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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DEAD WEIGHT
Magic, Mayhem and The Law in Precinct #153 Book 1
BY G.P. ROBBINS
Blurb
Newly promoted Detective Jace Smithson has his hands full with solving the murders of ten men and the kidnapping of a unicorn capable of producing diamonds. On the surface, the crime appears to be a classic tale of greed and violence, but digging deeper reveals something sinister has come to Cauldron City.
Securing the safety and security of those he swore to protect is only the beginning of Jace’s problems. Add in his relationship with the dragons of Cauldron City along with a few personal secrets, and he’s the ideal target for the killer. Surviving to tell the tale will test his wit and skills in ways he never thought possible.
But if he wants to obtain justice for the wronged, he will have to face his challenged beliefs and come to terms with the darker realities of the city he calls home.
DEAD WEIGHT
Magic, Mayhem and The Law in Precinct #153 Book 1
BY G.P. ROBBINS
Excerpt
Thursday, April 5, 2057
Warehouse Row, Precinct 153
Cauldron City, Nebraska.
The next time Captain Farthan asked if I wanted to accompany him on a call, I would concoct at least a hundred and two reasons why I needed to bust my ass at my desk. Had I been thinking, I would have remembered the captain liked to test his officers a minimum of once a year. With quarterly reviews around the corner, he’d taken to the streets to better monitor Precinct 153 and its eclectic collection of residents, transients, and others.
The call, which had come from a rather notorious warehouse with a tendency of attracting trouble, should have warranted two pairs, but no.
Captain Farthan viewed himself as a one-man army. And if the man part of the equation didn’t work out, he became a one-dragon army, and only an idiot pissed off a grouchy bachelor of a dragon looking in all the wrong places for his one and only.
The rust-pocked building came into view, and I began my weapon check, hoping I wouldn’t need it but expecting to have a close encounter with the strange, the stranger, and the dangerous.
I couldn’t remember the last time a call to the damned warehouse had gone well.
“Nervous?” Captain Farthan asked.
Raising a brow at his question, I replied, “Not at all. I have a gun and a dragon. I’m probably the best armed sentient in the entire precinct right now.”
The captain snickered. “That’s a good one. Been sitting on it long?”
“For about as long as the last time you sat on someone’s car after they tried to race with an interceptor.” When a multi-ton dragon treated a car like a skateboard, the vehicle tended to grind to a halt. As the captain preferred when his prey emerged alive, he’d turned skating using cars into an art. At least his efforts tended to keep additional property damage to a minimum. “If you do decide you’re an interceptor today, sir, I do ask you come to a complete halt before leaving the vehicle, transforming, and pursuing your target.”
“If you’re looking for a promotion, that’s the right way to go about it.” The captain parked in front of the warehouse, and to my relief, two other patrol vehicles joined us, their lights on while their sirens remained silent.
That told me one thing: whomever had been using the building had already cleared out, and we didn’t want to disrupt the neighborhood more than we already would showing up to do yet another cleanup.
How marvelously delightful.
I stowed my firearm, unbuckled my seatbelt, and got out of the cruiser. “Your orders, sir?”
“Let’s see how much you’ve learned in the three and a half years you’ve been with us, Officer Smithson. While you were gathering your kit, I informed the other officers that this is your rodeo.”
The last thing I wanted was to be part of a rodeo while at work, figuratively or literally. As my momma had raised me stubborn and my pappa had demanded I behave like a proper police officer, I saluted my captain, straightened my shoulders, and pretended I knew what the hell I was doing while heading for the main entrance of the warehouse, which someone had left cracked open.
How very helpful.
My fellow cops, two pairs of our precinct’s higher level detectives, joined me.
“Welcome to the jungle, Jace,” Paul said, and he held out his elbow for a bump. I’d learned early on to go with Paul’s elbow bumps. Cop by day, touchy-feely elephant by night, the elbow bump was one of the ways he got his daily dose of affection from his co-workers, thus sparing us from him trumpeting his loneliness for the entire precinct to hear. He’d revealed his second nature early on in his career, as lonely elephants became grouchy elephants.
Much like our dragon of a boss, a crabby elephant could do serious amounts of property damage in a short period of time.
So far, I held the top prize of being the most normal cop in the precinct. Everyone had some form of secret everyone knew about—except me.
I had my secrets, but I held them close to my chest.
“Am I getting the nice jungle or the mosquito-filled hell Brandon keeps telling us about that time his parents took him to Mexico?”
Paul grinned at me. “I’m going with the mosquito-filled hell. Orders are orders, so we’re supposed to do what you tell us and only what you tell us, as he wants to see how badly you pooch our investigation. He took Yvon out yesterday. It was special. Yvon is going back to preschool next week until he understands he is not allowed to lick the evidence.”
In Precinct 153, preschool was another word for the academy, and the captain liked sending cops back for remedial lessons if he wanted to promote them but they had more to learn than he liked. A few weeks bringing cadets up to speed and getting lectured by experienced cops tended to work wonders for the slow learners.
I’d yet to earn a trip back to preschool, and I hoped to avoid it.
“All right. I’m going to start with wear your damned gloves, put your booties on, and don’t contaminate any of my damned evidence. Do we have scrubs to put over our uniforms?”
The detective grinned at me. “As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Enough for even the hothead who made me come out here?”
“Cute, Smithson,” the captain muttered, strolling up to join us.
“We were instructed to bring extras, as you had no idea you’d be playing detective today,” Paul informed me.
“Get everyone dressed. Pretend I’m the captain and you’re dodging preschool when you show me what I need to wear and how I need to wear it, allowing for us to access our firearms because we don’t know what’s in that building,” I ordered, glaring at the open door.
“Damn, Captain. He’s already ahead of the curve. Hardy, we’ve got ourselves a smart one.”
Detective Hardy Grimstone, the grandson of a rather notorious black dragon who’d made his nest in New York City, chuckled and went to the trunk of his cruiser to start implementing my orders. “He probably doesn’t want to get sent to New York. He caught my grandpappy’s eye last go around, and you know how that old goat gets.”
“I saw him first,” our captain growled.
As the last thing we needed was two dragons duking it out when we were supposed to be solving a crime, I cleared my throat and said, “Focus. If you two want to argue about who has property rights, do so at the station where everyone can participate, make bets, and enjoy the show. What type of case do we have here?”
G.P. Robbins lives in California, serving two feline overladies and sharing a domicile with another human.
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Links to G.P’s websites, blogs, books, #ad etc.:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3q8CZAZ
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Special Giveaway: G.P. will give away an autographed set of three R.J. Blain Books: Playing with Fire; Burn, Baby, Burn; and The Flame Game winner’s choice of 6×9 or 4.25×7 trim size (U.S. only; international winner may instead receive an ebook version of the three title) to one lucky reader who comments on her Karen’s Killer Book Bench blog.
Happy Reading!
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Thanks, G.P., for sharing your book with us!
Don’t miss the chance to read this book!
nice excerpt
Thank you!
Good morning, G.P., and welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench. I love the mash up of my two favorite genres, suspense and paranormal. Your story sounds wonderful, right up my alley. Thanks for sharing your book with us today!
I have read the whole book, and let me tell you, it is a beyond great book to have in your library. The whole book makes you laugh and go back again for more. Cannot wait for more!
You’re very welcome! Thank you so much for hosting me. :3
Loved the excerpt. Dead Weigh sounds like a great read as do all the other books. Would love to read them
Glad to hear you loved the excerpt!
Ohhhhh…right up my alley!
Thanks, G. P. and Karen!
You’re welcome!
Good morning, the excerpt sounds Great and the cover is very intriguing and very nice! Thank you for the chance. Have a great day and a great rest of the week.
I got this book the day it came out and I’m so excited to read it!
This is a fun read. Interesting storyline and characters. I’m looking forward to the next one in the series.
I have not finished yet, but I love it! I am taking my time and loving this world.
Well now I need to read the rest!!
Currently reading it! Love love love all her books.
This book is an instant favorite and one you’ll want to read again and again.
Thanks for a wonderful first look of this new series.
Hello,
I couldn’t wait until this book came out, I loved the excerpt and now 3/4 through the book I’m loving it!
Really great excerpt, I am looking forward to reading the entire story. Typically in one night.
Sounds like a perfect mix of fantasy and paranormal. One of my favorite type of characters (Dragons) also 🙂 I am looking forward to getting the time to sit down and read the book.
Nice!
Love this book and all her books!
Spending all my free time reading this one. Loving it!
Great excerpt, love the story concept.
Can’t wait to dive into this ! The book sounds absolutely amazing.
I’m loving this new series! It has dragons and cops and a body count! I read it all in one sitting and cannot wait to see where it goes.
Doing a second reading of it now. Love love love this new world.
I can not wait to read this book. I’ve been anxiously awaiting its release and now I have it and a day off. Tomorrow is all “booked” up!
So, I finally finished the book. It was AWESOME!! What’s NOT to love in this book that has talking unicorns, dragons and sentient birds!! This is the start of what I know will be an amazing story/journey. Such a damn good book!!
Book is awesome as is the author!
I am about most of the way through and love this book! ❤️❤️❤️ Although now I am craving Brazilian chicken and want a pet semi-sentient turkey
Everything looks great, can’t wait!
Everything looks great, can’t wait! Really love your books.
It’s a good read, I spent the last bit of my vacation reading it and had a nice time doing so.
Loved the book.
This book sounds fantastic!
My first introduction to this author was through the samples/blurbs that hooked me and this one is no exception. Added to my hoard
Have read this and am so excited for more of the series to come!
Can’t wait to read it. My pre-order just arrived, but I want to finish the book I’m reading. Been looking forward to its arrival.
This is a great book, if you like dragons and unicorns with a twist, this is a must.
Bought it, read it, loved it 😍
Can’t wait to start reading 😁
Reading this now. Loving it 😀
I am totally in and ready for this new story. I am waiting patiently as I know that any craft takes time and certain entities aren’t crafter friendly. So please, take this comment as intended (with humor). “{face planted on window, fingers tapping the glass} Open, open, open…..”
I mean, book one is totally ready for consumption, enjoy and have fun! Book two… I’ll get back to everyone on that! ^^;
Great excerpt, I look forward to reading it.
I like the comment about duking it out at the station so everyone can “participate, make bets, and enjoy the show”.
Love it.. will be adding to my library :)..
Sounds like my kind of series, thanks for sharing!
LOVED IT! Absolutely can’t wait to see this develop into a series. Smithson cracked me up from start to finish!