Blood Relatives by Sherry Derr-Wille #MFRWauthor #AHAgrp

Happy Friday! Today I have Sherry Derr-Wille visiting my blog. She is sharing a little humorous story about her pen pal from England and French Toast. She's also sharing an excerpt from her book, Blood Relatives, a Suspense Thriller!  

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​As I was thinking about a funny incident, I remember when my pen pal from England, Frances Neal Calman came to visit us a year after we were married. I fixed French toast for breakfast. As slooked at the egg-dipped bread, fried on a griddle and served with syrup, she didn’t quite know what to say. She told me being British, she had never mixed sweets and savories. The sweet being the syrup and the savory the bread dipped in egg. Once she tried it, she fell in love. Many years later when I went to visit her, she requested I bring her a bottle of syrup.

In my book Mistaken Identity, I played out the same scene when Seth and Katelyn's four-year-old nephew makes Katelyn a breakfast of French toast. Her reply is that she never had it because her parents’ cook was very British and wouldn’t allow them to ever mix sweets and savories. 

Whenever I read that scene, I think of Frankie and the first time she tasted French toast. We had a lot of laughs during that visit. Altogether Frankie and I have gotten together five times, two times when she came to visit us, two times when I went to London to visit her and once when she came to Chicago. We went down on the train to spend the day with her. We have a very special friendship.
 

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That reminds me of something, Sherry. I remember going to Canada and ordering French Toast and they served it with an egg sandwiched between 2 french breads toasted!  It's funny about different cultures, isn't it?  Tell us a little about Blood Relatives.

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Blurb: When Lissa Adams flew to Chicago to be with her father, she never thought she’d become involved in a vendetta between a mob family, the Chicago police force, and her cousin, Detective Paul Bastion.

Paul Bastion was in seclusion until his uncle suffered a heart attack. Once he came back to Chicago to be with his family, he knew he’d also be testifying against Antonio Vargas.

When Paul is kidnapped and Lissa badly beaten, he knows he’s living his last hours. The cost of his return is freedom for the drug lord. Even if Vargas is freed, Paul knows he’ll lose his life.
 
Excerpt:
The parking garage for the hospital seemed to be deserted. Lissa was glad she was with Paul. Going to places like this by herself usually creeped her out.
Since their parking pass had been stamped, there would be no charge, allowing them to leave the parking area without having to pay. After they cleared the tollbooth, she gasped with shock as someone grabbed her from behind and put a knife to her neck.
She trembled as she heard the voice in the seat behind her.
“Just do as we say, Bastion, and the little lady won’t get hurt.”
Lissa blamed herself for what was going on. If she hadn’t been with Paul, he might have been more careful about getting into his car even though it was locked. He always prided himself on his ‘cop sense’. It was entirely possible the events of the last two days had made him careless.
“Everything is going to be alright,” Paul said.
She knew he was trying to put her at ease.
“Cut the chatter Bastion. Just drive,” the man in the back seat ordered.
Lissa could feel the cold blade of the knife pressing against her throat as Paul followed the instructions on where to drive. She watched the familiar streets give way to the countryside, and at last Paul was instructed to pull off onto a side road leading to a wayside by the lake.
In front of her, she saw a black SUV parked crossways the road so they couldn’t see the license plate.
“Now get out,” the man holding the knife ordered.
Paul glanced at her but was silent, his lips drawn into a hard straight line as he got out of the car and was met by two men wearing ski masks. It was then the knife was removed and duct tape was placed over her eyes.
“What do you want with us?” she pleaded
“Shut up, bitch, and get out of the car.”
 Unable to see, she felt the cold air as the door was opened and someone roughly pulled her outside.
“You will go with us, Bastion, but not before you see what happens to your girlfriend.”
“She’s not…”
Lissa heard the thud of a punch being delivered to Paul’s midsection, at least that’s what she thought it was. She had little time to contemplate that as she was thrown against the car and her own beating began. One of the men hit her with what she could only guess was his fist, and she heard the bone in her nose break. Stunned, she could feel blood pouring over her lip before another punch, this time to her jaw, produced a pain like none she’d felt, even in childbirth.
 Her last conscious memory was of Paul shouting, “Nooooo…”
 
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Relatives-Sherry-Derr-Wille-ebook/dp/B072N6X83L/
Paperback exclusively from the publisher’s website: http://www.classactbooks.com/component/virtuemart/cat-murder-mystery-suspense/blood-relatives-8182017-06-14-21-49-06-detail?Itemid=

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This story certainly has my interest. I'll just have to get it and add it to my TBR list. Tell us about Sherry!

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​Sherry lives in a mid-sized Southern Wisconsin with her husband of 46 years, whom she deems a saint for putting up with a crazy writer.
 
With three children, seven grandchildren, more book signings than she can sometimes handle, she puts out four to five books a year and loves writing in her hot pink office.
 
Sherry’s latest novel for Class Act Books is Blood Relatives, a suspense thriller.
 
Find more information about Sherry at:
 
Website: www.derr-wille.com
Blog: www.derr-wille.blogspot.com 

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Thanks so much for stopping by, Sherry. Your book certainly sounds great, and I hope you have great success with it.

If you are a visitor, please leave us a comment and let us know you stopped by. We love to hear from our readers!

Thanks
Connie

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