Friday, March 25, 2022

The Flapper, the Scientist, and the Saboteur by Charlene Bell Dietz


 

Just the title alone for this book makes it sound intriguing. Let me tempt you some more with this excerpt. Download your own copy and let me know what you think. And you can also see some more excerpts and thoughts as you follow the tour. Best of luck in the giveaway!



A workaholic bio-medical scientist, Beth Armstrong, is torn between saving her sabotaged ground-breaking multiple sclerosis research or honoring an obligation to care for her chain-smoking, Cuba Libre drinking, ex-flapper aunt. Nursemaid ranks just above catching the plague on Beth’s scale, yet her ex-flapper aunt would prefer anything deadly to losing her independence under the hands of her obsessive compulsive niece. While a murderous culprit runs loose in the science institute, the raucous aunt entertains Beth’s neglected husband with nightly cocktails and stories form the Roaring twenties. The Flapper, the Scientist, and the Saboteur intertwines a corporate espionage mystery with a generational battle-of-wills story between a dedicated professional intent on fighting chaos to restore order and a free-spirited aunt who needs her niece to live in the moment.


Read an excerpt:

Beth parked and turned off her lights.

Someone drove to a rear door, got out, and went in. Beth started to turn the key in her ignition then stopped. The man came out and passed under the security light by a side door.

Borstell.

A few seconds later, he disappeared around the corner. She slowly drove to the front of the building.

There were clusters of cars in the lot. Did he drive away? What type of car? Did he go inside?

She parked, slipped out, and squeezed between two sedans. One of the car doors opened, blocking her path. Borstell popped out.

She jumped back.

"Are you stalking me?" Borstell said.

"Excuse me?"

He stood a few feet away. Her hand slid into her purse.

"You drove around that building, spying."

"Isn’t it rather late for you to be at work?" she said.

Borstell slammed his door and strode toward her, his jaw clenched.

"You’re a first-class bitch?"

"Back off." She whipped the pepper spray can out of her purse, held her arm straight out and aimed at his face. Her finger hovered over the button.

Borstell’s eyes widened, then his gaze shifted to something behind her.

"I left the van behind the building," he said. "Put the keys in your box."

“Old trick.” She scoffed.

"Heard something." this came from an unfamiliar voice. "Everything okay?"

She glanced over her shoulder. Wearing a rumpled uniform and a large shiny badge, the security guard’s hand rested on his holster.


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Charlene Bell Dietz writes science and historical-suspense, award-winning mystery novels and short stories. Her award-winning short stories have been published in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers 2016 Anthology and SouthWest Writers 2019 Anthology. The Flapper, the Scientist, and the Saboteur combines family saga with corporate espionage. The Flapper, the Impostor, and the Stalker propels readers back into 1923 frenetic Chicago during the Roaring Twenties. Both these novels were named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2018, and each won the coveted Kirkus Starred Review. Her latest novel, The Scientist, the Psychic, and the Nut, gives readers a frightening Caribbean vacation. Her current work in progress, a biographical historical novel, starts in England in 1638 and ends in precolonial Maryland. Charlene, a retired educator, traveled the United States as a consultant for Houghton Mifflin Publishers after a career of teaching little ones, older ones, and college graduates. Surrounded by forests and meadows, she currently lives in the foothills of the mountains in central NM several miles from the small village of Torreon. Charlene is the current president of Croak & Dagger, New Mexico Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She belongs to Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and SouthWest Writers. Connect with Charlene on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/charlene.dietz.9), https://inkydancestudios.com/ or chardietzpen@gmail.com


 

Charlene Bell Dietz will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

7 comments:

  1. This is a wonderful and well-written story, thank you.
    M. Rosen

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  2. Thank you, Andi, for hosting my stories. Your blog looks so clean and professional. Quite engaging. Appreciate your doing this for me.

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    1. Thank you so much for the compliment! I love to help felllow authors. I just wish I had time to read everything! Best of luck on the rest of your tour!

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  3. Happy Friday! Thank you for sharing the author's bio and book details. I love the cover and synopsis, this sounds like an awesome story and I am looking forward to reading it

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  4. This sounds like an incredible book!

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  5. So much to like, from the title on.

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