Cocktails and Lies #NewRelease by Lynette Sofras (@ManicScribbler) #MFRW Author

Up to now I’ve kept fairly quiet about my latest novel; quietly beavering away at it in my writer's cave, sometimes wondering if it would ever see the light of day.

But here it is at last!  And it’s available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Cocktails and Lies 

The Blurb:

When Hannah’s house is burgled, she gains as much as she loses: she meets Jan, her reserved Dutch neighbour and successful antiques dealer, and Callum, the detective in charge of the case; then finds some hidden letters to her dead grandmother that take her on a roller-coaster ride of discoveries.

As Hannah juggles the attentions of the two men now firmly in her life, she works to uncover the secrets of the past, only to find this encroaches on the present in unexpected ways.

And then there are the two men in her life, both vying for her attention, both hiding things from her and each other.  What does Callum really know about Jan?  What is Jan hiding from everyone?  And what did her grandmother—whose house it once was—hide from the world?

As if Hannah doesn’t have enough mysteries to solve, her best friend Rachel enlists her help in solving her marital crisis, while her pleasure-seeking mother seems intent on finding her a husband.

With so many skeletons rattling the door of Hannah’s house, can she unravel these mysterious threads and reveal the truth, changing her life forever?

Excerpt:

“Have you seen any more of your Good Samaritan neighbour?”

I caught the hint of sarcasm in his tone.

“No, but then, as you no doubt established, he probably has a better view of my house from his balcony than I do of his flat.”

He raised an eyebrow and I’m sure I detected a fleeting spark of amusement in his light brown eyes.  “The reason I ask is that I understand his auction house has a substantial art deco collection catalogued in the next public auction.  If I’m right, that’s scheduled for next Wednesday.  I thought he might have told you, in case you wanted to replace some of your stolen items.”

The sting hit like a double whammy.  In the first place, hearing this from him, rather than Jan hurt, and the second pain—a more prolonged ache—was the guilt at not protecting my grandmother’s treasures better.  I felt I’d lost a part of her that I wish I could have preserved.  Replacing her material legacy was not high on my agenda, but no one seemed to understand that.  The house felt that bit emptier without them, but replacing them with similar items would not make that any better.  I needed the original items back, not copies.  And that’s when it struck me. 

Grandma’s stolen pieces were not the sort of items that were going to be melted down and made into a different form.  They weren’t great works of art, but they were genuine collectors’ items that had value to someone in the art world.  My grandmother had left them to us, to my mother, my sister and me with love.  They belonged here, in Grandma’s house and that’s exactly where they should be returned.  Now I had a mission, to hunt down my grandmother’s legacy item by item, and return everything to its rightful place.

Check out my website for details of my other titles

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My Amazon author page

~Watch out for more information about my forthcoming blog tour with prizes~