Ties That Bind Blurb:
When an isolated incident turns
into a hunt for a serial killer, Detective Madison Knight is not going to back
down—even if it pits her against her superiors. Book 1 in the series.
The hunt for a serial killer
begins…
Detective Madison Knight
concluded the case of a strangled woman an isolated incident. But when another
woman’s body is found in a park killed with the same brand of neckties, she
realizes they’re dealing with something more serious.
Despite mounting pressure from
the sergeant and the chief to close the case even if it means putting an
innocent man behind bars, and a partner who is more interested in saving his
marriage than stopping a potential serial killer, Madison may have to go it
alone if the murderer is going to be stopped.
Excerpt:
SOMEONE DIED EVERY DAY. Detective
Madison Knight was left to make sense of it.
She ducked under the yellow tape
and surveyed the scene. The white, two-story house would be deemed average any
other day, but today the dead body inside made it a place of interest to the
Stiles PD and the curious onlookers who gathered in small clusters on the
sidewalk.
She’d never before seen the
officer who was securing the perimeter, but she knew his type. The way he stood
there—his back straight, one hand resting on his holster, the other gripping a
clipboard—he was an eager recruit.
He held up a hand as she
approached. “This is a closed crime scene.”
She unclipped her badge from the
waist of her pants and held it up in front of him. He studied it as if it were
counterfeit. She usually respected those who took their jobs seriously but not
when she was functioning on little sleep and the humidity level topped
ninety-five percent at ten thirty in the morning.
“Detective K-N-I—”
Her name died on her lips as
Sergeant Winston stepped out of the house. She would have groaned audibly if he
weren’t closing the distance between them so quickly. She preferred her boss
behind his desk.
Winston gestured toward the young
officer to let him know she was permitted to be on the scene. The officer
glared at her before leaving his post. She envied the fact that he could walk
away while she was left to speak with the sarge.
“It’s about time you got here.”
Winston fished a handkerchief out of a pocket and wiped at his receding
hairline. The extra few inches of exposed forehead could have served as a solar
panel. “I was just about to assign the lead to Grant.”
Terry Grant was her on-the-job
partner of five years and three years younger than her thirty-four. She’d be
damned if Terry was put in charge of this case.
“Where have you been?” Winston
asked.
She jacked a thumb in the
rookie’s direction. “Who’s the new guy?”
“Don’t change the subject,
Knight.”
She needed to offer some sort of
explanation for being late. “Well, boss, you know me. Up all night slinging
back shooters.”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
She flashed him a cocky smile and
pulled out a Hershey’s bar from one of her front pants pocket. The chocolate
had already softened from the heat. Not that it mattered. She took a bite.
Heaven.
“What are you doing here,
anyway?” she asked with her mouth partially full.
“The call came in, I was nearby,
and thought someone should respond.” His leg caught the tape as he tried to
step over it to the sidewalk and he hopped on the other leg to adjust his
balance. He continued speaking as if he hadn’t noticed. “The body’s upstairs,
main bedroom. She was strangled.” He pointed the tip of a key toward her. “Keep
me updated.” He pressed a button on his key fob and the department-issued SUV’s
lights flashed. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
As if he needed to say that.
Sometimes she wondered if he valued talking more than taking action.
She took a deep breath. She could
feel the young officer watching her, and she flicked a glance at him, now that
the sergeant was gone. What was his problem? She took another bite of her candy
bar.
“Too bad you showed. I think I
was about to get the lead.”
Madison turned toward her
partner’s voice. Terry was padding across the lawn toward her.
“I’d have to be the one dead for
that to happen.” She smiled as she brushed past him.
“You look like crap.”
Her smile faded. She stopped
walking and turned around. Every one of his blond hairs were in place, making
her self-conscious of her short, wake-up-and-wear-it cut. His cheeks held a
healthy glow, too, no doubt from his two-mile morning run. She hated people who
could do mornings.
“What did you get? Two hours of
sleep?” Terry asked.
“Three, but who’s counting?” She
took another large bite of the chocolate. It was almost a slurp with how fast
the bar was melting.
“You were up reviewing evidence
from the last case again, weren’t you?”
She wasn’t inclined to answer.
“You can’t change the past.”
She wasn’t hungry anymore and
wrapped up what was left of the chocolate. “Let’s focus on this case.”
“Fine, if that’s how it’s going
be. Victim’s name is Laura Saunders. She’s thirty-two. Single. Officer Higgins
was the first on scene.”
Higgins? She hadn’t seen him
since she arrived, but had been her training officer. He still worked in that
capacity for new recruits. Advancing in the ranks wasn’t important to him. He
was happy making a difference where he was stationed.
Terry continued. “Call came in
from the vic’s employer, Southwest Welding Products, where she worked as the
receptionist.”
“What would make the employer
call?”
“She didn’t show for her shift at
eight. They tried reaching her first, but when they didn’t get an answer, they
sent a security officer over to her house. He found the door ajar and called
downtown. Higgins was here by eight forty-five.”
“Who was—”
“The security officer?”
“Yeah.” Apparently they finished
each other’s sentences now.
“Terrence Owens. And don’t worry.
We took a formal statement and let him go. Background showed nothing, not even
a speeding ticket. We can function when you’re not here.”
She cocked her head to the side.
“He also testifies to the fact
that he never stepped one foot in the place.” Terry laughed. “He said he’s
watched enough cop dramas to know that it would contaminate the crime scene.
You get all these people watching those stupid TV shows, and they think they
can solve a murder.”
“So is Owens the one who made the
formal call downtown, then?” Madison asked.
“Actually, procedure for them is
to route everything through the company administration. A Sandra Butler made
the call. She’s the office manager.”
“So an employee is even half an
hour late for work and they send someone to your house?”
“She said it’s part of their
safety policy.”
“At least they’re a group of
people inclined to think positively.” She rolled her eyes. Sweat droplets ran
down her back. Gross. She moved toward the house.
The young officer scurried over.
He shoved his clipboard under his arm and tucked his pen behind his ear. He
pointed toward the chocolate bar still in her hand. “You can’t take that in there.”
She glanced down. Chocolate oozed
from a corner of the wrapper. He was right. She handed the package to him, and
he took it with two pinched fingers.
She patted his shoulder. “Good
job.”
He walked away with the bar
dangling from his hand, mumbling something indiscernible.
“You can be so wicked sometimes,”
Terry said.
“Why, thank you.” She was tempted
to take a mini bow but resisted the urge.
“It wasn’t a compliment. And
since when do you eat chocolate for breakfast?”
“Oh shut up.” She punched him in
the shoulder. He smirked and rubbed his arm. Same old sideshow. She headed into
the house with him on her heels.
“The stairs are to the right,”
Terry said.
“Holy crap, it’s freezing in
here.” The sweat on her skin chilled her. It was a refreshing welcome.
“Yep, a hundred and one outside,
sixty inside.”
When she was two steps from the
top of the staircase, Terry said, “And just a heads-up—this is not your typical
strangulation.”
“Come on, Terry. You’ve seen one,
you’ve—” She stopped abruptly when she reached the bedroom doorway. Terry was
right.
Celebrating the Book that
Reignited My Passion for Writing
“Carolyn Arnold…continues
the trend of writing exciting stories that keep your attention throughout…Life
Sentence is a thriller all the way…Arnold never disappoints.”
—Barb, The Reading Cafe
“Tell
me a story.”
Those
are the words a coworker spoke to me in the summer of 2006. Little did she or I
know that those four simple words would start my writing career.
To give
you a little more insight, I used to write as a teenager, but at the point she
said this, I was in my thirties. I had been away from writing for thirteen
years! See, life had swept me along. I graduated from high school, found love,
got married, and moved four hours away from my hometown. Even though, I thought
it would be quite the accomplishment to write a full-length novel, I was still overwhelmed
by the number of words I’d have to write to reach that goal.
But
when that coworker emailed me to tell her a story, I found that I easily keyed
a few paragraphs and fired them back to her. I didn’t even give the words any
thought, I just let the story introduction flow out of me. A few minutes later,
she had emailed again. “More,” she said. So I complied, expanding on what I had
written before. We went back and forth like this a few times until she finally
told me I had to finish the story.
And, as
it turns out, I rose to the challenge. What had started off as a harmless “tell
me a story” became my first full-length novel—Life Sentence. It took me a year
to write that first draft, but I had done it! But I had accomplished even more
than writing a novel. I had found my true passion in life again: writing. There
have been very few days since 2006 that my life hasn’t consisted of writing,
editing, or reading. My life is full of purpose and gratitude, and I will
continue to tell stories as long as I can.
--Carolyn
Arnold
Author
of the Detective Madison Knight Series
Author Bio and Links:
CAROLYN ARNOLD is an
international best-selling and award-winning author, as well as a speaker,
teacher, and inspirational mentor. She has four continuing fiction
series—Detective Madison Knight, Brandon Fisher FBI, McKinley Mysteries, and
Matthew Connor Adventures—and has written nearly thirty books. Her genre
diversity offers her readers everything from cozy to hard-boiled mysteries, and
thrillers to action adventures.
Both her female detective and FBI
profiler series have been praised by those in law enforcement as being accurate
and entertaining, leading her to adopt the trademark: POLICE PROCEDURALS
RESPECTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT™.
Carolyn was born in a small town
and enjoys spending time outdoors, but she also loves the lights of a big city.
Grounded by her roots and lifted by her dreams, her overactive imagination
insists that she tell her stories. Her intention is to touch the hearts of
millions with her books, to entertain, inspire, and empower.
She currently lives just west of
Toronto with her husband and beagle and is a member of Crime Writers of Canada.
Connect with CAROLYN ARNOLD
Online:
And don’t forget to sign up for
her newsletter for up-to-date information on release and special offers.
This is the perfect book series
for fans of Law & Order, CSI, Blue Bloods, Rizzoli
& Isles, Women’s Murder Club, and Hawaii Five-O.
Read in any order or follow the
series from the beginning: Ties That Bind (available for free during the tour), Justified, Sacrifice, Found
Innocent, Just Cause, Deadly Impulse, In the Line of Duty, Life Sentence (Bonus
Prequel).
You can also visit the author’s
McKinley Mysteries Series page.
Arnold's newest book, #7 of the Madison Knight Detective Series, released 9.26.16
A hero has fallen, and
hard-edged detective Madison Knight will stop at nothing short
of finding justice—even if it means risking her own life.
The Three Laws
