Title: GHOST NOTES
Author: Beth Henderson
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Book Blurb:
Jace Hastings, rising music star, is presumed dead in a vehicle collision, courtesy of a stalker with deadly designs. Ten years later, P.I. Gaelen Wyndom can’t believe someone wants her to find him.Pelham Flannery rejoined the world from ICU, fully aware someone had tried to kill him. To live, he went under the radar, distanced himself from music, and disguised everything that would give away his identity as Jace. After a decade, is it safe to come out of hiding?Gaelen, delighted to be trained as a professional investigator by her new husband, continued in her new career after he was killed. Assigned to locate Jace Hastings, she isn’t told who wants to find him, but she puzzles it out. If she’s right, it’s the man who tried to kill him before. Which means she needs to find Jace Hastings and save him.
Excerpt:
Pel stared at the spot recently vacated by the attractive brunette in the hallway. Had she been C.C.’s songstress? If so, it appeared from the way she dressed that singing was a sideline for her. The business suit of soft gray, basic black heels, and lack of eye-catching styling for her makeup and collarbone-brushing straight hair, didn’t shout professional performer. It yelled chameleon instead. She’d certainly vanish in a crowd of office workers.
Even with her clothing soaked and obviously uncomfortable in the AC, she’d covered for the hired help and offered to pay for her drenching. That indicated a caring person and one who was fair in her dealings with others.
She hadn’t been flashy, but she’d definitely intrigued him in their short exchange. If he offered to compensate her with free cleaning for her suit, would she accept? Probably not. However, he could give her something that she’d likely accept the loan of and give her a reason to return. He hoped.
Pel pushed away from the desk, headed to the wardrobe unit that housed his spare clothing and backup apparel for waitstaff in need of immediate replacements—like the one who’d probably got dampened along with the woman in the hall. Rather than a staff shirt, he took one of his own dress shirts from the upper shelf. When she exited the ladies’ room, he had a shoulder propped on the doorjamb, his weight on his good leg and the surgically reconstructed one bent at the knee.
She stumbled to a stop when she saw him waiting, folded shirt in hand.
“I can’t do anything about your damp skirt, but this might keep you from getting a chill otherwise,” he said, holding the folded shirt out to her. “You can return it the next time you visit C.C.’s. It’s a spare I keep on hand for when I’m the staff’s target.”
Her lips twitched in amusement, but her eyes had widened at the offer. They were a lovely shade of blue, as though the Arizona sky at midday had served as tincture in constructing them. There was a touch of embarrassed rose in her cheeks. Her neck was long, pale, and made for a man to taste his way to her delectable and earring-free lobe.
“Thank you,” she murmured, accepting the loan.
“I have more, but consider this a gift,” Pel insisted and reached aside to snag a carryout bag with the C.C.’s Place logo on the side. “Call it luggage for your damp things.”
That won him a full smile as she accepted it. “You obviously know the way to a woman’s heart,” she said, the promise of a laugh in her voice. Then she nipped back into the restroom. Lacking further reason to procrastinate over the stock reports he’d been studying, Pel returned to his desk, though Wall Street lost out to his curiosity about the lovely woman with the blend into-the-background clothing choices.
Was she the daughter, lawyer, or insurance agent for one of the regulars currently dining in the main room? Not, he decided, the woman C.C. was interviewing and immediately had that guess verified as a lyrical contralto voice drifted down the hall, hitting every note dead on as she crooned “Georgia On My Mind” without accompaniment.
There was no way he could concentrate on his stock portfolio. Between the intriguing woman in the hall and the lyrical sound of C.C.’s auditioning vocalist, his mind wanted to rebel. Considering he hadn’t been tempted from a life of celibacy in a long time and had tried to resist music’s Lorelei call, both were jostling for his attention now. The pose of being a businessman—though his ability to milk profits through agile dancing with stocks proved he was one—was harder to maintain some days. During the long recovery after nearly dying, he’d not only needed something to keep his mind active, he’d needed a way to reboot his finances. Oddly enough, he’d discovered he had an affinity for stock juggling. It had been a profitable hobby. Money wasn’t something he worried about any longer.
Losing his mind by staying under the radar of the man who’d nearly killed him was more difficult to deal with. Some days he entertained fantasies about women he’d known, about women he’d like to know. Other times he itched to be back on stage so badly it was like being swarmed by hungry fire ants.
It did not help that C.C. kept finding ways to tempt him back where she felt he belonged, in the thick of the music business.
While the public at large could be fooled over his identity, Pel doubted the same could be said about someone from the music community. They’d see past his disguise to the man straining to break free of those self-imposed chains.
When a percussive knock sounded on his open office door, he glanced up. The once soggy guest hovered there, his shirt swamping her upper body, though she’d tied it at her waist. She lifted the carryout bag.
“Just wanted to thank you again,” she said.
He wondered what her rendition of “Georgia On My Mind” would sound like. There was simply something in her voice that hinted at the ability to sing. Yet he doubted that was why she had come to the restaurant that day.
“Listen,” she said. “While this sounds like a really bad pick-up line, and that’s not my intention in the least…”
“No woman’s tried to pick me up in a long time,” he told her. “Go ahead. Shoot. It’ll do my ego wonders.”
She grinned at the lie.
“It’s the least I can do to show my appreciation over the loan of your spare shirt.”
“So, what’s the line?” he asked.
Warning bells clamored in his mind.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
Mystery tales that mixed romance in for a happily ever after as well as an adventure where the main characters do NOT end up dead have been crowding my bookshelves since I earned my first paycheck. That I’d then decide to dive into writing stories that included these elements was inevitable. With GHOST NOTES, I gave into my love of music as well. As I always have music on when I’m writing, it made perfect sense. I put Pel through hell in the story, but Gaelen, the heroine, was at his side, inadvertently giving the man who’d nearly killed Pel a second target While death is on the line, so is a second chance at love. But, then, isn’t that what we all read romantic suspense style mysteries for?
Time to reread GHOST NOTES myself. I never get tired of hanging out with my own characters and frequently find I’ve forgotten something I put them through. It nearly makes reading it again a new adventure!
Giveaway –
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Runs August 7 – August 14, 2024.
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Author Biography:
Beth Henderson’s first published novel was a romantic suspense comedy that hit the shelves the Spring of 1990. She’s written under numerous names, spinning romantic comedy, historical romantic mysteries, cozy paranormal lite comedic mystery, and sidestepped into urban fantasy PI mystery comedy, Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Gaslamp fantasy mystery. There aren’t many genre niches that she’s not tempted to write in. Her 39th book (and it’s a mystery under her JB Dane pseudonym) releases in September. She also does online genre fiction writing workshops for various RWA online chapters. Sadly, if friends and family aren’t talking writing fiction, her eyes glaze over.
Social Media Links:
X/Twitter: @Beth__Henderson
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2GvFyog
Thank you, Beth, for sharing your wonderful romantic suspense in our Mystery and Suspense Bookish Event!