Sunday, February 19, 2012

Cover for my new novel, "Inside Passage to Murder"



JMS Books, LLC is publishing my novel, "Inside Passage to Murder".  It's a new mainstream novel from the Psionic Corps, which has been introduced in the Corey Shaw mysteries I've published under the name "Alex Morgan".  This series will follow Corey's colleagues as they solve mysteries in their own states and around the world.  We decided on a cover this past week and here it is!  Love it!


Synopsis:

Paranormal sleuth Mark Shotridge has a dream that indicates a cruise ship operating in Alaskan waters is in trouble. He books passage on the ship to investigate his vision. After leaving Seward the first night at sea, Mark has another vision that suggests someone has been thrown overboard into the icy waters of the north Pacific. However, nobody is reported missing and Mark begins to question his special abilities.


Soon crew member is found murdered in his cabin and Mark is certain that there is more going on than he originally suspected. The body count rises and he realizes that a serial killer might be on board but what is the reason behind the murders?
Mark must use all of his powers to stop a ruthless killer before the ship docks in Vancouver, British Columbia. Otherwise the tourism industry and the economy of Alaska may be destroyed.

 
 
Excerpt:
 
Mark Shotridge stirred in his bed. Then consciousness returned in a rush. He sat up, startled. Something had disturbed his sleep. Shivering, he tucked his arms back underneath the warm covers and listened, trying to determine what woke him. Nothing in the house stirred and he couldn’t discern anything moving around outside either. There was just the rain making soft noises as it dropped from the eaves and was too quiet to have roused him.


“September in Alaska,” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes. The dim gray light filtering through the windows told him the sun hadn’t risen yet.

So much for sleeping in on a Sunday morning. Mark rose and shuffled to the window, peeked through the slats in the blinds, and blinked at the gray light, bright in comparison to the darkness of the bedroom.

In the distance, heavy clouds hung low over Juneau. He wrinkled his nose at the musty odor of dampness seeping into every nook and cranny of his house.

The short summer was fading fast. It seemed like winter came to Alaska earlier every year. And stayed longer.

His thoughts returned to his sudden awakening.

He could have been awakened by a wild animal wandering past. His house lay in a rural area, with undeveloped land all around, overlooking Gastineau Inlet. Bears were a frequent sight, foraging for food in the humans’ habitats, but Mark couldn’t see any evidence of one passing, the usual sign of which was trash strewn across the yard. Moose, also common in these parts, tended to leave the trash alone.

In the distance a dog barked, but the sound wouldn’t have awakened him. Besides which, if a bear or a moose were anywhere nearby, every dog in the neighborhood would be engaged in a frenzy of barking.

Across the bay, Mark could just make out the lights of the city of Douglas. Traffic was starting to pick up on the Glacier Highway, running north and south far below his house, past the bay into the capital, toward the docks where the cruise ships disgorged hundreds of tourists each week. He couldn’t see the highway from his house, but the sound of traffic reached his ears.

Cruise ships.

SOS!


Save Our Ship.

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