The Last Broken Girl by Cynthia Rice

The Last Broken Girl

by Cynthia Rice

Buy Link

Blurb

In THE LAST BROKEN GIRL, a psychologist fights to save her young daughters, her career and possibly even her sanity when the woman who kidnapped and terrorized her as a teen resurfaces, hiding in the shadows, and forcing her to revisit her painful ordeal to survive. 

Excerpt

Erin climbed back under the covers and switched back to the interior cameras. She scanned room by room. Finally, she watched over the girls, asleep in their beds. This had been her routine since they had been born. She leaned back against the headboard and shut her eyes. She breathed in for three seconds, out for four seconds. Over and over. Tonight, the familiar routine didn’t help. She finally gave up, sat forward, and snatched her phone off the nightstand. 

She turned her attention to the on-line News-Journal. It was the lead article, as Lindsey had described. 

“Convicted Kidnapper Stanley Duggan granted parole hearing with possible release after June hearing.” The article went on to summarize the months of captivity which had destroyed her life twenty years ago and haunted her still. He described the question of a female accomplice, seen only by traumatized young Erin, and authorities were not sure she existed. Duggan had denied having an accomplice. Fuck them. She had no doubt Veronica was alive and watching. 

At the bottom of the article, it mentioned “Erin Moore-Jackson still lives in the area with her husband and two young daughters, with a Psychology practice with Meadowview Center in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. She could not be reached for comment.” 

She checked her phone’s call log and saw there were no missed calls. The reporter hadn’t even tried to reach her, and he had no business mentioning her girls and her place of employment.  

After studying each security camera feed again, she threw off the covers, tiptoed down to the kitchen and topped off another glass of red wine. She settled on the living room couch and wrapped a throw around her legs, clutching her glass so tightly she was afraid it would shatter in her hand as the pen had done earlier in the day. She would not be sleeping that night. 

Author Bio

Mystery and suspense author Cynthia Rice is a physician living in the Milwaukee area and a proud member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Her debut novel, The Last Broken Girl, is set in rural Wisconsin where she has strong ties. The novel won the 2023 Claymore Award in the category of suspense. Additionally, she has A short story in the February 2025 released anthology, Gone Fishin’: Crime Takes a Holiday. When she’s not working on her next novel, Cynthia keeps busy reading, traveling, and playing mediocre golf and tennis. 

 

The Case of the Croaked Coach by Susie Black

The Case of the Croaked Coach

by Susie Black

Buy Link

Blurb: 

There wasn’t an honest bone in Buzz Bixby’s body. The Encino High School’s head football coach was an equal-opportunity scoundrel. Bixby cheated and lied his way to the top and screwed anyone and everyone in his wake. So, the question wasn’t who wanted the bastard dead. The question was, who didn’t? Student reporter Hannah White’s interview with the coach is a nonstarter when she discovers varsity football hero Dean Snyder standing over Bixby’s battered corpse holding a bloody trophy. Despite how guilty Dean looks, Hannah is convinced he’s innocent. When Snyder is arrested for Bixby’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to flesh out the real killer. But the trail has more twists and turns than a slinky, and nothing turns out how Hannah thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge. 

Excerpt:

Logic said to either run for help or to run for my life, but a combination of fear— if Dean did it, now discovered, would he kill me too— and the curiosity to learn the answer kept my feet frozen to the spot inside the doorframe.  

Dean’s body shook like a leaf in a rainstorm as he stared at the bloody trophy in his hand as though he just discovered it. Either Dean was doing an Academy Award-worthy acting job for my benefit or he was even more terrified than me. Flip a coin. 

A reporter has to make snap judgments. Is it the same as trusting your gut? 

Dad’s voice whispered inside my head. “Trust your gut.”  

I guess the answer to my question is yes… 

“Dean,” I spoke his name in the same soothing tone you do to a frightened animal. 

He looked up at my voice, surprised to hear his name called. His eyes filled. “It’s not what you think.” 

Fairly confident Dean had no plan to smash my head to smithereens with the trophy, I took a few tentative steps into the office.  

I dipped my head towards the trophy still in his grasp. “Okay. Then what is it?” 

Dean’s voice quivered. “After practice, I came here to talk to the coach.”  

“About what?” 

“To convince him to give me the starting position.” 

The train has already left the station so, in my book, a big waste of time. Just sayin’. 

I pursed my lips. “The word around campus is Bixby was a lame duck with no say in anything anymore.” 

Dean scowled. “He still had a lot of sway with Coach Bender. Bixby could convince Coach Bender to make the change if he wanted to.” 

“Why would he?”  

Dean huffed with righteous indignation. “To do the right thing. Because I earned the spot and he knew it.”  

For Donna’s sake, I gave it my best shot to believe him. But Dean’s story had more holes than a dozen glazed donuts. 

 I framed my hands like a movie director. “So, maybe this happened? You met with him. No matter how much you pleaded, Bixby still refused your request. You got angry. You never meant for it to happen, but things went way out of control.” I pointed to the trophy. “You grabbed the trophy off the shelf behind the Coach’s desk and in a fit of rage, you hit him with it on the back of his head.”   

Dean yelped, “No! I never got the chance to talk to him.” Dean waved the trophy at Bixby’s torso scrawled across the desk. “I walked into the office and found him slumped over the desk with the back of his head bashed in.” 

“How long have you been here?” 

Dean scrunched his eyes closed. “Ten minutes. Maybe less. I-I’m not sure.” 

“Besides the trophy, you move anything else?” 

He shook his head. 

“Where was the trophy?” 

Dean pointed to the carpet under the coach’s desk. “On the floor next to the coach’s desk. I tripped over it when I stood next to him.” 

“What on Earth ever made you pick it up?” 

Dean shrugged. 

“So, other than pick up the trophy for some idiotic reason, did you do anything else?” 

He made a sour face.  

I peppered him with questions. “Call 911? Try to help him? Check his pulse? Perform CPR? Anything?” 

Dean hung his head. “No.” 

My jaw dropped. “What the heck is the matter with you?” 

He bunched his shoulders. 

“ If you’d at least called 911 he had a chance of being saved.” 

He pointed the trophy at the corpse. “Is he dead?”  

It’s not as though I’m an expert on the subject. The only dead body I’ve ever seen in person was Cindy Butler’s Grandma Ethel’s at the old lady’s funeral last June.  

Dean bent over to examine the coach’s crumpled body. “I’ve never been around a dead body before. How do you tell?”  

Good gravy. The back of the guy’s head is smashed in like roadkill. How much more proof do you need? 

I rolled my eyes. “Well, since he hasn’t so much as twitched since I got here, I’d say it’s a safe bet the next game Bixby coaches is gonna be played in the stadium located at the Great Beyond.” 

I used my shirt sleeve to pick up the phone receiver.  

Dean gulped. “Who are you calling?” 

Is this guy for real? 

“Donofrio’s Pizzeria. Dead bodies give me the munchies.” I smacked his forehead with the heel of my hand. “For crying out loud, Dean! Who do you think I’m calling? The police!” I tsked, “Something anyone with a brain does the minute Bixby’s body is discovered.” 

Dean whined as cranky as a toddler who needed a nap. “Why? No one knows we’re here. Can’t we just leave and let somebody else call the cops?” 

I gritted my teeth. “Because it is against the law to leave the scene of a crime.”  

Author Bio:

Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, multi-award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. She has published seven books in four years and book number eight is slated for release in May 2025. She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and is the mother of one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect. Looking for more? Contact Susie at: Website: www.authorsusieblack.com

E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com

 

Creek by Linda Broday

Creek

by Linda Broday

Buy Link

This is the first book in the Guns For Hire series. I am writing Shad, book 7, which will be released on June 15, 2025.  In the meantime, read Creek and the other books as they come out.  All of the books are on preorder now.

Blurb:

A mysterious man with one name and secrets that gnaw at his soul.

Creek has a reputation as a gunslinger, a lawless man—one to be feared. So, when an orphaned eleven-year-old girl in this rough border town claims she’s his daughter, it jolts the very fiber of his being. For a man making a living with a gun, he’s not father material in any sense of the word. And he has serious doubts he ever met her mother.

Yet Willa July stands firm. Creek has the mark on his wrist that proves her claim. When she’s taken by a crazed killer from his past, Creek is propelled into a desperate chase. He alone understands the depths of this monster’s evil mind.

Time is his enemy as he races to save her. But if he succeeds in getting the girl back, can Creek tear down his walls and embrace the role he never dreamed possible?

 

Murder in Concrete by Arthur Coburn

Murder in Concrete

by Arthur Coburn

Buy Link

Blurb:

Nineteen-year-old Charlie comes home to find her mother murdered. Police drag her father’s body from the Skagit River. With help from a therapist, Charlie makes it to college where she sees her “dead” father acting in a movie and hurries to Hollywood, to find him.

Excerpt:

Chapter 1

I was strapping my stuffed cougar onto my bike

when Dad rushed from the house and said, “Charlie,

you can’t take that animal to school.”

I grinned. “He’s harmless. Just a way to give the

uptight teachers a reason to remember us.”

“Not happening.”

“He attacked a hiker last year. Would have killed

someone sooner or later. It was a public service to take

him down.”

“You’d upset the school administration, get

arrested, and give your mother conniptions.”

Crusty eyes, day old beard, hints of bourbon and

coffee on his breath—he’d had a tense morning. My

parents split the days. Mom up until midnight, doing

the books. Dad out of bed at dawn and off to measure,

saw, and wrestle thousand-pound logs into place.

I said, “Why are you such a grump?”

He pulled the cougar from my bike. “Mind’s on

business. Put yours on finding a summer job before

they’re all taken.”

At the sound of a distant explosion, Dad stared

down the road a long moment. I looked but didn’t see

or hear anything special.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “You’re

still my favorite daughter.”

“Only daughter. That joke hasn’t gotten funnier

since second grade.”

Author Bio:

Arthur Coburn grew up in New Jersey, went to Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, passed the Washington bar, exam spent two years in the U.S. Infantry as a first Lieutenant, and survived a three-year law career, before bailing out and landing a job for King Screen Productions, a filmmaking Division of the KING Broadcasting Company in Seattle. His first assignment there was to make a chart of all the proposals for peace in Vietnam.  He progressed to directing commercials, industrials and documentaries; later to writing educational film scripts for the same company.  When the division closed, he worked as a freelance writer – doing environmental impact statements, and as a freelance still photographer.

After he left the law, Arthur wrote dramatic educational film scripts, and won a local Emmy for a documentary, then moved to Hollywood, where he edited more than two dozen films, including Spiderman,  A Simple Plan and The Cooler. He is a member of Sisters in Crime and MWA; and he goes to writing conferences. He has taken a screen writing class John Truby, studied with poet and novelist Jim Krusoe at Santa Monica College.  He took a class with author Kris Neri in mystery writing, and two courses with novelist and short story writer Tod Goldberg at UCLA. He has written five novels: Murder in Concrete (to be published in 2024) Murder in Madrona (currently in revision); and several awaiting care and review: MaBoys Will Be Boys, Mostly (general fiction),  Rough Cut (a thriller). He won the Novel Prize at the Southern California Writer’s Conference in June 2005 for Rough Cut.  His short stories, Some CreatureI Care About, and Backswing, appeared in  Sisters in Crime Anthologies: LAmarked for Murder and Ladies Night. 

Arthur is a member of the Motion Picture Academy and the Foreign Film Committe for which he watches dozens of domestic films and upward of fifty movies from all over the world in order to vote for best foreign film.

 He has traveled and worked in Morroco, Poland, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Canada and France, speaks serviceable French and Italian and watches the French and Italian channels on cable. He learned enough Polish to order tomato soup without rice and enough Swahili to order hot water for a shower when he was on a shoot in a desert encampment in Kenya. Arthur skis, road bikes, and has a pilots’ license. Plays a little classical guitar and can improvise on the piano and Hammond organ. He has a Hammond B2 and a Leslie speaker at home.

He worked as a film editor in Hollywood on more than two dozen features.

His current novel, Murder in Concrete, was picked up by The Wild Rose Press largely due to the sympathetic eye and efforts of his fabulous editor, Dianne Rich of TWRP. She saw the novel’s value from the start and guided him past various hurdles to bring it home. He is currently revising another novel and hoping to publish it in 2024.

 

 

A Code of Knights and Deception by Eliza Hampstead

 

 

Outlander meets Black Mirror in this sizzling dark time travel romance!

A Code of Knights and Deception

Swords of Time Book 1

by Eliza Hampstead

Genre: Dark Time Travel Historical Romantasy

Outlander meets Black Mirror in this sizzling dark time travel romance!


Sophia

I thought I was trapped in history. Turns out, it’s far worse than I imagined.

I woke up in 15th-century England, a brutal world where women are silenced, superstition rules, and survival depends on obedience. Trapped far from my husband and son, nothing makes sense. I’m a scientist, not a damsel in distress, so I did what I had to—I disguised myself as a man and trained with Henry, the castle’s master-at-arms, learning to wield a sword to defend myself.

But as I carve my place in this world, my forbidden love for Henry shakes everything I believed in. Do I fight to return home—or surrender to a future I never imagined?

Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that Henry is hiding something—something that could shatter everything I’ve fought for.

Ethan

What if the woman you’re supposed to observe becomes the one you can’t live without?
I never meant to fall for her. She’s fearless, brilliant, captivating. Every lesson, every stolen moment deepens the lie—and my guilt. I’m not the man she thinks I am. That my name is Ethan, not Henry, is the least of the lies I tell her.

If she learns the truth, I’ll lose her forever.

And time is running out.

*Warning: strong language, steamy scenes, and graphic violence inside. Mention/Description of, but not limited to, abduction, blood, death, amputation, childbirth, death, sexual assault, suicide, violence against children, rape, and torture.*

The book is the first in a duology and ends with a cliffhanger.

 

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

Eliza Hampstead, a scientist by training, lives with her family in the UK. When she's not writing, she spends her time as a geek. Playing all sorts of games (board games, video games, RPGs) and being a big fan of medieval history are only a few of the many hobbies she has. Passionate about fantasy, she’s always planning her next adventure.

 

Website * Facebook * Instagram * TikTok * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a $10 giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

KIRK - BY CHARLENE RADDON

 By Caroline Clemmons

My friend, Charlene Raddon, is a prolific writer of heartwarming western historical romances and time travel. In addition, this very talented lady creates book covers at her Silver Sage Cover Designs, http://facebook.silversagecoverdesigns.com. I’m happy to announce that Charlene has a new book, KIRK, coming out on April 15^th, Book 3 in the sweet western historical Guns for Hire Series. By the way, Charlene created the series. Didn’t I tell you she’s talented?

 

 

Her book plots are always unique. She has the knack of taking the villain and turning him into a hero—with the help of a feisty and determined heroine. Her new book is one I can hardly wait to read. It’s available for preorder now so that it will magically pop up on your e-reader on release day.

Here’s the blurb for KIRK, Book 3 of 10, Guns for Hire Series:

Kirk Redick, a former preacher, is faced with either letting his brother be forced into the job of a hangman or accepting it himself. He chooses to take on the hated work until he finds the man who framed his brother.

Observing a hanging at Red River Crossing, Adina Kinnaird is touched as she overhears the hangman comforting the condemned man. When Kirk is shot, she helps him escape the gunman and the angry mob.

Traveling from town to town, Kirk and Adina search for the man who framed his brother and find themselves falling for each other. Kirk doesn’t want her living in the danger he faces every day.   

In a showdown with the outlaw, Adina is shot. Kirk’s heart stops. He doesn’t want to go on without her. Will capturing the gunman be enough to clear his brother’s name and give Kirk and Adina the freedom to live outside the shadow of the hangman’s noose?

 https://www.amazon.com/Kirk-Hire-Sweet-Western-Romance-ebook/dp/B0DT7R89N8/ 

Series books already released are CREEK and DUSTIN. Don't miss any of this exciting adventure romance series!

Thanks for stopping by.

Changing Lanes by Claire Yezbak Fadden

 

 

For fifty-something Roxy Adams, the days are drenched in sunshine and a passion for her boyfriend, Sam Reyes. That is until he turns up dead in the trunk of Roxy's limo and she's arrested for his murder.

Changing Lanes

A Roxy Adams Mystery Book 1

by Claire Yezbak Fadden

Genre: Humorous Cozy Mystery, Romantic Suspense

For fifty-something Roxy Adams, life is simple and beautiful. Her days are drenched in southern California sunshine and passion for Sam Reyes, the man she loves and shares a business with.

When Sam vanishes with their savings, leaving only a note behind, Roxy is faced with a harsh reality. Broke and confused, she learns they never owned the business. The actual owner will let her keep her job if she provides him with benefits.

Convinced there’s no knight in shining armor riding to her rescue, Roxy dusts off her chauffeur’s hat and returns to the career she trailblazed twenty years earlier.

With a steady income, new friends, and the possibility of romance, joy slowly replaces insecurity. Foxy Roxy is back. Life is wonderful and exciting once again. Until Sam turns up dead in the trunk of her limo. And Roxy is arrested for his murder.

 

Amazon * Apple * B&N * Kobo * Smashwords * Bookbub * Goodreads

Roxy paced what might soon be her ex-living room, glad her last shift at the food truck was over. She’d never have to deal with Chuck again. That was the good news the bad news drowned out. With about five hundred dollars to her name, she needed a new job. And fast. Three weeks had passed while she waited and hoped to hear from Sam. A frantic call begging for her forgiveness. Telling her everything was a big mistake, that he was sorry, and he was coming home. But no call came. Sam had vanished completely, taking with him any sliver of love she had felt for the man. Taped to her front door that morning, Roxy found a handwritten note from Flora, the apartment manager, threatening a thirty-day eviction notice. She had crumpled the paper and thrown it near the empty television stand. Along with Sam, her sixty-five-inch wide-screen now lived somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Next to the wadded notification rested a balled-up bank statement. The account where she and Sam had regularly deposited their pay held a hundred-dollar balance. Once again, the reality invaded her. Sam was gone, cleaning out their bank account and leaving unpaid bills in his wake. Roxy gulped back a tear and coiled onto her secondhand couch, stained and lumpy. She was on her own. Not that she couldn’t survive. Roxy prided herself on being a strong, self-sufficient woman. Still, she hadn’t planned on moving into midlife alone and broke. Practically in the dead of night, Sam had sold his business and left for Tennessee. Apparently, turning sixty lit a fire under him to move closer to the wife he had abandoned long before Roxy had met him. Now that their children were grown and the responsibilities fewer, Sam had happily traded the hustle and chaos of Los Angeles for back-country fishing holes and lazy days with grandkids he’d never met. At fifty-three, Roxy understood the draw of reevaluating your life, accomplishing goals before getting too old to remember what they were. She and Sam had chased those dreams together. After all, he encouraged her to abandon her career as one of the few female limo drivers in California, probably in the country. Instead, he persuaded her to join him slinging hash from his food truck on a side street near the corner of Vine and Fountain in downtown LA. Roxy groaned at the thought. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. She’d given up pocketing hundreds of dollars in cash tips while meeting the area’s famous, wealthy, and colorful. Sam supplied everything she had missed during her early years—a steady life, a reliable partner, a consistent income. Things she never had growing up in Downey. A solidness she’d never find in the capricious chauffeuring world.

Pennsylvania-native Claire Yezbak Fadden lives in Orange County, California with her husband and two spoiled dogs. She spends her spare time playing with her four grandchildren and immersing herself in the words of other authors.

 

Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a  $20 Amazon giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway