Mirrored
by
Dalia Florea
Genre:
Mystery, Suspense, Romance
Recommended
age group? 18 and up
Paperback:
152 pages
Publisher:
Dalia Florea (February 17, 2014)
ISBN-10:
0615937446
ISBN-13:
978-0615937441
Synopsis
The body of a teenage girl murdered in the
Lincoln Houses is just the beginning…..
Investigative reporter, Nicole Watkins is
assigned to the story, but when she comes face to face with homicide detective
Andre Moore, she finds herself guarding more than just her sources.
Shaken by the murder of a teenage girl, Detective
Andre Moore must put his own emotions aside or risk not only his life, but that
of the attractive reporter, but is he strong enough to ignore his growing
attraction?
Love is the last thing either is looking for but
when the case brings them together, the complications of the murders only seem
to intensify the attraction.
But, is passion enough? Does love stand a chance
in the midst of secrets and murder?
Excerpt
Chapter
One
It was springtime in New York
City; however, I didn’t see as many of the beautiful flowering blooms of Azalea
shrubs or the pink and white blooms of the dogwood trees as I did growing up in
Charlotte, N.C. The air back home had
the sweet aroma of honeysuckles and jasmines, but I still could feel that it was
springtime in the air as I briskly walked down the sidewalks of lower
Manhattan. The air wasn’t all that fresh above ground, but it sure beat the
smell of urine in the subway station.
I stopped at a bagel shop to grab my usual
breakfast of bagel with cream cheese and a coffee. I’d become such a regular
that Luiz, the store clerk, who worked behind the counter already knew my
order. He tapped in the amount I owed on the cash register and then handed me a
bag containing my breakfast with a big grin on his face.
“How are you today, Luiz?” I asked. I
should trip him up one day and order something different, I thought.
“Good, good,” he said as another customer
approached, interrupting him before he got a chance to say more. I looked back
to wave, but his attention was focused on helping customers that were starting
to flow into the shop.
New York City was unlike any city that
I’d ever been to. Tall buildings invading the sky, cars jammed in traffic with
drivers honking their horns, the smell of food coming from street vendors,
street hustlers trying to lure pedestrians to either play card games or to buy
something that they were selling and crowded sidewalks where everyone seemed to
be in a hurry to get somewhere or another. I’d moved there three years ago
after my divorce from Michael.
*******
As I sat at my desk going through my
notes, preparing to go to the 23rd precinct in Harlem to interview detective
Andre Moore, my boss, Ryan Blackman, poked his head inside my cubicle to see if
I needed any help with the preparation to interview Detective Moore.
“Ms. Watkins, this is your first field
assignment and I want to make sure that you are prepared for this interview,
especially with the nature of the case. I want to make sure that you are able
to handle the details,” he said as he tried to read my facial expression. “I can’t afford any fuck ups. I want to be
the first to run this story and I need everything you can dig up on this one. I
had to pull lots of strings to get you this interview. Don’t make me regret it,” he said firmly.
Ryan Blackman was an Irish man in his
late sixties, stocky with silver hair, thick mustache, bright blue eyes and a
kind smile. He could be very tough, but he also had a gentle side to him. He
was very smart and I figured I could learn a lot from him. He took over the
newspaper, News Today, when his father died of lung cancer seven years ago. He
had a lot of experience as a field reporter; however, running a newspaper meant
he’d had to take on a whole other set of skills. Since Mr. Blackman had worked
alongside of his father before he became ill, he’d gotten to know a little
something about running the newspaper business.
There were rumors going around the office
that the newspaper was in bad financial shape and if it didn’t get any
financial backing, it would go bankrupt. I’d hoped that it was just a rumor;
however, I wasn’t too worried about that because I didn’t plan on staying there
long anyway. It was the only place that would hire me with no journalism
experience and besides, I would’ve really loved to work for a fashion magazine. My dream was to own and publish a fashion
magazine.
***Read Chapter One***
About the Author
Dalia Florea is a novelist and native New Yorker. Her debut book “Mirrored” recently reached the top 100 Best Sellers list in Women’s Detective Fiction and rated favorably on both Amazon and Goodreads. When she isn’t crafting suspenseful romance, Dalia enjoys solving Sudoku and cryptogram quotes, attending jazz concerts and visiting wineries. Dalia currently lives in Northern Virginia and is hard at work on her next two novels.
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Stay by Hilary Wynne is the last romance novel that I read. It was AMAZING!
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