KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH: Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench where readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!

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THE NIGHT WE BURNED
A Crime Psychological Thriller
BY S.F. KOSA

Blurb

Dora is always aware of the line between fact and fiction. As a fact checker at an online magazine, her job depends on it. And as a woman outrunning her secrets, so does her life. But when a colleague decides to pursue a story about a murder in her hometown, one linked to a deadly fire at a cult compound twenty years prior, suddenly all of Dora’s carefully spun deceptions are at risk.

And if she can’t stop the story, her entire life is on the line.

As Dora works with her colleague, altering facts to hide her past along the way, she’s thrown back into a world she tried desperately to leave behind. One of ritual and belonging, of danger and darkness. A world where two girls promised to help each other through…until it all went up in flames.

As her lies pile up, so do the murders. Until Dora realizes she won’t be lucky enough to escape twice.

THE NIGHT WE BURNED
A Crime Psychological Thriller
BY S.F. KOSA

Dora Rodriguez
Character Interview

1. What is your name? Do you have a nickname?

My name is Dora Rodriguez. No other past names, no nicknames. I swear. Really. Dora is the name I was born with, the only name I’ve ever had. Stop looking at me like that.

2. Who is your best friend? What kinds of things do you do when you’re together?

These days I mostly keep to myself, though my boss, Valentina, is nice. And my colleague Miles is funny (and to tell the truth, pretty cute). In the past, I’ve had wonderful friends, and one in particular. But now she’s dead. And I don’t want to talk about it. Next question?

3. If you have a family, how do you get along with them? If you don’t, are there people in your life that you consider family? How do you get along with them?

*nervous laugh* I had no idea being interviewed would be this stressful! I’m not in touch with my family anymore (okay … sometimes I check in on my little brother using my fake Facebook profile, but please keep that to yourself). I used to have chosen family. We were really close. But that didn’t end well. At all.

4. Do you have a birthmark? Scars? Where are they? How did you get them?

There’s a reason I never wear shorts. Remember when I said that whole thing with my chosen family didn’t end well? What I mean is that it all went up in flames. Literally.

5. When you’re angry, what do you do? Where do you go? How do you deal with your anger?

Honestly, I’m pretty much a textbook case of anger turned inward. I run a lot. I have some issues with eating. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s the reason my hair turned white even though I’m not yet forty? Of course, everyone thinks it’s because I had some big frightening thing happen to me, but that’s ridiculous. Er … can we go back and cut some of my earlier answers? Or maybe all of them?

6. A penguin walks up to you, right now, wearing a sombrero. What does he say to you and why is he here?

Most likely he’s a manifestation of my guilty conscience. He is remarkably articulate as he informs me that my past is going to catch up with me, and no amount of running will ever put it behind me. I typically enjoy animals in costumes, but he’s not as jovial as you’d expect a sombrero-wearing bird to be. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me.

7. What’s the one thing you’re afraid of losing?

My freedom. It was pretty hard won, and I’ve sacrificed a lot to keep it.

8. What makes you laugh out loud?

As I mentioned, animals wearing costumes. Cats riding on Roombas. Some of my colleagues’ typos and grammatical errors. Dangling modifiers can be hilarious.

9. What’s your favorite food?

These questions are a little intense for me. Are we almost done?

10. What’s the one thing you want out of life that you don’t think you can have? Why can’t you have it?

I’d love to have a normal life. Family, friends. A loving partner. A child. I can’t have that because of what I’ve done. Because if anyone finds out, I could very well spend the rest of my life in prison.

Meet Author S.F. Kosa…

S.F. Kosa is a clinical psychologist with a fascination for the seedy underbelly of the human psyche. ThoughThe Night We Burned (releasing August 10^th 2021) is only her second psychological suspense novel, writing as Sarah Fine, she is the author of over two dozen fantasy, urban fantasy, sci-fi, and romance novels, several of which have been translated into multiple languages. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and their (blended) brood of five young humans.