Deadly Deception, Trilogy
Just like many times it happens, this was not supposed to be a series, rather it was just a way to experiment something new; a novella.
I found it quite challenging because I had to squeeze in a short amount of pages what I generally describe in a full novel.
As I was going to finish and making it ready for the editor, something strange happened, I wanted to know more about the story, and the characters got better ideas. It was then when I thought that since I was experimenting a novella, I could have also experimented a series, and so I modified it in a way to create the premises for a second book, at least.
But let’s talk about the story.
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Deadly Deception -Book 1
The first book is about a young man, Ethan Jackson, who had his life ruined by a compulsive lying disorder. He believes, andhe wishes to tell the truth, but his brain is messing up facts and people when he tries to remember it.
He will seek for help at the studio of Dr. Wright, a psychiatrist who seems very interested in Ethan’s problem and offers him a very unusual therapy: traveling the world and keep records on a diary.
Everything seems to go as smooth as velvet when in the middle of the treatment, he finds himself in Georgia, he is accused of murder. As usual, the embassy helps him find a lawyer, and his family and friends will offer moral sustain. However, Ethan is sure he would never kill anyone, but he cannot remember anything about the previous night. Everything he remembers is that he was with the girl who had been murdered the night before.
With his freedom and sanity at stake, the truth seems to be further from Ethan’s grasp than ever. But then, if he wants to keep his freedom, perhaps lies are all he can depend on.
EXCERPT:
I was agitated the whole night, and when someone knocked at my door the next morning, at 11:30 A.M., I felt like they drove over me with a truck.
It took me what it seemed an eternity to stand up on my feet, as whoever was on the other side of the door, knocking, already became my enemy number one.
“I am coming. Please, a bit of patience,” I said as I was dressing up.
I opened the door, and a man with two officers asked me if they could come in.
“Yes, of course. I just woke up, so it is a bit messy,” I said, welcoming them in.
“We are sorry for this inconvenience, I am Detective Giorgi Bochorishvili, and those are Officers Esadze and Kazbegi,” he said, coming in.
“I don’t understand. Is there anything wrong?” I asked, still wondering about that visit.
“You can say so. Between yesterday evening and this morning, a woman has been killed in this hotel,” he said, taking out a picture. “Have you ever seen her?”
I took the picture in my hand and looked at it carefully. She looked familiar, but my mind was still foggy.
“I don’t think so. I am not sure, though. Maybe I have seen her in this hotel,” I replied. “Is she a guest?”
“Not really. She is an escort and used to go around telling people that she works for this hotel - which is not true - offering a safe sexual service,” he explained as the other two officers looked around.
“A murder…” I mumbled to myself, trying to recall whatever happened the evening before, knowing anyway that my brain would have messed up some, if not all, the details. However, something I was sure about was that I hadn’t killed anyone, nor had I heard anything coming from the corridors.
If there had been a murder, the assassin must have been very cautious in not making any noise, I considered.
“Is there anyone else you are sharing this room with?” asked the Detective.
“No, I am alone.”
“Could you explain this, then?” he said, grabbing a lipstick from the floor. “It doesn’t seem to be your shade.”
I stared at it, not knowing what I should say.
“So?” he pursued.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
“Let’s put it this way,” he started to say, “I am not here to put someone in jail for having sex with a prostitute, but to nail a killer. Are you telling me the truth when you say you haven’t seen this woman?”
Deadly Deception -Insomniac:
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This is the second book of the trilogy Deadly Deception. As we say bye-bye to Ethan Jackson who was the main character of the first book of the trilogy, we are going to meet new friends, which will entertain us with their personal vicissitudes.
BLURB:
Something keeps Laura Jefferson up at night. Maybe it’s the Boston traffic, maybe the sounds of the city outside her apartment window, maybe the stresses of day to day life. Whatever it is, when she’s offered a radical treatment at a secluded hotel, she doesn’t even hesitate.
But while the hotel is perfect, the grounds idyllic, and Dr. Wright and his staff friendly and eager to help, it isn’t long before Laura’s fellow patients begin acting strangely, some even dropping out of the program altogether, disappearing into the night. As Laura loses chunks of time, a detective arrives, and the questions at the heart of the hotel begin to unravel.
Continuing the trilogy, Deadly Deception -Insomniac- draws closer to the mystery of Dr. Wright’s research, and the lies behind Laura’s perfect night of sleep.
Excerpt:
He took out his notebook and started to write some notes about what his feelings were. That was a sort of self-psychoanalysis or a way to understand himself and to get a better grasp over the triggers that take over a serial killer.
Although with just one murder on his conscience, he could not consider himself a serial killer, he knew from the very beginning that the need to step into murder was feasible.
“There are things that I still fail to understand about the feelings of being an assassin, of planning and eventually executing a murder. Something for sure is the powerful effect it has on the conscious.
Like a heavy curtain, it is able to obliterate any other feelings like compassion and empathy. When I think about the process, my brain gives priority to what gives me some sort of pleasure. It is like it’s trying to push aside the feelings like regret, fear, compassion, and empathy, emphasizing the pleasure I can get from the power of choosing the fate of another human being.
It feels like I am no longer a fellow human, but a sort of super being that has the power and right to decide who is going to live and who instead has to die.
This is a sort of trigger I might use with my patients, to help them in their fight against the murderer inside them…
Sometimes to cure a monster, you need to become a monster yourself.”
He shook his head and hoped that nasty story would have come soon to an end. “If I get out of this alive, I promise to leave the country and peacefully enjoy my life.”
He took a deep breath and switched off the lights hoping to find some rest.
Deadly Deception -The Devil's Deal:
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With this book, we arrive at the end of the trilogy, where we are going to meet some new friends and as well some old friends. As the investigation in Tbilisi, reached a sudden and unjustified stop, Lieutenant Avaliani and Detective Sheen, will start to collect all the pieces of the puzzle scattered in front of their eyes.
The murder of the prostitute in Tbilisi (Book I) finally, finds its connection with the mysterious disappearances (Book II), and everything seems to gravitate around the figure of Dr. Wright. For this reason, all the former patients will be brought back to reconstruct the facts to get a clear idea of the dynamics of the events. Yet, they soon will realize that the murder and disappearance are just the tip of the iceberg in a case that becomes more and more complicated.
Blurb:
Julius feels like he’s losing the grip with his life; grappling with low esteem, overwhelming nicotine addiction, and a complicated relationship with an overbearing father.
As he finds himself in the studio of the eminent psychiatrist Dr. Wright, Julius is proposed to leave for a two weeks’ experimental therapy to get rid of his addiction.
At the same time, Detective Bochorishvili of Tbilisi Police Department and his cousin Lieutenant Avaliani of the Bureau of the Investigative Services in Boston start to reconsider an old case involving a patient of Dr. Wright, and the web of shadows spreads from the Georgian capital to Boston and begins to whirl in a vortex around the figure of Dr. Wright.
Suspicions rise and fall, spies lurk in the darkness, and mysteries call out to be solved before more individuals meet their fate at the ambitious hands of evil.
Closing the trilogy The Devil’s Deal will bring to light a question; will justice triumph, or will it be another Deadly Deception?
EXCERPT:
It was late evening on Christmas Eve; Gabriel was alone drinking a whiskey in his usual pub. He wasn’t out for fun; he was there for business.
"Dirty business", he thought with a smirk on his face as he sipped his whiskey. He looked around the semi-empty pub, which generally at that time of the evening would have been full of people.
But Christmas was different than the other holidays, and many people preferred to spend the evening at home with the whole family gathered together at the dinner table.
Christmas never really meant anything to him, just another day where people who do not have a companion either keep themselves busy with their job, stick with the family or consider suicide, he thought.
He was also going to spend that day alone, but rather than thinking about suicide or spending time with the family, he preferred to keep busy with his business, whatever it meant, and on that particular cold, foggy night, his business was finding a victim for Dr. Wright’s research.
He sipped the last of his whiskey and stood up from the chair, grabbing his leather coat ready to start his job.
With a sigh and not a steady thought in his mind, he started up the engine of his car and, slowly he started to drive towards Lyndhurst Street, at the corner with Washington Street, where at night, would have been populated with drug dealers and prostitutes.
“The Hell Zone,” he grinned as he slowed down his ride looking for the right target when he finally spotted her. “Believe me, baby, maybe it is better this way. Life is only sorrow, and for people like you it might be more humane to die soon,” he whispered as he pulled over and rolled down the window.