Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Hidden Truths & Lies, a Horror / Paranormal Suspense collection by Fran Lewis (7 April 2016, Fideli Publishing Inc., 98 pages). This is the fourth book in the Faces Behind the Stones series.
Don't miss our interview with author Fran Lewis.PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below.
Author Fran Lewis will be awarding a paperback copy of Hidden Truths & Lies to one of our readers, and an ebook copy to three randomly drawn winners via Rafflecopter during the tour.
Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), interviews (ℚ), reviews (✍) and guest blog posts (✉).
Synopsis | Teaser | The Series | Author Q&A | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops
Synopsis
Each story in this series teaches a lesson the person behind the stone should have learned before committing crime, hurting someone else, or generally failing at life.We’re about to enter Golden Stone Cemetery, where these unfortunate people are buried so deep you can barely find their markers. Their crimes are so heinous and their deeds so cruel that family members buried them here because they want to forget they ever existed.
Enter at your own risk.
Who lies behind these unmarked stones? Let their stories unfold…
27 minutes: Silenced
The Betrayal
The Imposters
The Competitor
Journey to Nowhere
Crime Pays Off: Just Don’t Get Caught
Teaser: Excerpt
27 Minutes: Silenced
Traumatic brain injuries are common. They can be caused by not wearing a seatbelt while riding in a car, biking without a helmet, falling headfirst down the stairs, or just hitting your head really hard. Falling over and hitting your head on a tabletop or against a sharp edge on the wall might garner the same result.
Maria’s Prologue:
Six feet under and nowhere to go. The air is musty and the accommodations crowded. There is no one to hear my screams or to feel my pain. If you are reading this you know it’s too late for me. Read my story and decide: was my death from natural causes or murder?
My name is Maria and I was blindsided by love. I thought the man I married and knew for over 25 years really cared about me…
PART I
Prelude to Death
Marriage is supposed to be a partnership, where two people worked for the common goal of making each other happy. Well, I can tell you, that’s a crock of you know what!
Tony and I met at Starbucks. He had a mocha latte and I had hot chocolate with whipped cream. Romantic, right? Tony made the first move and asked if we could spend our fifteen minutes of coffee time, or in my case hot chocolate time, together. Thinking it would be nice to talk with someone instead of sitting alone, I readily accepted his invitation and sealed my fate. Tony told me about his ex-wife, Sarah and his two children, Annabelle and Eva. I told him about my two children as well.
I realized as he talked about his girls that Annabelle was his favorite and could do no wrong in his opinion. Eva, on the other hand, was a total failure in his eyes. I’d met his ex-wife before. She was the type who spent most of her days listening to her own voice, giving what she thought was sage advice to anyone who would listen. I knew she was hoping to get a huge divorce settlement from Tony, claiming she was entitled to it for staying married to him for so long.
Tony and I ended up going out to dinner that Saturday. We had a great evening and got to know each other better. I told him about being managing partner of the law firm where I worked, and he said he owned a small but profitable pharmacy.
Several weeks later, he suggested I meet his two daughters. The meeting didn’t go well and I should’ve seen the red flags waving then, but I ignored them. The girls were cold, calculating, and nasty, asking him for money on the spot, like they planned just to see my reaction. They also talked incessantly about their mother, and trying to make me feel uncomfortable. They succeeded.
Despite the less than stellar meeting with his daughters, I continued seeing Tony. One thing led to another, and before too long Tony and I tied the knot.
Fast forward to the present. We’ve been together for 25 years now. Lately, Tony’s temper had been rising and he had been coming home late. The SOB even had the nerve to expect dinner on the table as soon as he sauntered in, even though he’d never called to let me know when he’d be home.
He always smelled of perfume and was covered in red lipstick on these occasions. His explanation was that he’d several meetings and everyone liked to give him warm greetings. This particular night, I asked what else they liked to give, and he shrugged it off as if it were no big deal.
Going to bed angry, I decided to sleep on the couch in the living room so I didn’t have to deal with him all night. If he got any more insufferable I might have to buy another bed just to have a place to escape from him.
The next morning, I had a weird feeling from the minute I got up, but couldn’t put my finger on it. I thought maybe I was being paranoid. It didn’t help that I’d heard Tony whispering to someone on his cell phone, and quickly closed down the conversation when I entered the room.
I’d always thought I was happily married. I was beginning to think I was wrong. I’d never cheated on Tony, but I wasn’t sure he was that loyal to me. He made lots of out of town trips, and I wasn’t sure they were really for business.
Then there was his assistant, Rosalina. She looked more like a hoochie-coochie mama than a pharmacy assistant. I didn’t think she was into learning anything about her job; I thought she was into something else, if you get my drift.
I consoled myself with the thought that every woman likes to think men are interested them, so smiling, flirting with another man, and going for coffee after work was totally innocent. Right? Tony was tall and handsome, with dark hair and bedroom eyes, and women were constantly coming on to him, even when I was with him.
On the other hand, I was no dog. I was thin and fairly attractive, with straight, blonde hair. I always dressed well and wore nothing but designer fashions. Even though I was 65 and a great-grandmother, I was a fit and could still pass for under forty. I loved life, and had every reason to live and enjoy it.
Tony always worked so many hours, that sometimes I was lonely. He indulged my every whim, but then threw it back in my face that the Platinum Card was in his name and he could cut it off at any time, just to humiliate me. Maybe letting me spend his money was his way of eliminating his guilt.
Tony and I had our usual Monday morning discussion about finances, his self-worth and my lack of it. His condescending attitude always started my week off with a big fat sour note. He gave me his usual lecture about how hard he had to work to pay for all of my bills.
After listening to his tirade for over twenty minutes, I put on my coat and decided to leave before the heart palpitations I was feeling got worse. I knew that my blood pressure was rising because I was feeling lightheaded, but would never let Tony know he’d gotten to me like this. I headed to my exercise class to work off some of this stress.
Hidden Truths & Lies
Available NOW!
The Series: Faces Behind the Stones
A series of stand alone novellas. [1] | [2] | [3] |Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.
Faces Behind the Stones [1]
**FREE on Kindle Unlimited**Driving down the rocky path I saw the overgrown grass, weeds and poison ivy overtaking the outer perimeter of the bushes. The smell of mildew, the stench of the dried bones of animals killed by cars along this dirt road coming up from the ground, the sadness on the faces of the drivers in the cars behind us; you could feel the pain and sorrow.
As you looked inside the cars and saw the faces of the drivers, you began to wonder what they were thinking, their thoughts and feelings as they travelled down life’s highway, possibly for the very last time. What stories lie behind the faces behind the wheel of each car? What stories lie hidden?
Faces…so, so many stories.
Here are seven that will make chills run down your spine and make you wonder: What lies behind the stones? Who lives there?
Only the Faces Behind the Stones Know the Answers!
[Published 21 January 2012, 176 pages]
Bad Choices [2]
**FREE on Kindle Unlimited**The choices that you make today are the ones you will live with forever.
As I drive through many different cemeteries you will hear the voices of those behind these stones. Some are old and worn while others are just beginning to fade as the memories of those teens whose names are on the stones. Bad Choices are made when teens become despondent, feel all alone, do not fit in or even just want to become popular at any cost to themselves or others.
The ground is flat and filled with mold and mildew on some of the plots and stones while others are covered with moss. The newer graves that have just been dug have no bushes or grass as the occupants have just arrived and their graves have yet to settle. Get in the back seat of the limo and join the driver and find out just why each of these teens wound up behind the many different stones in the many different cemeteries you will be visiting.
Bad Choices: we all make them but some are more costly than others.
Open the door the driver is waiting and maybe you won’t wind up as a face behind the stones.
[Published 13 July 2012, 154 pages]
Lies, Betrayals, Fear [3]
Lies: Betrayals: Fear: Who will be the next to wind up behind a stone?Walk through a cemetery, and read the names of the Faces Behind the Stones. If you listen very carefully, you may hear the voices of the unfortunate souls who are forever interred there, desperately trying to tell their stories.
Murder, arson, deception, and embezzlement…these are just a few of the crimes that led to their “change in zip code.” But, the question must be asked…were they innocent victims? Or did they deserve their grizzly fates?
Lies, betrayals, fear: you be the judge: Maxine Bringenberg: Editor
Fran Lewis’ Faces Three: Lies, Betrayal, Fear shows chillingly that crime comes in many forms. So does retribution. It’s filled with delicious irony. Mark Rubinstein Author, Mad Dog House and Love Gone Mad
[Published 1 October 2013, 130 pages]
About the Author
Fran worked in the NYC Public Schools as the Reading and Writing Staff Developer for over 36 years. She has three masters Degrees and a PD in Supervision and Administration. Currently, she is a member of Who's Who of America's Teachers and Who's Who of America's Executives from Cambridge. In addition, she is the author of three children's books and a fourth that has just been published on Alzheimer's disease in order to honor her mom and help create more awareness for a cure. The title of her new Alzheimer’s books are Memories are Precious: Alzheimer’s Journey; Ruth’s story and Sharp as a Tack and Scrambled Eggs Which Describes Your Brain?
Fran is the author of 13 titles.
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Giveaway and Tour Stops
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