Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for The Evening’s Amethyst. I’m sharing an extract with thanks to Zoe O’Farrell for inviting me on the tour and to the publisher for my copy of the extract.

Blurb:

Who is Verity? That becomes the central question for American writer Nora Tierney, who has moved to her new Oxford home with her fiancé, DI Declan Barnes, and her young son. Declan’s new case at Exeter College coincides with a frantic call from Nora’s stepsister, Claire Scott: a fellow graduate student has died in a fall, and Claire begs Nora to help her prove her friend didn’t commit suicide. The sisters conduct their own snooping, while Declan and his tam juggle this death with a cold case that proves to be more surprising than Declan could ever imagine.

Extract:

Declan’s mind was already in overdrive, mentally listing the steps they would need to take as the case unfolded and he learned more details of the death of this young woman Nora’s sister had known. Did she have a boyfriend or lover and they’d argued? What was her state of mind? Could this have been an unfortunate accident? Was there anyone in her life who could have wanted to harm her? His team would have to answer all of these questions and more.

Declan ushered Nora under the tape into the curved-ceilinged entryway. They were immediately plunged into a cool darkness, with daylight on the other end of the entrance which led to the quad and the back of the chapel on one side and the rector’s lodgings, offices, and don’s rooms on the other.

    More crime scene tape closed off the stairs to their left, while a white sheet draped the victim, whose body sprawled half on and half off the lower steps. A man wearing an Exeter sweatshirt and shiny joggers stood outside the cordon, watching over the activity. This must be the tutor Watkins had allowed to stay outside the cordon as a college representative.

    Declan guided Nora to the stepping plates forensics had put down until they came near the white-suited medical examiner, Declan’s friend Charlie Borden. Charlie had already drawn a white plastic sheet back over Bea Jones and closed up his bag. One of young woman’s hands, enclosed in a plastic bag, lay outside the edge of the sheet, the fingers curled in supplication. Charlie leaned over and gently tucked her hand under the sheet. 

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The Evening’s Amethyst is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: