A Chat with Debbie De Louise

By superginormous | August 15, 2016

Name: Debbie De Louise

Title of Recent Release: A Stone’s Throw

Synopsis:

Widowed librarian Alicia Fairmont needs answers. After her husband is killed in a hit and run accident, Alicia travels upstate to his hometown of Cobble Cove, New York, hoping to locate his estranged family and shed light on his mysterious past. Anticipating staying only a weekend, her visit is extended when she accepts a job at the town’s library. Secrets stretch decades into the past.

Assisted by handsome newspaper publisher and aspiring novelist, John McKinney, Alicia discovers a connection between her absent in-laws and a secret John’s father has kept for more than 60 years. But her investigation is interrupted when she receives word her house has burned and arson is suspected, sending her rushing back to Long Island, accompanied by John. Back in Cobble Cove, cryptic clues are uncovered. hen Alicia returns, she finds a strange diary, confiscated letters, and a digital audio device containing a recording made the day her husband was killed. Anonymous notes warn Alicia to leave town, but she can’t turn her back on the mystery—or her attraction to John. As the pieces begin to fall into place, evidence points to John’s involvement in her husband’s accident. The past and present threaten to collide, and Alicia confronts her fears…

Has she fallen in love with her husband’s killer?

Excerpt:

Cobble Cove Library was small. It may have once been a house. Brick, like many of the town’s buildings, it had a porch similar to Dora’s inn with flower baskets hanging from its eaves. Out front, there was a statue of a boy and girl holding a book. The sign next to the statue read, “Cobble Cove Library,” along with a graphic of an open book lying on a bed of cobblestones and, etched underneath, “Est. 1915.” The sliding glass front doors seemed out of place. It looked as if they were recently added. Alicia walked through the turnstile in front of John, who urged her inside first. She guessed the man at the circulation desk was John’s father. The older man’s eyes, the same color as his son’s, lit up when he saw them. “Hey, there, young man,” he said, “I see you’ve brought us a pretty visitor.”

Alicia had never been one to blush, but she felt heat rise to her face and imagined it might be reddening.

“I sure did,” John said, walking over to the desk. “Dad, this is Alicia Fairmont. She’s a librarian from Long Island. Alicia, this is my father, John, Senior. You can call him Mac. Everyone does.”

Favorite Character:

All my characters have unique personalities, and I have an affinity for my protagonist, Alicia, because she has much in common with me including being a librarian. However, if I had to choose one favorite character from “A Stone’s Throw,” I think it would be 80-year old John McKinney, Sr. (known as Mac). I based him off a man I once worked with who ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch every day. In the book, Mac has a special recipe for PB&J. He also likes to put his own special spin on common sayings and is the person who refers to his town as “a stone’s throw” away from everything, thus giving the book its name. He and his son also live on Stone’s Throw Road. Mac may have some memory issues, but he’s never forgotten his first love and that plays a key part in the book. Also, like some older people, Mac resists change particularly that caused by new technology.

Author bio.

I’m a reference librarian at a public library on Long Island and have been involved with books and writing for over 30 years. I received the Lawrence C. Lobaugh, Jr. Memorial Award in Journalism for my work on the Long Island University/C. W. Post student newspaper as a feature writer and more recently, the Glamour Puss Award from Hartz Corporation for my article on grooming that appeared on Catster.com. I’ve published a short mystery in the Cat Crimes Through Time Anthology and two novels, Cloudy Rainbow and A Stone’s Throw. The latter was published by Limitless Publishing, November 2015. The sequel to this book, tentatively titled, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, has recently been signed with Solstice Publishing. I am also at work on a psychological thriller. I live on Long Island with my husband, daughter, and two cats.

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Posted in Author Spotlight