Cassandra Hoffman orphaned at the age of five was raised by her maternal grandmother. Two decades pass when she is confronted with a letter from her father’s Denver based attorney. She's shocked to learn that her dad lived through the car crash that took her mother and brothers in 1985.
Cassandra Hoffman orphaned at the age of five was raised by her maternal grandmother. Two decades pass when she is confronted with a letter from her father’s Denver based attorney. She's shocked to learn that her dad lived through the car crash that took her mother and brothers in 1985.
Casey’s haunted nights begin with the death of her father. Who is the shadow man in her dreams? Could it be her dad whom she had believed dead? She discovers he had another family, and some dark secrets Casey sets out to solve the mysteries of her abandonment, and find the answers to the nightshades that threaten her sanity.
Our heroine runs afoul of a previously unknown nemesis as she searches for answers, but she also finds the love of her life. He too abandons her, as he struggles with physical and mental wounds from multiple tours in the Middle East. Can Casey forgive him as they confront a mutual enemy?
EXCERPT
Stokes was already at the bar when Big Joe arrived. The PI was a smidgen under six foot, and not very impressive. That fact and his patient persistent nature served him well and enabled him to blend in almost anywhere. His light brown receding hairline and brown eyes framed by wire-rimmed glasses didn’t garner much interest.
An overly attentive young hostess escorted Big Joe to his usual table at the back corner of the dining room where he had an excellent view of who came and went. He had more than a few enemies. That was to be expected. He was a rich, ruthless, powerful man who was about to move JD to the top of his enemy list.
He ordered another bourbon when Stokes joined him and waved off the waiter as he returned for their lunch order. “Get on with it.”
Stokes disliked Big Joe, but he paid well and had a lot of well-heeled connections. Things were tight, so he took on the assignment to follow Cassandra Hoffman. “Not much happened after she got back from Denver. She works at her studio and spends a lot of time at home with her grandmother. Other than a couple of altercations with her ex fiancé, not much to interest you until JD showed up, but it is all in the report.”
Big Joe took the packet with the report, complete with photos, and set it aside. He would review it in private. “Get to the part about JD.”
“He must have arrived by cab. I didn’t know he was there, but stuck around a while when she got home. It was obvious that something was out of the ordinary that Friday evening. She broke the speed limit and then some. A short time later she, her grandmother, and JD went out to eat. He stayed the night, but before dawn they were on the road. I followed them with the little tracking beacon I’d placed on her vehicle when I’d first taken on the assignment. They spent the day at a horse sale with some of her friends. Early Sunday morning, the pair of them went to a local boarding stable where her purchase of the prior day was delivered. They returned home to escort her grandmother to church.”
Stokes placed a flash drive in his laptop and activated the file he wanted, and then he slid it over for Big Joe to view. “Sunday, the lights went out around eleven. I stayed for a while and figured they were in for the night. It was raining, and I was ready to pack it up when JD opened the door and seated himself on the small covered porch. Things got interesting when Miss Hoffman joined him.”
Big Joe closed the laptop. “Stokes, I want that flash drive.”
Stokes ejected it and gave it to his client who dropped it into the packet with the rest the results from his assignment.
“Go back and keep an eye on her. I will take care of JD.”
Stokes didn’t like the sounds of the implied threat, but he caught the next flight back to Cleveland.
About the author:
Author Jackie Anton lives in rural Ohio with her husband, two horses, two dogs, and abundant wildlife. Years of experience with horses and youth riders lend a unique perspective to her Backyard Horse Tales, and crop up in unexpected scenes in her adult works written with the pen name J.M.
Ms. Anton is the author of the award winning children’s series Backyard Horse Tales. In her 2015 award winning adult novel "Wind River Refuge" she turns her attention to the difficulties in overcoming childhood abuse. Set in the turbulent sixties and early seventies. This romance / who done it comes from a time before child advocacy, cell phones, and PCs.
Cassandra Hoffman begins her search for justice in the early decade of the twenty first century in Anton's latest adult novel Cassandra: Night Shades.
Other Books by J.M.
2015 saw the release of the first two books in the Troubles in Love-Land Series. Book One: "Fateful Waters" was released as an e-book and paperback May of 2015. Book Two: "Panhandle Mayhem" was be released November of 2015. There is more to come in the series for 2016.
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It all sounds very mysterious.
ReplyDeleteI like to read mysteries. A romantic mystery sounds very intriguing :)
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