Thriller / Noir
Date Published: November 27, 2014
Published By: Short on Time Books
When a mutilated body
of an African American girl is found in a park sandbox, the media shows no
interest. Instead, their attention is riveted on the disappearance of Olivia
Safra, a college student and only child of the powerful and dangerous Richard
Safra. Suspended ADA, Beck Oldman, demoted to a rookie PI is assigned her first
cases to find a missing teenager and Olivia Safra.
Leads connect the murders to the Safra case. The investigation into her client's private life reveals a dark side in the relationship between a father and daughter and exacts his wrath against Beck. More girls are found murdered, putting Beck in a race to stop a serial killer and stop her own client from destroying her.
PURIFIED is a thrilling story that explores many dark subjects,
including what it does to those who have to live in the world of killers in
order to stop them.
Excerpt
The fact it was drizzling did not dim the useful
moonlight. The body had been meticulously scrubbed with antibacterial soap;
hair shampooed; new white underwear guarded against the old jeans. The plastic
gloves and the rain slowed down the digging. The skies opened just a bit more,
but enough to wash away progress. Voices from a distance slightly accelerated
the final touches. The exact placement of the artifacts was crucial. Finally,
success. It was a shallow grave, but it was never meant to be anything more
than a beginning.
The Chicago Park teemed with summer life. Amber light
washed over the lazy sun worshippers, glazing them in a healthy hue they did
not earn. Dogs chased invisible balls and actual Frisbees in the wet grass,
almost tripping women pushing baby strollers worth the price of a small car.
The low thrum of conversations, an intermittent rebuke handed down to an out-of-line
participant was suddenly obliterated by a shrill, inhuman wail. A collective
sucking in of breath heralded the series of joy crushing waves everyone knew
were coming.
Wave One: a young
boy collapsed near a group of teenage girls. Normally squealers, the girls
silently tried to ease the boy out of his fetal position. Reluctantly, onlookers approached, knowing
their light reverie was scrolling into some kind of weird nightmare.
Wave Two: a chorus
of other worldly screaming came out of children as they abandonede the swings.
Wave Three: a man
screeching, “Get the kids away from the goddamned sandbox, get them OUT OF
THERE. Call the cops, there’s a bloody hand sticking out of the sand.”
Human
sobs were accompanied by police sirens, almost if they were keeping tempo to
the chaos. People fled from the blood and the sand.
Wave Four: a murdered adolescent girl’s mutilated hand
reached out of the sand, tripping the boy whose summer dreams would become
nightmares, as would the entire city’s.
Elizabeth S. Sullivan was
born in Chicago and grew up in the LA area. Impassioned by social
justice issues, inspired by her parents, she pursued teaching and earned a
law degree. She has written five screenplays, one short. Her screenplays
have placed or won such as: Nicholl, Austin, Page, and American Zoetrope.
These recognitions garnered her a manager, Alexia Melocchi, Little Studio
Films. Her first novel, PURIFIED, portrays a strong female protagonist in
the genre of a noir thriller. Sullivan explores issues of
race, gender, privacy in the cyber age. She has written several blogs on
of women in fiction featured on Venture Galleries. She is busy
working on the sequel to PURIFIED and a new screenplay.
