For every twenty comment I receive on one of my post, today, I will give away an eBook to one visitor.
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Story blurb:
Alexandra Neve is a student at University College London whose world suddenly falls apart. When her best friend jumps from the university’s rooftop, she can’t stop herself from asking, ‘Why?’ The police rule her friend’s death a suicide and for them the case is closed — so whom can she turn to for help?
Sometimes the person you need the most is the one you least expect to find, and in this case it’s none other than Ashford Egan, a blind middle-aged history professor, who’s more willing than most to listen to what she has to say.
Neve and Egan are as different as they come. She’s restless, careless at times, and fearless when the need arises, while he’s almost the complete opposite: a deep thinker with an analytical mind, a highly rational and collected individual.
As they enter the violent world of the Russian mafia, they must overcome their differences and learn to work together. It’s their only chance if they want to survive.
Excerpt:
I haven’t returned to university since the incident, but I can’t delay going back any longer. I’ve already missed several lectures and I need to be there on Monday morning. I have some catching up to do for History, but my books remain unopened on their shelf. Irina’s list is on the side of my laptop and I keep peering at it. A quick Google search told me that what I mistook to be family names were in fact four Russian places. They are all within a twenty-mile radius of one another and situated some fifty miles north of Moscow. Dmitrov is a small city while the other three are more like villages. I tried entering the names and the matching locations in several online search engines, but nothing relevant turned up.
‘Another mystery.’ I grunt, closing my eyes as I massage my temples.
I ponder again whether I should take this list to Mr and Mrs Anderson or maybe the Metropolitan Police, but finally decide against it. I can’t shake the feeling that Irina somehow wanted me to find this list.
I have never thought of myself as a detective, but I feel drawn to investigate this mystery. I owe it to Irina’s memory to try. She often said I didn’t know how to listen to others.
‘All you ever do is observe,’ she used to say, with a little disapproving shake of her head, blond locks waving with the motion. ‘Life is not a painting. You have to come out of your dream world every now and then and listen to what people have to say.’
I can’t help but wonder if she was right. Did she try to tell me something? Have I failed to listen to her? Answering her final question was the least I could do.
Forcing my tired eyes open, I type in a new series of keywords in the search engine and despair a little more at the results — but I continue until the darkest hours of the night.
Alexandra Neve is a student at University College London whose world suddenly falls apart. When her best friend jumps from the university’s rooftop, she can’t stop herself from asking, ‘Why?’ The police rule her friend’s death a suicide and for them the case is closed — so whom can she turn to for help?
Sometimes the person you need the most is the one you least expect to find, and in this case it’s none other than Ashford Egan, a blind middle-aged history professor, who’s more willing than most to listen to what she has to say.
Neve and Egan are as different as they come. She’s restless, careless at times, and fearless when the need arises, while he’s almost the complete opposite: a deep thinker with an analytical mind, a highly rational and collected individual.
As they enter the violent world of the Russian mafia, they must overcome their differences and learn to work together. It’s their only chance if they want to survive.
Excerpt:
I haven’t returned to university since the incident, but I can’t delay going back any longer. I’ve already missed several lectures and I need to be there on Monday morning. I have some catching up to do for History, but my books remain unopened on their shelf. Irina’s list is on the side of my laptop and I keep peering at it. A quick Google search told me that what I mistook to be family names were in fact four Russian places. They are all within a twenty-mile radius of one another and situated some fifty miles north of Moscow. Dmitrov is a small city while the other three are more like villages. I tried entering the names and the matching locations in several online search engines, but nothing relevant turned up.
‘Another mystery.’ I grunt, closing my eyes as I massage my temples.
I ponder again whether I should take this list to Mr and Mrs Anderson or maybe the Metropolitan Police, but finally decide against it. I can’t shake the feeling that Irina somehow wanted me to find this list.
I have never thought of myself as a detective, but I feel drawn to investigate this mystery. I owe it to Irina’s memory to try. She often said I didn’t know how to listen to others.
‘All you ever do is observe,’ she used to say, with a little disapproving shake of her head, blond locks waving with the motion. ‘Life is not a painting. You have to come out of your dream world every now and then and listen to what people have to say.’
I can’t help but wonder if she was right. Did she try to tell me something? Have I failed to listen to her? Answering her final question was the least I could do.
Forcing my tired eyes open, I type in a new series of keywords in the search engine and despair a little more at the results — but I continue until the darkest hours of the night.
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Cristelle Comby was born and raised in the French speaking area of Switzerland, in Greater Geneva, where she still resides. Her English is quite fluent as a result of her insatiable thirst for American and British action films and television dramas.
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Russian Dolls will be available in print and as an eBook: mid-March 2013
Official website: www.Cristelle-Comby.com
Follow on Twitter: @Cristelle
Like on Facebook: Cristelle.Comby
1 comment:
The Russian Mafia can be scary,. I hope she is up to dealing with them
debby236 at gmail dot com
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