The Seven Year Glitch by DT Mularkey is a book worth reading #thriller #mustread #booksworthreading #wrpbks
- N. N. Light
- Jun 9
- 5 min read
Title The Seven Year Glitch
Author DT Mularkey
Genre Thriller
Publisher The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
You’ll be dead by Sunday...
A week before the finale at Drake’s Resort where obscenely wealthy gamblers bet their fortunes and their faces, Ledger Warren, a wealthy Virgin Islands resort owner, receives a note announcing he’ll be dead in days. Equally distracting, a gorgeous dead ringer for the love of his life mysteriously appears, sending his paranoia skyrocketing while ripping open wounds of family betrayal. With no family or close friends and a shady partner with an expiring contract, Warren is suspicious of everyone. Who is threatening him: a resort guest, an angry gambler who lost it all, or an employee with an axe to grind? Perhaps someone from his checkered past will strike before he flees his own private paradise. Can he amass his biggest casino payoff, evade being killed, and escape his private island with his life?
Excerpt
“Dex, Boss asked you to fill me in on Drake’s,” the interviewer said. “So, I take it you must know it inside and out. If you wrote an ad to promote Drake’s Key, what would it say?”
I never thought about this before. It better be good. “Hmm. Here goes. ‘What kind a’ odds do you need to bet your life? Your life and everything you got.’ How’s that, Miss?”
I'm Dex. I played this little game with myself. So far, I owed me more dough than I'll ever make in this job, but I got plans. I know I'll never get back what I had before, but I'll get something better—yeah, way better. Like I said, I got plans.
“Not bad at all. How did you decide on that?” she asked. “Call me Peggy.”
I saw she was writing in shorthand, like Peaches did when we’re meeting with the Boss. Me, I couldn’t read that chicken scratching.
“Thanks. I just made it up. Well, Drake's Key is for people like me, people who made it big and want to play hard and get a thrill to match. The Boss says this private island caters to the top one percent based on net worth. I’m not sure what that means but he says you got more than twenty million bucks. Honestly, most of our guests got way more than that.”
“How long do guests usually stay?”
“A guest stays for a day or more, depending if there’s an outstanding extradition warrant on them. The original owner, Duncan Drake, named the place for himself.”
“What do they do here, Dex? I’ve seen guests playing golf and I’ve seen the deep-sea fishing boats. What happens to the fish they catch, anyway?”
“Did you eat any fish here, uh, Peggy?”
“Yes, I had the wahoo last night. It was perfect. The Macadamia nuts and the soy glaze was to die for.”
“You can thank the guest who caught it yesterday. Yeah, our chef does that fish to a T.”
“I see. What else then?”
I wasn’t sure what she was getting at. “Do you like the beach scene?”
“I liked the pool and a rum punch. I am going to the lagoon tomorrow to snorkel and work on my tan.”
“Someone as pale as you will fry in no time if you don’t wear sunscreen. You should
a’ seen the blisters I got the first year we was open. Now I stay in the shade.”
I waved a waiter down and ordered mango juice for two. “Well, you could learn to scuba dive, play polo, hang glide, actually dozens a’ things. Did you see the floorshow yet?”
“Yes. What about it?” It seemed like she was fishing for something, but I didn’t take her bait.
“One of the perks for the show folks is plastic surgery. Some guests get plastic surgery, and don’t have to leave until they look ‘camera-ready.’”
“That all sounds common. There must be something else, something unique here.”
I was outta answers. What was she nosing around about?
“Have you talked to Rusty at the track?” I asked, hoping I could send her his way with her questions. “Going as fast as your car will go with no cops around is pretty exciting.”
“Rusty? What track? I thought I saw a road when I looked from the plane.”
“You did. That’s the track. It’s for guys who fancy themselves to be race car drivers.”
“That doesn’t seem like it would appeal to very many people or be able to handle more than a couple of people at a time. Come on. Dex, give. Are you holding out on me?” She had a sexy smile, but I knew she was trying to trick me.
I shrugged. “You caught me. The big draw ain’t the beach and it ain’t the track. It’s the casino what draws the high rollers—”
Peggy interrupted me. “They can go to a dozen casinos around the world.”
“…but it wouldn't exist except for the Chairs and that technology, that ‘personality transference’ thing the Gizmo does. Drake's is the only place that's got it. It sure put a new swing on gambling.” That shut her up.
“Gizmo? Personality transference? Is that legal?”
I shrugged. How would I know if it was legal? “I never would a’ believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. Believe you me, you can walk out a’ this Drake’s a different person than you walked in. Uh oh, I gotta get humping. Boss is coming. Come on, Miss. Hurry.”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub)
Google Books The Seven Year Glitch - Google Books
iTunes Market with Apple Books
The Wild Rose Press The Seven Year Glitch – The Wild Rose Press Inc
Walmart The Seven Year Glitch - Walmart.com
Author Biography
Dona was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, but moved three weeks later. It set a pattern for her life. She grew up in Florida, Japan, Massachusetts, California, and North Carolina. She was the first female engineering graduate from UNC-Charlotte. She now lives in Texas.
Dona Mularkey’s first published books were textbooks for the classes she taught at Southern Methodist University while teaching mechanical engineering. During her twenty years at SMU she also authored a cookbook with a friend and an inspirational book with a military theme.
During her time at SMU, Dona became interested in promoting engineering to girls as a career path. Her ideas about the ideal age kids to focus on kept changing from high school to middle school and then to elementary school. She realized one day the toys her two-year-old grandson played with were simple machines. This led her to write stories introducing kids to engineering through simple machines.
Dr. Mularkey went from professor to writer of novels during her retirement. Her first thriller The Seven Year Glitch, published in 2024, introduced Ledger Warren. His resort on Drake’s Key catered to the obscenely rich people bet their fortunes for a chance to change lives with someone else. The follow-on novel The Dead Return will publish in 2025.
Social Media Links
Author page: DT Mularkey Author Page
Blog: Now What Mularkey, Now What? - Senior, Travel, Hacks (nowwhat-mularkey.com)
TikTok: #dtmularkey
Linktree: donaloutm | Instagram, TikTok | Linktree
