Showing posts with label international mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international mystery. Show all posts

Friday, September 9, 2016

"Slave Queen" by H. B. Moore

EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Slave Queen
(Omar Zagouri Thriller Book 3)
by H. B. Moore


Slave Queen is the third book in the Omar Zagouri Thriller series by USA Today bestselling author H. B. Moore. Also available: Finding Sheba, Lost King, (read my blog post), Beneath (a short story), and First Heist (a novella found in A Timeless Romance Anthology: Autumn Collection).



This book blast and giveaway is brought to you by I Am A Reader.


Description
Special Agent Omar Zagouri’s latest case is his most dangerous - and his most personal yet. The discovery of secret sixteenth-century letters unveils a plot between the sultan Suleyman and his chief wife, Roxelane, to change the course of the Ottoman Empire. A descendent of Roxelane, Zagouri learns he has an enemy whose revenge has been centuries in the making.
Targeted by an antiquities collector who’s also descended from a chief rival for the ancient throne, Zagouri soon uncovers a modern-day conspiracy that threatens the lives of his family and the security of a nation.
To expose the plot, Zagouri must team up with Naim, the son of his nemesis, who heads an international black-market operation that may have ties to the killings. From ancient Constantinople to the present-day Middle East, Zagouri is on a collision course with history. Time is running out to solve a royal mystery and stop a ruthless killer - one who has Zagouri’s name on his hit list.

Excerpt
Chapter One
Al Karak, Jordan
Rashed Sayid picked up his cell phone and selected his most trustworthy contact. The phone call would take only moments, but the result would teach the entire Sayid tribe what honor meant. He shut his third-floor office window, blocking out the rising heat of the Jordanian desert’s summer morning. He and his only brother owned the bank in the city of Al Karak, having started the bank three decades before, and now they were among the wealthiest in town.
“Yes?” Yamil answered.
“We have proof,” Rashed said into the phone.
“Four male witnesses?” Yamil asked.
Rashed blew out a breath. Yamil was a stickler for rules. An execution couldn’t be ordered unless there were four respected male witnesses to the crime. There were actually no witnesses, but Rashed knew his daughter was guilty. He had plenty of video footage of her leaving her university apartment more than once after midnight, and he also had other, less legal evidence. There was only one reason for his daughter’s midnight forays. Worst case scenario, Aamira was no longer a virgin. Next case scenario, she’d been tainted in some way by having a relationship with a man other than her fiancé. Rashed was still working on trying to find out whom she was meeting. But it was time to put the execution order into motion.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]


Praise for the Book
"Moore does an excellent job of setting the scene of international intrigue, and although this novel is part of a series, it also works well as a stand-alone. The story jumps back and forth between the present and the past as Moore tells the story of Roxelane’s capture by the Turkish army and her subsequent love affair with Suleiman. Roxelane is an excellent, strong female character, and Moore brings some obscure players from the Ottoman Empire vividly to life. She even quotes from Suleiman’s actual poetry ... to conjure a complex portrait of this larger-than-life figure. A satisfying historical thriller." ~ Kirkus Reviews
"From sultans and hierarchies that separate men and women from Poland to Constantinople and beyond to new lives in great cities where mosques and sultans rule, these vivid past and present scenarios contribute to a story fueled by cultural revelations and the long-standing threat a series of letters reveals. The result is a fast-paced, complex, and absorbing adventure saga that crosses time and place to give Omar, Mia (and readers) a run for their money. Warning: once begun, it’s nearly impossible to put down the full-flavored, multi-faceted Slave Queen, which reveals many insights about the Ottoman Empire, Süleyman the Magnificent, and the slave girl foreigner who turned out to be his favorite wife." ~ D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

About the Author
H. B. Moore is a USA Today bestselling author of more than a dozen historical novels and thrillers, written under pen name H.B. Moore. She writes women’s fiction, romance and inspirational non-fiction under Heather B. Moore. This can all be confusing, so her kids just call her Mom. Heather attended Cairo American College in Egypt, the Anglican School of Jerusalem in Israel, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University in Utah.




Giveaway
Enter the blast-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash.

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Monday, September 14, 2015

"Lost King" by H. B. Moore

GIVEAWAY
Lost King
(Omar Zagouri Book 2)
by H. B. Moore


Lost King, the second book in the Omar Zagouri series by USA Today bestselling author H. B. Moore, is being released in December 2105 but is currently available for pre-order. Also available: Finding Sheba, Beneath (a short story), and First Heist (a novella found in A Timeless Romance Anthology: Autumn Collection).

 


This book blast and giveaway is brought to you by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer.


Description
Undercover agent Omar Zagouri has been ordered to Giza. A prominent Egyptologist was murdered, and a priceless artifact - the only complete version of the Book of the Dead - is missing. Omar is still reeling from the recent disappearance of his girlfriend, Mia Golding, but he puts his quest to find her on hold to track down the lost piece of history.
Omar’s mission is not just to locate the sacred book; he must also rescue the two archaeologists kidnapped and forced to translate its hieroglyphics under threat of death. Their kidnapper is determined to discover the text’s rumored explosive revelation: that Moses did not receive the Ten Commandments from God but instead copied them from the Egyptians. Though Omar’s need to find Mia grows more urgent, he must focus on finding the enemy who will stop at nothing to ignite a controversy that will change history, and the world, forever.

Praise for the Book
"Another exciting and not-able-to-put-down-book by H. B. Moore. Her characters are flawlessly written and the plot is page-turning. I enjoyed the switch from Omar to Hatshe. Heart pounding action and romance as well." ~ Mindy on Goodreads

About the Author
H. B. Moore is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of more than a dozen historical novels set in ancient Arabia and Mesoamerica. She attended the Cairo American College in Egypt and the Anglican International School in Jerusalem and received her bachelor of science degree from Brigham Young University. She writes historical thrillers under the pen name H. B. Moore, and romance and women’s fiction under the name Heather B. Moore. It can be confusing, so her kids just call her Mom.





Giveaway
Enter the blast-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash.

Links



Thursday, May 29, 2014

"Russian Reckoning" by Joyce Yarrow

Russian Reckoning
by Joyce Yarrow


Russian Reckoning is the second Jo Epstein Mystery. Also available: Ask the Dead.


Description
It is 1957. A hardened criminal imprisoned in Vladimir Central saves the life of a young violinist-turned-thief and takes the boy under his wing.
Fifty years later, in New York City, Jo Epstein - private investigator and performance poet - is hired by her Russian émigré stepfather, Nikolai, to help him escape the clutches of a blackmailer.
From Vladimir Central Prison to the brooding Russian forest, Jo races against the clock to solve crimes committed on two continents.

Book Trailer

Note: Russian Reckoning was originally published is hard cover as The Last Matryoska.

Excerpt
Vladimir Central Prison – 1957
ISHKHAN ESTIMATED four seconds before the boy passed out. He couldn’t help but admire the nerve of the fraier, or “stuffed deer,” as newcomers to the zone were called. To accuse a thief of being an informer in front of his cellmates was nothing short of suicidal.
“Enough!” he commanded, and the would-be strangler, an emaciated but ferocious Ukrainian known as Wolf, reluctantly loosened his hands on the boy’s throat.
“I want to talk to him, alone.” Within moments Ishkhan’s authoritative whisper had emptied the cell.
“Can you give me one reason you are worthy of my protection?”
The boy, whose soft face belied the wiry strength of his body, spat on the floor before answering. “I don’t need anyone to look after me.”
“So you prefer strangulation to serving your sentence?”
The boy glared at him defiantly. “It’s all the same to me.”
“Since you’re so resigned to your fate, why not tell me about it?”
“Give me a Sobranie and I will.”
Amused by his insolence and wondering how the boy knew he had access to such luxuries, the vor-v-zakonye (thief-with-a-code-of-honor) complied, handing him a cigarette. They inhaled the pungent smoke, which curled into a hangman’s noose above them, as the boy related his story—one more sad tale among the hundreds of thousands told every day in the Russian gulag.
“My father was a general. He was a Red commissar in the civil war and then a hero resisting the Nazis. I never found out why he was arrested. Maybe there were too many medals on his chest and Koba was jealous.”
Ishkhan was impressed to hear Stalin’s name spoken aloud. All the thieves hated Koba—many of their elaborate tattoos showed him in obscene poses—but in spite of his death four years ago, his apparatus of terror lived on.
“What happened to your mother?”
The boy looked away for a moment, and when he looked back his lips no longer trembled. “She was a foreigner—from France—so she knew they would come for her eventually. On the day she was arrested I was picked up at school by two men. I thought they were taking me to prison, until one of the Cheka agents said, ‘Don’t be afraid. You’re lucky. No labor camp for you.’
“What he meant was that they were taking me to the Home for Children of Enemies of the People, and after I’d been there a while, I thought he might be right—at the Home we ate well, compared to most people, and sometimes I felt strangely happy. But that was because of the drugs they put in our food. I saw a psychiatrist every day. He said that he wanted to help me, that I was confused and wasn’t myself. He said I needed to erase all the false memories of my family to make room for my real identity as a good communist.
“When I had had enough, I set fire to my bed in the dormitory, and in the confusion I climbed over the wall. I had a relative—a cousin in Novgorod, and I used the last of my money to pay a truck driver to take me there. I thought I was one of the clever ones until I saw the phony smile on my cousin’s face. I knew I couldn’t stay.”
The boy told Ishkhan how, on the outskirts of Novgorod, he’d fallen in with a band of nomadic train thieves. They taught him to ride in the “dog box”—a contraption fastened to the undercarriage and used to transport tools—his head perilously close to the speeding ground. He and his partner, whose nickname was Tarzan, would stuff themselves so tightly into the small space that they could hardly breathe. Riding this way for hours, they waited for night to fall before pulling themselves up to enter the rail car and relieve the sleeping passengers of their valuables. Then, facing the true test of their profession, they jumped from the hurtling train into the darkness.
The teenager survived the perils of train larceny, but, as he told Ishkhan, “I missed playing music and that was my undoing. One day Tarzan and I were in Leningrad, and as we walked past the conservatory, I told him about my training on the violin and my boyhood dream of becoming an orchestra conductor. On impulse, Tarzan decided to steal me a violin and dragged me inside. We waited outside the practice rooms and the first unfortunate student to take a break had his instrument liberated. It was a student model but to my ears sounded like a Stradivarius.
“That same afternoon, we were spotted on top of a train and Tarzan took a flying leap to freedom. I should have followed, but I couldn’t bring myself to damage the violin. Instead, I climbed down the ladder, right into the arms of the militia.”
As he listened, Ishkhan thought fondly of his own seven-year-old son, Feydor. “If your fellow thieves find out your father was a general, they’ll make you so miserable you’ll wish you had died under the train wheels,” he told the youngster.
“Why? We all have the same Motherland.”
“You should know by now that the only people thieves hate more than stoolies are ‘sukas,’ those of us who break the code and serve in the military. Collaboration with society is forbidden. Even I have to send my son to school in secret.”
“You will need a klichka to hide your identity. Since your claim to fame is riding in the dog box under the trains and you are the youngest thief here, an underling, your nickname will be Pesik—Little Dog.”

Praise for the Book
"Joyce Yarrow's second case for private eye Jo Epstein not only opens a window on 1950s Russia, where thieves and political exiles all face the same brutal realities in post-Stalinist gulags--but on how lives warped then play out in the present ... An unusual and very well crafted story with astonishing characters." ~ Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen
"Joyce Yarrow, writing the second in her series of Jo Epstein mysteries, may very well prove herself to be the Mickey Spillane of the 21st century." ~ FCEtier, Blogcritics.org for Seattle Post Intelligencer
"... a multi-layered complicated story, best represented by those nesting dolls with one story inside another. You'll want to discover the secrets buried in The Last Matryoshka." ~ Lesa Holstine, Lesa's Book Critiques

About the Author
Joyce Yarrow's published novels include Ask the Dead (Martin Brown Publishers) and Russian Reckoning - available in hard cover as The Last Matryoska (Five Star Mysteries Nov. March 2012). She is a Pushcart Nominee whose stories have appeared in Inkwell Journal, Whistling Shade, Descant, Arabesques, and Weber: The Contemporary West.
Joyce recently co-authored a romantic thriller with Indian writer Arindam Roy and has lectured on "The Place of Place in Mystery Writing" at the Allahabad Museum, the University of Allahabad, and at writing conferences in the Pacific Northwest.
Raised in the Southeast Bronx, Joyce resides with her husband and son in Seattle.

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