Vendor
	Fritz Agency Christian Dittus
Original language
English

RANDOM ROAD

Thomas Kies

A Geneva Chase Crime Reporter Mystery #1

Veteran reporter Geneva Chase is at the end of her professional rope.

Battling alcoholism and bad choices, she's lost every major news job she's had; working at her hometown newspaper is her last chance to redeem herself.

And then she lands the story of a lifetime: Six nude bodies are found hacked to pieces in a Queen Anne mansion on the coast of Long Island Sound. The sensational headline is picked up by the metro papers, and Geneva is back in the game, using her reporter's nose to sniff out the secrets of Connecticut's rich and entitled citizens.

As her grisly investigation leads her deeper into dangerous waters, her toxic affair with a married man and her inability to get sober threaten to undo everything she has worked so hard to achieve.

Available products
Book Published 2021-05-10 by Poisoned Pen Press

Comments

"The bad choices made by Geneva Genie Chase, the narrator of Kies's arresting debut, have landed her back in her hometown of Sheffield, Conn., working for the local paper. When a multiple murderthe six victims were all members of a sex club, and the murder site was their clubhouseis discovered in a Long Island Sound mansion, Geneva is the only reporter on the scene. This, Genie realizes, is the story that could revive her career if she can get past her two major stumbling blocks: vodka tonics and bad taste in men. Her court-ordered attendance at an AA meeting reunites Genie with Kevin Bell, a high school friend with his own problems. While trying to figure out what Kevin means to her now, Genie is still entangled with a married lawyer reluctant to end their affair. Meanwhile, hunting for two killers in a wealthy community soon puts Genie at odds with the police and people with secrets to hide. While the sheer number of troubled characters and events taking place in a short time span weighs down the plot, Kies has created a likable if flawed heroine readers will want to see more of." Read more...

"First in a new mystery series about a failing news writer who exposes enormous inequities between community haves and havenots, and the chaos, malice, and moral disconnect of social privilege and power. Kies tells a taut, fastpaced tale, imbuing each character with memorable, compelling traits that help readers connect with them. ...those who enjoy J. A. Jance's Beaumont series or Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone mysteries will appreciate Geneva Chase."

"Kies' fiction debut lays the groundwork for an entertaining series." Read more...

"Reporter Geneva Chase has written hundreds of stories, but what brings her back to Sheffield, CT, and her hometown newspaper, isn't a news piece, it's her alcoholism. Yet this may be her chance at professional redemption, as she investigates one of the most grisly murder scenes of her career. Probing the brutal slaughter of six people at an exclusive gated community, the intrepid journalist also uncovers all kinds of secrets, from a young man whose father bribes a judge to let him off on a hit-and-run charge to a swingers' club. At the same time, Geneva also tries to hide her drinking problem from the newsroom. A chance encounter at an alcoholics anonymous meeting will change her life, but not before it's jeopardized by her connecting the dots and tracking down a vicious killer. VERDICT Kies's debut mystery introduces a reporter with a compelling voice, a damaged woman who recounts her own bittersweet story as she hunts down clues. This suspenseful story will appeal to readers who enjoy hard-nosed investigative reporters such as Brad Parks's Carter Ross." (Starred Review)