Spotlight of The Novel The Arizona Triangle by Sydney Graves. On Sale 10/22/24 (#mystery)

THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE

 By

Sydney Graves

 

In the vein of bestselling novels by Sue Grafton, comes a debut detective novel about loyalty, love, and the legacy of trauma, featuring a young, queer, hard-boiled private eye whose latest case takes her deep into her own complicated past.

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This is award-winning writer Kate Christensen’s highly anticipated noir read published under the pen name Sydney Graves

 

Acclaimed, award-winning writer Kate Christensen (Welcome Home, Stranger, The Great Man, and others) has always wanted to write a mystery. With the publication of her first detective novel THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE. The first book in a brand new series written under the pen name Sydney Graves, she joins the ranks of writers such as Sue Grafton, Sara Gran, Tana French, Ann Cleeves, and Janet Evanovich, whose books feature beloved, tough-talking female protagonists.

On the cusp of forty, Justine Bailen, better known as Jo, works for an all-female detective agency based in Tucson, Arizona. While staking out a cheating spouse, she learns that her long-estranged best friend from childhood, Rose, is missing, and that Rose’s mother wants to hire Jo to find her. This case is all kinds of wrong for Jo, but she has no choice but to head back to her hometown, an hour north and a world away from Tucson.

Back in Delphi, Jo learns that her high school boyfriend, Tyler—who is probably part of the reason her friendship with Rose went south—is the cop assigned to the case. It doesn’t take long for Jo to realize that he’s all mixed up in it, too. To have any hope of learning the truth about Rose’s disappearance, Jo must finally face the demons she thought she’d escaped.

Readers of THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE will be immersed in Jo Bailen’s life, the cases she is working, and the atmospheric world that the extremely talented Sydney Graves has created.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sydney Graves is a pseudonym for Kate Christensen, an Arizona native and the author of eight novels, most recently Welcome Home, Stranger. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her essays, reviews, and short pieces have appeared in a wide variety of publications and anthologies. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Taos, New Mexico. For more, visit: https://katechristensen.net/

 

THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE

By Sydney Graves

Harper Paperbacks/ HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN: 9780063379992

$18.99/$23.99 Can.; Trade Paperback Original; 304 pages

 

Pre-order the Book on Amazon

 

 

THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE – BEHIND THE BOOK

By Sydney Graves (Kate Christensen)

 

I wrote my new novel THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE between drafts of my last novel Welcome Home, Stranger for pure fun, to distract and entertain myself during the COVID lock down. I also wrote it to fulfill a decades-old yearning to write detective fiction. The first draft came out extremely fast, and then after two more drafts to fine-tune and polish it, I sent it to my editor in hopes that she would like it enough to acquire it.

The name Sydney Graves is an intentional literary alter-ego. I’ve been an avid reader of detective fiction since I was a teenager, and I love the cloak-and-dagger aspect of writing under an assumed name. It seems fitting for the genre. 

Before I knew what this book was about, I knew where it would be set. I grew up in Arizona and have a lot of history there. It is a very particular place; one I know well and deeply love. Hiking in the foothills of Mt. Lemmon north of Tucson a number of years ago, near the town of Oracle, I was struck by what an ideal setting this would be for a murder mystery. And so the book began to take shape in my head, born out of a sense of place rooted in my home state. My private-eye protagonist Jo Bailen emerged more gradually. Unlike Jo, I am not half-Mexican, but many of my friends growing up had Mexican heritage, and I have spent a lot of time in Mexico. And I'm intrigued by the idea of a woman who is both mixed-race and bisexual, both at home and an outsider in many worlds—the ideal identity for a private eye.

In the course of solving the mystery, I wanted Jo to grapple with her heritage, her estrangement from her white mother in the wake of her beloved Mexican father’s death, and her attraction to both men and women. As I wrote, I felt her own identity and the case she’s investigating dovetailing like interlocking pieces of a puzzle. 

I’m not finished with Jo by a long shot. In fact, I’m about to start writing her next mystery, Saguaro City, and I hope her ongoing intertwined professional and personal lives will become a series. In writing these books, I’m paying homage to all the great detective-series writers whose work has delighted and thrilled and inspired me for decades; the likes of Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman, Raymond Chandler, Dick Francis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Janet Evanovich, Sara Paretsky, Robert B. Parker, Sara Gran, and of course, the grande dame of them all, Agatha Christie. 

 

  Thanks for Stopping By

 

Book Blitz of A Little Getaway by Bonnie Traymore (#contest- Win An Amazon Gift Card)

A Little Getaway
Bonnie Traymore
Publication date: October 9th 2024
Genres: Adult, Suspense, Thriller

“Traymore’s page-turner is a tension-filled psychological thriller, where the line between friend and foe is razor thin.” Tracey Devlin, USA TODAY bestselling author

A little getaway takes a deadly turn for Morgan and Kyle Murphy in this spicy suspense thriller about a marriage filled with passion, dark secrets, and suspicions.

Morgan Murphy has always longed for a romance for the ages. And she’s found it with the love of her life, husband Kyle Murphy—until their spicy marriage suddenly starts to cool off.

Is Kyle preoccupied and distant because of a problem with his development project? Or is it something worse? Could Kyle Murphy be…cheating? He’s hiding something, that’s for sure. And Morgan’s determined to find out what it is.

With the help of gal pal Carla Flores, Morgan tracks her husband’s movements, and the signs increasingly point to infidelity, the ultimate sin in Morgan’s book. When Kyle increases their life insurance and surprises her with a weekend getaway to get their mojo back, she goes on the offensive and hatches a plan to make him come clean about what’s been going on.

But before she can pull it off, Morgan’s attacked and nearly kidnapped, and Kyle vanishes from the resort without a trace. With no clue as to who took Kyle or why, she’s not sure who is the biggest threat: the shady investor he owes money to, the police, or the guys she hired to teach Kyle a lesson. With the clock ticking, she needs to find out soon.

Before they come for her, too.

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

Morgan

I smell death in the air. A briny scent with an undercurrent of decay, wafting in from the murky sea outside our sliding glass door.

“Kyle?” I call out again.

Nothing.

Maybe he went for a walk on the beach?

But that wasn’t the plan.

Something’s not right.

I close the door and lock it.

Where did he go?

A log pops in the fireplace, and I startle. This was supposed to be a romantic little getaway, but so far, things have been tense.

“I have a surprise for you, Morgan,” he said, about a week ago.

So here I am, in this little cottage on the beach that he picked for us, in the middle of nowhere, a few miles north of Monterey Bay. A chance to rekindle our marriage. Put some spark back into it. The resort, if you could call it that, is a series of separate units on a vast swath of beachfront land, one step up from a trailer park. I suppose it could be romantic under different circumstances, with the rugged beach outside our door and a cozy fire inside.

I have a bad feeling, though. I came out of the shower and saw a few drops of blood in the bathroom sink. I figured he’d cut himself shaving. And now he’s nowhere to be found. A chill runs up my spine. This place is getting creepier by the minute. Do I wait here like a sitting duck?

The office is on the other side of the property, and I’m not sure if anyone’s there at this hour of the night. It’s not that late. Just after nine in the evening. But even when we checked in, around noon, it took a good twenty minutes for the woman to come to the front desk and help us.

I don’t want to overreact, so I decide I’ll take the car and drive to the store.

Better safe than sorry.

We talked about the fact that I needed milk for my morning coffee. It’ll buy me some time, and when I get back, maybe he’ll be here, wondering where I’ve been. And if it turns out to be nothing, I can keep this little freak out to myself.

But we took his car, so I have to find the keys. I rush into the bedroom and look around. I thought I saw them on the dresser, but they’re not there.

His pants are draped over the back of a chair.

I check the pockets.

Nothing.

My heart starts to race.

I rifle through his carry-on bag.

No luck.

His cell is gone, along with his wallet. I wonder if he went out for provisions while I was in the shower? But the car is parked near the office, a few cottages away, so I can’t see if he’s taken it. I pick up the house phone and call the front desk, thinking maybe the attendant could check if the car is there. It rings and rings and nobody answers.

My heart races even faster. Rushing into the kitchen area, I survey the options. I grab the utility knife. With its five-inch blade, it’s the best option. This is a risky move. I’ll look like a psycho walking around with it if someone sees me, and the last thing I want is to call attention to myself. But the place seems deserted, so it’s unlikely I’ll be spotted.

Who comes to a beach resort in the middle of winter?

This was his idea, I remind myself.

And now I’m here.

Alone.

At a deserted resort.

Clenching the knife in my fist, I step out the sliding glass door and start making my way to the front office.

Author Bio:

Bonnie Traymore is the Amazon Bestselling author of seven domestic/psychological thrillers. Her thrillers feature strong but relatable female protagonists who peel back the layers of suburban American life and give readers a peek inside. The plots explore difficult topics such as jealousy, infidelity, murder, and the impact of psychological disorders, but she also includes bits of romance and humor to lighten the mood from time to time. She's an active status member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America.

Bonnie has a doctorate in United States history and has taught at top independent high schools as well as Columbia University and the University of Hawaii. Originally from the NYC area, she resides in Honolulu with her family.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

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