About the Book

Title: The Hippity Dippity Witch

Author: Lorraine O’Byrne

Genre: Children’s Books

Eight-year-old Jenny Connolly skips school to visit her friends in an enchanted wood. When she arrives, it’s a scene of total devastation. The creatures of the wood cower in terror. There is a cruel magic at hand here. She goes by the name of Marigold Dimple, a feisty, ten-year-old witch from Elderwood. Marigold is a witch with a vengeance, determined to have her own way and create havoc wherever she goes. When Jenny and Marigold’s paths collide, nothing will ever be the same again…



Author Bio

Lorraine O’Byrne was born in county Limerick, Ireland. Following two and a half years in Dublin on a City & Guilds course in photography, she went on to teach English in Colombia then spent a further six months in France as part of her European Studies degree. Lorraine loved writing at a very young age and felt that this was where her true passion lay. She underwent an intensive creative writing course before embarking on her first novel “The Wrath of Voodoo” (adult fiction) published in 2004 but since then has turned to writing children’s books. Her love of children’s stories comes from the active imagination she had as a child, Walt Disney Movies and the animals on her farm.



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Book Excerpt

Her head rested perfectly atop his shoulder. She wasn't a short woman and he wasn't a tall man. He only had three inches on her, but it put her at the perfect height for his embrace. She fit him. Her beautiful body, soft and full, fit him perfectly too. This wasn't a woman who would break at his touch.

He wanted to kiss her. He wanted more than that, but just now he wanted to feel her lips against his. He had refrained the night before, glorying in her touch alone, forcing himself to let that be all he needed. But today he wasn't sure it would be enough. Today he felt desperate and unsure.

He placed a finger under her chin and lifted it slightly. Her eyes met his in question, but he didn't answer in words. He answered by settling his lips over hers in a soft, gentle brushing of skin against skin. Then he backed away slightly.

Her eyes were closed and her lips slightly parted. She looked a bit dazed and very unsure, but she wasn't pushing him away. He could smell her growing interest and it made his heart swell with newfound hope and need.

He brushed his lips against hers again before deepening the caress. She returned the kiss, a little inexpertly but with all the passion he'd known she possessed. She opened her mouth to him, welcoming his explorations. Welcoming him. 

About The Book

Title: Madison’s Song

Author: Christine Amsden

Genre: Dark Paranormal Romance

Her voice is enchanting; his soul is black…

Madison Carter has been terrified of Scott Lee since the night he saved her from an evil sorcerer – then melted into a man-eating monster before her eyes. The werewolf is a slave to the moon, but Madison’s nightmares are not.

Despite her fears, when Madison’s brother, Clinton, is bitten by a werewolf, she knows there is only one man who can help. A man who frightens her all the more because even in her nightmares, he also thrills her.

Together for the first time since that terrible night, Scott and Madison drive to Clinton’s home only to discover that he’s vanished. Frantic now, Madison must overcome her fears and uncover hidden strengths if she hopes to save him. And she’s not the only one fighting inner demons. Scott’s are literal, and they have him convinced that he will never deserve the woman he loves.

*Stand-alone companion to the Cassie Scot series

Author Bio

Christine Amsden has been writing fantasy and science fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. Christine writes primarily about people and relationships, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for
everyone.

At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, a condition that effects the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams. In addition to writing, Christine teaches workshops on writing at Savvy Authors. She also does some freelance editing work. Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. They have two beautiful children.

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Book Excerpt

Back when Nate was a freshly scrubbed rookie, his grandmother had been victim to one of the most brutal and senseless murders in Florida history. The perpetrator was a baby-faced, fifteen-year-old boy who had lived in her aging yet quiet neighborhood.

By all appearances, he looked the most unlikely of killers, like a boy who should be bagging groceries or stumbling through school hallways hunched over by an overstuffed book bag. But that is not what made the case unique. The boy had no priors. No run-ins with Nate's grandmother, or anyone in his family for that matter. He wasn’t on drugs or in a gang. There was no motive for the boy to snarl at her, let alone murder her, yet forty-eight times he had plunged a knife into her chest.

The case wasn’t tried. The boy and his attorney had negotiated a plea. Before the boy made his one-way trip to the “big house,” an assistant state’s attorney had mentioned to Nate in passing that during a pre-trial hearing the little shit had the gall to claim he had been possessed by an evil spirit during the commission of the crime. The ASA said it was probably a scare tactic for a run at an insanity plea if the State had insisted pursuing the death penalty. It may have worked. The State decided to forego the psychological evaluations, expert testimonies, the media—the whole damn circus—and most of all the expense of a lengthy trial. Premeditation wasn’t easy to prove beyond reasonable doubt anyway, even if evidence was stacked in the State’s favor.

Nate had dreamed of watching the kid fry in the electric chair, the same chair that sent Ted Bundy to his grave. Not only had the son-of-a-bitch robbed him of his grandmother, he had ripped from Nate and his family their last vestige of real justice.

It was late afternoon, and the daily thunderstorms had rolled in and bellowed their oration to the Earth. The breeze grew into swirling winds, and Spanish moss danced like frantic marionettes beside waving palm fronds. Nate drove east on the Bee Line Expressway, slowing to a crawl when choked by airport and commuter traffic. His scalp and face stung like day-old sunburn, and below his skin, at the core of his skull, a dull ache had synched to his heartbeat.

Nate called the warden in charge of the state prison in Orange County. A secretary answered. “I’m sorry, sir, but he’s busy right now. Can I take a message?”

“No,” Nate said. “No message. Tell him it’s Sergeant Nate Barrington and it’s urgent.”

“He’s in a meeting. If you’ll just leave your number I—”

“Interrupt his meeting. Trust me; it’ll be worse if you don’t.”

“Can you at least tell me what this is about?”

“No, it’s personal.”

She sighed, started to say something, then exhaled deeply. “All right.”

A minute passed. Two minutes.

“This had better be important,” said a voice, gruff and annoyed.

“I need to interview one of your inmates.”

“Christ! This isn’t a good time. I’m in the middle of things.”

“Your convenience isn’t my concern.”

“Some other time.”

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” Nate disconnected the call before the warden could respond.

About The Book

Title: Unholy Bargain

Author: Travis Holt

Genre: Supernatural Thriller

An assassin is at work—one of the best in the trade. His body turned to dust long ago, but his spirit roams the Earth freely, undetectable to the five senses. He stalks his victims waiting for just the right opportunity. Then, in quick succession, he possesses a human host and strikes down his quarry. For a century and a half he has served this way.

Deputy Sheriff Nate Barrington is riding the crest of a new relationship. Kaitlyn Spencer is beautiful, altruistic, enlightened—everything he’s not. She teaches classes in New Age philosophy at her growing school. Nate doesn’t share her spirituality, but the physical passion hasn’t subsided enough for him to care.

Nate’s nirvana quickly unravels when Kaitlyn’s life is threatened on two separate occasions. With no apparent motive or any evidence suggesting collusion, the police are stumped. Even more troubling to Nate, Kaitlyn is eventually convinced she is the target of unseen forces.

A hardheaded pragmatist, Nate isn’t prone to believe that spirits can possess people. As far as he’s concerned, Kaitlyn’s claims of perpetrators possessed by a spirit assassin are on par with comic book stories and have nothing to do with reality, and her esoteric, New Age mumbo jumbo begins to drive a wedge into their relationship. And why Kaitlyn? What secret is she hiding?

Even with the sheriff’s resources at Nate’s disposal, the odds for Kaitlyn’s survival are not in her favor. The true enemy is virtually invisible, and Nate’s conventional police tactics have no effect on the spirit world. Strikes come from anytime, anywhere, and from random, unwittingly manipulated people. Behind it all is a deal the assassin had made with the devil: send Kaitlyn Spencer to an early grave in exchange for a fresh start. For that, the assassin will stop at nothing to uphold his end of an Unholy Bargain.

Author Bio

Travis Hallden Holt is a former U.S. Navy surface warfare officer and veteran of the Persian Gulf War. He’s worked the past twenty-two years in the corrections side of law enforcement, first in the prison system, then in the streets as a probation officer. He spent three years supervising felons in a south Atlanta neighborhood ranked the ninth most dangerous neighborhood in America, where one in every twelve residents becomes a victim of crime each year.

For years, his interests were in weaponry (both small arms and large scale), warfare tactics, hand-to-hand combat, criminal justice and unsolved crimes. But life has a way of molding perspectives, and Travis came to realize the physical world known to the five senses didn’t have all the answers. It scratched the surface at best. Accordingly, Travis’s interests shifted to supernatural phenomenon, spirituality, the mysteries of life, the invisible world beyond our five senses and the forces that lie therein. He’s still a peace officer, but one who has mingled with psychics, mystics, mediums, energy healers, shamans, gurus, artists and denizens of the “underground.”

Travis is the author of Unholy Bargain, a supernatural thriller published by Blood Moon Publishing. He resides in Atlanta, GA.

Links

http://www.travishalldenholt.com/

Amazon (Kindle): Amazon (Kindle)

B&N: B&N

Kobo: Kobo

Apple: Apple

Double Dragon Publishing: Double Dragon Publishing

Paperback: Lulu

About the Book

Title: The Last War

Author: Alex Davis

Genre: Science-Fiction

Born from the genius of the Animex, the aliens of the Noukari seek to gain a foothold on a savage planet. But the greatest danger to their existence lies within them – a powerful gift of telepathy.

As the tension grows between idolatry and admiration of their creators, and the Noukari come to understand the latent powers within their own minds, a species created for peace are about to succumb to brutal violence.
In a galaxy torn by conflict, will the first battle between the Noukari also be their last war?

“The Last War is a remarkable study of reason and faith, morality and practicality, pragmatism and idealism. With sharp, unfussy prose, Alex Davis draws the reader into an endearing nascent civilisation, and then takes it apart before our eyes. Unpredictable, challenging and rewarding.” Gav Thorpe, New York Times Bestselling author of Angels of Darkness Deliverance Lost.
 

Author Bio

Alex Davis is an author, editor, publisher, creative writing tutor and events organiser based in Derby. His debut novel, THE LAST WAR, is out in July from Tickety Boo Press and is the first in a science-fiction trilogy following the aliens of the Noukari. He is co-ordinator for Derby’s annual Edge-Lit event – running this year on the 11th July – and also part of the management committee for this year’s Derby Book Festival. He also runs Boo Books, Derby’s independent press, aiming to promote regional talent along internationally known authors. Their latest release is The Electric, available in paperback for the first time. For more information, visit http://boobooks.net/

Links

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Tickety Boo Shop for paperback

Book Excerpt

“Eclipse 5, this is the Elation-Cru looking for a docking number. Please respond,” Variel rolled her neck back, trying to blink away the last of her sleep. If this weren’t the heart of “the safest ports in the galaxy” she’d probably be nervous about the quiet comms.

 

“Eclipse 5?” She continued before turning back to Orn, who lifted his massive shoulders and slipped another boot overtop his first. He’d pull out his PALM and start playing Spacecolony if the boss wasn’t staring right at him. “I say, is anyone there?”

 

“We have coin?” Orn threw out.

 

The static popped and a voice, higher pitched than was typical for most organics, screeched across the flight deck, “This is Eclipse 5, oh bloody hell! Who let those little brats in here to dick with the controls?” some shuffling drifted across the space, a few pops answered back, and the voice returned much less like a rodent freebasing helium, “We have you on sensors, Elation-Cru.”

 

“Sensors,” Orn snorted, “look out a bleedin’ window and we’ll wave back at ya.”

 

“Docking port 75-C is open. You’ll be in the Happy Jellyfish lot,” reported the man who was probably wiping sticky chocolate off his control panels.

 

“Joy of joys, we get to be a spineless blob of tentacles.”

 

“Orn,” Variel warned softly.

 

“Right, fine, uh,” the dwarf flipped the switch back, “This is Elation-Cru, Ecstatic Jellyfish, got it.”

 

“That’s Happy Jellyfish,” the weary voice stressed, “I see you’re registered with the dwarven embassy. A proper customs officer shall be out in an hour.”

 

“Right, Happy Jellyfish over and out,” Orn mocked, flicking off the channel and punching in a few numbers. Docking was fully automated after one too many rich snots got wasted on Lavabombs while skittering about the galaxy in Leap-pods that somehow always wound up in the main director’s lobby, the lady decals ripped to her nude waist. Pilots needn’t bother with parking, but Orn liked to appear busy.

 

Variel sighed, this part of the galaxy made her itch. The surest way to snap was waking every day with forced joy and a shit eating grin. She laid a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder as she leaned down to him, “Wake the others, I’m sure the twins have some unholy business they’ll be getting to.”

 

“What about her?” Orn asked, his eyes flickering to a smashed bulkhead that someone refused to repair on principle.

 

“Are you two…again? Fine, I’ll talk to her. Gods know there’s got to be something broken on this ship that’ll cost all our money to repair.”

 

Orn smiled, his overlarge eyes twinkling as he broke the comfortable silence of the ship by powering up the automated wake-up call. A charming cackle of a rooster bounded about the ship as bouts of twinkling music followed. The lilting, cheerful voice — certain to have driven entire systems of people to utter madness — chimed in, “Wake up sleepy heads! There’s a big day ahead of you among the stars!”

 

The fact that everyone despised the thing with enough furor to power the ship across twelve light years encouraged Orn all the more to use it every chance he got. As Variel turned to leave, most likely to put on something that wasn’t wearing to the point of being see through, the dwarf cheerfully called out, “Captain off the bridge.”

 

She flipped him off before the doors could close.

 

About the Book

Title: Dwarves in Space

Author: Sabrina Zbasnik

Genre: Science-Fiction / Fantasy

Thousands of years after the jewelry’s destroyed, the sword reforged, the dragon ridden, and the indecipherable prophecy translated into a recipe for sugared biscuits, the dwarves turned to that final frontier: space. And along came the elves, orcs, gnomes, trolls, ogres, and those vermin-like upstarts, humans.

Dwarves in Space is Tolkien merged with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in a horrific transporter accident.

The Elation-Cru is not the flashiest ship, nor the newest, or even has all of its bolts attached; but she can fly. Well, sort of wade through space, and that’s when all the parts are working. She supports a sugar addicted dwarven pilot, an elven engineer, an orcish doctor, a silent djinn, and the lone human trying to hold the entire thing together with duct tape. Variel, the captain, has been hiding from a secret for the past five years and time’s finally run out.

When she goes against her common sense and fights to save her onboard assassin/renter from a job gone sour, she finds herself before an ex-colleague that knew her in her previous life as the Knight of the realm. The entire ship is sent on a mad dash across the universe — from a decaying space station, home to the wackiest species the galaxy has to offer, down to the Orc homeworld, which wouldn’t be so bad if Variel hadn’t spent most of her previous life fighting in the war against them. Chances of survival are nil and slipping fast.

Author Bio

S.E. Zbasnik has a degree in genetics, which means there may or may not be a horde of monkeoctopi doing her bidding to take over the world. Bringing that scientific approach to the fantasy world is her game, trying to put some common sense into magic and magic into common sense.

She currently lives with her husband and beloved dog, who dress up like Sherlock Holmes and solve mysteries in their spare time. She spends nearly of all her time in Nebraska but that’s because it is impossible to leave without finding the lamppost. She lives in a house that has at least four walls and there are some other souls wandering forlornly calling to their lost lives within.

She loves and hates writing as she both loves and hates herself.

She’s a huge video game nerd especially for Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Bioshock as well as Doctor Who and makes fan art in her down time.

She’s a neutral good assassin, so it’s best to not get on her bad side.

Links

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Trailer: Book Trailer

Website: http://www.dwarvesinspace.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sezbasnik

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/introvertedwife

Author Website: http://blablover5.wix.com/sezbasnik

Giveaway

Win a $10 amazon gift card during the tour. 

Book Excerpt

Authors note to the reader: In the second chapter of the book, the reader is introduced to a second Sprite, Helia Eradica. Helia has been banished from her world of Forestlight after she was purposefully poisoned with a deadly virus. Exiled from her family and kin, she is forced to search for a means to prevent the joining of parallel worlds of humans and Sprite, and to stop the environmental calamity. In this excerpt, Helia flees a deadly mechanical being that has just killed her sister.

 

One minute her sister had been alive and then not. It hurt—a sharp, bitter, and painful thought to dwell upon, even for the briefest moment, and Helia banished it from her mind—as quickly as her sister’s bloodstains washed away in the current….

….She was in the safe grip of the river’s flow. Occasionally, Helia bumped against a protruding rock but continued unharmed as the limpness in her body absorbed any shock. She tumbled gently in the turbulence and swirling eddies, but eventually she sensed the flow of the current weaken as the banks of the river receded. Her view of the riverbank and its bottom disappeared, veiled by the turbidity of the water. The flow of the river continued. She closed her eyes and put herself in a trance, although she remained ready to move—quickly—if needed. She was inanimate, inert, inorganic, and without thought. Her deep brain—the reptilian and instinctive part of her mind—stayed ready to react, even while her conscious self rested.

Suddenly, she tasted the hint of saltiness on her lips, and she opened her eyes. Her body floated just above a layer of saltwater, and she noted the different ways that light refracted through the two types of water. It produced a visible boundary between them. It reminded her of the mirage in the desert she had seen many years before. Fresh water and salt water were two fluids that couldn’t mix, some of her kin would reiterate—a wisdom drawn from the old Sprite allegory—yet the tendrils of translucent salt water entrained themselves upwards into the clear fresh water above, and the two diffused into each other. It had been a tale that had fallen out of favor during an earlier time when the variety of Sprites had mixed and pursued common goals. But the urgency of reinforcing difference had come back into dominant influence again, and myths had become resurgent. “Observation and rationality had to supersede myth and faith,” Helia thought as she watched the threads of saltwater roiling and erupting upwards into the freshwater.

Helia’s muscles and body came to life, and she swam down into the warmer seawater beneath. Almost immediately, she could sense the lack of ocsaigin in the slack waters. Her skin prickled on contact with the salt water, and the thin cuts in her skin stung. She couldn’t stay for long in the depths of that foul water. Helia soon found what she was looking for. She spied a fish struggling below her, a perch that had been carried along with the fresh water in the river and then overcome as the salty, poisoned water had reached upwards from below. It did not notice her—perhaps blinded by the chemiae of the seawater—and she severed its head from its body with a razor-sharp blade. Helia had needs, hunger amongst them. With the fish’s body in one hand and the knife in the other, moving upwards in the rapidly diminishing plume of freshwater, she made her way to the bank of the river.

She left the water cautiously, with as little sound as possible, under the temporary concealment of a thicket of twisted branches and branchlets.

About The Book

Title: At The Sharp End of Lightning

Author: Nicholas Bates

Genre: Epic Fantasy / Magical Realism

AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING. The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds. In Oceanlight, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her lover over immense seas only to find catastrophe and realization that her world is in turmoil. Meanwhile in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth afflicted by a disease of the blood, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit. Yalara and Einion must discover the causes of their near-deaths and their as yet unrevealed connections as they both face upheaval to their lives and their worlds. Book One of the OCEANLIGHT series.

Author Bio

NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife and his house with seven cats, one dog and the subtropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors. He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and thirty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification. He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences. He has also recently published a small book of short-stories set in Paris, entitled “The Fall of Icarus (The Elevator, The Fall of Icarus, and The Girl)”.

 

Links

Amazon

Website: nrbates.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NR-Bates/1536689869946441
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NRBatesAuthor

About the Book

Title: Diverted Heart

Author: Beth Ann Stifflemire

Genre: New Adult Romance

Texas summers are no doubt some of the hottest you’ll find. The heat encountered during this summer is not at all what Taylor bargained for. She’s at a crossroads between childhood and womanhood, rummaging through the emotions of first love versus passion. Two young men tangle a web of needs and desires in her heart. The summer before college begins, Taylor is thrust from her childhood home in Houston to an inherited family farm on the outskirts of Schulenburg, Texas. Eric, her first love, has gone states away to play college football. Low-spirited and merely trying to get through an expectantly boring summer, she is nearly run off the road by her new country neighbor, Maxwell. Ruggedly handsome, devilishly charming and everything Taylor seeks to avoid, Maxwell does something to her emotions she’s struggling desperately to interpret, as they spend the summer filled with each other. Boundaries are tested and the scales of lust tip despite hesitations. A final decision must be made. Did she ever truly love Eric? Is Maxwell simply a lustful thought, or is there more to uncover beneath the surface? One thing is for certain, this summer will change Taylor in every possible way: mind, body and soul.

Author Bio

Beth Ann is a wife, mother, blogger and book lover from Texas. Her passion is writing stories that draw a reader into a world where they can become the characters and experience a gamut of emotions. When she’s not writing, she loves to be home with my family and two yellow labs. In addition she’s a sucker for super sappy romance movies, loves trying out Texas wines, is an avid hot tea drinker and enjoys checking items off of her ever-growing bucket list.

Links http://www.bethannstifflemire.com

http://www.divertedheart.com

http://waldorfpublishing.com/diverted-heart/

Q: Please tell us about yourself.  

My name is Christy Santo and my favorites hobbies are reading books, writing, and listening to music including Eric Clapton, John Mayall, John Hiatt, and Paul Simon. I grew up in Fanwood, New Jersey than in my late twenties, I moved to Bloomington, Indiana where I run the family online jewelry business.  

Q: Tell us about your book.   

Between Two Worlds is about 2006 university student Rebecca Harrison. She has a good life on campus, has good friends, and is close to her family one day it is all taken away from her when she suffers a terrible accident and is hurled across states and time to 1983.

Q: What inspired you to write Between Two Worlds?

 I got my inspiration for Between Two Worlds from watching the 2006 UK series Life on Mars on DVD last summer. I couldn't get the series out of my head once I finished watching it. The series was flawless and yet I felt I had to write a story based on elements of the show but instead using parts of my life growing up in Fanwood, NJ to write it.

Q: How much time per week do you spend writing/editing your work?  

I aim for at minimum one to two hours of writing/editing a day.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a kidnapping story. It also also features a university student only there is no time travel just confined spaces.

About the Book

Title: Beween Two Worlds

Author: Christy Santo

Genre: Time Travel

Rebecca dreams her present time and lives her past.

It is 2006 and Indiana University graduate student Rebecca Harrison attends a Halloween party. Unknown to her she will have her world turned upside down when she leaves it. An unexpected accident rips her from 2006 Indiana and abandons her in 1983 Fanwood, New Jersey her hometown. She struggles to relive the past and exist as another woman with the same name and birthday as her. Can she find a way to return to her present time or will her past become her future?

Author Bio

Christy Santo was born and raised in Fanwood, New Jersey.  She has lived in Bloomington, IN since 2002 and runs her family’s Internet retail business. Between Two Worlds, is her second book and she is currently working on a third book.

Links

Website: www.statictvblog.com

Twitter: @CJSTheWrite

Amazon Author Central (US)

Amazon Author Central (UK)

Goodreads

From The Kidnapping: An Ian Rutledge Original Short Story

“London 1920

It was late, the rain coming down hard, when the man hurried through the main door of Scotland Yard and came to an abrupt halt as he say the sergeant at the desk.

‘I must speak to an inspector at once,’ he said, his voice that of a gentleman though his clothes were torn and disheveled, his hat wet and filthy.

‘If you’ll give me your name, sir,’ the sergeant said calmly, reaching for a sheet of paper, ‘and the particulars.’

‘I tell you, I need an inspector. Look at me, man! Do I look as if I have all night to answer your questions?’

‘All the same, sir – ‘

‘Damn it,’ the man said, and turned toward the door to one side of the desk.

‘Here!’ the sergeant exclaimed, rising. ‘You can’t go in there until you’ve told me your business.’

But the man was too quick for him and had reached the door just as it opened.

The tall, dark-haired man standing there looked from the agitated sergeant to the flushed and angry stranger.

‘Inspector Rutledge, sir? This man refuses to give his name and his reasons for coming to the Yard.’

‘Inspector?’ the intruder exclaimed, stepping back. ‘Thank God. I’ve just been robbed and beaten, and my daughter has been taken away by force. You must help me find her. Cecily is only twelve, she’ll be terrified by now. I can’t bear to think what she’s suffering.’

‘Where was this?’ Rutledge asked.

‘On Christopher Street. Number 10. We’d just returned home from dinner with friends – this was a little after ten o’clock – and as we stepped out of the cab, two men accosted us. Before I quite knew what was happening, they had knocked me to the ground, kicking my repeatedly while a third man, our erstwhile cabbie, had caught my daughter by the arms and forced her back into the waiting cab. I was only half conscious when the two attacking me went through my pockets but took nothing, not my watch, not even my purse. I couldn’t stop them, couldn’t even cry out. And then they leapt into the cab and it set off at a fast pace, disappearing around the next corner before I managed to get to my feet and attempted to go after them.’

Rutledge regarded him. ‘Your face isn’t damaged.’

‘No, they kicked me, I tell you. My ribs, my back, my shoulders.’

‘Have you seen a doctor? Mr. – ‘

“Dunstan. Charles Dunstan. In God’s name, how can I think about going to a doctor when Cecily is in the hands of those brutes? She’s in danger, I tell you, and you must help me find her. What do they want with her? I’m not a walthy man, I can’t pay a great ransom for her. That’s what frightens me. She’s a pretty child.’ He fumbled for his wallet and brought out a photograph of a young girl with long fair hair and a sweet smile.

Rutledge studied it and returned the photograph. ‘Why didn’t you find a constable, set the police after them straightaway, rather than take the time coming here?’

‘There was no constable in sight. Should I have lost time finding him? This is a Yard matter, surely, not the London police. I beg of you, do something.’

‘Did you see the faces of these three men? Or of the cabbie?’

‘No. He was just the cabbie, I paid him no heed until he leapt down to take my daughter. By that time, the other two had come out of the shadows before I could even turn and defend myself.’

‘Did they speak?’

‘No. The attack seemed all the worse for being carried out in complete silence.’

‘Why had you taken a cab in the first place?’

‘We’d had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Lowery.’

‘Old friends?’

‘I’ve known them a year or two. He’s a member of my club.’

He put a hand to his ribs as he coughed, and Rutledge said, ‘Here, sit down.’ Over Dunstan’s shoulder, Rutledge said to the Sergeant, “Send men to Number 10 Christopher Street, and three more to find this cabbie – or if possible, what became of the cab after the crime.’

About the Book

Title: Tales

Author: Charles Todd

Genre: Mystery & Detective

TALES is a collection of Bess Crawford and Ian Rutledge short stories published together for the first time from New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd.  Now published together for the first time: Charles Todd’s beloved short stories-”The Kidnapping,” “The Girl on the Beach,” “Cold Comfort,” and “The Maharani’s Pearls”-about intrepid Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge and dutiful battlefield nurse Bess Crawford.   The vibrant tales transport readers from the homefront in Great Britain where the ominous clouds of war were ever-present during World War I to the bomb riddled the frontlines as soldiers desperately sought to gain ground again Germany with Lieutenant Ian Rutledge and finally to the exotic, dangerous India of Bess Crawford’s youth. Together they create an extraordinary glimpse into the treasured worlds of some of mystery’s most cherished characters.

Author Bio

Charles Todd is the New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, the Bess Crawford mysteries, and two stand-alone novels. A mother-and-son writing team, they live in Delaware and North Carolina.

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Book Excerpt

The unconscious Jasette hovered upright in suspended animation. The containment field made her blue and silver hair whip slowly about her face as if she were under water. An opaque blue cylinder of glowing energy surrounded her, giving off a slight hum and the faintest hint of cinnamon. I like cinnamon. Whenever I can manage it, I opt for the cinnamon upgrade.

With her eyes closed she reminded me of the beautiful fembots that line the cavernous castle hallways of Mar Mar the Unthinkable. Hundreds of gorgeous robots that stand motionless like statues until someone dares to upset the delicate temperament of Mar Mar. It isn’t difficult. He might have one bad grape and fly off in a rage, summoning a wave of vicious fembots into the royal kitchens to obliterate the cooking staff.

“Is she okay?” Nelvan stood next to me, his sad, puppy eyes looking up at Jasette.

“Who cares?” I glared down at him. “She almost terminated us and you’re wondering if she’s okay?”

Nelvan lowered his head, a look of shame on his face. I was starting to like having him around. It gave me a quick, cheap sense of power.

“Her hair is rather magnificent, wouldn’t you say?” Blix looked on from the containment grid control panel nearby. His fingers were delicately working the touch screen controls as if creating symphonies on a synthboard.

“Sure, whatever. How’s the power level?” I took a sip of velrys and braced myself for the news.

“Sixty four percent.” Blix said. “Perhaps the energy cells were drained from her little escapade.”

“Yeah, well, she’ll pay.” I scowled up at her. “Computer, what’ya got from the uniweb on our prisoner?”

“Conflicting results, Captain,” the computer said. “The initial scans showed her as a peace ambassador from the Klebborse sector.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Peace ambassador?”

“Subsequent scans uncovered additional profiles including: Star Ranger, Interstellar pastry chef, Lounge singer, advanced weapons specialist, freelance feral cat juggler, remote colony grief counselor—” The computer said.

“Hold it. How many professions did you find?” I said.

“Two thousand, three hundred and forty seven.”

I looked over at Blix with raised eyebrows.

“Interesting.” Blix tapped on his scaled lips with a finger. “A bit of unraveling will be required for this puzzle.”

I took a step closer to the containment field and studied her a moment. Her black power suit, sleek and custom fitted as it was, obviously held some powerful little computerized secrets. Plus, her beauty was disarming, which made for a lethal combination. I had to get rid of her before she tried any more of her tricks.

About The Book

Title: Space Drifters

Author: Paul Regnier

Genre: Science Fiction

Captain Starcrost is not having the carefree, adventurous life of a star pilot promised in all the space academy brochures. He’s broke, his star freighter is in dire need of repair, and there’s a bounty on his head. His desperation has led to a foolhardy quest to find a fabled treasure that brings good fortune to the wearer, the Emerald Enigma.

Every captain needs a trusty starship and a crack team of crew members by their side. Unfortunately, the bitter pill of reality has brought him Iris, a ship computer with passive aggressive resistance to his commands; Blix, a hulking, copper-scaled, lizard man with an aversion to battle; Nelvan, a time-traveling teen from the past, oblivious to this new future; and Jasette, a beautiful but deadly bounty hunter looking to take over the ship.

Enter a charismatic and clever nemesis named Hamilton Von Drone, whose dark past has already intertwined with our misfortunate captain and left a painful scar. To complicate matters, as every good nemesis must by their evil nature do, Hamilton is employing his vast wealth on the very same quest for the Emerald Enigma.

Author Bio

Paul Regnier is a technology junkie and web designer with a fascination for all things futuristic. He has turned his childhood love of storytelling into a professional pursuit.

Paul lives in Orange County, CA with his wife and two children.

Links

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulJRegnier

http://www.spacedrifters.com/

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