Darkness (Common Law book 3) by Kate Sherwood Virtual Tour | Spotlight, Excerpt, Author Guest Post & #giveaway @RiptideBooks @kate_sherwood

About Darkness, part 3 in the Common Law series

A murdered prostitute. An obvious suspect. Clear evidence. For once, Jericho Crewe has a straightforward crime to investigate, and Wade Granger isn’t involved.

It all seems so simple, but Jericho’s instincts won’t let him rest. As he investigates, he finds troubling suggestions that the murder is a part of something larger and more sinister. But working within the boundaries of the law may keep him from finding the truth. If Jericho doesn’t break the rules, an innocent man may rot in jail while a killer remains free to strike again.

Inevitably, it all comes back to Wade. Because who else knows as much about breaking rules? And who else knows Jericho the way Wade does—not wisely, but far, far too well?

Now available from Riptide Publishing & Amazon

Excerpt...

“You suspected it was blood?”

“I called Mary to come help me with him, and we tried to check him over. We thought it was his blood, thought he’d been hurt. But he kept pushing us away. And we noticed there were no tears to his clothes, no sign of injury. So finally I asked him if someone else was hurt, and he nodded, in his way, and I said he had to take me to them. And he did.”

“Where did he take you, Mr. Appleby?”

“Out through the back door. Down the alley, and then down a couple blocks. Then into the house. And that’s where I saw her.”

There were more questions that needed to be asked, details to be worked out. But first, Jericho had to take care of the essentials. “Where is Will now?”

“I don’t know,” Mr. Appleby whispered. “He made it through the kitchen, but refused to go any farther. I went on in—I was calling out as I went, truly hoping someone would answer me and demand to know what I was doing in their home—and found . . . what I found. Then I ran back to the kitchen to call the police, but Will was already gone by the time I got there.”

Jericho knew Kayla was listening, knew she’d put out the APB. So he asked the rest of the questions he needed to ask. He did his job, trying not to think about the repercussions. He had to focus on the victim. Lorraine had been damaged by life, struggling to get by, but she’d been surviving. She hadn’t wanted to die.

And just because Will had been at the scene it didn’t mean he’d committed the crime. Not by a long shot. They’d find him, and then Jericho would have to work out some way to question him. They’d need medical records, psychiatric reports, interviews with the man’s friends and neighbors. Crime scene analysis, witnesses from the community, evidence gathered through a variety of tools.

“We’ll find him,” Jericho promised Mr. Appleby. “And we’ll do a thorough investigation. We’ll work out what happened.”

By the time the old man stood to leave, his color was better and he didn’t look quite as shaky as he had before. Jericho walked him out and arranged for a car to take him back to the hardware store. The niceties were observed as if there wasn’t a corpse a few blocks away, wasn’t a murderer running free. Jericho had the discipline to keep an open mind, and he honestly hoped he’d find evidence to cast suspicion away from Will Archer. But he’d investigated a lot of murders, and they were rarely all that complicated, once you got the basics figured out. When there was an obvious suspect, that was usually the person who’d committed the crime.

It didn’t matter that Will was one of Mr. Appleby’s protégés, just as Jericho had been. Didn’t matter that he’d gone to school with Jericho and always seemed like a good guy. Didn’t matter that the accident that had injured his brain hadn’t been his fault. If he’d done this to Lorraine, he would have to be caught and punished. The town would have to be protected. That was Jericho’s job, and he would do it, no matter what.

To read this excerpt in its entirety or learn more about the Author and the series, please visit Riptide Publishing.

Guest post with Author Kate Sherwood... 

Top 10 Favorite Murder Mystery Movies

Usual Suspects. Obvious choice, I guess, but, damn, this was a fun ride! And even after you know the twist, it’s still a good movie!

LA Confidential. So much style, and some great performances.

The Silence of the Lambs. I love how Clarice was tough but still vulnerable.

Mystic River. Bleak, but powerful. And a great cast.

No Way Out. From my Kevin Costner phase. But celebrity crushes aside, it really captures the feeling of claustrophobia and panic as the noose tightens. And it has Will Patton, who I love in a different but equally valid way from how I loved Kevin Costner.

Gosford Park. It’s like Downton Abby with murder – what’s not to like? And another fantastic cast.

The Name of the Rose. I went a LITTLE back in time for Gosford Park, so why not go even further? Murder in a Medieval Monastery-what m/m fan could resist all those Ms? And young Christian Slater, too!

Criminal Law. A bit of a dark horse for this list… not a great critical success by any means. But there’s a scene where a woman is being chased by a psychopathic murder and takes refuge in a bathroom and has no weapon and when the bad guy busts in she clocks him with the ceramic lid from the back of the toilet tank. For that feistiness alone, this one makes my list.

Seven. Not an absolute favourite, but some great scenes for sure.

Sleepers. Another fantastic cast, and now that I think about it, a lot of similarities to the series I’m currently promoting, Common Law. Childhood friends who survive trauma but grow up to be on different sides of the law, blurred morality, the conflict between what’s legal and what’s right… I love that stuff!

Kate Sherwood started writing about the same time she got back on a horse after almost twenty years away from riding. She’d like to think she was too young for it to be a midlife crisis, but apparently she was ready for some changes!

Kate grew up near Toronto, Ontario (Canada) and went to school in Montreal, then Vancouver. But for the last decade or so she’s been a country girl. Sure, she misses some of the conveniences of the city, but living close to nature makes up for those lacks. She’s living in Ontario’s “cottage country”--other people save up their time and come to spend their vacations in her neighborhood, but she gets to live there all year round!

Since her first book was published in 2010, she’s kept herself busy with novels, novellas, and short stories in almost all the sub-genres of m/m romance. Contemporary, suspense, scifi or fantasy--the settings are just the backdrop for her characters to answer the important questions. How much can they share, and what do they need to keep? Can they bring themselves to trust someone, after being disappointed so many times? Are they brave enough to take a chance on love?

Kate’s books balance drama with humor, angst with optimism. They feature strong, damaged men who fight themselves harder than they fight anyone else. And, wherever possible, there are animals: horses, dogs, cats ferrets, squirrels… sometimes it’s easier to bond with a non-human, and most of Kate’s men need all the help they can get.

After five years of writing, Kate is still learning, still stretching herself, and still enjoying what she does. She’s looking forward to sharing a lot more stories in the future.

Twitter: @kate_sherwood 

To celebrate the release of all four books in the Common Law series, we’re giving away one four-tour-wide GRAND PRIZE of $100 in Riptide credit! Enter at each stop on each tour (once they go live) to maximize your chances to win! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on April 8, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the Darkness tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!