We are delighted to welcome back author Catherine Finger to Omnimystery News today.
Catherine's second mystery to feature Chief of Police Josie Oliver is Shattered by Death (HopeSprings Books; June 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we are pleased to introduce you to it with an excerpt.
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MY MIND UNLOCKED ITSELF FROM ITS hinges, scattering images of elephants in tutus and merchants in top hats marching up and down the dirt roads of a Wild Wild West set. I forced my eyes open just as a giant boa constrictor's wide-open jaws scratched the top of my head. My reward was the ceiling's gentle swaying. I found it relaxing for a moment. Then it ratcheted up to out-of-control carousel speed, and I shut my eyes tight.
I sucked in air until my lungs ached. God? Remember me? Are You up there? The long, slow exhalation spread drowsiness down my body. I squeezed Nick's Leatherman, enjoying the sensation of its hard steel edges and the contrasting warmth of its plastic handle.
Large dark swans swooped low overhead. Graceful, otherworldly, foreboding. The most beautiful of the swans fell away from the head of the formation and dove straight toward me. The beauty disintegrated into evil. Its beak turned into the vicious jaws of a great white shark. I lay there, paralyzed, unable to move while the threat careened toward me. It was less than ten feet away when I woke up.
The graceful swan loomed over me. I shook my head, blinked, and looked again at the apparition before me. Scrubs, hair pulled back — it was a tall nurse with dark hair. I couldn't make out the nametag, but I knew this nurse, didn't I? There was something about The Nurse's face. Something dark and alarming.
Niagara Falls cascaded through my mind. She looked down at me with a sneer, her lips moving. What was she saying?
Focus Josie, focus. I closed my eyes once more, shook my head twice, and opened them again, feeling more than seeing the terrible scene. The smooth flow of the IV drip wavered out of focus, and the lithe figure etched in white against the gray walled backdrop of the room came into view. The nurse's face was shining, her eyes were dark, and she held a needle in her hand.
The smog of morphine dulled my fear, and for reasons I couldn't understand, I looked right at her and laughed. The thought of her dressed as a cartoon-like nurse, looming large and threatening me with an oversized needle, struck me as hilarious. The more I thought of it, the more I laughed.
The nurse, however, was not amused.
Black rage covered her features, and the needle started to tremble. My eyes widened in surprise, but I couldn't hold back the laughter. This was all wrong, and that made it seem even funnier to me. Her enraged face seemed to swell as she stood over me.
The nurse pushed the plunger on the hypodermic needle to squeeze out any air.
"Wh, why bodder if you gonna kill me anyway?" My tongue wasn't working. I was genuinely curious, but I couldn't get the words out straight.
Her head shook angrily as he/she flicked the tip of the needle with the end of her middle finger. She cocked an eyebrow, staring down at me in surprise. "You're drunk. How quaint." She smiled tightly while her eyes raged on.
Terror and anger rubbed up against the edges of my morphine-induced tangle of emotions. One stone-cold thought seeped through the mist — she was going to kill me. This was it. The nurse's one wide open shot at getting the vecuronium into my system in a way that no one would ever suspect. I'd die without a fuss, without a whimper. Without a witness. Would it hurt? Would I even feel it? How could you feel paralysis?
Nick's face floated across my mind …
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Photo provided courtesy of
Catherine Finger
Like her heroine, Police Chief Jo Oliver, Dr. Catherine Finger is committed to protect and serve. But instead of handcuffs and handguns, she uses her wit and wisdom as a high school superintendent and a community volunteer in northern Illinois.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at CatherineFinger.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Shattered by Death by Catherine Finger
A Jo Oliver Thriller
Publisher: HopeSprings Books
Chief of Police Josie Oliver married a very bad man.
When Josie's abusive soon-to-be-ex-husband had an affair with another woman, Jo could have murdered them. When someone does, Jo is the prime suspect.
Teaming up with old flame and FBI agent Nick Vitarello to hunt a serial killer who is framing her for murder, Jo's fledgling faith in God is severely tested. The situation escalates when Nick declares his love for her — but his loyalty comes under fire.
As the manhunt heats up, the only thing Jo is sure of is that her time is running out. Buy Shattered by Death today to join Jo and Nick on this thrill ride where everything is on the line.
— Shattered by Death by Catherine Finger.
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