Secrets In The Blood

The one good thing about having followers for my poses, is I know my list is full of people who love romance and mystery stories.  You write them everyday!  Well I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to a dear friend of mine, who wrote and published her first book.  Published in 2013, she is relaunching this book today and I wanted my fabulous followers to be the first to see this wonderful story.  Links to where you can get this story at the bottom of this post.

My review:  I’ve read this book twice!  The setting of the town is so unique and the characters are so relatable, the story draws you in wanting to know who the killer could be!  West’s childhood trauma, his intense feelings towards his brother and his love for Cassidy pulls at your own heart strings as you read along hoping for a final happy ending for him.

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Blurb:
Secrets have been buried in a steel town for many years, but someone is
about to blow the lid off them and rock this little town. Cassidy loves her life
just the way it is. But when mysterious and good looking West arrives, her
world is turned upside-down. West carries the secrets of the steel town.
Cassidy is attracted to the stranger but a relationship seems impossible as
West’s accusations make him appear crazy and bodies start to pile up. No one
wants to believe West; can Cassidy let her feelings go and trust him? Who is
the killer? How many bodies will pile up before the biggest secret of all is
revealed?
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Prologue:
The bedroom was dark except for the muted yellow glow from the hall table
lamp. Although subdued, the light was bright enough to stab through the
partially open doorway like a spear. It cast a pie-shaped beam just inside on
the thick blue carpeting. But the rest of the room remained dim and sinister
as if the light had been swallowed by it.

Thump.

The wind howled mercilessly as fat raindrops spattered against the second
story window.

Eight-year-old Kenton turned restlessly in his bed, his pillow falling to the floor
with a gentle thud. Somewhere, deep within the bowels of the cavernous
house, a woman moaned.

Or perhaps it was only the wind again.

Thump. Thump.

Kenton awoke with a start, sitting up suddenly and rubbing the sleep from his
blinking brown eyes. Had he heard something? He kicked frantically at the
bedcovers, his thin legs hopelessly entangled in them during his brief and
fitful sleep.

Thump.

It was louder, closer. How many times had his child’s imagination conjured up
images of monsters in that house? That colossal, hulking ogre of a house. He
feared that one day he would disappear; be swallowed up and forever lost in
the startling noises it made at night and the menacing shadows present in
every corner.

He wanted his mother. She would smile at him and tell him there were no
monsters. She would look in his closet and under the bed and tousle his curly
brown hair playfully as she tucked him back into bed. She would sit with him
until his breathing became even and steady and she knew for certain that he
was asleep again.

Finally freed of his bedding, Kenton peered through the ominous shadows at
his younger brother’s bed. Shane wasn’t there. Kenton rubbed his eyes again
as if that would make Shane reappear. Dropping his bare feet to the floor, he
padded cautiously to the door. The door that would either lead him to his
mother…or to the terrible noise he had heard.

He wiped his sweaty palms on his pajama pants and waited a moment before
pushing the six panel oak door open the rest of the way. The door squeaked
lightly on its hinges, but the sound seemed to reverberate through the entire
estate like an endless echo. He stood in the open doorway as if frozen, not
wanting to look into the corridor. Waiting. Listening. The feeling of
dread began to build in him, rolling in his stomach and threatening to
explode out of his mouth into a terrified scream.

He hesitated for what seemed to be hours, and then stepped into the soft
light of the immense hallway like a dead person would step toward the light
at the end of the proverbial tunnel. With cold sweaty beads trickling down his
back, he couldn’t shake the eerie feeling creeping over his flesh. He
shuddered.

Walking a few feet down, again out of the light but toward his mother’s room,
Kenton breathed a soft sigh when he saw Shane. The four-year-old was seated
on the floor at the edge of the balcony, completely unmoving, even at
Kenton’s approach. His feet, as his older brother’s, were bare, his bony legs
dangling through the spindle railing. As if entranced, his black-as-pitch eyes
stared oddly downward into the dark, marble floored foyer below.

A chill from an unknown source prickled the hairs on the back of Kenton’s
neck. Something was dreadfully wrong. Silently, his stomach tensing into a
knot, he sat beside the younger boy and squinted into the murkiness beyond
the balcony. He could see nothing except the faint shape of the mahogany
fern stand by the powder room door. The bulky fern, barely discernible, looked
to Kenton like a crazy octopus, arms waving, ready to eat them if they
ventured downstairs. He looked anxiously at his brother again. Shane seemed
mesmerized, watching fixedly as if he could actually see something.

Kenton tried to follow the intense stare. There was no sound now. No light. No
movement in the foyer. Only silence. A frightening silence that chilled his
blood.

“Momma’s gone,” Shane whispered so softly, Kenton wondered if he’d actually
heard the small boy speak at all.

“What?” Kenton whispered back fiercely, his emotions completely unraveling
by Shane’s disturbing stare into the blackness below them. His knuckles
turned white as he gripped the railing and strained once again, hoping to see
what so steadfastly held his brother’s attention.

Slowly, his pale face a mask of deep shock and horror, his onyx eyes glittering
in the hall light, Shane turned to face Kenton. “Momma’s gone. Daddy killed
her.”

Available here:

Kobo                                                           Amazon
Good Reads                                             Barnes and Noble
Smashwords