Working with Author Laurie Bowler for a new gruesome novel guaranteed to make you hold your blanket close and turn the pages slowly!

                          Excerpt from Moon Fury

The smell of fresh blood hung in the foggy morning air, a tell-tale sign that death had once again made an appearance. The woods near the cemetery was silent, the usual sound of birds and tiny woodland creatures was nowhere to be heard. For it seemed like they knew it wasn’t a safe place to be.

Detective  Malloney stepped carefully over the gravel strewn ground, gagging slightly at the sight in front of her. She had seen many a death, but none as gruesome as the one that had happened that night. Looking down at the mutilated corpse of the cemeteries grounds-keeper, she couldn’t help but feel faint. “Find anything yet Malloney?” came the voice of her partner behind her. As she turned around she replied in a somewhat shaken voice “Nope, nothing. Although I suspect when the forensics get here they’ll find plenty. What ya suppose happened here Roy? Cos I’ll be damned, but it looks like this guy was torn to pieces.” Roy was on his haunches, trying to get a better look at the mutilated man. “Beat’s me. But look, doesn’t that look like fur?” he was pointing at a fistful of hair clutched in the dead man’s hand. “Bet you wish you were still on vacation Malloney.” Roy chuckled  softly.

Oh yeah, the vacation from hell, she thought to herself. To him she merely nodded. He had been her partner for 5 years, but he knew almost nothing about her personal life. And she wasn’t about to tell him about how she had walked in on her mother and Lance, her then boyfriend, getting busy in the sack. She would still think of an excuse as to why she was suddenly single again.  But her mind was wandering, she gave herself a mental shake, get it together.

At 5 foot 7 inches, she was a tall slender beauty. Detective Bethany Malloney was not what she seemed. Meeting her, one would never imagine that she was in law-enforcement. Not with that model-like figure, huge green eyes and long flowing black hair. She looked like she belonged on tv or at the very least a catwalk.

“Come on Roy, let’s get outta here. Dunno about you, but I could do with a strong cup of coffee before we get the paperwork started.” Roy was staring back at the woods behind them, she noticed how tired he looked. “Oi partner, u ok?” she placed her hand on his shoulder. Looking at her he smiled that charming smile of his and replied “Yeah I’m just peachy, the baby has been sick at night so Grace and I haven’t had much sleep the last couple days.”

After getting their cups of coffee from a local café, they headed back to the precinct. There was still the question of whether they were dealing with a homicide or a wild animal attack. And Beth wasn’t looking forward to dealing with either. If this was a murder, it meant all her time would be spent on finding a suspect, finding a motive and then came the tedious court cases. If it had been an animal attack, meant that they had to hurry to figure out what it had been and find a way of protecting the public against the beast. Involuntary she gave a shiver. Either way, this was going to get ugly and at the end of the day, she would still have the gruesome image in her memory.