Today I have the fabulous Susanne Matthews dropping by for a coffee and cake, she's sharing with us her latest release, this suspense sounds great!
Back Cover Blurb
Title: The
White Lily
Author:
Susanne Matthews
The Harvester is out there … watching, waiting, biding
his time.
FBI cult specialist Lilith Munroe lives in dread that
one day the man who tortured her when a case went bad will find her again. So
leaving her sanctuary in Quantico to join the Harvester Task Force in Boston is
her version of hell. But the Harvester is kidnapping babies, and Lilith’s
profiling skills may mean the difference between life and death for the most
innocent in society.
Australian millionaire and former member of the New
Horizon commune Jacob Andrews returns to the United States searching for his
sister. Instead of the happy reunion he expects, he discovers she is dead and
his twin brother may be responsible. He agrees to lend his law enforcement
skills to help find his former cult leader before the man can implement his
plan to kill millions.
Now uneasy partners, Jacob and Lilith must learn to
trust each other even as they fight their growing attraction. But when Lilith’s
greatest fears materialize, will Jacob be able to set aside his anger and save
the woman he loves?
Excerpt
“For God’s sake, Halliday, slow down. My
legs aren’t as long as yours. Where’s the fire?” Lilith said as she headed down
the stairs. “And why the hell couldn’t we take the elevator?” Since Rob was a
good foot taller than she was, she was running to keep up, and with the
four-inch heels she’d chosen to wear this morning, she was apt to fall and kill
herself.
So this is why they call it breakneck
speed.
“And please don’t call me Lily. I prefer
Lilith or Munroe.”
He slowed slightly. “Sorry, Lilith. I’ll
try to remember that. As for the elevator, it would be awkward considering my
behavior toward Mr. Andrews this morning,” he said, and she could see the
embarrassed flush on his face.
“It’s okay. He isn’t going to press
charges. He’s actually been quite nice about the whole thing. So, where are we
off to in such a rush?”
“We’ve got a multiple homicide on Lawrence.
Tom left early—it’s his wife’s birthday. His daughter has been planning this
surprise party for weeks. The murder falls under Boston PD jurisdiction, but
since the rule of two applies, Trevor said I could take you with me—as an
observer, so keep your hands to yourself. That being said, if you have any
profiling thoughts while you’re there, feel free to share.”
Standard operational procedure dictated that
two people handle any calls that came in. This was for their protection as well
as for that of the victims. Her father, a career cop, had drilled that concept
into her. His partner had chosen not to wait for him and had walked in alone on
a domestic. The man had gone out in a body bag.
“Besides, I figured you’d want to come
along. You’re still trying to make sense of the Richardson case. The 9-1-1
caller was almost incoherent, but she did mention that there’s a child or
children missing. I want you to focus on similarities between those crime scene
photos you memorized and this one.”
“Will do, but you do realize I’ve never
actually been to an active crime scene, don’t you?” she asked, hoping her
nervousness didn’t show.
“I figured as much, but you’ve got to lose
your cherry sometime. You’re a field agent now, and that means you visit the
crime scenes yourself. Just remember, if you’re going to vomit, try not to
contaminate anything.”
Great. Just great.
“If Trevor’s hunch about the Richardson
girl’s paternity doesn’t pan out and there are kids missing here, we could be
looking at a child trafficking ring,” Rob said, “and that will make this an FBI
case—your case, since you’ll be the agent on record.”
“Are any of the Colchester children living
in the Boston area?”
“I don’t think so, but Child Protective
Services is as closemouthed as the US Marshals and the Witness Protection
Program.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we don’t
really know those kids are safe. We’re just taking their word for it. What if
Savannah is related to James Colchester?”
“Then Jacob Andrews has a missing niece on
his hands, and we have a hell of a mess on ours. I glanced at the Richardson
file. I don’t doubt the Prophet will want his children—I dream of him showing
up on our doorstep at least once a week—but I don’t think the Richardson kid is
one of them. Trevor’s reaching. That crime scene doesn’t fit with anything we
know about the members of New Horizon and the way they do things.”
Lilith scowled. She’d been doing a lot of
digging, especially into Faith Volt, the child her computer software said was a
97 percent match for Savannah Richardson. According to what little she’d been
able to get out of CPS, and Rob wasn’t exaggerating when he described them, the
child was living in Michigan with her grandparents, but it hadn’t been a happy
reunion. The Volts, deeply religious people, had been reluctant to take their
granddaughter because of the circumstances of her birth. What if, after they’d
gotten her home, they’d decided they couldn’t handle it? What if they’d given
her to someone else? It sounded cold-blooded, but after what she’d heard as
Jacob described his youth, the child would be better off with someone who could
love her.
Not wanting Rob or Trevor to realize how
anal and obsessive she could be, Lilith had spent the last couple of nights at
home searching for a connection between the Richardsons and the Volts. The only
thing the two families seemed to have in common was religion, but considering
23 percent of the American population was Roman Catholic, that didn’t count for
much.
Loose ends, unanswerable questions. She
hated it when things didn’t come together, something that happened too often
with cases like these. Like her niece’s.
Trying to maintain her balance on the metal
stairs, Lilith grasped the railing for all she was worth. Jacob Andrews had had
a hell of an experience at the hands of his uncle, but the guy was a jerk. How
dare he presume she didn’t have the right to judge him? She’d been to hell and
back, too. There was no excuse for leaving that child there, abandoning the
poor thing. With his money, he could have searched for her long before this.
Eloise could be alive and well on his fruit farms in Australia, but he’d wiped
her from his mind eighteen years ago, as easily as he’d changed his name. She
wouldn’t abandon Rose, Kelly Kirk, or Savannah Richardson. She’d keep looking
for them the rest of her life if that’s what it took.
Susanne Matthews was born and raised in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. She’s always been an avid reader of all types of books, but with a
penchant for happily ever after romances. In her imagination, she travelled to
foreign lands, past and present, and soared into the future. A retired
educator, Susanne spends her time writing and creating adventures for her
readers. She loves the ins and outs of romance, and the complex journey it
takes to get from the first word to the last period of a novel. As she writes,
her characters take on a life of their own, and she shares their fears and
agonies on the road to self-discovery and love.
Amazon
author page and Goodreads
author page
