It's my pleasure to host author S. Burke today. She is a fellow member of the RRBC, or Rave Reviews Book Club, an international Association of Indie Authors.
Mystery and suspense lovers are in for a treat, as S. Burke's most recent novel, "Acts Beyond Redemption," takes readers behind the walls of the FBI and into the investigations of eighteen serial murders.
With that lead in, I'm passing the mic to our guest, S. Burke!
* * *
Hi, and welcome to my Rave Reviews Book
Club “SPOTLIGHT” Tour!
Please join me in thanking my awesome
host.
Today I’m sharing with you a brief extract
from Chapter 1 of Acts Beyond Redemption.
Blurb:
Acts Beyond Redemption takes you on a
twisted, deadly, journey.
Mike Matheson is head of a Special Task Force set up by the F.B.I to track down
and apprehend the serial killers responsible for 18 brutal murders.
The team are exhausted, frustrated, and ready to burn out after almost five
years and no leads.
Their nightmares are stripping them to the bone.
Nothing has prepared them for this.
Someone on the inside is deflecting their weary eyes away from an
incomprehensible and terrifying truth.
Who will be buried in the shattered remains of a country where freedom and
honor are treasured above all things?
Just how far will those elected to protect and defend go, to keep the American
dream alive?
###
The setting is the FBI New York H.Q of the
‘Countdown Murders’ Task Force.
Doctor Nigel Cantrell, considered one of
the best Forensic Psychologists in the country has been flown in to profile a
suspect and interview her.
We Begin ...Part way through the chapter.
An excerpt from Acts Beyond Redemption.
The
doctor entered the room quietly, noticing as he did that the lone occupant
didn’t bother looking up. Her bowed head remained on her folded arms, although
he was certain she was aware of his presence.
“Hello?”
he said softly.
The
woman raised herself into a sitting position and stretched, flexing her long
arms and yawning as she did so.
“Hello,
Eileen, my name is Nigel Cantrell. May I sit?”
He
was ignored.
“I
was hoping that you and I might talk awhile. Would that be okay?”
“Would
it not be more correct to introduce yourself as Doctor Nigel Cantrell?” she asked in a warm lilting voice. “I’ve
read much of your work, Doctor. I found it, shall we say, inspiring.”
She
stood, a tall woman, confident of her beauty. She walked over to him, assessing
him much as you would an insect under a microscope, she sniffed at him, leaning
into his space; she was a predator, scenting its prey.
The
woman circled him twice, moving closer, slowly closer. Then, with a
well-manicured fingernail, she reached out and gently traced the jagged scar on
his face, making deep moaning sounds as she did.
Giving
a throaty laugh, she moved back, just a little.
The
hairs on his neck stood on end, and he felt a cold, gut-wrenching recognition
of something inhuman and unholy. He chose to disregard her presence; if he were
correct, she would react to that.
He
focused instead on the nagging thought he was missing something vital on that
list. Sitting, without her consent, and ignoring her presence, he focused on
his notes.
In
spite of herself, she appeared intrigued. She perched on the table next to
where he sat, crossed her long slim legs, and leant forward to read what he
wrote.
Abruptly
he looked up, and said, “Yes! Yes, of course!”
He
felt, rather than saw, her body tremble. His brain recognized it - not as fear
as one might expect - but as excitement.
Finally,
he looked up at her, noting her dilated pupils. “Sheila?” he asked. “It is
Sheila, isn’t it? There will be no more bodies. Will there, Sheila?” He
repeated the name, allowing his voice to raise a fraction “Sheila?”
“Oh,
what a clever little man.” The woman
clapped her hands together slowly, mocking him. “Clever, clever, little man!”
The
doctor did not react. He stood, carefully avoiding eye contact, crossed to the
door and left the room.
***
“What
the hell are you doing, Cantrell?” stormed Mike Matheson as the doctor
re-entered.
Cantrell
was too preoccupied to respond; instead, he hurried over to the list of names.
He
wrote on the board in large letters. A, E, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, S, W.
“Sheila
didn’t slip up, gentleman. That’s her correct name, by the way. Sheila allowed
you to catch her.”
“What?
Why in the name of God would she do that? We hadn’t even come close to finding
our killer. She’s much too clever! She made a mistake, pure and simple,” Mike
stated in a voice reserved thus far for errant underlings.
“No,
Mike. She made no mistakes. She decided the when, the where, and the how; then,
well, then, she sat back and waited for your people to arrive.”
“What
are you talking about, man?”
Doctor
Nigel Cantrell tapped the letters with his pen …A, E, H, I, L, M, N, P,
O, S, W.
“Remove
P and M for the Paul and Martin she mentioned earlier in her ‘tirade’, and
rearrange the letters just so, and what are we left with? Ah, yes, I thought as
much.”
A,
E, H, I, L, N, O, S, W.
“She
had finished, gentleman,” he said firmly. “All she wanted then was for everyone
to acknowledge how brilliant she is.” He stood back to allow the startled
agents to see what was written there.
SHEILA WON.
###
I’m
mean aren’t I? But anything more would be a spoiler.
Isn’t Sheila just delightful?
I had so much fun creating my monster.
I look forward to catching up with you again on the tour. I'll be
sharing much more with you about the book and the folks that hide between the
covers. Thanks so much for stopping by. And a huge thank you to my wonderful
host.
Suzanne Burke lives,
laughs, writes and enjoys her life in the beautiful harbor-side city of Sydney
Australia.
She is a mother and
grandmother, now in her sixties, and considers every moment of every day as a
precious treasure to be valued and explored, and not simply endured.
Her non-fiction works are
written under the pen-name of Stacey Danson. They are both challenging
and thought provoking works covering the earliest years of her life, the topic
of child abuse and the PTSD that accompanied her into her later years are not, by virtue of their subject matter an
easy or comfortable read, yet so many have read them. She will be forever
grateful that her readers have assisted in raising the awareness into this
painful and enduring evil. An awareness that is
vital in any efforts to stem this tide of inhuman acts perpetrated on the most
innocent of us all … the children.
She escapes into the
world of fiction in her thriller and suspense novels, continually exploring
other genres such as paranormal and dystopian, and always delighting in the
magical escapism offered in the written word.
She
is an avid reader and reviewer who enjoys sharing the works she explores.
Follow Suzanne online:
Twitter
handle - @pursoot
