Random Road : introducing Geneva Chase / Thomas Kies.

By:

Kies, Thomas [author.]

Material type: Text

TextSeries: A Geneva Chase mystery | Kies, Thomas. Geneva Chase mystery ; Publisher: Scottsdale, AZ : Poisoned Pen Press, [2017]Copyright date: ©2017Edition: First editionDescription: 307 pages ; 23 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781464208003
146420800X

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Detective and mystery fiction.

DDC classification:

813/.6 23

Summary: It's a crime scene worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, so shocking and so senseless it challenges the local law and intrigues veteran reporter Geneva Chase whose career may be dying alongside that of her small town newspaper.The Sheffield Post headline shouts, "Cops Call Murder Scene 'Slaughterhouse." On the scene, Genie spurs the Deputy Police Chief to tell her quietly, "Six bodies...all nude...hacked to pieces." Even tough Geneva shivers. How could such a slaughter happen on Connecticut's moneyed Gold Coast? To privileged couples inside a historic 1898 Queen Anne mansion on the shoreline of Long Island Sound? Where is the protection afforded by the gated community and the security technology in place?For Geneva, battling alcoholism and bad choices, writing this story is the last chance to redeem herself. She's lost every other major news job she's had. Working at her hometown newspaper is the end of the line-there will be nowhere else to go.But ink still flows thick in her veins. Her story on Sheffield's unlikely killing field is the Post's lead, soon picked up by metro papers, and she keeps it, exposing the turbulence beneath the rich and entitleds' secrets, their ability to buy off embarrassments. She's also tracking community connections, watching a hit-and-run case disappear through a large donation, interviewing dangerous suspects, visiting a swingers club, joining cops for a burglary bust, and taking a guided tour to spot history's underwater ghost.All this despite the distractions of the married man she can't quite ditch and the sweet if shaky love affair she starts with an old high school sweetheart. Can she keep her drinking under control and do her job well enough to keep from getting fired, finish the story, not further screw up her life? And not get killed? Thomas Kies' gripping first novel with its corkscrew of a plot, asks, "Do things happen for a reason, or is everything random?"Random Road is Thomas Kies' debut novel.

Series information: Click to open in new window Fiction notes: Click to open in new window

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Book	Bedford Public Library Mystery	Fiction	F KIE	Available		32500005397220

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"This suspenseful story will appeal to readers who enjoy hard-nosed investigative reporters such as Brad Parks's Carter Ross."--Library Journal STARRED review

Meet Geneva Chase, veteran crime reporter: she's driven, tenacious, and on the losing end of the bottle.

That is, until Geneva catches a break.

Veteran reporter Geneva Chase is at the end of her professional rope. Battling alcoholism and bad choices, she's lost every major news job she's had; working at her hometown newspaper is her last chance to redeem herself--and now the paper's future is in doubt.

And then she lands the story of a lifetime: Six nude bodies are found hacked to pieces in a Queen Anne mansion on the coast of Long Island Sound. The sensational headline is picked up by the metro papers, and Geneva is back in the game, using her reporter's nose to sniff out the secrets of Connecticut's rich and entitled citizens.

As her grisly investigation leads her deeper into dangerous waters, her toxic affair with a married man and her inability to get sober threaten to undo everything she has worked so hard to achieve--and some people might be willing to kill if it means keeping their business out of the papers...

This special First-in-a-Series edition includes:

A New Introduction by the Author A Reading Group Guide A Conversation with the Author An Excerpt from Darkness Lane, the Next Geneva Chase Crime Reporter Mystery

Geneva Chase Crime Reporter Mysteries in order by Thomas Kies

Random Road Darkness Lane Graveyard Bay Shadow Hill

It's a crime scene worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, so shocking and so senseless it challenges the local law and intrigues veteran reporter Geneva Chase whose career may be dying alongside that of her small town newspaper.The Sheffield Post headline shouts, "Cops Call Murder Scene 'Slaughterhouse." On the scene, Genie spurs the Deputy Police Chief to tell her quietly, "Six bodies...all nude...hacked to pieces." Even tough Geneva shivers. How could such a slaughter happen on Connecticut's moneyed Gold Coast? To privileged couples inside a historic 1898 Queen Anne mansion on the shoreline of Long Island Sound? Where is the protection afforded by the gated community and the security technology in place?For Geneva, battling alcoholism and bad choices, writing this story is the last chance to redeem herself. She's lost every other major news job she's had. Working at her hometown newspaper is the end of the line-there will be nowhere else to go.But ink still flows thick in her veins. Her story on Sheffield's unlikely killing field is the Post's lead, soon picked up by metro papers, and she keeps it, exposing the turbulence beneath the rich and entitleds' secrets, their ability to buy off embarrassments. She's also tracking community connections, watching a hit-and-run case disappear through a large donation, interviewing dangerous suspects, visiting a swingers club, joining cops for a burglary bust, and taking a guided tour to spot history's underwater ghost.All this despite the distractions of the married man she can't quite ditch and the sweet if shaky love affair she starts with an old high school sweetheart. Can she keep her drinking under control and do her job well enough to keep from getting fired, finish the story, not further screw up her life? And not get killed? Thomas Kies' gripping first novel with its corkscrew of a plot, asks, "Do things happen for a reason, or is everything random?"Random Road is Thomas Kies' debut novel.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Reporter Geneva Chase has written hundreds of stories, but what brings her back to Sheffield, CT, and her hometown newspaper, isn't a news piece, it's her alcoholism. Yet this may be her chance at professional redemption, as she investigates one of the most grisly murder scenes of her career. Probing the brutal slaughter of six people at an exclusive gated community, the intrepid journalist also uncovers all kinds of secrets, from a young man whose father bribes a judge to let him off on a hit-and-run charge to a swingers' club. At the same time, Geneva also tries to hide her drinking problem from the newsroom. A chance encounter at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting will change her life, but not before it's jeopardized by her connecting the dots and tracking down a vicious killer. VERDICT Kies's debut mystery introduces a reporter with a compelling voice, a damaged woman who recounts her own bittersweet story as she hunts down clues. This suspenseful story will appeal to readers who enjoy hard-nosed investigative reporters such as Brad Parks's Carter Ross.-LH © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

If Geneva Chase botches this news story, chances are her career is over. Struggling with a serious alcohol problem, on probation at work, and dating a married man, she can barely drag her hungover self out to the scene where six adults were slaughtered in an upscale Connecticut Gold Coast community. She has the scoop and she has the experience, but the utter lack of a reasonable motive has her stymied. As does the explosive desire she feels on meeting her high-school sweetheart at an AA meeting. First in a new mystery series about a failing newswriter who exposes enormous inequities between community haves and have-nots, and the chaos, malice, and moral disconnect of social privilege and power. Kies tells a taut, fast-paced tale, imbuing each character with memorable, compelling traits that help readers connect with them. Less effective are the unanswerable questions posed throughout the book: Do things happen for a reason? What is life's purpose? Still, those who enjoy J. A. Jance's Beaumont series or Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone mysteries will appreciate Geneva Chase.--Baker, Jen Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A hard-living newspaperwoman juggles multiple men and battles the bottle on her way to redemption via a high-profile murder story.Punching a cop lands Sheffield Post reporter Geneva Chase on probation, with mandatory attendance at AA meetings as a chaser. But a grisly multiple murder at wealthy George and Lynette Chadwick's home on the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound might be Genie's ticket to redemption. The Chadwick homicides aren't the only high-profile crime stories on her radar. She's also following the case of Jimmy Fitzgerald, a spoiled rich kid recently arrested for murder and, in the view of Genie's tart first-person narrative, a sociopath. Meantime, an unexpected upsurge in her love life challenges her resolve to keep her sobriety and her eye on the journalistic ball. When she runs into childhood pal Kevin Bell at an AA meeting, she finds herself drawn to his adorable awkwardness. And out of the blue, her hot ex Frank Mancini calls, wanting to rekindle a romance she'd thought was dead. As she ricochets from Frank to Kevin, Genie also toils in the trenches on various stories. She gets injured by a burglar in a HumVee while tracking a series of local robberies and gingerly explores the discreet local SM scene's ties to those murders. Her research on this big crime includes the history of the house and the lives of the victims. Though the heroine's love life may be less interesting to mystery fans than her amateur sleuthing, Kies' fiction debut lays the groundwork for an entertaining series. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Author of the Geneva Chase Mystery Series, Thomas Kies lives and writes on a barrier island on the coast of North Carolina with his wife, Cindy, and Lilly, their shih-tzu. He has had a long career working for newspapers and magazines, primarily in New England and New York, and is currently working on his next novel, Graveyard Bay.

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