Title:
Evil Alice and the Borzoi
Author:
DK Coutant
Genre:
Mystery
Book Blurb:
Cleo Cooper, a cross-cultural psychology professor, is living the dream on the Big Island of Hawaii. With ocean-dipping weekends, she enjoys her dog, her job, and her boyfriend Ben - until the day she’s on a research vessel and a dead body is caught in the dragline. The police determine it’s murder and set their sights on a gentle former student, Kai. It doesn’t take much urging from Kai’s auntie for Cleo to investigate. But Ben grows distant, and Cleo’s dog grows ill. A couple of accidental deaths later and someone makes an attempt on her life. What happened to Cleo’s life in paradise? Can she discover the true killer? Can she stop the killer before the killer stops her?
Excerpt:
As I was musing ‘what ifs’, my eyes drifted to an intense mountain of a man in a red shirt so saturated with color I expected it to drip onto his jeans. The almost-to-the-elbow sleeves revealed ropey forearms the color of a dried kukui nut. The bones in his broad face, made me think of a tiger, not traditionally handsome, but arresting. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Almost as if he could feel my scrutiny, he turned his head and looked directly at me. My pulse quickened and I froze - an impala trapped in the gaze of a predator. I couldn’t look away. A barely perceptible smile appeared on his face. He knew the effect he was having on me. Embarrassment gave me the strength to jerk my eyes down to my feet.
What the hell was wrong with me? Maybe low blood sugar? I didn’t eat much breakfast.
I risked a glance back at him. Damn, he was still looking at me with his self-assured smile. He greeted my glance with a hint of a nod and turned his attention back to the speaker. Flustered, I too looked back at the speaker, but I couldn’t make out what the guy was saying so I went back to looking at the crowd, carefully avoiding the red-shirted predator.
There were a lot of locals who I didn’t know, but I saw Rikki and Gina standing together. No sign of Kawika, Gina’s cop-husband. I would have thought the police would want to come to the funeral as part of an investigation now that they suspected foul play.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
Fun-in-the-Sun mixed with mystery and intrigue! And lots of Hawaii, in case you can’t get there yourself this year.
Giveaway –
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Open Internationally.
Runs January 21 – January 28, 2025.
Winner will be drawn on January 29, 2025.
Author Biography:
DK Coutant earned a Ph.D. in Psychology and spent most of her academic career at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. After many happy years in Hawaii, DK made the move out of academics to become a professional geopolitical forecaster for GJP, Inc ( https://goodjudgment.com/Inc ) and the Rand Corporation ( https://www.randforecastinginitiative.org/frequently-asked-questions). She loves to travel with her husband and an Old English Sheepdog. Evil Alice and the Borzoi is her first work of fiction published by The Wild Rose Press. The second book in the series will be released in 2025.
Social Media Links:
Bluesky: @dkcoutant.bsky.social
Instagram: @DKCandDog
Mastodon: https://lor.sh/@dkcoutant
X: @dkcoutant