Dylan
Maguire returns to his native Ireland with psychic spy Vicki Boyd.
Their mission: to locate and extract a CIA Agent who disappeared in
Dublin while on the trail of a known terrorist. But when Dylan
receives word that his grandmother is dying, he is plunged into a
past he thought he’d left behind forever. His mission and the dark
secrets he’d sought to keep hidden begin to merge into an
underworld that could cost him his life. He must now confront his
past demons and the real reason he left Ireland—while Vicki harbors
a secret of her own.
Suspense
Magazine says, “p.m.terrell’s writing is powerfully written and
masterfully suspenseful; you have to hang on for the ride of your
life.” Midwest Book Review says the Black Swamp Mysteries series is
“page-turning action, unforgettable characters, breathtaking
descriptions and unexpected plot twists.” And syndicated reviewer
Marcia Freespirit says the series is “riveting, spell-binding, sexy
and intense!”
Excerpt From Dylan's Song
“Why are you so
adamant about not going back?” Vicki said. “I don’t
understand.”
He strode to the back door. With his hand almost on the knob, he stopped abruptly and turned around to face them. “The flight is a hundred hours long.”
“It’s six hours,” Sam said.
“I’ll have jet
lag for weeks!”
“Two days,
tops.” Sam’s voice was becoming quizzical.
“Are you afraid
of flying?” Vicki asked.
“No!”
he bellowed. He opened the kitchen door. “The weather there is
atrocious!”
“I can’t
believe you’re acting like this is such an inconvenience for you!”
Vicki shouted.
“In me whole
life,” he said as if he hadn’t heard her, “it’s rained once.”
He held up his finger. “One time!”
“Really?”
Vicki said. “Once?”
“And it’s
lasted for thirty years!” With that, he marched outside and
slammed the door behind him.
Vicki and Sam
stared at the door for a long moment without speaking. Then she
turned to him. “I’m at a loss here.”
He continued
staring at the kitchen door as if he hadn’t heard her.
“Do you know why
he doesn’t want to see Ireland again?” Vicki asked.
“He can’t
refuse a mission,” Sam said quietly. “You can’t pick and choose
your missions in this line of work.”
Vicki turned to
stand directly in front of him.
“Do you know,”
she said in a stronger voice, “why he doesn’t want to see Ireland
again?”
He looked at her
as if seeing her for the first time.
“You know, don’t
you?”
He looked away
from her. His eyes roamed the kitchen as though he was searching for
something. Vicki stood her ground until he said, “No. I have my
suspicions; that’s all.”
Crafting
Suspense
Years
ago, I read a book entitled What
Dreams May Come
by Richard Matheson. It was the first book that I truly could not put
down; I read the entire book in one sitting. When I finished the last
page, I turned to the first page and began reading again—but this
time, I analyzed how the author kept me turning those pages long
after I should have put the book down and attended to other, more
pressing, matters.
I
found that each chapter left me at a cliffhanger. I try to use that
same method in my own writing, and my fans tell me that they also
find themselves reading far into the night because they simply
couldn’t bear to stop. I try to begin each chapter in the middle of
a scene and I end it with a sentence or two that leads to the next
suspenseful chapter. The result is I don’t waste time leading the
reader through all the background: Vicki drove to this place, she
said “hello, how are you?”, etc. That isn’t suspenseful unless
something actually happens to her in the car or in the parking lot or
while she’s introducing herself.
Most
of my books are going to be in the vicinity of 300 pages long. Rather
than begin the book with an eye toward the end, I work toward a
climactic scene in the middle of the book. That scene is always going
to be pivotal and from that point forward, it’s going to propel the
reader through the rest of the book like they’ve been launched from
a cannon.
So
the first half of the book sets the characters, the locales and all
the pieces of the puzzle that lead to that first climactic scene. It
must be fast-paced because now I am writing toward something that’s
going to occur around page 150. Once I have written that chapter, I
am now thrust toward the ending and an even larger climax that will
occur around 120 pages later.
In
writing suspense, words can’t be wasted. I choose action over
inactivity and dialogue over thoughts.
Each
of my books contains these elements and each time one of my new
releases is reviewed, I get the same feedback: the reader couldn’t
put it down.
About The Author
p.m.terrell
is the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than
16 books. Vicki's
Key,
one of the first books in the Black Swamp Mysteries series, was one
of five finalists in the 2012 International Book Awards
(Mystery/Suspense) and 2012 USA Best Book Awards (Mystery/Suspense.)
River
Passage,
an historical work based on her ancestor's migration to Fort
Nashborough in 1779-1780, won the 2010 Best Fiction & Drama
Award. The Nashville (TN) Metropolitan Government Archives determined
it to be so historically accurate that they entered the original
manuscript into their Archives for future researchers and historians.
Prior
to becoming a full-time author in 2002, terrell founded and operated
two computer companies in the Washington, DC area. Her clients
included the United States Secret Service, CIA, Department of Defense
and federal and local law enforcement. Her specialty is in the areas
of computer crime and computer intelligence. Her experience in these
areas have greatly influenced her books' plots.
She
is the co-founder of The Book 'Em Foundation, whose slogan is "Buy
a Book and Stop a Crook" and whose mission is to raise awareness
of the link between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She
founded Book 'Em North Carolina Writers Conference and Book Fair, an
annual event to raise money to increase literacy and reduce crime.
For
more information on Book 'Em North Carolina, visit www.bookemnc.org
and www.bookemnc.blogspot.com.
She
can be found on Twitter @pmterrell
On
Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/author.p.m.terrell and https://www.facebook.com/pages/pmterrell/129318810431554.
Don't go without leaving p.m. a comment. She will be awarding a Celtic Knot Necklace to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour. To increase your chances of winning follow her tour by visiting http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/12/virtual-book-tour-dylans-song-by-pm.html
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