Midnight Exposure
Book 1 - Midnight
Novel Series
Published: August 21,
2012
Blurb:
Point, click, die.
When two hikers
disappear, their hometown in Maine blames the blinding storms. But the truth is
far more sinister. Unaware of the danger, tabloid photographer Jayne Sullivan
follows an anonymous tip to find the most reclusive sculptor in the art world.
Instead, she finds sexy handyman Reed Kimball—and a small town full of fatal
secrets.
Five years ago, Reed
buried his homicide detective career along with his wife. But when a hiker is
found dead, the local police chief asks Reed for help. Why was a Celtic coin
found under the body? And where is the second hiker? Avoiding the media, Reed
doesn’t need a murder, a missing person, or a nosey photographer. Then Jayne is
attacked, and her courage is his undoing. Reed must risk everything to protect
her and find a cunning killer.
Excerpt:
“Dude, I swear I’ll
get us out of this.”
“It’s OK.” John bit
back the whine hovering on the tip of his tongue. Camping sucked. And being
lost for two days in the middle of the Maine woods sucked even more. He
sniffed. Frozen air stung his nostrils. Wood smoke cut through the heavy scent
of pine. “I smell smoke.”
“Yeah, me too. Cool.”
In front of him, his roommate, Zack, hefted his pack higher on his narrow
shoulders. “Going in the right direction then.”
“I guess.” Doubt
laced John’s voice. A scant half inch of snow dusted the game trail like
powdered sugar. How had his roomie talked him into spending their fall break
camping? “Long as it’s not a forest fire.”
“Not this time of
year.” Zack shook his head. “Gotta be a campsite close by.”
John’s gaze swept the
shadowed, desolate forest surrounding them. Bare tree limbs pointed to the
overcast sky like skeletal fingers. “That’s what you said an hour ago. You sure
you don’t want to stop here?”
Zack stopped and
turned around. “Tell you what, city boy. If we don’t run into campers in the
next half hour, we’ll pitch our tent and start a fire.”
“Man, it ain’t the
cold that bothers me. Chicago isn’t exactly the tropics. It’s just so freakin’
quiet.” And dark. No street lights, no headlights, no neon signs. John
pulled his fleece hat lower over his ears and stamped his feet. Inside his
boots, his toes stung.
Zack sucked in an
audible breath and blew out a puff of steam. “It’s peaceful.”
“Creepy,” John
corrected and sent a silent prayer skyward that his transfer application to the
Art Institute of Chicago had been accepted. “Dude, I don’t blame you for losing
the trail. Everything looks the same out here. But you’re crazy if you think this
is fun.” John’s parents had thought he’d be safer attending college out here.
Not. Didn’t they know Stephen King was from Maine?
The trail curved
around an outcropping of boulders. An erratic, pulsing glow shimmered ahead as
faint murmurs carried over the crackling of fire. Hope flared warm in John’s
chest. “Do you hear that? It’s people!”
“I told you
everything’d be OK.” Zack slapped John’s shoulder as he hurried forward. Ice
and dead pine needles cracked underfoot. “Hello?”
Instead of the
expected greeting, the voices ceased, cut off suddenly like somebody’d pressed
the Pause button. A shudder started at the base of John’s spine and quivered up
to his nape. He stopped.
Zack moved ahead.
“What the fuck?” His voice dropped to a puzzled whisper as he stepped through a
patch of underbrush.
John pushed aside an
evergreen bough. “What?”
The tree limb snapped
back and John ducked under it. Straightening, he faced a clearing the size of a
half basketball court. A circle of upright wooden posts, thick as telephone poles
and tall as men, ringed the space. Five shorter poles formed a half-moon in the
middle. In the center of their arc, next to a large flat-topped stone, tall
flames rose from a shallow pit. The tingle on the back of his neck surged into
an electric charge. The wilderness might be foreign to him, but John recognized
creepy shit when he saw it, and this whole place had a disturbing woo-woo feel.
John scanned the
clearing. Where are the people? He’d heard voices. He knew it. Heat from
the fire reached out to his frozen fingers, tempting him to step closer.
But he didn’t.
Midnight Sacrifice
Book 2 - Midnight
Novel Series
Published: April 16,
2016
Blurb:
One by one, people
are mysteriously disappearing from a small Maine town.
Four months ago, a
ruthless murderer killed two people and kidnapped three more, including Danny
Sullivan’s sister, who barely escaped. Unfortunately so did the killer,
vanishing without a trace into the vast wilderness. When the police fail to
find his sister’s captor, Danny returns to Maine to hunt him down.
He begins his search
with another survivor, bed and breakfast owner Mandy Brown, but her refusal to
cooperate raises Danny’s suspicions. What is the beautiful innkeeper hiding?
Mandy Brown has a
secret. But sexy Danny Sullivan, his relentless questions, and the desire that
simmers between them threaten to expose the truth. A revelation that puts her
family in danger. As more people disappear, it becomes clear the killer is
planning another ritual…and that he’s circling in on Mandy.
Excerpt:
December
Winter in Maine was
more than a season, it was the enemy.
The December wind
whipped down the alley and smacked Mandy in the face. Her eyes watered. Another
gust grabbed the glass door. She held on tight, muscling it closed. To her
right, the alley opened into a small parking lot behind the building. Her car
would be as cold as a walk-in freezer and wouldn’t begin to warm up on the
six-block drive home, but at least she’d be out of the wind and off her feet.
Helping her mother the run family’s bed-and-breakfast, then waiting tables at
the diner had left her arches crying for a hot bath and a soft bed. But if she
ever wanted to get out of this town—and she did—the extra shifts were a must.
No way could she squeeze tuition payments out of the Black Bear Inn’s nonexistent
profit margin.
With gloved hands,
she pulled her knit hat over her ears and trudged forward. Wind slipped into
her coat at the throat. Turning her back to a frigid gust, she made sure her
knee-length parka was zipped to her chin and her flannel scarf wound securely
around her neck. Being a Maine native did not make her impervious to the
temperature.
“Mandy, get in.”
She startled and spun
around. The diner’s owner, Nathan Hall, had pulled his SUV into the alley. He
was leaning over the passenger seat. The window was down.
She took a half step
toward him. She stopped midstride, a prickly sensation sliding along her spine.
Under her thick coat, the primitive tingle lifted goose bumps that had nothing
to do with the abominable temperature of her hometown. Something was wrong.
Nathan jumped from
the truck, rounded the front of the vehicle, and approached her. He wasn’t
wearing a hat or gloves. The smell of smoke wafted from him, and his eyes
gleamed with a weird fervor. He stepped into the light cast by the fixture over
the door. What were those dark stains on his pants and shoes?
Blood.
As he got closer, its
raw, meaty scent thickened the air. He reached for her arm. Instinct kicked in,
and Mandy stepped back.
He caught her wrist.
“I love you. Just get in the truck.”
“No.” Mandy stared at
him. Fear pulsed into her throat. “What’s wrong with you, Nathan?”
Instead of answering,
he tightened his grip and tugged on her arm. Mandy resisted. He pulled harder,
dragging her toward his SUV. Her purse dropped from her arm and hit the ground
with a thunk.
“Let me go!” She
planted her feet on the pavement and leaned back. “Nathan, what are you doing?”
His silence fueled
the panic gathering in her belly.
“I said let go of
me!”
He let go and raised
his hand. The slap knocked her to her butt. She pressed a glove to her burning
cheek.
Nathan glared down at
her, rage and madness transforming his handsome face into an ugly mask, as if
someone else had taken over his body. “Shut up and get in the truck.”
Her friend Jed
barreled out of the diner. He grabbed Nathan by the jacket. “Don’t you touch
her!”
Nathan moved. Silver
glinted in the streetlight. Jed doubled over. His mouth went slack. He looked
at Mandy and gasped, “Run.”
But she couldn’t
leave him. Nathan turned toward her, a knife clutched in one hand. Blood
dripped from the tip. Jed’s blood.
The scream burst from
her throat. She crawled toward Jed, who was sinking to the ground. Just before
she reached him, Nathan leaned down. His fingers clamped around her wrist
again. He yanked hard. Mandy resisted, sinking her butt toward the icy
pavement.If she went with him, she would not be coming back.
“Get in the truck
now.” He pocketed the knife, lifted his free hand, and cracked her across the
face again.
Her cheek stung.
Tears streamed down her face as he hauled her toward his vehicle. Terror
scrambled in her belly. She was too small, too light. Her feet skittered along
the icy asphalt as he dragged her closer. She tried to scream again, but panic
clamped down on her vocal chords.
A dark figure flew in
front of Mandy and tackled Nathan. She fell backward. Her savior and Nathan
tumbled into a snowbank. Nathan landed on top. He leaped to his feet and ran to
his truck.
Turning, Nathan
pointed at her. “You’re mine.”
**Also Available in this series**
**COMING SOON**
Book 4 - Midnight
Novel Series
Expected Publication
Date: December 6, 2016
Meet Melinda Leigh:
Wall Street Journal bestselling
author Melinda Leigh is a fully recovered banker.
A life-long lover of
books, she started writing as a way to preserve her sanity while raising her
kids. Over the next few years, she learned a few things about writing a book
and decided the process was much more fun than analyzing financial statements.
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