Search Results for: i said yes

#Review | I Said Yes by Kiersten Modglin

I Said Yes by Kiersten Modglin
Published by: Kiersten Modglin
Publication Date: February 18, 2020
ASIN: ‎ B083G5XZ1S
Pages: 222
Review Copy from: Personal purchase
Edition: Kindle
My Rating: 5

Synopsis (via GR)

Yes.
The word that brought me such great joy and, eventually, such heartbreak.

When Mark asked me out for the first time, I didn’t have to think twice.
I said, “Yes.”

When he asked me to marry him just a year later, the answer came as easily as the breath that followed it.
“Yes.”

When he asked me to keep his secret, my response came too quickly.
“Yes.”

Now, in front of a judge and jury, I’ll be asked the question I never anticipated.
“Did you know who the killer is?”

The answer is second nature by now.
“Yes.”

My Thoughts

Have you read a Kiersten Modglin book? If not, you are missing out on a goosebump read!

My review is going to be short and sweet because I don’t want to give away anything!!!!

The book begins with 2 people, Hannah and Mark are sitting in jail being interrogated by their attorney for a murder. I’m hooked already.

The story alternates between Him and Her, and now and then. Pulls me in deeper as to their personality dynamics.

Hannah and Mark have many secrets, lies, and betrayals during their relationship. Once they marry, their situation deteriorates and worsens. Now I’m very invested because I don’t know who I should believe, Hannah or Mark.

And then comes the explosion. Wait, what did I just read?!?! At this time I have to reread what just happened!!!

Kiersten Modglin has done it again!!! She knows how to write a psychological thriller!!! She has the ability to always make the reader pause and grasp what just happened and putting it all in perspective.

Another Kiersten Modglin book that blew me away!!! Wow! Just WOW!!! My goal is to read her entire library of thrillers!! Her books are hard to put down!!!!! See my reviews for 2 of her other books: Just Married and
The Mother-In-Law.

Another book blogger recommended her to me and so glad she did. So I am now going to emphasize that you need to check out her books. I’m sure she will grab you hook, line and sinker!!!!!

Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

REVIEW DISCLAIMER

  • This blog was founded on the premise to write honest reviews, to the best of my ability, no matter who from, where from and/or how the book was obtained, and will continue to do so, even if it is through PICT or PBP.
  • I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
  • I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
  •  

    THE THINGS THAT LAST FOREVER by Peter W.J. Hayes | #Showcase #Interview #Giveaway

    The Things That Last Forever by Peter W.J. Hayes Banner

     

     

    The Things That Last Forever

    by Peter W. J. Hayes

    On Tour: January 1 – February 28, 2021

    Synopsis:

    The Things That Last Forever by Peter W. J. Hayes

    After a house fire hospitalizes his partner and forces him onto medical leave, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police detective Vic Lenoski starts a desperate search for the woman who set the blaze. She is the one person who knows what happened to his missing teenage daughter, but as a fugitive, she’s disappeared so thoroughly no one can find her.

    Risking his job and the wrath of the district attorney, Vic resorts to bargaining with criminal suspects for new leads, many of which point to North Dakota. He flies there, only to discover he is far from everything he knows, and his long-cherished definitions of good and bad are fading as quickly as his leads. His only chance is one last audacious roll of the dice. Can he stay alive long enough to discover the whereabouts of his daughter and rebuild his life? Or is everything from his past lost forever?

    “The mystery plot itself is riveting…a captivating and emotionally intelligent crime drama.” — Kirkus Reviews

    Book Details:

    Genre: Mystery: Police Procedural
    Published by: Level Best Books
    Publication Date: August 1, 2020
    Number of Pages: 294
    ISBN: 978-1-947915-56-5
    Series: A Vic Lenoski Mystery; Pittsburgh Trilogy #3 || Each is a Stand Alone Mystery
    Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

    Read an excerpt:

    Chapter 1

    Sometimes you walk into a room and what’s inside changes your life forever. That sense stopped Vic just inside the doorway. A woman with skin the color of dark amber lay on the only bed, her bandaged arms shockingly white among the shadows. She was reflected in a large window in the far wall, the outside sky as black and still as the inside of a tomb. He smelled disinfectant and blood. Numbers and graph lines flared on grey-eyed medical monitors. Somewhere in the vast empty spaces of the hospital a voice echoed.

    He’d never visited a burn ward.

    Never had a partner so close to death.

    Never thought a room could seem as hollow as he felt inside.

    The feeling was so disembodying that when he reached the bed and looked into the woman’s face, he half expected to see himself. But it was Liz, her forehead and knobby cheekbones smeared with ointment, eyebrows and eyelashes burned away. A bandage covered her left earlobe where her favorite earring, a small gold star, usually sat. It seemed like every breath she took pained her.

    He wanted to take her hand but the bandages made it impossible. “Liz,” he said softly, her name almost lost among the beeps and clicks of the monitors. Liquid dripped into a tangle of IV tubes at the back of her fist.

    Her eyelids fluttered.

    “Liz. Doctor told me I could talk to you.”

    Her eyes opened. He watched her pupils widen and narrow as they absorbed the distance to the ceiling and distinguished shadows from feeble light.

    “Vic?” A hoarse whisper.

    “I’m here.”

    She turned her face to him. “You got me out.”

    Relief rose in Vic’s throat. “Yeah. But the house didn’t make it.”

    “Cora Stills?”

    Vic squeezed his eyelids shut and rocked on his heels. He didn’t know where to start. Cora Stills. The one person who knew something—anything—about his missing teenage daughter. Liz on her way to arrest her. Instead, Liz, handcuffed to a radiator pipe as flames lathered and stormed through Cora’s house. Cora’s burned-out car found two days later on a crumbling stone dock next to a deserted warehouse, the Allegheny River emptying westward.

    Cora, alive and moving through that tomb of darkness outside the window. Free.

    “Vic…” Liz said something more but he couldn’t make it out.

    He bent closer.

    She forced her words from somewhere deep inside, and as she spoke, he knew this was what she saved through all the fear and pain to tell him. “Someone told Cora I was coming.”

    ***

    Excerpt from The Things That Last Forever by Peter W. J. Hayes. Copyright 2020 by Peter W. J. Hayes. Reproduced with permission from Peter W. J. Hayes. All rights reserved.

     

     

    Author Bio:

    Peter W. J. Hayes

    Peter W. J. Hayes worked as a journalist, advertising copywriter and marketing executive before turning to mystery and crime writing. He is the author of the Silver Falchion-nominated Pittsburgh trilogy, a police procedural series, and is a Derringer-nominated author of more than a dozen short stories. His work has appeared in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, Pulp Modern and various anthologies, including two Malice Domestic collections and The Best New England Crime Stories. He is also a past nominee for the Crime Writers Association (CWA) Debut Dagger Award.

    Q&A with Peter W.J. Hayes

    What was the inspiration for this book?

    Given that The Things That Last Forever is the third book of a trilogy, I had several plot lines to tie off. That said, the book starts with the search for a fugitive, and when I thought of placing the fugitive in North Dakota (her birth state), the pieces fell into place. I then travelled to North Dakota to get a feel for the fracking fields south of Williston, and knew almost immediately I had the right location for the novel. That first night in North Dakota I started sketching out the book’s scenes.

    What has been the biggest challenge in your writing career?

    I think keeping a fire lit for all the years it took to work myself into a place where I had the time to work on a novel. I knew in eighth grade I wanted to be a novelist, but work and family intervened. At different times I did spend a number of years as a journalist, business writer, and advertising copywriter, and spent a fifteen-year stretch in a weekly writing group for fiction writers. However, as work demands increased I had to give that up. Toward the end of my business career, with some planning, but I was able to retire early to pursue writing.

    What do you absolutely need while writing?

    Coffee and a regular time to write each day. I’ve found that habit is the best predictor of success.

    Do you adhere to a strict routine when writing or write when the ideas are flowing?

    Yes. I try and write every afternoon. Some days are more fruitful than others. The best ideas, for me, come while I am writing. Waiting around for inspiration to strike doesn’t work for me.

    Who is your favorite character from your book and why?

    Vic Lenoski, my protagonist for the three books of the Pittsburgh Trilogy. I like the complexity of his emotions and his doggedness. He also has a quiet instinct to teach the younger members of the police department, and absolutely does not suffer fools gladly.

    Who is your least favorite character from your book and why?

    For a long time it was Vic Lenoski’s commander, Tomkins Davis, who is better known as Crush. I disliked him because he was a bit of a caricature of a boss who only cares about his career. That bothered me enough that in The Things That Last Forever, I turned him into a more nuanced character who puts his detectives first (in the end).

    • Give us an interesting fun fact or a few about your book?
    When I was visiting North Dakota to research the book, I was stopped by the side of the road looking at a map. A North Dakota State Policeman stopped and asked if I needed assistance. I explained what I was doing, and was inspired to ask him if he knew of anywhere nearby where a fugitive might hole up. He gave me two suggestions, and one of them is the exact location where Vic Lenoski finally tracks down the fugitive he is chasing.

    Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

    When I started to write, I thought it was about me getting a story on paper. I’ve learned since that writing a book is about much more than that. I’ve been stunned at how supportive and energized the entire ecosystem of booksellers, editors, publishers and readers are. Everyone wants writers to be successful, and I am very thankful of that. It’s completely changed how I think about my readers as I write.

    Tell us a little about yourself and your background?

    I’ve travelled quite a bit in my lifetime. I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England, and my entire family is English by heritage (with some Irish, Scottish and Viking thrown in—a predictable mix for northern England). My father’s work took him to Paris, France when I was small, and I attended French schools for a few years before moving to the ASP (American School of Paris). My father was then offered a job in Pittsburgh and we emigrated to America. Following college, I lived in Taiwan for a year and backpacked extensively in mainland China (in those days, I was reasonably fluent in French and Mandarin Chinese). I was a marketer by profession, rising ultimately to spend six years as Chief Marketing Officer for one of America’s largest companies, with responsibility for the company’s worldwide marketing activities. In those years business travel took me throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

    What’s next that we can look forward to?

    I’m currently rewriting the first draft of a standalone PI novel. The PI is named Levon Grace, and he appears in all three books of the Pittsburgh Trilogy. He is good friends with Vic Lenoski, the protagonist of those books, and has taken up with Vic’s partner, Liz Timmons. Once that book is delivered, I have a contract with Level Best Books to deliver three more Vic Lenoski books, turning the trilogy into a series.

    Peter can be found at:
    www.peterwjhayes.com
    Goodreads
    BookBub
    Instagram
    Twitter
    Facebook

     

    Read an excerpt:

    Chapter 1

    Sometimes you walk into a room and what’s inside changes your life forever. That sense stopped Vic just inside the doorway. A woman with skin the color of dark amber lay on the only bed, her bandaged arms shockingly white among the shadows. She was reflected in a large window in the far wall, the outside sky as black and still as the inside of a tomb. He smelled disinfectant and blood. Numbers and graph lines flared on grey-eyed medical monitors. Somewhere in the vast empty spaces of the hospital a voice echoed.

    He’d never visited a burn ward.

    Never had a partner so close to death.

    Never thought a room could seem as hollow as he felt inside.

    The feeling was so disembodying that when he reached the bed and looked into the woman’s face, he half expected to see himself. But it was Liz, her forehead and knobby cheekbones smeared with ointment, eyebrows and eyelashes burned away. A bandage covered her left earlobe where her favorite earring, a small gold star, usually sat. It seemed like every breath she took pained her.

    He wanted to take her hand but the bandages made it impossible. “Liz,” he said softly, her name almost lost among the beeps and clicks of the monitors. Liquid dripped into a tangle of IV tubes at the back of her fist.

    Her eyelids fluttered.

    “Liz. Doctor told me I could talk to you.”

    Her eyes opened. He watched her pupils widen and narrow as they absorbed the distance to the ceiling and distinguished shadows from feeble light.

    “Vic?” A hoarse whisper.

    “I’m here.”

    She turned her face to him. “You got me out.”

    Relief rose in Vic’s throat. “Yeah. But the house didn’t make it.”

    “Cora Stills?”

    Vic squeezed his eyelids shut and rocked on his heels. He didn’t know where to start. Cora Stills. The one person who knew something—anything—about his missing teenage daughter. Liz on her way to arrest her. Instead, Liz, handcuffed to a radiator pipe as flames lathered and stormed through Cora’s house. Cora’s burned-out car found two days later on a crumbling stone dock next to a deserted warehouse, the Allegheny River emptying westward.

    Cora, alive and moving through that tomb of darkness outside the window. Free.

    “Vic…” Liz said something more but he couldn’t make it out.

    He bent closer.

    She forced her words from somewhere deep inside, and as she spoke, he knew this was what she saved through all the fear and pain to tell him. “Someone told Cora I was coming.”

    ***

    Excerpt from The Things That Last Forever by Peter W. J. Hayes. Copyright 2020 by Peter W. J. Hayes. Reproduced with permission from Peter W. J. Hayes. All rights reserved.

     

     

    Tour Participants:

    Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!



     

     

    Giveaway!!:

    This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Peter W.J. Hayes. There will be 4 winners for this giveaway. Two (2) winners will each receive one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card and two (2) winners will each receive one (1) physical copy of The Things That Last Forever by Peter W.J. Hayes (US Only). The giveaway begins on January 1, 2021 and runs through March 2, 2021. Void where prohibited.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

     

     

    Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

     

    WHAT SHE NEVER SAID by Catharine Riggs (Review, Showcase & Giveaway)

    What She Never Said by Catharine Riggs Banner

     

     

    What She Never Said

    by Catharine Riggs

    on Tour August 19 – September 20, 2019

    Synopsis:

    What She Never Said by Catharine Riggs

    How much would you pay to keep a secret? Ruth Mosby is the VP of operations at Serenity Acres, where the privileged elite go to die. For a hefty fee, wealthy retirees can live the good life in this posh Santa Barbara community—even after they outlive their money. But the savvy new boss has a new rule: if you can’t pay, you can’t stay.

    Guests whisper about an “Angel” who assists with suicides. Ruth has another word for it: murder.

    Ruth enlists her neighbor, an ex-detective named Zach, to discover the Angel’s secret identity. However, the two have a painful history, and Ruth has dark secrets all her own. To solve the mystery, Ruth must descend her golden tower—but can she bear the consequences of revealing her own sinister truths?

    Why Readers LOVE What She Never Said:

    “Riggs keeps the tension high to the dramatic climax.”
    Publishers Weekly

    What She Never Said is a fast-paced, compulsive read—and I speak as a slow-paced, easily distracted reader.”
    —Ashley Dyer, award-winning author of the Lake & Carver series.

    “A compelling read that will keep you awake well into the night.”
    —T.R. Ragan, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

    Beneath the weight of metastasizing secrets, idyllic veneers buckle to reveal shocking truths that will haunt readers long after the final page.
    —P. J. Vernon, acclaimed author of the debut thriller, When You Find Me

    MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW

    5 stars

    Where do I begin because there is so much to say?! But I am apologizing in advance because this is going to be a very vague review so I won’t let too much slip.

    This is the second book in the Santa Barbara Suspense series, however, it read well as a stand-alone but I will be reading the first book soon.

    Being a retired RN and having worked within the elderly community, I was instantly drawn in from the first page, as the synopsis states the setting is Shady Acres, an elite geriatric facility where the patients are called guests. But there is someone who is assisting with suicides. Or is it murder? And who is in and what is this group within the complex that are members of “The Goodnight Club”?

    This book was so engrossing that I finished it in one sitting, which is very rare for me. I literally could not put it down as there were so many aspects that I had to know how it ended.

    Shady Acres has just been sold to a huge conglomerate company that their bottom line is first money and second, their image and lastly the patients. Right before the sale, Ruth Mosby, VP of Operations has found pink post-its with a guest’s name and date of their death but hasn’t told anyone about this. She is more concerned about being named the new Director.

    Since the sale, more patients have died especially those that are destitute. Not only are the patients dying, but a nurse has also been found murdered in the parking lot, which it is rumored that he was the complex’s drug dealer.

    Ms. Riggs has created characters that pull the reader into their lives wanting to know what their dark secrets, betrayals, guilt, depression, past traumas, substance abuse, regrets, shame, and more, which is why I just kept turning the pages.

    The suspense did not let up and had me guessing as to who were the leaders of this exclusive group, “The Goodnight Club”. Who was “The Angel” carrying out the passing of the residents? Who was “The Ambassador” or the go-between and who was the “leader” that passed the pink post-it notes getting the word to those above her/him.

    Is The Angel an empath for these aging people that want to die with dignity, or is there a serial killer working amongst them?

    Totally engrossing!! Chilling!! Will have you on the edge of your seat!!!

    Book Details:

    Genre: Psychological Suspense
    Published by: Thomas & Mercer
    Publication Date: September 10, 2019
    Number of Pages: 377
    ISBN: 1542042135 (ISBN13: 9781542042130)
    Series: Santa Barbara Suspense #2
    Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

    Read an excerpt:

    RUTH MOSBY

    ONE

    Monday, May 6

    My goal each day is ten thousand steps. A Fitbit monitors my progress. One. Two. Three. Four. This morning I’ll reach six thousand steps. Only four thousand left after that. It’s nice the days have grown longer. I’ll walk the harbor loop after work. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. I speed up the slope of Orpet Park through the grove of moth-eaten oaks.

    At the summit of the steepest hill, I catch a peek of ocean gray. The islands are invisible today, shrouded in waves of lowering fog. June gloom. That’s what the locals call it, although we’ve barely stepped into May. Locals? I am a local. Or should be after thirty-some years. But oh no. Not in Santa Barbara. You can’t be a local unless you’re born here. Ridiculous but true. Sometimes I wonder why I stay. But at my age, where would I go?

    Cresting the final hill, I catch my first glimpse of the mission bells. They’re a sad reminder of my walks with Carlyn and the chats we had every day. She thought the Queen of the Missions was a sign of God’s blessing on our tony beachside town. I wonder what she thinks of God now. I wonder what she thinks of me.

    I continue past the mission lawn, verging on parched and dry. The agaves look weathered and dusty; they’re wilted at the tips. A handful of elderly tourists snap photos of the iconic scene. Their foreign chatter disrupts the calm, so I cross the street to the rose garden and follow the rutted trail. A lone dog shoots into view, and I slow my rapid gait. The golden Lab jumps, twists, and barks, nabbing a Frisbee in his mouth.

    “Morning,” his master calls to me, a smile gracing his youthful face.

    “Morning.” I lock my gaze on my running shoes. How did he miss the DOGS ON LEASH signs staggered every twenty feet? Or maybe he didn’t but somehow believes he’s above the city’s rules. I make a mental note to call animal control and continue on my way.

    I pick up my pace for the final ten blocks, feeling better than I have in weeks. Turning down my narrow driveway, I cringe at the sight of my neighbor standing on his porch.

    “Morning, Ruth,” he calls.

    “Morning, Zach.”

    Zach limps down his steps and through his drought-stricken garden, a frown rumpling his grizzled face. He’s dressed in board shorts and a tattered T-shirt, mended flip-flops shielding his feet. “You hear those kids partying last night?” he asks.

    “No,” I lie. “Was it loud?”

    “Hell yeah. I can’t believe they allow short-term rentals in our neighborhood. We’ve got to put a stop to that.”

    “Well, kids will be kids.” I fail to mention I called the police at ten sharp. That’s when the noise ordinance kicks in.

    “I’m going to complain at today’s city council meeting. Want to come along?” The breeze shifts, and I catch a whiff of spoiled milk. Zach has taken to strategic bathing, which results in an occasional stench.

    “I would, but I have to work.”

    “Bummer. There’s a better chance if we complain together.”

    I nod, thinking he’d have a better chance if he made an effort to clean himself up. When we moved into the neighborhood decades ago, Zach had been a handsome man with an easy smile and a mop of thick black hair. A homicide detective whose pretty wife, Tina, taught art at the nearby elementary school. The perfect neighbors on a perfect street of tiny Craftsman homes. Then their son died in a tragic accident, and Tina passed soon after that. A broken man, Zach took early retirement and nearly drank himself to death. He’s in recovery now and has replaced the booze with an obsession for neighborhood affairs. “What about my petition?” he asks. “You plan on signing that?”

    I bite my lower lip. “I’m not sure.”

    “Construction begins next week.”

    “I wish I could, but . . .”

    Mumbling under his breath, he eyes me with a frown. He’s also taken to talking to himself. Is dementia creeping up? “But what?” he asks.

    “I don’t think it’s wise for someone in my position to take a political stance.”

    “Your position?” He rolls his eyes. “You work at an old folks’ home.”

    “I work in a life-care community.”

    “Same thing.”

    “No, it’s not.”

    His frown deepens into a crevasse. “So, you’re okay with those homes coming down?” He nods at the four vacant bungalows located directly across the street. They’re slated for demolition, to be replaced by a ten-thousand-square-foot mansion with an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Our future neighbors are a flashy young couple with toddler twins and an army of well-groomed staff. Seems our former middle-class neighborhood is attracting the fashionable Hollywood types.

    “I’m not okay with it,” I say, “but what can we do? The planning commission has made their decision. We’re not going to change their minds.”

    “But if we don’t take action, it won’t be long before people like us can’t live in this town.”

    “At least we’ll make a mint when we sell.”

    “You’re not thinking of moving, are you?”

    “Of course not.” Although I might if the price is right.

    Zach sniffs and takes a swipe at his nose. “I just wish we could stop these assholes. They even complained about my new picket fence.”

    I hold my voice steady. “They did?” Last month, Zach replaced his aging fence with a synthetic version that lists from side to side.

    “Hell yes. City says my fence is four inches too tall, and I’ve got one month to replace the thing.

    Where the hell am I going to get that kind of money? My pension only goes so far.” He searches my face with his electric-blue eyes. They’re the only part of him that haven’t aged.

    “That’s terrible,” I say, dropping my gaze and backpedaling down the driveway. “Got to get to work. Have a nice day.” I hurry through the gate, swimming through waves of guilt. What if Zach finds out I turned him in? He’ll be angrier than a cornered wasp. But by the time I step out of the shower, I’ve pushed away all my self-doubt. Is it my fault his fence is too tall? For God’s sake, rules are rules.

    ***

    Excerpt from What She Never Said by Catharine Riggs. Copyright © 2019 by Catharine Riggs. Reproduced with permission from Catharine Riggs. All rights reserved.

     

     

    Author Bio:

    Catharine Riggs

    Catharine Riggs lives and writes on California’s central coast. Before her dive into thrillers, Riggs worked as a business banker, adjunct college instructor, and a nonprofit executive. What She Never Said is the second novel in her loosely linked Santa Barbara Suspense series. The first, What She Gave Away, was published by Thomas & Mercer in September of 2018.

    Catch Up With Catharine Riggs On:
    www.CatharineRiggs.com, Goodreads, & BookBub, Twitter!

     

     

    Tour Participants:

    Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!



     

     

    Enter To Win!:

    This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Catharine Riggs. There will be 4 winners. Two (2) winners will each receive one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card and Two (2) winners will each receive one (1) print copy of What She Never Said by Catharine Riggs. The giveaway begins on August 18, 2019 and runs through September 22, 2019. Open to U.S. addresses only. Void where prohibited.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

     

     

    Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

     

    YESTERDAY’S NEWS by R.G. Belsky (Interview & Showcase)

    Yesterday’s News by R.G. Belsky Tour Banner

    Yesterday’s News

    by R.G. Belsky

    on Tour June 1-30, 2018

     

    Synopsis:

    Yesterday's News by R.G. Belsky

    A classic cold case reopened—along with Pandora’s box

    When eleven-year-old Lucy Devlin disappeared on her way to school more than a decade ago, it became one of the most famous missing child cases in history.

    The story turned reporter Clare Carlson into a media superstar overnight. Clare broke exclusive after exclusive. She had unprecedented access to the Devlin family as she wrote about the heartbreaking search for their young daughter. She later won a Pulitzer Prize for her extraordinary coverage of the case.

    Now Clare once again plunges back into this sensational story. With new evidence, new victims and new suspects – too many suspects. Everyone from members of a motorcycle gang to a prominent politician running for a US Senate seat seem to have secrets they’re hiding about what might have happened to Lucy Devlin. But Clare has her own secrets too. And, in order to untangle the truth about Lucy Devlin, she must finally confront her own tortuous past.

    **Check out my review HERE and enter the giveaway**

     

    Book Details:

    Genre: Mystery
    Published by: Oceanview Publishing
    Publication Date: May 1st 2018
    Number of Pages: 343
    ISBN: 160809281X (ISBN13: 9781608092819)
    Series: A CLARE CARLSON MYSTERY
    Learn More about Yesterday’s News & Get Your Copy From: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Oceanview Publishing | Goodreads

     

    Author Bio:

    R.G. Belsky

    R.G. Belsky is an author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. Belsky’s crime novels reflect his extensive media background as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. His previous novels include the award-winning Gil Malloy mystery series. YESTERDAY’S NEWS is the first in a new series featuring Clare Carlson, the hard-driving and tenacious news director of an NYC TV station.

     

    Q&A with R.G. Belsky

    Welcome!
    Writing and Reading:

    Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?

    Absolutely!

    First off, on current events, I’m a big proponent of the “Ripped from the Headlines’ inspiration for mystery fiction writing. I’m a longtime New York City journalist, who’s worked as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. I’ve covered most of the big crime stories of the past several decades – including Son of Sam, O.J, the murder of John Lennon and many, many others. I was even in the newsroom – and part of creating – the famous New York Post headline of Headless Body in Topless Bar, about a particularly gruesome murder at a…well, topless place. So, when people ask me where I get the ideas for my crime novels, I’ve always said: “I just go to work every day!”

    My new novel YESTERDAY’S NEWS is about a missing child cold case in New York City, the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl years earlier who has never been found. As a young journalist, I covered the legendary Etan Patz case in New York, about a six-year-old boy who vanished. Eventually, after years of searching for answers, a man was convicted for the Patz murder – giving his family at least some kind of closure for their grief. My book is about a different kind of case in which there has been no closure.

    I also draw extensively on my personal experiences for my fiction stuff. I write about things in New York City, where I’ve lived and worked for many years; I write about places I’ve been or came from like my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio; I write about events in the newsroom (fictional) of course that I’ve seen in my time as a journalist; and, most of all, I draw on many of the colorful real-life characters I’ve met in newsrooms.

    None of my characters – like my new protagonist Clare Carlson in YESTERDAY’S NEWS – are directly based on any one person, of course. She’s more of an amalgamation of many wonderful women journalists I’ve known and worked with in the NYC media. Let’s just say that I’ve met a lot of Clare Carlsons in my time!

    Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?

    Wow! Start from the conclusion and plot in reverse? Never heard that one before.

    No, I start at the beginning and just see where the story line brings me. I should make clear right now though that I’m definitely a “pantser” – not a “plotter.” I never outline my novels. Generally, I start out with an idea of how the book will begin and a vague notion of how I want it to end. The challenge then is writing the rest of the middle of the book. The reality though is that the ending I had in mind frequently changes –or at least the way I get there does – during the writing of the book. I find the characters change too during the writing process. Doing unexpected things or following paths that even surprise me. So the book I end up with can be a lot different than the one I may have started out to do. Hey, it’s a helluva lot more fun that way!

    Are any of your characters based on you or people that you know?

    As I said earlier, many of my characters – including Clare Carlson in the new book – are inspired in part by people I’ve met in newsrooms during my career. Of course, everyone thinks the character is THEM. No, it’s not. I do appropriate interesting traits, incidents – and even some jokes – from real life newsroom characters. But my characters in the novels are all fictional.

    Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?

    Oh, I have a lot of routines and idiosyncrasies for writing.

    First, I write early in the morning. Always have, always will. That’s when I’m inspired to write. It can be as early as 6 a.m. at times. I generally have about 3 or four hours of new writing in me before I’m done with that. Then the rest of the day is for reading it, rewriting and editing, and – maybe most importantly of all – thinking about where I’m going to go the next day with the book when I sit down again to write in the morning. I almost never start with a blank page. I have a pretty good idea in my head of what I’m going to be writing about. Even if it does change as I put the words down.

    Second, I write all my fiction out long hand. On yellow legal pads. I use a computer for everything else and always worked on a computer as a journalist. But, when I’m writing fiction, writing it out longhand always feels more comfortable to me. Then I put it into the computer afterward. For whatever its worth, I once read that Hemingway used to do much of his novels in longhand too. Then he wrote the dialogue on a typewriter. That worked out pretty well for him.

    Third, I love to write in noisy, crowded, hectic places. Probably from my background of working in noisy newsrooms. I can’t write in my home or any other place that’s too quiet. I write in coffee shops, park benches, on trains, on the beach and even – occasionly – in a crowded bar.

    Finally, I write all the time. Whether or not I particularly feel like writing that day or have anything obvious to say. I don’t wait for inspiration to strike, I go looking for inspiration on my own. That’s the best piece of advice I can give to anyone who wants to be a writer. Just write! Simple as that.

    Tell us why we should read this book.

    Hopefully because you’ll enjoy it. That’s the reason I read books from the authors I love. To enjoy the characters, to enjoy the story, to enjoy the whole experience of getting lost in a fictional world for several hours. I try to write the same kind of books that I like to read.

    Who are some of your favorite authors?

    Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker, Raymond Chandler, Robert Crais, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton and Dennis Lehane.

    What are you reading now?

    Last book I just finished was A Stone’sThrow by James W. Ziskin, the most recent in his award winning and delightful Ellie Stone series, about a young woman newspaper reporter working at a small, upstate NY paper during the early ‘60s. Before that, it was True Fiction from Lee Goldberg, a quick-moving, satisfying thriller from a longtime Hollywood screenwriter. I also recently finished The Late Show by Michael Connelly. I’ve read every book Michael Connelly has written for the past 25 years or whatever – and I think he’s the most consistently excellent mystery author of our times. And an ex-newspaperman too!

    Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?

    I have a new book coming out in 2019 called THE CINDERELLA MURDERS. It’s the second in the Clare Carlson series and will be published again by Oceanview next May.

    It’s about the seemingly insignificant death of a homeless woman murdered on the streets of New York City who called herself Cinderella. At first, the crime barely gets a mention in the media. But Clare – a TV news director who still has a reporter’s instincts – decides to dig deeper into the murder. She uncovers mysterious links between the homeless woman and a number of prominent and powerful people. Soon there are more murders, more victims and more questions. As the bodies pile up, Clare realizes that her job, her career – and maybe even her life – are at stake as she chases after her biggest story ever.

    Fun questions:
    Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
    Favorite leisure activity/hobby?

    I’m a big sports fan, baseball and football especially; I do fantasy sports games; I gamble a bit in Atlantic City; I like swimming, riding a bike and just taking long walks. Oh, and I watch a tremendous amount of TV.

    Favorite meal?

    Not very exotic, I’m afraid. I’m much more of a basic, comfort food person. Give me macaroni and cheese, a pizza, a good steak or cheeseburger or even just a big bag of popcorn at the movie theater – and I’m a happy man.

    Thank you for stopping by CMash Reads and spending time with us.

     

    Catch Up With R.G. Belsky On:
    rgbelsky.com, Goodreads, Twitter, & Facebook!

     

    Read an excerpt:

    PROLOGUE

    School was always special to her.

    Some children hated to go to school. But she always looked for- ward to going back to school each morning. She loved her friends. She loved her teachers. And most of all, she loved to learn.

    For her, it was a time of excitement, a time of adventure, a time of new beginnings each day she sat in the classroom—like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon in a field of flowers underneath a blue, cloudless sky.

    And so, on this sunny morning, like so many others, the mother and daughter leave their house and walk together toward the school bus that will pick up the little girl.

    “What about your lunch?” the mother asks.

    “I’m buying it at school today, remember?”

    “Do you have enough money?”

    “Yes, you gave it to me last night.”

    “Right,” she says. The mother knows that, but she’s forgotten. “And remember to come home right after school.”

    “You worry too much, Mom. I’m not a baby anymore.” That’s all too true, of course. She is growing up. Just like they all do.

    But today she is still her little girl.

    The mother hugs her and puts her on the school bus, watching her in the window until the bus disappears from sight.

    A little girl who has everything in the world ahead of her. A lifetime of memories to come. And all the time in the world to enjoy it.

    OPENING CREDITS

    THE RULES ACCORDING TO CLARE

    I always tell the same story to the new reporters on their first day.

    It goes like this: Two guys are sitting in a bar bragging about their sexual exploits. As they get drunker and drunker, the conversation becomes more outrageous about how far they’d be willing to go. Would you ever have sex with an animal, one of them asks? Of course not, the other guy replies angrily. What if someone paid you $50 to do it with a dog? That’s ridiculous, he says. How about $500? Same answer. Okay, the first guy says to him, would you have sex with a dog for $5,000? The other guy thinks about that for a while, then asks: “What breed?”

    The point here is that once you ask the question “what breed?” you’ve already crossed over a very important line and can never go back.

    It’s based, I suppose, on the famous old Winston Churchill story. They say Churchill was seated at a dinner party next to a very elegant and beautiful lady. During the meal, he turned to her and asked if she’d be willing to have sex with him if he gave her $1,000,000. The woman laughed and said sure. Then he asked if she’d have sex with him for $25. “Of course not, what do you think I am?” the indignant woman replied. To which Churchill told her, “Madame, we’ve already established what you are. Now we’re just haggling over the price.”

    This is a crucial concept in the news business where I work. Because there is no gray area for a journalist when it comes to honesty and integrity and moral standards. You can’t be just a little bit immoral or a little bit dishonest or a little bit corrupt. There is no compromise possible here.

    Sometimes I tell a variation of the dog story. I call it the Woodstein Maneuver. The idea is to come up with a new scenario for the Watergate scandal. To speculate on what might have happened if Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (“Woodstein!” in the Robert Redford–Dustin Hoffman movie) had not written their stories that led to Richard Nixon’s ouster, but instead gotten hush money to cover up the scandal. What if Nixon had paid them to make it all go away?

    I ask a new reporter to put themselves in Woodward and Bernstein’s place and think about what they would do if offered such a bribe.

    Most of them immediately say they would never take money under any circumstances to compromise a story. I’m not sure if they say it because they really mean it or simply because they believe it’s the answer I want to hear. A few laughingly say they’d go for the money, but I’m not sure I believe them either. I figure they’re just trying to be outrageous or different. Only a few reporters ask the key question. The “what breed?” question. “How much money?” they want to know. Those are the ones I worry about the most.

     

    PART I

    LUCY

    CHAPTER 1

    “It’s the fifteenth anniversary of the Lucy Devlin disappear- ance next week,” Maggie Lang said. “Little eleven-year-old girl leaves for school and just vanishes into thin air. It’s a legendary missing kid cold case. We should do a story for the anniversary.”

    “Lucy Devlin is old news,” I told her. “The girl’s never been found, Clare.” “And after a while people just stopped caring about her.” “Well, you sure did all right with it. You won a damn Pulitzer.” Maggie Lang was my assignment editor at the TV station where I work as a news executive these days. She was a bundle of media energy—young, smart, ambitious, outspoken, and sometimes a bit reckless. I liked Maggie, but she scared me, too. Maybe because she reminded me of someone I used to know. Myself when I was her age.

    Back then, I was Clare Carlson, award-winning reporter for a New York City newspaper that doesn’t exist anymore. When the paper went out of business, I moved on to a new career as a TV reporter. I wasn’t so successful at that. They said I came across as too intense on the air, too grating, too unlikeable to the viewers. So, they offered me a job in management. I was never quite sure I followed the logic of that, but I just went with the flow. I started out as an assignment editor, moved up to producer, and then was named news director for Channel 10 News here in New York City. It turned out that I really like telling other people what to do instead of doing it myself. I’ve always been a bitch. I guess now I just get paid for being one.

    Maggie looked over at the Pulitzer Prize certificate I keep prominently on my desk at Channel 10. Hey, you win a Pulitzer—you flaunt it.

    “You helped make Lucy Devlin one of the most famous missing child stories ever in New York City fifteen years ago, Clare,” she said. “Imagine if we could somehow find her alive after all this time . . .”

    “Lucy is dead,” I told her. “How can you be so sure of that?” “C’mon, you know she’s dead as well as I do. Why else would she never have turned up anywhere?”

    “Okay, you’re probably right. She is dead. And we’ll never find the body or catch who did it or know anything for sure about what happened to her.”

    “So, what’s our story then?” “There’s a new angle.” “Believe me, I covered all the angles on this story a long time ago.”

    “Anne Devlin, Lucy’s mother, is telling people she has some new evidence about the case,” Maggie said.

    “Anne Devlin always claims she has some evidence. The poor woman has been obsessed with finding answers about her daughter for years. I mean, it’s understandable, I guess, given all the pain and anguish and uncertainty she’s gone through. But none of her so-called evidence ever goes anywhere.”

    “Doesn’t matter. We go to the mother and say we want to hear about whatever new evidence she thinks she’s come up with. I tell her we want to interview her about the case for the anniversary. That maybe someone will see it and give cops some new information. It’ll be great TV. And that video—the heartbroken mom still pleading for someone to help her find out what happened to her daughter fifteen years ago—would go viral on social media.”

    She was right. It was a good idea. A good TV gimmick. A good social media gimmick.

    And that was my job now, whether I liked it or not. I was a long way from winning Pulitzer Prizes or writing thoughtful in-depth journalism. In television, it was all about capturing the moment. And an emotional interview like that with Lucy’s mother on the anniversary of her disappearance would definitely be a big media moment.

    I looked out the window next to my desk. It was early April, and spring had finally broken in New York City. I was wearing a pale-pink spring pantsuit to celebrate the onset of the season. I’d bought it at Saks one bitterly cold day during the depths of winter to cheer myself up. But right now, I didn’t feel very cheerful.

    “Okay,” I finally said reluctantly to Maggie, “you can reach out to Anne Devlin and see if she’ll sit down for an interview with us.”

    “I already did.” Of course. Knowing Maggie, I should have figured she’d already set it in motion before checking with me.

    “And?” I asked her. “She said yes.” “Good.” “Under one condition. She wants you to be the person who does the interview with her.”

    “Me?” “She said she’d feel more comfortable talking to you than some reporter she didn’t know.”

    “C’mon, I don’t go on air anymore, Maggie.” “She insisted on talking to you. She said you owed her. She said you would understand what that meant.”

    I sighed. Oh, I understood. Anne Devlin was holding me to a promise I made a long time ago.

    It was maybe a few months after Lucy was gone. Anne had become depressed as people stopped talking about the case. The newspapers, the TV stations, even the police—they seemed to have given up and moved on to other things. She felt so alone, she said. I told her that she wasn’t alone. I told her I’d always be there for her. I made her a lot of promises that I couldn’t keep.

    “Let’s make a pact,” she said, squeezing my hand on that long- ago night. “If I ever find out anything, you’ll help me track Lucy down, won’t you, Clare?”

    “I promise,” I said. “No matter what happens or how long it takes, you can’t let people forget about her.”

    “No one will ever forget about Lucy.” I thought about that long-ago conversation now as I sat in my office looking at the Pulitzer that had come out of my coverage of the Lucy Devlin story in what seemed like another lifetime ago. That story had been my ticket to fame as a journalist. It made me a front-page star; it catapulted me into the top of the New York City media world; and it was eventually responsible for the big TV executive job that I held today.

    “She said you owed it to her,” Maggie said again. Anne Devlin was right. I did owe her.

     

    CHAPTER 2

    Lucy Devlin disappeared on a sunny April morning.

    She was eleven years old, and she lived on a quiet street in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan with her parents, Anne and Patrick Devlin. That last day her mother had helped her get dressed for school, packed her books in a knapsack that hung over her back, and then kissed her goodbye before putting her on the school bus.

    As far as anyone knew, she was with the other students on the bus when they went into the school. The first indication that something was wrong came when Lucy didn’t show up in her classroom for the morning attendance. The teacher thought she was either late or sick, reporting it at first to the principal’s office as a routine absence. It wasn’t until later that police began a massive search for the missing eleven-year-old girl.

    The disappearance of Lucy Devlin exploded in the media when the New York Tribune, the newspaper I wrote for, ran a front-page story about her. The headline simply said: “MISSING!” Below that was a picture of Lucy. Big brown eyes, her hair in a ponytail, a gap between her two front teeth.

    The story told how she was wearing a blue denim skirt, a white blouse, and cork sandals when she was last seen. It said she loved reading; playing basketball and soccer; and, most of all, animals. She petted every dog in the neighborhood and begged her parents to get her one. “She was my little angel,” Anne Devlin said in the article. “How could anyone want to hurt an angel?”

    The whole city fell in love with her after that. The Tribune story spared no emotion in talking about the anguish of her parents as they waited for some kind of word. It talked about their hopes, their despair, and their confusion over everything that had happened.

    I know because I was the reporter who wrote it. With my help, Lucy Devlin—just like Maggie had said— became one of the most famous missing person stories in New York City history. Posters soon appeared all over the city. Announcements were made in schools and churches asking people to look for her. The family offered a reward. First it was $10,000. Then $20,000 and $50,000 and as much as $100,000 as people and civic groups pitched in to help the Devlin family. For many it brought back memories of the tragic Etan Patz case—a six-year-old boy who had disappeared from the streets of New York City a quarter century earlier. Little Etan became the face of the missing child crisis all over the country when his picture was the first to appear on a milk carton in the desperate search for answers about his fate. In that case, the family had finally achieved some closure when a man was eventually arrested and convicted for their son’s murder. But there was no closure for Anne and Patrick Devlin.

    I sat in the Devlins’ apartment—crying with them, praying with them, and hoping against hope that little Lucy would one day walk in that door.

    I’ve never worked a story before or after where I identified so much with the people I was writing about. My access to the parents gave me the opportunity to see things no one else did, and I put every bit of that into my stories. Everyone was picking up my stuff—the other papers, TV news, and even the network news magazines like Dateline and 60 Minutes.

    Yes, I did win a Pulitzer for my coverage of this story. The Pulitzer judges called it “dramatic, haunting, and extraordinarily compassionate coverage of a breaking deadline news story” in giving me the award. That was nice, but they were all just words to me. I wasn’t thinking about a Pulitzer or acclaim or my career when I covered the Lucy Devlin disappearance. I just reported and wrote the hell out of the story, day after day.

    Eventually, of course, other stories came along to knock this one off the front page.

    All the reporters moved on to cover them. In the end, I did, too. It wasn’t that easy for Anne and Patrick Devlin. The police told them that Lucy was probably dead. That the most likely scenario was she’d been kidnapped outside the school that day, her abductor had become violent and murdered her. He then must have dumped her body somewhere. It was just a matter of time before it turned up, they said.

    Anne Devlin refused to believe them. “I can’t just forget about my daughter,” she said. “I know she’s still alive. I know she’s out there somewhere. I can feel her. A mother knows. I’ll never rest until I find her.”

    Her obsession carried her down many paths over the next few years. Every time a little girl turned up murdered or police found a girl without a home, Anne checked it out. Not just in New York City either. She traveled around the country, tracking down every lead—no matter how slim or remote it seemed.

    There were moments of hope, but many more moments of despair.

    A woman who’d seen the story on TV said she’d seen a little girl that looked like Lucy at an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. She was standing with a man holding her by the hand near the roller coaster, looking confused and scared. At one point, she tried to break away, but the man wouldn’t let her go. The woman told one of the security guards that there was something suspicious about the man and the little girl, but never found out what happened. Anne went to Ohio and talked to everyone she could find at the amusement park. She eventually tracked down the security guard and finally the little girl herself. It turned out that the man was her father, and she looked scared and tried to run away because she was afraid to ride the roller coaster.

    Another time a group of college coeds thought they spotted her in Florida during spring break. Some fraternity guys who tried to hit on them had a young girl in the back seat of their car, and she seemed out of place amid the beer swilling Neanderthals par- tying up a storm in Fort Lauderdale. The coeds told Anne they were convinced it was her missing daughter. That lead turned out to be a dead end, too. She was the daughter of a woman the fraternity guys had picked up the night before. The woman had passed out back in their hotel room, and they were just driving around with the girl because they didn’t want to leave her alone.

    And then there was the time the body of a young girl about Lucy’s age and description was found alongside a highway in Pennsylvania. The state troopers found Lucy’s name on a list of missing children and contacted Anne. She drove ten hours through a blinding snowstorm to a morgue outside Pittsburgh, where the body had been taken. The entire time she had visions of her daughter lying on a coroner’s slab. But it wasn’t Lucy. It turned out to be a runaway from Utah. A truck driver had picked her up hitchhiking, raped and killed her, then dumped the body alongside the road. Anne said afterward she felt relief it wasn’t Lucy, but sadness for the family in Utah who would soon endure the same ordeal as she did.

    Once a psychic came to Anne and said she’d seen a vision of Lucy. Lucy was living somewhere near the water, the psychic told her. Lucy was alright, but lonely. Lucy wanted to get back to her family, but she didn’t know how. Eventually, the psychic said she saw a sign in the vision that said La Jolla. La Jolla is a town in Southern California, just north of San Diego. The psychic offered to travel with Anne there and help search for her. They spent two weeks in La Jolla, staying in the best hotels and running up big bills at fancy restaurants. The psychic found nothing. Later, it turned out she just wanted a free trip to the West Coast and some free publicity for her psychic business.

    Worst of all were the harassing phone calls. From all the twisted, perverted people in this world. Some of them were opportunists looking for extortion money by claiming they had Lucy. Others were just sickos who got off on harassing a grieving mother. “I have your daughter,” they would say and then talk about the terrible things they were doing to her. One man called Anne maybe two dozen times, day and night, over a period of six months. He taunted her mercilessly about how he had turned Lucy into his sex slave. He said he kept her in a cage in the basement of his house, feeding her only dog food and water. He described unspeakable tortures and sexual acts he carried out on her. He told Anne that when he finally got bored, he’d either kill her or sell her to a harem in the Middle East. When the FBI finally traced the caller’s number and caught him, he turned out to be one of the police officers who had been investigating the case. He confessed that he got a strange sexual pleasure from the phone calls. None of the others turned out to be the real abductor either. But Anne would sometimes cry for days after she got one of these cruel calls, imagining all of the nightmarish things that might be happening to Lucy.

    All this took a real toll on Anne and Patrick Devlin. Patrick was a contractor who ran his own successful construction firm; Anne, an executive with an advertising agency. They lived in a spacious townhouse in the heart of Manhattan. Patrick had spent long hours renovating it into a beautiful home for him, Anne, and Lucy. There was even a backyard with an impressively large garden that was Anne’s pride and joy. The Devlins seemed to have the perfect house, the perfect family, the perfect life.

    But that all changed after Lucy disappeared. Anne eventually lost her job because she was away so much searching for answers about her daughter. Patrick’s construction business fell off dramatically, too. They had trouble meeting the payments on their town house and moved to a cheaper rental downtown. Their marriage began to fall apart, too, just like the rest of their lives. They divorced a few years after Lucy’s disappearance. Patrick moved to Boston and started a new construction company. He remarried a few years later and now had two children, a boy and a girl, with his new wife. Anne still lived in New York City, where she never stopped searching for her daughter.

    Every once in a while, at an anniversary or when another child disappeared, one of the newspapers or TV stations would tell the Lucy Devlin story again.

    About the little girl who went off to school one day, just like any other day, and was never seen again. But mostly, no one had time to think about Lucy Devlin anymore.

    Everyone had forgotten about Lucy. Except her mother.

    ***

    Excerpt from Yesterday’s News by R.G. Belsky. Copyright © 2018 by R.G. Belsky. Reproduced with permission from R.G. Belsky. All rights reserved.

    Tour Participants:

    Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!


     

    Giveaway:

    This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for R.G. Belsky. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card. The giveaway begins on June 1, 2018 and runs through July 1, 2018.
    Open to U.S. addresses only. Void where prohibited.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

     

    Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

     

    Guest Author Joseph Hayes

    Today I have the great pleasure and honor of reintroducing you to a very special guest.  He visited my blog back in February of this year and is back as he begins his second tour of his book, When No One Is Watching.  There are a couple of differences about today’s visit, however, one being that today I will be interviewing him and the second, is that, this time he is touring with Partners In Crime Tours.

    When I initially read his book, I have to be honest, I was a bit skeptical.  I was a newbie reviewer, and at the time had only been accepting requests for a couple of months and his book was considered to be a debut novel, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I was quite surprised and impressed!! And to this day, that book is still vivid in my memory.  I will be reposting my original review, in case you were not a follower of my blog back then and didn’t see it, because it is a book not to be missed!!!  Please help me welcome back Mr. Joseph Hayes!!

    MISCELLANOUS

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Joseph Hayes is a native of Chicago. He grew up in a family of eight children in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago’s Far South Side, where the Irish-Catholic heritage and influence was strong and visible. Joe attended St. Barnabas Elementary School, Brother Rice High School and De Paul University before leaving Chicago to attend law school in California, at UC Berkeley. Since graduating from Berkeley, he has practiced law in Chicago, San Diego and Houston. Joe currently serves as chief ethics officer and assistant general counsel for a large, publicly held company based in Houston, Texas, and is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts in his field. In his professional capacity, he has written extensively about legal and ethical issues and frequently speaks about such issues be! fore employee and industry groups. When No One is Watching is his first work of fiction. His second novel, a legal thriller entitled Consequential Damages, is expected to be published soon.

    Joe currently resides in The Woodlands, Texas, with his wife, Susan, and their three children, Amy, Sean and Erin.
    You can visit his website here.

    Q&A With Joseph Hayes
    CM:  First, I want to welcome you back to the CMash blog.  Just warning you, as my followers know, I tend to ask a lot of questions, so be prepared.  Do you mind if we start with who Joseph Hayes is?
    JH:   By way of background, I was born and raised in Chicago, along with my seven siblings (4 sisters and 3 brothers). Although I left Chicago 25 years ago, I still have plenty of family and friends there, and in many ways, it will always feel like home. I have been living in the Houston area for 20 years now, with my wife, Susan, and our three children, Amy, Sean and Erin. I never expected to wind up in Texas, but we love it here. It can get pretty hot in the summertime, but I don’t have to shovel snow anymore!
    Professionally, I am an attorney and chief ethics officer for a Fortune 1000 Company and feel extremely fortunate to have a job that a truly enjoy and that provides me with the opportunity to make a difference and do something meaningful. My other passion is writing. I’ve written two novels now, and definitely been bitten by the writing bug. I hope there will be many more to come

    CM:  You are a very busy and successful man.  A husband, father of 3, family man, successful attorney, speaker of legal and ethical issues, what made you decide at this stage in your life to write your first novel?
    JH:  I’ve always enjoyed writing and have done a great deal of it in my professional capacity. However, I had never written fiction, and it is something I’ve always wanted to do. I remember being in college and considering the possibility of writing fiction as a career, and decided against it for two reasons. First, I didn’t know whether I could make a living at it. Second, I just didn’t know what to write about. Looking back, I now realize that, as a 20-year-old college student, I didn’t have much to draw upon in terms of interesting life experiences. By the time I was in my mid-forties, I had an abundance of great material to draw from based on both my professional and personal life. There was also something of a “bucket list” concept at work as well. I realized that writing a novel was something I always wanted to do and that I wasn’t getting any younger, so I just made up my mind to do it. Since my aging knees and back were making my prior pasttimes (basketball, weight-lifting and running) increasingly difficult, I needed a new passion — and I found it in writing fiction.
      
    CM:  When do you find the time to write?  Do you allocate a certain time to writing?
    JH:  Before I began writing my first novel, I spent a month or two researching how to write a novel. For the most part, it was a waste of time; however, I did pick up one piece of advice that really worked for me: write every day. When I am in writing mode, that’s what I do. It’s easier said than done, because I have a very demanding day job. However, I can make time either very early in the morning or late in the evening. During the week, I may average an hour a day, but sometimes it may be only 20 or 30 minutes. On weekends, it may be five or six hours per day. The important thing for me is to do it every day, regardless of how busy I am with other things, regardless of whether I’m at home or traveling — even if I’m sick. No excuses. With this approach, each of the two novels I’ve written took me precisely 90 days to complete ( the first draft).

    CM:  Who are some of the authors that you read?  What are you reading now?
    JH:  When I was young, my goal was to read all the classics. I read Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, Hemingway, and many others — most of the great works of literatute that have withstood the test of time. Some of the popular works of fiction I read now include the works of John Grisham, David Baldacci, and Mitch Albom. I’ve read all the Harry Potter books. I read my first Vince Flynn novel recently and just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. As for nonfiction, I’ve recently read Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, and Outliers. My wife downloaded Decision Points onto her Kindle, and I hope to read that next.

    CM:  If you have any spare time, what are some of your hobbies?
    JH:  Right now, my major hobby is writing and marketing my books. Between that and work, I have very little free time, but I do try to make time to exercise and play guitar. I also really enjoy traveling, and now that my kids are getting older, my wife and I have more freedom to do that, and have our own travel-related bucket list we are working on.

    CM:  Now to When No One Is Watching.  I read your book back in February and have to be honest, was skeptical, being a debut book, but it was the type of book that I call a “transport” book whereas I was pulled into the story and had no awareness as to what was going on around me.  Kudos!!  Was writing a novel something you always wanted to do?
    JH:  Yes.(See response to Question #2 above for more details.) A few additional thoughts: I’ve always enjoyed the craft of writing — choosing the right words and putting them together in a way that is easy to read and conveys exactly the message you are trying to communicate, in a way that really captures the attention of your reader.  That’s an art. Some part of me also enjoys playing the role of teacher, and writing is the perfect way to communicate thoughts and ideas that will educate the reader. I also believe that the best way to teach is by communicating your messages in a way that is entertaining. People want to be entertained, and if they are, they will pay attention. Therefore, embedding messages into a novel that is engaging and entertaining is a great way to make people think — as long as you don’t come across as too preachy.

    CM:  You stated that the character Danny was inspired by your father’s winning sobriety, was it hard to relive the times before he won the battle of alcoholism?  Was that primary premise of the book that you worked around?  If not, what was it?
    JH:  My father’s life was the inspiration for When No One is Watching. As a recovering alcoholic, he made it his mission in life to help others who were battling alcohol addiction. I witnessed firsthand the many lives he touched and changed through those efforts, and came to realize that there are  countless others within the recovery community doing the same thing every day. In my mind, those people are quiet heroes who make a real difference in our world every day, and I dedicated the book to them. I wanted to make the story gripping and engaging so that people would read it and enjoy it, so a tried to weave this story about alcoholism into a page-turning suspense novel and political thriller. In my view, the most rewarding aspect of writing this book was the feedback I have received from people in the recovery community who have told me that the story really resonanted with them, and came across as both a realistic novel about alcoholism, with all of its heartaches and tragedies, but also as a story of hope and inspiration. In fact one person contacted me and told me that he hadn’t had a drink in over six months after reading the book. That made it all worthwhile!

         As for my father’s experience, writing the book for me brought back far more positive memories than negative ones. He stopped drinking when I was fairly young, so most of my memories involve his sober lifestyle and the efforts he made to help others who had not yet attained sobriety.

    CM:  There are also moral and ethical issues in When No One Is Watching, did you draw from your years of being a lawyer?
    JH:  Yes. One of my primary goals as an attorney is keep my clients out of legal trouble. With that goal in mind, I do a great deal of training, and one of my primary messages is that the best way to stay out of trouble is to do the right thing. If you conduct yourself in accordance with the right standards of ethics, you’re not likely to find yourself in legal trouble. In addition to my role as attorney, I am also chief ethics officer for my company and, in that capacity, do a great deal of training with a goal of developing a culture where everyone in our organizatiuon understands, and is committed to, the concept of doing the right thing in every situation, no matter how difficult, and regardless of whether the whole world is watching or no one is watching.

    CM:  You have another book that will be out soon, Consequential Damages, can you tell us a little bit of what we have to look forward to.
    JH:  Consequential Damages is a legal thriller. As with my first novel, I have tried to weave some thought-provoking issues into the storyline. Among other issues, it explores some of the weaknesses in our legal system in general and with our jury system in particular. It also explores various ethical issues as well as the far-reaching consequences of our particular decisions and actions.

    CM:  Thank you for visiting and taking the time to talk with us.  I hope you come back when Consequential Damages is published.  I am looking forward to reading your next novel.
    JH:  It has been my pleasure. Thank you for taking an interest in my work.
    ABOUT THE BOOK
    On the eve of announcing his run for Congress, rising political star Blair Van Howe causes a deadly car wreck. Passed out drunk in the passenger seat is his alcoholic best friend, Danny Moran. Panicked at the thought of seeing his promising future explode into scandal, Blair moves his comatose friend into the driver’s seat, dials 911, and flees the scene.

    When the police arrive and Danny comes to, it appears to him and everyone else that he was the cause of the fatal wreck, and he is left to face life-altering consequences: criminal prosecution, financial ruin, public disgrace and overpowering guilt. As Danny struggles to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, Blair embarks on a meteoric rise to political stardom. But when a dogged detective digs deeper into the case, the political superstar must ask himself just how far he is willing to go to protect his dark secret.

    Longtime lawyer and chief ethics officer Joseph Hayes spins a tale involving ambition, corruption and scandal within Chicago political circles. Within the framework of this page-turning thriller is a compelling contemporary morality play dealing with ethics, personal responsibility and making a difference. It explores the rationalizations our political leaders often make — justifying their self-serving personal agendas in the name of promoting the “greater good.” It examines the notion that character and integrity are defined by how we behave when no one is watching and the far-reaching consequences of the decisions we make when facing ethical dilemmas. It explores the impact of guilt on the human mind and heart and searches for inspiration and heroism in unexpected places.

    When No One is Watching also explores the volatile and tragic world of alcoholism through the story of Danny Moran, who despite losing nearly everything due to his drinking, somehow manages to hold onto his moral compass and his sense of hope. Danny’s character was inspired by Hayes’s own father, an alcoholic who found lasting sobriety through AA and devoted his life to helping others do the same.


    My Review posted 02/03/11
    WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Joseph Hayes
    Published by Synergy Books
    ISBN-13: 978-0-9843879-4-6
    ISBN-10: 0-9843879-4-3
    At the request of Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, a TPB was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.

      Synopsis (back of book): On the eve of announcing his run for Congress, a charismatic Chicago politician causes a deadly accident. Panicked, he frames his best friend, a good-hearted alcoholic, and flees the scene. As one man tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, the other embarks on a meteoric rise to political stardom. But when a dogged detective digs deeper into the case, the political superstar must decide just how far he is willing to go to keep his dark secret. Author Joseph combines page-turning suspense with a poignant tale of inspiration and redemption as he asks, is “the greater good” just a lie we tell ourselves to justify the sins we commit when no one is watching?

      My Thoughts and Opinion: Wow!! Where do I start without including any spoilers? This book pulled me in as fast as the Porsche was going the night of the accident. A page turning, suspenseful book full of real life characters, some you instantly feel for, cry with, despise, empathize with, some you want to hate but can’t, and those that you cheer on. A can’t put down book that at times has you holding your breath. This would be a great pick for a book club selection as it includes some very profound discussion questions. Full of lies, secrets, integrity, forgiveness, love, and friendship. Outstanding!!

    AWARDS FOR WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING

    LOCAL AUTHOR HAYES HONORED BY NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS AND 2011 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS
    Contests recognize outstanding independently published books
     THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS. Joseph Hayes, author of the highly acclaimed When No One is Watching, has been named as a finalist in the category of Inspirational Fiction by the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Aspiring to be the “Sundance” for indie books, this is the nation’s largest nonprofit awards program for small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers and self-published authors.
    Hayes was also recognized as a finalist in the category of New Fiction (First Book) by the National Indie Excellence Awards, which celebrates the “best of the best” in independent press.


    Read an excerpt:

    CHAPTER 1

    “I love this ride, Dano!” Blair Van Howe yelled exuberantly to his partner, who was passed out cold in the passenger seat. “I’d buy one myself, but the voters might not approve!” He laughed loudly as he leaned forward and accelerated.

    Blair had never driven a Porsche before and was relishing every second of it. The power and responsiveness of the 911’s massive engine, the tightness of the steering, and the way the tires gripped the road felt strangely seductive.

    He was driving fast, which was not his habit, but it was past midnight, and the neighborhood streets were empty. The events of the past two days had him riding a wave of exhilaration, and rocketing around the deserted streets of North Beverly in Danny’s new Porsche 911 Turbo was a perfect way to conclude a thrilling week.

    The north end of Beverly was a well-to-do enclave on Chicago’s far South Side. Danny Moran had grown up there, and Blair was captivated by it from the moment of his first visit, while he and Danny were still in law school. The houses were large, stately old brick structures built during the early and middle part of the twentieth century, on spacious tree-covered lots. The streets were winding and irregular, unlike the grid-like pattern so prevalent throughout the rest of the city. This was because the neighborhood abutted Dan Ryan’s Woods, the only forest preserve within the city limits. The woods served as a buffer between the affluent Beverly residents and the not-so-affluent areas to the north and east, and prevented any through-traffic, giving the area a quiet and secluded ambience. Tonight, those wide, winding streets felt like Blair’s private racetrack, an ideal place to be celebrating life with the assistance of a Porsche 911.

    He was just a few blocks from Danny’s house, where he would have to leave the Porsche and walk the short distance to his own home. He would also have to find a way to get Danny inside, which would undoubtedly be a challenge, given Danny’s highly inebriated state. Before tackling that chore, he would treat himself to one more Porsche-delivered thrill to bring the evening to a fitting conclusion. The snake-like roads made it impossible to go for pure drag racing speed, so he’d been delighting in the 911’s maneuverability as he whipped around sharp turns with barely a tap on the brakes. Blair gunned the turbo-charged engine as he approached Hamilton Avenue, Danny’s street, inspired by the sonorous whine emanating from beneath the hood. He felt as if he were one with the vehicle, as if it had nerves and reflexes and were an extension of himself. He jerked the steering wheel hard to the left, leaning into the turn as the Porsche careened around the corner.

    Suddenly, he was jolted out of his euphoric state by the harsh glare of high-beam headlights flashing directly into his eyes, blinding him momentarily. Exhilaration turned to panic as he felt the back end of the Porsche swerving and realized that he had lost control. He slammed the brakes hard, and they responded with a deafening screech as the oncoming vehicle veered out of his path, missing the Porsche by inches. Two other sounds simultaneously assaulted his eardrums: the sound of shattering glass as the trophy that had been resting in Danny’s lap was hurled into the dashboard, and the sickening sound of crumpling metal as the other vehicle slammed into some unknown object.

    The terrifying cacophony lasted just a couple of seconds, and then everything was still. “Son of a bitch,” Blair whispered in a trembling voice. His entire body was shaking.

    “Dano, wake up!” Blair shouted, staring at his partner, who was still tightly strapped into his seat. He hadn’t even stirred. “Wake up, Dano!” Blair yelled louder, gripping Danny’s shoulders and shaking him roughly. Still no response.

    Blair reached down to unbuckle his seatbelt and felt a sharp pain shoot through his right hand as it struck a shard of glass, the remnants of their shattered trophy. “Shit!” he cried as blood spurted from a deep gash in his right index finger.

    He opened the door and climbed out, gingerly confirming that all of his body parts were intact and that he was unhurt. He surveyed the Porsche. There was not a scratch on it. With a feeling of dread, as if moving in slow motion, he turned around and gazed up the street in the direction from which he had just come. “Oh my God,” he said, hearing the panic in his own voice as he beheld the horrific scene ninety feet away. He felt dizzy and almost vomited. He glanced quickly back at Danny, desperately hoping he’d come to, but Danny remained peacefully oblivious.

    The car was an old one. He couldn’t tell what kind in the darkness, but it appeared to be 1960s vintage. That meant no airbags. From where he stood, Blair could see that the vehicle had run head-on into an enormous oak tree. The entire front end was grotesquely contorted and pancaked into the passenger area.

    Blair approached the vehicle slowly. His stomach turned again as he stopped several feet from the driver’s door. The windshield looked like it had exploded into thousands of tiny particles, glistening in the pale glow of the streetlight. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel, his face and head a bloody mess, the lower half of his body pinned beneath a mass of twisted wreckage. The man weakly opened his eyes. Blair stared at him, recognition setting in. He couldn’t recall the man’s name, but remembered his face. He and his family were new to the neighborhood, and Blair had met them at a recent block party.

    “Help me,” the injured man pleaded in a voice no stronger than a whisper. Then his eyes closed again.

    Blair stared at him, feeling paralyzed, unable to think or act. He had always counted on Danny when things went wrong, and Danny always came through. Danny was right there, just ninety feet away, but he was dead drunk and utterly useless.

    Blair moved closer to the car, and with a start, noticed a child in the back seat. She was weeping quietly, rocking back and forth, clutching a small stuffed animal.

    “Are you okay, kid?” he asked, trying to collect himself.

    The child looked at him, then turned away without responding.

    Blair looked closer and saw that the child had the distinctive features of a Down Syndrome child. She appeared to be seven or eight years old, but it was hard to tell in the darkness. “Are you okay?” he asked again. He couldn’t help noticing the shakiness in his voice.

    “Help my daddy … Help my daddy,” the child repeated, staring straight ahead with unfocused eyes.

    “Don’t worry, kid. I’ll call for help. They’ll be here fast. Everything will be okay.”

    The child shot a glance in his direction, then looked away again. “Help my daddy,” she whispered through her sobs.

    Blair yanked at the driver’s door. It wouldn’t budge. He peered through the open window and looked more closely at the tangled wreckage covering the driver’s legs. He could see that the driver was pinned in tightly, and that there was no way he could extricate the injured man from the vehicle by himself. He had to get help. He raced back to the Porsche. Danny was still out cold. Blair shook him again and slapped him firmly across the face. No response. “Goddammit, Dano, wake up! I need you!” He shook Danny’s shoulders violently. Danny stirred and mumbled, but did not open his eyes.

    Blair grabbed Danny’s cell phone and began dialing: 9, then 1–and then he stopped before adding the other 1. He stared at the phone for a long time. The events of the past few days flashed through his mind. He thought about all of the glorious publicity he’d received following the trial. He thought about the campaign. He was on the cusp of fulfilling a life-long dream, and he had never wanted anything so badly. Then he envisioned the police giving him a breathalyzer test and taking him away in handcuffs. This would be an unmitigated disaster.

    He paced back and forth in front of the Porsche, gripping Danny’s cell phone and struggling to control his scattered thoughts. He stopped, put his elbows on the Porsche’s driver’s side door, and peered through the open window. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he took a long look at his unconscious friend and partner. “I’m sorry, Dano,” he whispered to himself. He opened the door, knelt on the driver’s seat, reached across, and unfastened Danny’s seatbelt. As Danny slumped forward, Blair grabbed him beneath the armpits and began pulling him out of the passenger’s seat. Danny was dead weight, so it required great exertion, but he finally succeeded in moving him into the driver’s seat. Danny slumped forward, completely limp. Blair pulled the shoulder strap tightly around him and fastened it in place, leaving Danny sitting upright behind the wheel, his head hanging like a ragdoll.

    Blair took a few deep breaths, then dialed 911 on Danny’s cell phone. “I’ve been in an accident–89th and Hamilton. I think the other driver is hurt pretty bad. We need an ambulance right away!”

    “Of course, sir. We’ll get right on it. May I have your name please?”

    Blair pushed the end-call button and dropped the phone into Danny’s lap. “Sorry, pal,” he said softly, tears welling up in his eyes and blurring his vision. He looked around. There was not a soul in sight. He patted Danny on the shoulder, then briskly walked away.

    DISCLAIMER
    I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
    in exchange for my honest review.
    No items that I receive
    are ever sold…they are kept by me,
    or given to family and/or friends.

    Guest Author Joseph Hayes

    Today I have the great pleasure and honor of reintroducing you to a very special guest.  He visited my blog back in February of this year and is back as he begins his second tour of his book, When No One Is Watching.  There are a couple of differences about today’s visit, however, one being that today I will be interviewing him and the second, is that, this time he is touring with Partners In Crime Tours.

    When I initially read his book, I have to be honest, I was a bit skeptical.  I was a newbie reviewer, and at the time had only been accepting requests for a couple of months and his book was considered to be a debut novel, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I was quite surprised and impressed!! And to this day, that book is still vivid in my memory.  I will be reposting my original review, in case you were not a follower of my blog back then and didn’t see it, because it is a book not to be missed!!!  Please help me welcome back Mr. Joseph Hayes!!

    MISCELLANOUS

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Joseph Hayes is a native of Chicago. He grew up in a family of eight children in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago’s Far South Side, where the Irish-Catholic heritage and influence was strong and visible. Joe attended St. Barnabas Elementary School, Brother Rice High School and De Paul University before leaving Chicago to attend law school in California, at UC Berkeley. Since graduating from Berkeley, he has practiced law in Chicago, San Diego and Houston. Joe currently serves as chief ethics officer and assistant general counsel for a large, publicly held company based in Houston, Texas, and is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts in his field. In his professional capacity, he has written extensively about legal and ethical issues and frequently speaks about such issues be! fore employee and industry groups. When No One is Watching is his first work of fiction. His second novel, a legal thriller entitled Consequential Damages, is expected to be published soon.

    Joe currently resides in The Woodlands, Texas, with his wife, Susan, and their three children, Amy, Sean and Erin.
    You can visit his website here.

    Q&A With Joseph Hayes
    CM:  First, I want to welcome you back to the CMash blog.  Just warning you, as my followers know, I tend to ask a lot of questions, so be prepared.  Do you mind if we start with who Joseph Hayes is?
    JH:   By way of background, I was born and raised in Chicago, along with my seven siblings (4 sisters and 3 brothers). Although I left Chicago 25 years ago, I still have plenty of family and friends there, and in many ways, it will always feel like home. I have been living in the Houston area for 20 years now, with my wife, Susan, and our three children, Amy, Sean and Erin. I never expected to wind up in Texas, but we love it here. It can get pretty hot in the summertime, but I don’t have to shovel snow anymore!
    Professionally, I am an attorney and chief ethics officer for a Fortune 1000 Company and feel extremely fortunate to have a job that a truly enjoy and that provides me with the opportunity to make a difference and do something meaningful. My other passion is writing. I’ve written two novels now, and definitely been bitten by the writing bug. I hope there will be many more to come

    CM:  You are a very busy and successful man.  A husband, father of 3, family man, successful attorney, speaker of legal and ethical issues, what made you decide at this stage in your life to write your first novel?
    JH:  I’ve always enjoyed writing and have done a great deal of it in my professional capacity. However, I had never written fiction, and it is something I’ve always wanted to do. I remember being in college and considering the possibility of writing fiction as a career, and decided against it for two reasons. First, I didn’t know whether I could make a living at it. Second, I just didn’t know what to write about. Looking back, I now realize that, as a 20-year-old college student, I didn’t have much to draw upon in terms of interesting life experiences. By the time I was in my mid-forties, I had an abundance of great material to draw from based on both my professional and personal life. There was also something of a “bucket list” concept at work as well. I realized that writing a novel was something I always wanted to do and that I wasn’t getting any younger, so I just made up my mind to do it. Since my aging knees and back were making my prior pasttimes (basketball, weight-lifting and running) increasingly difficult, I needed a new passion — and I found it in writing fiction.
      
    CM:  When do you find the time to write?  Do you allocate a certain time to writing?
    JH:  Before I began writing my first novel, I spent a month or two researching how to write a novel. For the most part, it was a waste of time; however, I did pick up one piece of advice that really worked for me: write every day. When I am in writing mode, that’s what I do. It’s easier said than done, because I have a very demanding day job. However, I can make time either very early in the morning or late in the evening. During the week, I may average an hour a day, but sometimes it may be only 20 or 30 minutes. On weekends, it may be five or six hours per day. The important thing for me is to do it every day, regardless of how busy I am with other things, regardless of whether I’m at home or traveling — even if I’m sick. No excuses. With this approach, each of the two novels I’ve written took me precisely 90 days to complete ( the first draft).

    CM:  Who are some of the authors that you read?  What are you reading now?
    JH:  When I was young, my goal was to read all the classics. I read Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, Hemingway, and many others — most of the great works of literatute that have withstood the test of time. Some of the popular works of fiction I read now include the works of John Grisham, David Baldacci, and Mitch Albom. I’ve read all the Harry Potter books. I read my first Vince Flynn novel recently and just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. As for nonfiction, I’ve recently read Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, and Outliers. My wife downloaded Decision Points onto her Kindle, and I hope to read that next.

    CM:  If you have any spare time, what are some of your hobbies?
    JH:  Right now, my major hobby is writing and marketing my books. Between that and work, I have very little free time, but I do try to make time to exercise and play guitar. I also really enjoy traveling, and now that my kids are getting older, my wife and I have more freedom to do that, and have our own travel-related bucket list we are working on.

    CM:  Now to When No One Is Watching.  I read your book back in February and have to be honest, was skeptical, being a debut book, but it was the type of book that I call a “transport” book whereas I was pulled into the story and had no awareness as to what was going on around me.  Kudos!!  Was writing a novel something you always wanted to do?
    JH:  Yes.(See response to Question #2 above for more details.) A few additional thoughts: I’ve always enjoyed the craft of writing — choosing the right words and putting them together in a way that is easy to read and conveys exactly the message you are trying to communicate, in a way that really captures the attention of your reader.  That’s an art. Some part of me also enjoys playing the role of teacher, and writing is the perfect way to communicate thoughts and ideas that will educate the reader. I also believe that the best way to teach is by communicating your messages in a way that is entertaining. People want to be entertained, and if they are, they will pay attention. Therefore, embedding messages into a novel that is engaging and entertaining is a great way to make people think — as long as you don’t come across as too preachy.

    CM:  You stated that the character Danny was inspired by your father’s winning sobriety, was it hard to relive the times before he won the battle of alcoholism?  Was that primary premise of the book that you worked around?  If not, what was it?
    JH:  My father’s life was the inspiration for When No One is Watching. As a recovering alcoholic, he made it his mission in life to help others who were battling alcohol addiction. I witnessed firsthand the many lives he touched and changed through those efforts, and came to realize that there are  countless others within the recovery community doing the same thing every day. In my mind, those people are quiet heroes who make a real difference in our world every day, and I dedicated the book to them. I wanted to make the story gripping and engaging so that people would read it and enjoy it, so a tried to weave this story about alcoholism into a page-turning suspense novel and political thriller. In my view, the most rewarding aspect of writing this book was the feedback I have received from people in the recovery community who have told me that the story really resonanted with them, and came across as both a realistic novel about alcoholism, with all of its heartaches and tragedies, but also as a story of hope and inspiration. In fact one person contacted me and told me that he hadn’t had a drink in over six months after reading the book. That made it all worthwhile!

         As for my father’s experience, writing the book for me brought back far more positive memories than negative ones. He stopped drinking when I was fairly young, so most of my memories involve his sober lifestyle and the efforts he made to help others who had not yet attained sobriety.

    CM:  There are also moral and ethical issues in When No One Is Watching, did you draw from your years of being a lawyer?
    JH:  Yes. One of my primary goals as an attorney is keep my clients out of legal trouble. With that goal in mind, I do a great deal of training, and one of my primary messages is that the best way to stay out of trouble is to do the right thing. If you conduct yourself in accordance with the right standards of ethics, you’re not likely to find yourself in legal trouble. In addition to my role as attorney, I am also chief ethics officer for my company and, in that capacity, do a great deal of training with a goal of developing a culture where everyone in our organizatiuon understands, and is committed to, the concept of doing the right thing in every situation, no matter how difficult, and regardless of whether the whole world is watching or no one is watching.

    CM:  You have another book that will be out soon, Consequential Damages, can you tell us a little bit of what we have to look forward to.
    JH:  Consequential Damages is a legal thriller. As with my first novel, I have tried to weave some thought-provoking issues into the storyline. Among other issues, it explores some of the weaknesses in our legal system in general and with our jury system in particular. It also explores various ethical issues as well as the far-reaching consequences of our particular decisions and actions.

    CM:  Thank you for visiting and taking the time to talk with us.  I hope you come back when Consequential Damages is published.  I am looking forward to reading your next novel.
    JH:  It has been my pleasure. Thank you for taking an interest in my work.
    ABOUT THE BOOK
    On the eve of announcing his run for Congress, rising political star Blair Van Howe causes a deadly car wreck. Passed out drunk in the passenger seat is his alcoholic best friend, Danny Moran. Panicked at the thought of seeing his promising future explode into scandal, Blair moves his comatose friend into the driver’s seat, dials 911, and flees the scene.

    When the police arrive and Danny comes to, it appears to him and everyone else that he was the cause of the fatal wreck, and he is left to face life-altering consequences: criminal prosecution, financial ruin, public disgrace and overpowering guilt. As Danny struggles to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, Blair embarks on a meteoric rise to political stardom. But when a dogged detective digs deeper into the case, the political superstar must ask himself just how far he is willing to go to protect his dark secret.

    Longtime lawyer and chief ethics officer Joseph Hayes spins a tale involving ambition, corruption and scandal within Chicago political circles. Within the framework of this page-turning thriller is a compelling contemporary morality play dealing with ethics, personal responsibility and making a difference. It explores the rationalizations our political leaders often make — justifying their self-serving personal agendas in the name of promoting the “greater good.” It examines the notion that character and integrity are defined by how we behave when no one is watching and the far-reaching consequences of the decisions we make when facing ethical dilemmas. It explores the impact of guilt on the human mind and heart and searches for inspiration and heroism in unexpected places.

    When No One is Watching also explores the volatile and tragic world of alcoholism through the story of Danny Moran, who despite losing nearly everything due to his drinking, somehow manages to hold onto his moral compass and his sense of hope. Danny’s character was inspired by Hayes’s own father, an alcoholic who found lasting sobriety through AA and devoted his life to helping others do the same.


    My Review posted 02/03/11
    WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Joseph Hayes
    Published by Synergy Books
    ISBN-13: 978-0-9843879-4-6
    ISBN-10: 0-9843879-4-3
    At the request of Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, a TPB was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.

      Synopsis (back of book): On the eve of announcing his run for Congress, a charismatic Chicago politician causes a deadly accident. Panicked, he frames his best friend, a good-hearted alcoholic, and flees the scene. As one man tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, the other embarks on a meteoric rise to political stardom. But when a dogged detective digs deeper into the case, the political superstar must decide just how far he is willing to go to keep his dark secret. Author Joseph combines page-turning suspense with a poignant tale of inspiration and redemption as he asks, is “the greater good” just a lie we tell ourselves to justify the sins we commit when no one is watching?

      My Thoughts and Opinion: Wow!! Where do I start without including any spoilers? This book pulled me in as fast as the Porsche was going the night of the accident. A page turning, suspenseful book full of real life characters, some you instantly feel for, cry with, despise, empathize with, some you want to hate but can’t, and those that you cheer on. A can’t put down book that at times has you holding your breath. This would be a great pick for a book club selection as it includes some very profound discussion questions. Full of lies, secrets, integrity, forgiveness, love, and friendship. Outstanding!!

    AWARDS FOR WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING

    LOCAL AUTHOR HAYES HONORED BY NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS AND 2011 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS
    Contests recognize outstanding independently published books
     THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS. Joseph Hayes, author of the highly acclaimed When No One is Watching, has been named as a finalist in the category of Inspirational Fiction by the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Aspiring to be the “Sundance” for indie books, this is the nation’s largest nonprofit awards program for small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers and self-published authors.
    Hayes was also recognized as a finalist in the category of New Fiction (First Book) by the National Indie Excellence Awards, which celebrates the “best of the best” in independent press.


    Read an excerpt:

    CHAPTER 1

    “I love this ride, Dano!” Blair Van Howe yelled exuberantly to his partner, who was passed out cold in the passenger seat. “I’d buy one myself, but the voters might not approve!” He laughed loudly as he leaned forward and accelerated.

    Blair had never driven a Porsche before and was relishing every second of it. The power and responsiveness of the 911’s massive engine, the tightness of the steering, and the way the tires gripped the road felt strangely seductive.

    He was driving fast, which was not his habit, but it was past midnight, and the neighborhood streets were empty. The events of the past two days had him riding a wave of exhilaration, and rocketing around the deserted streets of North Beverly in Danny’s new Porsche 911 Turbo was a perfect way to conclude a thrilling week.

    The north end of Beverly was a well-to-do enclave on Chicago’s far South Side. Danny Moran had grown up there, and Blair was captivated by it from the moment of his first visit, while he and Danny were still in law school. The houses were large, stately old brick structures built during the early and middle part of the twentieth century, on spacious tree-covered lots. The streets were winding and irregular, unlike the grid-like pattern so prevalent throughout the rest of the city. This was because the neighborhood abutted Dan Ryan’s Woods, the only forest preserve within the city limits. The woods served as a buffer between the affluent Beverly residents and the not-so-affluent areas to the north and east, and prevented any through-traffic, giving the area a quiet and secluded ambience. Tonight, those wide, winding streets felt like Blair’s private racetrack, an ideal place to be celebrating life with the assistance of a Porsche 911.

    He was just a few blocks from Danny’s house, where he would have to leave the Porsche and walk the short distance to his own home. He would also have to find a way to get Danny inside, which would undoubtedly be a challenge, given Danny’s highly inebriated state. Before tackling that chore, he would treat himself to one more Porsche-delivered thrill to bring the evening to a fitting conclusion. The snake-like roads made it impossible to go for pure drag racing speed, so he’d been delighting in the 911’s maneuverability as he whipped around sharp turns with barely a tap on the brakes. Blair gunned the turbo-charged engine as he approached Hamilton Avenue, Danny’s street, inspired by the sonorous whine emanating from beneath the hood. He felt as if he were one with the vehicle, as if it had nerves and reflexes and were an extension of himself. He jerked the steering wheel hard to the left, leaning into the turn as the Porsche careened around the corner.

    Suddenly, he was jolted out of his euphoric state by the harsh glare of high-beam headlights flashing directly into his eyes, blinding him momentarily. Exhilaration turned to panic as he felt the back end of the Porsche swerving and realized that he had lost control. He slammed the brakes hard, and they responded with a deafening screech as the oncoming vehicle veered out of his path, missing the Porsche by inches. Two other sounds simultaneously assaulted his eardrums: the sound of shattering glass as the trophy that had been resting in Danny’s lap was hurled into the dashboard, and the sickening sound of crumpling metal as the other vehicle slammed into some unknown object.

    The terrifying cacophony lasted just a couple of seconds, and then everything was still. “Son of a bitch,” Blair whispered in a trembling voice. His entire body was shaking.

    “Dano, wake up!” Blair shouted, staring at his partner, who was still tightly strapped into his seat. He hadn’t even stirred. “Wake up, Dano!” Blair yelled louder, gripping Danny’s shoulders and shaking him roughly. Still no response.

    Blair reached down to unbuckle his seatbelt and felt a sharp pain shoot through his right hand as it struck a shard of glass, the remnants of their shattered trophy. “Shit!” he cried as blood spurted from a deep gash in his right index finger.

    He opened the door and climbed out, gingerly confirming that all of his body parts were intact and that he was unhurt. He surveyed the Porsche. There was not a scratch on it. With a feeling of dread, as if moving in slow motion, he turned around and gazed up the street in the direction from which he had just come. “Oh my God,” he said, hearing the panic in his own voice as he beheld the horrific scene ninety feet away. He felt dizzy and almost vomited. He glanced quickly back at Danny, desperately hoping he’d come to, but Danny remained peacefully oblivious.

    The car was an old one. He couldn’t tell what kind in the darkness, but it appeared to be 1960s vintage. That meant no airbags. From where he stood, Blair could see that the vehicle had run head-on into an enormous oak tree. The entire front end was grotesquely contorted and pancaked into the passenger area.

    Blair approached the vehicle slowly. His stomach turned again as he stopped several feet from the driver’s door. The windshield looked like it had exploded into thousands of tiny particles, glistening in the pale glow of the streetlight. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel, his face and head a bloody mess, the lower half of his body pinned beneath a mass of twisted wreckage. The man weakly opened his eyes. Blair stared at him, recognition setting in. He couldn’t recall the man’s name, but remembered his face. He and his family were new to the neighborhood, and Blair had met them at a recent block party.

    “Help me,” the injured man pleaded in a voice no stronger than a whisper. Then his eyes closed again.

    Blair stared at him, feeling paralyzed, unable to think or act. He had always counted on Danny when things went wrong, and Danny always came through. Danny was right there, just ninety feet away, but he was dead drunk and utterly useless.

    Blair moved closer to the car, and with a start, noticed a child in the back seat. She was weeping quietly, rocking back and forth, clutching a small stuffed animal.

    “Are you okay, kid?” he asked, trying to collect himself.

    The child looked at him, then turned away without responding.

    Blair looked closer and saw that the child had the distinctive features of a Down Syndrome child. She appeared to be seven or eight years old, but it was hard to tell in the darkness. “Are you okay?” he asked again. He couldn’t help noticing the shakiness in his voice.

    “Help my daddy … Help my daddy,” the child repeated, staring straight ahead with unfocused eyes.

    “Don’t worry, kid. I’ll call for help. They’ll be here fast. Everything will be okay.”

    The child shot a glance in his direction, then looked away again. “Help my daddy,” she whispered through her sobs.

    Blair yanked at the driver’s door. It wouldn’t budge. He peered through the open window and looked more closely at the tangled wreckage covering the driver’s legs. He could see that the driver was pinned in tightly, and that there was no way he could extricate the injured man from the vehicle by himself. He had to get help. He raced back to the Porsche. Danny was still out cold. Blair shook him again and slapped him firmly across the face. No response. “Goddammit, Dano, wake up! I need you!” He shook Danny’s shoulders violently. Danny stirred and mumbled, but did not open his eyes.

    Blair grabbed Danny’s cell phone and began dialing: 9, then 1–and then he stopped before adding the other 1. He stared at the phone for a long time. The events of the past few days flashed through his mind. He thought about all of the glorious publicity he’d received following the trial. He thought about the campaign. He was on the cusp of fulfilling a life-long dream, and he had never wanted anything so badly. Then he envisioned the police giving him a breathalyzer test and taking him away in handcuffs. This would be an unmitigated disaster.

    He paced back and forth in front of the Porsche, gripping Danny’s cell phone and struggling to control his scattered thoughts. He stopped, put his elbows on the Porsche’s driver’s side door, and peered through the open window. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he took a long look at his unconscious friend and partner. “I’m sorry, Dano,” he whispered to himself. He opened the door, knelt on the driver’s seat, reached across, and unfastened Danny’s seatbelt. As Danny slumped forward, Blair grabbed him beneath the armpits and began pulling him out of the passenger’s seat. Danny was dead weight, so it required great exertion, but he finally succeeded in moving him into the driver’s seat. Danny slumped forward, completely limp. Blair pulled the shoulder strap tightly around him and fastened it in place, leaving Danny sitting upright behind the wheel, his head hanging like a ragdoll.

    Blair took a few deep breaths, then dialed 911 on Danny’s cell phone. “I’ve been in an accident–89th and Hamilton. I think the other driver is hurt pretty bad. We need an ambulance right away!”

    “Of course, sir. We’ll get right on it. May I have your name please?”

    Blair pushed the end-call button and dropped the phone into Danny’s lap. “Sorry, pal,” he said softly, tears welling up in his eyes and blurring his vision. He looked around. There was not a soul in sight. He patted Danny on the shoulder, then briskly walked away.

    DISCLAIMER
    I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
    in exchange for my honest review.
    No items that I receive
    are ever sold…they are kept by me,
    or given to family and/or friends.

    #Review | The Liar’s Wife by Kiersten Modglin

    The Liar’s Wife by Kiersten Modglin
    Genre: Psychological Thriller, Suspense
    Published Independently
    Publication Date: July 10, 2020
    ISBN-13: ‎ 979-8665121413
    Pages: 240
    Review Copy From: Personal Purchase
    Edition: TPB
    My Rating: 5

    Synopsis (via GR)

    Palmer Lewis married a liar.
    But just how deadly are his lies?

    Shortly after marrying her soulmate and the birth of their son, the lies begin.

    First, it’s the phone calls, always held in secret, always deleted from his phone.
    Then it’s his odd disappearances and the little nagging voice in her head screaming: something is not right.

    When Palmer follows her gut — and her husband — she catches him with an unfamiliar woman in the park and in his biggest lie thus far. Learning from her past, she hatches a plan to protect herself and their child.

    But when her husband and son disappear one afternoon and don’t return, Palmer must retrace her steps and dig deep to discover the truth before it’s too late.

    Who is the mysterious woman her husband lied about meeting? Who knows what happened to her family? Who’s lying? In this twisted psychological thriller, the better question is, who isn’t?

    My Thoughts

    How does she do it????

    Another superior read penned by Ms. Modglin!!!!

    In one of my earlier reviews, see below, I encouraged you to pick up a book by her, and like me, I promise you, you will become a fan.

    I don’t want to reiterate what is written in the synopsis only because I am afraid that I would slip and maybe mention a possibility of a spoiler.

    So with that said, let me tell you what will happen if you take my recommendation to pick up one of her books. I started with The Mother-In-Law and I was hooked!!

    Let me tell you a little bit about her books and her writing style. She pulls you in within the first few pages and there is no turning back. It’s like you are on a rollercoaster, so enjoy the ride. Her books have short chapters, which means you will be saying just one more and you then realize you have read 10. And her books are less than 300 pages and within those pages is an intense story filled with suspense and a profound ending.

    Also in an earlier review, I mentioned that I want to read all of her books. Now all I need is a month of no adulting and sitting on a beach in Aruba with all of her books under the palapa and a frozen mudslide or two. I’m sure that if you pick up one of her books, you will want to join me on that beach!!!!!

    Previous books read and reviewed:

    I Said Yes
    Just Married
    The Mother-In-Law

    Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

    REVIEW DISCLAIMER

  • This blog was founded on the premise to write honest reviews, to the best of my ability, no matter who from, where from and/or how the book was obtained, and will continue to do so, even if it is through PICT or PBP.
  • I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
  • I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
  •  

    August Monthly Wrap Up

     photo afdf054b-208a-4056-8e65-a98cce16a08d.jpg

    August Books Read

    The weather here in RI, during the month of July, wasn’t great pool weather, which is why I didn’t even do a Wrap-Up. But it was definitely pool weather in August, which is why I had a decent month of reading. I wish it was more but, I’ll take it!!. My first, and most enjoyable place for reading, is on one of my pool floats with my protective waterproof Kindle case. Even though it has never leaked, I don’t want to take any chances so I use the first Kindle I ever purchased, which still works. Since I don’t have my phone or TV to distract me that some days I will be floating around in the pool for 2 hours or more. Needless to say, I am quite tanned. In the past, we have had some Septembers where we were in the pool right into October. Keeping my fingers crossed that we have some hot and humid days over the next 30 days to get some more pool time and reading in before we have to close the pool for the winter. 🙁

    My review for Such A Good Wife by by Seraphina Nova Glass was posted on August 10th, which can be seen HERE.
    My review for The Sister-In-Law by Pamela Crane was posted on August 13th, which can be seen HERE.

    My review for Aftermath by Terri Blackstock was posted on August 19th, which can be seen HERE.
    My review for I Said Yes by Kiersten Modglin was posted on August 24th, which can be seen HERE.

    My review for Silent Island by Dana Perry will be posted on October 7th.

    MONTHLY BOOKLY READING REPORT: