The Blurb
“If it wasn’t an armed robbery, it was a hit. An execution.”
Amid a sultry Atlanta summer, someone is targeting police…
The investigation becomes personal for APD Detective Ryan Winter when a colleague and friend is shot dead, the second victim in just weeks. But even as he finds himself being drawn into the tense hunt for a serial cop killer, he is forced to re-examine his own shattering personal tragedy.
An ER physician at Atlanta’s busy Mercy Hospital, Dr. Lydia Costa is no stranger to suffering. Still, the recent police slayings reopen barely healed wounds — and bring her face-to-face with her ex-husband, Ryan Winter.
As the body count rises and paranoia tightens its grip on the police force, Lydia and Ryan are pulled together by circumstances and fate… causing old passions to reignite despite their painful shared past. But as Ryan moves closer to discovering the killer’s identity, someone is watching, placing both him and Lydia in mortal danger.
Fallen by Leslie Tentler
Publisher: Left Field Press
The Excerpt
“It’s a ten-double-zero, people,” he added, using police code that over time had slipped into the level one trauma center’s vernacular.
Officer down.
A momentary hush fell over the staff before the beehive of activity resumed, leaving only Lydia frozen. Gunshot wounds were always nasty injuries, but it was the ten-double-zero that caused anxiety to pool in her stomach. There were hundreds of police inside the city, she reminded herself. Still, leaving the X-ray hanging, she shouldered her way through the scrubs-clad crowd. Reaching Jamaal’s desk, she asked, “What else do you know about the incoming?”
He slurped from a Varsity cup. “Multiple bullets to the chest and abdomen, intubated by paramedics on scene —”
“Do you have a name? A precinct?”
“What? Uh, uh — didn’t ask.” Jamaal shrugged, his eyes returning to the stack of paperwork in front of him, information forms for the three dozen or so coughing, vomiting or otherwise miserable-looking people who waited in rows of vinyl-covered chairs for treatment.
“Plainclothes, though,” he murmured as an afterthought, scribbling directives onto one of the forms.
Lydia felt her knees weaken. Still, her inner voice spoke to her, pointing out that she was one of the attendings on a busy Friday night. She moved briskly toward the automated, sliding glass doors that led inside from the ambulance bay, joining the assembling team and preparing to take charge of whatever faced her with the paramedics’ arrival.
“Get trauma room three set up,” she ordered, raising her voice to be heard above the din. “We’re going to need an echocardiogram. Have a crash cart and thoracotomy set ready.”
All the while, a mantra repeated inside her head. It was more like a prayer, if she believed in such things. She used to, but didn’t anymore.
Please don’t let it be him.
The Author
About Leslie Tentler
Leslie is a member of Romance Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, The Authors Guild and Novelists, Inc. A native of East Tennessee, she currently resides in Atlanta.
Her latest book is the romantic suspense, Fallen.
For More Information
Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
The Review
Wow! Fallen is amazing — intriguing and fast-paced! I was caught up in the suspense immediately, and couldn't put it down. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. I was also anxious to learn the identity of the murderer. The murderer came as a surprise to me. Can you figure it out before Ryan and Lydia do?
Leslie Tentler has written a wonderfully suspenseful plot, with great characters and just the right touch of romance. I recommend Fallen to all fans of Romantic Suspense novels, as well as fans of traditional mysteries who like a touch of romance in their reading material, and give Fallen my highest rating of Five Kitties!
Note: I received a complimentary copy of Fallen from the author, with no expectation of a positive review.
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