A different kind of fire & fury - #Giveaway #CrimeThriller #MeToo @crimebookgirl1

Blurb

Detective Michelle Velasquez kicks ass with the Santa Fe Police Department, and she’ll need all her moxie May, 2013 as she’s assigned two cases which may be related. She’s assigned a vicious rape case of Maria Acevedo, an intern with the Jones Financial Group, as she gets a call from an old friend, Richard Stanberry III. He’s intent on re-connecting, but she’s suspicious of his motives for good reason.

As she digs into Maria Acevedo’s rape case, she’s assigned a thirty year old murder case of her former friend, Susie Murphy, who happened to be Richard Stanberry III’s girlfriend at the time of her murder. If Detective Velasquez wants to solve both cases, she’s going to have to put her life on the line to uncover some dark secrets that some prefer to stay buried.

Excerpt

“Has he given you problems before?”

“I’m new.”

“Are you afraid to tell me who he is?” She nodded in the affirmative.

“I wasn’t a person to him. Just a body to poke his dick into for my humiliation.”

“If you tell me who he is, I can arrest him, and you’ll never have to worry about him again.”

Tears started down her cheeks. “Can you tell me why you are so scared of him?”

She said, “Because he threatened me.”

“But you called the police?”

“No. The cleaning crew came in, after closing hours, and found me. I begged them not to call you, but they did.”

“I’m glad they did.”

“Please don’t make me tell you who he was. He’ll destroy me.”

I said, “You know most rapists threaten their victims to keep them quiet, but they seldom follow through.” As I said it, I didn’t believe a word of it because to confront your attacker would not be easy. I’d shoot the bastard where it counted, if I ever got raped before I’d get dragged through the system. She continued to shake her head from side to side, so I said, “Why don’t we do this. I’ll take you to St. Francis Hospital, and we’ll process the evidence. You don’t need to make a decision, at the moment, on disclosing his identity. If in the future you change your mind, we have the evidence.”

“I don’t think there will be evidence because he used protection.”

“We need photographic evidence of your injuries plus he may have left a hair or two behind.” She shook her head faster, so I said, “It’s just a few photos. Nothing too obtrusive,” but they were anything but. If she named her rapist, her life would no longer be private. But without evidence, I had no chance of an arrest. “Let me take you to the hospital. I’ll call a rape counselor for you to talk to. It’s confidential between you and her.” She nodded. I’d get the son of a bitch because he wasn’t going to get away with destroying Maria Acevedo’s life. #Timesup

I rode with her in the ambulance, to St. Francis Hospital, where I stayed with her through the abysmal experience. They loaded her onto a gurney. They cut her clothes off and replaced them with a gown. Wrapped in a blanket to keep her warm, they shuffled her from room to room.

Once they reached the examination room, they had her stand. They removed the blanket and gown as the nurse held a ruler to the different abrasions while they photographed them. They swabbed her vagina and anus and gave her various shots and pills. After the shots were administered, they aimed a Canon between her legs. Once they had sufficient pictures, they inserted long beaks inside her and smeared her vagina with blue paint to check for abrasions. 

When they finished, they let her shower.

Her rapist wasn’t a novice, so I would check the database for any similar reported attacks. Otto and I went home after her rape counselor showed up. I’d get the son of a bitch because the arrogant prick thought he was entitled to take what he wanted, but he didn’t know that I would get the final say. I would be Maria Acevedo’s avenger. Scumbags like her rapist understood one thing, you had to punch back.

About the Author

I'm a debut author who has long had an interest in crime thrillers and an interest in criminal psychology, specifically, sexual assault. I was stalked two times in my 20's and had to relocate both times as I barely escaped rape both times. I used those experiences in creating one of my fictional characters in the book.

I'm an avid outdoor enthusiast and a lover of animals. I own five dogs and have horses, too. They're my babies.

Social Media

Twitter: @crimebookgirl1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julie.reichwein

Website: www.juliereichwein.info

Amazon Buy Link: http://amazon.com/dp/B07BC7CYMQ

Julie will be awarding a $75 Amazon GC, and another Amazon GC for $50, to two randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review Tuesday: The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (#lesbian #thriller #historical)

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Riverhead Books, 2014

Frances Wray lives a rather dismal and claustrophobic life in 1922 London. She spends her days cooking and cleaning for her widowed mother, trying to maintain the illusion of gentility though they’re nearly bankrupt. In her scarce free time she mourns the loss of her two brothers, taken by the War, and her former lover Christina, now coupled with another woman.

Desperate to make ends meet, Frances and her mother decide to rent out several rooms. Their lodgers —the “paying guests” of the title—are not the sort of people with whom the Wrays usually associate. Lilian and Leonard Barber come from a different social class, and have different habits and values. They smoke and drink, play the gramophone and dance, host parties and play naughty games. They are a “modern” couple, with much freer manners than the more traditional Wrays.

Though their presence constitutes a painful invasion of Frances’ privacy, the Barbers also bring some color to her drab life. She finds Lilian fascinating, with her bright clothing, costume jewelry, knick knacks and gewgaws, as well as her rather poor and common but boisterously affectionate family. Flirtatious and good-looking, Leonard proves to be a challenge, emphatically and uncomfortably male in what had been an all-female household.

Lilian and Frances become friends, then more than friends, after Frances confesses her former affair with Christina and the younger woman admits how deeply unhappy she is with Leonard. As they grow closer, they struggle to hide their forbidden passion from the world. Then their secret triggers a series of tragic events that entangle them in shared guilt and tear apart their mutual trust.

The Paying Guests is a phenomenally good book. It is simultaneously an historical and social commentary, a terrifying thriller and a steamy lesbian romance. Ms. Waters manages to capture the fleeting nuances of emotion with astounding precision. Her characters live and breathe. Their relationships exhibit all the contrariness and complexity of real human interaction, shifting and reshaping from one moment to the next.

Sarah Waters is known for her rich portrayals of the past. Compared to the colorful Victorian era she captured so expertly in Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, her post-War London feels grim and unsettled, full of uncertainty and suppressed violence. The Great War shattered illusions and remade society. A whole generation of young men died. At the same time, new opportunities opened for women brave enough to take advantage of them.

Despite these new possibilities, women were far from free. Ms. Waters’ horrifying description of a pharmaceutical abortion makes this stunningly clear. Frances chooses to break off her relationship with Christina when they are discovered, rather than being repudiated by her family. Unable to support herself, terrified of being alone, Lilian is trapped in her loveless marriage to philandering Leonard.

All these uncertainties and pressures, as much as their mutual attraction, drive Frances and Lilian into each other’s arms. Their lovemaking is furtive but intense. Without being anywhere nearly as graphic as I (for instance) might be, the author paints scenes that are gorgeously erotic.

But already the darkness was lessening. Lilian was beside her, a shimmer, a blur. She put out her hands and they found her face, they found her lips: they were smooth, cool, wet. She kissed them again, even as she touched them, kissing around and across her own fingers. She drew her hands, damply, to Lilian’s throat, to the silky skin at the opening of her nightgown.

The gown had three small buttons on it, hard and round. She undid the first, and then the second.

‘May I do this?’

She felt Lilian hesitate. But the third button was undone now; now she had parted the cloth, had dipped her head, was stroking and kissing. And after another few seconds of it Lillian moved forward with a sigh to meet the touch of her fingers and her mouth. Her breasts were warm, fantastically heavy, fantastically hard at the tips. Beyond was the thud, thud of her heart—Frances kissed every beat of it.

Finally, The Paying Guests incorporates all the tension of a mystery, a period police procedural complete with swaggering officers, severe judges and dodgy witnesses. This last section of the book was painful to read, as guilt, secrets and circumstances conspire to drive Frances and Lilian apart. I couldn’t stop, though, no matter how dark the story became. I needed to know the verdict—even if things were going to end as badly as it seemed.

I won’t tell you how the book does end, though. I don’t want to spoil the experience.

The Paying Guests is not as much of a feel-good novel as Tipping the Velvet. It’s not as cleverly constructed as Fingersmith. However, it’s one of the most vivid and realistic portrayals of the human heart I have ever read.

Sneak Peek: The Painter is a Lady, by @AdrianaKraft (#MFRWAuthor #warhero #suspense)

Blurb

Secrets. Trust. Courage. Who will knuckle under first—the war hero? The spirited single mom? Or the former high school bully who still hates them both?

When war hero Michael Jarvis returns to his hometown on the shores of Lake Superior, he doesn’t plan to stay—he’s undercover, investigating a possible sex trafficking ring operating on the Great Lakes. But he does want to sample the pesky girl next door he always turned down—and it wouldn’t hurt if she’d clear up a few mysteries of her own.

Successfully established as an interior house painter, Brenda Tower finally has her act together as a single mom—but it hangs by a thread, a secret she’ll guard with her life. The return of her youthful crush Michael Jarvis threatens to unravel everything.

Jealousy has inflamed Brett Hill’s hatred of Michael and Brenda for as long as he can remember. Revenge will be so sweet—and it will fit in perfectly with his high stakes game.

When the secrets break open, can Michael and Brenda find the courage to trust each other, or will revenge and betrayal triumph?

Buy LInks

Extasy Books http://www.extasybooks.com/the-painter-is-a-lady/

Amazon US http://amzn.to/2melLwS

Amazon UK http://amzn.to/2lXRCko

Excerpt

Ignoring the catch in her voice, Brenda asked, “Did you really tell Tommy you’d help him with his pitching?”

Michael’s eyes lit up. “Ah, he remembered. I wasn’t sure he would. I did tell him once that if I moved back here, I might give him some tips.”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Why did you even suggest such a thing? You obviously know the rumors. So does Tommy.” She gulped and curled her fingers into fists. “He thinks you’re his father. He wants you to be his father.”

Sitting back in the booth as if she’d slapped him, he eyed her cautiously. “And that’s my fault? I’ve only seen him a few times. When we did have that conversation, he was having a bad day. He’d been ragged on by his peers for throwing like a girl. He’d been crying, for God’s sake. I just stumbled into him near the park as he was coming home from school. He knew who I was. I knew who he was. So we talked. I didn’t think that was a crime.”

The pain on Michael’s face made Brenda wince. “I didn’t mean it that way. I doubt you’d do anything to hurt a little boy, but…but Tommy thinks you’re a hero. He’s eager to have you as a friend.”

Michael shrugged. “Sounds like the boy is more eager than his mother.”

“Damn. Do you have to twist everything I’m trying to say?” She clenched her fingers around the stein she’d hardly touched since sitting down.

“Sorry,” he said softly. “Maybe we could start over. You were going to tell me why you selected me as Tommy’s father. There must’ve been plenty of others to choose from.”

“That hurts.” She shook her head. “Don’t apologize. I deserved that. We both know I was quite active sexually before Tommy was born.” She shrugged. “You made the most sense. You weren’t around to protest, and folks in town thought we’d been together off and on since I reached puberty, anyway.”

“So much for folks in town.”

“Right. Anyway. I wasn’t going to leave that line on the birth certificate blank. You were convenient. You were out of the country. I imagine I thought you might never find out.” She fought back tears, remembering filling out the necessary forms two days after Tommy was born. “And you were my friend.”

“I won’t deny that. For all the misery you caused me, there were plenty of times you stood by me when the chips were down. So I was convenient.” Michael raked his fingers through his hair. “You can tell me it’s none of my business, but I have to ask. Do you know who is Tommy’s actual father?”

Brenda gulped for air, nodded, and ignored the tears suddenly brimming in her eyes. “Yes,” she squeaked. “But I won’t tell you.”

“I wasn’t asking you to, but at least I know you’re not just protecting Tommy―you’re also protecting his father.”

Author Bio

We are a married couple writing Sizzling Romantic Suspense and Erotic Romance for Two, Three, or More. With backgrounds in criminology and counseling, we combine our expertise in the criminal mind, trauma, healing, and human nature with a passion for robust sexuality and life-long vitality.

Our Romantic Suspense line delivers “warmth, blazing hot sex, and well-developed characters” (Romance Junkies Reviews) as our hero and heroine battle outer threats and inner demons to stay alive and fall in love.

We write our Erotic Romance stories to entertain, of course, but most of all we write them because we believe in happy endings for all who fall in love, whatever their gender, sexual orientation or numerical combination.

Links

Website: http://www.adrianakraft.com/

Blog: http://www.adrianakraft.com/blog

FaceBook Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adriana-Kraft/182846025133440

Twitter http://twitter.com/AdrianaKraft

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/adrianakraft5/boards/

GoodReads http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1578571.Adriana_Kraft

Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/102791537641895264573

Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/author/adrianakraft

Barnes & Noble Author Page: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/adriana-kraft

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