Title:
Darkness
Knows Me
Author:
Chrinda
Jones
Release
date: April 1st, 2013
Genre:
Mystery
Tour:
Irresistible
Reads Book Tours
Book
Description:
Richard McMann hangs by his arms from
the rafters of Red Curtain Club- naked. His ankles are bound together and his
throat is cut in what appears to be a gruesome still-life tribute to Christ’s
crucifixion. There is no blood in spite of the gaping wound to his throat and
his entire body is covered by what looks like a fine white powder. The salt
granules scattered on the dance floor beneath his feet and the fact that his
body faces due east, make his murder different yet similar to the death days
earlier in a club a few blocks away.
South Dallas police detective, Olivia
Gates and criminal psychologist, Dr. Will Green, engage in a game of wits with
a serial killer who haunts the nightclubs of Deep Ellum, leaving behind
ritualistic sacrifices of those people he believes deserving of the act. Is he
a raging psychopath, killing just to kill, or is there method behind his
madness?
EXCERPT
“So, what sedative did
he use if it wasn’t Ketamine?”
“They listed the
overridin’ chemicals in McMann’s blood as diphenhydramine, heroin,
acetaminophen and salicylic acid. Then all the other chemicals, minerals, etc
you expect to see in a blood work-up.”
“Cheese Heroin and
aspirin,” Olivia said.
“Judging by the size
of the dose he took of salicylic acid, the fella had one hell of a head banger
before whoever got hold of him, got hold of him. His ears must have been
ringin’ like a bicycle bell.” Verna said.
“Big guy, big dose.
Makes sense to a person who doesn’t make a habit out of reading dosage labels.”
Olivia never heard of this particular type of heroin being used purposefully as
a respiratory depressant.
“I had them run a
break down on a sample of the Cheese we found in McMann’s mouth. I wanted to
know the percentage of heroin used to make it. The test came back at twenty
percent. That’s three times higher than the five percent found in the original
samples they ran years back when it appeared in the schools.” Verna’s pastry
slowly oozed amoretto filling with every piece she tore from it. She licked the
filling off the tips of her fingers and said, “Black Tar Heroin is thirty
percent Heroin. The drug we found is nearly that level. Considerin’ the effects
of an increased amount of acetaminophen and diphenhydramine, we’re lookin’ at
more consumer deaths due to respiratory failure.”
Olivia handed Verna a
napkin and asked, “Anything else? What about the weapon?”
“Flip through those
papers with the blue paper clip until you see the section that talks about the
knife wound.” Verna waved her sticky hand in the direction of the open file
folder. “I took swabs from the outside edges of McMann’s neck wound and from
inside the wound itself and sent it to the lab with the rest of the specimens.
The results came back showin’ animal blood mixed with McMann’s blood at the
site. Odocoileus virginianus - White Tailed Deer for people who speak English.”
“White tail live
mostly in Canada, but there are some as far south as here and Louisiana.”
“How do you know that?”
Verna asked.
“I’m the daughter of
an avid hunter with no sons. You would be surprised by some of the things I
know.” Olivia continued flipping through the pages, skimming the rest of the
report. “So, that probably makes our murder weapon a hunting or survival knife
like I thought.”
“Ya, I guess it does.”
“Exsanguination makes
sense now that we know he’s probably a hunter.” Olivia said.
“But what does
exsanguination have to do with his method? Why do somethin’ so freakin nasty?”
Verna shuddered.
“I’m almost certain it
has to do with the act of sacrifice. If he’s working from the Old Testament
version of ritual sacrifice, blood has to be spilled in order for forgiveness
to be granted.” Olivia said this with confidence, certain of her assumption, at
least where the sacrifices were concerned.
“So, the murders are
ritualistic. Girl, that’s just weird.”
About
the Author:
Chrinda Jones was born in
1964, in Sacramento,CA. She lived the first 30 years of her life in Oregon and
has since lived in several different states across the U.S. She began learning
to write in earnest when her four children started leaving the nest. She is the
author of the Olivia Gates and Will Green crime series set in Dallas, Texas, of
which “Darkness knows Me” is the first installment. A musician and lover of
books, she lives in Murphy, Texas with her husband and her Jugg, Abby.
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