Plain Pursuit
Alison Stone
Amazon Buy link for Plain
Pursuit: http://www.amazon.com/Plain-
BLURB
for Plain
Pursuit:
Danger in Amish Country
When her brother is killed in a small Amish town, Anna Quinn
discovers she's an unwelcome outsider. But the FBI agent investigating the case
is right at home—because Eli Miller was born and raised in Apple Creek's Plain
community. Eli left his Amish faith behind long ago, but his heart is rooted in
a local cold case he can't forget—a mystery with strange connections to Anna's
loss. Desperate to uncover the truth, Anna and Eli are faced with stony
silences and secrets…secrets that someone wants to keep buried in the past.
Copyright
© 2013 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
Cover
Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited
BIO:
Alison Stone left Buffalo, New York and
headed a thousand miles south to earn an industrial engineering degree at
Georgia Tech in Hotlanta. Go Yellow Jackets! She loved the South, but true love
brought her back North.
After the birth of her second child, Alison
left Corporate America for full-time motherhood. She credits an advertisement
for writing children's books for sparking her interest in writing. She never
did complete a children's book, but she did have success writing articles for local
publications before finding her true calling, writing romantic suspense.
Alison lives in Western New York with her
husband of twenty years and their four children where the summers are
absolutely gorgeous and the winters are perfect for curling up with a good
book--or writing one.
Random Acts and Too Close to Home were released by
Samhain Publishing in 2012. Plain Pursuit, a Harlequin Love
inspired Suspense, is available now.
Besides writing, Alison keeps busy
volunteering at her children's schools, driving her girls to dance, and
watching her boys race motocross.
She’s always at the following locations:
Website:
http://www.alisonstone.com/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Alison_
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The
pungent odor of manure and smoldering wreckage clogged Anna's throat.
As she coughed, she
tented her hand over her eyes to shield them from the lowering sun.
Stalks and stalks of corn swayed under brisk winds, masking the point of
impact where the singleengine plane plummeted into the earth. An
unmistakable desire to scream overwhelmed her. She clamped her jaw to
quell her emotions. She had to hold it together for now. Swallowing
hard, she tried to rid her mouth of the horrible taste floating in the
air. Across the country road from her parked vehicle, first responders
fastened the straps to secure the crumpled plane to a flatbed truck.
Turning
her back, she flattened her palms against the window of her car. She
closed her eyes as the world seemed to slow to a crawl. Tears stung the
backs of her eyes. Her brother was dead. She was alone.
Anna
turned around and leaned
back against her car. She ran a hand across her damp forehead. It was
unusually hot for early October in western New York. The heat rolled off
the asphalt, scorching her cheeks. The bold blue numbers 977 stood
out on the tail of the plane, remarkably unscathed among the heap of
metal. Her brother had sent her a photo of the plane a few weeks ago. He
had been so proud of his purchase. She had thought he was crazy.
Pressing a hand to her mouth, she realized she had never responded to
his email. She had been so wrapped up in her job as a high school
counselor at the start of a new school year. Now it was too late to tell
him anything.
Her brother had always been there for her when it truly counted. Now only one thing remained for her to do. She closed her
eyes. Dear Lord, please welcome my brother into Your arms. A tear tracked down her warm cheek.
"Anna
Quinn." A male voice sounded from behind her. Swiping at her wet
cheeks, she glanced over the hood of her car, surprised to see a tall
gentleman striding toward her with a confidence normally reserved for
those in law enforcement. Her legs felt weak and she took a deep breath
to tamp down her initial trepidation. His dark suit fit his broad
shoulders impeccably but seemed out of place among the uniformed first
responders dotting the countryside. The intensity in his brown eyes
unnerved her.
"Yes, I'm Anna." Dread whispered
across the fine hairs on the back of her neck, but she kept her voice
even. Her brother was dead. How much worse could it
get? Foreboding gnawed at her insides. Past experience told her it
could always get worse.
"I'm Special Agent Eli
Miller." She accepted his outstretched hand. Warmth spread through her
palm. Self-aware, she reclaimed her hand and crossed her arms tightly
against her body. Thrusting her chin upward, she met his gaze. The
compassion in his brown eyes almost crumbled her composure. She wondered
fleetingly what it would be like to take comfort in his strong arms. To
rely on someone besides herself.
Heat crept up her cheeks when she realized he was waiting for some kind of response. "You called me about the crash," she said.
The
call was a blur, yet she had recognized the soothing timbre of his
voice. She had barely gotten the name of the town before she hit End and
sat dumbfounded in the guidance office where she worked sixty miles
away in Buffalo. She had left without explaining her emergency to
anyone in the office.
Anna's chest tightened. "How did you know to call me?"
The
deep rumble of the flatbed truck's diesel engine fired to life, drawing
the man's attention. The corners of his mouth tugged down. "Your
brother asked me to call you."
Anna wasn't sure
she had heard him correctly over the noise of the truck as it eased
onto the narrow country road. She tracked the twisted metal of her
brother's plane on top of the flatbed truck until it reached the crest
of the hill. Then she turned to face him. Goose bumps swept over her as
the significance of his words took shape.
"When…?"
She hesitated, her pulse whooshing in her ears. Had she misunderstood?
Was her brother in a hospital somewhere? A flicker of hope sparked deep
within her. "When did Daniel ask you to call me? My brother's…dead?"
Rubbing her temples, her scrutiny fell to his suit, his
authoritative stance. The world seemed to sway with the cornstalks.
"You told me he had been killed."
Concern
flashing in his eyes, the man caught her arm. "Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to mislead you. Your brother died in the crash." He guided her to
the driver's side of her vehicle and opened the door. "Here. Sit down."
Anna
sat sideways on the seat, her feet resting on the door frame. "When did
you talk to my brother?" She stared at the agent's polished shoes,
trying to puzzle it all out. Finally, she met his eyes. "Was he in
trouble?"
"Your brother and I talked last
week." Special Agent Eli Miller rested his elbow on the open door.
"Daniel told me to call you if anything should happen to him." He seemed
to be gauging her expression for a reaction.
Anna scrunched up her face. "If anything happened?" She pointed to the field. "Like if
he was killed in a plane crash?"
"I
don't think he could have predicted that, but yes, he asked me to call
you." He reached into his suit coat pocket and pulled out a worn
business card with a familiar logo on it. She straightened her back.
Years ago, after she had landed her first job as a high school
counselor, she had dropped the card into a care package for her brother
stationed in Iraq.
"Daniel gave you that? I
don't understand." She rubbed her forehead, wishing she could fill her
lungs with fresh air—air without this horrible smell.
"He wasn't only worried about his own safety." He never lifted his pensive gaze from her face. "He was worried about yours."
"My safety?"
"Has
anything out of the ordinary happened lately?"
Anna
bit her bottom lip. Her mind's eye drifted to the strange note she had
found on her car after school last week. She shrugged. "Someone left a
note on my car. It was nothing." She struggled to recall the exact words
on the note. "I think it said, 'You're next.'"
"Did you report it?"
Anna
laughed, the mirthless sound grating her nerves. "No…I'm a high school
counselor. A few faculty cars had been egged the week before. That's all
it was." She scooted out of the car and brushed past him, turning her
back to the crash site. "I took the job to help kids. If I ratted them
out every time they looked at me sideways, they wouldn't trust me."
Goodness knew where she'd be if her high school counselor hadn't reached
out to her.
"Anything strange besides the note?" The concern in his voice melted her
composure.
Tears blurred her vision and she
quickly blinked them away. "Other than the occasional disgruntled
student—who is harmless, I can assure you—I live a pretty boring life."
"Is there anyone you want me to call for you?"
"No,"
she whispered, staring over the cornfields. An uneasiness seeped into
her bones. Her brother tended to be the paranoid one, not her. But she
couldn't dismiss it. History told her things weren't always what they
seemed. "Can I see your credentials?" Anna met his assessing gaze;
flecks of yellow accented his brown eyes. She turned the leather ID
holder
over in her hands. Special Agent Eli R. Miller. It seemed legitimate.
"You
met my brother in person?" She studied him, eager to read any clues
from the smooth planes of his handsome face. She wanted to ask: Did
Daniel seem okay? Was he thin? Dragging a hand over her hair to smooth
the few strands that had fallen out of her ponytail, she was ashamed she
didn't know the answers. Ashamed she had grown estranged from her big
brother. Dear Lord, please forgive me. Let me find peace through this nightmare.
Special Agent Miller hiked a dark eyebrow. "Yes. We talked briefly a week ago. I had
some questions concerning his return to Apple Creek."
Anna
jerked her head back. "I don't understand. He was in Apple Creek working
on his photography. Why would the FBI be concerned about my brother's
whereabouts?" Foreboding mingled with the acrid fumes hanging in the
air.
"Your brother went to Genwego State University, right?"
"Yes." She furrowed her brow. "He dropped out his senior year. What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'm working a cold case. I've been re-interviewing people who lived in the area ten years ago."
"Was my brother able to help you?"
"No.
But when I met with him, he was worried about his safety and yours. I
had a sense he was somewhat relieved I had contacted him."
"Do you think I'm in danger?"
They locked eyes. He seemed to hesitate a moment before saying no.
She
reached into her car and pulled out her purse. She dug out a new
business card. Holding it between two fingers, she offered it to him.
"May I trade you?"
He accepted the new card and handed her the old one. She flipped it over. In her handwriting on the back she had written: I'm only a phone call away. The
faded ink was water-stained, but the message was clear. Yet the phone
calls between her and her brother had become few and far between.
As
she slipped the old business card into a pocket of her purse, the clip
clop clip of what sounded like a horse reached her ears. She froze as a
horse and buggy made its way along the country road. A man in a brimmed
straw hat gently flicked the reins, urging the horse on. Tipping his
hat, he seemed to make direct eye contact with the FBI agent as he
passed.
Sarah's Review:
Thank you Alison Stone for allowing me to help promote this story. I found out about Alison's work through Cassandra Carr, who is also a WNY author that has been featured on my blog. When I asked Alison what story she wanted to promote, she picked Plain Pursuit and I was excited. I do love reading Amish stories, but finding a good one has been difficult for me. This one proved to be a great one for me.
From the opening chapter, this story had me sucked in. My heart broke right from the beginning when we were at the plane crash site. As we get further into the story, we find out that Anna and Eli have had tragic things happen in their lives and this plane crash is just another event in a long list of tragedies that these two have experienced.
For fear of giving this story away, I will be brief on this review. If you like an Amish storyline, this is a good story to read. It's not primarily about the Amish, but the majority of this story is set in Amish country. If you like suspense stories, this one is definitely one that should be read. I was blindsided by who the culprit was. If you like romance, this story has it.
I look forward to reading Alison's other books soon!
Nice review, Sarah! I really enjoyed Alison's "Random Acts' and am looking forward to reading Plain Pursuit!
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