Hope. Dreams. Life... Love: Scarlet at Crystal River

Scarlet At Crystal River

by Randy Overbeck

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GENRE: Mystery

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BLURB:

All Darrell Henshaw wanted was to enjoy his honeymoon with his beautiful wife, Erin, in the charming town of Crystal River on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida. Only a pair of ghosts decide to intrude on their celebration. And not just any ghosts, the spirits of two young Latino children. Unwilling at first to derail the honeymoon for yet another ghost hunt, Darrell finally concedes when a painting of the kids comes alive, weeping and pleading for his help.

When he and Erin track down the artist, they discover the children’s family were migrant workers the next county over. But when they travel there, their questions about the kids gets their car shot up and Erin hospitalized. Torn between fear and rage, Darrell must decide how far he will go to get justice for two young children he never even knew.

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EXCERPT

Darrell started, “Like I said back there, it’s complicated. We—”

Erin’s side window exploded. The fractured glass shot slivers across the front seat. The sound of an explosion followed a beat behind. Erin screamed. Something stung Darrell’s right arm. He grabbed a cut on his skin and then looked across the seat. Damn. Erin’s arm was bleeding, bad.

He couldn’t breathe. “Erin?” He stared at her for a second and then jerked his gaze back to the road and straightened the car.

Something hit the rear window. Luis yelped. The glass shattered and a second later, another crack followed. Luis fell forward. Was he hit? Darrell’s gaze jumped from the road to Erin to the back seat. Luis had fallen to the floor. Darrell couldn’t see him.

“Luis?” Erin called.

No answer.

Dragging his eyes from the road, Darrell shot another glance at Erin. Her entire arm was now turning red, the edge of her short sleeve wicking up the scarlet. The fingers of her left hand gripped tight around her right arm, the knuckles turning white. The blood still seeped through.

Dragging his eyes from Erin for a second, he turned in his seat to try to look.

A Word With the Author

1.Did you always want to be an author?

Although I had the interest in writing and telling great stories from when I was a teen, work and the world intervened. For four decades, I dedicated myself to become an educator, serving children first as a teacher, then as a college professor and finally as a school leader. But I never lost the desire to write and when life allowed me, I returned to my passion. I’ve been writing steadily for the past ten years or so, resulting in some success—national awards and five star reviews for my novels AND two becoming Amazon bestsellers!

2.Tell us about the publication of your first book.

My new title, SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER, is actually the third entry in my Haunted Shores Mystery series. The first, BLOOD ON THE CHESAPEAKE (2019) created the brand and became a #1 Amazon and B & N Best Seller. The second installment, CRIMSON AT CAPE MAY (2020) continued in this mold, earning three national awards and also achieving Best Seller status on Amazon. SCARLET was released earlier this fall and offers a bit of a twist on the brand. An early reviewer described the series as cold case murder mysteries wrapped in ghost stories served with a side of romance, all located in beautiful resort settings. SCARLET adds one more layer to this cake. It is also a Christmas mystery, one set on the sunny Gulf shore of Florida.

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

That’s easy. Though I’ve read a good number of mystery writers’ work, my favorite is William Kent Kreuger, author of the incredible Cork O’Connor series. Kent has won numerous awards including the Edgar, the highest award for mystery authors. Many writers would do well to study his work in developing credible, distinct characters and portraying settings with such remarkable clarity and beauty.

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

The best part of being an author is to receive responses from readers and reviewers abut how much they love your work and pestering you for when they will able to purchase the next one. There is no feeling like it. The worst? Perhaps, the frustration in trying to get your works seen and recognized by readers. With the tsunami of books coming at readers—more than 300,000 new titles annually in this country alone—it is nearly impossible for an emerging author to catch the eye of potential readers. Worse that a needle in haystack. For that, they could use a magnet. For this, there is no magnet.

5.What are you working on now?

In between the ever-increasing demands of marketing the first three books in the Haunted Shores Mysteries, I’m completing a new mystery, another amateur sleuth whodunit set in a middle school in the Midwest. Fifth graders have gotten a hold of a new drug and while experimenting, four students are killed. The district tasks the Assistant Superintendent to work with the police to discover who’s behind the drugs killing kids. The only problem is no one is going to like what he uncovers.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Dr. Randy Overbeck is an award-winning educator, author and speaker. As an educator, he served children for more than three decades in a range of roles captured in his novels, from teacher and coach to principal and superintendent. His thriller, Leave No Child Behind (2012) and his recent mysteries, the Amazon No. 1 Best Seller, Blood on the Chesapeake and Crimson at Cape May have earned five star reviews and garnered national awards including “Thriller of the Year--ReadersFavorite.com, “Gold Award”—Literary Titan, “Mystery of the Year”—ReadersView.com and “Crowned Heart of Excellence”—InD’Tale Magazine. As a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Dr. Overbeck is an active member of the literary community, contributing to a writers’ critique group, serving as a mentor to emerging writers and participating in writing conferences such as Sleuthfest, Killer Nashville and the Midwest Writers Workshop. When he’s not writing or researching his next exciting novel or sharing his presentation “Things Still Go Bump in the Night,” he’s spending time with his incredible family of wife, three children (and their spouses) and seven wonderful grandchildren.

Social Media Handles

https://twitter.com/OverbeckRandy/media

https://www.facebook.com/authorrandyoverbeck

https://www.instagram.com/authorrandyoverbeck/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-KOC0LH2GQRSAjwxOFr5rg

Tik Tok @authorrandyo

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Crystal-Haunted-Shores-Mysteries/dp/1509237879/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scarlet-at-crystal-river-randy-overbeck/1139873947

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57841458-scarlet-at-crystal-river

https://www.bookbub.com/books/scarlet-at-crystal-river-by-randy-overbeck

Link to Trailer: