Your family, my family-STRANGERS SHE KNOWS is out now!

September 18, 2019

      “I put you in the master bedroom.” Their new housekeeper, Olympia, flung open the double doors. “It has an attached bathroom.”
      Kellen stepped in.
      Max followed.
      Kellen stopped cold.
      Max bumped into her.
      “Holy cow,” she said in awe and horror.
      The room was the size of the downstairs ballroom and featured the bed as a centerpiece. Placed on a raised platform, the four polished oak posts reached toward the tent-shaped, robin’s egg blue ceiling where, dangling from the highest point, was a large—no, extra large—Moroccan metal lamp.
      Kellen cleared her throat. “This looks like a combination of Arabian Nights and primitive phallic art.”
      Max choked on a cough. Or was it a laugh? “So, dear, not this room?”
      Kellen cast him a disgusted look and turned to Olympia. “Is there somewhere else we can rest our weary heads?”
      Olympia looked offended. “I was told to prepare the master bedroom.”
      “With one hundred rooms in this mansion, there must be something less…suggestive.” Kellen started back down the corridor, throwing open doors.
      Olympia hurried ahead of her. “That’s not necessary, Mrs. Di Luca, I have several suggestions. If you’re sure you don’t want—” She gestured back at the master bedroom.
      “I am so sure.”
      “I can certainly see who wears the pants in this family.” Olympia huffed her way to a wide door next to the master bedroom. “This also has an attached bathroom.”
      Kellen walked into a room decorated sparsely with tables and a few well-chosen sculptures of Japanese origin. The queen-sized bed hugged the interior wall and faced the windows where every morning Max and Kellen could watch the sun rise. “This will do.” Actually, Kellen quite liked it.
      “Yes, dear,” Max said meekly.
      “You can sleep in the master if you prefer.” Kellen looked daggers at him.
      “No, dear.”
      Kellen turned to Olympia. “Will you ask Dylan to bring our bags up here to our room?”
      Olympia huffed again and departed.
      Kellen turned on Max. “The pants in this family?”
      He laughed out loud.
      “Who says that? Who even thinks it?”
      He kept laughing, the crinkles around his eyes deepening, inviting her to laugh, too.
      So she did. “You didn’t help a bit!”
      He made a lunge for her, toppled her onto the bed, rolled on top of her, all warmth and weight and rocketing blood pressure. “Are you kidding? You should have seen your expression. It was priceless! And—”
      The door slammed back against the wall.
      They both jumped guiltily.
      Ten-year-old Rae stood there, glaring as if the wrathful face of puberty had taken form. “I don’t know what you think is so funny.”
      Max turned to Kellen. “This is who wears the pants in the family.”—

STRANGERS SHE KNOWS, out now!

Dear Ones,

Yes, STRANGERS SHE KNOWS is a Cape Charade suspense, and I should have sent a thrilling excerpt, but I couldn’t help it. As the mother of two daughters, this scene had enough truth to make me laugh.

The whole Cape Charade series is my love letter to family: how they form, how they help, how they hinder, how they make you the person you are and what it means to become part of that unit. My dad died before I was born; my mother was my only parent and we were very close. I thought of her a lot as I was writing, how she handled all the parental challenges alone, how as a kid I thought she knew everything and after I became a mother, I realized she was always uncertain but did the best she could. I always base my heroines on her. Kellen Adams is no exception.

You have family stories, too, good and bad and funny, and for all the adventure and drama of the Cape Charade series, the family stuff is what you’ve written me about. It’s nice to think that no matter what kind of challenges we face, our families (and friends who are like family) will have our backs and we’ll fight for them with every breath in our bodies. That makes us all heroes and heroines, right?

Except I don’t want to stand up to a scary murderer. That’s against my religion. I’m a devout coward.

I promise action and excitement fills STRANGERS SHE KNOWS; think of this scene as the calm before the storm. Find out why one reviewer said, “I have read every book in this series, including the prequel and the novellas. I am truly invested in Kellen, Max and Rae. I adore them, in fact. Kellen is by far my favorite heroine in any book I have ever read.”

Today! STRANGERS SHE KNOWS in your hands and ears and minds. Enjoy!

Warmly,

Christina Dodd

New York Times bestselling author

Downloadable/Printable booklist sorted by genre, series and in order

Books by Series includes covers and links to excerpts

P.S. My assistant made a video for STRANGERS SHE KNOWS, her very first! I told her posting a creation for the world to see was like stepping on stage, dropping your pants and waiting for comments. She hadn’t thought of it that way. Erma Bombeck said, “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.” It’s a great video. If you’d take a moment to watch, she’d love that…mostly. 🙂

“Fairy tales don’t tell children dragons exist. They already know that. Fairy tales tell children dragons can be killed.” — G. K. Chesterton