I'm going to share a snippet today from "The Mortician's Wife". This is a paranormal mystery novel that sounds ideal for Halloween. Enjoy the snippet!
Book Excerpt
At the sound of breaking glass every single kid I’d gone
trick-or-treating with scattered into the night. All, except for me. I’m the
kind of person who freezes with fear.
When the rock shattered the window on the floor just
above the funeral hall level a strong blast of nasty, hateful air gushed out of
the broken window and headed right at me. It was so horrible knowing that each
breath I took carried that awful stuff into my body. I gagged and threw my arms
around like crazy, like if I tried hard enough I could make that disgusting
scent go away.
That’s when I saw the old lady at the window. I really, really
wanted to run away then but my body still wouldn’t let me go. Against my will,
I gazed up at the woman. She was carrying what looked like an old fashioned oil
lamp in one hand and what I figured was a piece of board, or maybe cardboard,
in her other. She placed the lamp on a table, and then quickly set the board
inside the window, covering up the hole the rock had created. The moment the
board covered the broken glass the putrid odor disappeared. A huge surge of
relief coursed through me and once again the air smelled of dry leaves and
sweet evergreens.
“I didn’t do it!”
I called, knowing in my heart that even if she heard me, she wouldn’t believe
me. But still, I had to try.
Yes, dear, I believe you.
I didn’t actually hear her words—they just seemed to pop
into my mind all on their own. It should have seemed odd, but things like that
had happened to me before so I pretty much took it for granted. What did
startle me though, was that she didn’t seem angry at me.
With the only light coming from the kerosene lamp behind
her, I can’t honestly say I could see that much of her face. Yet, I suddenly
felt her sorrow. For the briefest of moments, I was inside of her, feeling the
agony of her loneliness. I sensed a sadness too deep for a child of my age to
fully comprehend.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
I know, dear, her gentle words came into my mind.
This was really something new to me. All my life I’d heard other people’s
thoughts, but this was the first time someone else heard mine! I’d only whispered
that I was sorry. There was no way she could have actually heard my words. And
I was fairly certain it was way too dark on the street for her to read my lips.
Very gradually, the last semblance of fear left my body. The nasty air
had cleared away completely now.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of her and, apparently, she couldn’t stop
looking down at me. The two of us stood there for the longest time, although it
probably wasn’t as long as it seemed. Our gazes seemed locked until she finally
broke the spell.
You should go home now, little gypsy girl, her soft voice
whispered into my mind. It’s late and your friends have left you all alone.
I started to run then, but I’d gone only a few feet
before I stopped, turned and ran back. Reaching down into my heavy
trick-or-treat bag, I grabbed a handful of candy. She was still at the window
watching when I opened her mailbox and dropped the candy in. I gave her a
farewell wave then headed home in earnest.
I had a few more Halloweens in my hometown, but I never
spent any of them throwing rocks at the old mortuary’s windows.
The Mortician's Wife
Title:
The Mortician’s Wife
Author:
Maralee Lowder
Genre: Horror,
Paranormal
Horace Carpenter has it all…a lucrative business as the only
mortician in town, a home he can be proud of and a reputation of being one of
the most popular men in town. Maybe he
should be content with what he has. But
he wants more.
Ada Hawkins, the daughter of the town’s only physician has
lived a sheltered yet, privileged life.
When she meets Horace at her 18th birthday party, the shy,
physically plain girl is entranced by his good looks and suave manners. In six months they are married, and in less
than one week Ada suspects she has made the mistake of her life.
And that is where the story might have ended…should have
ended. Ada is to endure years of torment
until her husband commits the most unforgivable act possible. From that day forward she lives for one thing
only, not just to end the torment, but to do it in the hateful way possible.
She achieves her goal, only to discover true evil does not
die.
Author Bio
Maralee Lowder saw herself as strictly a writer of romance
novels…until she discovered a haunted old mortuary. There was something about
the place that simply would not let her go.
Was it really haunted? Were the
stories she’d heard true that when the last mortician’s wife died over fifty
years before no one had ever removed her possessions? That it remained exactly as it had been all
those years ago?
As could be expected, her curiosity drove her to seek
answers to those questions. And what she
saw when she was given a complete tour of the building, from the rooms on the
first floor where the mortician did his work, all the way to the fourth floor
apartment at the top of the building, inspired even more questions.
Being a writer of novels, rather than doing research on the
actual last mortician’s wife, she chose instead to let her imagination take
over, answering the question, why did she choose to stay all alone in the huge
building all those years? Was it
haunted? And if it was haunted, who
was doing the haunting, and why?
The answers to these questions are answered in Ms. Lowder’s
fictional book, The Mortician’s Wife. As
happens so often in a writer’s life, more questions came after she had finished
writing The Mortician’s Wife. Some of
the answers to those questions are answered in The Mortician’s Revenge, a
sequel to The Mortician’s Wife that will available in October, 2013.
Ms. Lowder is currently busy asking herself more questions.
Links
Title: Lalin Bonheur
