Today, USA Bestselling Author Jean Rabe's blog tour stops HERE! Next: 8/25: Chill and Read blog; 8/27: Ken Schrader blog
Check out more about the upcoming release of her book, The Dead of Night, A Piper Blackwell Mystery Book 2, the sequel to The Dead of Winter. (Get it now on pre-order. Releases Sept. 15.)
About The Dead of Night:
In Spencer County’s history, mysteries are numerous—and lethal…
As Sheriff Piper Blackwell rushes to a clandestine meeting with an aging, paranoid veteran who believes spies are trailing his every move, she is caught in a fierce thunderstorm. Pounding rain drums against the bluff, washing away the earth and revealing a grisly secret someone tried to bury a long time ago.
Putting a name to the skeleton on the bluff, and searching for the thief who robbed the old veteran of his life’s earnings, sends Piper delving into the sleepy towns that dot her rural county. Now she’s digging into pasts perhaps best left alone. Uncovering fragments of Spencer County’s history could prove more dangerous—and deadlier—than she ever expected.
S.C.D.D.
Same Characters, a very Different Day - by Jean Rabe
Piper
Blackwell, four months into her term as Spencer County Sheriff, is hot to solve
a cold case. Rain, late at night, bones on the bluff…wonderfully eerie, and
something to vex my favorite sheriff with. The book is The Dead of Night, the second in her series, and it is set for a
September 15 release by Imajin. Her previous outing, The Dead of Winter, started with her first day on the job.
Piper
is twenty-three, and won the sheriff’s race by campaigning on her last name.
Her father, Paul Blackwell, had been with the department thirty years and had
several turns at sheriff. Some in the county think folks didn’t realize they
were voting for a different Blackwell. There’s still some friction in her
department—over her age and lack of experience, but there’s also growing
respect for the Army veteran. She has many of her supporting characters from
the previous book—Chief Deputy Oren Rosenberg; Coroner Dr. Annie Neufeld; Teegan,
a quirky Goth dispatcher; and Nang, Vietnamese caterer and quick stop owner…and
potential love-interest. But there are some new ones thrown into the mix.
Series
feel good because you can share the action with old friends. They’re like
comfortable shoes that you’ve broken in just right. Though while there’s a
sameness, Piper and Spencer County keep the story fresh. There are a lot of
differences from the first book.
What
makes this book dissimilar? Piper’s had a few months to grow into her role of
sheriff, has become more familiar with her deputies and local politics, and has
started to hear the county’s heartbeat. Oren’s had a few months to adjust to
the young sheriff; he claims he still doesn’t like her, but he tolerates
her…and that’s a big step from the first book. In this tale she’s involved with
some of the little things that are a big deal to the rural residents, such as
drunk drivers and an unbalanced octogenarian that is hell-bent on destroying
mailboxes. She also nabs that cold case—and who doesn’t love a mysterious death
from decades past?
There
are few characters that readers should both love and hate…the drunk on a
tractor that annoys the young sheriff. Drunk driving is the number one ticked
offense in Spencer County; I figured I needed to address that in the book,
putting a little spin on it. The Mailbox Mauler is another such soul. She was
inspired by someone I know who has a vicious streak involving mis-delivered
mail—downright NASTY; I had to vent by putting it in a Piper book. If the
Mailbox Mauler feels real…it’s ‘cause she sort of is.
The Dead of Night was inspired by lots of things…among them three Navy veterans who live
in a senior apartment complex; I rolled them into one character called Mark the
Shark. He opens the book, and I hope the readers love him as much as I do. It
was also inspired by the woman in my neighborhood who goes postal, by the drunk
on the tractor who needed to be there so I could correctly write an airbag
scene, and by an old skeleton because I’d read a forensic book about bones and
wanted to put some of that knowledge to fictional use.
Is
there someone to root for in Piper’s second outing? Absolutely…Piper, of
course; she’s determined and feisty, and maybe she’s falling in love. Oren
because he’s driven and proves that age in an asset, not a hindrance. Mark the
Shark…because he’s Mark the Shark. There are also some folks to root against,
but I don’t want to spoil the plot.
** Excerpt of The Dead of Night, A Piper Blackwell Mystery Book 2:
It was a big red Case tractor, double wheels on the back, hitch, with a raised disc harrow attachment used for cultivating the ground prior to planting—all of it caked with dried mud and in need of washing. Piper was stuck behind it on 66, on her way to Hatfield, an unincorporated dinkburg where Mark the Shark lived.
Piper figured this ten-mile endeavor would take her an hour away from her cold case…fourteen minutes to Mark’s, fourteen minutes b ack, and a half hour at the bank or looking through his records to show him the bookkeeping error and ease his conspiracy fears.
But the tractor was fouling her time-frame.
It belched fumes; her windows rolled down, the stink wafted inside and made her eyes water. It was noisy; overwhelming the oldies station she’d had on and just now clicked off. It was slow, riding in the center of the road, impossible for her to pass on either side without risking the ditch. And it wasn’t traveling straight, sometimes in the proper lane, sometimes veering into the left lane. Usually it held to roughly the middle.
She honked.
The driver raised his left hand and flipped his middle finger.
“Really?” Piper stuck her head out the window and hollered: “Pick a lane!” Then thinking he might not be able to hear over the racket the tractor was making, she used the PA in her car.
“Pull over. Spencer County Sheriff. Pull over.”
The tractor wobbled farther right, then left, shuddered, and went faster still. Thirty miles an hour.
“What the hell?”
Then the driver tossed an empty whiskey bottle off to the side of the road.
“That’s it.”
Bonus Giveaway!
** WINNERS - Joan, ebook & bn100 for paper. Congrats!
Winners have been notified.
GIVEAWAY
There’s a tour-wide giveaway for Cracker Barrel and Starbucks gift cards or a little password book. In addition, two lucky bloggers will be chosen at random to win a Starbucks or Cracker Barrel Gift card. Open to US residents only. Also see direct link to giveaway.
Jean Rabe’s The Dead of Night Blog Tour runs August 21st thru September 15th. Follow tour stops below to check out the reviews, excerpts, Q&As, and to enter the giveaway! Get all the blog stop links HERE.
Next stops:
Mysteristas 8/28/2017
Imagination Captured 8/28/2017
Lori’s Reading Corner 8/29/2017
Brooke Blogs 9/1/2017
The Million Words 9/3/2017
Drey’s Library 9/12/2017
Faith Hunter 9/15/2017
Praise for The Dead of Night:
Jean Rabe always manages to surprise and never fails to deliver the goods! The Dead of Night…Highly recommended!
—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Dogs of War and Mars One
Jean Rabe writes the perfect mystery! I was kept guessing about everything to the very last word. The girl can write! —New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter, writing as Gwen Hunter
In The Dead of Night …a thoroughly satisfying and complex novel with deeply realized characters and beautifully vivid writing. —Jaden Terrell, Shamus Award nominee and internationally published author of the Jared McKean Mysteries
Since I based my book, Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter, on the real life events, trial, and some of Lizzie's life after she was acquitted, I naturally had to put a dog in the story. 
