Author: Spencer Seidel
Publisher: Publishing Works, Inc.
About the book: “‘He’s got a knife!’ Jimmy said after seeing the glint of a blade in the kid’s hand. Jimmy brought his gun up and squared it at the kid.”
A murder rocks Portland, Maine after police discover an incoherent teen sitting in a pool of blood late one night. Paul Ducharme is found with a murder weapon in one hand, the dead body of his best friend in the other, and no clue how he got to the Eastern Promenade Trail.
A teenage love triangle gone wrong brings Spencer Seidel back with a vengeance in LOVESICK (PublishingWorks; $14.95; June 2012), the follow up to his breakout novel Dead of Wynter. Seidel deftly illustrates the trying relationship amid a friend and love interest – each with their own desires, issues and shocking agendas.
Wendy, the girl of Paul’s dreams, has been missing for weeks. Her boyfriend Lee has been murdered–apparently by Paul. It’s an open and shut case–or so most of Portland thinks.
When forensic psychologist Dr. Lisa Boyers is asked to interview Paul, who claims to forget the events leading up to the murder, she reluctantly agrees. In her jailhouse interviews, Lisa helps Paul to recover his memories, but the murder’s circumstances force her to recall her own troubled past.
Media attention mounts. Reporters stream into Portland. All eyes turn to Lisa. She seems intent on exonerating the “brutal teen killer” but quickly finds herself the focus of an over-zealous reporter with a knack for digging up dirty secrets. But the killer who has Lisa in the crosshairs already knows them all.
My thoughts: I read this book in one sitting! I had to know who had done it! The story is told by Paul and he is relating his history with Wendy and Lee to Dr. Lisa Boyers. She has been hired by an attorney to help evaluate Paul and see if she can get him to remember the events leading up to the night he is found with Lee's body. Because he is the one telling the story, it is told in chunks as they only have a couple of hours a day to meet.
There is plenty going on in between those times though! Lisa's past, which she has never effectively dealt with on a personal level, begins to rear it's head. Between the media hype that this case has created and reconnecting with Rudy Swaner, the attorney who hired her, she was bound to have to deal with some of the events from her past. She didn't realize when she took the case though, how much she had in common with Wendy.
This was a fast-paced book that at times was predictable, still had a twist at the end that I didn't see coming. I very much enjoyed Dead of Wynter last year, and really enjoyed this one as well. Spencer Seidel is definitely going to be an author I keep my eye out for.
Scavenger Hunt! I didn't realize I was the start of the Scavenger Hunt! You can read the excerpt below and find the next blog listed at the end - or to get the full list all at once - check out this link.
Here is an excerpt from Lovesick:
Patrolman Jimmy Preece would tell the story for the rest of his life. On his first night out as a rookie cop on the streets of Portland, Maine, he and his partner, a ten-year veteran of Portland PD, discovered a grisly killing on the Eastern Promenade, next to the 295 overpass.
It was a murder that would make headlines throughout the Northeast, especially after what happened to that shrink in the weeks afterward. Murder in Portland is not unheard of, but it is unusual.
At the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro, Jimmy had learned that Cumberland County has only one or two murders a year.
That stat offers little comfort to the families of the victims, something the cadets don’t always learn at the academy. Murder isn’t a statistic. In real life, it’s a dead family member. It’s a tragedy. http://beasbooknook.blogspot.com/
Q&A
1. When and why did you begin writing?
In some sense, I feel like I’ve always been a writer. The compulsion began when I was about six or so, after reading books like The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. But it wasn’t until years later, after I’d more-or-less given up on a career as a musician, that I began to write fiction seriously. That was in my mid-twenties. I’m not so sure as to the why of it. It’s just something I feel like I need to do.
2. Do you have a specific writing style?
A couple of reviews called my writing “lyrical” and/or “flowing,” which is hugely flattering. Having a nearly 25-year background in music, I’m conscious of cadences in writing, particularly in dialogue. I think that could be considered a style, but I’m always working to get better, to evolve.
3. How did you come up with the title?
Ugh. Titles. I hate coming up with titles. Lovesick began as “The Streets of Portland,” which I knew was terrible. When I was about a quarter of the way through my first draft, I was brainstorming on titles using the word “love.” It then just popped into my head. Lovesick is a kind of twisted love story, so it seemed like a perfect fit to me.
4. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
No. Or perhaps I should say that none was intended. I don’t write with an agenda, so anything that pops up will likely be because of some psychological quirk of mine. And there are, ahem, many of those.
5. If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Sol Stein, although I suppose he’s more well known as an editor. He wrote a wonderful book on the craft of writing called “Stein On Writing.” I keep some typed-up notes from that book handy to read every now and again. He’s a mentor I’ve never met.
Lovesick
Publisher/Publication Date: Publishing Works, June 2012
ISBN: 978-1-935557-51-7
378 pages
Challenges:
Where Are You Reading
A to Z Reading Challenge
Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge
ARC Reading Challenge (2)
Free Reads Challenge
Reading Romances Challenge (3)
Romantic Suspense Reading Challenge
Where Are You Reading
A to Z Reading Challenge
Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge
ARC Reading Challenge (2)
Free Reads Challenge
Reading Romances Challenge (3)
Romantic Suspense Reading Challenge
