Peter Leonard: All He Saw Was The Girl (excerpt)

We are delighted to feature crime novelist Peter Leonard as our guest blogger today with an excerpt from his new thriller All He Saw Was The Girl (The Story Plant, May 2012 trade paperback and ebook editions).

Peter is visiting with us courtesy of Partners in Crime Tours. We encourage you to take a look at the other participating sites; you can see his complete tour schedule here.

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Photo provided courtesy of
Peter Leonard

Excerpt from All He Saw Was The Girl …

  Sharon was thinking, who was this guy lived in a five-thousand-square-foot house — not that his taste was any good — on Lake St. Clair, had nothing but leisure time or so it seemed?
  He called her four, five times a day, said, "How you doing?"
  And Sharon would say, "Same as I was when you called fifteen minutes ago."
  "Baby, I miss you. Tell them you're sick, we'll go to the casino." Or he'd be at the track or a Tigers day game, he'd say, "I gotta see you. Take the afternoon off, I'll send a car."
  She'd been going out with him for three weeks and it was getting serious. They'd meet at noon, check into a hotel a couple times a week and spend two hours in bed, screwing and drinking champagne. It was something, best sex she'd ever had in her life. He did things to her nobody had ever done before. She'd say, where'd you learn that? And he'd say, you inspire me, beautiful. The only bad thing, he called her Sharona, or my Sharona. Everything else was great so she let it go.
  They'd take his boat out on Lake St. Clair and she'd sunbathe topless. Something she'd never done in her life and never imagined herself doing. She felt invigorated, liberated. He always told her she looked good, complimented her outfit. Showered her with gifts, bought her clothes and jewelry. She felt like a teenager again. They'd meet and talk and touch each other and kiss. She was happy for the first time in years. She had to be careful. Ray, the next time he came home, might notice something and get suspicious.Why're you so happy? she could hear him saying — like there was something wrong with it.
  But this relationship with Joey also made her nervous. Things were happening too fast. She was falling for him and she barely knew him, and she was married.

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Peter Leonard has published four novels: Quiver, Trust Me, All He Saw Was The Girl, and Voices of the Dead. He lives in Birmingham, Michigan. For more information about the author and his books, visit his website at PeterLeonardBooks.com.

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About All He Saw Was The Girl:

Rome: McCabe and Chip, two American exchange students, are about to become embroiled with a violent street gang, a beautiful Italian girl and a flawed kidnapping plan.

Detroit: Sharon Vanelli's affair with Joey Palermo, a Mafia enforcer, is about to be discovered by her husband, Ray, a secret service agent.

As these two narratives converge, the reader is taken on a thrilling ride through the backstreets of Italy's oldest city.