Smorgasbord Free Book Promotions 2023- Share an Excerpt from one of your published books – #Psychological #Thriller – Warning Signs by Carol Balawyder

In this series you are invited to share an excerpt of 500 words from any of your published books .

This feature is for any author who has been promoted on Smorgasbord previously.

Please read full details of how to participate at the end of the post.

The aim of the series

1. 1. To showcase your book and sell some more copies.
   2. Gain more reviews for the book.
   3. Promote a selection of your other books that are available

The featured author today is Carol Balawyder  – with an excerpt from her psychological thriller – Warning Signs: A novel about Obsession.

About the book

Eugene’s research into his criminal mind is not about the why, but how to prevent his horrific crimes. Angie, a young woman starving for passion sees Eugene as her saviour from a lonely life of caring for her heroin addicted mother. How far is she willing to go in order to save her relationship with Eugene and his promise for a future together?

Detective Van Ray is out on a vindictive mission as he attempts to solve the murders of young girls in Youth Protection.

Their lives collide in a mixture of mistrust, obsession and ignoring the warning signs. A psychological thriller about human frailty and loneliness.

Excerpt from Warning Signs.

In his fifteen years as a homicide detective, Van Ray had faced plenty of heartbreaking situations where he had to be the bearer of bad news: I’m sorry to say that we found your son’s body…there’s been an accident and your wife…your daughter…your husband… your mother... None of these came close to matching the sorrow and helplessness he felt holding his dying sister’s hand.

“I’m here, Lindsay,” he said when the staff wheeled her back into the room after her tests. “I’m going to sit in the chair next to you. You’re not alone.” His saying these words reminded him of something he’d read a few years back about a cat who lived in a nursing home and was able to predict when a patient was close to death. The cat, typically and otherwise unfriendly to humans, could sense that a patient was about to die and would lie on their bed comforting them until they took their last breath. Van Ray wiped a tear that had fallen on his cheek. He was Lindsay’s cat.

What kind of God would allow a thirty-six-year-old to die? What kind of God would allow serial killers to meaninglessly take away young lives? If there was nothing after life, all of this was nothing more than chaos. A young Asian nurse holding a square plastic bag of medication entered the room. With her, was a doctor Van Ray hadn’t seen before.

“If we stop her medication, she’ll die in an hour or so,” the doctor said.

“And if you give her more medication?”

“It’ll just take a few more hours for her to die. As long as the medication is there it keeps her artificially alive. Her system has shut down.”

Darren wished he had some kind of belief. It didn’t have to be in the ever after Paradise but just even the slightest wisp of hope that this was not the end. A mere transition would do. The kind of godly plan that would reassure him. But he felt only numbness. “Stop the medication,” he said.

“She’ll die naturally. But we’ll still keep the morphine going so she doesn’t feel any pain.”

For the next forty minutes he stood beside his sister watching her vital signs diminish. “I really hope that you’re going to meet God. I want so much to believe this,” he said, his hand on her skinny arm. Tears fell on her hospital jacket. The monitor registered flat. It was over. He lay his head on her mattress next to her body and stayed like that until a nurse came in and told him that she needed to clean the body.

Back in his sister’s apartment, he jumped into the shower allowing the hot water to beat on his anger-filled muscles. Angry that the medical system hadn’t been able to help his sister, angry that Maggie left him, angry at his stepdaughters for not getting in touch with him, angry that a killer roamed the streets, free to attack.

©Carol Balawyder

One of the reviews for the book

Jacqui Murray VINE VOICE  5.0 out of 5 stars Unique psychologic thriller you won’t want to miss if you love this genre  Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸

Carol Ballawyder’s Warning Signs (2019) is the saga of Niko Nishevsky, aka Eugene Monroe, a twisted serial killer who is driven to murder vulnerable teenage girls and then examine why he does it. His reasons for killing seem similar to other famous serial killers but maybe not exactly the same:

“I feel no pleasure. No sorrow either, not at the time of the killing. My mind goes into a trance in which the feeling of empathy overwhelms me. It’s not as if another person has invaded me and I have no control over that person. I never feel so much in control as at that moment.”

When the police seem unable to stop him, Niko reaches out to them with a series of notes, hoping to educate them in a way that might assist in their efforts to find him. Unexpectedly, he finds himself drawn to a twenty-something woman who he sees as outside of his pathologic drive to kill, which becomes part of his research: Why others but not her?

As I read this book, I realized it was a completely unique story. Never before have I read the story of a serial killer who dispassionately analyzes his own illness. Ballawyder cites the best literature on the subject, educating me as Niko educates himself on the broken mind of a serial killer:

“He continued with his list. Lack of remorse or shame. “Yes, that’s me. But how does that explain the work of a psychopath?” he asked himself.”

Ballawyder’s writing style is similarly analytic which manages to place me at arm’s length from many of the most disturbing aspects of serial killers. Because of that, where I often have difficulty reading psychological thrillers–because they put me too much into the horrid actions–in this story, I managed to stand aside and watch, away from the blood and horror. I’m not sure I’m saying this as well as I might but the end result was that I found the story easier to read and more enjoyable than many others in this genre.

Ballawyder always writes engaging drama. This book is highly recommended for fans of murder mysteries and psychological thrillers. 

Read the reviews and buy the book : Amazon US  and: Amazon UK – And: Amazon CA

A selection of books by Carol Balawyder

Read reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK –  And: Amazon CA – Read more reviews : Goodreads – Website – Carol Balawyder – LinkedIn: Carol Balawyder

About Carol Balawyder

I hold an undergraduate degree with a major on English Literature and a graduate degree in Criminology. I taught Criminology in Police Technology and Corrections programs in Montreal. My area of expertise was in drug addiction and I worked in a methadone clinic with heroin addicts. I helped set up a writing workshop for women in prison and worked in halfway homes and drug rehab centers.

My short stories have appeared in Room Magazine, The Canadian Anthology of Fiction, Mindful.or, Between the Lines and Carte Blanche. I was awarded an honorary mention for a play submitted to The Canadian Playwright Competition.

I manage a blog where I write about: Women Nobel Prize Winners for Literature, Famous Writers’ Desks, Femmes Fatales, India, Book Reviews and my dog, Bau.

What will be in the post and how to get in touch

• • • • I will top and tail the post in the usual way with your other books and links, bio, photo and social media.
      • I will also select a review from Amazon or Goodreads that I feel has the best selling pitch for the book.
      • Please share a book that has reviews to select from.
        
      • This series is open to all authors who have previously been featured in the promotions on Smorgasbord.
      • I do have a younger readership for the book posts so please consider that when selecting your excerpt.
      • I suggest an excerpt of 500 words that you feel would encourage a reader to buy the book, or a poem that you feel best reflects the theme of your collection.
      • No need to send the cover as I will have that or will access from Amazon.
      • Please send your excerpt to sally.cronin@moyhill.com
      • I only ask that authors share the link to their social media and respond to each comment individually as a matter of courtesy.

 

Thank you for dropping in today and I hope you will be leaving with some books.. Sally.