Fatal Impulse by Lori L. Robinett (spotlight, excerpt, review and GIVEAWAY) GFT

Fatal Impulse

by Lori L. Robinett

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GENRE: Mystery (Cozy)

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BLURB:

Did Andi Adams murder her husband?

Andi is married to a handsome, charismatic man. He’s a successful pillar of their cozy island community. She's a beautiful young wife devoted to him. From the outside, their life appears perfect.

But on the inside, she is constantly on edge, trying to keep him happy so she won’t suffer scathing words that hurt just as much as the occasional sharp blow from him.

Then she snaps. His abuse pushes her too far. In the blink of an eye, she becomes a widow and finds herself inextricably entwined in the web of lies he wove in the months before his death. Her small town neighbors whisper behind her back, as if the sensational death of her husband is the subject of a pulp novel. When a blackmailer threatens to expose her as a murderer, she must piece together her husband’s life to find the key to her own freedom.

Fatal Impulse is the first in an intriguing new mystery series, where each widow faces challenges that threaten to destroy her just as she begins to find her strength.


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EXCERPT

The telephone on the nightstand jangled and demanded her attention.

“Hello?”

“I know what you did.”

"Who is this?" Her nerves tingled. “What do you want?”

"I want those documents." He breathed heavily into the phone. "You thought they were worth killing for and I have no problem doing whatever I have to do to get you out of the way. I'll be in touch.”

The phone went dead and she dropped onto the bed, her mouth hanging open. What the heck? That made no sense at all.

Martha hollered from across the hall, "Who was that?"

Andi blinked and stared at the phone. "I don't know."

"Do you need help picking out something?"

"No. No, I'm fine. I'll do it." Someone's idea of a bad joke?

She shook her head and turned to the dresser to open his valet box. He would want to be buried with his diamond cufflinks, even though no one would see them. Two rough pink and green rocks sat next to his cufflinks in a little velvet lined compartment. She frowned. Seemed like an odd thing for him to keep there. She scooped up the diamonds and clipped them to his dress shirt. She opened his top dresser drawer to get a monogrammed handkerchief for the suit pocket, then slammed the drawer shut, a bit harder than she intended. Something rattled. She frowned, opened the drawer again and rummaged through the contents. In the back of the drawer, tucked under the lining, she found a small brown envelope. She squeezed it open and a key on a beaded chain dropped into her palm.

What could it possibly open?

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Lori lives in rural central Missouri with her husband and daughter. One very spoiled Miniature Schnauzer and Miniature Beagle allow Lori and her husband to live in their house, and the outside is patrolled by BK (short for Barn Kitty) and Patches (a sweet tom cat stray that missed his calling as a lap cat). She can often be found bouncing through rough gravel roads in her lifted yellow Jeep named Daisy.

Website

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My review:

3.5 out of 5 stars

Fatal Impulse by Lori L. Robinett is the first book in the ‘Widow’s Web’ series and follows an abused wife who has to live with her spur-of-the-moment action that both frees her and yet constrains her life even more.  The stress of dealing with an investigation into her husband’s death and dealing with multiple threats to her own safety is almost balanced by finding someone who is the opposite of her former husband, but she may not live long enough to truly appreciate her new widow’s status if someone actually follows through on the threats she is receiving.

One can’t help but ache at the situation this woman finds herself in over the course of this contemporary mystery but she is also frustratingly obtuse.  The author does a nice job of eliciting sympathy for the newly-minted widow and gives the reader a horrifying view of the hell she has been through but many of the subsequent events are pretty predictable and make one want to shake the poor heroine to get her to wake up.  This is a sometimes sad portrait of how pervasive abuse can be, to the extent that a battered person can’t function well professionally or personally, and I was dismayed that one bad decision after another characterized her life.  There are a couple of nice twists to the story and I was very surprised by a couple of events at the very end so one should beware that a definite suspension of disbelief will be needed to enjoy this story that reminds us of how quickly life can change because of one impulsive act.

A copy of this title was provided to me for review