SPOTLIGHT:

PLAYBACK

 

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After completing my massive six-part TNT series, I was left with the task of coming up with not only a new and unrelated story, but also an entirely different genre. Hence: PLAYBACK. A Mystery psychological thriller - and my first foray into the genre.

 

I’m very proud of this one, and I hope you will all enjoy it as well! (Please spread the word if you enjoyed it!).

 

Thank you again to everyone who supported me here as well as all my other books, columns and posts! I appreciate you all! 

 

PLAYBACK is available right now on Amazon, in both softcover, hardcover and on Kindle!

 

S.C.

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The Plot: "After he and his family had survived a violent attack by an obsessed former patient, whom he had become convinced was also a serial killer, retired Psychiatrist Dr. William Vogelman, now separated from his wife and son, relocates to a quaint town called Idyll Lake, in an attempt to pick up the pieces of his life and start over from his altercation with the now-deceased murderer.

 

Finding a kindred spirit in a local, Melissa Caldwell, who suspects foul play in the recent death of her own husband, both soon discover that their experiences may not only be connected, but that the doctor’s former patient may still be alive and in Idyll Lake, driven to finish what he had originally started."

EXCERPT : HIGH PRICE.  AVAILABLE 04/01/23! 

 

     1692, Salem, Massachusetts. It was eerily still on this crisp and cold autumn night. The moon, hanging full like a golden beacon in an otherwise starless sky, shone downward from above like a veritable spotlight on those having slowly made their way to the torch-lit town square as requested.
      A group of puritans, dressed in their somber and plain attire, were gathered now around a towering pyre of wood and straw strewn and bound. They were there to witness the execution of a young girl accused of being a witch - a maelstrom of sudden and unsubstantiated accusation; a superstitious plague that seemed to affect and in turn infect the denizens in a single day.
     The mood was one of righteous anger, and the spectators were in a state of religious fervor, fueled by their delusions and fear of the unknown.
     In the center of the square, commanding, directing, stood the town magistrate, a large and imposing man with a stern face, a neatly trimmed beard and piercing blue eyes. He was the highest authority in the town, and his word was law. In his hand was a large leather-bound book, filled with what he insisted were the laws and commandments of God himself. He held the book aloft piously and arrogantly, his other hand pointing accusingly at the the young girl who stood bound amongst the kindling, at the very base of the pyre.
     The young girl's name was Abigail - just 17 years old - a picture of innocence. Her hair was golden brown, cascading down her back in loose waves. Her beautiful blue eyes were big and pleading, shining now with fear as her porcelain skin was covered in a sheen of panicked sweat from her fruitless struggle, and trickles of blood from where stones had struck her, as thrown by people she had known her entire life.
     Her accuser had claimed that she was a succubus, a veritable demon in the form of a woman who tempted men into sin. They claimed that she had tried to seduce and molest him – this accuser being the 18-year-old son of the magistrate himself, and that evidence of her witchcraft had been found hidden in her home.
     "Abigail, you have been found guilty of practicing the dark arts!" the magistrate bellowed, his voice echoing through the square. "You have brought evil into our midst, and thou must be purged from this world!"
     The crowd erupted into a chorus of jeers and catcalls. "Burn the witch!" they cried. "Purge thy evil from our town!"...