Title: Monster in the Dark
Author: Loretta C. Rogers
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Book Blurb:
As townspeople celebrate their annual Halloween Shocktoberfest barn dance, a panicked black stallion bursts through the open barn doors. Everyone cheers at seeing the rider dressed like Brom Bones of the Sleepy Hollow legend. However, when Doctor Tullah Holliday rushes to aid the fallen rider, she discovers a truly headless horseman. Who is he, and where is his head? Halloween turns more horrible when the next victim, furred to look like Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf, is found with an axe in his skull. When Tullah and her father, Sheriff Henry Holliday, discover a third grisly murder, again with the body arranged to resemble a specific fairytale villain, they must identify the maniacal psycho before he—or she—kills again.
Excerpt:
At first, I thought it was a mannequin. You know, like the ones used in store windows. There was no blood. She was sitting in a chair with her back toward us. The room reminded me of a scene from a horror movie.
Dad said, “Mrs. Gardner?”
I thought about the time I’d been on the movie set of Lights…Camera…Murder where the stunt man was killed, but in this act, there were no supporting actors. In the distance, a dog barked, and there was no movie director to call “Cut!”
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. The beats of my heart echoed inside my ears. I eased around the table. Oh, God! She was real. She was once…like flesh and blood and bone…just…oh, God! The woman I had thought was a mannequin was a corpse.
It was only the extreme brutality of her death that made her appear as if she were not, as if she was some creation of the most brilliant and lurid mind working in a Hollywood special effects studio.
A heavyset woman, clad in an old-fashioned granny dress, her wrists and ankles wrapped with silver duct tape, securely bound to the chair’s arms and legs, and with a double strip of tape that sealed her mouth shut, stared vacant-eyed at an empty soup bowl.
Dad gasped against the offensive smell, “How long do you thinks she’s been dead?”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
If money were no object, where would you go for a Spring Break vacation and why?
If money were no object, I would spend my Spring Break vacation on an American riverboat cruise down the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Not only would I have ample time to read but, to enjoy the breathtaking scenery of waterfalls and desert canyons without having to drive through traffic. And all the while, I would be gathering ideas for my next novels.
Why is your featured book a must-read this spring?
To find the answer to the question: “Why would the killer dress victims as fairytale characters?” can only be found by reading Monster in the Dark. Also, a reader said that although the story plot scared her, she couldn’t stop reading.
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $25 Amazon gift card
Open internationally.
Runs April 1 – 30, 2024
Drawing will be held on May 1, 2024.
Author Biography:
Loretta C. Rogers is a fourth generation Floridian. An avid genealogist, she discovered that one of her ancestors is Ragnar Lothbrok, a Viking king. When not writing she enjoys working crossword puzzles, reading, and traveling.
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