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Welcome to
THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF July Mystery Week Special!
Find out more about this e-book follow-up short story to Kevin Paul Shaw Broden’s first full-length story, CLOCKWORK GENIE!
ABOUT THE STORY
In this paranormal murder mystery short story that is a follow-up to the novel CLOCKWORK GENIE, Manning finds that the genie’s influence didn’t end with that first adventure. She wasn’t even supposed to be there when the bullet struck her chest. Detective Whitney Manning should be dead.
EXCERPT
Whitney knelt behind the rear of a Ford Focus, and braced her gun hand on the trunk.
“No clear shot,” the radio squawked again from the sniper.
However, the suspect did have a very clear shot, or just didn’t care, as he opened fire once more with a spray of lead.
In the next half second Detective Whitney Manning’s mind registered two things: the rear window of the Focus shattered and a hot stinging sensation in her chest.
###
The microwave beeped.
Albert Kramer popped the door open and peeled back the plastic covering to stir the potatoes and gravy in the side compartment alongside slices of mystery meat and the small bits of broccoli and carrots, put it back in for another two minutes. Before pressing the start button he caught his reflection in the glass door. He brushed back his greying brown hair. It wasn’t the first time he wondered what Whitney saw in this old man, compared to the strapping and handsome partner of hers. Even if Marcus was out of reach, she could do so much better than a tired old lawyer.
They had talked about getting married, but it just hadn’t happened yet. Besides, they were happy now, and in love, wasn’t that enough? Or was it that Albert kept expecting someone better, younger, to come along and take her away from him? He didn’t want that to happen, again.
He took out the finally heated meal and placed it at the end of the large dining table. The large empty dining table. Three paperback fantasy novels lay in a pile at the other end of the table, each about a half way finished. Whitney was one of those who could read more than one book at once. They looked as lonely as Albert felt. Like him, her books competed for her time away from work.
This wasn’t the first time Whitney was staying late at work. Oh, the life of a homicide detective. She had only moved in with Albert a few weeks ago, leaving her apartment along the canals in Venice, but his home felt empty when she wasn’t here. Far more so than all the years he had lived alone since his wife up and left.
He didn’t deserve Whitney; he was nearly twenty years older, yet she made him feel so young.
Albert had just cut into what was supposedly Salisbury Steak when the side door off the driveway opened. He turned to see Whitney enter, and her dark African-American skin looked pale.
“Albert.” It was like a child’s whisper. He leapt to her side. She was looking down at her hands; they were shaking.
“Whitney, is everything all right?”
Finally she looked up at him. “I’m alive.”
Suddenly she was on him, planting the biggest, most passionate, kiss upon his lips and pulled him down to the floor. As the kiss continued she tore at their clothing and shouted.
“I’m alive!”
E-BOOK PURCHASE LINKS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden first fell in with the masks as a child while listening to old time radio and the adventures of Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Lone Ranger and many others. They were soon followed by the four-color heroes of comic books, not the heroes of the modern age, but those of the Golden Age. Roy Thomas’ run on All-Star Squadron introduced Kevin to heroes long past. It would be those heroes he would dream of and want to write about; all that led to his pursuit of a career in comic books. He took art courses throughout his education – and his first professional job was as a background artist in the early issues of SUPREME for Image Comics – only to discover that no matter the media, he was a storyteller at heart.
He would never be far from his first love, the masked heroes. For over fifteen years Kevin has been illustrating and co-writing (with Shannon Muir) the online comic book FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY which can be found at http://www.flying-glory.com about the granddaughter of a golden age heroine known as Flying Glory. He has also written for television animation, including the Japanese series MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL. He is a member of the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America. Kevin also digitally paints book covers, not only for his own books, but for other authors, including the cover art for Pro Se Productions’ NEWSHOUNDS. In 2015, he also contributed artwork for LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION for Airship 27.
Kevin’s first novel, CLOCKWORK GENIE, was released in 2011, followed in 2012 by REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST, his homage to the golden age pulp heroes that got him started. In 2013, his work appeared in two anthologies from Pro Se Productions. In BLACK FEDORA, he wrote about the villainous Maestro Mechanic in “The Man Who Stole Manhattan”, and in NEWSHOUNDS printer’s ink mixes with blood in the tale “Stop The Presses!” He’s since followed this up releasing several short stories on his own, including “The Cop Who Wouldn’t Die” from the CLOCKWORK GENIE universe, “A Scarlet Spirit Tale: In the Clutches of Convicts” which expands the world of the MASKED GHOST, and the stand-alone “No Easy Way to Die.”
CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR
Site: http://www.clockworkgeniemysteries.com
Author Twitter: http://twitter.com/_MaskedGhost_
Facebook Author Site: http://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheMaskedGhost/
