Sunday, September 12, 2021

About the Book

Book: Catch Me If You Can

Author: Carole Brown

Genre: Romantic Suspense with a touch of quirkiness

Release date: August 5, 2021

The big cat sat on the oversized rock, ears pointed toward the sky, every muscle taut, every sense at the ready.

“S-s-shut up and f-f-forget it. You’ve s-seen nothing and know nothing. I won’t warn you again. G-g-got it?”

The cat’s head swiveled, his ears twitching as if catching the hint of threat in the whisper. A soft hiss slid from his open mouth and reinforced the overtone of evil pressing in upon the scene. Within hours, lies and dark secrets are slithering all over the campground.

Coaxed into finding the animal killer at Jamieson’s Outfitters, Tara Layne, with her sidekick, Boet, is welcomed by a threatening whisper and the unfriendly eyes of a rugged and devastatingly handsome manager. Wesley Clarke, both interesting and frustrating, holds an attraction for Tara that is primitive and exasperating.

Intermingled with her search, Tara deals with her own heartbreaking buried secrets. When a strange old Native American probes into the recesses of her heart, he encourages her to face her bitter feelings.

As Tara closes in on her search, she finds herself—and Boet—the target of someone who’s determined to outrun and outsmart her. Someone determined not to get caught.

His theme:

Fun as fast as you can, you can’t catch me.

The question:

Can Tara run fast enough to catch this real live Gingerbread boy

before he decides to get rid of her and Boet?

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Besides being a member and active participant of many writing groups, Carole Brown enjoys mentoring beginning writers. An author of thirteen full-length, best selling and award winning books (with a novella in an anthology), she loves to weave suspense and tough topics into her books, along with a touch of romance and whimsy, and is always on the lookout for outstanding titles and catchy ideas. She and her husband reside in SE Ohio but have ministered and counseled nationally and internationally. She has found that the traveling and ministering has served her well in writing her novels. Together, they enjoy their grandsons, traveling, gardening, good food, the simple life, and did she mention their grandsons?

More from Carol

Who doesn’t like a good book while nibbling on cookies and sipping your favorite drink?

Writing Catch Me If You Can, Book One of the Nursery Rhyme Series, was a fun endeavor. I can’t remember how I came up with the idea, but I do know it’s been interesting and a long-time coming. Both Tara Layne and Wesley Clarke have personal and spiritual issues to resolve which are more serious topics to address. So I knew definitely that I not only wanted to include those, plus suspense and romance, but also a bit of quirky-ness to the story.

What were the two quirky things that help make it special?

Tara Layne comes from a very special family. Her older brother, Tory, four years older than the twins: Tara and Tomas, and her grandfather, Poppy, an archeologist, who cared for them when their parents died. He raised them while on dig sites, teaching them and giving them a unique view of the world.

When Tory was murdered, while studying to follow in their grandfather’s footsteps, Tara, an elementary teacher, resigned and took the schooling she needed to be a detective because the authorities seemed unable to discover why Tory was murdered.

Her brothers were always pranksters, and after Tory died, Tomas bought her an expensive gift: A Savannah cat, sort of as a joke. But instead of being irritated at her nerdy computer brother, she fell in love with her cat and proceeded to name him Boet (An African name that means brotherly love). Boet not only hisses at those he’s not crazy about, but shows tolerance for those who he favors.

Here are some fun facts about a Savannah cat:

Crossbred between a African Serval cat and a domestic cat.
Many Savannah cats enjoy water.
They are inquisitive and extremely intelligent.

The antagonist leaves Gingerbread cookie men at each site of the animal killings.

Now that seems weird enough, but when you discover why and how the cookies play a part of his/her past, you’ll understand the title better and why the antagonist is so obsessed with these specific cookies.
I’ve included a recipe below for your enjoyment! If you love gingerbread, these are sure to become a favorite!

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients

COOKIES

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla
additional flour for rolling out dough

ICING

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp extract of choice – lemon almond or vanilla

Instructions

COOKIES

In a small bowl mix together baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon until well blended. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, and eggs on medium speed until well blended.
Add molasses and vanilla and mix until well combined.
Gradually add in dry ingredients and mix until combined, but do not over-mix.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place into an airtight container or freezer style zipper bag, and place in refrigerator for at least two hours and up to 24 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 deg. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats ore parchment paper.
Let dough sit at room temperature for 5-15 minutes or however long is needed to make it pliable enough to divide in half. The time it takes will depend on how long it’s been chilling.
Place 1 portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle additional flour over dough and gently roll dough out to approximately 1/4 – 1/3″ thick. The thicker the dough the softer the cookie will be. If dough sticks to rolling pin, sprinkle additional flour onto dough.
Cut out cookies with cookie cutter. Whatever scraps are left over after cutting out cookies can be rolled out and rolled out to cut out more cookies.
Place cookies on baking sheet approximately 1 1/2-inches apart.
Bake each sheet of cookies for 7-10 minutes until tops and edges are starting to firm up.
Remove baking sheet from oven transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool on baking sheet for ten minutes, then use a spatula to transfer cookies to another wire cooling rack to cool completely.
If desired, once cookies are completely cooled decorate.

ICING

In a medium size bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well to combine. For thicker icing, add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time. For thinner icing, add more corn syrup, one teaspoon at a time. Place into a piping bag and pipe onto gingerbread cookies as desired.

MY REVIEW

Wow!! This story is definitely the author’s best to date. It is somewhat mysterious, a bit creepy but oh so intriguing. I loved Tara and her determination to find out who was killing animals on a place her friend owns. The setting is in the woods where wild animals abound. They are free to roam but someone is doing something sinister to them. Tara is there to investigate but she senses a bit of tension among the workers. Someone knows something and I couldn’t wait to turn the pages to find out what was going on.

I felt shivers go down the back of my neck as Tara faces danger as clues are found. I need to stop here for a minute and mention a very important part of this story, Tara has an unusual partner who is intelligent and keeps close to Tara. I have never heard of a Savannah cat before so I looked it up. They are beautiful animals with an instinct to be on the go a lot. Boet’s presence in the story is fascinating and I loved how important this beautiful animal is to Tara.

Whoever is behind all the killings is in power and thrives on it. Their agenda is not quite defined yet but I anticipated their every move. The author is very polished in keeping readers guessing and I decided I needed to bring out my journal to take notes in. I had started a list of suspects in my head, but now they needed to be on paper so I could play detective.

The action really picks up as more unexplained accidents happen and mysterious notes start showing up to scare a certain someone away. I was by this time on the edge of my seat. Can Tara track down the killer before another senseless animal is killed? The author has a few surprises in store for us that shocked me. Did I figure out who the guilty person was? No but that just shows me how good she is at keeping readers in suspense til the very end. I don’t think I will ever look at a gingerbread man the same again.

I received a copy of this book from the author and Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.