Chris has a new book coming
out today, on the calendar, and so I’ve opened my blog up to plugging that a
bit. Maybe something you’d like to gift yourself for Christmas
After leaving his dream job as an Atlantic City detective, Jeff Woods
has moved to Washington DC with his life partner Alex Fisher and Alex's
disabled little brother Sean. Parker Trenkins, Jeff’s ex-partner on the force,
has made the move as well, along with his significant other David. Jeff and
Parker partner up once again, but in a new way, as owners of their own
detective agency.
Life is difficult at the best of times. Sean loses sight in one of his
eyes, a direct result of being pushed into the Atlantic by a homicidal maniac a
year ago. In his struggle to deal with everything, a restless Alex enrolls in
Tai Chi classes at a nearby school.
As it happens, a murder case Jeff and Parker take involves the head of
that very Tai Chi School, Charles Cooper. Cooper is a suspect in the murder of
a financial corporation official. He appears to have motive. Jeff and Parker's
investigation arouses the real killer’s interest, and if they don't uncover his
identity soon, it may be too late for them.
Swordplay by Chris T Kat
(Jeff Woods Mystery #)
Published 22nd December 2014
by Dreamspinner
Contemporary
Thriller/Mystery LGBT+ Romance
Excerpt from
Chapter One:
“Earth to Jeff. Someone in
there?” Parker was standing next to me, waving his hand in front of my face.
“Fuck off, Parker.”
“Wow. Remind me not to talk
to you before you’ve had decent caffeine input. Now, come on, why are you so
tired? I’m your new shrink, remember?” Parker blinked his blue eyes at me in
mock-offense, flipping a lock of black hair back.
I snorted. Coffee aroma
filled the air, and the water bubbled enticingly. After rubbing my hands over
my eyes, I leaned back in the chair and looked up at him. The man drove me
crazy on a daily basis, but he was my best friend—right after Alex, my lover,
of course.
“Oh boy, this is going to be
a long story, isn’t it? Hang on, I need to sit down.” With a theatrical
flourish, he heeled a chair closer and fell onto it with gleeful expectation
written all over his face.
“Sean’s going to lose sight
in his left eye.”
Parker’s mouth dropped open,
and for a long time neither of us said anything. I stared at him, wondering
whether I should’ve cushioned my words a bit. His jaw muscles tightened, and he
worked hard to get words out of his mouth. I’d probably worn a similar
expression yesterday when Alex broke the news to me after the visit with the
eye specialist. Sean was only seven years old—only seven. Didn’t he’d already
suffer enough with his cerebral palsy?
“You can’t just drop a bomb
like that without giving me fair warning,” Parker protested.
I shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Are you sure?”
I gave a curt nod. My eyes
stung stupidly. Alex had tried so hard to keep it together, but in the end he’d
wept for hours, cuddled up against me. He’d cried endlessly for his little
brother and what he had to go through. I’d feared he’d make himself sick—which
he had, but only once—and when he’d finally fallen asleep, I’d lain awake in
our bed, helpless and hurting.
“What about another opinion?
Maybe—”
“Parker, that was the third
opinion. We noticed he was getting clumsier and he was losing focus on his left
side. His sight in that eye has gone down to ten percent, and it won’t take
long for the rest to vanish too. We’ll cope.”
Whether I wanted to reassure
myself or Parker didn’t really matter, did it? At least I’d had enough presence
of mind not to throw that platitude around when I talked to Alex. He never
bought into any of them. Parker, however, did from time to time.
“Does Sean know?”
Pain closed like a vise
around my throat, and I coughed in a deliberate attempt to get rid of it. “Yes.
We explained it to him.”
“How did he react?”
I grimaced. “He was worried
about his other eye, but the doc said it was okay. Sean’s main concerns were if
he was still allowed to go to school and if we’d still love him.”
I bolted from the chair,
choking on my last words, and stalked over to the coffeemaker. I poured milk
into Parker’s mug, added two spoonfuls of sugar, then attempted to grab the
glass carafe. My hands shook.
Parker materialized next to
me, nudged me aside, and filled our mugs. I was still blinking against the
wetness in my eyes. Maybe it was a good thing I’d had no time for breakfast
earlier. I wasn’t sure if it would’ve stayed down anyway. Alex hadn’t even
tried to eat this morning. He’d been white as a sheet when I left. I hadn’t
wanted to come to work, but the money had to come in from somewhere and—
About Author
Chris T. Kat lives in the
middle of Europe, where she shares a house with her husband of many years and
their two children. She stumbled upon the M/M genre by luck and was swiftly
drawn into it. She divides her time between work, her family—which includes
chasing after escaping horses and lugging around huge instruments such as a
harp—and writing. She enjoys a variety of genres, such as mystery/suspense,
paranormal, and romance. If there's any spare time, she happily reads for
hours, listens to audiobooks or does cross stitch.
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I missed a book. I read the first book Attachment Strings. So now I have to get both Sacrifices and Swordplay. Thanks for giving us a snippet. Happy Holidays
ReplyDeleteDenise, I hope you'll enjoy the books. Happy Holidays to you too!
DeleteThanks a lot for helping me spread the word. :)
ReplyDelete