WORSE THAN DEATH by Brooke Terpening, Sisters in Crime – CO member, won first place in the Writer’s League of Texas manuscript contest in the Mystery category and is a finalist in the Thriller/Action-Adventure category. Congratulations, Brooke!
The Sisters in Crime-CO Book Club June 2022 reads are Chasing Justice by Kathleen Donnelly (Fort Collins), Police Navidad by Becky Clark (Parker), and At First Light by Barbara Nickless (Longmont).
Free and open to the public. Come chat with the author and other readers! And if you don’t have a chance to read the book, that’s quite all right. Many times we discuss craft and the publishing process as well as the book, so all are welcome!
PLEASE NOTE: During the current coronavirus situation, our book clubs are meeting online via Zoom. Sisters in Crime-Colorado members can get the link to the Zoom meeting on the chapter groups.io listserv. Non-members may request the meeting link by emailing the book club coordinators directly:
Fort Collins: bookclubftcollins(at)gmail(dot)com
Parker: bookclubparker(at)gmail(dot)com
Longmont: BookClubLongmont(at)gmail(dot)com
For more information, including specific dates, times, and locations, please visit https://sistersincrimecolorado.org/book-club/.
Hope you can join us!
Upcoming Release and Launch Party:
Chasing Justice by Kathleen Donnelly
She thought she’d never trust again…
After losing her military K-9, former marine Maya Thompson swears she’ll never work with dogs again. But when she returns home to Colorado and accepts a job with US Forest Service law enforcement, fate brings K-9 Juniper into her life just as another tragedy unfolds.
Juniper, a beautiful two-year-old Malinois, isn’t the only new addition to Maya’s life. Josh Colten, the local deputy sheriff, insists on helping with her new case. Handsome and mysterious, he’s all anyone in town can talk about, but Maya can’t let herself like him, let alone trust him.
When Maya’s grandfather goes missing amid a growing drug war, Maya must put her faith in Josh, and her own battered instincts, to find him. But there’s a web of secrets tying her grandfather to the tragedy that brought Juniper into her life—secrets someone would kill to keep hidden.
Releases May 24, 2022
Pre-order today from your favorite bookseller: E-book Paperback Audiobook
Book Launch Party: Come celebrate the release of Chasing Justice May 29th at the Loveland Barnes and Noble from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.
For more information, please visit: kathleendonnelly.com
Fleur Bradley’s mystery for kids Midnight at the Barclay Hotel (Viking/Penguin Random House) won Florida’s Sunshine State Young Reader Award. Congratulations, Fleur!
Midnight at the Barclay Hotel is also nominated for Washington (State) Library Association’s Sasquatch Award.
Helen Starbuck’s The Woman He Used to Know is a finalist for InD’tale magazine’s RONE Award (Reward of Novel Excellence) in the Suspense/Thriller: Steamy category.
THE LAVA WITCH (Kensington Books), Book 3 in Debra Bokur’s Dark Paradise Mysteries series, will be released on May 31.
Detective Kali Māhoe is on the trail of a killer who left a young woman hanging from a tree in a Maui forest, her feet charred and her nostrils packed with lava dust. Kali’s investigation leads down a winding trail of seemingly unconnected clues and diverging paths—from the hanging tree itself, a rare rainbow eucalyptus, to rumors of a witch haunting the high areas of the forest, to the legend of the
ancient Hawaiian sorceress Pahulu, goddess of nightmares. Casting a shadow over it all—the possibility of a Sitting God, a spirit said to invade and possess the soul.
The launch party will take place on June 11 from 3 to 5 pm at the new Tattered Cover Bookstore in Westminster, and all Sisters and Misters (and guests) are invited. Live entertainment will be provided by the Kalama Polynesian Dancers and acoustic performer Rob Rowe. Signings, drumming, dancing, and giveaways of Hawaiian-themed gifts.
Starred review from Publishers Weekly: “This procedural keeps readers guessing all the way to the gratifying solution. Fans of Tony Hillerman will be enthralled.”
Small Town. Big Murder.
The number one secret to my success as a bodyguard? Staying under the radar. But when a wildly public disaster blew up my career and reputation, my perfect, solo life took a hard left turn to crazy town. And to bodies. Lots of dead bodies.
I thought my tiny hometown of Nowhere would be the ideal out-of-the-way refuge to wait out the media storm.
It wasn’t.
My little brother had moved into a treehouse. The obscure mountain town had decided to attract tourists with the world’s largest collection of big things… Yes, Nowhere now has the world’s largest pizza cutter. And lawn flamingo. And ball of yarn…
And then I stumbled over a dead body.
All the evidence points to my brother being the bad guy. I may have been out of his life for a while—okay, five years—but I know he’s no killer. Can I clear my brother before he becomes Nowhere’s next Big Fatality?
Buy this quirky, fast-paced mystery series now!
Murder mystery game included in the back of the book.
Releasing May 31, 2022
Wanda Duff is an unconventional New England clergywoman, addicted to chicken wings, high-octane ice cream, and saying yes to anyone in need of a prayer, even the folks her town might think don’t deserve one.
When parishioner Niels Pond dies unexpectedly at the Fair Havens assisted living facility, Wanda’s duty to minister to his family is beset by her suspicions about the circumstances of his abrupt passing. Wanda finds an unexpected co-detective in high school vice principal Prudence Rye, who fled town on graduation night a decade ago and returned only recently.
Rye puts her job on the line to investigate the mourning Ponds with the surprisingly edgy Wanda. As they expose difficult family truths and uncover a dangerous conspiracy operating out of Fair Havens, Rye and Wanda discover curiosity has an unanticipated cost.
Comfortably gossipy, with a fresh take on the characters and ethos cozy mystery fans will love, Maria Mankin and Maren C. Tirabassi’s Death at Fair Havens launches a series that celebrates intergenerational women’s friendship and the power of inclusion, curiosity, and love.
Coming June 1st the riveting third book in the award-winning Divine Devils Series.
Sold Souls: The Divine Devils Book 3
Pre-order Price of $3.99 for the eBook available on Amazon
The brutal world of human trafficking
Underage children bought, sold, and sexually abused by their deviant owners
Victims traded, used up, and spit out as if their lives were meaningless
A lethal adversary approaching The Divine Devils with a proposition
Locate and free her sister from the tortured, abusive shackles of being trafficked
Hiring The Divine Devils to assist in tracking her down
Hunter and his team fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves
Infiltrating the heart of the intricate web this organization has created
Following a brutal, deadly road to free these Sold Souls
Before they all perish at the hands of their savage masters
Hunter Divine and his team
Willing to move heaven and hell to get results!!
More information about R Weir and his books can be found at: https://rweir.net
R Weir
Award-Winning Author
of the Amazon Bestselling Jarvis Mann PI
and Divine Devils books featuring Hunter Divine
You can find information at:
http://www.rweir.net & https://amazon.com/R-Weir/e/B00JH2Y5US
Quarterly Chapter Meeting/Event: June 11, 2022
Lone Tree Library, 10055 Library Way, Lone Tree, Colorado 80124 (303-791-READ)
Also Via Zoom; (Information on how to join the presentation will be posted in the Sisters in Crime-Colorado Groups.io members listserv.)
Please note: Chapter meetings are a member only benefit. You can learn more about us and our chapter here: https://sistersincrimecolorado.org/join/
To request more information, please use our contact form: https://sistersincrimecolorado.org/connect/
PROGRAM/SCHEDULE
9:30 am – 10:00 am
Welcome, Announcements
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
How to Edit Your Own Story – Carly Stevens
Editing means more than fixing commas or hiring a professional. Before all of that, you are alone with your story. So, how do you improve it? There are plenty of guides for revising nonfiction, but what about fiction? This class will give you a plethora of practical tips on how anyone, regardless of experience, can improve their own work. From plot to character, scene structure to style, you’ll walk away feeling confident that you can make your story shine!
12:00pm – 1:00 pm
Lunch (brown bag or visit nearby restaurants)
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Being a Mitigation Attorney and Saving Someone from the Death Penalty – Brooke Terpening
“Death is different.” That’s what the Supreme Court stated when it recognized the irrevocable nature of a death sentence. There are no do-overs. Some view the death penalty as fitting justice, others as a deterrent, and still others as a barbaric form of punishment. No matter what your personal beliefs are, the reality is that the system isn’t perfect. For every 8.3 people executed in the United States in the modern era of the death penalty, one person on death row has been exonerated. The uncomfortable truth is that proportionally more Blacks are sentenced to death than Whites, and the poor disproportionately receive harsher sentences.
To offset these inequities, a mitigation specialist fulfills the constitutional mandate for individualized sentencing in capital cases. The mitigation specialist is an indispensable but little-known member of the defense team with the skills to recognize mitigating factors in the defendant’s life and to understand how these conditions may have affected the defendant’s development and behavior. Most importantly, the mitigation specialist must present this evidence during sentencing to enable jurors to see the convicted without any preconceived biases of race, gender, or cultural differences. Put another way, a mitigation specialist humanizes the hated.
Please feel free to come to either the morning or afternoon session if you cannot attend both.
Please note: Chapter meetings are a member only benefit. You can learn more about us and our chapter here: https://sistersincrimecolorado.org/join/
To request more information, please use our contact form: https://sistersincrimecolorado.org/connect/
Please RSVP at our Meetup Page: https://www.meetup.com/Sisters-in-Crime-Colorado/events/285725766/
The Zoom login information will be posted in the chapter’s groups.io listserv.
About the Presenters:
Carly Stevens lives and writes in beautiful Colorado Springs where she has taught high-school English for over ten years. Several years ago, she decided to make her childhood dream come true by becoming an author. Since 2019, she has published three novels, four short reads, and a book of short stories. She primarily writes adventure-filled YA fantasy novels, but she’s currently working on a dark Shakespeare retelling set in the 1920’s. A huge Star Wars and Shakespeare fan, she posts weekly videos to her YouTube channel (appropriately called English Nerd) which tackles topics in literature and all kinds of writing.
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After nearly thirty years as a software developer and engineering director at startups in Silicon Valley and Silicon Mountain, Brooke Terpening went to law school to become a patent attorney. Law school is where she discovered a talent for writing, a talent which propelled her to first in her class.
While studying for the USPTO bar exam, a classmate introduced her to one of Florida’s top defense attorneys. She became immersed in defending death penalty cases. The next five years took her inside the workings of Florida’s criminal justice system. The cases were sometimes frightening and always heartbreaking. The attorneys and mitigation specialists who did the thankless job of defending accused killers were among the most dedicated professionals she’d ever met. Today she lives in Colorado and draws on her experiences to write legal thrillers and crime fiction.
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This event is funded and presented by Sisters in Crime-Colorado and is not sponsored by Douglas County Libraries.
To request more information, please use our contact form.
Sisters in Crime-Colorado 