CLOAK AND MIRRORS -- SUSPENSE ON A HONEYMOON

Cloak and Mirrors

by P.M. Terrell

GENRE:   Suspense

P.M. Terrell will be awarding Celtic necklace containing the Tree of Life. USA only to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Ms Terrell shared an interview with us. I've left out the questions so you can enjoy her answers as a vignette of her life:

I began writing when I was nine years old. My father was an FBI Agent and we were living in New Jersey when he was sent to the Mississippi Delta during the tumultuous 1960’s. It was a violent period; Jewish synagogues were being bombed, African Americans were being lynched; and three young men were killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi as they simply tried to register African Americans to vote.

Prior to moving to Mississippi, I had not been shy but I found myself ostracized because I was the daughter of an FBI Agent—someone they wanted out of their state—and I turned inward. The principal at my school saw how lonely I was and she suggested that I write. Creating people and events in my mind led to a lifelong pursuit of writing and when I retired from the computer industry in 2002, I turned to writing full-time.

I also turned to reading an eclectic assortment of books, from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier to Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee. I loved books that took me away from the Mississippi Delta, particularly those set in England, Ireland or Scotland in centuries past.

It wasn’t until I began writing the story of an ancestor, Mary Neely, in Songbirds are Free that I began to understand my connection to Western Europe. Mary had been captured by Shawnee warriors in 1780 near Fort Nashborough (now Nashville, TN); I knew she had been of Scot-Irish descent but like so many Americans, I knew little else about those distant ancestors.

I began to research my family history and it brought me deeper into Ireland than I ever thought possible. My sister and I began traveling to Ireland, discovering the land that was granted to John Neely in Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. We were presented with a book from the local school that had just celebrated a hundred and fifty years on ground that was donated by the Neely “lords” and we were astonished to find that the villagers still remembered the last of the Neely family. We stood in the family cemetery amid gravestones that had been destroyed; we were told during the time of The Troubles, the British soldiers destroyed them looking for hidden IRA weapons, which they did not find.

Cottage in Ballygawley, Northern Ireland

There is something about Ireland and discovering one’s past that never leaves. That is why my books have increasingly more information about Ireland, from Dylan Maguire’s past in Dylan’s Song to a honeymoon in Cloak and Mirrors. In Cloak and Mirrors, much of the action takes place in Donegal and along the Wild Atlantic Way, which is where my ancestor, William Neely (John’s father) first lived when he immigrated to Ireland from Wigtownshire, Scotland in 1608. Interestingly, as I was researching a new series about my Irish ancestors (to be released later this year) I discovered that the family was actually coming home to Ireland—they left Ireland for Wigtownshire about four hundred years earlier (circa 1200) and there is a possibility that our family is related to Niall of the Nine Hostages, who was the High King of Ireland around 400 AD. I am awaiting the DNA results now.

I had plans to move to Ireland and write my books in a little cottage by the sea, but unfortunately Ireland has initiated stricter guidelines and now an American must have more than $50,000 per year in a government guaranteed pension—income from writing is not counted. I have not given up, however; I hope someday that requirement will be set aside so I can return to the land of my ancestors—a land that resonates more with me with each passing year.

CLOAK AND MIRRORS Blurb:

CIA operatives Vicki Boyd and Dylan Maguire are back in the 6th book of the award-winning Black Swamp Mysteries Series. Vicki and Dylan journey to Ireland for their honeymoon and while they are there, they agree to pick up a package from a Russian spy containing plans for Russia's latest stealth technology. But when the Russian decides to defect, they find themselves trying to get him safely out of the country. They also discover the Kremlin has uncovered their identities and now Vicki and Dylan flee across the island. With breathtaking descriptions of Ireland's rugged coast and the Northern Lights, romance and suspense come together again.

CLOAK AND MIRRORS Excerpt:

“Nettie O’Connelly,” Jack began, “was the mother o’ nine children and a widow to boot. She lived in west Belfast within a stone’s throw o’ The Falls Road and within full view o’ the Divis Tower. It would have been the early 1970’s, so it would.” Jack shook his head. “There was violence every blasted day and night. The Catholics lived on one side o’ the road—divided by the Protestants by what is now known as the Peace Wall.”

He fell silent for a moment as he collected his thoughts. “Divis Tower was manned by British soldiers. Not much was done about violence against the Catholics—” he snorted for effect “—but violence against the Protestants, even in retribution or defense, was dealt a heavy hand. A heavy hand indeed.

“So it didn’t go unnoticed when one o’ the British soldiers stood at Divis Tower and looked down at Nettie’s home. Not once, mind ya; not twice. Every blasted day. She spent time each day washin’ and hangin’ her clothes in the yard—nine children can dirty a lot. She was still attractive, children or no; hair the color of a sunset and eyes snappin’ green. Petite thing she was.”

A gust of wind howled through the night, sounding like a woman’s protracted moan. Ciara began to paw the ground and Dougal snorted.

“We began to suspect a spy in our midst. Oh, it was a bad time, to be sure. Neighbors watchin’ neighbors. No trust, even for brothers. The slightest thing could set off the neighborhood like a powder keg just waitin’ to blow. There were brawls a’plenty. Boys gone missing overnight. Anyone suspected of cavortin’ with the Brits was dealt with severely.”

He rose and stepped to Ciara, stroking her mane in a gentle effort to calm her. “Then the ladies along the block began to notice a correlation between the colors o’ the clothes Nettie washed and hung and what happened afterward… When she washed her whites, she always seemed to leave her home at a particular time and always went a round-about ways. No one knew where she went. It wasn’t to the neighborhood butcher or grocer or any of the usual places a woman would go. Then one day she was spotted in the center of Belfast—an area declared to be accessible to both Catholics and Protestants, unionists and loyalists, which was laughable indeed.”

“So Nettie O’Connelly was a spy?” Alexei asked.

“We’ll never know, boy. That very night she was hauled from her home, right in front of her nine children. And never seen again.” Just as they thought the story was over, he continued. “My brothers were there. They told me about it afterward, I think as a warnin’ to keep my own mouth shut and my head down. They drove Nettie O’Connelly to the very spot where we were to meet the plane. Three carloads o’ men, at the least, and Nettie beggin’ for her life and for her children’s safety. A woman could scream till her throat grew bloody and not a soul would hear her out at the old lighthouse. And so it went on for hour after hour.”

Jack looked at the skies. “It would have been just about this time o’ year, I’d wager. The skies grew black around four or five o’clock and the sun wouldn’t make its appearance until nigh on ten o’clock the next morn. Long nights, they were. They said that Nettie was tortured until the witching hour approached, but she never confessed, never admitted to giving any one of us up. Not even when her children’s lives were threatened. She always maintained her innocence.” His voice grew quiet and then stopped.

After a long moment, Alexei asked, “What became of her?”

“They thought she was dead. Her body was laid out on a flat rock whilst the men debated what to do with her. Some wanted her buried, others brought out to sea. It wasn’t a night like this one, you see. There were no Northern Lights that night. No stars, not even a moon. Just a thick fog that rolled in from the sea, uncanny it was. It was so murky that the men carried a lantern from the cars to the water’s edge; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to find their way. My brothers said they set the lantern beside Nettie’s body while they huddled just a few feet away. They realized everythin’ had gone black around them and when they looked back, she and the lantern were gone.”

Jack inspected Ciara’s bridle for a moment before continuing. “It was easy to see which direction she’d gone; the lantern was bobbin’ along one o’ the paths, around the brambles and the rocks and along the ridgeline. They followed it for a bit, shoutin’ as those men did—” he nodded his head toward the east “—and then the lantern was snuffed out.”

He wiped his nose. “They continued searchin’ for her but it was too dark. Black as pitch, it was. They left sentinels along the main roads to Belfast and left others in charge o’ watchin’ her home and her children. It wasn’t until summer that they found her at the base o’ a cliff, her neck broken. It’s said they brought her body—ravaged by time and the elements—into the ocean some three hours out and dropped her overboard.”

Alexei joined the two men. “And that was the end of the story?”

“Oh, no,” Jack chuckled but his eyes held no mirth. “That was only the beginning. For it’s said that Nettie O’Connelly still haunts these parts after all these years, carryin’ her lantern at the witchin’ hour, lurin’ men to their deaths.”

   

Buy links –

https://www.amazon.com/Cloak-Mirrors-Black-Swamp-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01NAWXFSK/

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 20 books in several genres, including suspense, historical and non-fiction. Prior to becoming a writer, she owned two computer companies in Washington, DC with a specialty in combatting computer crime. Her clients included the CIA, Secret Service and Department of Defense. Technology is often woven through her suspense thrillers. Terrell is of Irish descent, and Ireland often figures prominently in her books as well. She has been a full-time author since 2002 and currently travels between her home in North Carolina and Northern Ireland, the home of her ancestors. She is also the founder of Book ‘Em North Carolina’s Writers Conference and Book Fair (http://bookemnc.org) and The Novel Business (http://thenovelbusiness.com).

Website: http://pmterrell.com

Blog: http://pmterrell.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmterrell

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pmterrell.author/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/terrellpm

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pmterrell/books/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmterrell

GIVEAWAY

P.M. Terrell will be awarding Celtic necklace containing the Tree of Life. USA only to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

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REVIEW OF SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL'S WORLD WAR II SERIES

Susan Elia Macneal has composed an exciting new series. No wonder that it's a top seller and recipient of numerous awards. Ms Macneal engaged in extensive research for these books, especially the first one. She uses her knowledge as a background to place the reader in the midst of the action. The research allows her to transport the reader with the heroine protagonist, Maggie Hope, through an exciting maze of danger, friendships, romance, and discovery. I recommend this series wholeheartedly to all readers!

Although she was born in England, Maggie Hope has been living as the ward of her college professor aunt in the United States. Her aunt loves Maggie, but is a formal, undemonstrative woman. Still, Maggie had a good life and graduated with honors at the top of her college class as an exceptional mathematician. She is preparing to enter MIT for her doctoral studies when her aunt enlists her to go to London and sell the home of Maggie’s late grandmother. Maggie’s aunt and grandmother were estranged, so Maggie had never met her grandmother. In fact, she was not even aware her grandmother had been alive during her lifetime.

Times are uncertain and economic times are hard in London and Maggie is unable to find a buyer. Surprised by how much she wants to remain in London, she gathers four women her age to rent rooms in the large Victorian home. Through one of the women, Maggie gets an interview and is hired as a typist for Prime Minister Winston Churchill. (I was so impressed that typists took dictation directly as they typed rather than using shorthand as I did when I was a secretary. I would never have been able to keep up, at least not without a gazillion errors.)  

Each of these books unlocks another part of Maggie’s complicated past. She is angry at the deceit of her aunt and others, yet she still loves the woman who raised her. She realizes how difficult it must have been for her unmarried professor aunt to take an infant into her life. That doesn’t stop her mixed emotions with each personal secret she uncovers. At the same time, Maggie is uncovering many more secrets and encountering danger that places her life in peril.   

As I mentioned in the title, this review is not of one book but of a series. Authors always tell readers that their series books stand alone, and usually that’s true. In this instance, readers simply must first read MR. 

CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY or many of the undercurrents in subsequent books will be meaningless.

Here’s the blurb for MR. CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY:

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for code breaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.

PRINCESS ELIZABETH’S SPY is the second book:

As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, becomes a spy for M1-5. Possessing one of the sharpest minds in government for mathematics and code–breaking, she fully expects to be sent abroad to gather intelligence for the British front. Instead, to her great disappointment, she is dispatched to go undercover at Windsor Castle, where she will tutor the young Princess Elizabeth. Yet castle life quickly proves more dangerous—and deadly—than Maggie ever expected. The upstairs-downstairs world at Windsor is thrown into disarray by a chocking murder, which draws Maggie into a vast conspiracy that places the entire royal family in peril. And as she races to save England from a most disturbing fate, Maggie realizes that a quick wit is her best defense, and that the smallest clues can unravel the biggest secrets, even within her own family.

The third book is HIS MAGESTY’S HOPE:

World War II has finally come home to Britain, but it takes more than nightly air raids to rattle intrepid spy and expert code breaker Maggie Hope. After serving as a secret agent to protect Princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, Maggie is now an elite member of the Special Operations Executive—a covert organization designed to aid the British effort abroad—and her first assignment sends her straight into Nazi-controlled Berlin, the very heart of the German war machine. Relying on her quick wit and keen instincts, Maggie infiltrates the highest level of Berlin society, gathering information to pass on to London headquarters. But the secrets she unveils will expose a darker, more dangerous side of the war, and of her own past.

I highly recommend this series. Each member of my family has read and enjoyed it. One simply cannot stop reading these suspenseful books. I eagerly look forward to the June release of THE PRIME MINISTER’S SECRET AGENT. You will too!

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KIANA DAVENPORT AND THE SPY LOVER

THE SPY LOVER by Kiana Davenport

Thrust into the savagery of the Civil War, a Chinese immigrant serving in the Union Army, a nurse doubling as a spy for the North, and a one-armed Confederate cavalryman find their lives inextricably entwined.

Fleeing drought and famine in China, Johnny Tom arrives in America with dreams of becoming a citizen. Having survived vigilantes hunting “yellow dogs” and slave auction- blocks, Johnny is kidnapped from his Mississippi village by Confederate soldiers, taken from his wife and daughter, and forced to fight for the South. Eventually defecting to the Union side, he is promised American citizenship in exchange for his loyal services. But first Johnny must survive the butchery of battles and the cruelties inflicted on non-white soldiers.

Desperate to find Johnny, his daughter, Era, is enlisted as a spy. She agrees to work as a nurse at Confederate camps while scouting for the North. Amidst the unspeakable carnage of wounded soldiers, she finds solace in Warren Petticomb, a cavalryman who lost an arm at Shiloh. As devastation mounts in both armies, Era must choose where her loyalties lie—with her beloved father in the North, or with the man who passionately sustains her in the South.

A novel of extraordinary scope that will stand as a defining work on the Chinese immigrant experience, The Spy Lover is a paean to the transcendence of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

Review from The Huffington Post

"...A great story told with such beautiful prose I am hoping The Spy Lover will be picked up by Ang Lee or Steven Spielberg. Kiana Davenport is a brilliant writer. [Based] on her ancestors from the American South and global East, The Spy Lover takes the incredibly difficult...topics of race, gender, slavery and war and artfully weaves them into a specific story. Davenport is genius at capturing complex times, and complications of the heart. It's been a long time since I cried while reading a novel, and that happened several times while reading The Spy Lover...I couldn't wait to finish the story, but grieved when it ended. That's exactly how I felt when I finished reading Gone With The Wind so many years go. If you need a holiday escape...or want to spend time in a different world read... The Spy Lover!" - Ellen Snortland for The Huffington Post

Purchase

Amazon * Barnes & Noble

Author Kiana Davenport

KIANA DAVENPORT is descended from a full-blooded Native Hawaiian mother, and a Caucasian father from Talladega, Alabama. Her father, Braxton Bragg Davenport, was a sailor in the U.S. Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor, when he fell in love with her mother, Emma Kealoha Awaawa Kanoho Houghtailing. On her mother's side, Kiana traces her ancestry back to the first Polynesian settlers to the Hawaiian Islands who arrived almost two thousand years ago from Tahiti and the Tuamotu's. On her father's side, she traces her ancestry to John Davenport, the puritan clergyman who co-founded the American colony of New Haven, Connecticut in 1638.

Kiana is the author of the internationally best-selling novels, SHARK DIALOGUES, SONG OF THE EXILE, HOUSE OF MANY GODS, and a new novel, THE SPY LOVER, now available in paperback and on Kindle. She is also the author of the collections, HOUSE OF SKIN PRIZE-WINNING STORIES, CANNIBAL NIGHTS, PACIFIC STORIES Volume II, and OPIUM DREAMS, PACIFIC STORIES, VOLUME III. All three collections have been Kindle bestsellers. She has also been a guest blogger on Huffington Post.

A graduate of the University of Hawaii, Kiana has been a Bunting Fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Writer at Wesleyan University, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Her short stories have won numerous O. Henry Awards, Pushcart Prizes, and the Best American Short Story Award, 2000. Her novels and short stories have been translated into twenty-one languages. She lives in Hawaii and New York City.

Website * Blog * Twitter * Facebook

Praise for Kiana Davenport

“An epic feminine saga!  Davenport’s prose is sharp and shining as a sword.”

-Isabel Allende on SHARK DIALOGUES

“Deeply Moving.  You can’t read Kiana Davenport without being transformed.”

-Alice Walker on SONG OF THE EXILE

“A powerful and moving experience.”

-The Washington Post on HOUSE OF MANY GODS

THE SPY LOVER

By Kiana Davenport

Kiana Davenport’s latest novel is a powerful epic about the American Civil War, which extends this beloved writer’s vision to an entirely new level. Based on her family history, it is at once an historical novel, a haunting love story, and a brilliant expose on the treatment of minorities during the Civil War.  Meticulously researched, it is finally a story of human sacrifice and personal redemption.  A magnificent novel that crosses all genres, THE SPY LOVER is a work of astonishing beauty that promises to become a classic.    

Johnny Tom, a Chinese immigrant, and his beautiful Creek Indian wife, and daughter, Era, live in Shisan, a Chinese settlement along the Mississippi River. Their life is simple and idyllic, until Confederate soldiers invade the town, kidnap the men and force them into service, fighting for the South and slavery. At the first opportunity, many Chinese soldiers defect to the Union Army. In revenge, the Confederates return to Shisan to rape and torture their wives and daughters. Defiled and half-mad, Era sets out to find her father and is plunged into the full savagery and horror of the War.  Lured by Union officials to pose as a nurse while spying on the Confederate army, she falls in love with a wounded Confederate cavalryman, and her loyalties become divided between her beloved father in the North, and the gallant soldier who sustains her in the South.

THE SPY LOVER is ostensibly a novel about the abiding love between a man and a woman, between a father and daughter, and the love of a man for his country. Ultimately, it is a meditation on the ethical choice, on honoring one’s moral obligation.

“I never planned to write an historical novel, or a love story, or a spy thriller, or a story about how brave Chinese soldiers were used as throw-aways in the Civil War. I simply set out to tell the story of my ancestors, who fought on opposing sides of that War.” - Kiana Davenport

Points of Interest

• U.S. Civil War Research – Kiana’s research for THE SPY LOVER was exhaustive.  For five years she studied correspondences and documents and traveled to the battlefields of the Civil War, discovering facts that she hoped would fascinate her readers.  She learned about Southern women collecting urine from which to distill niter for making gunpowder. And she learned how women planted and harvested poppies, then scored and gathered from poppy-pods the sap known as opium.  She read books on spy-codes used in the War, what spies were paid, and how they were executed when caught by the enemy.  She lived and breathed the Civil War, letting it engulf her as she wrote her novel.

• Kiana’s Heritage – Kiana’s ancestor, Warren Rowan Davenport, was a cavalryman who rode for the Confederacy in the Civil War with a famous unit known as the Prattville Dragoons, of Prattville, Alabama. Her research on Warren Davenport entailed reading over forty books on the War, then basing her fictional character, Warren Petticomb, on her Southern ancestor. Johnny Tom is based on another of Kiana’s ancestors, John Tommy Kam, who emigrated from Canton, China, to Hawaii and finally to the East coast of the U.S. While Kiana had access to tattered correspondences and documents from Warren Davenport, she had little but word-of-mouth stories from her Chinese uncle about his ancestor, John Tommy Kam. Eventually, she uncovered articles about Chinese soldiers who had fought valiantly in the Civil War, including two articles about John Tommy Kam.  Finally, she discovered his war records, and the grounds at Gettysburg where he is buried with his comrades, the Excelsior Brigade of New York State.

• Multicultural Themes - THE SPY LOVER is the story of Chinese soldiers who fought valiantly for a country that, afterwards, refused them American citizenship. It also unveils the gross mistreatment of Native Americans, African Americans, “mix-bloods” and other minorities who served honorably in the American Civil War. Importantly, it is also the tragic story of Native American women - mothers and daughters - kidnapped and raped by slave-owners who used them as breeders of a more “superior” kind of slave.

MORE PRAISE FOR KIANA DAVENPORT

“Torrid, yet intelligent…her writing compares with Toni Morrison.”
—Glamour on SHARK DIALOGUES

"The strengths of this novel are many.  Davenport is a superb storyteller!”
—The Seattle Times on SONG OF THE EXILE

“Davenport mines the depths of emotion…Readers who enjoy a Doctor Shivago-like saga will appreciate the broad scope of this novel”
-Library Journal on HOUSE OF MANY GODS

“Complex, resonant … handles the sweep of history and the nuance of the personal equally well.”
— San Francisco Chronicle on SHARK DIALOGUES

BookBlast $50 Giveaway

Ends 3/14/13

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


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