Reviews and Reflections: This murder
mystery all Xs and ohs
By LAUREN ROBERTS
SPECIAL
TO THE BEACON
Allie Armington is a former Texas assistant district
attorney who stars in a new mystery series by local author
Louise Gaylord. In Gaylord’s first book, entitled
Anacacho, Allie barely survived a startling, twisting tale
of murder, deceit, drugs, betrayal, mistrust and lust.
Indeed, one might think Allie’s life a bit stormy
as she moves into the second mystery that claims her attention
as much as it attempts to claim her life. Xs (Little Moose
Press; $23.95) has Allie rushing to New York after a frantic
phone call from her sister seeking a quick, unexplained
loan of $20,000. Shortly after her arrival, her sister’s
roommate is found murdered in a bizarre manner. The discovery
that the murdered woman was involved with a secretive,
high-stakes drugs- and prostitution-littered party circuit
opens up the opportunity for a police sting operation — if
Allie will help.
She will, but her sense that this is different from anything
she’s previously experienced begins with the first
party at the secluded and exclusive “Castle” complete
with guards, check-in stations, masks, assignments and
someone named the Cardinal who takes a personal interest
in her.
As she is pulled deeper into the circuit of rich men and
beautiful women, other forces reach out for her: the apparent
death and possible murder of the Cardinal; a red address
book; the unsettling reappearance of Allie’s vanished-and-now-returned
heartthrob, Bill Cotton, who moves from Texas sheriff to
DEA agent to lowly attorney to loving nephew far too easily.
But it is the emergence of the mysterious six-foot Sigrid
Hale that endows this story with its delicious sense of
unease and sets the stage for Allie’s ultimate confrontation.
Who Hale is and what Hale plans empowers this story with
an ending so unexpected one wonders what the author could
possibly have in mind for Allie’s future.
Lauren Roberts can be contacted at
reviews-reflections@verizon.net
A New Allie Armington Murder Mystery
By Award-Winning Author Louise Gaylord
The trouble started with a call from her sister,
a model, in New York City. The next thing she knew, Allie
Armington, young, bright, successful, and slightly bored
Texas attorney was on a plane to the Big Apple. It was downhill
from there.
Beautiful women were showing up dead, neat X marks carved
in their breasts with almost surgical precision. Chilling
enough in the abstract, but made all too real when Allie's
sister's roommate turns up among them.
In a New York minute, Allie's up to her eyeballs in a NYPD
sting operation targeting super rich men hosting parties
in a secluded castle on the exclusive Jersey shore, complete
with masks, mysterious monikers, models and mischief of the
carnal and chemical kind.
Just as things get really dangerous, enter Texas sheriff
Bill Cotton, Allie's ex heartthrob, in Ivy League apparel
and minus the Texas drawl.
From the Rich Boy's club to the mysterious Sigrid Hale,
there are surprises galore. Once again Allie demonstrates
her incredible ability to get into trouble. Let's hope she's
as good at getting out if it.
Louise Gaylord is the award-winning author of Anacacho,
which won the 2003 National Benjamin Franklin Award for Best
Mystery/Suspense sponsored by Publisher’s Marketing
Association in Los Angeles. Xs is her second book. Louise
divides her time between Houston, Texas, Montecito, California
and the Adirondacks.
Xs is published by Little Moose Press, 1-866-234-0626 and
is distributed to the trade through Biblio Distribution,
a division of NBN, 1-800-462-6420.
Louise Gaylord is available for interviews. Review copies
can be requested by contacting Ellen Reid. Complete media
room available online at www.littlemoosepress.com.
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Heavenly Hearts
THE DISH / Martha Smilgis
Santa Barbara News Press
2/15/05
WHO DUN IT: Birnam's clubhouse was the scene
of a swell soiree and book signing by Louise Gaylord. Her
second novel "Xs" is a chilling Manhattan tale
that puts her up there with mystery queen Mary Higgins Clark.
... Bob Ledner's jazz combo gave Gaylord's party a Manhattan
nightclub atmosphere and provided perfect background music
for Direct Relief International's Thomas Tighe and wife Carrie
when urbanely chatting with comely Caryl Beadel. ... Louise
and her husband Ted are on the Opera S.B. Board, and support
the Houston and Sarasota operas, which explained the presence
of opera buffs -- handsome Chris Carroll, elegant Joan Rutkowski
and industrious Steven Sharpe....
TIMELY HEROINES: Louise's tres sexy characters
come from the voice of a hip young woman. "I watch TV
to get my material," confesses the author, who didn't
start writing until her three children were grown. Originally
from Houston, Louise and Ted (in trucking biz) now rotate
among Texas, Montecito and Adirondacks residences. (He's
also on the Washington, D.C.-based boards of the Jamestown
and Natural History Foundations.) ... Louise's writing career
has been an arduous climb with requisite rejection slips
(badges of honor!) until success came with her first novel "Anacacho," a
thriller set in Texas. She praises the S.B. Writers Conference
for inspiration and Little Moose Press. "Xs" is
available at Tecolote and Chaucer's....
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