From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: Excerpt #14 of Dangerous Game by Heather Graham

We are so excited to be part of a 2-part tour for A Dangerous Game, a gripping thriller by USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham!

Follow along the excerpt tour beginning in mid February, with long excerpts in consecutive order at each tour stop, followed by a review tour beginning March 13th, release week! Come back March 26 for a review.

Author: Heather Graham

Publisher: MIRA

Date of publication: March 13, 2018

TROUBLE ALWAYS FINDS HER…

Wrapping up a normal day at the office, criminal psychologist Kieran Finnegan is accosted by a desperate woman who shoves an infant into her arms and then flees, only to be murdered minutes later on a busy Manhattan street.

Who was the woman? Where did the baby come from? Kieran can’t stop thinking about the child and the victim, so her boyfriend, Craig Frasier, does what any good special agent boyfriend would do—he gets the FBI involved. And asks Kieran to keep out of it.

But the Finnegans have a knack for getting into trouble, and Kieran won’t sit idle when a lead surfaces through her family’s pub. Investigating on her own, she uncovers a dangerous group that plays fast and loose with human lives and will stop at nothing to keep their secrets—and they plan to silence Kieran before she can expose their deadly enterprise.

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Enjoy Excerpt #14:

CHAPTER FOUR

THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, OR OCME, for New York City handled thousands of cases a year. Between Manhattan and the other four boroughs of the city, the population was massive, sitting at about eight and a half million, and in a population that size, quite a lot of people died.

Bodies weren’t brought in just because of murder; anyone who’d died alone was brought to the OCME, as were those who passed from accidental death or suicide. There were thirty-plus full-time medical examiners working for the OCME, along with another sixty-plus assistants and a multitude of support staff, such as forensic pathology, photography, criminology, lab work, tech, clerical and more.

With that kind of personnel, Craig hadn’t been expecting that the ME working the case would be someone he knew well. To his surprise, Dr. Anthony Andrews walked into the reception area to meet with them.

He, Mike and Detective Larry McBride had recently worked together during the “perfect” killings that had gripped the city. Young, energetic, detailed—Dr. Andrews was damned good at his job. Though Craig didn’t think there was much that the ME could say that would help catch the killer, he was still glad that this particular doctor was on the job.

“No one saw anything?” Andrews asked after greeting them. “She was stabbed in broad daylight—and no one saw anything?”

“The best I can figure it,” Craig said, “she was hurrying down the street. She was heading in an easterly direction. She had just shoved the baby into Kieran’s arms and fled the office. Kieran was running after her. She was, at tops, a block behind. Remember, it was rush hour—and that can mean a gridlock of people.”

“Someone snuck up behind the victim,” Mike said.

“Someone who must have followed her to the offices of Fuller and Miro,” Craig said. “The killer moved fast. Partner, you mind?” he asked Mike, taking him by the arm to move him around in front so that Craig could mimic the stabbing as he pictured it had to have happened.

He came up quick, hand strong on his imaginary knife.

“Then,” Mike said, arching, as if he had a knife in his back, “she swirled around. Possibly trying to face her killer.”

“But,” Craig said, “the killer delivered the knife without missing a stride and just kept walking.”

“Kieran said there were no screams—not until she reached the woman and screamed herself. She’d already called the cops and me…there was an officer in uniform there in a matter of minutes and a detective on the scene within ten. I arrived just about the same time as the detective.”

“That would be Lance Kendall—he should arrive momentarily. In the meantime, we’ll proceed as scheduled. One would think that the dead would wait patiently—which they do. However, their loved ones tend to be very emotional and impatient, so we do try to keep up. If you’ll follow me?” Dr. Andrews requested.

Craig was far too familiar with the OCME. The Manhattan offices were close to the FBI building which, in a way, made it too easy to be present for an autopsy, even when it certainly wasn’t always necessary.

Mike must have been thinking along the same lines.

“You know the French Revolution?” he asked Craig softly.

Craig glanced over at him. “Well, I know something about it. I’m not sure I’d want to teach a course on it.”

Mike nodded sagely. “They say that those who had to die, well, they were nobles, and thus they had to behave nobly—and so they went nobly to the guillotine. Madame du Barry screamed and cried and had a fit, and then the people saw how ugly it was. It was only after that they—the people as a mass—began to protest the sanctioned murders.”

“Good thought,” Craig murmured. “We’ve seen enough death. We could have left the autopsy to Lance Kendall.”

“No, I know you. We had to be here no matter what. It just always takes me longer than I’d like to get rid of the feel of this place.”

That was something Craig understood. They worked hard at the morgue—very, very hard. Every floor, every table, every instrument in the place was cleaned and cleaned again; antibacterial agents ruled.

And still the scent of death was strong.

They were offered paper suits and masks; two minutes later, they were in the room where there were actually two autopsies in process.

Their victim waited for them, tragically naked but clean, ready for the knife.

About Heather Graham

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham has written more than a hundred novels. She’s a winner of the RWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Thriller Writers’ Silver Bullet. She is an active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America. For more information on Heather and her work, check out her websites:

TheOriginalHeatherGraham.com, eHeatherGraham.com, and HeatherGraham.tv. You can also find Heather on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

EXCERPT TOUR:

Monday, February 19th: Stuck in Books

Tuesday, February 20th: Books & Spoons

Wednesday, February 21st: Read Love Blog

Thursday, February 22nd: Jathan & Heather

Monday, February 26th: Moonlight Rendezvous

Tuesday, February 27th: The Sassy Bookster

Wednesday, February 28th: Stranded in Chaos

Thursday, March 1st: Book Reviews and More by Kathy

Friday, March 2nd: Cheryl’s Book Nook

Monday, March 5th: What is That Book About