VBT + #Giveaway: Clementina by Simon Cann @simonpcann @GoddessFish

Clementina

by Simon Cann

GENRE: Crime Thriller

BLURB:

Leathan Wilkey has been hired to babysit Clementina, a seventeen-year-old whose rich daddy is going through a messy divorce and is over-compensating.

Leathan soon tires of her spending habits, her selfie obsession, and her social media preoccupation as his ward drags him from shop to boutique to jeweler, approaching each with the self-possession that comes from a lifetime of getting her own way and never once having to worry about money.

But when Clementina snaps her fingers and her boyfriend doesn’t come running, something is up. He doesn’t appear because he’s been murdered.

When Leathan investigates, he finds that the boyfriend has no background and met Clementina through a connection made by daddy’s business partner.

Daddy’s business partner who has been slowly and progressively putting daddy in a vice, grabbing more of the business, and who is now menacing Clementina directly to manipulate daddy.

Excerpt:

Johnson McElroy and Orville Michael Mallet seemed pleased to have fixed a problem. A problem where I was having trouble understanding what really made it a problem.

The two men—one groomed to look like a logical and rational arguing machine; the other determined to display his individual creativity, which looked exactly the same as everyone else’s individual creativity—shook my hand at the door.

“You know the way out,” I said, as if I had a clue. I only knew how to enter and leave if I was driven by Reece.

The two headed for the elevator and I made my way through the cavernous entrance hall back to the open living space and the kitchen area. The kitchen area, which had more floor space than most apartments I had lived in.

“I should have a word with Clementina,” I said to Angeline Bautista, the housekeeper who had remained invisible while the two company men had been present.

“She’s gone out,” said the housekeeper.

“When?”

“While you talked.”

“Where?”

She shrugged.

“What did Reece say?”

She looked confused.

“Reece—the driver. What did he say?”

The confusion remained. “Nothing.”

“But he must have said something when he came up.”

“He didn’t come up,” she said.

“She went to him?” I could feel the hesitation in my speech as my brain tried to catch up with the situation and make sure my language was unambiguous for the non-native English speaker.

“No. She went out on her own,” said Angeline.

“When?”

“While you talked,” she said with greater emphasis.

“How long ago?”

She tilted her head from side to side. “Ten minutes?” she said. More a question than a statement.

I pulled out my phone and called Reece. “Does Clementina go out on her own?”

“Nope,” said Reece. “Daddy says no.”

“Well, she has.”

Reece swore under his breath. “I’ll be up.”

Guest Post:

How I handled the research for the Leathan Wilkey series

I knew I wanted to write a series set in Paris even before I published the first book in my other main series (the Boniface series…which is very good J you should check it out: simoncann.com/boniface).

Well…I say I knew I wanted to write a series set in Paris. In truth, I had a notion about the character who would become Leathan Wilkey and I figured one city where such a person might end up would be Paris. I had other cities in mind—in particular, Budapest and Sarajevo—but Paris somehow felt most likely.

Felt likely. Felt.  Not really very scientific when I was contemplating a series. So the simple way to confirm that Paris was indeed the place was to go to Paris. I live in London so getting to Paris is a matter of jumping on a train—from my front door to the center of Paris, it takes just over four hours.

In spent a week in Paris in early February. I learned very quickly that Paris is cold and the wind that comes off the Seine is biting.

I walked the streets—literally; every morning I would get up and walk around the neighborhoods, returning to hotel late at night. I took photos—lots of photos. I watched. I observed. I talked to people. I asked questions.

I quickly realized that Paris was not simply a place where I could set a series, but it was a place where I wanted to set a series. I knew the series was going to be about contrast and Paris had that mix of light and dark—physically, but also on a deeper more emotional level—that I wanted for my series.

But the Paris I wanted as the location for my books is not the Paris of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, or the Louvre. I wanted the places where people don’t look—not necessarily the places hidden from view, although there are plenty of those, but more the places people don’t notice because there are looking the other way.

This meant more trips to Paris and more time walking the streets. I also meant that I often found myself near the tourist traps, but looking away from them—looking to the shadows, looking to the less well scrubbed side of the city.

But for me spending time in Paris was more than finding locations—my intention was not to describe what the Eiffel Tower looks like from firsthand experience (and let me throw in a spoiler here: I don’t describe the Eiffel Tower in my books). Instead, I looked to understand how the physicality and the geography of the city would affect my characters as they lived their lives in the city.

Having decided on Paris I then read a lot. I read about the city, the history, the government (regional and national), government institutions (police/gendarme, ambulance, firefighters), and so on. And of course, I also read up on the issues relating to Leathan’s back story—organized gangs and human trafficking in UK.

Having done the research, I put it all to one side and made up the story.

AUTHOR BIO:

Simon Cann is the author of the Boniface, Montbretia Armstrong, and Leathan Wilkey series of books.

In addition to his fiction, Simon has written a range of music-related and business-related books, and has also worked as a ghostwriter.

Before turning full-time to writing, Simon spent nearly two decades as a management consultant, where his clients included aeronautical, pharmaceutical, defense, financial services, chemical, entertainment, and broadcasting companies.

He lives in London.

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

Buy Link:

Amazon ~ B/N

Giveaway:

$50 Amazon/BN GC 
 

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