He’s riddled with guilt. She’s annoyed with the status quo.The death of a crime boss’s daughter forces Detective Neil Caldera to leave NYC. He seeks refuge in the tranquil embrace of a small town, where he finds himself entangled in the labyrinth of a teenage girl’s murder.
Tess Fleishman’s pale skin and extreme weight loss portrays a disease she wants others to see. While inside, a compulsion for Neil fuels her passion to have him or destroy him.
As Neil delves into the heart of the town's secrets, will truth deliver solace? Or will Tess prevail?
Happenstance played no role in the display now before him. The artist’s rendition displayed evidence of a warped mind. Malevolence flaunted in the form of a portrait painted with blood.
Neil widened the beam of light with a left twist of the flashlight’s head. Shock jolted him. The likeness on the barn wall stared back at him with remarkable resemblance.
“Holy mother of Moses. I understand why you didn’t want to come back.”
Neil looked at the front and rear doors. Light from an approaching vehicle rose on the front of the barn. Gaps around the door allowed enough streaks of light through to make shadows look as if the light infused them with life. The vehicle continued onward. Every shadow around Neil returned to stationary ominous forms. He half-turned toward the front and listened. The whine of tires on pavement diminished. Silence again filled the barn.
The hinges squawked against Neil’s shove on the right-side door. Chad turned his head in Neil’s direction. He was sitting on the ground with his back to the weathered wood. Knees drawn up, arms wrapped around them and his right hand clamped on his left wrist.
“It’s you.” Chad shuddered, tilted his head toward the barn. “In there. The picture on the wall looks like you.”
Neil glanced inside. The image renewed in his mind. “Is that the reason you called me? To have me look at someone’s depravity smeared on a barn wall?”
Chad shook his head. “No, sir.”
“Then why?”
“I know what you did.”
Steve Rush is an award-winning author whose experience includes tenure as homicide detective and chief forensic investigator for a national consulting firm. He worked with the late Joseph L. Burton, M.D, under whom he mastered his skills, and investigated many deaths alongside Dr. Jan Garavaglia of Dr. G: Medical Examiner fame. His specialties include crime scene reconstruction, injury causation, blood spatter analysis, occupant kinematics, and recovery of human skeletal remains.
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Thank you for featuring LETHAL IMPULSE today.
ReplyDeleteThank you for spotlighting Lethal Impulse. I look forward to seeing the feedback.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds very exciting. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLethal Impulse sounds exciting. Great excerpt. I'd love to read more.
ReplyDeleteLooks like such a good book.
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