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Give 'Double Play' for Christmas

“Double Play” by Fairmont author Marshall Scott Shields makes an excellent Christmas gift for family and friends. This unique, two-for-one mystery continues the exploits of journalist-sleuths Rob and Jennie Covington in two complete novels contained in one bargain-priced volume.

In the first book, “Blue Light Night,” the Covingtons are at home on a sunny Sunday morning when a strange little girl shows up next door, asking for her mommy. While Jennie searches for the girl’s mother, Rob is drawn into the world of a serial killer whose bizarre methods leave female victims all around the greater Boston area.

In book two, “Out of the Darkness,” a well-known journalist goes missing, and the Covingtons follow a cleverly-disguised set of clues to track his whereabouts. Meanwhile, a man in a coma has a shocking revelation and an unexpected danger threatens both Rob and Jennie, bringing Detective Sammie Ellsworth into the case.

"Double Play" is available from Amazon by clicking this link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735448494

The Four Weeks of Halloween - Week 4

Today begins the last week of the Scott Shields Book Writer Four Weeks of Halloween celebration. To commemorate the occasion, everyone is encouraged to buy the last of my four books and read it between now and Halloween night, October 31.

Week 4: “Double Play” – This unique, two-for-one mystery continues the exploits of journalist-sleuths Rob and Jennie Covington in two complete novels contained in one bargain-priced volume.

In the first book, “Blue Light Night,” the Covingtons are at home on a sunny Sunday morning when a strange little girl shows up next door, asking for her mommy. While Jennie searches for the girl’s mother, Rob is drawn into the world of a serial killer whose bizarre methods leave female victims all around the greater Boston area.

In book two, “Out of the Darkness,” a well-known journalist goes missing, and the Covingtons follow a cleverly-disguised set of clues to track his whereabouts. Meanwhile, a man in a coma has a shocking revelation and an unexpected danger threatens both Rob and Jennie, bringing Detective Sammie Ellsworth into the case.

Double Play:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735448494

I hope you enjoyed these mysteries in the run-up to All Hallows Eve. Thanks for reading, and have a frightfully freaky and fun-filled Halloween.

The Four Weeks of Halloween

Today continues the first official Scott Shields Book Writer Four Weeks of Halloween celebration. To commemorate the occasion, everyone is encouraged to buy my four books and read one each week leading up to Halloween night, October 31.

Week 3: “The Last Case” -- Stanford Bell is a private detective known to the world as "Taco." He is also very dead. His friend, police Lieutenant Hanrahan, finds his body in Taco's office and sets out to discover how Taco became dead, who killed him and why. Through his own narrative, Taco introduces a tall, beautiful former athlete with amber eyes who hires him to find a missing object stolen from her apartment. Taco and his client follow a seemingly random string of numbers and letters they believe will lead them to the stolen property.

The Last Case:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735448451

Excerpt #3: Out of the Darkness (from Double Play)

In late April, David Flynn had entered Emil Rosenberg’s office just before lunch and helped himself to a chair in front of his editor’s desk. Rosenberg had his back turned and spun around when he heard the creak of the leather chair. “Make yourself at home, why don’t you?” he said to Flynn. “Is there something I can do for you? Coffee? Coke? How about a sandwich?” He shot a rubber band at Flynn’s chest.

“I have a story,” Flynn said, somewhat breathlessly. “It could be a blockbuster, Emil. Maybe another Pulitzer, I don’t know. But it’s big, man. It’s really big.”

Never one to hold back, this was the way Flynn approached every story he pursued, but Rosenberg thought something seemed different this time. He’d never seen Flynn quite this excited before. He sat back in his chair, clasped his hands behind his head and looked Flynn up and down before he spoke. “Another Pulitzer, you say,” he said to Flynn. “You really think you’ve got the kind of story that will win us another prize?”

“I do,” Flynn said. And then he unfolded the story to his boss.

Excerpt #2: Out of the Darkness (from Double Play)

After finishing with the newspaper, Rob lay back in his chair and closed his eyes while Jennie thumbed through the pages. She wasn’t really reading anything, just scanning a few headlines and checking out the ads for fall clothes, but stopped abruptly when she got to page 7 and saw something odd in the lower right-hand corner of the page.

“Look at this ad, Rob,” Jennie said. “This is very strange.”

The two-column boxed advertisement included a small photo of a rocky coastline beach and the words, “Happy birthday, Anthanella. Thinking of those nights on Flintucket Sound.”

“So what’s so weird about that?” Rob asked.

“Well, two things,” Jennie said. “First, remember last year when I went to Boston for that television interview with Selina Alvarez? About our second book? That same day, the TV station was taping a panel discussion on government corruption in the Boston area and one of the panelists was David Flynn. I told you he was there that day, didn’t I? Well, he and the others were standing around awaiting their turn on set when my interview finished, and he walked over and introduced himself. He said he had read both of our books and liked them very much. He told me he was planning a book of his own and was influenced by our journalistic writing style. He also said his wife especially liked the book about the girl on the ferry because she had been a bit shy and restrained growing up, like Mellie Swinson in our book, and could identify with some of the issues the girl had faced.” 

“OK, so what’s the point?”

“The point is, he said his wife’s name was Anthanella,” Jennie said. “It’s pretty hard to forget a name like that. He said it was a family name that went back to medieval Ireland or Scotland or some such thing and that other women in her family had had that name in the past.”

“OK, so there’s another Anthanella in the world,” Rob said, “or maybe somebody knows Flynn’s wife and is wishing her a happy birthday … like maybe a relative or something.”

“Seriously, Rob, I said there were two weird things about the ad. The second one is, it talks about ‘those nights on Flintucket Sound.’”

“So?”

“So there is no such place as Flintucket Sound,” Jennie said. “It’s a fictional place in a novel by Charlotte Mains called Summers With My Lovers. I just finished reading it last week.”