Netflix has announced that it has ordered a new 8-episode mystery series titled Montauk, written and directed by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer.
Set in 1980 Montauk, Long Island, a young boy vanishes into thin air. As friends, family, and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one very strange little girl.
"Matt and Ross are emerging filmmakers with an unmistakable passion for genre and suspense," said Cindy Holland, Vice President of original content for Netflix. "Their unique voice infuses this coming of age drama with supernatural thrills that will captivate our global audience."
Montauk is expected to premiere in 2016.
Thursday, April 02, 2015
Telemystery News: Netflix Orders Montauk, a Supernatural Mystery To Premiere in 2016
New This Week: Friendless Lane, A Lilly Valentine Mystery by Helen Black
Omnimystery News is pleased to present a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during April 2015 and priced $4.99 or less …
Friendless Lane by Helen Black
A Lilly Valentine Mystery
Publisher: Constable
Price: $4.99 (as of 04/02/2015 at 6:30 PM ET).
Lilly Valentine, tough talking lawyer and single mother, never makes things easy for herself and her latest case is about to become her biggest challenge yet …
Several years ago, Lilly successfully represented a terrified teenager, Kelsey Brand, accused of the brutal murder of her own mother. Now, ten years later, Kelsey has contacted Lilly again, this time to help her find her missing friend, Gem, last seen working in a strip club in the red light district in Luton.
And when another girl disappears from the same area, the evidence begins to point to a grooming gang targeting young and vulnerable teenage girls. Then Gem's mutilated body is discovered in a desolate country lane and Lilly realises that she must do everything she can to find the still-missing girl before tragedy strikes once more.
But is Lilly a match for the gang of men involved who will do anything, including murder, to get what they want?
— Friendless Lane by Helen Black
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Hyperlink from Hell, An In(s)ane Mystery by Lindy Moone, Now Available at a Special Price
Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy.
Today, we're pleased to present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the author …
Hyperlink from Hell by Lindy Moone
An In(s)ane Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Lindy Moone
Price: $2.99 (as of 04/02/2015 at 6:00 PM ET).
Murder haunts The Haven, celebrity James Canning's home since he lost touch with Reality TV. What's his "shrink" to do? Assign writing therapy, of course. But when the good doc reads Canning's memoir, Hyperlink from Hell, he checks into his own padded suite and Canning disappears. To save the doc from madness, The Haven's new director must analyze the hell out of Hyperlink from Hell.
Is Canning's tale of kidnapping, murder, time travel and wardrobe malfunction fact or fiction, deceit or delusion? Can she solve the murders, save her boss and find Canning? Or will she need a padded suite of her own?
— Hyperlink from Hell by Lindy Moone
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Dead Letter Day, A Crime Thriller by J. F. Straker, New This Week from Endeavour Press
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher, promoting and selling ebook editions of works by new authors as well as bringing out ebook editions of out of print books.
We've selected one of their recently published mystery, suspense, thriller or crime titles to feature here today …
Dead Letter Day by J. F. Straker
A Crime Thriller
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Price: $3.99 (as of 04/02/2015 at 5:30 PM ET).
Detectives Johnny Inch and Humphrey Nicodemus have resigned from the force and set up business together as Private Investigators. When they were still in the force two brothers, Martin and Joseph Slade, had attacked a security van outside a City goldsmith's, knocking out the guards and escaping with gold bullion to the value of thirty thousand pounds. Although the brothers had been caught, the gold was never found. And now, on his death bed, Martin Slade has arranged to have four letters posted, each containing part of a clue to the location of stolen gold. When a young woman turns up with one of the letters Inch and Nicodemus immediately take up the case. But with Martin dead, they need to track down the other letters.
Like the others, Inch is after the gold. But he wants the reward, not the precious metal itself. And if he can make the discovery in a solo run, before circumstances forced him to call on the police for aid, he stands to make his name as a Private Investigator. But the recipients soon realize that the prize within their grasp is unobtainable without the clues contained in the other three letters. And each hunts down the other in an effort to be first to the loot — at any price …
As Inch gets caught up in this murderous treasure hunt, will he beat the others to claim his reward? Or is there truth in the saying that all that glitters is not gold … ?
— Dead Letter Day by J. F. Straker
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Dead Ball, A Harvey Blissberg Mystery by R. D. Rosen, Now Available at a Special Price
Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy.
Today, we're pleased to present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Open Road …
Dead Ball by R. D. Rosen
A Harvey Blissberg Mystery (5th in series)
Publisher: Open Road
Price: $1.99 (as of 04/02/2015 at 5:00 PM ET).
Blissberg returns to baseball to protect a player who's on the verge of making history …
Fifteen years after retiring from baseball, Harvey Blissberg is suffering a bad case of what his girlfriend, Mickey Slavin, calls "sad man-ism" when the owner of his former team, the Providence Jewels, tracks him down. The team's star, Moss Cooley, is on the verge of shattering Joe DiMaggio's "unbreakable" fifty-six-game hitting streak. But Cooley has been receiving racist threats, such as a decapitated lawn jockey with a note reading, "escape retribution." Would Blissberg mind playing bodyguard for a while?
When Cooley's streak ends shy of DiMaggio's record, the threats and hate mail continue, suggesting that there's more at stake than preserving a white man's supreme achievement. Blissberg follows the trail of clues back into the past, and finds that Moss is not the first Cooley man to be persecuted. A determined psychopath is out for Cooley's neck, and if he has to murder a few ex-ballplayers on the way — so be it.
— Dead Ball by R. D. Rosen
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New This Week: Heaven To Betsy, An Emily Mystery by Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Omnimystery News is pleased to present a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during April 2015 and priced $4.99 or less …
Heaven To Betsy by Pamela Fagan Hutchins
An Emily Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: SkipJack Publishing
Price: 99¢ (as of 04/02/2015 at 4:30 PM ET).
When a dead body swan-dives from a balcony into the pool at a wedding, gossip comes to a halt about disgraced paralegal and former rodeo queen Emily — whose husband left her for a woman who turns out to be a man.
Enter Jack, a secretive attorney and sexy mix of cowboy and Indian. She refuses to work for him, until she learns about the disappearance of the six-year old daughter of his notorious client Sofia, the wedding shooter, who is also an illegal immigrant. Emily feels a strange affinity with the girl and launches a desperate search for her. Bodies pile up in her wake across Texas and New Mexico as the walls around her own secrets begin to crumble, and the authorities question whether the child is anything but a figment of her imagination.
— Heaven To Betsy by Pamela Fagan Hutchins
See the books in the Katie and Annalise Series from which this new series is taken. The first book in the series, Saving Grace, is currently FREE!
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The World Beneath, A Joe Tesla Mystery by Rebecca Cantrell, Now Available at a Special Price
Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy.
Today, we're pleased to present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the author …
The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell
A Joe Tesla Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Rebecca Cantrell
Price: 99¢ (as of 04/02/2015 at 4:00 PM ET).
Winner of the 2014 Thriller Award for Best e-Book Original.
A vast, dark world: 100 miles of living, breathing, tunnels that is the New York City underground. This subterranean labyrinth inhales three million bustling commuters every day. And every day, it breathes them all out again … except for one …
Software millionaire Joe Tesla is set to ring the bell on Wall Street the morning his company goes public. On what should be the brightest day in his life, he is instead struck with severe agoraphobia. The sudden dread of the outside is so debilitating, he can't leave his hotel at Grand Central Terminal, except to go underground. Bad luck for Joe, because in the tunnels lurk corpses and murderers, an underground Victorian mansion and a mysterious bricked-up 1940s presidential train car.
Joe and his service dog, Edison, find themselves pursued by villains and police alike, their only salvation now is to unearth the mystery that started it all, a deadly, contagious madness on the brink of escaping the world beneath.
— The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell
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Marble Bar by Robert Schofield, New on the Mystery Bookshelf during April 2015
New on the Mystery Bookshelf during April 2015 …
Marble Bar by Robert Schofield, A Crime Thriller
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Gareth Ford, with a cloud still hanging over him because of his involvement in the Gwardar Gold Heist, has decided to make a new beginning in the iron mines of Newman. But when he returns home from the night shift and finds his roommate has been murdered, suspicion quickly falls upon him. He, however, fears he himself was the real target and soon discovers he is being tailed.
He summons his old ally from the Gold Squad, DC Rose Kavanagh, and soon they find themselves in Marble Bar, searching for the Gwardar Gold and being pursued by a variety of desperadoes, each with their own agendas.
— Marble Bar by Robert Schofield
To see more new paperback titles scheduled to be published this month, visit The Mystery Bookshelf for April 2015. For new hardcover mysteries, visit New Mysteries where for a list of April 2015 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers is provided.
The Afrikaans, A Thomas Prescott Thriller by Nick Pirog, Now Available at a Special Price
Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy.
Today, we're pleased to present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, NickThriller.com …
The Afrikaans by Nick Pirog
A Thomas Prescott Thriller (3rd in series)
Publisher: NickThriller.com
Price: 99¢ (as of 04/02/2015 at 3:00 PM ET).
Intimate in scale, but grandly outfitted, the luxury cruise liner The Afrikaans hosts no more than 208 pampered guests, among them former FBI contract agent Thomas Prescott. When the ship is overtaken by African pirates who are demanding the U.S. send AIDS relief to a small Zulu village in South Africa, it is up to Prescott to keep the 400 hostages alive.
As the U.S. tries to figure out how to combat the terrorists' plot from the outside, World Health Organization doctor, Gina Brady, undertakes the impossible task of rescuing three children from the secluded village.
As the deadline draws near, Prescott and Brady must race against the clock to discover the truth; is it AIDS relief the pirates seek or a two billion dollar ransom from one of the richest men in the world. Or could the implications be so profound, and the stakes so high, a war hangs in the balance.
— The Afrikaans by Nick Pirog
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Bittersweet by Susan Wittig Albert, New in Bookstores during April 2015
Today's featured new hardcover mystery, suspense, or thriller title scheduled to be published during April 2015 is …
Bittersweet by Susan Wittig Albert, a China Bayles Mystery (23rd in series)
Publisher: Berkley
It's Thanksgiving in Pecan Springs, and China is planning to visit her mother, Leatha, and her mother's husband, Sam, who are enthusiastically embarking on a new enterprise — turning their former game ranch into a vacation retreat for birders. She's also looking forward to catching up with her friend, game warden Mackenzie "Mack" Chambers, who was recently transferred to the area. But Leatha calls with bad news: Sam has had a heart attack.
How will Leatha manage if Sam can't carry his share? She does have a helper, Sue Ellen Krause. But China discovers that Sue Ellen, who is in the process of leaving her marriage to the assistant foreman at a large trophy game ranch, is in some serious trouble. Before Sue Ellen can tell China the full story, her car veers off a deserted road and she is killed.
Meanwhile, when a local veterinarian is shot in what appears to be a burglary at his clinic, Mack Chambers believes his murder could be related to fawns stolen from a nearby ranch. As Mack follows the trail, China begins to wonder if Sue Ellen's death may not have been an accident, and if there's a connection to the stolen animals. But their search for the truth may put their own lives in danger.
— Bittersweet by Susan Wittig Albert
For a list of more new hardcover titles to be published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for April 2015. For new paperback mysteries, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of April 2015 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.
Telemystery News: Amazon Studios Reportedly Developing Crime Drama Based on the Nina Borg Mysteries by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis
Amazon Studios is reported developing a drama based on the Nina Borg mysteries by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. The character was introduced in The Boy in the Suitcase, published by Soho Crime in 2011. Kirsten Sheridan will write the script.
We actually didn't enjoy The Boy in the Suitcase, the premise being so hard to accept — "that an intelligent and caring woman, whose job involves to a large degree the safety and security of children, finds a boy stuffed into a suitcase and doesn't notify the authorities" — that it interfered with our enjoyment of the overall mystery. We weren't all that keen on the second in the series, either, saying that Invisible Murder was "far too heavy on social commentary and far too light on crime and suspense". Still, a case can be made that a crime drama with nurse Nina Borg as the central character could work given a credible storyline.
(Source: Deadline. Review comments via Mysterious Reviews.)
Younger by Suzanne Munshower, New on the Mystery Bookshelf during April 2015
New on the Mystery Bookshelf during April 2015 …
Younger by Suzanne Munshower, A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
When PR pro Anna Wallingham gets dumped by her last client, she finds herself running out of options in LA, where looks trump experience. Desperate to prove she is still relevant, the fiftysomething accepts a shady job offer from Pierre Barton, secretive billionaire owner of Barton Pharmaceuticals. Isolated in a facility outside London, she agrees to test a new top-secret product guaranteed to make her look thirty years younger. Anna is starting to look on the outside the way she feels on the inside: ageless. But she soon discovers that her predecessor died under mysterious circumstances, leading her to research just who stands to gain — and lose — with this miraculous product. When Pierre drops dead in front of her, she takes off on a dangerous journey across Europe hoping to stay alive long enough to uncover the truth.
With the hard-won knowledge that younger isn't always better, Anna is determined to escape and reclaim her life before it's too late.
— Younger by Suzanne Munshower
To see more new paperback titles scheduled to be published this month, visit The Mystery Bookshelf for April 2015. For new hardcover mysteries, visit New Mysteries where for a list of April 2015 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers is provided.
A Cold Red Sunrise, A Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery by Stuart M. Kaminsky, Now Available at a Special Price
Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy.
Today, we're pleased to present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Open Road …
A Cold Red Sunrise by Stuart M. Kaminsky
A Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery (5th in series)
Publisher: Open Road
Price: $1.99 (as of 04/02/2015 at 1:00 PM ET).
In trouble with the KGB, Rostnikov is sent to investigate a death in Siberia …
After three decades serving with the Moscow police, Porfiry Rostnikov is back at the bottom. When forced to choose between the law and the party line, he fights for justice — a disturbing preference that has won him no friends at the Kremlin. Now his enemies in the KGB have transferred him to the lowest rungs of Moscow law enforcement, a backwater department assigned with only the most token murders. But, peculiarly, Rostnikov's newest assignment is no token at all.
While in Siberia investigating the death of a dissident's daughter, a corrupt commissar is stabbed through the eye with an icicle. Finding his killer should be a top priority, yet the KGB hands it off to the disgraced detective. Someone doesn't want this murder solved, and there are people in Moscow who may be plotting to ensure Rostnikov does not live to see the end of this Siberian winter.
— A Cold Red Sunrise by Stuart M. Kaminsky
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New This Week: Beethoven's Tenth, A Frank Ryan, Rapid Reads Mystery by Brian Harvey
Omnimystery News is pleased to present a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during April 2015 and priced $4.99 or less …
Beethoven's Tenth by Brian Harvey
A Frank Ryan, Rapid Reads Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Orca Book Publisher
Price: $4.99 (as of 04/02/2015 at 12:30 PM ET).
Piano tuner Frank Ryan is paid in kind by an aging music teacher with an old manuscript that turns out to be Beethoven's Tenth Symphony.
Launched into a world of intrigue and violence, Ryan, an unlikely sleuth, realizes he must use his wits to conquer his enemies and solve the mystery of the manuscript. In the process Ryan discovers whom he can trust and what he is made of.
— Beethoven's Tenth by Brian Harvey
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A Converation with Suspense Novelist Silvia Villalobos
We are delighted to welcome author Silvia Villalobos to Omnimystery News today.
Silvia's debut novel of suspense is Stranger or Friend (Summer Solstice; March 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the chance to spend some time with her talking about it.
— ♦ —
Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the lead character of Stranger or Friend? What is it about her that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
Silvia Villalobos
Silvia Villalobos: As a young woman, Zoe Sinclair wanted nothing more than to leave her hometown behind for bigger, newer places. She moved to Los Angeles and dedicated her life to a legal career, sporadically making time for the occasional boyfriend. A decade later, she found her way back to Wyoming, to her gravely ill mother in need of heart surgery. Mom wants to die with dignity, not cut up on a hospital bed, should something go wrong. Except Zoe is not ready to let her go.
As someone who has moved not only far away, but to another continent, I am interested in exploring characters who disconnect from all that is home, only to find themselves drawn back to an extent, to the place that defines them, even if that place is no longer what they remember, in fact so much has happened in between that home is now an alien place. And as an Eastern European immigrant, married to a California native of Hispanic descent, I am interested in exploring this amazing confluence of cultures we have in the U.S., the interaction between newcomers and locals, the misgivings, the fear of what is new, the understanding, the friendships. All the joy and pain this process brings along the way.
OMN: How would you tweet a summary of the book?s
SV: When L.A. lawyer Zoe Sinclair returns to Wyoming, her town is the scene of two murders. Her friend Lori has been found strangled to death and there is a grave in the woods.
OMN: How much of your own experience have you included in the book?s
SV: Starting a new life somewhere, as I did, leaves a certain mark on an individual. So, that aspect is in the book even if secondary to the mystery itself. Many of Zoe's thoughts in regard to newcomers have been my thoughts — for example toward the end of the story, when she looks at the mountains in the distance, she internalizes this: The mountain peaks had guided the first frontier men to the new land … It must've been a beautiful sight to those wary eyes. New land, new hope. In time, different races and ethnicities would come together, forming a new society.
Also, Zoe's ill mother is based on my aunt who helped raise me. When she fell gravely ill a few years back, and it was clear she only had so much time left, she asked to be taken out of hospital and go home. It was a very difficult decision for the family.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
SV: I usually start with two elements: setting and character. I give the character goals, motivations and conflicts (internal and external). The external conflict is particularly complicated by the world she lives in, hence setting is important.
I had somewhat of an outline for Stranger or Friend — mostly names, events, and a timeline. As I put chapters through my critique group, the characters expanded, especially the villain. I had the villain well defined in my mind's eye, but had to make certain this also came across well for the reader, who was new to story and characters. That is when a critique group becomes absolutely critical.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
SV: Oh, I would love to travel to so many places — as far away as New Zeeland, as near as San Francisco. But since I have to pick one place, that would have to be anywhere in Europe. Once there, it's easy to travel from country to country.
Why? I lived in Europe for the first 20 years of my life — the most impressionable years, I suppose, the years we return to and contemplate later in life, no matter the place we find ourselves. Many of my stories take me back there, whether I want to go or not. The continent and Romania have changed a lot over the years, but there is something irreplaceable in that certain bond, the closeness we feel to our birthplace.
Speaking of research, the protagonist in my next novel is the daughter of a Romanian immigrant whom, while a secondary character, brings with him stories and experiences from the old country — stories from the time of communism, no less. I can hardly wait to go back and work on that novel again.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author? And what might you say to aspiring writers?
SV: The best advice I received came from a fellow author who is no longer with us. Barry Aitchison told me to work hard for every word I write, no shortcuts, no throwing in placeholders. That's an easy and sure way to become complacent. So, fight for every word, and think visually about characters. What he was really saying, I later realized, was that there is no pay off for soft and easy. Never. In anything. And when I arrive to that closed door in my mind's eye, step away and take a moment to enjoy life and get re-inspired. The world does not revolve around my book. Sure our stories are our babies, but there is so much more to life. Take time to discover something new, and to make memories.
The harshest criticism also came from Barry, in regard to exactly what I mentioned above — allowing oneself to become complacent. Just because one writes well, doesn't mean one can't write great. And if a writer is great, doesn't mean she can't be excellent, and on and on. He was my dear friend, and offered praise and criticism in the same sentence.
My advice for fellow writers is to be patient. The road to publication is rarely short. Learning from rejections is part of the process. And if you haven't already, please join a critique group. Mine, The Internet Writing Workshop, is staffed with volunteers and free of charge. Joining this community was by far the best decision of my writing life.
OMN: How did Stranger or Friend come to be titled?
SV: Upon her return home, Zoe no longer fits in the lifestyle she once found comfortable, yet a part of her will always belong in that town. So, there is a certain fight within as well as all around her leading to the question: is she a stranger or a friend?
The same is true for new residents in town. They don't fall within a well-defined category, within a certain mold of what is normal, as much as they would like to call the place home. The question then becomes: who is the stranger, and who is the friend? And what if our preconceived notions have us mistake friend for foe and vice versa? In Stranger or Friend, two people lose their lives in this swirl of events, one of them very close to Zoe Sinclair. This prompts Zoe, the lawyer, into action, and when she ventures too close to the case, she discovers something more troubling than she'd ever imagined.
OMN: Suppose Stranger or Friend were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the key roles?
SV: Claire Danes with light-brown hair as Zoe Sinclair. I am always amazed by Claire's performances, the intensity she put forth in Homeland, but really, in every role. I kept asking myself if I came to this decision too fast, if perhaps there isn't someone better, but no, Claire Danes remains the only Zoe I see. As for the male character with whom Zoe played love symphony in the truck, in the parking lot of a tavern one very cold evening, Eric Dane. He would make a great Sebastian Herod.
OMN: When selecting a book to read for pleasure, what do you look for?
SV: I'm fortunate to have many reader friends; they often recommend books to me. Awards help. That's how I came to read The Goldfinch and The Best American Short Stories. It's a hit or miss system, but it works most times.
While I am drawn to mysteries and thrillers, many times I read to feed my heart and soul, to linger over the beauty and musicality of a sentence, the unique description of place and character. So, literary fiction occupies a large space on my bookcase shelf. When I find a literary mystery or thriller, and P.D. James immediately comes to mind, I'm a happy reader.
OMN: What's next for you?
SV: Next, a short vacation somewhere in California — we stay close to home during the school year. Then, I must return to my work in progress, the novel I mentioned above with the character whose father brings his old-country experience and stories with him. I also have a short story with a legal bent. It addresses our crowded court system, the large number or legal cases that never see the light of day, many for good reason. This story has undergone several transformations and it screams for a definite conclusion.
Also, a little time to give the stress wings and let it fly away, to read and let the mind relax.
— ♦ —
Silvia Villalobos, a native of Romania who lives immersed in the laid-back vibe of Southern California, is a writer of mystery novels and short fiction. Her stories have appeared in The Riding Light Review, Pure Slush, and Red Fez, among other publications. When not writing, or hiking the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park trails, she can be found blogging at Silvia Writes.
For more information about the author, please visit her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
— ♦ —
Stranger or Friend by Silvia Villalobos
A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: Summer Solstice
L.A. lawyer Zoe Sinclair finds her Wyoming hometown reeling from the murder of its most popular resident: her best friend, Lori. Not less unnerving are the strange cries coming from the woods. The lawyer inside the woman is prompted into action, but she meets resistance from a town wary of outsiders.
When a second body is found and Zoe is threatened, the case turns personal. Under pressure from the sheriff to leave the probing to the police, and taunted by the killer's subtle messages, Zoe finds herself trapped in a game of hunter and prey.
— Stranger or Friend by Silvia Villalobos
