Thursday 13 February 2020

New Release Spotlight & Exclusive Extract: Rage and Retribution by Lorraine Mace



Rage and Retribution by Lorraine Mace

Can two wrongs ever make a right?
A man is found by the side of a canal, comatose and brutally attacked.
It quickly becomes clear that someone is abducting men and subjecting them to horrific acts of torture. After three days they're released, fighting for their lives and refusing to speak.
A councillor is accused of fraud.
Montague Mason is an upstanding member of the community. That is until he's publicly accused of stealing the youth centre's funds - an accusation that threatens to rip through the very heart of the community and expose his best-kept secret. But how far would he go to protect himself?
Two cases. One deadly answer.
As the two cases collide, D.I. Paolo Sterling finds he has more questions than answers. And, when torture escalates to murder, he suddenly finds himself in a race against time to find the killer and put an end to the depravity - once and for all.

Extract for Ellesea Loves Reading
Detective Inspector Paolo Sterling has been heavily involved in fundraising for the Bradchester Youth Centre and was asked to unveil the plaque.
As the applause died down, he picked up the scissors from the lectern and turned to face the velvet curtain covering the plaque.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce the reopening of Bradchester’s Youth Centre,” he said, cutting the ribbon and allowing the purple cover to fall.
The gasp from the assembled audience was almost deafening. Defacing the plaque in vivid red letters were the words: MASONS A CRUK
Paolo turned back into the glare of flashing lights as the press photographers fired off shot after shot. The reporters clamoured forward, shooting questions without giving him chance to answer.
“What do you know about this?”
“Are you going to investigate?”
“Did this come as a surprise to you?”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Will you arrest Councillor Mason?”
“Is there money missing? If yes, why haven’t you arrested the councillor?”
Paolo held up his hands in the classic position of surrender and shouted to be heard over the cacophony.
“At the moment I know as much about this as you do.”
A strident voice interrupted him. “I repeat: are you going to investigate? Did you know money was missing? After all, you were the main fundraiser.”
Paolo couldn’t see beyond the flashing bulbs, but recognised the voice and sighed. A query that loaded could only have come from Gordon Hennessy, muckraker supreme for the Bradchester Sport. He should have known that piece of slime would put the worst possible interpretation on anything to do with the centre.
“Yes, there will be an investigation, but as of this moment I have no reason to suspect the councillor of any wrongdoing. This could simply be an attempt to smear his name by someone bearing a grudge.”
“Is it true the councillor is a friend of yours? Is that why you’re so quick to defend him?”
Paolo looked through the glare to the spot from where he thought the last question had been yelled.
“I am not defending anyone, Mr Hennessy. I have said there will be an investigation and there will be one. However, at this moment all we have is an accusation scrawled in what looks like lipstick. Until I find evidence of wrongdoing, it would be premature of me to accuse anyone of a crime. However, to answer your question, no, Councillor Mason and I are not friends. We do not socialise and have only come together on this project. Outside of this, we have no contact. I trust that puts your mind at rest.”
Paolo permitted himself an inward smile. Far from being friends, he and Montague Mason had locked horns on just about every aspect of the renovation project, but he had no intention of sharing that with the press – the gutter variety or the more responsible kind.
He held his hands up again and kept them in the air until the noise abated.
“Gentlemen and ladies of the press, clearly there is something here for me to look into, even it is nothing more than a case of defamation of character. I’m afraid I must ask you all to clear the hall as I need to close this area off to allow tests to be taken of the substance on the plaque. Perhaps you would like to make your way to the cafeteria, where I believe refreshments have been laid on for this evening.”

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When not working on her D.I. Sterling Series, Lorraine Mace is engaged in many writing-related activities. She is a columnist for both Writing Magazine and Writers' Forum and is head judge for Writers’ Forum monthly fiction competitions. A tutor for Writers Bureau, she also runs her own private critique and author mentoring service. She is co-author, with Maureen Vincent-Northam, of THE WRITER'S ABC CHECKLIST (Accent Press). Other books include children’s novel VLAD THE INHALER - HERO IN THE MAKING, and NOTES FROM THE MARGIN, a compilation of her Writing Magazine humour column.