It is a fascinating window into
that transitional period between segregation and integration, when blacks and
whites—confronted with an upheaval in the old order—treated each other with
suspicion, if not outright hatred. It is also a story of how a closed
environment can be corrupted by indolence and lack of accountability. The
author gives us individual portraits of each of the children—their problems and
their progress. You find yourself rooting for this or that child to break
through the incredible obstacles to success. Also interesting is the picture given
of the manner in which human beings react to very difficult circumstances—some
with apathy, some with anxiety, some with courage. I recommend Thursday’s
Children to anyone wishing to understand more clearly the origin of some
current prejudices that have persisted—and the effect those prejudices can have
on children’s lives.
Find Thursday’s Children here:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thursdays-Children-betrayed-defended-continues/dp/0578863812
Approved! The official blurb for my upcoming mystery from The Wild Rose Press, Hidden Gem: the Secret of Saint Augustine:
 |
| Aviles Street, St. Augustine, where Philo lives. |
 |
| The Secret: a Treasure Hunt by Byron Preiss |
Please welcome Randy Overbeck and the latest addition to his Haunted Shores mystery series, Scarlet at Crystal River.
Darrell
and Erin thought they were heading to Florida for a carefree honeymoon, but the
ghosts of two immigrants children haunt them, pleading for help.
In 2019, the
Wild Rose Press launched the Haunted Shores Mysteries with my story about
Darrell, the teacher and coach who sees ghosts and the ghost of a huge black
student haunting a high school. Blood On The Chesapeake was so well
received by readers and reviewers that it became a #1 Amazon best seller. Then,
last year, the publisher released Crimson At Cape May in the middle of
the pandemic, a story featuring the specter of a bride murdered on her wedding
night, who stalks Darrell, still bleeding in her white wedding dress. This
second entry has won three national awards and, by now, the series has amassed
more than a dozen 5-Star reviews from national and international reviewers.
As I
pondered the third installment, I realized I wanted to keep all the critical
elements of the series—cold case murder, ghost, romance and resort—but I also
wanted to give my readers something different. On a break from my
brainstorming, I was thumbing through family pictures and came upon a photo of my
grandkids playing on a playground. Staring at the images of the smiling faces,
it hit me. What if the mystery was about the death of two your kids? Two kids
whose ghosts haunt Darrell to find justice for them?
The rest, as
they say, is history. Our last trip—pre-pandemic—was to the Florida Gulf coast
to find a suitable location for my narrative and I found a great one. Thus, Scarlet At Crystal River was born. Well, that and hundreds of
hours of writing, revising, re-writing, editing, re-writing…well, you get the
picture. I’m pretty happy with the end product and I hope readers are too.
Blurb
All Darrell
Henshaw wanted was to enjoy his honeymoon with his beautiful wife, Erin, in the
charming town of Crystal River on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida. Only a pair
of ghosts decide to intrude on their celebration. And not just any ghosts, the
spirits of two young Latino children. Unwilling at first to derail the
honeymoon for yet another ghost hunt, Darrell finally concedes when a
painting of the kids comes alive, weeping and pleading for his help.
When he and
Erin track down the artist, they discover the children’s family were migrant
workers the next county over. But when they travel there, their questions about
the kids gets their car shot up and Erin hospitalized. Torn between fear and
rage, Darrell must decide how far he will go to get justice for two young
children he never even knew.
Excerpt: There
and Not There
She kissed him
back, smiling. “Now that’s better than a little fictional romance.” She got up
and stretched her long legs.
“You ready for some waves?” he asked.
“If you’re up
to it, let’s do a mile or so on the sand first.”
“You’re on.”
Darrell gave a gentlemanly wave of his hand.
“I’ll race
you.”
Erin took off
like a shot, and Darrell hurried after her. Since the beach was small, they
covered the same ground Darrell had a few minutes earlier, passing the family
sandcastle builders, another jogger, and the same strolling couples. As usual,
she was quick, and he had to hustle to keep up, using some fancy footwork to
sidestep sunbathers as they ran. When they got to the north end of the beach
where Darrell had turned to double back, Erin headed for a little spit of land
that strutted out into the water. He looked beyond and saw what she was headed
for. Accelerating, he passed her.
Ahead, at the
far end of the beach, a pair of young kids, he’d guess about six, sat in the
sand as the waves rolled over their legs. Their small hands busied with a
primitive sandcastle. One had long, brown hair tied into pigtails, and the
other had a full head of brown hair, unkempt and in need of a trim. He came up
to them and stopped, Erin a few seconds behind.
The kids wore
street clothes, not swimsuits, but he didn’t think much about it. Then he
noticed something about the young boy. His right leg was stuck out at a
grotesque angle, as if it had been broken and never set. Both kids giggled at
the gurgling water that rolled up around their bare feet and pooled in the
makeshift moat they’d dug around their sand creation. The castle was crude, a
nearly round construction with seashells sticking up like turrets. The two kids
glanced up, caramel eyes wide and pleading with half smiles of white teeth.
In unison, they
said, “Ayudaños?”
“Huh?” Darrell
said.
“Cute castle,
huh?” Erin stared at the sand and looked up at Darrell. “I wonder who made it?”
Her eyes roamed around the area. “Out here on this spit of land it isn’t going
to last very long.”
“Those kids—”
he started, pointing to the pair. When he looked down, the sandcastle sat
alone, the gulf water flowing around the construction and into the crude moat.
His glance
darted out to the waves, thinking they’d abandoned their work and ran into the
water, even in their street clothes, though he wondered how the boy could have
run.
No girl or boy.
Oh, God! The
same two kids? “You vill have two visitors.”
“What’d you
say?” Erin asked, her gaze meeting his.
The ghosts.
Erin hadn’t seen them!
Shit, he
couldn’t tell her. Not now. Not here.
“Nothing,” he
managed around the lump in his throat and glanced back down at the sand.
There at his
feet, the crude sand construction they’d been working on, complete with the
three blue seashells sticking out of the top, sat alone on the sand. He reached
down and grabbed one of the small seashells as the prickle on his neck returned
and sizzled. Then he sensed something else, something ominous. No, not ominous,
malevolent. More of Natalia’s warning came back to him.
“I see a
malevolence, a great danger lurking nearby.”
A big wave
rushed in, rolling over their ankles and leveling the mound of sand, leaving
the beach empty. As if nothing had ever been there.
“Ayúdaños!”
Wild Rose Press (September 13, 2021)
Paranormal mystery
364 pp.
Buy Links
Dr. Randy Overbeck is an award-winning educator,
author and speaker. As an educator, he served children for four decades in a
range of roles captured in his novels, from teacher and coach to principal and
superintendent. His thriller, Leave No Child Behind (2012) and his
recent mysteries, Blood on the Chesapeake, Crimson at Cape May, and
Scarlet at Crystal River have earned five star reviews and garnered
national awards including “Thriller of the Year--ReadersFavorite.com, “Gold
Award”—Literary Titan, “Mystery of the Year”—ReadersView.com and “Crowned Heart
of Excellence”—InD’Tale Magazine. As a member of the Mystery Writers of
America, Dr. Overbeck contributes to a writers’ critique group, serves as a
mentor to emerging writers, and participates in writing conferences such as
Sleuthfest, Killer Nashville, and the Midwest Writers Workshop. When he’s not
writing or researching his next novel or sharing his presentation, “Things
Still Go Bump in the Night,” he’s spending time with his incredible family of
wife, three children (and their spouses) and seven wonderful grandchildren.
Social Media
Thanks so
much for sharing your fabulous new mystery with us today.
Come one come all to the Wild Rose Press Wednesday Promos! Today,
September 1, I’m talking about my Old Town Alexandria mystery romance The Mason’s Mark: Love & Death in
the Tower. It will be on Wild Rose’s Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/8650773462
I’ll be giving away a copy of The Mason’s Mark. I’d love to
hear your questions about this or any of my books! See you there!
Drop into the Long & Short Reviews Anniversary Blogfest today, Friday, August 27, for a dip into my exotic mystery set deep in the Peruvian Amazon, Orion’s Foot: Myth, Mystery, and Romance in the Amazon.
Orion’s Foot: Mystery lurks deep in the Amazon—a tale of monsters,
passion, and obsession.
LASR
is giving away lots of Amazon gift cards, including TWO $100 cards! All you
have to do is read my blurb, answer a question on the Rafflecopter, and win!
Easy peasy and great fun.
Drop into the Long & Short Reviews Anniversary Blogfest today, Thursday, August 26, for a taste of my Maine mystery/romance Mrs. Spinney’s Secret.(It goes live at 7:00 am.)
Mrs. Spinney’s Secret:
Lights! Camera! Action! Hollywood comes to Amity Landing, trailing corpses.
LASR
is giving away lots of Amazon gift cards, including TWO $100 cards! All you
have to do is read my blurb, answer a question on the Rafflecopter, and win!
Easy peasy and great fun.
Drop into the Long & Short Reviews Anniversary Blogfest today, Wednesday, August 25, for a look at my Florida mystery romance Flotsam & Jetsam: the Amelia Island Affair. (It’s live at 4:45 am EST)
Flotsam
& Jetsam: Pirates?
Smugglers? Patriots? Who’s responsible for the three corpses found on the sand
on Amelia Island? Two State Park rangers look for answers and find both romance
and murder.
Please drop by N. N. Light’s fantastical magical Mini Mystery Book event today, Tuesday, August 17 at 9 am for a dollop of intrigue from The Penhallow Train Incident.
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/post/the-penhallow-train-incident-msbe
In the sleepy coastal Maine town of Penhallow, a stranger
dies on a train, drawing Historical Society Director, Rachel Tinker,
and curmudgeonly retired professor, Griffin Tate, into a spider’s web
of archaeological obsession and greed. With the help of the victim’s rival,
they set out to locate the Queen of Sheba’s tomb. Their plans are
stymied when a war erupts between the sheriff and a state police detective who
want to arrest the same man for different crimes. It’s up to Rachel
to solve a mystery that includes two more murders, if she wants to
unlock the soft heart that beats under Griffin’s hard crust.
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/post/the-penhallow-train-incident-msbe
Enjoy an excerpt in which we meet the hero, Griffin Tate.
And while you’re there, enter the Rafflecopter contest to win an Amazon gift
card!
