by: Nancy Boyarsky
Series: Nicole Graves Mystery
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: September 26, 2023
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, or so they say.
P.I. Nicole Graves arrives early at work, just as Los Angeles is hit with “the Big One,” a long-predicted, devastating earthquake. When the building stops shaking, Nicole finds Jerry, her boss, in his office dying of a gunshot wound. It appears to be suicide.
Nicole is shocked to learn that the police have decided Jerry’s death was murder and even more shocked that she’s their only suspect when there’s no shortage of people with motives. And there’s the question of why the detectives are pursuing this one case when all city workers, including the police, are in an all-out search and rescue operation for survivors. All she can do is evade capture long enough to prove her innocence and catch the real culprit.
She got up and hurried down the hall to Jerry’s office to see if his computer was still there. The odor she’d noticed before grew stronger as she approached his door. When Nicole opened it, the smell was unmistakable. It was blood—blood that had been left to ripen a while. She turned on her flashlight and swept the room with its beam. There was something lying on the floor near the desk. Hair rose on the back of her neck as she approached it. Just as she feared, it was a body. As soon as she was close enough, she focused the flashlight on its face and rocked back on her heels. It was Diana Chang, the young woman who’d arrived with Nate Goodman when Jerry was bleeding out. From the amount of blood on the floor, it looked as if Diana had bled out hours ago. She’d been shot through the forehead, and she was very dead.
Nicole got out the burner phone, ready to call 911. Only then did she realize that she—of all people—couldn’t report Diana’s death. Even calling anonymously was out of the question. It might allow the police to track her new phone and learn she’d been at the scene of yet another murder. She also had the feeling that, whether or not they tracked her here, they were still going to blame her for Diana’s death.
Nicole got out the burner phone, ready to call 911. Only then did she realize that she—of all people—couldn’t report Diana’s death. Even calling anonymously was out of the question. It might allow the police to track her new phone and learn she’d been at the scene of yet another murder. She also had the feeling that, whether or not they tracked her here, they were still going to blame her for Diana’s death.
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Nancy has been a writer and editor for her entire working career. She coauthored Backroom Politics, a New York Times notable book, with her husband Bill Boyarsky. She has written several textbooks on the justice system and contributed to anthologies, including In the Running about women’s political campaigns and The Challenge of California. She has also written for the Los Angeles Times, West magazine, Forbes, McCall’s, Playgirl, Westways, and other publications. She was communications director for political affairs for ARCO.
In addition to writing mysteries, Nancy is producer and director of the “Inside Golden State Politics” podcast.
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This sounds like a good mystery. I like the excerpt and cover.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for featuring this book today.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteLooks like a good read.
ReplyDeleteI love everything about this - genre title and cover!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing it.
Where do you get your ideas for writing?
ReplyDeleteDo people suggest topics for books?
ReplyDeleteDo you have a favorite place to write
ReplyDeleteDo you reward yourself with something special when finishing a book?
ReplyDeleteDo people suggest topics for books?
ReplyDeleteDid you get a lot of encouragement when you decided to become an author?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do when you are not writing?
ReplyDeleteHave you ever started a book that you decided not to finish?
ReplyDeleteI like the cover
ReplyDeleteWhat inspired you to write this book?
ReplyDeleteHow long do you write per day?
ReplyDeleteWhere do you get your ideas for the cover?
ReplyDeleteHave you started a book and not finished it?
ReplyDeleteDo you have a favorite time to write
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do when you are not writing?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the excerpt. Sounds like a good book
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