Blurb:
Shucker' s Point, New Jersey never had a murder until now. Jack St. Marie, a well-known research scientist is missing, and Trooper Bryce Johnson believes the worst of Jack' s wife, Evie.
In high school, Bryce loved Evie--enough to want to marry her, but that was before he witnessed her phone in a bogus bomb scare. And only two months before Jack disappeared, Bryce saw Evie aiming a gun at her husband. Can Bryce believe in Evie's innocence when her husband' s body is found in a fishing dredge twenty miles out at sea? Could the most beautiful woman in Shucker' s Point be capable of such a heinous crime? He doesn't want to believe it.
Bryce refuses to let his heart guide the investigation...until someone shoots at Evie. Then he must protect her. But can he protect his heart?
Excerpt:
Bryce Johnson stood at the back of the church and searched through the pews for any sign of Evie St. Marie. When he didn’t see her, he breathed a sigh of relief. Sliding into the last row on the right side of the church, he nodded back to the other congregants who turned and smiled. Then he tried to relax. Being a state trooper caused him to be hypervigilant all the time, but once a week in church he struggled to let his guard down. It used to help him let God in, though lately God seemed more distant than ever and focusing on faith became almost impossible. He blamed much of it on Evie St. Marie. One month ago, she claimed her husband Jack vanished after taking a walk on the beach at night. Bryce didn’t believe her.
He watched the colored rays of light streaming through the stained-glass windows. The cool air inside felt like a blessing as the heat of the June day outside in the small bayside town of Shucker’s Point, New Jersey, became unbearable. Closing his eyes, he considered offering up a brief prayer, but he knew it would do no good. He needed answers about the disappearance of Jack St. Marie and he wouldn’t get any from the Lord. The scientist may have drowned if he walked out into the bay, suffered a heart attack, and went under. But Jack St. Marie’s doctor doubted that.
Bryce rubbed his forehead as a dull ache wove through it. Until now, Shucker’s Point never had a murder on the record. It seemed the small town’s perfect record ended. Two months before Jack St. Marie’s disappearance, Bryce answered a call and found Evie holding a gun aimed at her husband.
The gun in her hands was registered to Jack St. Marie, but it had no ammunition in it. Jack St. Marie took the whole episode lightly, refusing to press charges against his wife. Still, the incident stuck in Bryce’s mind. His natural impulse was to draw his own gun that day. He might have killed the girl he wanted to marry in high school. The pain in his head intensified.
Opening his eyes, he shrugged his shoulders and loosened up some of the tight nerves in his neck. That’s when he saw Evie St. Marie slip in the side door and all his efforts to unwind vanished.
What was she doing here? Evie didn’t belong in church. In high school she seemed determined to break every rule for the fun of it. How dark had her soul become?
Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Keepers-Secret-Penelope-Marzec-ebook/dp/B0D4MKRR93/
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-keeper-s-secret-1?utm_source=google_action
Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?pcampaignid=books_read_action&id=Xk4JEQAAQBAJ
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-keepers-secret/id6502920754
Pelican: https://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_73&products_id=1687
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