Welcome! Today, I’m hosting a spot for the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Deadly Reception by Karen Randau. Today’s post includes a guest post by Ms. Randau. Information about the book, including purchase links will be below the guest post. Special thanks to Ms. Randau for providing the guest post for today’s stop!
Cliff Avery here, detective on the police force of Rim Vista, Arizona. I was born in the imagination of Karen Randau, author of the Rim Country Mystery series but have taken on a life of my own since then. She and my eccentric Aunt Zelda claim I was raised in Texas. Aunt Zelda moved us to Arizona after my father beat my mother to death.
That last part was true.
My most important role is husband to the narrator of Karen’s books, Rita. My wife says I remind her of the guy who plays FBI agent Seeley Booth on the TV show Bones. I’m okay with that. Booth is patriotic, enjoys a good joke, has experienced tragedy, doesn’t always follow the rules, and knows how to love a woman.
Yeah.
Rita is my partner in every way imaginable, including how she helps me investigate cases as a fledgling private investigator. People have said we’re an unconventional team, but I like it that way. So does Rita.
I met my wife the day her first husband was the first of fourteen people killed in a shooting at the local movie theater. Rita and Jared were celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary.
I spotted Rita across the lobby minutes after the shooting. She was sitting on a bench, covered in Jared’s blood, trembling. The scene reminded me of the day my first wife died from a bear attack twenty years earlier. I wanted to help her.
Rita didn’t know what a beautiful and talented woman she was back then. I like to think I helped her find herself. I fell for her the second I set eyes on her but kept it professional until we solved the case. I felt bad for her as she uncovered layers of secrets that Jared had kept from her their entire marriage.
We married two years later and honeymooned in Scotland. Rita stood right there beside me as I unraveled the lies Aunt Zelda had told me about my family history when I was a kid. On that trip and on several occasions after that, Rita’s saved my life. Man, can that woman fight!
I’m a lucky guy.
In Deadly Reception, Karen brought the family cast of her books to New Jersey’s cushy Tawnee Mountain Resort for the wedding of my step-daughter Zoe. Too bad a murderer left a surprise for us in our closet and threatened to ruin Zoe’s special day. As usual, Rita’s devotion to our family came through, and Zoe’s wedding was mostly a success.
We still had plenty of excitement through Karen’s story, though. Our first three suspects came from Rita’s discovery of the victim’s secrets, then the whole thing just kind of exploded from there.
When you read the book, I think you’ll be as impressed as I was when Rita showed off the skills her first husband taught her during years of Family Fight Night every Friday. I think he knew his sins would come back to haunt his family. Did it ever! Once again, Rita saved herself, me, and a local police officer from a sticky situation.
About the Book
Deadly Reception (Tawnee Mountain Mysteries)
Suspense Thriller Mystery
Self Published (April 16, 2018)
Paperback: 138 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1984380807
Digital ASIN: B079DGBW37
Purchase Links: Amazon
Synopsis
A severed head. A philandering husband. A skeleton in the basement. This was not the perfect wedding Rita Avery planned for her daughter Zoe!
Rita Avery and her detective husband Cliff arrive at New Jersey’s Tawnee Mountain Resort prepared to greet Zoe’s wedding guests in just three hours. Who would have expected to find a man’s torso in their closet?
Things explode into high gear when the victim’s head shows up at the golf equipment shack. A good look at his social media makes Rita wonder if a wife murdered her husband as revenge for infidelity. Or did a secret admirer decide to liberate the wife from her scoundrel husband?
Worse, is Zoe in life-threatening danger . . . again?
And will Rita and Cliff escape the trap in which the murderer snares them?
Murder and a passel of twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Zoe’s wedding is the most exciting you’ll attend!
About the Series
Deadly Reception is a part of the Tawnee Mountain Mysteries series, a collection of seven brand new mysteries, from seven award-winning and bestselling authors, taking place at the same final destination, the Tawnee Mountain Resort.
Deadly Reception
Each book in this multi-author series is a standalone novella, and the series can be read in any order.
The Tawnee Mountain Mysteries series includes:
Leona’s Last Resort
Dark Side of the Mountain
Deadly Reception
Black Diamond Graves by Wendy Fallon
Deadly Misfire
Cassidy’s Deadly Exit
The Quinnipiac Disappearance by Lee Tidball
About the Author
Karen Randau recently retired from an international humanitarian aid organization where she worked in marketing communications for nearly three decades.
Her Rim Country Mysteries series currently has three novels: DEADLY DECEIT, about a woman whose husband was one of fourteen people killed in a movie theater shooting; DEADLY INHERITANCE, about the same woman who has remarried and gets locked in a Viking burial cave with a lit stick of dynamite while honeymooning in Scotland; and DEADLY CHOICES, about the same woman finding the mother she hasn’t seen in twenty-five years, only to discover a devastating secret. Her fourth book, DEADLY RECEPTION, is part of the multi-author Tawnee Mountain Mystery series of novellas and features the same character unraveling the mystery of why there was a torso in her closet when she check into a posh New Jersey resort.
Karen enjoys spending time with her grown children, playing with her dog, and hiking with her husband.
Website: http://www.karenrandau.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/karenrandauauthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=karen+randau
Thanks for joining me today! If you wish to visit other sites on the tour (which actually starts today), please click on the banner below. It will take you to the main tour page with a list of participants.
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