Woohoo! Now this is something different! I’m thrilled to be taking part in Claire Duffy’s DARKNESS series blog tour – a Glasgow set serial killer thrillers. As you may have seen on other stops in the tour, we’ll all be sharing a short prequel to Claire’s Darkness series on a daily basis! Each chapter/blog will have a link to the next blog to allow you to follow the story and perhaps discover some new book bloggers along the way! How awesome is that! So let’s find out a little about the author first!
About the Author
C.S. Duffy writes psychological suspense thrillers with a healthy dose of black humour. Her background is in film and TV. She has several projects in development in Sweden and the UK and her other writing has appeared in Elle Canada and The Guardian. She is the author of Life is Swede, a thriller that was originally written as a blog – leading several readers to contact Swedish news agencies asking them why they hadn’t reported the murder that features in the blog. She is the author of Dark of Night and Just Before Dawn, a thriller series set in Glasgow which was selected for a Spotlight slot at this year’s Bloody Scotland.
Find me at:
http://csduffy.com/
https://twitter.com/csduffywriter
https://www.instagram.com/csduffywriter/
https://www.instagram.com/writer.on.the.go/
About the Books:
THE DARKNESS BUY LINKS:
UK Store:
Dark of Night: Episode One: http://amzn.eu/d/62DeGhx
Dark of Night: Episode Two: http://amzn.eu/d/9ftE9Wp
Dark of Night: Episode Three: http://amzn.eu/d/5AFct03
Just Before Dawn: Episode One: http://amzn.eu/d/5jJwPju
US Store:
Dark of Night: Episode One: http://a.co/d/3eh05dK
Dark of Night: Episode Two: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-
Dark of Night: Episode Three
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-
Just Before Dawn: Episode One: https://www.amazon.com/Just-
One gloomy afternoon during that brilliant lull between Christmas and New Year, when it’s practically mandated by law to eat chocolate and not get dressed, Lorna’s mum had worried that someone might come to the door and find them all in their jammies. Her sister Greer had announced that caring what others think is actually quite big headed because you first have to assume that they’re bothering to think about you. Mum was affronted at being called big headed and Lorna had to point out that Greer was winding her up, but no one listened, and finally their dad roused himself from his nap to snap at them all for bickering like weans. Greer had sniggered and they all went back to watching some end of the year news review quiz in huffy silence.
Now though, as Lorna sat at the bar self-consciously toying with her phone and trying not to jump a mile every time the door opened, she thought of Greer’s words. Sure enough, she noticed with relief that precisely zero other patrons were paying a blind bit of attention to her, never mind giving a monkey’s that she was waiting on a stranger she’d met off the internet. The door opened again and Lorna looked up with a start, but it was a wee elderly couple who shuffled to a booth.
She took a deep breath and told herself to get a grip. What kind of a journalist was she going to make if the thought of making small talk with the guy who had been persistently messaging her all week had her practically doing cartwheels with nerves? If he wasn’t who she was looking for, she would make an excuse and leave and that would be that.
‘Lorna?’
This time she didn’t jump. Grant MacKenzie offered her a drink, and as he debated the craft beers on tap with the bartender, Lorna tried not to make it too obvious she was staring at him. He was shorter than he had appeared in his photos, only just taller than her. She’d thought his hair and beard would be gingery, but in person they were more dirty blond. He had nice eyes, a sort of pale blue, and she liked how they crinkled up when he gave her a shy smile. He was a nice person, she thought, a cold disappointment seeping through her.
‘On a scale of one to ten, how bloody awful is all this online business?’ he asked with a grin as they clinked glasses.
‘How long have you been doing it for?’ she asked.
‘On and off a couple of years, maybe?’ Grant shrugged. ‘I’d love to meet lassies in person, you just never know where to start, do you? Most of my pals are settled down now, and going out on the pull on your own is never a good look, is it?’
Lorna laughed. ‘Right enough,’ she grinned, then her smile faded as she remembered she’d thought she might meet someone at CrossFit. She’d met Ruari, but he didn’t fancy her.
Grant caught her expression and nodded, sympathy flickering in his eyes. ‘You’re new to all this, aren’t you? Bad breakup?’
‘No nothing like that, sorry. I’m just —’ Lorna shrugged, took a gulp of her pint. ‘What was it you said you did for work? Will we get some crisps?’
She made her excuses after one drink and stepped out into the night with a sigh. Grant was good company, funny and full of chat. There was no thunderbolt or anything, but if things were different, she would have made plans to see him again.
But he wasn’t who she was looking for now. As she’d steered the conversation through past jobs, childhood anecdotes and nightmare dates, she realised that he was too open, too easy with self deprecating details. Her heart had sunk even before he mentioned that he had lived in Australia five years ago. He had friended her on Facebook, so she could double check easily enough, but her gut told her he had been telling the truth.
He wasn’t the Dancing Girls Killer. Lorna clambered onto the bus when it pulled up. She sat down on her favourite seat at the front of the top deck, opened up Crowded Room on her phone and began swiping again. The killer was in there, she was certain of it. She just had to keep looking.
Make sure you pop over to A DAD READS: https://readerdad.co.uk/ for the next instalment tomorrow!
