Leslie S. Talley's novel Make Old Bones came out last week, and today, I have a small excerpt to share with you.
Excerpt
from Make Old Bones
What would the children think if they saw her? She
thought of the others that way: children. Why did she still bother with them?
Not much longer, she thought. An idea sprouted in her brain. Why not scare
them? Hide. Don’t come out. Let them think some Bogeyman found her. She knew
just the spot, too. She found it the previous week, the same trip that secured
for her the piece of map. She came to the house by herself – well, actually to
meet someone. Someone who didn’t show up. But he would. Oh, yes! And that other
she’d seen – Connie hugged herself as she thought of the power.
Stubbing out the cigarette in the stone urn on the
post, Connie groped her way to the kitchen at the rear of the house. Gleefully,
she opened the door of one of the pantries. She ran her hand along the wall
until she found the knob. She remembered that it looked just like one of the
other cabinets. She wedged herself inside the tiny space: a miniature elevator.
Perfect. They’d never look for her here. Best of all, she needn’t go near the
third floor.
The jolt jarred her, tipping her over so that her
head rested on the doorframe. A hollow noise reverberated down the shaft.
Slowly her crawlspace moved…upward.
Fifteen-year-old Connie Kittredge disappears in 1953, presumed
drowned, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Almost forty years later, her skeleton is
discovered in the disused dumbwaiter of historic Belgrath House, situated on an
island in the tidal Halifax River. The discovery coincides with the thirty-five
year reunion of Connie's Class of '57.
Clarice and Otis Campion function as caretakers of Belgrath, newly
restored and opened as a B & B. Clarice, along with their permanent guest
Miss Letty, ninety-year-old star of the silent screen, decides to investigate
the mystery. Could the murderer be one of Connie's classmates, now respectable
citizens? A rejected boy friend? A jealous girl? Connie, a sneaky child, loved
the power of finding out secrets; perhaps she found one just too dangerous for
her to live.
At a wake for Connie held at Belgrath House, someone collapses
from iced tea laced with cherry laurel, proving that the murderer is still
around - and dangerous. Complications cloud the picture in the form of
suspicious bed and breakfasters, restoration society members, University of
Florida freshmen...and a certain pelican. Clarice and Miss Letty re-double
their efforts at sleuthing. The death of Connie Kittredge is tied directly to
the history of the house, they learn. The house will ultimately reveal its
secrets, but not before exposing Clarice to danger.
Inadvertently left behind during a forced evacuation due to
Category Four Hurricane Aphrodite, Clarice finds herself confronting a killer -
and a rising tidal surge.
Leslie Talley received her B.S. in nursing from the
University of Kentucky and a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of
Central Florida, Orlando, where she subsequently taught, as an adjunct,
Technical Writing and Business Writing for ten years.
Leslie and her husband Luke have two children: Terri
Talley Venters, Wild Child Publishing author of Carbon Copy, and Damon Talley, education specialist in aerospace. Forty-four-year
residents of Titusville, Florida, Leslie and Luke also have four grandchildren.
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