About the Book
Title: Secrets in the Woods: An Emilia Long Mystery
Author: J.E. Smythe
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Secrets in the Woods
is a gripping tale about Emilia Long- an Investigative Reporter and her quest
to find out the circumstances surrounding her mother's death. Long's quest
begins after reading documents left for her by her adopted mother revealing
that she was abandoned as an infant at a Brooklyn hospital. The revelation led
Emilia on a suspenseful journey to find her birth mother.
But finding her is not
so easy. Her investigations reveal that her birth mother disappeared months
before her birth and that the disappearance was linked to a murder. With the
key suspect in her mother's disappearance locked away in jail on unrelated
charges and the townspeople, including the Sheriff, unwilling to help her,
Emilia finds herself at a dead end. In an unimaginable twist of fate, Emilia
discovers more than she bargained for. Some Secrets are really better left
untold.
In addition to her 9
to 5 attorney job, Smythe is also the co-founder of publishing company, Lady
Esquire Group, LLC. The Attorney Author describes herself as a half analytic
and half creative who was blessed to figure out how to join those halves
together. Her other books include:
Through Grandma's Eyes, Zora's First Day and a Few Good Friends. When asked
about the motivation for writing her latest work, she explained: "I'm a
lover of the Cozy Mystery genre but I found that there were not a lot of those
books written by African American Authors with African American characters. I
just wanted to put a whole new face on such a fun and exciting genre."
Smythe's adept writing
style in Secrets in the Woods is enticing and captivates readers from the first
page. The novel feature a cast of believable characters and numerous twists and
turns that will have readers begging for more.
About the Author
J.E. Smythe is an
award winning author born in Liberia, West Africa, and raised in Providence,
Rhode Island, and Gaithersburg, Maryland. J.E. is also an attorney who attended
Allen University and received her Law Degree from Massachusetts School of Law.
While working as an attorney, J.E. just could not let her passion to write die.
She decided to take her legal writing skills and write her debut fiction novel
“A Few Good Friends.” J.E. currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where
she has Co-founded Lady Esquire Group, LLC management and publishing firm. She
is a proud member of Zeta phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Book Excerpts
"I sort of
snuck into the Sheriff’s archived records and there was a box about a boy who
died the same date Lizzie went missing,” Emilia explained.
“That can’t be a
coincidence,” Chanel said. “What’s his name?”
“Randel
Jamison,” Emilia said.
Emilia could
hear Chanel typing away again on her keyboard. She waited anxiously to see what
Chanel would find out.
“The only
article on him is that he was murdered in the woods there in Arbor. There’s not
much else,” Chanel said.
“Oh,” Emilia
replied sounding disappointed.
“Wait, let me
check something else,” Chanel said.
“What?” Emilia
asked.
“The FBI
database,” Chanel replied.
“Are you
crazy?” Emilia asked in a panic. “You know you could get in serious trouble for
that, right? And what would a small town’s murder be doing in the FBI database
anyway?”
“So, which
question do you want me to answer first?” Chanel asked sarcastically. “How
about you already know I’m a bit crazy, yes I know I could get in trouble which
is why I keep bill money, and it’s in there because apparently it was
classified as a hate crime.”
“Wait, what? Seriously?” Emilia asked.
“Yeah. According to this, he appeared to have been
beaten and his skull smashed in,” Chanel said.
“Oh my God. Anything about Lizzie?”
“Yeah.
According to witnesses, she was in the woods that night too. She could not be
found. She was declared dead after weeks of searching for her.”
“So why did
they think it was a hate crime?”
“The then
Sheriff believed that a group of white boys who were known to be racist were
the ones who did it. Guess they couldn’t prove it.”
Excerpt 5:
Emilia turned around quickly only to be blinded by
the headlights of what looked like a motorcycle. The engine roared louder and
then the motorcycle started to come right towards Emilia at a high speed.
Emilia took off running as fast as she could weaving through the trees and
bushes, but the motorcycle kept coming. Emilia found a large rock and tried to
hide behind it, but the motorcycle jumped right over, turned and started coming
again. Emilia grabbed a large branch and waited for the motorcycle to get
closer then she took a swing which caused the driver of the motorcycle to
swerve on its side. Emilia didn’t wait around to see what happened to the
driver she took off running again.
She found herself by the cliff overlooking the river. She slowed down from
running to see where she was going. But she had dropped her flashlight and
couldn’t see much. Before she could make a move, the motorcycle was back. This
time coming much fast and Emilia was trapped between the cliff and the
motorcycle. The motorcycle had her corner, and without thinking Emilia leaped
over the cliff rolling down the cliff and landing on some bushes and rocks a
few feet below. She turned her head in pain and looked up to see a hazy figure
standing at the top of the cliff. Then the figure was gone and so was the sound
of the motorcycle.
Emilia’s whole body was in severe pain, and she could feel something wet
dripping from her head. Emilia knew she couldn’t stay where she was. She
mustered up enough strength to pull herself back up to the top of the cliff,
but she couldn’t go any further. She was just about to lose consciousness when
she heard someone yelling her name. She recognized Sheriff Caleb’s voice, but
she couldn’t yell back. All she could do was
moan, “Help. Help me.”
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