SnowMan

To my characters in Against Their Will, family is important in different ways. Not only are the relationships that are typically formed between family members an important part of what the characters do and experience, but the genetic map they carry also has implications that not many people take time to consider. But genetic composition as well as relationships are two foundations on which families are built.

I attended a family reunion today. I really enjoy getting together with this group of people from my mother’s father’s family. We have much in common; we laugh, we catch up and we joke about the changes in our lives, mostly on how we’re getting old way too fast! It occurred to me, however, that family really does influence our lives and having one is not something to take for granted. While we are all born of biological parents, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we automatically have a family. Deaths occur, marriages never happen or are dissolved, children are abandoned or adopted. Many things happen in life that disrupt the flow of life via the biological family. Even non-biological families can suffer from dysfunction, or can thrive through good relationships. It is a sense of belonging to another, however, that drives so many on a quest for family in one way or another.

Lack of family is what drives Lynn McCaine in Against Their Will. As we meet her in the opening of the story, she is distraught over things she has learned about her family. She is frantic to return to the only family she knows at the time, her cat. Her search for family is a driving force motivating her to set out on a quest for knowledge. That quest costs more than her life.

Matt Grayson has a loving family. And, he is blessed to be able to appreciate them in the present. Like most of us, he takes them for granted from time to time. But, when it’s crunch time, they are there for him and him for them.

While family is an underlying theme in Against Their Will, a parallel theme is that of being there for and supporting others in our lives. When Matt and Lynn’s ill fated flight ends in flames in East Texas, Matt Grayson doesn’t stop to think about any danger he may be in, or the non-existence of a relationship with the woman in the seat beside him with violet eyes and independent hair. He is focused on one thing, making sure he gets her out alive. Why would a stranger do something like that?

How many of us would do the same? Why would we? What’s in it for us? What drives Matt to do what he does?

Against Their Will by Nancy Livingstone

Will He? is my third mystery.  It required a great deal of research so I feel that my writing is evolving; hopefully, improving.  If only I could gain more exposure for this book.  I already have my next one published.  A romance entitled, Till Heaven Then Forever.

Looking for a quick read?  A good but short mystery that you can escape into for a day at the beach or a few afternoons on the hammock or in your favorite recliner?  Either Fake Pastor or Widows Indeed might be just what you’re looking for. 

In Fake Pastor, the first in the Rose Jackson Series, you will meet Rose, a 32 year old single Mom of two children living in North Central Arkansas and temporarily unemployed.  A job opens up, one that she has no training, education or experience for, but it is so intriguing.  They need a pastor at the Church of the Cross.  OK, she wasn't positive that there was a God, but she could certainly be a good pastor, couldn't she?  And, for awhile, it is the perfect job, until three of her parishioners are killed.  Is Rose herself involved?  After all, she is the one who has visions that get two people arrested.  Then, Rose is kidnapped. 

Widows Indeed is also a murder mystery, but takes place in New Hampshire on the Sugar River near Sunapee Lake where I grew up.  (Arkansas is where I ended up.)  In the sleepy little fictional town of Elmsdale, an elderly woman is found with her throat slit - the blood drained from her body into the ground.  She is over seventy, a pillar of the community.  Who would want to kill an elderly widow?  And shortly after, another widow is killed in exactly the same way.  Two detectives from a nearby city head to Elmsdale to help the local police chief, Frank Tolliver, solve the crimes.  Is there a local pervert turned serial killer loose in this seemingly quiet and peaceful New Hampshire town?  Pete one of the detectives thinks so.  In fact he has decided that Garth Baxter, a man with downs syndrome, is the killer.  While Pete blusters ahead to prove his theory, his partner, Judy Wittoski and Frank delve deeper into the killings looking for a connection between the killing of old ladies and that of a young girl, an 18 year old, who was raped and killed several years ago.  She was left in the same place as one of the widows, and the cut to the throat is all but identical.  The girl was Frank's daughter. 

You can see a sample of the books at Book Daily, bit.ly/ZzzmL9 or on my website www.frantouchette.com or to buy a print or eBook go to  amzn.to/VQ84V6