Whose mask will crumble first—
the enigmatic professor of Celtic Studies,
the undercover cop masquerading as a co-ed,
or the campus stalker,
biding his time to strike again?
Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write – and read!
Click on the graphics to travel to the other snippets.
It’s October – time for something scary! My romantic suspense novel The Unmasking is on sale for $0.99 for the entire month of October. The story opens on Samhain/Halloween and has a truly creepy villain. Today’s ten sentences follow last week’s – Nancy’s in the college lecture hall.
EXCERPT
Nancy scribbled more notes and then focused on the men in the room.
Was he in the lecture hall? Would he strike again, tonight? Or would the rapist stay in his hole, biding his time?
Professor Bayfield concluded his lecture. Nancy leaned back in her chair, flexed her cramped fingers and welcomed the assurance of the small service revolver pressing against her lower back.
Sergeant Nancy Appleby of the Stevens Point, Wisconsin police force had been on the Blackthorn campus for two weeks and had made no progress in identifying the rapist. She’d enrolled in two classes and moved into a small off-campus walk-up, attracting little attention.
Only two persons in Trillium, Minnesota knew her true identity, and why she was there: the president of the college, Joan Williams, who also happened to be Nancy’s favorite aunt; and Lucy Washington, an officer with the college police department. The president had sought outside help to solve a string of rapes because she believed that not only was the security of campus women at stake, so was the future of the college. On leave from her own department, Nancy registered for classes as Nancy Crane, assuming her grandmother’s maiden name.
Book Information
Title: The Unmasking
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: B&B Publishing
Length: 87,000 words, 375 pages
Tropes: Lady cop, Undercover Detective, college campus, small town
ASIN B00IDVB6KQ
BLURB
Is anthropology professor Matt Bayfield the Blackthorn College rapist, or a potential ally? Aloof and unapproachable, Matt has academic ambitions. He can’t escape Blackthorn College soon enough, and he doesn’t want any entanglements to slow down his exit.
Nancy Appleby would like nothing more than to solve the string of campus rape cases before Thanksgiving so she can go home. The last thing she wants is a relationship to complicate her life—but she’ll settle for a fling, especially when the sex sizzles.
The stalker has his own carefully crafted timetable, with a special date just for Nancy. Can Matt and Nancy force him out of his hidey-hole before it’s too late?
WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING
5 Stars, Amazon reviewer Rochelle: “They got me! I didn’t figure it out!”
5 Stars, Amazon reviewer Wendy: “wonderfully told, suspenseful, erotic romance”
BUY LINK
On SALE for $0.00 throughout October
Available on Kindle Unlimited
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDVB6KQ/
BOOK INFORMATION
Can Max melt the Ice Queen? Should he even try?
Sixteen-year-old Lidie Brunier has everything; looks, wealth, health and a charming suitor, but there are dark clouds on the horizon. Lidie and her family are committed Huguenots, and Louis XIV has sworn to stamp out this ‘false religion’ and make France a wholly Catholic country. Gradually Lidie’s comfortable life starts to disintegrate as Huguenots are stripped of all rights and the King sends his brutal soldiers into their homes to force them to become Catholics. Others around her break under pressure, but Lidie and her family refuse to convert. With spies everywhere and the ever-present threat of violence, they struggle on. Then a shocking betrayal forces Lidie’s hand and her only option is to try and flee the country, a decision that brings unimaginable hardship, terror and tragedy and changes her life forever.
Rosemary Hayes has written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes in different genres, from edgy teenage fiction (The Mark), historical fiction (The Blue Eyed Aborigine and Forgotten Footprints), middle grade fantasy (Loose Connections, The Stonekeeper’s Child and Break Out) to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books. Many of her books have won or been shortlisted for awards and several have been translated into different languages.
Tomorrow, I will host and review The King’s Command by Rosemary Hayes, a lovely new historical fiction novel. Her story traces the experience of her French Protestant ancestors in the late 1600s, during the period of King Louis XIV’s persecution and his revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Now in her late twenties, Rosanne Falcon’s life has finally come together—a Ph.D., a prestigious research job, and two exquisite lovers, one of each gender, to complete the package. The intense bond she shares with Simone Stone was augmented rather than broken when Simone met and married Boyd Roberts, and the three have forged a fulfilling polyamory relationship. More would only be trouble.
KD Sherrinford was born and raised in Preston, Lancashire, and now resides on the Fylde Coast with her husband John and their children.
KD’s short cosy contemporary mystery “A Bit of a Do” will be published as part of Marla Bradeen’s fabulous anthology Malice, Matrimony, and Murder, to be released on the 13th of November. The anthology is available to pre-order at Amazon. With twenty-four original stories from Derringer and Agatha finalists, Editors Choice Gold Seal recipients, and CWA members, there is no shortage of talent.
