Review + #Giveaway: What You Don't Know by Elka Ray @ElkaRay @GoddessFish

What You Don't Know:

Tales of Obsession, Mystery & Murder in Southeast Asia

by Elka Ray

GENRE: Suspense, Short Stories

BLURB:

An American lawyer dreams of killing his trophy wife in Thailand. A Vietnamese soldier goes mad in a haunted forest. A bereaved mother's trip to Cambodia ends in tragedy - or does it?

Take a spine-tingling journey from the jungles of Sumatra through Bangkok's seedy bars to the seemingly sedate streets of Singapore. Your traveling companions are a slew of dark emotions - fear, grief, jealousy, greed, lust and revenge. And your destination? What you don't know can hurt you.

                                                                         

With flashes of black humor and hard-to-forget characters, these ten stories shine light into the dark corners of Southeast Asia.

Excerpt:

“Kyle?” I yell. I’m sure my son is gone, sucked down to the bottom.

Blinking against the blood, I see him lying face down on the deck. He’s got himself wedged against the boat’s sides like a rock climber. I call again and he twists his head. I must look pretty bad, because he gasps. “D—dad?”

The boat is still rocking, but not enough to tip. Water sloshes back and forth. Kyle pushes himself onto his hands and knees. We both look around. Beneath the streaks of rain, the sea is dead calm. No swell. No big whitecaps. Nothing.

“Shit. What happened?” says my son. His face appears bleached. “What was that?”

I’ve been boating in these waters for going on two decades but can’t explain what hit us. If it was the wake from a big cargo ship there’d have been more waves. That wave came from nowhere. Was it a whale? I shake my head. “I…I don’t know,” I say.

The engine has stalled. My hands are shaking so hard I have trouble restarting it. It roars to life once, twice, only to cut out.

"Daaaad! You're flooding it," says Kyle, his voice a hysterical whine. "It won't start! It won't start! You've flooded it!"

I grit my teeth. "Fine, you try."

If he hears, he doesn't respond but just hugs his knees. "My god. My god. She's here. She's here." He says it over and over again.

"Shut up!" I yell, and my son stops. He presses his palms to his cheeks. I force myself to count to ten before trying the motor again, terrified that Kyle's right: If the motor is flooded, we're stuck out here. 

My Review:

Payback:

A man and his wife vacation in Thailand. The man gets tired of his wife Candy and decides that he could kill her here and nothing would ever become of it as the law is very slacking.

The Yellow River:

An eighteen year old joins the military and ends up in Kom Tum. His job is to travel up and down The Yellow River with three other guys. On one of their trips they run into a log and their boat is damaged and they are stranded. It is raining and cold. The wood is too wet to burn. So they think and hope that the wood in the jungle may be a little bit dryer so he goes in the woods to find more wood. He gets lost and spends the night in the jungle. While he is lost he remembers a story that has been passed down from generation to generation, a story that is used to tell little kids to keep them in line. The next morning he makes it back to his buddies and find one of them face down in the river and the other one is not talking literally.

Cleaning Up:

One day her ex-husband Binh and his little brother Tung enlist Hong's help in robbing the Jenkins home. But things don't go quite as they planned. Things turn deadly in the blink of an eye.

Burning Bright:

Felicity and her husband Gary are on vacation. Felicity misses her daughter June very much. June was hit by a car one night when she decides to walk home after her father Gary forgot to pick her up. Felicity just feels numb and is thinking about asking Gary for a divorce. She knows what he has been doing although he thinks he has kept his little misdeeds hidden from her for a long time.

Hot Flashes:

Miriam meets a guy on the internet and he wants her to come visit him in Bali in paradise. So she does but she soon learns that she is not the only one he has met on the internet. He has met women all over the world and this does not sit too well with Miriam.

Hit and Run:

A young girl goes missing. A family’s life is put in turmoil when their dog is killed in a hit and run. Bad dreams occur. An unexplained boating accident with mysterious waves.

The Secret Admirer:

A woman and her friend visit a fortune teller. The Fortune Teller tells her that someone in their office has a crush on her so they spend the rest of the day talking; joking around trying to figure out who in the office has a crush on her.

Killing Me Softly:

A man goes out drinking and meets a couple of girls. He takes one of them back to his hotel room and when he wakes up the next morning realizes that he has been robbed. But does he learn his? Actually no he doesn't because he goes out to a bar on another night picks a couple of girls. Same thing he is robbed again. You would think this man would learn his lesson but alas he does not.

What You Don’t Know:

A woman's son turns up missing. She goes looking for him every year. She travels all over Jakarta hoping to find her missing son.

Jungle:

A young girl starts her new job working in an office for Professor Son. He is like eighty years old but he still likes to play around with the young girls. So the first time she is called into his office and tells her sit on his knee she is shocked but she can't lose her job. She worries about him calling her to his office again and eventually he does. But what Professor Son doesn't know is that she is a tough girl and will not go down without a fight.

What You Don’t Know is filled with mystery, murder and intrigue. Each story weaves its own little tale of mystery and mayhem. It will take you on a journey through Southeast Asia. Each story is very appealing to any mystery fan. If you have not read What You Don’t Know then let me suggest that you give it a try. 

AUTHOR BIO:

At the age of eleven, Elka Ray co-founded the Double Trouble Detective Agency. She’s been on the lookout for mysteries ever since. Elka’s latest book, “What You Don’t Know: Tales of Obsession, Mystery & Murder in Southeast Asia”, takes readers on a darkly suspenseful tour of the Far East. Her first novel, a fast-paced romantic adventure titled “Hanoi Jane”, was published by Marshall Cavendish in English and DT Books in Vietnamese. Elka’s next novel, the thriller “Saigon Dark”, will come out with Crimewave Press in November 2016. Elka is also the author and illustrator of a popular series of bilingual kids’ picture books about Vietnam.

Elka divides her time between Hoi An in Central Vietnam and Canada’s scenic Vancouver Island. When she’s not writing, drawing or reading she’s in - or near -the ocean.

Contact: Email Elka at elka.k.ray (at) gmail.com

Agent: Elka is represented by Amy Tipton at Signature Literary Agency http://elkaray.com/542-2/

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Giveaway:

$20 Amazon or B/N GC
 

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