Night Cries

Night Series

by Carol Davis Luce

Thirty-year-old Maddie has no memory of being adopted. An only child, her parents loved and protected her. Family means everything. When her daily foundation crumbles after she miscarries and her husband leaves with her best friend, retreat becomes her coping tool. She's soon forced out of seclusion by her rising success as a crime writer. The public spotlight brings menace in the form of an abusive ex-lover intent on revenge. He stalks her, waiting for his chance...until...an unlikely savior intervenes. She is Maddie's long-lost sister, her mirror image twin.

The sisters revel in a special bond, as if no time has passed. Zach, a former LAPD homicide detective and Maddie's writing partner, doesn't take anything at face value. He digs into the sister's background, revealing hellish early years on a farm that may have caused irrevocable damage. What he finds leads him to suspect she may be connected to a rash of vigilante murders.

As Maddie investigates her past, she must confront her new reality. She is haunted by unexplained fears and a recurring nightmare. The blood runs bad in this family. Long repressed memories gradually surface, forcing her to solve the mystery of her bone tree nightmare. Will the truth set her free...or destroy her?

334 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2014

About the author

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of the "Night" books, NightWriter Carol Davis Luce writes standalone suspense novels with elements of romance. After publishing five books through a traditional publisher, she turned independent author with her 2011 suspense novel, Night Widow, and two short story trilogies.

Carol is one of The Twelve. Read all about this group of bestselling authors. http://thetwelvexii.com/

All seven suspense novels and two short story collections can be found at Amazon.com:
NIGHT STALKER
NIGHT HUNTER
NIGHT PREY
NIGHT PASSAGE
NIGHT GAME
NIGHT WIDOW
NIGHT CRIES (new release)

NIGHT TRILOGY-Three Night Novels

General Fiction/coming-of-age:
AWAKENING: Secrets of a Brown Eyed Girl, Loosely based on her childhood.

Reviews

[Alonna Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an engaging story with a suspenseful mystery plus some creepy characters woven into the mix. Definitely recommend.

[carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Great suspense.

[Mary Stenvall]

This would have benefited with a good editor. The characters were too convoluted, and too many. The bones of a good story buried.

[Fred Rayworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first did a beta read and edit of this story under a different title several years ago. I loved it then and though it has gone through some significant changes, they were all for the better. Under full disclosure, I am a personal friend and Carol has been my writing mentor for twenty years now. However, there’s a reason for that. I love her writing. It’s not like I discovered some story back in the mid 90’s that I hated and just had to get hold of that author to tell her how much I hated her writing. I loved her style and through each of her outstanding women-in-jeopardy thrillers since, I’ve never been disappointed.

I feel honored that since I’ve been at this writing and editing game myself for so long, she trusted me to not only do an early read, but allowed me to be a minor character in the story. It was a thrill to see my name in print!

There are many things that attract me to Carol’s stories and Night Cries was no exception. Written in solid third-person, with no excessive narrative or exposition, the characters were interesting and believable and she drew them with just enough detail that they weren’t dragged down into a character study. The story moved.

The setting, in Southern Calee’fornia, struck close to home since I grew up there. It was nice to re-live that place I haven’t experienced in decades. What really surprised me was the new plot twist which took me by complete surprise. I’m not one to try to second-guess the author, and I don’t try to play armchair detective and figure out ahead of time what I think’s going to happen. However, if it’s really obvious what’s going to take place, well… that makes for a less exciting story. In this case, I had no idea and was truly surprised. It was a nice shock, to say the least.

The point is that I had a lot of fun reading Night Cries. It was a pure pleasure from start to finish. I was able to close the last page with a smile on my face. Can’t ask for better than that. Highly recommended.