Today I'm pleased to bring you another favorite author of mine, Laura Griffin. She has a unique way of storytelling that mixes a chilling thriller with a steamy romance and she's done it again with her latest chilling romantic suspense stand-a-lone and her first HardCover.
Enjoy the interview and my review then stick around because Laura has graciously offered one print autographed copy (US ONLY) of her RITA winning novel Scorched.
- ISBN-13: 9781451689341
- Publisher: Gallery Books
- Publication date: 4/15/2014
- Pages: 384
Giveaway Details
Laura is offering one autographed Print Copy
US ONLY
of her RITA winner Scorched
to one lucky Commenter
use the Rafflecopter form below to enter
Good Luck!
Thanks Laura!
OVERVIEW:
To save her only brother, Andrea Finch must face down a criminal mastermind, the FBI, and her own demons in this thrilling novel from the author of the bestselling Tracers series.
Police detective Andrea Finch is a rising star in her department until a split-second decision derails her career. Disgraced and disillusioned, she’s on leave from her job when she gets an urgent call from her younger brother. She’d prefer to ignore his latest plea for cash, but this time instinct tells her something is very wrong. Andrea’s search for answers takes her to a dusty Texas border town where danger lurks in plain sight and nothing is quite what it seems.
Police detective Andrea Finch is a rising star in her department until a split-second decision derails her career. Disgraced and disillusioned, she’s on leave from her job when she gets an urgent call from her younger brother. She’d prefer to ignore his latest plea for cash, but this time instinct tells her something is very wrong. Andrea’s search for answers takes her to a dusty Texas border town where danger lurks in plain sight and nothing is quite what it seems.
FBI agent Jon North is working undercover in west Texas investigating an unsolved murder that may be linked to a broader plot. But when the evidence points to Andrea’s brother, Jon finds that persuading the stubborn cop to help will be harder than cracking his toughest case.
Andrea must find a way to do what’s right while protecting her only sibling. As the clock ticks down on a deadly plot, Andrea and Jon race to confront a heartless killer who will stop at nothing to deliver a final, terrifying message.
Andrea must find a way to do what’s right while protecting her only sibling. As the clock ticks down on a deadly plot, Andrea and Jon race to confront a heartless killer who will stop at nothing to deliver a final, terrifying message.
Andrea Finch had never been dumped at a barbecue joint, but there was a first time for everything.
Her date looked out of place at the scarred wooden booth in his charcoal-gray suit. He’d come straight from work, as she had. He’d ditched the tie but still seemed overly formal in a restaurant that had paper-towel rolls on every table and classic country drifting from the jukebox.
“So.” Nick Mays took a swig of beer. “How was your day?”
Andrea smiled. He sounded like a tired husband, and they’d only been dating a month.
“Fine,” she said. “Yours?”
“Fine.”
For the dozenth time since she’d sat down, his gaze darted over her shoulder. When his blue eyes met hers again, she felt a twinge of regret. He really was a nice-looking man. Good eyes, thick hair. A bit of a beer gut, but she didn’t mind, really. His main problem was his oversized ego. Andrea was used to men with big egos. She’d been surrounded by them since she’d entered the police academy, and they’d only multiplied once she earned her detective’s badge.
“Listen, Andrea.” He glanced over her shoulder again, and she braced for the speech. “These last few weeks, they’ve really been great.”
He was a terrible liar, which was too bad. As an assistant district attorney, he was going to need the skill if he planned to run for his boss’s job someday.
He opened his mouth to continue just as a waitress stepped up and beamed a smile at him.
“Y’all ready to order?”
Nick looked pained. But to his credit, he nodded in Andrea’s direction. “Andie?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
He glanced at the waitress. “Me, too.”
“So . . . y’all won’t be having dinner with us?” Her overly made-up eyes shifted to Andrea. She tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ear and looked impatient.
“Just the drinks for now.” Nick gave her one of his smiles, which seemed to lessen her annoyance as she hustled off. The smile faded as he turned back to Andrea. “So I was saying. These past few weeks. It’s been a good time, Andie. You’re an interesting girl.”
She gritted her teeth. If he insisted on using frat-boy speak, she was going to make this way harder for him. She folded her arms over her chest and cast her gaze around the restaurant, letting his comment dangle awkwardly.
The cowbell on the door rattled as a family of four filed outside. Tonight’s crowd was thin, even for a Monday. Maybe the weather was keeping people away. Austin was set to get sleet tonight, and her lieutenant had called in extra officers, expecting the roads to be a mess.
“Andrea?”
She looked at him.
“I said, wouldn’t you agree with that?”
The cowbell rattled again as a skinny young man stepped through the entrance. He wore a black trench coat and clunky boots. His too-big ears reminded Andrea of her brother.
She looked at Nick. “Agree with what?”
His mouth tightened. “I said it seems like neither of us is looking for something serious right now. So maybe we should cool things down a little.”
She glanced across the room as the kid walked toward the double doors leading to the kitchen. She studied the line of his coat, frowning.
“Andrea.”
“What?” Her attention snapped to Nick.
“Christ, you’re not even listening. Have you heard a word I said?”
She glanced at the kitchen, where the clatter of pots and pans had suddenly gone silent. The back of her neck tingled. She slid from the booth.
“Andie?”
“Just a sec.”
She strode across the restaurant, her gaze fixed on the double doors. Her heart thudded inexplicably while her mind cataloged info: six-one, one-fifty, blond, blue. She pictured his flushed cheeks and his lanky body in that big coat.
A waiter whisked past her and pushed through the doors to the kitchen. Andrea followed, stumbling into him when he halted in his tracks.
Three people stood motionless against a counter. Their eyes were round with shock, and their mouths hung open.
The kid in the overcoat stood a few yards away, pointing a pistol at them.
His gaze jumped to Andrea and the waiter. “You! Over there!” He jerked his head at the petrified trio.
The waiter made a strangled sound and scuttled out the door they’d just come through.
Andrea didn’t move. Her chest tightened as she took in the scene: two waitresses and a cook, all cowering against a counter. Possibly more people in back. The kid was brandishing a Glock 17. It was pointed straight at the woman in the center, Andrea’s waitress. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen, and the gunman looked almost as young. Andrea noted his skinny neck, his freckles. His cheeks were pink—not from cold, as she’d first thought, but emotion.
The look he sent the waitress was like a plea.
“You did this, Haley!”
The woman’s eyes widened. Her lips moved, but no words came out.
“This is your fault.”
Andrea eased her hand beneath her blazer. The kid’s arm swung toward her. “You! Get with them!”
She went still.
“Dillon, what are you—”
“Shut up!” The gun swung back toward the waitress. Haley. The trio was just a few short yards away from the gun. Even with no skill whatsoever, anything he fired at that distance would likely be lethal. And who knew how many bullets he had in that thing?
Andrea’s heart drummed inside her chest. The smoky smell of barbecue filled the air. The kitchen was warm and steamy, and the walls seemed to be closing in on her as she focused on the gunman.
His back was to a wall lined with coat hooks. She counted four jackets and two ball caps, probably all belonging to the staff. Was anyone else hiding in the back? Had someone called for help?
“You did this!” the gunman shouted, and Haley flinched.
Andrea licked her lips. For only the second time in her career, she eased her gun from its holster and prepared to aim it at a person. The weight in her hand felt familiar, almost comforting. But her mouth went dry as her finger slid around the trigger.
Defuse.
She thought of everything she’d ever learned about hostage negotiations. She thought of the waiter who’d fled. She thought of Nick. Help had to be on the way by now. But the closest SWAT team was twenty minutes out, and she knew, with sickening certainty, that whatever happened here was going to be over in a matter of moments.
“I trusted you, Haley.” His voice broke on the last word, and Haley cringed back. “I trusted you, but you’re a lying bitch!”
“Dillon, please—”
“Shut up! Just shut up, okay?”
Ambivalence. She heard it in his voice. She could get control of this.
Andrea raised her weapon. “Dillon, look at me.”
To her relief, his eyes veered in her direction. He was crying now, tears streaming down his freckled cheeks, and again he reminded her of her brother. Andrea’s stomach clenched as she lined up her sights on his center body mass.
Establish a command presence.
“Put the gun down, Dillon. Let’s talk this through.”
He swung his arm ninety degrees, and Andrea was staring down the barrel of the Glock. All sound disappeared. Her entire world seemed to be sucked by gravity toward that little black hole.
She lifted her gaze to the gunman’s face. Dillon. His name was Dillon. And he was eighteen, tops.
Her heart beat crazily. Her mouth felt dry. Hundreds of times she’d trained to confront an armed assailant. It should have been a no-brainer, pure muscle memory. But she felt paralyzed. Every instinct was screaming for her to find another way.
Dillon’s attention slid to Haley, who seemed to be melting into the Formica counter. The others had inched away from her—a survival instinct that was going to be of little help if this kid let loose with a hail of bullets.
Loud, repetitive commands.
“Dillon, look at me.” She tried to make her voice firm, but even she could hear the desperation in it. “Put the gun down, Dillon. We’ll talk through this.”
His eyes met hers again. He rubbed his nose on the shoulder of his coat. Tears and snot glistened on his face.
“I’ll kill you, too,” he said softly. “Don’t think I won’t.”
“I believe you. But wouldn’t it be easier just to talk?” She paused. “Put the gun down, Dillon.”
She could see his arm shaking, and—to her dismay—hers began to shake, too. As if she didn’t know how to hold her own weapon. As if she didn’t work out three times a week to maintain upper-body strength.
As if she didn’t have it in her to shoot a frightened kid.
He was disintegrating before her eyes. She could see it. His Adam’s apple moved up and down as he swallowed hard.
“You can’t stop me.” His voice was a thread now, almost a whisper. He shifted his stance back toward Haley, and the stark look on her face told Andrea she’d read his body language.
“I’ll do it.”
Andrea’s pulse roared in her ears. The edges of her vision blurred. All she saw was that white hand clutching that big black gun.
She took a breath.
##
Andrea Finch had never been dumped at a barbecue joint, but there was a first time for everything.
Her date looked out of place at the scarred wooden booth in his charcoal-gray suit. He’d come straight from work, as she had. He’d ditched the tie but still seemed overly formal in a restaurant that had paper-towel rolls on every table and classic country drifting from the jukebox.
“So.” Nick Mays took a swig of beer. “How was your day?”
Andrea smiled. He sounded like a tired husband, and they’d only been dating a month.
“Fine,” she said. “Yours?”
“Fine.”
For the dozenth time since she’d sat down, his gaze darted over her shoulder. When his blue eyes met hers again, she felt a twinge of regret. He really was a nice-looking man. Good eyes, thick hair. A bit of a beer gut, but she didn’t mind, really. His main problem was his oversized ego. Andrea was used to men with big egos. She’d been surrounded by them since she’d entered the police academy, and they’d only multiplied once she earned her detective’s badge.
“Listen, Andrea.” He glanced over her shoulder again, and she braced for the speech. “These last few weeks, they’ve really been great.”
He was a terrible liar, which was too bad. As an assistant district attorney, he was going to need the skill if he planned to run for his boss’s job someday.
He opened his mouth to continue just as a waitress stepped up and beamed a smile at him.
“Y’all ready to order?”
Nick looked pained. But to his credit, he nodded in Andrea’s direction. “Andie?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
He glanced at the waitress. “Me, too.”
“So . . . y’all won’t be having dinner with us?” Her overly made-up eyes shifted to Andrea. She tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ear and looked impatient.
“Just the drinks for now.” Nick gave her one of his smiles, which seemed to lessen her annoyance as she hustled off. The smile faded as he turned back to Andrea. “So I was saying. These past few weeks. It’s been a good time, Andie. You’re an interesting girl.”
She gritted her teeth. If he insisted on using frat-boy speak, she was going to make this way harder for him. She folded her arms over her chest and cast her gaze around the restaurant, letting his comment dangle awkwardly.
The cowbell on the door rattled as a family of four filed outside. Tonight’s crowd was thin, even for a Monday. Maybe the weather was keeping people away. Austin was set to get sleet tonight, and her lieutenant had called in extra officers, expecting the roads to be a mess.
“Andrea?”
She looked at him.
“I said, wouldn’t you agree with that?”
The cowbell rattled again as a skinny young man stepped through the entrance. He wore a black trench coat and clunky boots. His too-big ears reminded Andrea of her brother.
She looked at Nick. “Agree with what?”
His mouth tightened. “I said it seems like neither of us is looking for something serious right now. So maybe we should cool things down a little.”
She glanced across the room as the kid walked toward the double doors leading to the kitchen. She studied the line of his coat, frowning.
“Andrea.”
“What?” Her attention snapped to Nick.
“Christ, you’re not even listening. Have you heard a word I said?”
She glanced at the kitchen, where the clatter of pots and pans had suddenly gone silent. The back of her neck tingled. She slid from the booth.
“Andie?”
“Just a sec.”
She strode across the restaurant, her gaze fixed on the double doors. Her heart thudded inexplicably while her mind cataloged info: six-one, one-fifty, blond, blue. She pictured his flushed cheeks and his lanky body in that big coat.
A waiter whisked past her and pushed through the doors to the kitchen. Andrea followed, stumbling into him when he halted in his tracks.
Three people stood motionless against a counter. Their eyes were round with shock, and their mouths hung open.
The kid in the overcoat stood a few yards away, pointing a pistol at them.
His gaze jumped to Andrea and the waiter. “You! Over there!” He jerked his head at the petrified trio.
The waiter made a strangled sound and scuttled out the door they’d just come through.
Andrea didn’t move. Her chest tightened as she took in the scene: two waitresses and a cook, all cowering against a counter. Possibly more people in back. The kid was brandishing a Glock 17. It was pointed straight at the woman in the center, Andrea’s waitress. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen, and the gunman looked almost as young. Andrea noted his skinny neck, his freckles. His cheeks were pink—not from cold, as she’d first thought, but emotion.
The look he sent the waitress was like a plea.
“You did this, Haley!”
The woman’s eyes widened. Her lips moved, but no words came out.
“This is your fault.”
Andrea eased her hand beneath her blazer. The kid’s arm swung toward her. “You! Get with them!”
She went still.
“Dillon, what are you—”
“Shut up!” The gun swung back toward the waitress. Haley. The trio was just a few short yards away from the gun. Even with no skill whatsoever, anything he fired at that distance would likely be lethal. And who knew how many bullets he had in that thing?
Andrea’s heart drummed inside her chest. The smoky smell of barbecue filled the air. The kitchen was warm and steamy, and the walls seemed to be closing in on her as she focused on the gunman.
His back was to a wall lined with coat hooks. She counted four jackets and two ball caps, probably all belonging to the staff. Was anyone else hiding in the back? Had someone called for help?
“You did this!” the gunman shouted, and Haley flinched.
Andrea licked her lips. For only the second time in her career, she eased her gun from its holster and prepared to aim it at a person. The weight in her hand felt familiar, almost comforting. But her mouth went dry as her finger slid around the trigger.
Defuse.
She thought of everything she’d ever learned about hostage negotiations. She thought of the waiter who’d fled. She thought of Nick. Help had to be on the way by now. But the closest SWAT team was twenty minutes out, and she knew, with sickening certainty, that whatever happened here was going to be over in a matter of moments.
“I trusted you, Haley.” His voice broke on the last word, and Haley cringed back. “I trusted you, but you’re a lying bitch!”
“Dillon, please—”
“Shut up! Just shut up, okay?”
Ambivalence. She heard it in his voice. She could get control of this.
Andrea raised her weapon. “Dillon, look at me.”
To her relief, his eyes veered in her direction. He was crying now, tears streaming down his freckled cheeks, and again he reminded her of her brother. Andrea’s stomach clenched as she lined up her sights on his center body mass.
Establish a command presence.
“Put the gun down, Dillon. Let’s talk this through.”
He swung his arm ninety degrees, and Andrea was staring down the barrel of the Glock. All sound disappeared. Her entire world seemed to be sucked by gravity toward that little black hole.
She lifted her gaze to the gunman’s face. Dillon. His name was Dillon. And he was eighteen, tops.
Her heart beat crazily. Her mouth felt dry. Hundreds of times she’d trained to confront an armed assailant. It should have been a no-brainer, pure muscle memory. But she felt paralyzed. Every instinct was screaming for her to find another way.
Dillon’s attention slid to Haley, who seemed to be melting into the Formica counter. The others had inched away from her—a survival instinct that was going to be of little help if this kid let loose with a hail of bullets.
Loud, repetitive commands.
“Dillon, look at me.” She tried to make her voice firm, but even she could hear the desperation in it. “Put the gun down, Dillon. We’ll talk through this.”
His eyes met hers again. He rubbed his nose on the shoulder of his coat. Tears and snot glistened on his face.
“I’ll kill you, too,” he said softly. “Don’t think I won’t.”
“I believe you. But wouldn’t it be easier just to talk?” She paused. “Put the gun down, Dillon.”
She could see his arm shaking, and—to her dismay—hers began to shake, too. As if she didn’t know how to hold her own weapon. As if she didn’t work out three times a week to maintain upper-body strength.
As if she didn’t have it in her to shoot a frightened kid.
He was disintegrating before her eyes. She could see it. His Adam’s apple moved up and down as he swallowed hard.
“You can’t stop me.” His voice was a thread now, almost a whisper. He shifted his stance back toward Haley, and the stark look on her face told Andrea she’d read his body language.
“I’ll do it.”
Andrea’s pulse roared in her ears. The edges of her vision blurred. All she saw was that white hand clutching that big black gun.
She took a breath.
##
Please welcome NYT and USA Today bestselling author Laura Griffin whose newest romantic suspense, Far Gone releases today.
Laura Hi Welcome back to The Reading Frenzy
Tell us just a bit about Far Gone.
Thanks for inviting me, Deb!
Far Gone is the story of Andrea Finch, an Austin homicide detective who is on leave from her job when she gets an S.O.S. call from her younger brother in West Texas. Andrea thinks he may be mixed up with some dangerous people and she goes out there to investigate and soon crosses paths with FBI agent Jon North.
From the opening scene, Andrea is in a no-win situation that keeps getting worse. The crux of her problem in the story is that she’s torn between loyalty to her family and to the job she loves.
Congratulations on this being your first Hardcopy
Does it make you more nervous about this release?
It’s very exciting! I can’t tell you how thrilling it was to unpack the box of books from my publisher. A dream come true!
Yes, I’m a bit nervous about this release. I hope readers of my Tracers series will embrace these new characters. I’ve loved writing about them and may bring them into future books one day.
You know and my readers will see below when they read my review that I LOVED Far Gone. And your attention to detail is one of the big reasons. I can still picture the hollow core shell you described that was delivered to Andrea’s motel room.
Why do you put so much attention to detail in your novels?
I love books in which I feel like I’m there, right in the middle of what’s happening. Authors who pull me into a story like that use a lot of details to paint a picture. You don’t need to describe every single thing in the scene, but the key things that evoke the most emotion: curiosity, longing, fear, tenderness.
You’ve shared with us before some exciting novel research that you got to personally experience.
Anything new you’ve done that you can share with my audience?
I did some fun research to prepare for this one. The heroine is a cop in Austin, where I live, so I wanted to see my hometown through a cop’s eyes. I did a police ride-along and interviewed police officers to try to get a sense of what that job is like. The stress level can go from zero to ten in the blink of an eye. I wanted to bring that out in Andrea’s opening scene.
Laura your crime lab The Delphi Center has a smaller role in this novel than the previous.
Why?
Well, this book is a stand-alone, meaning it’s not technically part of a series. I wanted new readers to be able to pick up the book and jump right into the story world. But I love to write about forensics, so I couldn’t resist putting a few Tracers characters in there to help with that aspect of the investigation.
And I’m continuing the Tracers series. At the moment I’m writing book #8, which features Derek Vaughn and Elizabeth LeBlanc, who first met in SCORCHED.
Laura thanks for stopping by to chat with us. Congrats on the great early reviews it’s well deserving of them all and Good Luck with the new novel!
Are your events/signings listed on your website?
I will be heading to the RT convention in New Orleans in May and then the RWA convention in San Antonio this summer, where I’ll be signing books at the big Literacy Autographing. Hope to see you there!
My review of Far Gone
Distraught after killing a young suspect in an unavoidable
shooting incident, Austin detective Andrea Finch decides to take her mind off
her own problems by following her younger, wayward brother to a nowhere south
Texas town and find out why he’s once again dropped out
of school and into trouble only to find herself in the middle of an FBI
homegrown terror investigation that her brother’s
smack in the middle of. She decides to fight with instead of against the sexy
agent who’s on the case. She’s
convinced her brother’s an innocent in all this
but whether the agent believes her or not is the big question.
Special Agent Jon North’s been on this seemingly hopeless case long enough to know he better put up or he’ll get shut down when a beautiful lady cop shows up with a capital T for trouble written all over her. When it becomes obvious that the trouble’s both personal and professional for him Jon’s more than interested and just a bit afraid too.
As they follow the trail of dead bodies, dead ended leads and radical clandestine suspects
they’re also fighting a loosing battle against their powerful desire for each other and wondering where it will lead.
Special Agent Jon North’s been on this seemingly hopeless case long enough to know he better put up or he’ll get shut down when a beautiful lady cop shows up with a capital T for trouble written all over her. When it becomes obvious that the trouble’s both personal and professional for him Jon’s more than interested and just a bit afraid too.
As they follow the trail of dead bodies, dead ended leads and radical clandestine suspects
they’re also fighting a loosing battle against their powerful desire for each other and wondering where it will lead.
Laura Griffin’s newest and first ever
hard cover release is an impressive piece of romantic suspense, a genre that
she’s an expert storyteller in and a go-to, must read author
for me personally. This edge of your seat page-turner is part crime drama part provocative
romance and had me holding my breath from the first chilling page to the last. Her
meticulous attention to detail is evident in every shell casing description and
every evidentiary summation that she expertly showcases with her expressive and
visual narrative while her in your face cop speak dialogue tells her
unforgettable story. Her characters all rock especially her relationship phobic,
realistic hero and heroine. Be prepared for heart palpitations and a racing
pulse as you read this fantastic novel. Fans of Lisa Gardner, Lisa Jackson,
Nelson Demille and Michael Connelly will love Laura’s
work.
MEET THE AUTHOR:New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Laura Griffin started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of romantic suspense. She is a two-time RITA Award winner (for the books Scorched and Whisper of Warning) as well as the recipient of the Daphne du Maurier Award (for Untraceable). Laura currently lives in Austin where she is working on her next book. Visit her website at LauraGriffin.com and on Facebook at Facebook.com/LauraGriffinAuthor.
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Laura's Tracers Series
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I enjoyed the interview!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ann, she's one of my faves.
DeleteLove Lauren her books offer up some many elements I enjoy. Lovely review Debbie and of course the interview rocked!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim, your praise always means a lot to me :)
DeleteGreat interview! I like how Laura did research for this one, sounds so interesting! You always have such great authors over, I'll be adding Laura Griffin to my list, thanks for the chance!
ReplyDeleteI know Lorelei, she just amazes me what she'll try
Deletethanks for the comment
Sounds interesting, I loved the excerpt and the interview :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Red :)
DeleteGood luck!
Aw how awesome on it being her first hardcopy book! That's awesome. I've got Scorched sitting on my shelves! Woot!
ReplyDeleteYes very awesome Anna, I've got my fingers toes and eyes crossed that it does super ;)
Delete