Teaser Tuesday 275: The Killing Game

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


This week’s teaser is from The Killing Game by Iris Johansen, book two in her popular Eve Duncan series. I read book one eons ago, and for some reason never got round to continuing the series, even though I liked book one and had the next couple in Mount TBR.

The skeleton has been in the ground for a long time. Joe Quinn had seen enough of them to recognize that. But for how long?

He turned to Sheriff Bosworth. “Who found it?”

“Two hikers. They stumbled on it late last night. Those rains the past few days washed it out of the ground. Hell, that storm slid half the mountain into the falls. A real gully washer.” His gaze narrowed on Joe’s face. “You must have hotfooted up here from Atlanta as soon as you heard about it.”

“Yes.”

“You think it’s connected to one of the Atlanta PD’s cases?”

“Maybe.” He paused. “No. This is an adult.”

“You’re looking for a kid?”

“Yes.”

(Opening, Chapter one)

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Series: Eve Duncan

A MERCILESS KILLER ON THE HUNT ... AN INNOCENT CHILD IN HIS SIGHTS ... A WOMAN DRIVEN TO THE EDGE TO STOP HIM ...

The killer knows Eve Duncan all too well. He knows the pain she feels for her murdered daughter, Bonnie, whose body has never been found. He knows that as one of the nation's top forensic sculptors she'll insist on identifying the nine skeletons unearthed on a bluff near Georgia's Talladega Falls. He knows she won't be able to resist the temptation of believing that one of those skeletons might be her daughter's. But that is only the beginning of the killer's sadistic game. He wants Eve one on one, and he'll use his ace in the hole to make sure she complies. And he won't stop playing until he claims the prize he wants most: Eve's life.

Teaser Tuesday 258: The Sound of Glass

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


This week’s teaser comes from The Sound of Glass by Karen White, a copy of which I received from the publisher through a giveaway at Goodreads. I finished over the weekend and loved it. This book will be published in early May.

BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA
JULY 1955

An unholy tremor rippling through the sticky night air alerted Edith Heyward that something wasn't right. Like a shadow creeping past a doorway in an empty house, or the turn of the latch on a locked door, the movement outside Edith’s open attic window raised the gooseflesh along her spine. Her breath sat in her mouth, suspended with anticipation as icy pinpricks marched down her limbs.

(Prologue)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The New York Times bestselling author of A Long Time Gone now explores a Southern family’s buried history, which will change the life of the woman who unearths it, secret by shattering secret.

It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward’s husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news—Cal’s family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal’s reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt.

Charting the course of an uncertain life—and feeling guilt from her husband’s tragic death—Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal’s unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff. This unknown legacy, now Merritt’s, will change and define her as she navigates her new life—a new life complicated by the arrival of her too young stepmother and ten-year-old half-brother.

Soon, in this house of strangers, Merritt is forced into unraveling the Heyward family past as she faces her own fears and finds the healing she needs in the salt air of the Low Country.

Teaser Tuesday 255: Accused

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


This week I am teasing from Accused by Lisa Scottoline, which I have just finished.

Suddenly they all looked over as the front door of the house opened and three older men in pinstriped suits emerged and strode toward them at a clip so purposeful it could only be billable, like a legal cavalry. The Gardners had lawyered up, but Mary could have told them it wouldn't work. The more outgunned she and Judy were, the more they liked it. You didn't choose to be a lawyer unless you relished a good fight.

(Chapter Eight)

ABOUT THE BOOK:
(Rosato & DiNunzio Series #1, a spin-off/continuation of her popular Rosato & Associates series)

New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Lisa Scottoline revolutionized crime fiction when she introduced her all-female law firm of Rosato & Associates, thrilling readers with her twisty, fast-paced plots and capturing their hearts with her cast of strong and relatable female characters. Now Bennie Rosato, Mary DiNunzio, Judy Carrier, and Anne Murphy are back with all cylinders firing in Accused.

Mary DiNunzio has just been promoted to partner and is about to take on her most unusual case yet, brought to the firm by a thirteen-year-old genius with a penchant for beekeeping. Allegra Gardner's sister Fiona was murdered six years ago, and it seemed like an open-and-shut case: the accused, Lonnie Stall, was seen fleeing the scene; his blood was on Fiona and her blood was on him; most damningly, Lonnie Stall pleaded guilty. But Allegra believes Lonnie is innocent and has been wrongly imprisoned. The Gardner family is one of the most powerful in the country and Allegra's parents don't believe in reopening the case, so taking it on is risky. But the Rosato & Associates firm can never resist an underdog. Was justice really served all those years ago? It will take a team of unstoppable female lawyers, plus one thirteen-year-old genius, to find out.

Teaser Tuesday 215: The Lost Symbol

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


This week I am reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. The teaser below is from about midway through the book.

Change your location. Now!

Still struggling to catch her breath, she began moving down the wall, touching her left hand quietly to each exposed steel stud as she passed. Stay along the wall. Slip past him before he corners you.

(Chapter 47)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon answers an unexpected summons to appear at the U.S. Capitol Building. His planned lecture is interrupted when a disturbing object—artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the building. Langdon recognizes in the find an ancient invitation into a lost world of esoteric, potentially dangerous wisdom. When his mentor Peter Solomon—a longstanding Mason and beloved philanthropist—is kidnapped, Langdon realizes that the only way to save Solomon is to accept the mystical invitation and plunge headlong into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and one inconceivable truth . . . all under the watchful eye of Dan Brown's most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol is an intelligent, lightning-paced story with surprises at every turn—Brown's most exciting novel yet.

Teaser Tuesday 158: The First Prophet

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few "teaser" sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!



This week I am reading The First Prophet by Kay Hooper. This is the first book in a new Bishop series. My teaser:

She couldn’t feel her legs beneath her. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t hear anything. And all she knew was cold fear.

(chapter 5)

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Bishop Files #1


Within the FBI, there exists a team of psychics whose powers cannot be denied. But these agents are feared—by a cabal of conspirators with only one weapon: to blind the psychics to the evils all around them.

Months ago Sarah Gallagher woke from a coma with psychic abilities she couldn’t control. They changed her life and cost her the man she loved. And now, someone is playing games with Sarah’s mind.

It begins with Sarah’s home being destroyed by fire—an act of arson that draws novelist Tucker Mackenzie into Sarah’s confidence. But he has other reasons for pursuing a woman who can see what others can’t. So does a mysterious enemy intent on eliminating Sarah, and everyone she cares about. Because it’s only a matter of time before her visions lead her and Tucker to a secret many will kill to hide. Only then will they begin to discover the scope of a terrifying conspiracy so deep and complex they can trust almost no one.

Teaser Tuesday 130: Deeper Than the Dead

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.

* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

I spent the better part of a stormy weekend curled up with (and finishing) a suspense by Tami Hoag, Deeper Than the Dead (Oak Knoll #1). Definitely fit the heavy mood set by the weather! Though I guessed who the killer was very early on, I enjoyed the chase to catch him and will certainly be seeking out the next two books in this series. My teaser comes from end of the second chapter:

 

Slowly Tommy pushed himself up on his hands and knees. The ground he was on had been turned over recently. It smelled like earth and wet leaves, and something else he couldn’t name. It was soft and damp and crumbly like someone had dug it up with a shovel. Like someone had buried something . . . or somebody.

His heart jumped into the back of his throat as he raised his head . . . and came face-to-face with death.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Deeper Than the Dead (Oak Knoll #1)
By Tami Hoag 
Genre: Suspense

California, 1985-Four children and young teacher Anne Navarre make a gruesome discovery: a partially buried female body, her eyes and mouth glued shut. A serial killer is at large, and the very bonds that hold their idyllic town together are about to be tested. Tasked with finding the killer, FBI investigator Vince Leone employs a new and controversial FBI technique called "profiling", which plunges him into the lives of the four children-and the young teacher whose need to uncover the truth is as intense as his own. But as new victims are found, Vince and Anne find themselves circling the same small group of local suspects, blissfully unaware that someone very near to them is a murderous psychopath . . .

Teaser Tuesday 127: The Lincoln Lawyer

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


This week I am reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly, book one in his Mickey Haller series. This is my first book by Connelly, a loaner from my sister, and I am enjoying the ride so far. Though I have not yet seen the movie, just knowing it stars Matthew McConaughey has me hearing his voice—not necessarily a bad thing—during the first-person narrative passages. His slow, southern drawl seems well-suited to the slick lead character of the book. I am about halfway through, but here is a short paragraph from near the end of chapter three.

No hesitation in what I had done or said. That was my job. That was how it worked. After fifteen years of practicing law I had come to think of it in very simple terms. The law was a large, rusting machine that sucked up people and lives and money. I was just a mechanic. I had become expert at going into the machine and fixing things and extracting what I needed from it in return.

(pg 30)

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Mickey Haller series (Book one of four)

For defense attorney Mickey Haller, the clock is always running. With two ex-wives, four Lincoln Town Cars that he uses as offices, and dozens of guilty clients, he can’t afford to miss a trick. When he gets picked by a Beverly Hills rich boy arrested for assault, Mickey sees a franchise case: a nice, long, expensive trial with maximum billable hours—until it hurtles him into the last place he wants to be. Suddenly hustling, cynical Mickey Haller is confronted with pure evil and someone who may be truly innocent. Now, for a lawyer who has always gone for the easy score, getting justice means taking the deadliest risk of all.

Teaser Tuesday 25: Blood Ties

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read.
* Open to a random page.
* Share (at least) two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Finished reading this one over the weekend!

Blood Ties is book twelve in Kay Hooper's Bishop/SCU series. One thing I found helpful in this book is the inclusion of an index of characters and their abilities, as well as footnotes throughout referencing books in which previous events occurred. The Special Crimes Unit is a unit of the FBI that deals with unexplainable crimes, or those with "supernatural" elements. Each of the agents assigned to this unit has different psychic abilities. In this particular scene, Diana and Hollis, both mediums, are looking for a way out of "the gray time," a corridor between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Down the corridor a bit, one of the doors swung inward with a faint but audible creak.

"Oh, that can't be good," Hollis said.

(pg 69, hardcover)

Book Blurb:
The elite Special Crimes Unit, the FBI’s most controversial and effective team, is a group of mavericks and misfits trained to use their unique psychic abilities to hunt the worst monsters imaginable – human ones. Led by the enigmatic Noah Bishop, the SCU team has earned a reputation for pitting their skills and cunning against killers that other cops fear. But this time Bishop and his agents face an enemy who has them in his sights, a trained sniper with a deadly
plan — and more than one ace up his sleeve. Read more

Teaser Tuesday 2: The Third Victim

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From The Third Victim, By Lisa Gardner:


The book opens with a shooting at a K-8 school in a small town. Officer Lorraine Connor and her volunteer police officer partner are among the first to arrive on scene, neither of them experienced in this type of criminal event.

"There are just three things to remember at a crime scene: Don't touch a thing. Don't touch a damn thing. Don't touch a goddamn thing. Okay?"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And because I like the sarcasm a little further on, same scene:

She crossed to the main control panel, and a second later the fire alarms abruptly broke off.

Chuckie blinked sharply. The silense was stunning after the noise. Stunning, and eerie.

"That--that's better, " Chuckie said after a moment, working on sounding confident when his face had turned the color of parchment.

"Major learning from Colombine," Rainie muttered. "The fire alarms obscured all sound. Made it impossible for the SWAT team to pinpoint where the shooters were in the building."

"You've been trained in school shootings?" Chuckie asked hopefully.

"No. I read Time magazine." Rainie jerked her head. "Come on. Keep your head on straight. Use your ears. You'll be okay."