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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Haunted by the past… Broken Bonds (Cold Creek #3) by Karen Harper

"This is the age of modern heroes and sometimes he is “everyman.” But it is also the age of heroines who are coming into their own just as modern women are. Lara Croft, tomb raiders, and bold women of the world, unite!"

Description:

Three very different sisters…
Three desirable, dangerous men…
Three endangered lives…

THE COLD CREEK TRILOGY is set in Appalachia in a small town where the enemy is us.

Haunted by the past…

Cold Creek is a place with a dark history, especially for the Lockwoods. Now adults, the three Lockwood sisters are still recovering from the events that led to the destruction of their family when they were children. Determined to move forward, Tess and Kate are making fresh starts, ready to put bad—even deadly—memories to rest and settle happily in the small but booming town. And they're hoping their older sister, Charlene, can do the same.

Char is back in town seeking comfort as she figures out her next move. A social worker used to difficult situations, she soon runs afoul of some locals who think she's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. She's certain something sinister is being covered up, and when she witnesses Matt Rowan being run off the road, she knows she's right.

Working together, Matt and Char figure uncovering the truth will be dangerous, but living in Cold Creek won't be safe for any of them until its secrets are revealed. 

GUEST POST
Mythical Books

I was really intrigued by the title of this website. In a way, all books are mythical—have to do with myths. I used to mix up the meaning for mythical and mystical, and I guess they do overlap a bit. Usually, I think of mythical as the ancient world of heroic sagas, dragons and heroes and treasure to be found. Well, isn’t good modern, action-oriented writing like that too, only in different clothing and with modern speech?

We don’t have Ulysses or Aeneas or the Greek gods on most of our internal radar screens today—though adventures like theirs can be found by gamers—but we still have our heroes. This is the age of modern heroes and sometimes he is “everyman.” But it is also the age of heroines who are coming into their own just as modern women are. Lara Croft, tomb raiders, and bold women of the world, unite!

My contemporary romantic suspense novels have an “average” woman who is thrust into a quest or dire situation and must save herself, probably rescuing others along the way. No longer do we have “the perils of Pauline” situation, where the hero rushes in to untie the woman from the railroad tracks before the train mashes her. It is not unusual for the heroine to save the hero along the way, or at least to be his equal partner.

THE COLD CREEK NOVELS, set on the edge of Appalachia, are the third trilogy I have written where the heroine rises above terrible circumstances to solve a deadly danger. She’s not a cop or forensic investigator: she runs a daycare (SHATTERED SECRETS); she’s an archeologist investigating ancient Adena Indian tombs (FORBIDDEN GROUND); or she’s a social worker, trying to help poor Appalachian kids get to school. But she needs to overcome her own fears in the face of a terrible situation with a mysterious villain or evil force. She conquers, perhaps with the hero’s help, to fight the mythical dragon of the bad guy who is out to stop or kill her. 

I love ancient myths in modern clothing. I once had planned to be a Latin teacher (switched to English teacher, though) which meant I’ve read many ancient epic hero journeys into hell and back again. So that’s what my female characters face. In The Aeneid, recall there was a sign over the entrance to hell that Aeneas had to pass through to be victorious in his quest, which read: Abandon ye all hope who enter here. My main characters, Tess, Kate and Char, three sister from the small town of Cold Creek in Appalachia, refuse to let similar threats stop them from facing evil. I’d like to think that my readers take that away from my stories, the rebirth of the ancient “I-can-do this” myths.

EXCERPT



As she made the next sharp turn, Char gasped. A white truck with Lake Azure, Inc. painted on its side was tipped nearly off the cliff, right where the school bus stopped for the kids who lived above. She’d heard a horn honk long and loud a few minutes earlier. Maybe the truck missed the last turn and spun out, since its rear, not its front, was dangling over the edge, propped up by two trees. No other vehicle was nearby to help.

She put her emergency blinkers on and pulled as close to the cliff face as she could. She jumped down from her truck and ran across the road toward the truck. A man was inside!

“What should I do?” she shouted, her voice shrill. It sounded like a stupid question. She had to get the man out of his truck before it crashed over the edge.

The bitter, strong wind ripped at her hair and jacket. What if a blast of air tipped him off? Or maybe even if he moved. She’d swear the two tree trunks that held his truck were shaking as hard as she was. 

She could hear the engine was still running. The driver opened an automatic window.

“A guy in a truck shoved me off,” he shouted. “Meant to. I don’t have any traction. I’m afraid if I shift my weight or open a door to jump out, I’ll send it over.”

The fact someone had done this on purpose stunned her. What was going on? If her cell phone worked up here, she’d call her brother-in-law, the county sheriff, for help, but she was on her own. It wouldn’t help to go back up for help from Elinor and Penny.

“Don’t move until I get something you can hang on to if the truck goes. I have some jump ropes I can tie together. Those trees are shaky.”

“I’m shaky. Hurry!”

She ran to her truck and knotted together the three jump ropes she had, tying square knots because she knew they would hold. But she’d never be able to balance the man’s weight if the truck went over the edge.

“I’ve got ropes here, but I’ll have to tie the end to a tree. I don’t dare drive close enough to you to tie it to my truck. It would never stretch that far.”

She knotted it around the trunk of a pine tree that looked sturdy enough, though that almost took the length of one rope. This wasn’t going to work.

A grinding sound, then a crunch reverberated as the truck seemed to jerk once then settled closer to the cliff edge.

“Now or never!” he shouted and opened his door fast.

******

Matt grabbed her—almost tackled her—and rolled them off the low concrete single step into the wet leaves. He pulled her around the corner of the cabin, where they huddled, kneeling with her pressed between him and the outside wall.

“I—I can’t believe that,” she whispered. “We could have—could have been hit.”

“And I’m the common denominator. Either someone’s been following me, looking for another chance at me, or someone’s staked out your place, knowing we’re together.”

They were whispering in each other’s ears. “The headlights made us the perfect target,” she said. “If we hadn’t stepped apart…the arrow came head high, not chest level.”

“Either way it could have killed one or both of us.”

She was not only scared but furious. Someone had ruined her new place, ruined this beautiful night.

“Stay here,” he said. “I’m going to get to the car, turn it around so the headlights shine into the trees where the arrow must have come from. It’s sticking in the wood at an upward angle—like it was shot from the sky. Probably just arced up, then hit.”

“Should we call Gabe?”

“Not unless we spot someone. My bet is we’ll find no one out there. And it’s late. Let’s give him a break and call him in the morning. Tonight you can go down to stay in one of the guest rooms at the lodge where—”

“It’s my first night here! I’m not running, even if some stupid hunter or even worse wants to scare me off.”

“Char, just for the night!”

“I’m not going to leave. I’m going to get that arrow for evidence, tape up the hole and lock my doors.”

“Then I’m staying, too.”

“What?”

“I’ll sleep on the couch, just in case.”



“And if it’s you the shooter’s after? That could have been the second attempt on your life.”


PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads
About the author:
A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Karen Harper is a former college English instructor (The Ohio State University) and high school literature and writing teacher. A lifelong Ohioan, Karen and her husband Don divide their time between the midwest and the southeast, both locations she has used in her books. Besides her American settings, Karen loves the British Isles, where her Scottish and English roots run deep, and where she has set many of her historical Tudor-era mysteries and her historical novels about real and dynamic British women. Karen's books have been published in many foreign languages and she won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for 2005. Karen has given numerous talks to readers and writers across the county.
Her latest book is the romantic suspense, Broken Bonds, the third book in the Cold Creek Trilogy.


1 comment:

Carol L. said...

Hi Karen, you are a new Author for me and I really want to read the trilogy. Sounds like a suspenseful and emotional story. Just my type. :) Thanks for the opportunity.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com