Book Spotlight & Excerpt Reveal - The Mistaken by Nancy S. Thompson

I'm excited to be a part of author Nancy S. Thompson's book tour for her psychological thriller and debut novel, The Mistaken. Not only do I get to introduce you to the book, but Nancy has graciously given me a tempting tidbit of an excerpt to reveal to you as well. 

If you're like me, by the end of this post, you'll be ready to add The Mistaken to the top of your TBR list. ;)

I'll give you the book's description first, and then the excerpt. Enjoy. :)

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All Tyler Karras wants is to enjoy life with his expectant bride; what he gets instead is a graveside seat at her funeral.  With the woman who killed her uncharged and still free, all Ty wants now is revenge.

His brother, Nick, has dangerous connections and suggests a sadistic plan: grab the woman responsible and hand her over to his associates—sex-traffickers in San Francisco’s Russian Mafia.  They offer Ty more than he dreamed possible.  In exchange for the woman, they’ll finally let his brother leave the business for good—with his debt wiped clean and his heart still beating.

There’s just one problem: Ty kidnaps the wrong woman.

Now he must protect Hannah Maguire from the very enemy he's unleashed, but the Russians are holding Nick as leverage to force Ty to complete their deal.  Caught in a no-win situation, Ty must find a way to save himself, his brother, and the woman, but with the Russian Mafia, even two out of three makes for very long odds.  

As time passed and I grew accustomed to the intensity of my pain, I spoke to Nick about Jillian, about how much I missed her, how empty the house felt without her. Nick and I eventually straightened out the place after he reminded me how much Jill hated a messy house. It once again looked as it did when she and I lived as a couple, but it certainly didn’t feel the same. The emptiness tormented me. Everywhere I looked there was something that had a memory of Jillian connected to it, especially her photographs which still lined the walls, and what remained of all the things we had bought for our child, which lay refolded and untouched in a dark corner of the den.

It was just too much for me to see everyday. My guilt and loneliness gradually evolved into bitterness and rage, the venom of each so pungent and sharp it soured my only refuge, my treasured nightly sojourn with Jill’s haunting apparition. My last solace was gone, betrayed by the very bitterness that corroded my soul. That was when I first seriously considered suicide, contemplating the effectiveness of different methods. But there was one thing that held me back. Once I’d read the police reports and ascertained the extent of Erin Anderson’s role in Jillian’s accident and death, I knew I couldn’t leave this world with her still in it, especially when the cops refused to arrest and charge her.

Whereas I once spoke to Nick about Jillian—my memories of her and our life together—I now shared my fantasies about gaining revenge on the woman who had provoked Jill into such reckless behavior. It soon became a favorite pastime to lie drunk around the house and spin wild tales of vengeance against Erin Anderson, the bane of my existence, the core of my deep-seated hostility.

They started simple, as visions of setting her house on fire with her trapped inside, or perhaps I would run her car off the road and down into a steep ravine where she would lie immobilized, entangled in the wreckage, unseen from the roadway far above. I had an endless reservoir filled with pernicious scenarios. I found that when I fantasized about a long, tortuous death, I felt a greater sense of vengeance and a considerable awareness of relief, as sick as that was. And I knew it was sick. But I didn’t care anymore. I wanted Erin to suffer for a long time before she died. Or maybe…maybe she shouldn’t die. Maybe she should just suffer. Forever. I could think of many ways to make that woman suffer forever.

At first, it gave me some relief to savor the vision of retribution. Yet, I always woke up the next day with the realization that Erin Anderson was still alive and well, walking the earth, enjoying her life, enjoying her family, while my wife was not, while my child lay eternally buried in Jillian’s cold womb six feet beneath the heavy earth, a tiny speck of immeasurable possibility heartlessly quashed into nothingness. I spoke to Nick about this train of thought and how crazy it was making me, how utterly enraged I felt, powerless and impotent.

“Tyler, do you think if you were to somehow get even with her that you would actually feel…I don’t know...better?  Relieved maybe?” he asked late one afternoon.

“Hell yes,” I admitted. “Most days, it’s the only thing that keeps me from drinking until I just fucking die.”  I shook my head, disappointed in myself, far removed from the man Jillian once loved.

“Well then, maybe we should do it,” he suggested. “Get revenge. Go Old Testament on the bitch.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Don’t get me started, Nick.” 

“Why not, Ty?  I mean, we could probably do it, figure out a plausible way to really get back at her, to completely ruin her life. How hard could it be?”

“Nick, as good as that sounds, I don’t think I’m actually up to killing someone. Even that rotten whore.”

Nick walked around with his head down, his finger drumming absently along the sharp edge of his jaw, deep in thought. He turned to me, rather excited at the plan forming deep within the dark confines of his mind.

“We wouldn’t have to kill her, Ty. Just make her wish we had…”

###

Praise for The Mistaken:

“A deliciously slow burn that builds to a ferocious crescendo, Nancy S. Thompson's THE MISTAKEN kept me riveted until the very last page. Tyler Karras is a complex and flawed protagonist, and his redemptive journey makes him the perfect anti-hero. This psychological suspense is a standout, and I can't wait for Thompson's next book.”

~ Jennifer Hillier, author of CREEP and FREAK

“Nancy S. Thompson's debut novel, The Mistaken, is a first-rate thriller full of hair-raising twists and turns.  Pursued by the police and the Russian mafia in San Francisco, brothers Tyler and Nick Karras are fascinating, fully-drawn, desperate characters.  The action is non-stop.  Thompson's taut, intriguing tale of revenge, mistaken identity, kidnapping and murder will keep you enthralled and entertained.” 

~Kevin O’Brien, New York Times Bestselling Author of DISTURBED and TERRIFIED

“Fast-paced and emotionally gripping - once the ride begins, you won't stop reading until it ends."  ~Alex J. Cavanaugh, author of CASSAFIRE and CASSASTAR

Nancy makes her fiction debut with The Mistaken, but she is an interior and architectural designer by trade and has run her own studio since 1997.  A California transplant, Nancy currently lives with her husband of 21 years near Seattle, WA.  They have one son together, a college freshman at Arizona State University.  While Nancy doesn’t boast of any awards, she was recently contracted to be a freelance editor for Sapphire Star Publishing, which was a fairly large boost to her ego. 

Visit Nancy’s blog, follow, and leave a comment during her book tour for a chance to win an ARC of The Mistaken.  Plus, 5 runner-up winners will each receive an ebook. 

You can also find her on her publisher’s website, Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook. 

You can purchase The Mistaken here:

Amazon

Kindle

Barnes and Noble

Nook

It will also be available at Sony, Kobo, iBooks, Diesel Bookstore, and Baker & Taylor in a couple of weeks. 

The Mistaken Blog tour:

10/18:  Mark Koopmans & Nancy S. Thompson

10/19:  Alex J. Cavanaugh & Arlee Bird

10/22:  Carrie Butler & Jeff O’Handley

10/23:  Julie Musil

10/24:  Donna Weaver, Melissa Maygrove & Hope Roberson

10/25:  Matthew MacNish

10/26:  LG Smith

10/27:  Aimee Jodoin

10/29:  Heather M. Gardner

10/30:  Lisa Regan & Falling For Fiction

10/31:  Jennifer Hillier

11/1:    Angela Peart & Livia Peterson

11/19:  Arlee Bird