Released: April 16th, 2014
Jayda Parrish was a St. Louis girl through and through, raised on gooey butter cake and Ted Drewes frozen custard. She came from humble working-class beginnings and was employed in a fuse factory in a lower-class part of town, despite her natural talents that could have afforded her a much better future.
Fed up with her life, she plans a calculated escape from her abusive, alcoholic boyfriend, which includes faking her own death. Her escape works, but with unforeseen results. A series of life-threatening situations, and near-death challenges befall her as she flees her old life. The police now hot on her trail.
Along the way Jayda encounters an array of colorful and unforgettable characters that transform her view of life and her expectations of happiness. During her journey Jayda finds a wonderful man and learns about true love, while facing the fight of her life to hang on to it all.
Jayda’s character develops as one twist and turn confronts her after another in a fast-paced all-encompassing love story of deepest proportions. She finds strengths she didn’t know she possessed and learns to love more profoundly than she ever could have imagined possible.
A romantic suspense story that includes mystery, ancient myths and long-held secrets.
Born in rural Texas, Samantha has traveled extensively in her formative years. When she was small her parents traveled to England where she started pubic school as a young girl. Later her family moved to France, New York, Missouri and now she resides in Los Angeles. She's held jobs as diverse as law librarian to college professor to government worker. She has a BA and Writer's certificate from UM-St. Louis and a Master's degree in Communications from Webster University. She's co-authored books for Publications, Intl. as well as having many numerous published magazine articles. She enjoys attending Women's Literature and Fiction Writing groups to review current books and to discuss writing with her peers.She enjoys the freedom she experiences with creative writing, especially a good story with plenty of twists and turns and suspense.
(Click book cover for Goodreads link)
♕ Finding Jayda ♕
Amazon
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The
sound of police sirens pierced the chilly Halloween night. It was 3 a.m., but the early hour did not
deter onlookers from leaving their beds to shout angry accusations safely from
their side of the rickety fence. If this
simple wire and wood structure failed to protect them, surely the cops pacing to
and from the shabby little house would.
These two sisters did not appear to like this man who had lived next
door to them for years. He had managed
to violate every known courtesy of neighborly conduct. St. Louis Homicide Detective Ben Foxx
carefully observed every detail.
“Murderer!”
they screamed at officers walking near the shabby cottage. “That creep killed her. Everyone knew he would do it someday. Ask anybody.
Arrest him. Give him the electric
chair,” they ranted and raved, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes taking
turns. It was almost as if they had
agreed upon a plan to keep their noisy protests constant.
A
frightened and confused Carson Liddell sat in a grimy plastic backyard patio
chair awaiting questioning. Carson’s
wild and shaggy red hair covered his eyes, as it usually did, but he could
still throw his evil stare at the two ranting women with his yellow-hued
pupils. They smiled back at him
confidently, as if they could not imagine the possibility that they would be
deprived the joy of watching him being hauled away in handcuffs.
“I'm
telling you she's been abducted,” Carson fumed as Foxx approached, dragging
another patio chair over for their conversation. “I came home and found everything just as you
see it now—the blood, the knocked-over furniture—and Jayda's gone. I had nothing to do with this. Someone came here and took her away.” He was rambling, trying to convince everyone
who had ears to hear that he was innocent.
Carson Liddell was visibly shaken. Not with concern for his girlfriend,
but for fear of his own situation.
“And
why would anyone want to abduct Jayda Parrish,” Ben asked incredulously. “There is no motive for that—no ransom
money. Why do you think this, Mr.
Liddell?”
“How
the hell do I know?” he answered angrily.
“There are lots of weirdoes out there.
Maybe someone did it to get at me somehow. Lots of people hate me.”
“You
say you had been at an AA meeting all evening,” asked Detective Ben Foxx,
soberly and calmly, while typing information into his notebook computer. “Do you have any witnesses who can verify
your alibi for those hours? Isn't it
rather late for that type of thing?”
“It's
Halloween. There was a party after the
meeting, and I hooked up with some new people—okay, a new woman. The conversation ran
pretty long,” he said.
“So,
can you give me the names of these people you were with?” he pressed.
“Well,
none of us use last names,” he said with apparent concern about this
predicament. His pockmarked face contorted to form deep creases over his
brow. “Anonymity is taken very seriously
in AA. I can give permission for someone
to reveal my identity, but I could get in real trouble telling you about anyone
else in the group.”
“You're
already in trouble,” stated Ben Foxx without emotion. His deeply serious tone seemed to stun Carson
into an even deeper sense of panic. The
whites of his eyes expanded and bulged, showing streaks of red blood vessels.
On
hearing the word trouble, Carson
clearly saw himself facing jail—a place where both inmates and guards would
find reasons to mistreat him. Ben Foxx
watched as the man reacted like someone who had lived it all before and had
emotional scars to show for it. He could
see all of this by reading Carson’s face and watching his gestures. Suddenly, this man no longer cared about
respecting some ridiculous principle such as anonymity. He reached into his back pocket and pulled
out a worn and folded piece of paper.
No comments:
Post a Comment