Lake of Bad Dreams
A
Winston Radhauser Mystery #8
by
Susan Clayton-Goldner
Published:
July 15, 2020
Publisher:
Tirgearr Publishing
Genre:
Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Blurb:
When Detective Winston Radhauser receives a
frantic call, ‘shots fired at Mountain View High School’, he and
his partner are on the scene in less than four minutes. Chaos greets
them. Screaming students run in every direction. Some hide behind
bushes. One boy has fallen into the memorial fountain, his arm
bleeding so profusely it turns the water red. Others lie on the
ground, blood seeping into the concrete in dark pools.
Procedure demands first responders wait for
SWAT to clear the building, but Radhauser enters, fearing more
injuries and loss of life. In the band room, two students, one dead,
the other barely breathing, lie in front of the shattered windows. In
Practice Room #4, another boy and girl are dead. Sprays of blood
splatter the cinderblock walls and shell casings litter the floor.
Radhauser kneels beside the girl’s body. A
cell phone, with a hot pink Hello Kitty cover, peeks from the pocket
of her blood-stained hoodie. In her childlike right hand, nails
chewed and painted an innocent shade of glittery pink, she holds a
Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun, her fingers still curl around it.
It’s easy to believe fifteen-year-old
Kristina Sterling is the shooter. Everyone does. Everyone except
Detective Radhauser.
My Review:
Lake
of Bad Dreams opens in a nightmare. Detective Winston
Radhauser receives
a call about a shooting in progress at Mountain View High School.
When he arrives at the school he sees students running everywhere
trying to avoid the
gunshots.
As Detective Radhauser makes his way through the school he sees a
child here another over there some dead but some are still alive but
barley. He makes his way up the stairs to the room where the gunshots
were coming from and sees a boy and a girl lying dead in a
pool of their
own blood. A beautiful young girl with a Glock
in her hands.
No
one believes that this young sweet innocence girl could pull the
trigger much less kill anyone. Kristina
had
her whole life a head of her. She had just made the cheerleading
squad and
had just learned that she would be part of the homecoming court.
Kristina worked hard at making good grades hoping to get into a good
college as she wanted to be a pediatric oncologist. How could this
sweet little girl kill her friends. Everyone believed the evidence
but not Detective Radhauser.
Lake
of Bad Dreams had my attention from the first page. It also had me in
tears from
beginning to end.
When Radhauser pulled up to that school I felt as if I was seeing and
feeling everything Radhauser saw and felt. I thought about each
student that he came upon about how their families were going to feel
when they received the news that their child did not make it out
alive or that their child was the one who did the shooting.
I
have read just about everything Susan Clayton-Goldner has written and
each book just gets better and better. In each one you feel as if you
have known the characters forever.
The words that Susan puts down on paper creates the
most vivid worlds
with the most amazing characters ever. Once
I pick up a book written by Susan I am drawn into its depths and I am
lost in that world as if I am one of the characters myself.
Every
time I pick up one of Susan’s books I think I am going to figure
out who the killer is in the beginning I am like oh yeah I am going
to do it this time but each time I am wrong. Once I think I have
figured it out along comes another twists telling me I had it all
wrong. Susan fills her books with lots of mystery, suspense, twists,
turns and secrets that is revealed slowly keeping you hooked right up
until the end leaving you with your month hanging open in surprise
once the all the secrets are revealed. Even now I am anxiously
awaiting the next Winston Radhauser book or Susan’s next book
whatever the title may be.
I
highly recommend Lake of Bad Dreams to anyone looking for their next
read that is if you are into mystery, suspense or like a good
thriller every now and then. One click your copy today to help
Detective Winston Radhauser solve another mystery.
AUTHOR BIO:
Susan Clayton-Goldner was born in New
Castle, Delaware and grew up with four brothers along the banks of the Delaware
River. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona's Creative Writing
Program and has been writing most of her life. Her novels have been finalists
for The Hemingway Award, the Heeken Foundation Fellowship, the Writers
Foundation and the Publishing On-line Contest. Susan won the National Writers'
Association Novel Award twice for unpublished novels and her poetry was
nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Her work has appeared in numerous
literary journals and anthologies including Animals as Teachers and Healers,
published by Ballantine Books, Our Mothers/Ourselves, by the Greenwood
Publishing Group, The Hawaii Pacific Review-Best of a Decade, and New
Millennium Writings. A collection of her poems, A Question of Mortality was released in 2014 by Wellstone Press.
Prior to writing full time, Susan worked as the Director of Corporate Relations
for University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Susan
shares a life in Grants Pass, Oregon with her husband, Andreas, her fictional
characters, and more books than one person could count.
Author
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