The Reading Frenzy: #GIVEAWAY Review - Midnight Dunes Interview with author Laura Griffin

Today it is my great pleasure to bring you this fantastic feature on Midnight Dunes by my all time favorite romantic suspense author Laura Griffin, including a very special only seen here Excerpt and an interview with Laura plus read what I thought about the novel. And the pièce de résistance is that Laura has graciously offered a signed copy of Midnight Dunes, #3 in her Texas Murder Files series, details below.
Read on and Enjoy!

ISBN-13: 978-0593197387
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: 05-24-2022
Length: 358pp
Source: Author/Publisher for review
Buy It: Amazon/ B&N/ IndieBound

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

When the shocking discovery of a murdered woman’s body disturbs the tranquility of tourist season, the police detective in charge of the puzzling case must work alongside the new filmmaker in town to pursue every lead in the new romantic thriller from New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin.

After a scandal derails her television reporting career, Macey Burns comes looking for a change of pace in Lost Beach, Texas. She’s ready to focus on her first passion—documentary filmmaking—and has a new job working for the island’s tourism board, shooting footage of the idyllic beachside community. Her plans for a relaxing rebound are dashed when she realizes the cottage she’s renting belonged to the woman whose body was just found in the sand dunes.

Detective Owen Breda is under intense pressure to solve this murder. Violent crimes are rising in his small town, and he can’t stand to see anyone else hurt…especially not the beautiful documentarian who keeps showing up at the precinct.

With the clock ticking, cameras rolling, and body count climbing, Macey and Owen must use all their resources to find the killer without getting caught in the crosshairs.

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Midnight Dunes
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Read an exclusive excerpt:

Excerpt:

Macey Burns drove through the drumming rain, gripping the wheel until her knuckles were white.

“Are you here yet?” Josh asked.

“I’m running late,” she told him over the phone. “I hit traffic leaving town and then it’s been pouring the last two hours. I just crossed the bridge.”

“It’s—”

Noise drowned out his words.

“What?” she asked.

“It’s a causeway. No one calls it a bridge here.”

“I can barely hear you. Where are you?”

“At that bar I told you about, the one with the pool tables,” he said. “You’re going to love it.”

Macey tore her gaze away from the highway to check the clock. It was almost eleven, and what should have been a four-hour drive had taken more than five.

“Sounds good, but not tonight. I haven’t even found the house yet, and I still have to unload.”

“That’s okay. I’m about to leave anyway. Where are you, exactly?”

“I think I may have missed the turn,” she told him. “I just passed a sign that said White Dunes Park, five miles.”

“No, it should be coming up on your right. You’ll see it.”

Josh had been on the island all week scouting locations and already knew his way around.

“You need help unloading?” he asked.

“I’m good.”

“So, hey, heads up. I just found out that Channel Five is down here.”

“Channel Five from San Antonio?” she asked.

“Yeah, Rayna and her crew. They’re reporting on that woman who went missing two weeks ago. She disappeared without a trace.”

Macey had read an article about it online. It was the type of story that normally would have captivated her attention, but she’d managed to push it out of her mind.

“We’re not here to do news,” she reminded Josh.

“No kidding. I just thought you’d want to know. In case you see them in town.”

Rayna had once been Macey’s fiercest rival, but that was months ago, before Macey walked away from her job and her life and the endless slog of the twenty-four-hour news cycle.

Her tires hit a slick patch, and she clenched the wheel. She didn’t want to think about her old job right now. She just wanted to get to her destination. Her shoulders were in knots from the drive, and she wanted a glass of wine and a steamy shower.

“So, are we still on for tomorrow?” she asked Josh. “Eight o’clock?”

“Assuming the weather clears. No use scouting locations in the rain.”

“It’s supposed to be beautiful,” she said. “Let’s start on the north end. We can meet at my beach house.”

Beach house. She pictured the sun-drenched deck overlooking the surf. She’d been daydreaming about it since she first found the listing.

“Sure you don’t need help with the equipment?” Josh asked.

“Thanks, but I can handle it.”

“Okay, well, see you tomorrow, then.”

She ended the call and squinted through the swishing wipers at the sign up ahead: WHITE DUNES PARK, 2 MILES.

A strobe of lightning lit the sky, revealing empty fields on either side of the two-lane highway. She was well past the tourist center of Lost Beach, past the hotels and restaurants and T-shirt shops.

She hit a bump, and the car jerked right. Her heart skipped a beat as the Honda fishtailed and skidded. She clenched the wheel and tried to get control, but it careened onto the shoulder with a jaw-rattling thunk. She jabbed the brakes and slammed to a halt.

Macey blinked at the windshield, shocked. Her heart raced as she tried to catch her breath. The car was tilted, and the headlights illuminated a patch of weeds and a gravelly strip of shoulder.

Macey put the gearshift in park and shoved open the door. She started to get out, but the seatbelt yanked her back. She unbuckled herself and slid out. Rain pelted her as she looked around in a daze.

What the hell had happened? One second she’d been driving along and the next second it was like aliens had seized control of the car. And she’d definitely felt a bump. Had she hit something?

Glancing at the road, she saw no other traffic. She retrieved her cell phone and slammed the door. Her wet flip-flops thwacked against the gravel as she walked around the front of the Honda and checked for damage. No dents. No sign of an animal.

She stopped beside the front bumper. The right tire was flat.

“Crap.”

She switched on her cell phone’s flashlight and aimed it at the tire. Yep, flat as a pancake.

Rain streamed down her face and neck. What now? She turned off the flashlight and called Josh, but he didn’t pick up. She sent him a text:

SOS! Flat tire. Call me.

A car raced past and sprayed her with water. She yelped and whirled around, but the driver didn’t even slow. Cursing, she glanced up and down the highway. This end of the island was fairly desolate—mostly campgrounds and nature parks. She’d passed a marina, but that was a ways back.

When she’d planned her trip down here, she had wanted seclusion. After weeks of scouring listings, she’d been ecstatic when a long-term rental popped up on the island’s north end, just footsteps from the beach. The idea of being away from town, surrounded by sand and waves and the soundtrack of nature, had been immensely appealing. But now she wasn’t sure. Maybe she should have followed Josh’s advice and rented an apartment in town for the summer.

Macey shivered and rubbed her bare arms, chilled from the rain despite the warm temperature. Her tank top and jeans were already soaked through, and she was out here alone and stranded.

I can handle it.

Ha. Famous last words.

She went back around and reached inside once again, this time to pop the trunk. It was a new-to-her car, and she didn’t know the spare tire situation, but surely there was something in back. Macey had helped a boyfriend change a tire in college once. Well, maybe not helped, but she’d watched, and it had seemed pretty straightforward.

She tromped back to the trunk and slid aside the tripod and the suitcase filled with camera equipment. After finding the corner tab, she peeled back the layer of carpet.

Score! A spare tire, along with a heavy metal tool—a lug wrench?—and what had to be a jack.

But the spare seemed… off. She frowned down at the anemic-looking tire. Pressing her fingers against it, she confirmed her suspicion.

The spare was flat, too.

“Crap,” she said again.

Macey checked her phone. Still nothing from Josh. She hated asking a man to rescue her, but it was freaking pouring, and she was out of options.

Another lightning strobe, followed by a clap of thunder. Then a jagged white bolt zapped down from above.

She looked up at the sky, awestruck. The ferocious beauty of it reminded her of why she’d been attracted to Lost Beach in the first place. She’d been lured by the film project, of course, which would pay her bills while she got her life sorted. But beyond that, she’d been attracted by dramatic juxtaposition of nature and people. She’d been lured by the rugged Texas coast and one of the last long stretches of untamed beach and twenty-foot dunes.

Rainwater trickled down her shirt, reminding her of her plight. She stared down at the useless tire.

Her trip was off to a rocky start. She wasn’t superstitious—at least not usually—and she refused to take tonight as a bad omen. She was here for the entire summer, and no matter what happened she planned to make the best of it.

A flash of light had her turning around. A pair of headlights approached, high and wide apart, like a pickup truck. The truck slowed, and she felt a ripple of unease.

But maybe this was just what she needed—some Good Samaritan here to help her.

The truck rolled to a stop.

My Review:

Midnight Dunes
Texas Murder Files #3
Laura Griffin

Book three in the Texas Murder Files, Midnight Dunes, by NYT bestseller Laura Griffin is full of surprising twists and shocking turns that will keep readers on their toes trying to discover whodunit and once more proving that Laura Griffin is the Queen of Romantic Suspense.

Laura’s narrative is informative and intense bringing her audience right to this beautiful Texas resort town in turmoil and her dialogue is concise and comprehensive and will intimate her readers to all her players. The attraction between Owen and Macey is credible and palpable and they are the definite standouts in this novel, but every other character in the novel is also crucial to the story. One really interesting situation was housing Macey in the dead woman’s beach house that leads to other interesting developments. Readers will find themselves rooting for this couple while they’re simultaneously following the clues that the author is drip feeding to learn the culprit’s identity. This as in all the Texas Murder File novels can be read as a standalone. Fans of romantic suspense, the novels by Lisa Gardner or Lisa Jackson and this author will find this a hard to put down stay up all night read.

After sabotaging her career as a TV journalist Macey Burns feels extremely lucky that the town of Lost Beach Texas has hired her fledgling film company to make commercials for the tourism board. She’s determined to use this summer to do a good job for the town and make a new start for herself and might even be able to fulfill her once upon a dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker. But that start is being hampered when a local woman turns up murdered on the site of one of her planned shoots and a very sexy detective keeps turning up asking questions.

Owen Breda has his hands full after being named lead detective when a local missing woman is found murdered. He’s got few leads and is getting heat for a quick solve from his chief because murders and tourism just don’t mix well. Plus, he keeps running into a beautiful filmmaker he just can’t stop thinking about and he can’t afford distractions.

My exclusive interview with Laura

Laura HI! Welcome back to The Reading Frenzy.

Great to visit with you!

I just finished #3 in The Texas Murder Files, Midnight Dunes. It was Fabulous!!
Tell my readers a little about it please.
Midnight Dunes is the story of filmmaker Macey Burns, who moves to the coastal town of Lost Beach, Texas, after a scandal derails her television career. When a body is discovered in the sand dunes near Macey’s house, she gets pulled into the murder investigation by Detective Owen Breda.

Now the first in the series takes place in Austin but these last two take place in Lost Beach Texas.
What inspired this novel and why did you choose to stay in Lost Beach?
Readers have been asking about Owen Breda since he first appeared in Flight with his brother Joel. The Breda brothers have an interesting dynamic—a close sibling relationship filled with conflict. I always knew I wanted Owen to have his own story, so I had to return the series to Lost Beach to write it.

I really liked both Owen and Macey, there was nothing cagey about either one pretty much open books.
I’m happy to see more male protagonists who aren’t afraid of emotions.
Were your heroes always like this or have they changed with the times?
I like writing male characters who aren’t afraid of emotions because, as a reader, I think they are more interesting to read about than one-dimensional men who always have the same stereotypical commitment issues. I think all of my characters have probably evolved over time. I know my heroines are more outspoken in recent years.

Lost Beach is made up but is it based on one or maybe a mashup of TX coastal towns?
I love writing about Lost Beach! The fictional setting is inspired by real places in Texas, such as South Padre Island and Padre Island National Seashore, which is home to some beautiful sand dunes. I grew up spending summers on the Texas Gulf Coast, and the setting is such special to me—everything from the birds, to the dramatic weather, to the rich foods.

Laura your villain is not revealed until the very end and I personally didn’t figure it out until almost the Big Reveal.
So you used what they call the classic reveal
Why does this work for you?
and
I know you’ve used the chameleon reveal which is close to the classic reveal, in fact you used it in the last Murder Files novel but have you ever used the immediate reveal?
Honestly, I don’t really think about it in terms of the labels. I write what feels natural to the story. Writing a book is a long journey and sometimes I take detours along the way if I feel like the pace is too slow or something feels boring. Sometimes I don’t know who the villain is until halfway through the book. On a few occasions, I knew exactly who the villain was from the beginning, but it seemed too obvious, and I ended up changing it toward the end. So, the process is different every time and I just sort of go with what feels right for the story.

Laura you’ve been an author for a while and I know you were once a journalist.
Did you have an ah-ha moment when you decided to try your hand at being a novelist, can you share with us how and when it happened?
I have loved to write since I was a child. I got my professional start as a newspaper reporter and I always loved covering the hard news stories. So, when I decided to try my hand at fiction, I naturally gravitated toward crime fiction and suspense. I also love to read mysteries, so that probably has something to do with it, too!

Laura thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
Are author events still in lockdown or will you be doing any meet and greets?
Yes! I’m excited to do my first in-person author event in more than two years on release day! The book launch party will be held at one of my favorite indie book stores, Lark & Owl Booksellers in Georgetown, Texas. If you would like a signed book, you can order one through their web site!

Also, readers anywhere can tune in for my live Facebook chat with my author friend Jayne Ann Krentz. We’ll be talking about writing, books, and whatever else people want to chat about! That is happening Thursday, May 26^th on Jayne’s Facebook page: Jayne Ann Krentz | Facebook

About the author:
Laura Griffin is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty books and novellas. Her books have been translated into fourteen languages. Laura is a two-time RITA® Award winner (for Scorched and Whisper of Warning) as well as the recipient of the Daphne du Maurier Award (for Untraceable). Her book Desperate Girls was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Publishers Weekly. Laura lives in Austin, Texas, where she is working on her next novel.