The Evolution of Marcie Kane

Marcie Kane is, of course, the lead character in my Marcie Kane Thriller Collection. While the books stand alone through the collection, Marcie evolves. One reviewer recently commented that he was disappointed that her circumstance change from one book to the next, but isn’t that what life is about?

Without giving away the story, I wanted to write a little about the evolution of Marcie throughout the series.  Marcie is known to readers as a strong, independent woman who often finds herself in trouble. The reader is introduced to Marcie in the first book in the series, The Vanishing Wife,  where she is recently divorced from a professional basketball player whom she refers to as He Who Shall Not Be Named. She is enjoying her newfound freedom after the burden of a bad marriage.  She is witty, sarcastic and smart and that helps her try to track down her friend who has vanished from the face of the earth.

However, in the second book, A Perilous Question, the incident of the previous story has given her nightmares and she becomes more reckless as she stumbles upon a human trafficking ring. She is unsure of the direction her life should be taking. She is still trying to do the right thing by contributing money to fund an orphanage in Africa when she finds out that some of  the girls are being spirited away. She foolishly tries to do too much on her own until a love interest enters her life and calms things down.

The third book in the series finds Marcie in a better place – more relaxed and ready to settle down. She helps her new fiancé, FBI Special Agent Nathan Harris, solve a crime using her brain.  She is a little older and perhaps a little wiser as her life takes off in another direction.  With the help of Nathan, she finds a career she loves, but still manages to find trouble.  

She will continue on in a fourth book, tentatively entitled Flight Risk, in which new life challenges and dangers  will be presented to her. How will she react when her life is turned upside down? We will have to see when the book is released in 2020.

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Cynthia the Centipede

For those who have read Remote Access, you may remember a reference to Cynthia the Centipede. Here is how that came about.

While I was writing the book in 2017, we had the good fortune to spend some time in Barbados with good friends Brian and Jean. They had visited this beautiful island many times and they showed us around extensively. One day Brian introduced us to the Marizayra Sanctuary and its owner/operator Ryan. There were many amazing local birds and animals, but one that really made an impression was Cynthia the Centipede, an 11-inch behemoth that enjoyed eating mice among other things. I had never seen anything like her so she had to make a cameo appearance in Remote Access.

Sadly, Brian’s lovely wife Jean passed away in 2018, but Brian returned to Barbados this year with a signed copy of Remote Access for Ryan. This is what happened, in Brian’s words:

“I gave Ryan the book and when he read the relevant passage he got quite emotional and teared up a bit. He asked me to thank you very much, he will treasure your book.”

So, what happened to Cynthia? Brian followed up with Rashid, one of Ryan’s employees and asked about her. Brian reported the following: “He said she died about a year ago. So I enquired about the smaller one. “Cynthia ate her” he replied with a bit of a grin, “I was a few hours late feeding her one day”.

Brian added, “In a way I’m not too upset. She was a bit too close to the house for comfort!!!”

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Cover Reveal

The readers have spoken. Some fans of the Marcie Kane Thriller Collection were shown options for the cover of my upcoming novella featuring Nathan Harris. I’m thrilled to reveal the winning cover below.

Never So Alone takes the reader back in time before Nathan meets Marcie. He is an FBI Special Agent on an undercover assignment to find the kingpins of a meth operation. His assignment initially takes him to a small town in Manitoba, Canada where things go horribly wrong.

Stay tuned. Never So Alone will be released very soon.

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