Summer is here and I’m celebrating its arrival by giving away two signed copies of The Tarot Killer to the first two people to tweet the link to this blog post onto the twittersphere! (Please ensure you add @marybracht to your tweet so that I can track you down.) If you don’t win the free copies, don’t despair, you can purchase The Tarot Killer from all major online outlets as well as from my publisher, Eternal Press. Check out my website for links.
The Tarot Killer is my first published novel, and I had so much fun writing it. Dr. Skye Barrie is a psychotherapist in the Big Apple who is forced to flee to London in order to draw out a serial killer targeting her clients. Once she arrives in London, though, she realizes just how unequipped she is to find a killer. As she investigates her earliest client files and rehashes her past, Skye must decide whether to trust her gut instinct, that part of her that made her go into a healing profession in the first place, or the facts falling into place around her with each new victim.
Here’s an excerpt from the opening chapter:
Alive, she lived like the dead””trapped within the confines of her mind and unable to venture beyond her doorstep. Dead, she appeared free””her hair floating around her upturned face in the breeze and her arms reaching toward the sky. At first glance, I didn’t see the fishing line cutting into the flesh of her wrists suspending her from the fire escape. Even the blood was minimal.
Up close, though, those lines weren’t so invisible”¦glinting in the afternoon sun. I stood in her gently swaying shadow, watching her move with each caress of the wind. Her feet dangled only inches above my head and when I looked up, I saw what I was supposed to see, what he wanted me to see””an angel dressed in a white robe, hovering above me like a messenger from God. I focused on Maria’s dangling feet. Tattooed on the sole of her left foot was the Roman numeral fourteen: XIV. It was a fresh tattoo, judging from the red-tinged glow around the edges. Penned less than two days ago, the medical examiner said as I walked up. She was alive for two days after he tattooed her.
The terror she must have felt rattled my core. A hand settled on my shoulder. I knew who it was before he spoke. “It’s not your fault.” It was Diaz, the lead detective on the case. “That’s what these guys do. They fixate on an idea and don’t let go until their obsession either gets them caught or killed.”
“I know what these guys do,” I said.
“It’s not your fault, Skye. You couldn’t have known she was next.”
“I knew someone would be next, right? Someone who trusted me.” His hand slid off my shoulder as he tried to think of something else to say but nothing he could say would bring her back. Maria came to me because she wanted a better life. I shouldn’t have kept this a secret from her. I betrayed her trust and now she was dead.
As I looked up at her lifeless body, anger clouded my vision. I blinked away the tears and saw the black tattoo emblazoned on her pale foot and the white robe soiled with streaks of blood. She died before her time.
A special thanks to Coffee Time Romance for including me in this month’s Crime/Thriller theme!
Visit my website at marybracht.com for more information about me or my book.
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