Zooloo's Book Tours | Strays by Janeen Leese - Taylor
Hello Everyone!
I am joining Zooloo's book tours again to have a look at Strays by Janeen Leese Taylor.
Today, I have an extract of the book for you to look at, but first let's have a look at what it's about.
About The Book
A murder without evidence, a secret that could topple society and a cop with a bit of a coffee habit!
Three things were certain in the mind of Officer Theodore Night:
One: There’s a serial killer loose in Portstewart
Two: His new friend is a werewolf
Three: He’s in way over his head
When bloody paw prints at a crime scene leads Officer Night to consider the impossible, he must rely not only on his years of investigative experience, but on the local werewolf pack, for help.
An unlikely friendship gives Night the edge he needs to prevent an all-out war. Has Blair, the mysterious barista from Bean and Gone, caused him to bite off more than he can chew?
About the Author
Janeen is an Irish author born and raised on the scenic Causeway Coast. Curious, and with a great love for adventure, Jan spent her childhood climbing trees and talking to her imaginary friends, many of whom have now found a home in her writing.
She has a bachelor’s degree in advertising and works for gaming companies around the world. She is a lover of all things fantasy and aims to bring some magic to the places that she visits in her writing. Portstewart, Dublin and Chester City each feature prominently in both her travels and her writing, and her stories often draw from real life places that have captured her heart.
As an ultramarathon runner, Jan often writes on the go, using her trusty phone and stylus to craft scenes that come to her after hours on her feet.
She lives with her husband, Liam, their Border Collie-Cross, Zarya, and their Guinea Pig, (Peek-A) Boo, who they all fear will one day take over the world!
Follow her at:
Extract
Theo pulled the car in outside the house on Station Road and the heads of the media around him turned to watch as he exited the car. He squinted through the too bright sunlight in the direction of the police tape, shoving his way past the invading questions and ducking into the scene, unfolding, and slipping on each of his gloves as he did so. He always felt out of place at crime scenes, never usually the one called out to something like this. If there was an assault or a homicide, especially one involving minors, it was usually left to other, more experienced officers than he was. In the rare instances of animal related crimes, such as a dog-fighting ring or abuse case, he had the time to emotionally prepare himself for what the scene might hold. This call out was a different matter entirely. The house looked like any of the other new builds on the street; tall and painted with neutral colours to blend in with its neighbours, a dark front door and a garden of tiled stone that was so clean that it was almost militant. The buildings resembled show houses even after they became occupied, the entire road barely looking lived in. One of the curses of living in a holiday town where half of the occupants were seasonal. Theo leaned around the huge, open doorway, scanning the faces until he landed on one that he recognised. He stepped out across the mauve carpeted floor to stand at the officer’s side, watching as she lifted a sample from the shag and pressed it into a clear, plastic baggy. “Hey,” he said, interrupting the woman’s search as she pocketed her findings, “Kelly from dispatch called me out. Said you had something for me to look at?” The officer glanced up at him, still crouching, “Officer Night, isn’t that right?” she asked. “Theo,” he corrected, already feeling a little uneasy, “Theo’s fine.” She placed both hands on her knees and straightened with a soft moan, nodding back towards the door to the outside of the building, “It’s just out here.” He followed her out of the room, mimicking the way that she carefully stepped over the threshold and rounded the back of the house, ducking under the low-hanging willow tree that hugged the space between this house and its neighbour. “We figured you would know more about it than any of us would,” the woman explained, turning to look at him with dark eyes as she shuffled through the undergrowth, “The others reckoned it must be a Wolfhound or something, judging by the size of the tracks, but we needed to be certain. None of the neighbours mentioned the Crawfords owning any pets.” She stepped to one side, giving him space to follow her past the remnants of an old, metal gate which hung haphazardly against one wall. It was dark from rust, long exposed to the salt air of the coastal town. The officer in green stopped and indicated a spot on the ground near a rear window and Theo crouched to examine it, brushing the long grass carefully to one side with a gloved hand. He frowned, not quite sure what he was looking at, “First impression? It’s way too big to be a Wolfhound,” he commented, tracing a finger over the edge of the deep marking, “If we weren’t in Ireland, I would’ve told you it belonged to a wolf. One of the larger breeds like an Alaskan or a Northwestern.” “A wolf?” the Officer standing over him repeated incredulously, “There aren’t any wild wolves left in this part of the world. Unless one of those buggers managed to trek its way up here from Belfast Zoo, I doubt that’s what it is.”
If the book interests you, here are some links for you.
Comments
Post a Comment