Spotlight - Ocean Park by Michael Walsh + GIVEAWAY

In the spotlight today, Ocean Park by Michael Walsh - a mystery with a dash of romance - plus a Giveaway!

TITLE:    Ocean Park

AUTHOR:    Michael Walsh
INFO:    Fiction, 246 pages
PUBLISHED:   Wild Rose Press, 2015
GENRE:  Mystery/Suspense  

ABOUT:  All Detective Matt Conley ever wanted was to raise a family in Ocean Park with his stunning and ambitious wife Lisa. When a corpse is found in his church, Matt begins a journey that reveals corruption and decay in his city and deceit in his marriage. As he searches for the murderer of a local businessman, a gang war erupts for control of the city’s drug trade, and the body count rises. With his reluctant new partner, Detective Lloyd Kendricks, Matt weaves his way through the puzzling connections between street gangs, politicians, bikers, and a private kink club.

Will their unlikely alliance be enough to return Matt's beloved hometown to its halcyon days? And will he find the faith he needs to rebuild his crumbling marriage?

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT:  He pointed the flashlight. The big candleholder lay flat on the floor, tall white candles broken and scattered on the marble. A child crouched behind it, her long dark hair and black clothes a stark contrast to the bone-white foundation of the Madonna statue. The girl was olive-skinned and refugee thin, with Asian eyes that tracked him like a cornered cat’s. She huddled closer to the stone base, a shivering creature curled into a question mark.

He fit the gun in the back of his waistband, laid the flashlight on the floor, and removed his jacket. She shrank farther away, pulling her high-topped sneakers under her. The flashlight lit the statue of St. Mary in flowing pastel robes—robin egg blue and flamingo pink, the nuns had always said—the life-size figurine that the little girls of St. Ambrose climbed wooden ladders to crown on Holy Saturday.

“It’s okay,” he said, opening his jacket. “Come.”

The church’s front doors opened. More flashlights. More voices.

“It’s all right,” he said to the girl. A drip splattered his bare forearm.

Jackson had composed himself and was standing at the entrance, calling orders to patrolmen. Doors banged. Men shouted.

Another drip made him look at the Madonna. Red tears ran from her pale doll eyes and sluiced between her plump plaster cheeks and noble nose like a grieving widow’s mascara.

No way.

The girl uncurled and shuffled to him. He wrapped her in his jacket, felt her warmth. The patrolmen were close now, and Father’s voice called a timid “Hello” from the sacristy. St. Ambrose’s lights came on, illuminating the crying Madonna, and dragging Conley into yesterday.

The choir organ bursts into song. Mrs. Kelly reads sheet music through butterfly glasses, a dozen shrill voices fluttering behind her. Young Father McCarrick climbs to the pulpit. St. Ambrose’s parishioners mumble “Peace be with you”, and minutes later do battle on the church steps when Mass is over, hurl accusations, and sow the seeds of hatred that will last years, all over a piece of plaster.

He looked at the statue and shook his head.

“Not again,” he whispered.

~~~~~

Ocean Park is available now at:  Amazon / Barnes & Noble

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Michael Walsh attended Boston University, where he became a staffer for the Daily Free Press and earned a degree in journalism. His first professional job was at a public relations and advertising firm, writing press releases that appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and New England Journal of Engineering. He later became a technical writer, writing and editing jet engine manuals for General Electric Aircraft Engines. GE relocated him to Cincinnati and Florida, where he currently resides. He’s written and studied fiction for years at BU, the University of Cincinnati, and now Jacksonville, where he won the First Coast Writers Festival short story contest and had work published in the UK’s Twisted Tongue and Askew Reviews. He’s an active member of the Bard Society, Florida’s longest-running writers’ workshop.

His five novels and dozens of short stories, most of them richly-layered mysteries, take place in New England. Mike and his wife Jean live in Florida with their three sons.


Michael is generously gifting one lucky winner a $25 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble! Be sure to enter below and check out all of the other tour stops:

November 2: Welcometo My World of Dreams

November 3: UnabridgedAndra's 
November 4: BooksChatter

November 5: TheVoluptuous Book Diva

November 6: Book-o-Craze

November 6: IndependentAuthors

November 9: Queenof All She Reads

November 10: One Book Shy of a Full Shelf

November 11: Reading,Writing, and What Not

November 12: TheReading Addict

November 12: Reviewsby Crystal

November 13: HarpsRomance Book Review

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