VBT + #Giveaway: Portraits of the Dead by John Nicholl @nicholl06 @GoddessFish

Portraits of the Dead

by John Nicholls

GENRE: Psychological Thriller

BLURB:

Emma didn’t know how long he hid, silent and unmoving, in the large Victorian wardrobe to the side of her single bed. She didn’t know how long he peered out, salivating and drooling, between the two heavy dark oak doors, and watched, mesmerised, as she slowly drifted into fitful sleep. She didn't know what time he pushed the doors open and crept towards her in the drab grey darkness of the night.

Detective Inspector Gravel finds himself floundering when a local nineteen-year-old university student is abducted and imprisoned by a sadistic serial killer, who has already tortured and killed five young women.

A gripping page-turner of a serial killer thriller packed with suspense. If you like Rachel Abbott, Robert Bryndza and Karin Slaughter, discover John Nicholl’s chilling new thriller today.

Excerpt:

Chapter 1

2:20 A.M. Saturday, 2 May 1998

Emma didn’t know how long he hid, silent and unmoving, in the large Victorian wardrobe to the side of her single bed. She didn’t know how long he peered, salivating and drooling, between the two heavy dark oak doors and watched, mesmerised, as she slowly drifted into fitful sleep. She didn’t know what time he pushed the doors open and crept towards her in the drab grey darkness of the night. But he did. She knew that he did.

 

Emma woke with a start, tense, alert, and opened her bleary eyes, telling herself insistently that the dark silhouette slowly approaching her was the nightmare construct of her subconscious mind. But initial anxiety became blind panic as the inky shadow took on an obvious human form that suddenly gained pace and loomed over her. And then a hand, a large hot clammy hand, pulled the bedclothes over her head, clamped her mouth tight shut and silenced her scream before it materialised.

 

A myriad unwelcome thoughts invaded her troubled mind as he pinned her head to the pillow and raised his free arm high above his head, before closing his fingers tightly, forming his hand into a formidable weapon and bringing it crashing down, again and again and again, with all the force he could muster, rendering her unconscious and bleeding.

 

She didn’t know how long she remained senseless, or what he did to her while she slept. She didn’t know what time he lifted her from her bed and carried her from her student bedroom, down the creaking wooden staircase and out into the Welsh city street. But he did. She knew that he did.

Guest Post:

Ideal writing space

Dylan Thomas, the famous Welsh author of Under milk Wood and other great works,  used to write is a small wooden building with a view of the beautiful West Wales coastline, not too far from where we live in rural Carmarthenshire with its rolling green fields, hedgerows and bucket and spade beaches popular with summer tourists. I’ve read that his wife used to lock him in the boat house and not let him out again until he’d written his quota for the day, but I don't know if that’s true. He liked a drink or two, and so I suspect she may have wanted to keep him out of the pub and sober for long enough to complete his work. Easier said than done, it seems.

I write sitting at our dining room table, with music playing and busy family life going on all around me. That may not seem the ideal place to write a book, given the lack of peace and quiet, but I have to acknowledge that it works for me most of the time. I sometimes think it would be nice to have a study with large windows, which let the light in, and with a view of the sea somewhere warm and sunny, but we can’t have everything in this life of ours. Maybe one day I’ll have such a room, but it certainly won’t be the end of the world if things carry on just as they are. I’ve not really got much to complain about.

AUTHOR BIO:

John Nicholl, an ex-police officer, child protection social worker, manager and lecturer, has written three dark psychological suspense thrillers, each of which are Amazon international bestsellers, reaching # 1 in multiple categories in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Australia, Canada and the USA. John is always happy to hear from readers, bloggers or anyone interested in proposing a joint creative project.

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

Buy Link:

Amazon

Giveaway:

$50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC
 

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