COOKING FOR GHOSTS
by
Author Name
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE:
Women’s Fiction / Magical Realism
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A
Vegas cocktail waitress. An Indian herbalist. A British chemistry
professor. An Italian-American widow. Four unique women with one
thing in common: each is haunted by a tragedy from her past. The
women are surrounded by ghosts long before they step aboard, but once
they do...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Somewhere
in the Atlantic, 1949
In an
ocean as dark and still as death, the Queen floated. The
scythe-shaped moon engulfed in mist gave off only a dank tinge of
light. Waves skimmed lazily along the Queen’s sides, like the
careless caress of an indifferent lover. She was only fifteen years
old, but she’d already witnessed so much misery: war, love lost to
tragedy, and once, a vile murder that had left a stain on her no sea
she traveled had ever washed away.
Now she
was about to witness another. The killer’s rage was silent and
patient. And yet, she could feel it. In desperation, the Queen willed
her fog horn to blow…
***
Under
the cover of the dimly lit stairwell on the deserted sports deck, the
sailor waited. He’d timed it well. The watch wouldn’t make his
rounds up here until after it was over.
Long
before he could see his prey, he heard the click of her heels on the
planked wood, echoing off the water as she approached. He pressed
himself back further into the darkness as she came into view, her
eyes focused on what he’d stolen to lure her, carefully placed so
that it would be visible to her while he remained hidden. As she bent
to pick it up, he stepped swiftly behind her and clamped his forearm
around her throat, cutting off her scream and her breath as he pulled
her into the shadows.
She felt
her windpipe close up and the blood rush to her head. She couldn’t
twist around to face him, but ─ oh, God ─ she knew who he was.
How ironic. In a life as mousy as the color of her hair, the one
impetuous thing she’d dared do, would end her. As dreary as her
life had been, she didn’t want it to be over.
So she
struggled. She dug her nails into Death’s rigid forearm and clawed
at the skin on his elbow. But he only swore at the blood she’d
managed to draw and kept that arm hooked resolutely under her chin,
dangling her legs up off the deck, pressing even tighter against her
throat as she kicked. He shook her and she felt the cool night air
hit the sole of her foot as one of her shoes fell off. The thump it
made against the deck startled him. He lost his vice hold on her for
an instant and she tried again to scream. He slammed his other hand
across her nose and mouth. With a rush of stinging pain, the salty
iron taste of blood filled her mouth, mingled with the smell of his
familiar aftershave. Who’d have thought Death would come wearing
Old Spice? He’d groomed himself as carefully for her murder as he
once had for her seduction. She went queasy with the realization that
his arms were not the only part of his body that felt rigid against
her.
But mere
seconds later, she was too lightheaded to feel disgust or even fear.
She now lay in his arms, compliant, his hand still pressed against
her bloodied mouth and nose. Her head was tipped back as he continued
to suffocate her and she could see the night sky, a depthless
backdrop for the stars that flickered through the gauzy veil of ocean
fog. And the moon looked like a grin. Lovers walking the decks below
must think it all so romantic. Dimly, she could hear the band
playing in the ballroom. She was amazed she could even recognize the
tune ─ a new one, just come out that year:
“Some
enchanted evening, you may meet a stranger…”
Her
final act was to pray that he wouldn’t dump her before she was
truly dead. As cruel as his arms were, at least they were warm. She
didn’t want the ice cold water to be the last thing she felt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patricia
V. Davis is the author of the bestselling Harlot's Sauce: A Memoir of
Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece, and The Diva Doctrine: 16
Universal Principles Every Woman Needs to Know. Her latest work,
"Cooking for Ghosts: Book I in The Secret Spice Cafe Trilogy"
first of three novels set aboard the RMS Queen Mary, is due to be
released in October 2016. Despite the diversity of Patricia's
writing projects, they share the universal theme of "female
dynamism," a term she's coined which signifies women taking
positive action to support each other and better the world around
them. To that end, Patricia also founded The Women’s PowerStrategy™
Conference: http://womenspowerstrategyconference.com/
Website
URL: http://www.TheSecretSpice.com
Facebook
Contest and Updates Page: http://www.facebook.com/thesecretspice/
Amazon
Page:
https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Ghosts-22The-Secret-Trilogy-22/dp/0989905640
COOKING
FOR GHOSTS is also available at retail book outlets.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2091952.Patricia_V_Davis?from_search=true
http://www.patriciavdavis.com/
http://twitter.com/patriciaVdavis
https://www.facebook.com/patriciaVdavis
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