Ralph Ashton gets more than he bargained for when police question him about the death of his ex-boyfriend Elijah Ray, whose body is discovered at the edge of the Saranac River.
Welcome to the January 14th stop on the blog tour for Scars and Secrets by Thomas Grant Bruso with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
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About the Book
Scars and Secrets
by Thomas Grant Bruso
Published 17 December 2024
NineStar Press
Genre: LGBTQ Mystery
Page Count: 285
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Ralph Ashton gets more than he bargained for when police question him about the death of his ex-boyfriend Elijah Ray, whose body is discovered at the edge of the Saranac River.
When the local police visit Ralph and ask him about a critical piece of case evidence, Ralph becomes a prime suspect. He sets out to learn what happened to Eli the night he left his apartment and is startled to learn about his former boyfriend’s shady past.
As Ralph pursues a dangerous investigation, he discovers things about Eli he did not know while they were together.
Ralph’s life starts to unravel when he loses more people close to him as his mother lies in a hospital bed dying of cancer. Is learning about the truth of Eli’s death worth jeopardizing his safety?
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Excerpt
I find it hard to hold Dr. Matheson’s gaze. Shyness overcomes me and I wring my hands. My anxiety levels heighten. My stare darts across the room at the sudden arrival of hard balls of sleet beating the glass and the braying wind cutting through the tops of snowcapped trees across the lake.
My breath catches, and I hear Dr. Matheson talking, his voice muffled, the tail end of his last words: “…do you want to talk about it?”
I cringe and feel his eyes on me when I turn away to the ice-crusted window on the far wall. My eyes close, and my lips clamp shut in a jagged line as rage seethes under my thin layer of vulnerability. My gut clutches.
“Ralph?” he says.
My name means nothing to me. Foreign, a stranger, someone I left in the past.
I lift my head slowly, and it is as if an unseen, supernatural force presses down on my shoulders, forcing me to keep quiet.
I am guarded as the walls go up around me. A nerve twitches under my right eye. Maddening!
Dr. Matheson shifts in his chair, and I sense that I have kept him waiting too long; his displeasure is like a bulldozer digging through the tendril of roots and dead zone of my brain, demolishing my thoughts. He’s got to get home to his girlfriend, wife, whoever. Maybe it’s a blind date, I imagine, invoking vulgar and naughty thoughts of Dr. Matheson in a heavy-duty threesome. One of the bottoms is me. I lift my dreamy gaze to his masculine, model-thin face, chiseled jaw, and rugged handsomeness. I can smell the citrus scent of his cologne ten feet from where I sit. Heat crawls into my face, aroused, my interest and other unmentionable areas proudly piqued.
I want a man like James: Built like a Greek God, Zeus or Ares. Tough. Striking. Dominant.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, curling his small puckish lips. “You seem far away.”
Clingy cobwebs of darkness thicken inside my head, gauzy and wet, sticking to the wall of my brain like silly string. “Deadness,” I say, uncertain where this conversation is heading.
About the Author
Thomas Grant Bruso knew he wanted to be a writer at an early age. He has been a voracious reader of genre fiction since childhood.
His literary inspirations are Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Jim Grimsley, Karin Fossum, and Joyce Carol Oates.
Bruso loves animals, reading books, and writing fiction, and prefers Sudoku to crossword puzzles.
In another life, he was a freelance writer and wrote for magazines and newspapers. In college, he won the Hermon H. Doh Sonnet Competition. Now, he writes and publishes fiction and reviews books for his hometown newspaper, The Press-Republican.
He lives in upstate New York.
Giveaway Alert!
Thomas Grant Bruso will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway| Jan 6 | A Wonderful World of Words | Jan 7 | Long and Short Reviews |
| Jan 8 | Dawn’s Reading Nook | Jan 8 | The Avid Reader |
| Jan 9 | FUONLYKNEW | Jan 10 | Gina Rae Mitchell |
| Jan 13 | It’s Raining Books | Jan 14 | Westveil Publishing |
| Jan 15 | Fabulous and Brunette | Jan 16 | Iron Canuck Reviews & More |
| Jan 17 | Sandra’s Book Club |
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I like the cover and the genre! The excerpt is interesting!
Thanks, Jeanna. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Thanks, Jeanna! I hope you get a chance to read it.
Thanks for hosting my new mystery. I will check in later today to answer questions about the writing process and publishing. The cover and story of my new book, “Scars and Secrets,” are intense. It’s a slow-burn mystery with a handful of twists and turns, which my readers expect from my books. I like to build character before I yank the carpet out from under you. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Thank you for hosting today.
Thanks for sharing. Sounds really good.
Thanks, Marcy. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Looks interesting
Thanks, Nancy. If you read it, let me know what you think.