Jane Reads: Deceitful Truths, by Maggie Thom

The Blurb

He created a legacy that no one could imagine…

Tarin has lost a week of her life. She doesn't know what happened but not long after she returns to work she is suspended from her job. Confused and pregnant, she quits and agrees to marry Stephen, only to be thrown into a whole new nightmare. Desperate, she grabs her son and moves across the country to get away from her abusive husband and to avoid her unforgiving father. Thrilled at getting the Tech assistant job at Knights Associates, not only will she be helping them solve cyber crimes but she'll be able to use their connections and resources to solve her own mystery. Who stole a week of her life? And will they return to steal the secret she is now protecting?

Graham and his partner Guy can't keep up with the demand. They are being flooded with requests at Knights Associates, where they offer a combined service of private investigator and that of solving cyber crimes. It appears that someone wants to get their attention, not only have they been hacked but Guy's family business, Caspian Winery, seems to be under attack as well. Hiring an assistant seems to be the answer but when Graham discovers she's been accessing their high-security accounts, he decides the cause of their predicament might be closer than he thought. Is their new assistant behind the problems they're having? If she's so innocent, why is someone after her?

Tarin and Graham discover that although they don't trust each other, they are forced to work together to solve several seemingly unrelated crimes that may lead to one disastrous conclusion. Can they figure it all out before Tarin's nightmare plays out? Before an eighty-year-old woman pays with her life? Or before Tarin learns a truth that may seal her fate, a truth that will keep her and Graham apart, a truth that neither one of them may be able to forgive or forget...

(Caspian Wine Series - Book #2. This novel is standalone but is a Sequel to “Captured Lies”)

Praise for Deceitful Truths

"... Deceitful Truths showcases Maggie Thom’s talent... a masterpiece that begs to be read and savored!..." Dii at Tome Tender

Deceitful Truths, by Maggie Thom

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iTunes

Genre: Suspense / Thriller

Date Published: March 4, 2014

The Excerpt

She pressed so hard on her mouse she could almost feel it crack under her fingers, from the force with which she pressed on the button to send the email. Anger and fear pushed and shoved as they coursed through her, almost like that of the unsettled boiling and roiling of a volcano before it erupted.

To distract herself, she logged into the business emails. Graham had sent her over two hundred more emails to check through. She was sure they were the ones he must have sent to her before the meeting the day before. She was quite sure he didn't want her snooping through them anymore. The list was long and she felt exhausted just looking at it. Something was way off. Why was someone doing this? What would they hope to achieve? Could she find her answers there?

Doubting it, she did something she was sure she'd regret. She pulled out the USB with the information she'd stolen. She started with the Knights Associates files. There were several folders, she quickly scanned through the list, only to realize that there was no rhyme or reason to what and how Graham had labelled or stored stuff. She opened the first three files and found a mish-mash - special events they'd held, an employee list and some background information, years of service, types of wines, articles and more that she didn't have the time to read. Glancing at the clock and then the door, she realized if she was going to get any answers, she had to do some speed reading. She opened another two when it dawned on her the one labelled CWA might be Caspian Winery account.

After opening it, she scanned through it. There were bills that had been sent to the company over the last few years. They seemed to have started about three years before. She wondered why they'd all of a sudden needed private investigators.

After meeting Dorothea and how proud she was, it didn't surprise her that the elderly woman would do anything to help her family succeed. She had probably invented a reason to hire them. Opening one from almost three years ago, she frowned as she read it.

Search for Cassidy LeFevre.

It made her wonder who that was. Closing that out, she opened a few more. At some point she realized she had stopped looking for answers and was just snooping. After opening and closing about the tenth bill, she was about to get out of that file, when she realized what puzzled her about all of the receipts. For each bill that had been received, a receipt upon payment had then been sent. It was the code that was included in the statement that caught her attention.

CW 08 14 2012

Jesus... that code. It's what he said to me. Someone at Caspian Winery is behind it. But who? And why dammit? Why?

The Author

About Maggie Thom

Award winning author, Maggie Thom, took the challenge and leapt off, leaving a fulltime, twenty year career in management, to write full time. After publishing her first suspense/thriller book Captured Lies, October 2012, she published her second novel, Tainted Waters, April, 2013. Tainted Waters went on to win 2013 Suspense and Thriller Book of the Year through Turning the Pages Magazine and Captured Lies won book of the Month through LAS Reviews (February 2014). She published her third novel, Deceitful Truths (The Caspian Wine Series - Book 2), March 2014.

An avid reader and writer her whole life, she decided to break the monotony of wishing to be an author by making it happen. She is a wholehearted nature lover and likes nothing better than to take a book, hike to a remote spot by a river or waterfalls and read. Married to her best friend, she is learning that humor, love and patience help her navigate her way through her twins’ teen years. Her motto: Escape to read and Read to escape.

"Maggie Thom writes a fast paced thriller laced with romance that keeps the reader interested and on edge!" InDtale Magazine