Front Page Fridays Week-7
Welcome to Front Page Fridays Week-7. Every Friday I highlight a newly published book by showcasing the first page.
My Front Page Fridays Week-7 guest is Stacey Murray and her brand-new psychological thriller The Thief of Joy. And it’s an apt one, given the day of the week on which the opening scene is set...
CHAPTER ONE
The brain was a strange old thing, she thought, watching the clock, willing it to go faster. All those years when she’d had nothing to look forward to, Fridays had still always felt different – even smelt different – from the other days.
But today there was a reason for the ‘Friday feeling’. Tonight she was going for drinks and dinner at the new Italian in town. She was going out with Daniel.
She slammed the front door behind her and raced up the stairs. She had twenty minutes till Daniel came to pick her up. Twenty minutes to change out of her uniform into her denim tunic-dress that showed just the right amount of cleavage. She would wear it with black tights and ankle boots and stick a cardigan in her bag; it was a mild enough day at the moment, but the mid-September nights could get chilly.
She pulled the brush through her newly dyed black hair and smoothed the starchy fabric over her hips in the mirror.
Stacey Murray - The Thief of Joy (published on March 19th by Hobeck Books)
About the Book
Single mum Roz compares herself to everyone else, from her sister to friends to people on social media, and feels she's missing out. She wants what they've got — a husband, a father for her daughter, and respect.
When she meets Daniel, Roz thinks her dreams are possible, until he dies suddenly and tragically. Devastated by grief and loneliness, she rushes headlong into a relationship with Mark, a widower she meets in an online support group.
Yet as Mark's behaviour becomes more controlling and manipulative, Roz realises he isn’t the man of her dreams. He is hiding a jaw-dropping secret that spells danger for Roz and her daughter...
Purchase Links
Amazon UK https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CT8SWQQW
Amazon US https://amazon.com/dp/B0CT8SWQQW
Hobeck Books https://hobeck.net/product-page/the-thief-of-joy-by-stacey-murray
About the Author
A native of Glasgow, Stacey Murray was an international lawyer in London and Hong Kong, before changing career to become an independent film producer. Her first film, A Boy Called Dad, was acquired by the BBC and nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (which meant she got to chat with Sean Connery). She lives in the dramatic Derbyshire Peak District which is the setting for her tense psychological novel The Thief of Joy. Her first novel was the acclaimed The Curious Case of Maggie Macbeth, also set in the Peak District.
Social Media Links
X/Twitter: @TheStacemeister
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stacey.murray.39
I hope you enjoyed Front Page Fridays Week-7. Come along next Friday for another.
And please take a look at books already featured on Front Page Fridays:
Blood Ribbons by Lin Le Versha – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/front-page-fridays-week-1/
Fatal Blow by Brian Price – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/front-page-fridays-week-2/
Can I Trust You? by Rob Gittins – Front Page Fridays Week-3 – Rachel Sargeant
The Last Bird of Paradise by AJ Aberford – Front Page Fridays Week-4 – Rachel Sargeant
Never Forgive You by Hilly Barmby – Front Page Fridays Week-5 – Rachel Sargeant
The Mists of Pencarrack Moor by Terri Nixon – Front Page Fridays Week-6 - Rachel Sargeant