"Gripping" - THE FRAGILE ONES by Jennifer Chase
“Please Mommy, can Tessa and I go play on the swing by the creek?” the little girl begs, pushing a blonde curl from her eyes. “We’ll stay together, and we promise to be safe.” Hours later, their mother waits anxiously for her darling girls to arrive home with a list of reasons why they are late. But the front door never opens…
The Fragile Ones
When the bodies of eleven and twelve-year-old sisters, Tessa and Megan, are found at the bottom of a ravine—dressed in matching pastel summer outfits, their small bodies broken from the fall—Detective Katie Scott is called to one of the most shocking and heartbreaking crime scenes of her career.
Carefully picking through the fragile remains, Katie makes the first of many disturbing discoveries: the girls were not biological sisters. The youngest, Megan, is a DNA match to a kidnapping case years before. The tiny number burnt into her skin the mark of a terrifying killer intent on keeping count of his collection.
Her PTSD from the army triggered, Katie is left reeling as she maps other missing children in the local area. Has this twisted soul found a way to stay nearby his victims? Could he be watching now as Katie hits one dead end after another?
A wild storm building, matching a fiber found during the autopsy to a nearby boatyard is the break Katie needs. But when another girl goes missing, just as lightning strikes and the power goes out, Katie only has her instincts, her team and her service dog to rely on. As time runs out for Katie to finds the stolen child alive, who will become the next number on this monster’s deadly list?
Fans of Lisa Regan, Rachel Caine and Melinda Leigh, you better buckle-up for the ride of your life! BEWARE – this gripping crime thriller is guaranteed to keep you up all night!
". . . truly a gripping mystery and suspense novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final page." —Readers' Favorite
In the author's words . . .
A Q&A with Jennifer Chase
B&B: Please join us in welcoming Jennifer Chase, with her latest suspense novel, THE FRAGILE ONES! It sounds like an exciting and thrilling ride filled with surprises and unexpected twists. Without further ado, here is Jennifer Chase.
Does writing energize or exhaust you? How or why?
This is a great question. The easy answer is writing crime thrillers exhaust me, but the correct answer is that it energizes and exhausts me. Both. I love what I do and I'm energized to write crime fiction in order to bring the stories to life, but at the same time it's exhausting. High tension, action, and close calls for my lead characters make it extremely fun but tiring. I usually need a break after writing a high tension scene.
In your words, can you tell us a little more about The Fragile Ones?
Detective Katie Scott is an ex-military K9 handler, who has only recently returned home to Pine Valley and is still settling back into regular life. She brought home with her K9 partner, Cisco, and unfortunately the aftermath of PTSD she struggles with. Now, Katie heads the Cold Case Unit for the Pine Valley Sheriff's Department with one partner, Deputy Sean McGaven in the crime thriller The Fragile Ones.
As a favor for the sheriff and mayor of Pine Valley, Katie escorts a documentary team to some of the most rural areas in the mountains to obtain footage of ghost towns. Everything stops when the bodies of eleven and twelve-year-old sisters, Tessa and Megan, are found at the bottom of a ravine—dressed in matching pastel summer outfits, their small bodies broken from the fall—it's one of the most shocking and heartbreaking crime scenes of her career.
Following various clues and dead ends in The Fragile Ones, the investigation takes Katie and her partner to a small town of Rock Creek where the town isn't cooperating and more children go missing. With a storm of the century building, Katie and her partner are trapped in the small town with the killer. Can she stop the killer from taking another child before it's too late? Can she stop her PTSD from complicating the investigation?
What story are you working on next, and what inspired it?
I've just completed the next adventure for Detective Katie Scott, book #6, which will be out in August. My avid studies and degrees in forensics and criminology has always been my driving inspiration to write crime fiction. I love to create a story with fresh and entertaining forensics. I'm also working on a novella with my other series of Emily Stone who is a vigilante detective.
Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
This is an interesting question and one that I haven't really thought much about until recently. I receive many questions and posts about Cisco, Katie's K9 from the military. Most want him in the story more. I can't complain, I love writing about K9 work. Also, I've received many questions about the love interests in Katie's life—which way it might go. I mostly write original, but I do take into consideration now what readers might want to see in the next Detective Katie Scott thriller.
Enjoy an Excerpt from
The Fragile Ones
PROLOGUE
“Please can we go?” whined Tessa as she followed her mother through the living room and into the kitchen. “Please,” she said again, pushing her blonde curls away from her eyes. “I really want to go to the swing by the creek.”
“Not by yourself,” countered Mrs. Mayfield, ignoring her daughter’s angry stare. “We’ve talked about this before.”
“Yes, and you said I couldn’t go alone, and I’m not. Megan will be with me.” Tessa’s older sister was barely a year older and her best friend. Her mother began emptying the dishwasher, putting plates and glasses away in the cabinet. It was unclear if she was thinking about what Tessa had said or not, so she tried again. “I’m almost eleven and Megan is almost twelve.
We’re practically teenagers,” she said. “Besides, Janey and her brother will probably be there.”
Mrs. Mayfield laughed. “You know, you would be a good lawyer the way you make your case.”
“I don’t want to be a lawyer. I’m going to be a vet,” Tessa said, grinning.
“Well, I know you are going to be whatever you want to be.” Mrs. Mayfield laughed to herself as she slipped the last piece of silverware into the drawer and turned to face her daughter. At the sound of her name, Megan had joined Tessa in the doorway and they both stood quietly waiting for an answer. Glancing at the wall clock with a sigh, she said, “You both have to be back by four thirty, not a second later. Understand?”
“Thank you! Thank you!” Tessa said, grabbing her sister’s hand in glee. Both girls were in denim shorts and pastel T-shirts with their favorite matching blue sneakers.
“Be home on time,” their mom called after them.
“We will,” chimed the girls.
Mrs. Mayfield heard the front door shut, followed by the sound of running footsteps.
She smiled and went back to her chores as the afternoon ticked by.
At 4:45 p.m. Mrs. Mayfield was waiting impatiently to hear the girls enter the house with a list of a dozen reasons why they were late—but the front door never opened. An hour after that, unable to wait any longer, she looked outside, thinking that the girls might be in the yard.
Debris from a croquet set littered the lawn; the wooden mallets abandoned and colored balls scattered as if the girls had been playing only moments ago. The trampoline in the corner had one of the girls’ bright blue sweatshirts hanging on the edge. It swayed slightly in the breeze.
There was no sign of them.
She ran through the house to the backyard, but it, too, was deserted. No whispers. No giggles. No shrieks of laughter. The wind was picking up and whistling through the branches and leaves of the surrounding trees—almost whispering a warning.
Mrs. Mayfield pulled off her apron and reached for her coat, deciding to walk to the creek and bring the girls back herself. At this point, she was more angry than concerned, knowing how they could be forgetful when they were having fun, and often lost track of time.
But surely they would be on their way home by now? she thought to herself as her pace quickened from a fast walk to a jog. Against her better judgment, and knowing that she couldn’t shelter them forever, she had crumbled and let them go down to the creek where one of the neighboring boys had constructed a swing that they loved to play on.
And now fear ripped through her body. “Tessa!” she yelled. “Megan!” Terrible scenarios shuffled through her thoughts as she tried desperately to keep her emotions on an even keel.
“Tessa! Megan!”
She yelled their names over and over until her voice went hoarse. Her chest felt strangely heavy and her vision blurred as she ran, but her strength and mother’s instinct pushed her forward, down the trail leading to the creek. The trail was well-worn by local kids looking for adventure and fun. Stumbling as she ran, she frantically turned left and then right. There wasn’t a soul around… She was alone. She kept moving.
Looking up at the tall pine trees, everything spun in a dizzying blur of forest and darkening sky. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and open again, then stopped for a moment to listen.
The swing was only visible at the bottom of the path just above the creek and she could hear the water rushing below. Peering over the edge, there was no sign of them—or anyone. She kept turning, expecting to see her girls everywhere she looked. They weren’t there. All around her were discarded candy wrappers and remnants of fast food containers. Proof that children played here often.
There was no sound apart from the whisper of the trees. No children laughing nearby.
“Megan! Tessa!” she yelled again, but there was only silence. She ran all the way up the trail to the street, still calling their names in a full-blown panic.
Mrs. Mayfield turned her attention up the road, her mother’s instinct in high gear. Something blue lying beneath a bush caught her eye and she ran towards it.
She leaned down and her hand trembled over the light blue canvas before she forced herself to grab the abandoned blue sneaker.
“No,” she said, barely breathing.
Written on the side tread of the shoe with a thick black pen was one word: Tessa.
End of Excerpt
Excerpt Copyright (c) Jennifer Chase.
The Author
Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning and USA Today bestselling crime fiction author, as well as a consulting criminologist. Jennifer holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master's degree in criminology & criminal justice. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent psychopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells. In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling. She is an affiliate member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists, and member of the International Thriller Writers.
Website: https://authorjenniferchase.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jchasenovelist
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenniferChase
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2780337.Jennifer_Chase
Genre: Crime Thriller
Type: Novel
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication Date: March 8, 2021
Content Rating: PG-13
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