ASIN:
B009YMJ2AO
After a near-death experience, artist Ashley Price is compelled to paint visions of the dead, and fears she's gone crazy. Then she paints a man buried alive and, recognizing the surroundings, she rushes to save him.
Instead of being grateful to her for rescuing him, Detective Jack Sullivan accuses her of being in league with a serial killer. He swears he will put her behind bars. Except, the more time he spends with her, the more he falls under her spell. Can he trust her, or is he walking into another deadly trap?
~ ~ ~
The fox
behind the hundred-year-old Pennsylvania farmhouse inched forward in the
withered grass as it stalked the meadow vole. Gray winter clouds rolled above,
forcing their way across the sky, large brutes that had been twisted into
violent shapes by the winds of the troposphere. The fox paid little mind to the
weather, its eyes on its prize.
At the other
end of the farmyard loomed a dilapidated barn, filled with the scent of moldy
hay and rotting wood-the sweet scent of decay. A man crouched in the shadows of
the hayloft, looking out through a gap in the boards to watch the fox.
Some hunters
stalked their prey; others baited their trap, then lay in wait for the ambush.
He preferred the challenge of setting up the right trap, drawing his victim to
him. He liked to think his way, since it required more finesse, was the nobler
way.
Anyone could
follow a guy into a dark alley and shoot him in the back. But a quick death was
not what he had in mind for today. Detective Sullivan had dogged him for too
long, had caused too much trouble. Outsmarting the guy over the years might
have provided some amusement, but not enough to let him live. He'd reached too
close this time.
The man
glanced at the tool case at his feet. He couldn't allow the detective to
jeopardize his legacy. His masterpiece had to be preserved for all the ages,
for the generations that would be evolved enough to understand and appreciate
it.
Outside, the
fox pounced; then, a second later, it allowed the wriggling rodent to escape
for a few staggering steps before pouncing again. A quick kill left no time to
savor, gave the hunter no chance to improve his skills. Then the fox's ears
flicked, and in the next instant, it snatched up the vole and darted into the
stand of barren bushes.
Sullivan's
black sedan rolled down the dirt road at last.
The
detective had come alone. He would. He was that cocky.
A good
hunter knew his prey and used its weaknesses.
The man in
the hayloft pushed to his feet as the car rolled to a silent stop. Sullivan got
out, surveyed the buildings and the surrounding barren fields, his right hand
staying close to the weapon in his holster. He started for the house, crossing
the yard in careful strides.
He almost
walked past the chunk of bone, damn near tripped over it before he froze
mid-step. Judging by the way his expression darkened, he realized pretty fast
that the broken section of femur was human.
He squatted
and bagged the piece of bone as evidence, by the book, called it in just as the
first heavy, half-frozen raindrops crashed out of the sky. Instead of going
back to wait in the safety of his vehicle for reinforcements, he kept going.
Jack Sullivan
waited for no one. He worked with no one. He trusted no one. He asked for no
quarter and didn't give any.
Anticipation
of the pleasure of taking down a man like that, taking him apart piece by
piece, gave flavor to the hunt. The man in the hayloft adjusted the rubber
gloves on his hands.
He had at
least twenty minutes before Sullivan's backup would show-he'd driven the
distance on a half-dozen occasions in various traffic conditions and measured
the time.
They would
be too late.
Want to read more?
ABOUT DANA
Dana would love to hear from her readers.
THE Q & A
ANGI: What do you like about the Jack, hero
of your book?
DANA:
He’s tough, really a
man’s man, no metrosexual anything. He’s been scarred by his past. He’s doing
what he thinks is his duty, tracking down his sister’s killer. But because he
does everything full-force, without holding anything back, he’s at the point
where he’s losing himself to the darkness he’s chasing. It has become the most
important thing in his life. He needed light in his life, a recharting of his
course, but when the heroine came into his life, I wasn’t sure he’d be able to
change. That’s a tough spot to be in, to be half done with a book and realize
the main character might not do what I intended for him. Luckily, he has
incredible inner strength and he did overcome the darkness that drew him.
ANGI: How often do you get lost in a
story?
DANA:
Every day. I’m
obsessed with story. If I’m watching a movie or a book, I have to see it
through to the end. I can’t stand not finishing a story, even if it’s terrible.
I hope until the last page that the author/director will pull a brilliant
switch that will make everything fall into place. I just can’t give up on a
story. Housework I can let go to the point on being picked for the next episode
of Hoarders. A book? Never!
ANGI: What’s the first book you remember
reading?
DANA:
Robinson Crusoe was
definitely one of them. And Captain Nemo. I started with sweeping adventure
stories. This tends to come out in my own writing now. Half my Harlequin
Intrigues are set in some jungle or middle of a desert.
ANGI: What’s your favorite “love” word?
DANA:
Can it be a
sentence? It’s: “Put your feet up, hon, I’ll do the dishes.” J A man at the sink is twice as
romantic as a man just lying in bed.
ANGI: What’s your favorite cartoon
character?
DANA:
I don’t think I have
one. Is that terrible? I rarely watched TV as a child. My parents were big on
work and studying. And I spent every free minute on reading.
ANGI: Is there a playlist you’d recommend
for reading your latest release?
DANA:
I don’t listen to
music as I write. My brain is completely linear. I can only do one thing at a
time. I’m thinking what would be a good movie score… Something hauntingly
beautiful with a dash of heartbreak. I’ll have to ask my readers. I love it
that I can interact more now with them on Facebook. They have the answer for
everything!
ANGI: What was the first story you
remember writing?
DANA:
I started with poems
in kindergarten, then moved to angsty teenage short stories about the
horribleness of parents. (Sorry, mom!) At one point, in high school, I stopped
writing when an English teacher told me I had absolutely no talent.
Unfortunately, I also threw out everything I’d written up to that point. I went
back to writing in college--a historical romance set in ancient Egypt. I tried
every romance subgenre before settling on romantic suspense. After 30 books, I
think I found my perfect place.
ANGI: What is your biggest vice?
DANA:
The internet! I need
a blocker on my PC. I read the news twenty times a day. Check email. Check
Facebook. I don’t dare to start playing any games, no matter how many times I
get invited to Farmville etc. If I did it even once, I’d never write another
book again.
ANGI: Is there a “Blooper” in your story
(it may have been changed before printing)?
DANA:
I have a mental
glitch that makes me write ‘bear’ instead of ‘beer.’ So anytime you see the
hero reach for a ‘cold beer’ in any book of mine, you know in the original he
was reaching for a ‘cold bear.’ Once I even had that go up in an excerpt on my
web site without noticing. J
ANGI: How is it working with hot guys and
sexy women all day?
DANA:
You won’t hear me
complaining. I especially like the picking out cover models part. J It can take a long time. I like to
be thorough. It’s a difficult job, but somebody has to do it. I’d like to think
I’m the kind of person who will step up to the plate. J
ANGI’S GOTTA ASK: What drew you to write about a serial
killer?
DANA’S GOTTA
ANSWER: It wasn’t a
conscious decision. In fact, I rarely read books or watch movies with serial
killers. It’s not my thing. But the story came into my head, and he was in the
story so I had to write it that way. This novel took forever to write, probably
partially due to the fact that it had a serial killer. It was difficult for me
to write scenes from his head, so I would set the book aside for long periods
of time. I even had a writer friend helping me with them. Actually, the book
had some darker scenes that were cut during editing because they bothered me. I
write by the seat of my pants, with very little planning. An idea will come to
me and I’ll let it take me to places. Sometimes they’re very uncomfortable
places and I just try to hang in there until the story is told.
WHERE TO FIND DANA
Pintrest Blog Previous GLIAS interviews
UP NEXT FOR DANA
DEATHTRAP
The 2nd book in the series, featuring
Captain Bing
June 2013
MOST ELIGIBLE SPY
Harlequin Intrigue
July 2013
PREVIOUSLY BY DANA
THREE COWBOYS
Morgan
Harlequin Intrigue
ISBN: 0373696582
LAST SPY STANDING
SPY HARD
THE SPY WORE SPURS
Harlequin Intrigue
DANA will be DRAWING for something completely different. I’ll be giving
away a Kindle copy of my amazon bestselling epic fantasy romance, THE THIRD
SCROLL. International readers No Kindle
required as amazon will let you read in any format, including right on your PC. Be sure to leave your email address for easy notification.
Note: COMMENTERS
are encouraged to leave a contact email address to speed the prize notification
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directly to Angi @ GetLostInASotry@gmail.com Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be
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Lost In A Story cannot be responsible for an author's failure to mail the
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authors unless the commenter publicly posts their email address.
DON’T FORGET to FOLLOW us on Twitter #GetLostStories or LIKE us on Facebook to keep up with all our guest authors and their prizes. Join me next Wednesday when I host Diane Kelly of DEATH & TAXES fames. And come back tomorrow when we priemiere Donnell's new book. ~Angi
DANA WANTS TO KNOW:
Did you ever have anything in your life that you
just couldn’t give up on no matter what? Jack had his quest for the killer. I
had writing. Even after making up my mind that I’ll keep on writing whether I’ll
ever get published or not, it still took me 13 more years to finally sell a
book. What’s the one thing for you that you couldn’t let go, no matter the
setbacks?
