Dead Right
The people of Stillwater, Mississippi, are asking questions about murder. Again.Twenty years ago Madeline Barker’s father disappeared. Despite what everyone else thinks, Madeline’s convinced her stepfamily had nothing to do with it. But the recent discovery of his car finally proves he didn’t just drive away. Worse, the police find something in the trunk that says there’s more to this case than murder.With no other recourse, Madeline decides to hire a private investigator – even if the cops don’t like it. Even if her family doesn’t like it. But when P. I. Hunter Solozano begins to uncover some shocking evidence, someone in Stillwater is determined to put a stop to Madeline’s search for the truth. And that means putting a stop to her. Permanently.
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Praise for BRENDA NOVAK’SStillwater stories
“In the first of a compelling new series set in the small town of Stillwater, Mississippi, Novak expertly mixes her usual superior characterisation with a chilling sense of evil as she pairs up a complicated heroine with a dark past with a caring, honourable man who gives her hope for the future.”
—Booklist on Dead Silence
“I was held spellbound by Ms Novak’s second book in her outstanding Stillwater trilogy. This series gets better with every book. [Her] characters are extraordinary in depth and feeling. I really fell in love with Clay Montgomery. This book is a page-turner bar none!”
—Reader to Reader Reviews on Dead Giveaway
“Novak’s ability to make this mystery cunning and deceptive is amazing, considering readers already know the outcome…Dead Giveaway is a turbulent and brilliant romantic suspense story that is sure to bring on a case of the chills. I cannot wait to see what is revealed in the final story of this trilogy.”
—Romance Junkies.com
“Brenda Novak has an uncanny ability to give life to her characters, even minor ones. And her work is singularly devoid of clichés…Novak also creates dynamic characters with strong emotional ties, but the threads that hold families together are sometimes tried to the breaking point. If anyone comes close to perfection, it’s Clay, who stands like a wall around those he loves. This series is a must read; just be prepared for an emotional ride.”
—Romance Reviews Today on Dead Giveaway
“Novak has a keen gift for combining suspense and romance, as well as for creating real, sympathetic heroines and darkly mysterious heroes…Dead Giveaway…is a very compelling read.”
—Armchair Interviews
Also by Brenda Novak
DEAD GIVEAWAY
DEAD SILENCE
For Joy, who left this life far too soon.
Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you— and miss you.
“The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second something to reverence.”
—George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans,
English novelist, 1819-1880)
Dear Reader,
If you’ve read Dead Silence and/or Dead Giveaway, you’ve already met Madeline Montgomery. You know she loves the man who was her father, the man who went missing twenty years ago, and that she’s absolutely determined to discover what happened to him. You also know that if she manages to find out, it’ll make for a very unpleasant surprise (maybe a few surprises for you, too!). Her own family’s keeping the truth from her. They have good reason, of course. Their dark secret is something she’s better off not knowing. But she can’t settle for that. She wants to know, and love and denial can blind her for only so long. Especially when private investigator Hunter Solozano comes to town…
As the last book in the Dead trilogy, Dead Right was a difficult story to write. Mostly because “the end” means I have to say goodbye to characters I’ve been working with for over a year—some of my favourite characters, in fact. But the sadness won’t last.
Visit my website at www.brendanovak.com to view video trailers for my various novels, read excerpts and reviews, see what’s coming next, enter my contests, monthly draws, etc. Also, while you’re there, check out my Online Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research (my son suffers from this disease). I’d love to have you get involved, so just send me an e-mail to let me know how you’d like to participate (Brenda@brendanovak. com). Together we’ll do all we can.
I love to hear from readers. If you don’t have internet service, please feel free to write me at PO Box 3781, Citrus Heights, CA 95611, USA.
Here’s hoping you enjoy Dead Right!
Brenda Novak
Chapter One
Was his body inside?
Hunched against the freezing January rain, Madeline Barker felt her fingernails cut into her palms. Standing with her stepbrother, stepsister and stepmother, she watched the police and several volunteers attempt to pull her father’s car out of the abandoned water-filled quarry. Her head pounded from lack of sleep, and her chest was so tight she almost couldn’t breathe, yet she stood perfectly still…waiting. After almost twenty years, she might finally have some answers about her father’s disappearance.
Toby Pontiff, Stillwater, Mississippi’s, police chief, knelt at the lip of the yawning hole. “Careful, careful there, Rex,” he called over the high-pitched whine of the winch attached to a massive tow truck.
Joe Vincelli and his brother, Roger, Madeline’s first cousins, hovered on the other side of the quarry, their faces betraying their anticipation. They spoke animatedly to each other, but Madeline couldn’t hear them above the noise. She was fairly sure she didn’t want to. What they had to say would only upset her. They’d long blamed her father’s disappearance on certain members of her stepfamily—Irene, Clay and Grace—who were gathered around her now. Unfortunately, the fact that the Cadillac had been found in the quarry five miles outside of town would only convince them they’d been right all along. It’d certainly prove that her father hadn’t driven off into the sunset.
