The Place That Sleeps by L.R. STARR
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack. All dressed in black, black, black.
He likes to watch.
The place that sleeps, that’s what the natives call it. A sweet little coastal coast town on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Piper decides it’s time for a seaside visit, she’s a frustrated investigative journo who’s on a quick getaway with her girlfriends. She picks a holiday house that’s owned by a wealthy barrister. The overpriced oceanfront rental mysteriously goes on the market every two years, except it never sells.
The walls are dripping wet with secrets that threaten to overflow from its cracks.
Then there’s Jack McMaster, the hot boy broody surfer and son of the owner. He’s drawn to Piper for more reasons than one. Locals start whispering in her ear about the house amongst the dunes, as a monster lurks and her investigative nose starts sniffing.
She might break the story of the year, but when her friends go missing and she unravels one deadly secret after another the monster wants to take her to a watery grave.
What will she discover about the broody McMaster from the sleepy side town?
You can only cover things up for so long…
Description
Find more from this author on:
Amazon
Smashwords
GoodReads
FacebookAbout the author:
L.R. Starrs is a romantic suspense writer with a penchant for private investigator heroines, assassins, and complex hot baddies who you hate to love.
L.R. Starr is a lover of mysteries, witty dialogue, suspense, romance, and fantasy. If you like to travel through your books strap in for the ride she'll take you across the country.
When she's not I'm writing she's usually exploring, and coming up with yet another devious plot or pursuing her other love which is painting and drawing. Enjoy the bedlam friends!
What inspired you to write your book?
I was inspired to write the book by a conversation I had scrambling across the very rocks that I mention in the book! I was talking to one of the locals and she made mention of a house that sits on the beachfront. She told me that new owners swapped the house over every two years or close to. I wondered why nobody wanted to stay there? Was it haunted? What's going on in there? That got me to thinking it would be a good plot to write a story around. Originally, I was going to make it that it was cursed and someone would poison the people in the house, but then the characters came out to play with a different idea. I really enjoyed writing it. I hope readers love it too!
Here is a short sample from the book:
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack… All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons. All down her back, back, back.
She asked her mother, mother, mother…
My sister sang that stupid rhyme. I used to watch her as the silken waves of the roaring sea crashed on the shoreline, bruising the tawny rocks of Umina Beach. I could still hear her clapping her hands together with her friend Polly like a horse’s hooves. I liked to watch. Was fun, she left like Mummy. I watched as she struggled in her submersion. The air bubbles escaping to the surface. Her white nightdress floating up around her neck, making her resemble an octopus. She was so pretty, her sandy blonde hair floating like a carousel around her. She reminded me of the others, oh how they thrashed when I closed my greedy fingers around their necks. Other times they knew death was calling and gave up the fight quietly. My longest battle was two and half minutes. My adrenaline ran high with that one. I liked it ever so much. I found myself a little out of breath, but I managed. She'd clawed at me underwater – must have been a water baby, she could hold her breath quite well. I didn’t know that part until we were further out in the middle of the sea. She appeared to be fragile, petite in size, but she had a strength that made me think she might be a seal. I found out she wasn’t after two minutes. Oh well. If I was feeling strong, I would pick more of a challenge. On that day I wasn’t looking for one. I wanted to freshen my skills is all. I thought about improving my stamina after that.
That was two summers ago, and now I was keen again to see another underwater symphony. I wanted to feel the resistance of the water as I led my victim to the watery gates of Atlantis. That’s the place they went, had to be. That’s what the monster told me anyway. Same place my mother lives now. I wanted to see their glorious lifeless limbs float to the surface as their lips turned a magnificent shade of blue. Sometimes, I wanted to revive them if only to watch them slip into the watery abyss once again. I wouldn’t let them stay at the surface, of course. That would be stupid, and I would get caught, derrrrrr. I would tie the weighted rock to the bottom of their feet and drive the boat out further to the shark breeding ground of Lion Island. I only did it when they were feeding. Easy disposal. I was doing the natural world a favour. Couldn’t be mad at me. I learned from the best. The one who taught me so well. He’s the greedy monster that took our mother too. Except her body of water was much smaller than the giant turquoise pool I swam in all the time.
Related products
-
My Gift To You by Faye Hall
Rush Mullens saw her parents, Joseph and Carmen, being murdered before her eyes as an 8 year old child– ten cloaked figures destroying her once peaceful life. She did not know the men responsible, but she would find them. She wanted revenge…she needed it.
When Lord Justin Maston came to take her in to his care, she vowed she would use this opportunity to find the murderer’s she chased. She did not think she would also find a boy she could love more than her own life.
Bailey Maston had never supposed to mean any more to her than a friend, one who could protect her from the new lifestyle she had been forced into. What he had become though was a young man who could take her breath away, and steal her heart.
Rush knew Bailey knew nothing of her family, or the life she was raised to live. She doubted should he learn the truth that he would understand. She could not let him endanger the revenge she so craved to seek. Nor could she ignore that she was willing to risk all – her past, her life, her reputation – just to sample an ounce of passion from this man.
Bailey Maston wanted to find a woman – the perfect woman – to give his heart to. He wanted to trust that such a person could exist that would never betray him. Everything he had seen in his young life, both at home and in society, told him what a foolish dream this was. Such a woman could never exist. Even if she did, he doubted she would ever willingly give her heart to a love-starved boy like him.
Foolish though his dream was, Bailey could not help being drawn to the young orphaned girl his parents had taken in.
He wanted her friendship and the attention she so willingly offered to him.
He craved to feel the passion he knew was hidden deep inside her.
What he did not want was to fall in love with her.
When Bailey finally discovers the truth of Rush’s life, and the revenge she was enacting, he feels betrayed. Foolish though it was, he hopes that beyond this betrayal may yet lay the woman he has always yearned to find…a woman he craved to give his well-guarded heart to.
Gods of the Machines by Gary Starta @scifiauthorGary
Detective Sam Benson, a native New Yorker, is brash, opinionated and candid. Transplanted to work on Earth’s first colonized planet, he envisions a relatively peaceful job. But Benson’s ruthless nature might bring it to the brink of annihilation when a series of murders begins. He suspects a non-human is responsible-an android who once shared engrams with a psychopathic human. However, the detective doesn’t know other non-humans once called his new world-theirs. And as Benson obsesses with making a case against the android, he is oblivious to their return and the reason why they consider machines to be their gods.
Invasion of Privacy and Other Short Stories by Jim Liston
Invasion of Privacy
If you’re the person who murdered my wife and think you’ve gotten away with it, think again. I’m looking for you, and I’ll eventually find you.
Is it wrong for me to try and find the person who ruined my life, even at the expense of stealing a few moments of someone’s privacy? If I invade a person’s privacy without them knowing it, what’s the harm? I guess it all comes down to the question of whether I’m willing to risk the consequence of going to jail if I’m caught. I am. What do I have to lose?
The other stories included are:
The Tourist Attraction
I’m sick of it. Every day there’s a group of them tourists, standing by my fence watching us, pointing and whispering. I don’t know what started it, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna put up with it much longer.
A Novel Murder
“I’m going to kill her today,” he said, “I’ve had her tied up in the basement for three days; it’s time to end it.”
The Doctor’s Pet Fly
A fly only lives for about a month. It seems like a waste of time to train a fly and then have it die after only a month. Maybe he’s found a way to keep them alive longer. He is a doctor, after all.
The Show
Rita looked around at the crowd of smiling, excited faces, concentrating on every detail to commit it to memory; she didn’t want to forget any of it. She shouldn’t have worried; she would remember this for the rest of her life.
Carl and Tabitha
Carl hated his boss and was determined to find a way to get even with him.
Tag, You’re It!
We looked across the valley at a breathtaking scene of red lakes and forests of blue and orange that were alive with activity.
Before They Come Back
Running his claw-like hand along my spine while making an odd whistling noise that I surmised to be their way of communicating, I began to realize they were preparing to cut me open.
Justin’s Love
When Justin first saw Lucille, it was love at first sight. He knew that she was perfect for him. All of his friends and co-workers were envious; she was beautiful.
Ronnie and the Smoke Bomb.
I didn’t tell Ronnie the police had found him sitting on the curb near the car, crying. They said he was sitting there mumbling, “It’s only a smoke bomb.”
Murder Has Consequences by Giacomo Giammatteo
For a select few people, friendship lasts forever. Nicky Fusco and Frankie Donovan were friends like that, but that was years ago. Now Frankie’s a detective in Brooklyn’s Homicide department, and Nicky is a reformed hit man. But when Frankie gets in trouble—and the law can’t help him—he turns to Nicky.
The problem is that Nicky promised his family, and God, that he’d go straight.
Christmas Bizarre by Lizz Lund
What do Santa’s Sidekick, a dead lawyer and a geriatric vampire have in common? Meet Mina Kitchen – a forty-something single who finds trouble quicker than she can whip up a batch of breakfast breads. Plural. Her catering disorder runs neck-and-neck with her weird luck, and her cat’s weirder tendency toward gnawing elf gear. Okay, and getting kidnapped a couple of times in one week is a little strange, too.
Her next door neighbor Vito’s past as ex-leader of the Moils, the Jewish-Polish Family from Bumville, New Jersey, comes to light and throws a dollop of dilemmas into an already simmering plot.
Top it all off with a counterfeiting ring, a county-wide dearth of holiday wrapping tape, and a mass of pets running loose at the local mall, and what do you have? A recipe for disaster that Mina whips to a froth.
Christmas Bizarre will keep you smiling when you’re not shouting up a belly laugh. Set in Lancaster, “Pee-Ay” you’ll discover a lively cast of characters, funny dialogue and lots of twists and turns. Hang on tight – you’re in for a slalom of a holiday ride.
Christmas Bizarre is packed with delightful surprises – along with a bonus of free recipes, vetted by Lund’s chef husband, for your own culinary creation and consumption.
**Recipes included!**
The Illusion of Smoke: The Prequel (Sonnclere Mysteries) by Ivee Olivares
A strange smoke … A genetically modified drug … A chance encounter …The first of the Sonnclere Mysteries, THE ILLUSION OF SMOKE, is a fast-paced thriller with a twist. The heroine, Dr NeroliSonnclere is a scientist born with an unusual sense of smell. Able to sniff out odours undetected by ordinary humans, she uses her gift, as well as scientific knowledge, to sift clues and solve problems unlike those she’s ever faced before.
Lethal Believers: The Innocents by G Mitchell Baker
Someone has been hurting children and Danta vows to find them. As the sinister Mantid Tranquil rises to protect its criminal maneuvering, Danta is empowered by those from other dimensions to honor his commitment and defend The Innocents.
The Dart Murders by James Kipling
Close to London, the tiny and fanciful town of Amersham is shaken by a sudden spate of homicides. The first to meet her unfortunate fate is a young woman named Jane Ferrier, murdered by a poisonous dart while walking home from work on the evening of June 15th. While on a holiday with her beau, Sarah Parker was killed in a motel room on July 15th, also the victim of a venomous dart. On August 15th, a young attorney named Michelle Pearson was found dead on a local park bench as the result of a toxic dart. As seemingly different as all three victims lived their lives, they did have something in common. In addition to having green eyes and blonde hair, the ill-fated individuals had a history of turbulent love affairs.
With Chief Inspector Patrick Campbell in charge of the case, can he and trusty colleagues Inspector Geoffrey and Constable Tim put a stop to the mysterious serial dart killings? Much to his dismay, the investigator soon discovers that the men involved in the case all have secrets of their own that, once unraveled, don’t make them as innocent as they would appear. What do the admirable Eric, suave Neil, apprehensive Jeremy, modest Wilbur, calm Philip, passionate Victor and vibrant Tony possibly have to hide?
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.