The new Fall issue of Mysterical-e is out! 
 
This time, my Author Snapshot column has several mystery authors including Jacqueline Seewald, Laura Childs and Terrie Moran, Elaine Viets, Camille Minichino and Jean Rabe sharing favorite quotes from their books and telling a little about what inspired the stories. Be sure to check it out!

** The Haunting of Dr. Bowen - Kindle SALE, 99 cents. March 12-18 **
(See page for US and UK links.) - ** Woo-hoo! #15,144 and #65 in Ghosts. I was even ranked next to Stephen King at one point!!) 

​Imagine the shock... Dr. Seabury Bowen, neighbor and physician to the Borden family, was driving his carriage home after 11 a.m., Thursday, August 4th, 1892 and gets home to shocking news. His wife, Phoebe, meets him at the screen door, telling him Lizzie came over and says her father was killed!

He rushes over, and despite being a doctor, comes upon a ghastly scene--his former patient and longtime neighbor Mr. Andrew Borden lying dead on the parlor settee, his face gashed and bloody. He is among the first visitors on the scene, as well as the first doctor. He later learns that the 32-year-old younger daughter, Lizzie, and the maid, Bridget Sullivan, are the only ones home at the time of the murder. Then, the stepmother and Mr. Borden's wife Abby Durfee Borden, is found dead, lying in an upstairs bedroom/sewing room, also bashed in the head. 

The doctor finds himself in the middle of what becomes "the crime of the 19th century." His recorded testimony is the only time he shares his story of what happened that morning.

But what did he really think? Was he shaken, maybe even haunted by the horrific, and most unusual, murders?

GET HIS VIEWPOINT!

In The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden's Fall River, I share the doctor's point of view, and how the murders, and other events, may have affected the doctor. Did Fall River's past tie into the city's bloody legacy? (Light horror. This is a companion book to my book, Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter, but without the zombies.)

About the book:

Dr. Seabury Bowen—physician to the infamous Lizzie Borden—swears he’s being stalked by spirits, though his beloved wife thinks it’s merely his imagination. But the retired doctor insists that neither greed nor anger provoked the recent sensational axe murders in Fall River. Rather, he believes the city is poisoned by bad blood and a thirst for revenge dating back to the Indian and Colonial wars.

Now, two years after the Borden murders, Dr. Bowen is determined to uncover the mysteries stirring up the city’s ancient, bloodthirsty specters. Can he discover who, or what, is shattering the peace before Fall River runs red? Or will he be the next victim?

Part mystery, part love story, The Haunting of Dr. Bowen reveals the eerie side of Fall River as witnessed by the first doctor on the scene of the legendary Borden murders.

 Today, USA Bestselling Author Jean Rabe's blog tour stops HERE! (Post is also at my GirlZombieAuthors blog.) See all blog stop links HERE. Next: 8/25: Chill and Read blog
8/27: Ken Schrader blog

Check out more about the upcoming release of her book, The Dead of Night, A Piper Blackwell Mystery Book 2, the sequel to The Dead of Winter. (Get it now on pre-order. Releases Sept. 15.)

 About The Dead of Night: 

In Spencer County’s history, mysteries are numerous—and lethal…

As Sheriff Piper Blackwell rushes to a clandestine meeting with an aging, paranoid veteran who believes spies are trailing his every move, she is caught in a fierce thunderstorm. Pounding rain drums against the bluff, washing away the earth and revealing a grisly secret someone tried to bury a long time ago.

Putting a name to the skeleton on the bluff, and searching for the thief who robbed the old veteran of his life’s earnings, sends Piper delving into the sleepy towns that dot her rural county. Now she’s digging into pasts perhaps best left alone. Uncovering fragments of Spencer County’s history could prove more dangerous—and deadlier—than she ever expected.

S.C.D.D.
Same Characters, a very Different Day - by Jean Rabe
 
Piper Blackwell, four months into her term as Spencer County Sheriff, is hot to solve a cold case. Rain, late at night, bones on the bluff…wonderfully eerie, and something to vex my favorite sheriff with. The book is The Dead of Night, the second in her series, and it is set for a September 15 release by Imajin. Her previous outing, The Dead of Winter, started with her first day on the job.
 
Piper is twenty-three, and won the sheriff’s race by campaigning on her last name. Her father, Paul Blackwell, had been with the department thirty years and had several turns at sheriff. Some in the county think folks didn’t realize they were voting for a different Blackwell. There’s still some friction in her department—over her age and lack of experience, but there’s also growing respect for the Army veteran. She has many of her supporting characters from the previous book—Chief Deputy Oren Rosenberg; Coroner Dr. Annie Neufeld; Teegan, a quirky Goth dispatcher; and Nang, Vietnamese caterer and quick stop owner…and potential love-interest. But there are some new ones thrown into the mix.
 
Series feel good because you can share the action with old friends. They’re like comfortable shoes that you’ve broken in just right. Though while there’s a sameness, Piper and Spencer County keep the story fresh. There are a lot of differences from the first book.
 
What makes this book dissimilar? Piper’s had a few months to grow into her role of sheriff, has become more familiar with her deputies and local politics, and has started to hear the county’s heartbeat. Oren’s had a few months to adjust to the young sheriff; he claims he still doesn’t like her, but he tolerates her…and that’s a big step from the first book. In this tale she’s involved with some of the little things that are a big deal to the rural residents, such as drunk drivers and an unbalanced octogenarian that is hell-bent on destroying mailboxes. She also nabs that cold case—and who doesn’t love a mysterious death from decades past?
 
There are few characters that readers should both love and hate…the drunk on a tractor that annoys the young sheriff. Drunk driving is the number one ticked offense in Spencer County; I figured I needed to address that in the book, putting a little spin on it. The Mailbox Mauler is another such soul. She was inspired by someone I know who has a vicious streak involving mis-delivered mail—downright NASTY; I had to vent by putting it in a Piper book. If the Mailbox Mauler feels real…it’s ‘cause she sort of is.
 
The Dead of Night was inspired by lots of things…among them three Navy veterans who live in a senior apartment complex; I rolled them into one character called Mark the Shark. He opens the book, and I hope the readers love him as much as I do. It was also inspired by the woman in my neighborhood who goes postal, by the drunk on the tractor who needed to be there so I could correctly write an airbag scene, and by an old skeleton because I’d read a forensic book about bones and wanted to put some of that knowledge to fictional use.
 
Is there someone to root for in Piper’s second outing? Absolutely…Piper, of course; she’s determined and feisty, and maybe she’s falling in love. Oren because he’s driven and proves that age in an asset, not a hindrance. Mark the Shark…because he’s Mark the Shark. There are also some folks to root against, but I don’t want to spoil the plot.

** Excerpt of The Dead of Night, A Piper Blackwell Mystery Book 2:  

It was a big red Case tractor, double wheels on the back, hitch, with a raised disc harrow  attachment used for cultivating the ground prior to planting—all of it caked with dried mud and  in need of washing. Piper was stuck behind it on 66, on her way to Hatfield, an unincorporated  dinkburg where Mark the Shark lived. 

Piper figured this ten-mile endeavor would take her an hour away from her cold  case…fourteen minutes to Mark’s, fourteen minutes b ack, and a half hour at the bank or looking through his records to show him the bookkeeping error and ease his conspiracy fears.

But the tractor was fouling her time-frame.

It belched fumes; her windows rolled down, the stink wafted inside and made her  eyes water.  It was noisy; overwhelming the oldies station she’d had on and just now clicked off. It was slow,  riding in the center of the road, impossible for her to pass on either side without risking the ditch.  And it wasn’t traveling straight, sometimes in the proper lane, sometimes veering into the left  lane. Usually it held to roughly the middle.

She honked.

The driver raised his left hand and flipped his middle finger.

“Really?” Piper stuck her head out the window and hollered: “Pick a lane!” Then thinking he might not be able to hear over the racket the tractor was making, she used the PA in her car. 

“Pull over. Spencer County Sheriff. Pull over.”

The tractor wobbled farther right, then left, shuddered, and went faster still. Thirty miles an  hour.

“What the hell?”

Then the driver tossed an empty whiskey bottle off to the side of the road.

“That’s it.”

See Giveaways below! 

 *****Jean Rabe’s  The Dead of Night Blog Tour runs August 21st thru September 15th. Follow tour stops below to check out the reviews, excerpts, Q&As, and to enter the giveaway! Get all the blog stop links HERE.
 Next stops:

Next: 8/25: Chill and Read blog
8/27: Ken Schrader blog
Mysteristas                            8/28/2017
Imagination Captured            8/28/2017
Lori’s Reading Corner            8/29/2017
Brooke Blogs                          9/1/2017
The Million Words                  9/3/2017
Drey’s Library                         9/12/2017
Faith Hunter                           9/15/2017

Praise for The Dead of Night: 
   Jean Rabe always manages to surprise and never fails to deliver the goods! The Dead of Night…Highly recommended! —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Dogs of War and Mars One

 Jean Rabe writes the perfect mystery! I was kept guessing about everything to the very last word. The girl can write! --New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter, writing as Gwen Hunter

 In The Dead of Night …a thoroughly satisfying and complex novel with deeply realized characters and beautifully vivid writing. --Jaden Terrell, Shamus Award nominee and internationally published author of the Jared McKean Mysteries

**** GIVEAWAY 

There’s a tour-wide giveaway for Cracker Barrel and Starbucks gift cards or a little password book. In addition, two lucky bloggers will be chosen at random to win a Starbucks or Cracker Barrel Gift card. Open to US residents only. Also see direct link to giveaway.
 
​*** Plus see the exclusive bonus giveaway below!!! ***

Release Week Continues!
It's release week for my latest, The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden’s Fall River:

This one is a bit different - a supernatural story that shares how Lizzie Borden's doctor and neighbor might have been affected by the gruesome Borden murders.... and how she influenced him...  

* NOTE: Please buy your Kindle copy here on release day, Friday, 8/4. Or get it on Kindle Unlimited! I'd appreciate your reviews, too.

* Visit some blogs this week to learn more, read excerpts and comment at the blogs to be entered to win a Kindle copy: 

* Tuesday, 8/1:  I'm over at Courtney Mroch's Haunt Jaunts
* Wednesday, 8/2: See Jean Rabe's blog 
* TODAY: * Thursday, 8/3:  Thoughts on Dr. Bowen and Lizzie Borden - Here.
* Friday, 8/4: RELEASE DAY! Buy here! 
- Visit Erika Mailman's blog. (postponed)
* Monday, 8/7: Jacqueline Seewald's blog

Today - A few thoughts on Dr. Bowen:

I found him to be an interesting man, seemingly full of contradictions. What really struck me was reading one newspaper report on how he seemed to have a special connection with Lizzie. You can read many of the past news reports on the Borden trial in The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook by David Kent.  There are some good newspaper scans of the Borden trial also at the Library of Congress site. 

The good doctor did seem to be protecting Lizzie. Was he? Was she guilty - or innocent?
   
I've gone back and forth on this, especially since it still seems so incredible that a woman of her standing would commit such a brutal, horrible crime. Yet, these were murders of rage. Personal? Maybe from someone who felt they were not getting what they deserved or able to live how they thought they should? Like many young women of her time, Lizzie did go on a "grand tour" of Europe and may have come back more discontented than ever. 

But everything - any clues, any witnesses, any reports - all of it was circumstantial. Was she a selfish, greedy, angry woman nearing middle age who felt life had passed her by? Maybe. Maybe other unknown visitors supposedly heard arguing with the father committed the crime. Or maybe that was a convenient lie, too. But it still seems probable that she could have done this - if she was the planning mastermind that could pull it off. If everything fell into place. It's a case that even 125 years later still has many more questions than answers.

I recently wrote an article on some of the various elements of the murder and the police role in the investigations for an  upcoming issue of Mystery Readers Journal. Stay tuned for details.  

*** For now, I'd love to hear what you think: Was Lizzie Borden guilty or not guilty? Why?

(Share your thoughts in the comments to be entered to win a Kindle copy of Dr. Bowen's story.) 
* * * 
About The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden’s Fall River:

The short supernatural-flavored mystery (141 pages) is on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and coming in print. http://getBook.at/HauntingofDrBowen
Author website: http://cverstraete.com

Gruesome deaths haunt the industrial city of Fall River, Massachusetts.

Dr. Seabury Bowen—physician to the infamous Lizzie Borden—swears he’s being stalked by spirits, though his beloved wife thinks it’s merely his imagination. But the retired doctor insists that neither greed nor anger provoked the recent sensational axe murders in Fall River. Rather, he believes the city is poisoned by bad blood and a thirst for revenge dating back to the Indian and Colonial wars.


Now, two years after the Borden murders, Dr. Bowen is determined to uncover the mysteries stirring up the city’s ancient, bloodthirsty specters. Can he discover who, or what, is shattering the peace before Fall River runs red? Or will he be the next victim?


Part mystery, part love story, The Haunting of Dr. Bowen reveals the eerie side of Fall River as witnessed by the first doctor on the scene of the legendary Borden murders.
​