Monday, May 31, 2021

The Fourth State of Matter by D'Arcy Arden (Release blitz, excerpt) GBP ADULT title

I'm delighted to share the release of my author's stunning gay science fiction book...her very first published novel! I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us.

The Fourth State of Matter

  Valence Chronicles #1

ADULT title

by

D’Arcy Arden

 

 

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press 

Cover Artist: Jennifer Greeff

Release Date: May 31, 2021

Genres: Futuristic/Sci-Fi, erotica

Tropes:  aliens, polyamory

Themes: BDSM, Gay-Lesbian, Menage/Multi-Partner

Heat Rating: 5 flames  

Length: 86 889 words/ 349 pages

It is the first book in a series.

Add on Goodreads

Space is cold, the sex is hot, and the rebellion is right on target.

Blurb

Earth is dead. Humanity survives by selling the only resource available—themselves. 2689 has signed away his rights as a living being and become décor, living artwork that rich aliens use to decorate their homes. It's a stable existence but a boring one. Until one day his owner plays host to three unexpected guests. Large, loud, and more potent than anything 2689 has ever experienced, this trio of ship-dwellers from the wrong side of the universe awakens a desire he can't ignore.

However, blissful days of sex and companionship with Brog, Desmodian, and Xavis come to an end when 2689 discovers a plot that could land the trio in jail...or worse. 2689 will have to make a choice—stay silent and allow three innocent lives to be ruined or give up his stable life to protect the ones he loves.

Book Trailer  


 

Excerpt

Pet fumbled his drink, creating a clink of glass against glass and spilling pink droplets onto the table’s surface. He had encountered Décor Preservation Services once before, at his first auction, when they evaluated his quality and determined what price to charge his buyers.

“And what does DPS want with us?”

Desmodian sounded too calm, considering the tremor Pet felt running through the hand on his head.

Vige scoffed. “Really? A trio of dirty ship-dwellers running around with one of their precious décor, and you don’t think they’re going to intervene?”

“We’ve done nothing wrong.” Xavis ruffled his feathers again, filling what little space remained in their alcove. “Pet was transferred to us legally. Anyone can check the license.”

In a different situation, Pet would have stroked the feathers back down, but he was too scared to do more than stare dumbly from person to person.

 

Buy Links

Amazon US  |   Amazon UK 

 

About the Author 

D’Arcy Arden grew up in Akron, Ohio, where she attended creative art schools and was surrounded by beautiful country landscape. This combination cultivated an interest in literature, art, and the natural world around her. In college, she earned a Masters Degree in Fiction Writing, which primarily taught her that there is no one way to tell a good story. So, she turned around and went back for a degree in Animation as well. This love for both visual and written stories has given her a preference for stories that are memorable, easy to picture, and, most importantly, fun.

That was her main goal when she started writing The Fourth State of Matter—to provide readers with a fun story featuring the three S’s. Science, sex, and spaceships. It is her first published novel, but only the beginning of a great adventure.


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Friday, May 28, 2021

The Coup and the Prince by Mell Eight (Spotlight, excerpt, and review) IBM

 

The Coup and the Prince

by

 Mell Eight

 

 

Publisher: NineStar Press

Release Date: 05/17/2021

Heat Level: 1 - No Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 19900

Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQIA+, royalty, kidnapping, war, poverty, law enforcement, military, revenge, prostitution

Add to Goodreads

 

 


 

Description

The coup should have been simple: oust the tyrannical regents and restore the rightful heir to the throne. No one expected the rightful heir to be dead, or for his younger brother to be missing. The search for the missing prince is important, but not as important as putting the destroyed country back together. At least, that’s what Aiden thinks until he stumbles on a terrible crime ring and a pair of beautiful green eyes that might just derail everything he’s been working towards.

 

 

Excerpt

The Coup and the Prince
Mell Eight © 2021
All Rights Reserved

One
Aiden

Meetings, meetings, meetings! His whole life was meetings!

Aiden was going to go mad, screaming and hair pulling included, if he had to go to another meeting. As if that weren’t bad enough, after the endless rounds of meetings, he had paperwork. Endless bloody stacks of paperwork. For every piece he finished, another fucking dozen appeared on his desk. He couldn’t escape from it all. He was a frigging soldier, not a paper pusher, and he hated sitting still. His new position as captain of the guard required he attend to his new duties, rather than actually being out in the city where the real work was, but Aiden was thinking of stuffing it all and running away.

In fact, that sounded like a great idea. Fuck them all anyway. He deserved a long weekend off. Aiden slammed his pen down on his desk, glad to have his decision made, and stood with a violent shove of his chair.

“I’m done for the day,” he snapped to his shocked-looking secretary across the room.

Ernest nodded. Aiden had worked with Ernest long enough to know Ernest would have blindly agreed even if Aiden had declared he was off to fuck a duck, but Ernest didn’t mind the damned paperwork, so Aiden kept the kid around anyway.

“It’s after midnight, sir,” Ernest replied softly. “Shall I hold your appointments until tomorrow afternoon?”

Aiden winced at the thought of having any more meetings. “Push them until Monday morning. I should be able to think straight by then.” If he had to go to another meeting any earlier than Monday, he might actually snap and strangle someone.

Ernest nodded in agreement again and quickly made a note in the ledger on his desk before jumping up to help Aiden with his coat.

“What should I tell Major Trell, sir, if he comes calling?” Ernest asked before Aiden could fasten his buttons and get out the door to freedom.

“Tell the old bastard that he should have planned a little better before he threw his coup, and anything that goes wrong in my absence is his fault,” Aiden snapped as he wrenched the door open and slammed it behind him.

A muffled “Yes, sir” sounded from behind the door.

“And take tomorrow off too, Ernest,” Aiden yelled before stomping off.

Aiden didn’t go to his rooms in the castle. He could easily be found there and dragged off to something “vitally important” that Aiden didn’t give a fuck about. He needed to be out there doing, not sitting on his ass.

Before the coup, Aiden had led men. He had been in charge of keeping the city safe, catching criminals and murderers and putting them behind bars so people felt safe at night. He had loved the job and the men and women he had commanded. Trell, the bastard, had promised Aiden he could have his job back after the coup. Hell, that was one of the reasons Aiden had joined with Trell in the first place.

The coup had been a disaster, plain and simple. They had taken power back from the regents, yes, but instead of reinstating the heir like they had originally planned, they were stuck putting the country back together themselves.

Ten years before the coup, the king had started forgetting things. It was only recent edicts, meeting times, and simple things in the beginning, but five years ago, when he forgot the names of his wife and two sons, the physicians declared the king needed to be sequestered for his own safety.

The king’s oldest child was only fifteen at the time, so the council had chosen the grand duke and the queen to act as joint regents on behalf of the heir until he came of age. Given how quickly the councilors chose two people mostly unsuited for the task, Aiden had little doubt they had been bribed. Aiden would have let it go—that was politics after all—except then the council had allowed the regents’ excess to take over.

For the subsequent five years of the regents’ rule, food, goods, and a lot of money had gone into the castle and only bodies had come out. Taxes were raised, and the crown stopped paying for the goods it consumed. Prices for wheat skyrocketed after a late-summer storm wiped out much of one year’s crops, and the crown demanded more instead of helping the people it served.

The last straw for Aiden had been when the city guard had been disbanded. His beloved troops were left penniless and without prospects, as was he for that matter. When Trell approached Aiden, Aiden had been more than happy to lend his influence to the coup.

The queen and the grand duke had been killed in the fighting. The king had survived the coup, somehow. Trell and Aiden had gone to see him once the castle was secured and found a clueless and helpless child in place of the strong man Aiden remembered.

Trell had always planned to reinstate the king’s heir to the throne, not take power himself—which was why he was still considered a major despite the fact he was basically running the country—but when they broke into the heir’s room, they had found him lying in bed, dead. His body had been left where he had been murdered, and when Trell’s soldiers entered the room months later, they found a bloated and decaying mass of nearly indistinguishable flesh. No doubt the regents had claimed he was “indisposed” or something equally indelicate to keep anyone from asking questions, and removing the prince from the picture had also removed anyone who might have had the power to protest the regents’ actions.

The king’s younger son and only other child had never been located, had in fact been missing since the regents took power, which meant the task of putting the city and country back together after five years of mismanagement fell to Trell and Aiden. It also meant that, while the city guard had been reinstated, Aiden couldn’t be there for his troops until everything else had also been cleaned up. Instead, he was stuck with the bloody paperwork.

Still, one night walking the beat would go far to lift his spirits. Aiden couldn’t stop a small smile from stretching his lips at the thought. One night to remind him what he was working so bloody hard to achieve might even reground him. The sooner he finally got through those endless fucking piles of paperwork, the sooner he could return to the job he actually liked.

He did try to keep abreast of some of the cases that were baffling his troops. Ernest put together a weekly report for him, and Aiden always found the time to read it. The most distressing one on the list was the ring of underage prostitutes. Ordinarily it would be easy enough to find the pimp and arrest him and then find safe homes for the kids being abused, but there were mitigating circumstances. No one could actually locate the pimp, for one, and for another, any time one of the kids actually spoke to the guard they were found with their throats slit the next morning.

Aiden wasn’t in uniform, and it had been quite a few years since he had been able to patrol the lower city; maybe his face wouldn’t be recognized. He could easily pretend to be just another man out looking for a suck and a poke.

With his plans firmly in mind, Aiden finished sneaking out of the castle and headed into the city proper. He had a small townhouse where he would change clothes into something more disreputable and then go see what delights the lower city had to offer him.

Purchase

NineStar Press | Books2Read

 

 

 

 

Meet the Author

When Mell Eight was in high school, she discovered dragons. Beautiful, wondrous creatures that took her on epic adventures both to faraway lands and on journeys of the heart. Mell wanted to create dragons of her own, so she put pen to paper. Mell Eight is now known for her own soaring dragons, as well as for other wonderful characters dancing across the pages of her books. While she mostly writes paranormal or fantasy stories, she has been seen exploring the real world once or twice.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

 

 

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Giveaway

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My review: 


4 stars

 

 

The Coup and the Prince by Mell Eight follows Aiden, whose duties as a captain of the guard are almost overwhelming after the deposition of the horrific regents who have almost ruined the country. His determination to destroy an underage prostitution ring results in his meeting a surprisingly unworldly Camden, who has desperately resorted to trying to sell himself to survive. Their unexpected mutual attraction results in far more changes than either could have ever anticipated.

 

This gay fantasy romance is a quick fun novella that gives a glimpse of a complicated country that is recovering from the abuses of unscrupulous rulers. I liked watching the interactions between the various characters and the organic development of their relationships, not only between the main couple, but also the secondary characters. One of the reasons I enjoy reading this author’s stories is her ability to create likeable characters who have hidden depths, and I enjoyed the twists and turns provided by the various players introduced as the story progresses.

 

The world-building is always sparingly doled out, and, as usual, the tale was much shorter than I would have liked. I felt like I was coming in on the middle of the story because so much had already taken place, and I looked to see if this was part of a series. I didn’t immediately come across a related book, but I’d love to know if there is one. I enjoyed getting to meet Cam and his friend and mentor, Day, and I liked seeing that Cam’s relationship with Aiden isn’t quite as unequal as it first seemed. Hopefully, there will be more stories featuring these engaging folks.

 

A copy of this title was provided for review



Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Asylum by Betsy Adams (Spotlight, excerpt, review, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

 


 

Asylum

by

 Betsy Adams

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

GENRE:   Contemporary Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

Adela is an immigration judge from one of San Diego’s wealthiest Mexican-American families. She was raised to believe she has nothing in common with the asylum seekers in her courtroom. Paul left behind his life as a Manhattan lawyer to volunteer at the border. He has lost faith in the system, but not those who still turn to it for justice. Adela and Paul come to the Tijuana/San Diego border searching, but neither one knowing exactly what for—until they find each other. Against the backdrop of the “Remain in Mexico” policy and restrictions on asylum, Adela and Paul fight for love in a system that seems determined to destroy it.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

EXCERPT

 


 

Judge Adela Fernandez was curious about the new lawyer in her courtroom.  It wasn’t what he said, or the high school Spanish she overheard from the bench.  No, that didn’t impress her. 

           

It was what he didn’t say.  The way he listened to his client, the young man at his side with caramel skin several shades lighter than Adela’s.  How he leaned in and his client didn’t back away.  There was trust between them, that rarest of resources at the border these days. 

 

Adela had never seen this kind of trust in the eyes of an asylum seeker.  More common were blank, numb stares, or terrified eyes searching for answers.  Those were the eyes she saw every day in her courtroom, and every night as she closed her own and tried to sleep.

 

It took time to build trust, time that the “Remain in Mexico” policy did not allow.  This policy effectively ended legal representation for asylum seekers by forcing them to wait in Mexican border towns as their cases crawled through the U.S. legal system.  Tens of thousands of migrants from all over the world were stuck in makeshift refugee camps, preyed upon by local cartels.  Lawyers stayed away.  Except this one, apparently.  

 

“DHS Docket Number 19-24231.”  The clerk’s announcement drew Adela out of her thoughts.    

 

“Thank you, Gabe,” Adela said, glancing at the case file. 

 

The lawyer’s name was Paul Carter, and he was the attorney of record for Adela’s first asylum case that afternoon.  His client was Jorge Sanchez, a twenty-six year old asylum seeker from El Salvador.  His collared shirt was way too loose and clearly borrowed for the occasion.  Adela’s eyes lingered on the backpack at his feet.  It held everything Jorge would carry with him into his new life, if she granted his asylum claim.

 

 


 

 

Buy links:

 

E-book on sale for $.99 for a limited time (please check price before purchasing)

Amazon link (Kindle)

 

Amazon link (print)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

 

Betsy Adams is a pen name adopted to honor two smart, romantic women - Betsy Ross and Abigail Adams.

 

Betsy Ross chose love over her Quaker religion and her family. At the age of twenty-one, she eloped with fellow upholstery apprentice and non-Quaker John Ross. After their union, Betsy’s family and the Quaker community cut all ties with her. In her eighty-four years, Betsy was married three times and ran a successful upholstery business. There is much more to Betsy Ross than sewing the first American flag. Someone make a biopic, please!

The love between Abigail and John Adams is legendary, and documented in over 1,000 intimate and cerebral letters. In 1776, Abigail famously told her husband that the new nation must “remember the ladies,” but in the pages of their letters, these two lovers were equals in their passion for each other and ideas.

 

Betsy Adams lives with her family in a coastal town on Long Island (New York). She is the creator of the Americans in Love romance series. In these novella-length books, couples divided by the issues of our day try to find their happily ever after.

 

Links:

Website

 

Instagram:  @americansinlove

 

Facebook Page


 

Reedsy Discovery Page

 

Goodreads Page

 

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GIVEAWAY

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

The tour dates can be found here

  

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My review:


4.5 stars

 

 

Asylum by Betsy Adams is part of the ‘Americans in Love’ series and follows the path that Judge Adela Fernandez takes after her life intersects with lawyer Paul Carter as he pleads the cases of the asylum seekers he’s representing. Their personal attraction is overshadowed by the risks to their respective professional lives. As they decide what goals to pursue, danger escalates, and they must decide what is truly important…even if destruction follows.

 

This contemporary romance is both touching and horrifying, because it sheds light on a challenging and heartbreaking situation. The vivid depictions of the frustrating catch-22 that faces those who are fleeing for their lives only to be met with a bewildering and dehumanizing gauntlet while trying to immigrate to the U.S. draws one into the story even as it inspires one to remember the importance of empathy. There are citations and insights presented at the end of the story that explain that the multiple frightening episodes in the story are based on fact, which is even more alarming. I think this story is thought-provoking and emotional, and I am more enlightened after having read it.

 

 

A copy of this story was provided for review

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Havoc by M.L. Buchman (Spotlight, excerpt, and review)

 

 

 

 

 

Havoc

by

M.L. Buchman 




Miranda Chase—the heroine you didn’t expect. Fighting the battles no one else could win.

 

When one of their own is threatened—the nation’s #1 air-crash investigation team enters a race to survive.

An airliner downed on a Pacific atoll. A CIA covert strike team sent in to “clean it up.” An old enemy seeks revenge. This time, the NTSB’s autistic air-crash investigator, Miranda Chase, and her team are in the crosshairs. The action races around the globe as US military airbases become shooting galleries and their lives are placed on the line.

And hidden from sight? A treacherous plan to grab political power and start a new war with Russia in the Middle East. Only Miranda’s team stands in their way, if they can survive.

 


 *****************

 

 

EXCERPT

 

39,000’ over the South Pacific

Aboard a badly damaged Airbus A330

 

“Okay if I place a call?” Holly buckled into the cockpit’s jump seat.

“You’d need a sat phone from here to—” Dani glanced back.

Holly pulled out her satellite phone and waggled it at the pilot who nodded reluctantly.

She dialed.

“This is Miranda Chase. This is actually her, not a recording of her.”

“Hey, her.” Holly could feel herself relaxing, even if Miranda was three thousand miles away in Seattle, it made Holly feel better just to hear her voice.

“Where are you? Passing over Johnston Atoll? Can you see it? I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Funny you should mention that. I expect that I’ll be seeing it real soon now—up close and personal like.” Holly proceeded to describe what she’d seen of the engine breakaway and the wing it had battered so badly as it broke free.

“The runway on Johnston Atoll is not authorized for use. Not even for emergency landings.”

“Good, they can come arrest me if we survive. Warm cell, three squares a day, bolted solidly to terra firma—I could get down with that. Besides, that’s part of the fun of an emergency, you get to break all sorts of rules.”

“I was never particularly good at breaking rules.”

“Are you with the pilots?” Holly could hear the fast rush of computer keys.

“Yes.”

“Speakerphone.” Miranda was also never one for the niceties of conversation.

She continued as soon as Holly had switched over and called for Dani and Quint’s attention.

“Temperature at Johnston Island Airport is eighty degrees; winds are east-northeast at seventeen so you’ll be landing on Runway 23 with an elevation of two meters above mean sea level. Barometer is currently 29.96. Visibility is reported at ten miles in light haze.” She continued with their best rate of descent for minimum wing-loading stress, proceeded to tell them what landing configuration to select right down to flaps and airspeed, and might have told them every detail of the approach if Holly had let her.

“If I don’t die, Miranda, I’ll give you a shout on the mobile to let you know.”

“I’ll get the team in motion.” Because, of course, Miranda would want to investigate the cause of the crash, whether or not they died. “If it’s going to be a water landing, call me and we’ll mobilize the Coast Guard.”

Which was surprisingly thoughtful for Miranda. Holly knew that Miranda’s ASD—autism spectrum disorder—made it extremely hard for her to think about people.

“Though I wouldn’t hold out much hope for recovering the aircraft if it does go into the ocean. The abyssal plain comes within a few kilometers of the atoll and is principally below the four-thousand-meter mark. Recovery from those depths is exceedingly difficult.”

So much for thoughtful. Thoughtful about the plane anyway.

Miranda’s parents had died in the 1996 crash of TWA 800, which was recovered from a hundred and thirty feet of water just off Long Island, New York—not thirteen thousand feet off a remote Pacific atoll. She’d have been sure to remain very well-educated on the complexities of deep-water recovery operations.

“That’s an extremely unlikely type of double event, breakaway and then an uncontained turbine failure in the same engine. If anything, the opposite would be more typical, but an ES is an exceedingly rare event. That’s remarkably interesting. It is difficult without a more recent inspection of the skin buckling, but based on your initial description…” there was another sharp rattle of a computer keyboard. “Models are projecting a nineteen percent chance of losing the wing on gear-down and an eighty-two-point-five percent chance of losing the wing during the landing.”

“Thanks. I’ll hopefully be in touch soon, Miranda.”

“Okay. Bye.” And she was gone.

“Who the hell was that?” Dani snapped out, but Holly noticed that she was flying exactly on the profile Miranda had recommended.

“She’s the NTSB’s top air-crash investigator.” Holly considered what a lame statement that was to describe her. “She’s…unusual. But she’s also rarely wrong.”

Miranda, despite all her oddities, was also her friend.

It was going to really suck if she herself died, because neither she nor Miranda had a whole lot of those.

 

 

 

Miranda Chase series

 

iTunes

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

 

 



AUTHOR BIO

USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L. "Matt" Buchman has 70+ action-adventure thriller and military romance novels, 100 short stories, and lotsa audiobooks. PW says: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.” Booklist declared: “3X Top 10 of the Year.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat, and bicycled solo around the world…and he quilts. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.

 

ML "Matt" Buchman -USA Today / Amazon #1 Bestseller
action-adventure thrillers/romance/SF&F
Sign up for my newsletter at: 
http://www.mlbuchman.com

 

 

LINKS (series pages)

            https://www.miranda-chase.com

 

 

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My review:

I love Miranda and her team, and each exciting book adds to the rising tension of this series. I wasn't thrilled by some of the creepy scenes in the earlier stories, and I have missed some of books in the series, but there is no problem reading each tale as a stand-alone, although one savors the developments much better if one starts with the very first story in the series.



4.5 stars

 

I've been anxious to read "Havoc" ever since reading the excerpt in the back of the previous story. It did not disappoint. Holly-centric story, revealing more of her background and showcasing her remarkable skills. Delicious twists, exciting action, much-desired character development. The Miranda perspective is always fascinating, and I enjoyed the ending so much that I've read it over and over. Warning to the squeamish, there is a lot of violence, and although one probably could read this as a stand-alone, this exciting tale will be much more appreciated if previous stories in the series have been consumed. As always, this author has penned an exciting tale with vivid and engaging characters that evokes global high-stakes chess games and reminds one of the exciting early Clive Cussler tales or the various incarnations of the James Bond adventures.

 

 

A copy of this title was provided for review




The entire series (including the title that is going to be released in June!)

 

Monday, May 24, 2021

Knight Light by Claudie Riess (VBB, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT


 

 

 

Knight Light

by 

Claudia Riess

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

GENRE:   Mystery

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

BLURB:

 

On March 24, 1946, World Chess Champion, Alexander Alekhine, is found dead in his hotel room in Estoril, Portugal.  The cause of death remains mired in controversy when, three-quarters of a century later, a letter of his that could rock the art world is unearthed in a routine home renovation in upstate New York.  The letter is addressed to a person of international repute and offers information about art works looted during the German occupation of Paris.
When the young man in possession of the letter is brutally murdered, his mentor, art history professor Harrison Wheatley and Harrison’s sleuthing partner, art magazine editor Erika Shawn, hurl themselves into the dual mission of tracking down both the killer and the looted art.
The hunt takes the couple to far flung locations, and as the stakes rise along with the murder count, it looks like the denouement will take place far from the comforts of home.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 


 

EXCERPT


Mid-afternoon Harrison was back from his lecture class on Baroque painting.  He found Erika holed up in her third-floor study, absorbed in whatever she was scribbling in her notepad.  He pulled out the chair from what had once been his grandmother’s vanity and sat beside her.  Displayed on the computer screen was a series of lines structured like a poem; at a glance, unintelligible.  He planted a kiss on her cheek.  “What the hell is it?”

 

She put down her pen and turned to him.  “It’s a translated excerpt from Jean Arp’s poem ‘Der Vogel Selbdritt.’”

 

“That explains why it’s inscrutable.  It’s Dada.  Why is it of interest to you?”

 

“To us,” she corrected.  “I’ve been trying to get a handle on our proposed investigation.  Let me start from the beginning.”

 

“Will Lucas be joining us?”

 

“Not for a while.  He’s sleeping.”

 

“He does a lot of that.”

 

She smiled and flipped back the pages of her pad.  “First question:  What’s the main subject of interest—the MacGuffin, so to speak?  Answer: Alekhine’s letter.  Why?  Because Alekhine died under murky circumstances shortly after he wrote it.  Because it contains leads to recovering art lost during the war, which is of great interest on all fronts honorable and evil.  Because it’s the only document Chuck conveyed to you, so he must have thought it was the most important one of the collection.  And last, because it’s the only tangible item we’ve got.”  She took a breath. 

 

“Next.  Who would benefit from getting their hands on this letter, either to gain information from it or to make sure the information remains hidden?  We have to exclude anyone with honorable intentions, since violence was employed to secure the document.  The agency of evil comes from the dark side of the art world.  From blackmail to black market.”  She stared hard at him. 

 

“We can voice our suspicions, but we cannot actually go there.  You do understand, right?”

 

Harrison nodded.  “I do.”

 

“I’m not convinced.”

 

“I will never put you at risk.”

 

She shook her head.  “You left yourself out of the equation.  Not good enough.”

 

It will have to be, sweetheart.  “We will both stay safe,” he said aloud.  “Behind the line of scrimmage.  Go on with your report.”

 

“Just so you know, I don’t quite believe you.  But for now, let’s not lose our train of thought.  So.  What are the lines of inquiry generated by Alekhine’s letter to Ambassador Martins?  One. Learn anything we can about the fate of the Jules Eisenberg Gallery in Paris. This includes its owners, their living relatives, if any, and its wartime art inventory.  Two. Try to trace the provenance of the paintings specified in the letter.  Three. Contact organizations that might help identify the German referred to in the letter—the one who Alekhine says fled to Brazil.”  She skewered him with another look.  “The operative word here is identify.  We identify.  The guys in bullet-proof vests track down.”           

 

“Got it.”

 

“Do you?”  She glanced down at her notes to check if she’d missed anything.  She hadn’t.    

 

“Anyway, the hope is that down the road these lines of inquiry will intersect, and we’ll be able to contribute a couple of leads to pass on to the authorities.”

 

“Who are fixated on another line of reasoning altogether,” Harrison reminded her.

 

“We’ll have enough evidence to convince them otherwise.”

 

“You’re an optimist.”

 

“Realistic, not wide-eyed.”

 

“And it’s contagious,” he said, laying his hand on hers.  “Now, tell me why you’ve got Jean Arp’s poetry on display.”

 

 

 

Amazon link

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

 

Claudia Riess is a Vassar graduate who's worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker and Holt, Rinehart and Winston.  She is author of the Art History Mystery Series published by Level Best Books and includes: “Stolen Light,”* “False Light” and “Knight Light.” She is also author of “Semblance of Guilt” and “Love and Other Hazards.”

“Knight Light,” the third novel in her Art History Mystery Series, released February 23, 2021, follows the series amateur sleuths Erika Shawn, art magazine editor and Harrison Wheatley, art history professor, as they tackle the sinister world of art crime that tests both their courage- and love-under-fire.

 

 

 

Website

Twitter

Facebook      

 

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GIVEAWAY


a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

The tour dates can be found here