N. N. Light's Book Heaven presents Michelle Godard-Richer #authorspotlight #thriller #horror #awardwinning #mustread
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  • N. N. Light
    • Apr 25
    • 9 min read

N. N. Light's Book Heaven presents Michelle Godard-Richer #authorspotlight #thriller #horror #awardwinning #mustread



From the time I learned to read as a child, I wanted to write, and I told people I wanted to be an author when I grew up. I remember reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Chronicles of Narnia around age 8, and those books in particular stimulated my imagination, giving me a world to escape into to quell the boredom of small-town living. In the late eighties and early nineties, imagination was all we had, especially on long drives along boring highways. It was fun to imagine an animal, or a mystical creature emerging from the never ending forests along Highway 417.

 

As I grew older, the real world crept into my fantasy bubble, like it does for most of us when we’re old enough to understand the news stories and darker side of humanity. I developed an interest in true crime, mysteries, and thrillers. These are still my favorite genres to read with paranormal and horror thrown in for good measure along with the odd dystopian and romance.

 

When it came time to decide what to study in university, I blended my love of books and crime as best I could. Although, my dream of being an author stayed with me, it’s not a guarantee or a practical career choice. I spent four wonderful years at the University of Ottawa completing my Criminology degree. Most of my electives were spent in English Literature classes where the reading was a lot more entertaining than a dry textbook on law.

 

In the final year of my degree, I had to complete an internship. By then I had come to realize that the criminal justice system is broken with a disproportionate number of marginalized, non-violent offenders taking up residence in our prisons. I didn’t want to contribute to that situation as a police officer, or by working in a prison, or at a halfway house.

 

What I really wanted to do was help people, so I chose to complete my hours at a family shelter for abused women. Although seeing the results of violence firsthand was difficult, the experience of helping empower women to rebuild their lives and watching them succeed was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Women are stronger than they realize, and I try my best to portray them that way in my books.

 

I thought I had found my calling, but life took me on a different path I never would have anticipated, setting me on a different course. I married my husband a year after graduation, and soon after we were blessed with not one, but two special needs children who needed me at home. Once they were both school-aged, I went back to my first love—writing. Now I’m the author of seven books, three thrillers, two horror titles, and a duology of time-travel romance with another thriller coming soon.

 

I’m not sure whether I believe in fate or coincidences. Do things happen for a reason? Are we destined to connect with certain people and follow a preordained path? Or do things just happen? These aren’t questions we’ll ever have an answer for, but I can’t help but think that something or someone steered me back to my first love—writing.

 

 

 

 

Title: Into The Fog

Author: Michelle Godard-Richer

Genre: Psychological/Sci-fi Thriller

Publisher: Next Chapter

 

Book Blurb: 

 

Ice fog descends upon Dickens, Alberta, growing thicker and thicker until Heidi Crawford can no longer see the coniferous forest and snow-capped mountains outside the windows of her Jeep. A huge four-legged shape moves in the mist. She slams on the brakes and squeezes her eyes shut.

 

When Heidi opens her eyes, the fog is gone, but so is her life as she knows it. Instead of forest and snow, she’s on a single street in a tiny town, trapped in a scorching hot desert away from her daughter Emma. And she isn’t alone. Fifteen strangers are trapped in Ghost Town and soon, they begin disappearing, one by one.

 

Michelle Godard-Richer’s INTO THE FOG is an unputdownable, chilling isolation thriller about a single mother separated from her daughter and trapped with fourteen strangers — one of whom is a killer.

 

Excerpt: 

 

Heidi knew this road and all its hills, having lived in Dickens her whole life in the same log home she now occupied with Emma. The largest of the hills on her route lay ahead. The Jeep crested to the top, then began its descent. Heidi held her foot on the brake to maintain her speed. On the side of the road ahead of her, a large, four-legged shape moved through the mist.

 

Heidi slammed the brake pedal to the floor. The Jeep slowed, skidding as her tires scrambled for purchase on the ice. As she skidded, the fog thickened, until all she could see was white. She pumped the brakes but continued to slide. Her heart raced and her hands shook as she clenched the steering wheel.

 

Please, please stop.

 

Ramming into a moose or a bighorn sheep, even at a slow speed, could be fatal.

 

Finally, her momentum slowed, and the Jeep ground to a halt.

 

The fog swirled then thinned, lifting from the ground, inch by inch, until the sky swallowed it up. But instead of revealing the few kilometers of mountainous forest leading to her homestead, Heidi found herself in the middle of a road that dead-ended in both directions. Unfamiliar, brown brick buildings lined either side.

 

Even more bizarre, the sun shone in a cloudless sky and a snowless, brown desert stretched for miles. Cacti as tall as trees surrounded her instead of spruce. She turned off the ignition. 

 

This can’t be real. She squeezed her eyes shut.

 

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Author Biography: 

 

Michelle Godard-Richer is an award-winning thriller and horror author with an Honours Degree in Criminology from the University of Ottawa. She was named Best Canada Author of the Year by N.N. Light’s Book Heaven and earned a Crowned Heart from Ind’Tale Magazine.

 

Her fascination with crime and human behavior, combined with a lifelong passion for the written word, led her to realize a childhood dream of becoming an author. She enjoys crafting strong protagonists and diabolical villains with realistic and believable characteristics while making their lives as complicated and dangerous as possible.

 

When she isn’t writing, you’ll find her in the garden or with her nose in a book. She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta with her husband, two children, four dogs, and a cat.

 

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Title: Fatal Witness

Author: Michelle Godard-Richer

Genre: Romantic Thriller

Publisher: Wild Rose Press

 

Book Blurb:

 

Jessica opens her bedroom window in the middle of the night to catch a breeze, but instead, she witnesses something that will change the course of her life forever—her neighbor, David, loading his wife’s body onto the back of his truck. She soon learns David knows what she saw and will stop at nothing to eliminate the only witness to his crime.

 

With her young son Bryce in tow, Jessica flees across the border to Montana. She discovers her first love, Jon Kent, is back in town after an early retirement from the FBI. But he isn’t the only one in town. David surfaces to unleash hell on Jessica and everyone she loves.

 

Excerpt: 

 

Jessica crouched beneath the window frame, not daring to move. The streetlight might illuminate her shadow and give her away. The last thing she needed to do was draw attention to her nosiness. 

 

After a few long minutes of torture, his footsteps echoed on the pavement, coming closer and closer, then stopped in front of her house.

 

Air burst in and out of her lungs and stars clouded her vision. She forced her lungs to take in more air, expanding all the way, before exhaling.

 

His steps moved farther and farther away, then the scraping sound resumed.

 

Jessica stood and peered outside.

 

David came around the corner of his house with his back to her, hunched over, dragging something large rolled in a white plastic tarp tied with a rope around the middle. He dropped his load then swiped at his forehead with his shirt sleeve. His thick arm muscles strained as he picked up whatever was rolled inside the tarp and dragged it along the driveway to his truck.

 

He hoisted the bundle over his right shoulder and grunted while using his momentum to flip it onto his truck. The truck bed bounced. A limp, bloody arm came loose from the tarp. The streetlight reflected off its white skin, illuminating a large butterfly tattoo on the inside of the forearm.

 

Jessica covered her mouth to stifle a scream. She’d recognize that tattoo anywhere. His wife lay wrapped in that tarp.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

 

 

 

Title: Fatal Hunt

Author: Michelle Godard-Richer

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Wild Rose Press

 

Book Blurb:

 

After being widowed and surviving the wrath of a serial killer, Jessica believes her misfortunes are over. She’s reunited with her first love, Jon, and together, with her son Bryce, and a baby on the way, they’re living their happily ever after on their ranch in Montana. That is until secrets, lies, and a formidable foe from Jon’s past emerge to shake the foundation of their relationship, forcing them to flee for their lives.A decade earlier, Jon worked undercover for the FBI. He infiltrated Hugh Jones’ Kansas City Mob, and almost destroyed his empire. Unaware of the breech in his own defenses, Hugh, obsessed with revenge, unleashes every weapon in his arsenal, targeting those Jon loves the most.


Excerpt:

 

Jessica’s limbs weighed a ton. She forced her heavy eyelids open. After a split second they shut on her again. She lay on something soft, and an engine droned around her.

 

Where am I? What happened?

 

Then she remembered her fruitless struggle in the hospital room. Willing her head to the side, she forced her eyes open again. Her kidnapper sat in a chair across from her reading a newspaper.

 

He looked over the top of his paper and smiled. “You’ll be groggy for a while longer. Go back to sleep.”

 

Too tired to fight, she gave into the void sucking her down.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Back in Time with Jelly Beans

Author: Michelle Godard-Richer

Genre: Time travel romance

Publisher: Wild Rose Press

 

Book Blurb:

 

Fueled by curiosity, and her dream of becoming a big-time journalist, Bella Thomas digs deep into the history of her small town. Mayflower thrived until the local Jelly Bean factory burned to the ground in 1927, killing handsome founder, Henry Hinchcliffe, and devastating the economy.

 

In a twist of fate, instead of Bella finding the past, she's snatched out of the present and transported to the factory a year before the fire. There she is rescued by the sweet and swoon-worthy Henry. Bella can’t stop herself from falling for him even though he’s destined to marry another and suffer a tragic fate. Without any regard for her own happiness, Bella is determined to prevent the fire and save Henry. Even if he can never be hers.

 

Excerpt:

 

             She covered her nose with her sleeve to block out the pungent odors of stale urine and rotten food. You would have to be desperate for warmth to sleep in such a filthy place. She angled her phone at the ground to avoid stepping in gum and trash as she walked towards the back of the factory. A few random pieces of metal were scattered across the floor. If only she could find something more meaningful to photograph for the article. An old poster advertisement would do the trick.

 

Bella continued walking deeper into the dark storage area. She shone her flashlight into the corner. The edge of a small box stuck out from beneath an old newspaper. Leery of touching anything with her bare hand, Bella kicked the newspaper aside, then gasped. Somehow, a box of jelly beans had survived almost a century. The corners were stained brown, but the logo of the Mayflower ship was intact.

 

Perfect! 

 

Bella kneeled. As the tips of her fingers brushed the old box, wind slammed against her in deafening gusts, lifting the dust and dirt off the floor. Debris swirled around in a vortex, blocking her view of the factory.

 

What in the holy heck? Bits of dirt flew into her eyes and up her nose. She crouched into a ball covering her face with her arms. This is what I get for being nosey and breaking into the factory.

 

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On sale for only $1.99!

 

 

 

 

Title: Spine Chilling

Author: Michelle Godard-Richer

Genre: Horror

 

Book Blurb:

 

Don’t let the devil escape the pages….


Peter McFadden’s life is ending, but he isn’t ready to leave this world and his killing ways behind. His spirit lingers inside his favorite vintage book, tethering him to this world, while he waits for his next victim.


Davis Shetland discovers a first edition he desperately wants in the antique section of his neighborhood bookstore and purchases it, despite the steep cost. Once he places the book on his shelf at home, the nightmare begins. He awakens covered in blood with no memory of what happened, then learns his girlfriend’s sister—a woman he doesn’t like— was murdered the previous night. He soon realizes the cost of the book isn’t the highest price he’ll pay.

 

Excerpt:

 

Esme’s stomach twisted into a tight knot as her brain worked through the shock of their discovery and arrived at a horrific conclusion. “I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.”

 

“Why not?” Lucy opened the box, then dropped it, and covered her mouth.

 

The box landed on its side and a mound of gleaming white teeth spilled out all over the carpet. Almost as if their father had polished each tooth individually after…he yanked them out of someone’s mouth.

 

Esme backed away. “Don’t touch those, Luce.”

 

“I’m not planning on it. What do we do with them?”

 

Esme stood, took Lucy’s hand, and helped her stand on shaky legs. “We need to call the police.”

 

“Ohmigod! Do you think Dad...”

 

“Considering the Colorado Strangler got his name from strangling his victims, then removing their teeth—that would explain Dad’s collection. Wouldn’t it? Our father was a serial killer.”

 

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