Please welcome author K.L. Docter, and her new release Season of Thrills Boxed Set.
At the ripe old age of ten, I decided I wanted to be a police officer thanks to a sad incident in my neighborhood when an officer was gunned down while on a domestic abuse call. The sad thing was that he’d finished the call, everything was calm, but a drunken neighbor took exception to his presence and shot him on his way back to the car. That incident gave me my first awareness of the injustices of the world and I decided then and there to become a cop so I could address those injustices.
Needless to say, I never became a police officer. Other life incidents veered me in new directions. I’ve made writing my life. This one incident though is why I now write romantic suspense as K.L. Docter. I wrote contemporary romance novels for years as Karen Docter, many with suspense undertones that I was always toning down or ripping out of my work entirely.
One day, a book I was writing resisted all of my attempts to rip out the suspense elements and one of my critique partners said, “Just write a suspense.” To which I said, “But I can’t write suspense!” Her smart reply was, “Honey, you already are.”
I will be forever grateful to my friend for setting K.L. Docter free. KILLING SECRETS is the first standalone story in the Thorne’s Thorns series about six foster brothers, and the dangers and women who crash into their lives. It is now included in the SEASON OF THRILLS BOX SET, 5 full-length suspense/mystery/thriller novels by Bestselling Authors, which released December 1, 2015.
Excerpt:
At the first crack of gunfire, Rachel dove headfirst into the garden she was weeding. Listening for the second report she expected to follow, she prayed Amanda stayed at Patrick Thorne’s house where she’d gone an hour ago to play with her new friend, Suze.
Gasping for air, she inhaled the rich, spicy scent of freshly turned soil and crushed nasturtiums instead. Dirt and grit bit into her cheek and the bare flesh exposed by her cutoffs and T-shirt. The mid-afternoon sun beat hot against her shoulders and legs, and all she could do was lie there and watch a fat bumblebee dip into a russet blossom three inches from her nose.
Had she run almost nine hundred miles only to die like this, grubbing alone in the dirt like a spineless worm?
A surge of anger gave her impetus to lift her head. She peeked over the flimsy wall of twelve-inch annuals between her and the street. A second gunshot rang out, belched in a cloud of black smoke from an ancient Volkswagen bus that disappeared around the corner.
Backfire?
She groaned, more relieved than embarrassed by her overreaction. Her chin dropped. Taking several deep draughts of the thin Colorado air, she worked to calm the pound of her heart against her ribcage. Her efforts made her head swim. A minute later she was able to push herself out of the three-foot section of garden she’d mown down.
Her nerves had been on edge since she fled Dallas on Friday, five days ago. If she weren’t so overwrought it would have occurred to her Greg would never stand at a distance and take potshots at her. No. Greg liked to look into her eyes when he meted out his punishments.
An icy shiver skimmed her skin. Each day that passed without his appearance should have reassured her she’d made the right decision to accept Katy’s arrangements with the Thornes. As long as Greg didn’t track her and Amanda to Denver, they were safe.
Problem is she hadn’t felt safe since Amanda was born and she discovered what kind of man she’d married. Now she couldn’t pluck enough weeds from Evelyn Thorne’s gardens by day to tear the anxiety from her heart at night. Her growing sense of trepidation kept her awake long after the morning stars dimmed above the mile-high city’s cloudless skies.
How could the justice system simply hand Greg a “get out of jail free” card? She’d always known the man had connections in high places, but how had he arranged for the evidence in his case—evidence she’d risked everything to provide—to disappear before he even went to trial? If he’d accomplished that feat while behind bars, how in the world was she and Amanda going to stay out of his clutches?
She felt like there were giant bull’s-eyes painted on their backs, that it was only a matter of time before Greg tracked them down. During their marriage the man would spend weeks, even months, laying meticulous groundwork for one of his cons. He’d had six months to plan dozens of new punishments for his betrayer.
“‘Til death us do part, darlin’.”
Blurb:
The SEASON OF THRILLS Box Set contains 5
complete suspense/mystery/thriller novels by award-winning and bestselling
authors: Jerrie Alexander, Kim Cresswell, K. L. Docter, Rachel Kent, and Marian
Lanouette
HELL OR HIGH WATERS by Jerrie Alexander A woman in danger. A man she loves but can't trust.
When former SEAL Nate Wolfe learns a woman from his past is in danger, nothing will stop him from protecting her. Not even her.
Dallas Child Protection Services Investigator Kay Taylor doesn't want or need Nate in her life. But he doesn't seem to understand the word no. He seems to also have forgotten the brand he left on her heart.
When Kay is taken and sold to a monster, the devil himself couldn't stop Nate from doing whatever it takes to find her...but will he be in time?
REFLECTION (A Whitney Steel Novel - Book One) by Kim Cresswell
Lunch with the ex-husband is not always a fun thing especially when bullets start flying and reporter Whitney Steel finds herself in the middle of a human cloning story that will rock the world...providing she lives long enough to get her byline. "A deeply emotional romantic suspense that starts bold and holds you captive to the very end." --New York Times Bestseller, Dianna Love
KILLING SECRETS (A Thorne’s Thorn Novel, Book One) by K. L. Docter
Some secrets are better left dead. Too bad the Angel Killer’s digging them up.
Rachel James’ ex-husband is released from prison determined to reclaim her and her traumatized child, his key to the James fortune. Patrick Thorne isn’t interested in helping another of his parents’ charity cases, especially after losing his unborn son and wife to suicide. Only trust will untangle the secrets that dominate their lives, free a child of her silent prison, and save them both from a killer who stands too close.
BROKEN PIECES (Bits & Pieces Book One) by Rachel Kent
Tara Jacobs had her life completely planned. She truly did have it all after a lifetime of struggles. Unfortunately, her stepbrother arrives in town and threatens to ruin her well-laid plans with some blackmail. Tara stops at almost nothing to keep her skeletons from tumbling out of the closet.
IF I FAIL (A Jake Carrington Mystery Book One) by Marian Lanouette
Are rules really meant to be broken? Jake Carrington finds out the hard way and the answer is no! Dating Chloe Wagner was a huge mistake, and Jake should have known better—he’s investigating the murder of Chloe’s sister. Now Chloe is the number one suspect in that murder. If she’s convicted, Jake could lose not only his rank, but his career. If that’s not bad enough, he’s got a stalker on his hands, someone who’s threatening his fledgling relationship with the lovely Mia. Things are getting just a little too personal for comfort!
SEASON OF THRILLS Box Set is a value-packed, thrill ride for those who love romantic suspense, procedural suspense, detective mysteries, thrillers, and so much more!
Bio:
Bestselling Author K.L. Docter writes two
different kinds of romance novels...Romantic Suspense w/a K.L. Docter and Contemporary Romance w/a Karen Docter.
Karen/K.L.'s an award-winning author, a four-time Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® finalist, and won the coveted Kiss of Death Romance Writers Daphne du Maurier Award Category (Series) Romantic Mystery Unpublished division.
When she's not saving her characters from death and destruction or helping them to fall in love, she loves camping and fishing with her family, reading, gardening & cooking. If she can do most of those things over a campfire, all the better! FMI: www.karendocter.com
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