Karma Never Sleeps by R. John Dingle is a book worth reading #psychologicalthriller #thriller #bookboost #readtulz #nnlbh
- N. N. Light
- Jun 18
- 4 min read
Title: Karma Never Sleeps
Author: R. John Dingle
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Book Blurb:
In a small town, the truth can’t always set you free…
When a second woman from a group of friends known as “the posse" is murdered in the woods near the New England enclave of Kendalton, FBI agent and profiler Gus Wheeler and his partner are called in to determine if this is a serial killing. He’s intrigued by a clue hidden on the body: a memorial picture of a teen who died 25 years ago.
Instead of helping with the investigation, the long-term friends stonewall the agents. But Gus can smell fear beneath their calm masks, fake smiles, and politely vague answers. Digging deeper, he discovers they are being terrorized by cyberstalking, spying, threats and mysterious break-ins. When a third member is hospitalized after a brutal attack, Gus suspects someone in the posse is the hunter instead of the hunted.
Is it the alpha leader Jules, her best friend Maria—married to the chief of police—outsider Mel, or weak link Lizzy? Or someone else bent on revenge? Time’s running out, and Gus’s life depends on his skill at determining who’s the best liar in town.
Excerpt:
Mel had stayed and consoled Maria long after Lizzy and Jules left and, as a result, was emotionally spent. So now, alone in the quiet sanctuary of her Jeep, lost in her own thoughts, she took a minute for herself before joining the other humans. Mel was an introvert, so if she had her way she’d be home by herself, curled up on the couch in her sweats with her rambunctious yellow Labrador retriever, Fred, by her side. But Jules’s voice rang in her head.
We go out, we see people and they see us. If people don’t see us mourning it’ll only raise suspicions.
She looked off into the distance at a large green farm tractor, its hay rake in tow, forming clean lines of windrow as it went. While Kendalton was most known for its fall festivals and apple picking or its antique shops and close proximity to New England’s most prominent ski areas, there were also several large farms in town, and for them haying season was well underway.
Through the silver chain-link fence in front of her she could see the soccer fields stretching into the distance. Just inside the gate sat a small concession hut, around which parents and kids alike gathered to eat burgers and hot dogs and a variety of candies and drinks, both hot and cold. Mel scanned the fields for the right game and as she did so caught a glimpse of herself in the rearview mirror and winced. The brown eyes—so dark they looked black—staring back at her and the painfully straight brown hair were familiar but slightly off, as if someone had traced a picture of her over the original, yet placed it slightly askew. Mel was fried and she knew she had let herself go. Losing Laur was like a cancer to Mel; an invasive, fast-spreading disease eating away her insides. Nothing smelled right, nothing tasted right, nothing made her happy, nothing made her…her. It was like death with the lights on.
She turned away and found Lizzy’s daughter, Terry, standing with her teammates on the sideline. She had her warm-up clothes on and her arms were in the air cheering on the players as she watched the game, laughing with the other girls. Off to the side, away from all the other parents, stood Jules next to her husband, Shane. She had changed since leaving Maria’s earlier, replacing her exercise outfit with dark, tight-fitting jeans, ankle-high leather Frye boots and a formfitting cream cashmere sweater. Her shiny hair fell perfectly to the center of her back, and she wore dark sunglasses with black lenses that hid her eyes. Jules was always a walking fashion statement and Mel wondered how she did it, what with kids and a husband and a house to take care of. Mel could barely pull on jeans some mornings or remember to feed Fred.
The crowd cheered, drawing Mel’s attention to the field of play just in time to see Jules’s daughter Emily—aka Milly—rifle a shot that caught the top corner of the net. And as the teammates congratulating Milly dispersed, Mel watched her jog back to the center of the field and it struck her, as it had so many times over the years, just how much daughter was like mother. And it wasn’t just her eyes or chin or hair. It was the tilt of her head a certain way when she was thinking or that rare but unmistakable look in her eye that told you she got you. Really got you.
Mel’s thoughts went to Sarah’s two daughters: Jessica and Abby. She knew the long road they had in front of them, growing up without a mother. Could they survive adolescence—arguably the toughest years for a young girl—without a mother? Once again, Mel found herself lost in her thoughts of the past and of the futures—the ones taken from her, and the ones put in their place without her consent.
Closure was Grief’s nemesis. Or its puppet.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Tule Publishing (includes links to Amazon Print, Kindle, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play): https://tulepublishing.com/books/karma-never-sleeps/#order
Author Biography:
R. John Dingle is the author of mysteries and psychological thrillers set in New England. He and his wife currently call a small island in Mid-Coast Maine ‘home’, both living, writing and boating from their restored 200-year old house (which they continually assure their three adult children is not haunted). Published in April 2025, the psychological thriller, Karma Never Sleeps, is John’s first novel and the first book in the Gus Wheeler FBI Thriller series.
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