To Save a Victim, Camille St. James May Have to Become One Herself.
Seven years ago, tragedy ended the troubled marriage of Camille and Jack Vermillion. Now, as head of the Truth Project, her life safe and orderly, she focuses her lawyerly skills on freeing wrongly incarcerated individuals on death row.
Jack paid a bitter price for his mistakes. No longer a high-powered corporate attorney, he's now pastor of a small church in Blood Bayou. Unsure of her own beliefs, Camille is highly skeptical of the conversion of this man she hasn't seen in seven years.
Then tragedy strikes again. Jack's sister is murdered, apparently by a prisoner Camille has set free. To prove his innocence, Camille must return to Blood Bayou. But that means facing the hostility of the town — and Jack.
And as She Works to Find the Real Killer, Someone Is Determined to Stop Her...by Any Means.
To Save a Victim, Camille St. James May Have to Become One Herself.
Seven years ago, tragedy ended the troubled marriage of Camille and Jack Vermillion. Now, as head of the Truth Project, her life safe and orderly, she focuses her lawyerly skills on freeing wrongly incarcerated individuals on death row.
Jack paid a bitter price for his mistakes. No longer a high-powered corporate attorney, he's now pastor of a small church in Blood Bayou. Unsure of her own beliefs, Camille is highly skeptical of the conversion of this man she hasn't seen in seven years.
Then tragedy strikes again. Jack's sister is murdered, apparently by a prisoner Camille has set free. To prove his innocence, Camille must return to Blood Bayou. But that means facing the hostility of the town — and Jack.
And as She Works to Find the Real Killer, Someone Is Determined to Stop Her...by Any Means.
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Overview
To Save a Victim, Camille St. James May Have to Become One Herself.
Seven years ago, tragedy ended the troubled marriage of Camille and Jack Vermillion. Now, as head of the Truth Project, her life safe and orderly, she focuses her lawyerly skills on freeing wrongly incarcerated individuals on death row.
Jack paid a bitter price for his mistakes. No longer a high-powered corporate attorney, he's now pastor of a small church in Blood Bayou. Unsure of her own beliefs, Camille is highly skeptical of the conversion of this man she hasn't seen in seven years.
Then tragedy strikes again. Jack's sister is murdered, apparently by a prisoner Camille has set free. To prove his innocence, Camille must return to Blood Bayou. But that means facing the hostility of the town — and Jack.
And as She Works to Find the Real Killer, Someone Is Determined to Stop Her...by Any Means.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781416587507 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Howard Books |
| Publication date: | 05/05/2009 |
| Edition description: | Original |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
She has more than ten million books in print and is the recipient of the coveted RITA award from Romance Writers of America and the Career Achievement and Reviewer’s Choice awards from Romantic Times magazine. She is known as “a spellbinding storyteller who writes with sensitivity about issues facing contemporary women.” Karen's career in writing fiction for women has run the gamut from traditional romance to mystery thrillers to inspirational fiction. In her relationship-driven plots, she creates characters that could easily be her readers, and then places them in extraordinary circumstances while adding suspense to the mix.
Read an Excerpt
prologue
Luanne Richard opened the door to her killer wearing a smile and little else. With a drink in one hand and invitation and mischief dancing in her eyes, she sensed no danger. After several martinis, her instinct for danger was hazy at best.
She'd been lounging on the patio in her bikini when the doorbell rang. It had occurred to her that a cover-up might be the proper thing, but she wasn't much into doing the proper thing. Never had been. It got really boring trying to live life properly. Now, glancing through the peephole, she saw he was alone and thought it might be fun to tease him a little. No one around, as far as she could tell. So she let him in, closed the door, and turned to face him.
That is when she saw the knife.
She sobered instantly. And when he raised it and lunged, aiming for her throat, she recoiled on instinct alone, tossed her drink at his face and somehow — miraculously — managed to evade that first vicious slash. While he cursed and blinked gin from his eyes, she turned and ran on bare feet.
She raced through the huge house wondering frantically how to escape. She cursed her carelessness in leaving the gate open when she drove home from the club. It came to her that she stood no chance while inside, so she flew through the living room and made for the den and beyond — the patio. She prayed the door was open, that she'd failed to close it when she got up and came back in.
Please, oh, please...
Halfway there, she took a quick look over her shoulder and screamed. He was close and gaining. He would be on her if she didn't do something. As she streaked past a very expensive Chinese vase, she gave it a push to tip it over, thinking to trip him. He stumbled but didn't go down. He picked it up, tossed it side, and laughed. Laughed!
This couldn't be real. This kind of craziness happened in nightmares to other people, not to her. Hadn't she had enough grief in her life? Hadn't she tried her best to fight the demons that tormented her? Hadn't she often resisted temptation? Was she to be damned for the times she didn't?
I'm sorry, God. I'm sorry. I'm sorry...
No! She wasn't going to let this happen. She had a lot of life to live yet. She would change. She had changed. Nobody understood how hard it was for her to keep to the straight and narrow. She kept to the path. Almost always.
Once out on the lawn, she realized she couldn't make it to the front. It was too far away. He'd overtake her before she got halfway there. And there was no time to punch in the security code to open the gate. She was trapped.
Mad with fear, she ducked around lush landscaping, making for the walk that led to the pier and boathouse. She veered to avoid the cherub fountain and stumbled, twisting her ankle painfully. She flung out a hand for balance only to have it slashed on the lethal thorns of a pyracantha. Sobbing now, she dashed through a grove of wax myrtles, wincing at the slap and sting of limbs before finally reaching the pier jutting over the bayou. It was her only chance.
She looked again over her shoulder. He'd slowed, knowing she had no place else to run. The knife blade glinted brightly in the sun. She whimpered, trying to think. Blood dripped from the gash on her hand and her ankle throbbed. Scalding tears ran down her cheeks. What to do?
"Gotcha now, Luanne," he taunted. "The boathouse or the bayou, babe. What's it gonna be?"
Not the bayou. Never the bayou.
She had a fear of Blood Bayou. It had almost claimed her once. None of the romantic legends spun about it held any charm for her. The water was too dark, too still, too deep, too alive with slimy things, predatory things. The bayou was death.
She was out of breath and in pain when she remembered the telephone in the boathouse only a few feet away. Checking behind her, she saw that he was still coming, but moving almost leisurely, as if enjoying the chase, savoring her fear. Anticipating the kill?
The thought made her leap onto the pier. Hot from the August sun, the wooden planks burned the soles of her bare feet. Below the pier, black water slapped against the pilings, disorienting her. Don't look down! Eyes straight ahead, she finally reached the boathouse door, grabbing at the latch, fingers clawing. Panic and blood from her wounded hand made her clumsy, all thumbs, as she worked at the strange fastener. But at last she got it, wrenched it open.
Inside it was dark and dank and, like the bayou, smelled of rotting vegetation and decaying fish. But it was sanctuary and she scrambled inside, slammed the door shut, and set the bolt. It would not keep him out for long, but it offered a few precious seconds. Her eyes struggled with the dark. It was her only chance. But one thing nagged: Why was he giving her this chance? No time to worry about that. She flew to the wall-mounted phone, grabbed the receiver, and punched in 911.
He was at the boathouse now, rattling the door. Terror leaped in her chest. With her heart in her throat, she strained to hear the ring connecting her to 911. But nothing. In a panic, she jiggled the button up and down. Listened for a dial tone. Nothing. She frantically pressed the button up and down again. And again nothing. She gave an anguished cry and slammed the receiver against the wall. The phone line was dead!
She screamed at the thunderous crash. He kicked the door open. It slammed against the wall, shaking the boathouse to its foundation. As she watched, petrified, he took an unhurried step inside, filling the doorway. With the sun behind him, he loomed as large as a truck. He paused, no doubt to let his eyes adjust to the dark interior. He took his time. Then he began to move slowly toward her. "I've got you now, sugar," he taunted, his smile grotesque.
Incoherent with terror, all she saw was the knife. She scrambled backward, desperate to get out of his reach. But he kept coming. With a bump, she backed against the sleek hull of a boat. Trapped! Below was bottomless, black water. Sobbing, she looked at him piteously. She was going to die. The bayou was going to claim her after all.
Blood Bayou © 2009 Karen Young
Reading Group Guide
Karen Young
the Author
Although I’ve written 35 books, I’m convinced that I didn’t choose a career as a writer; it chose me.
After many long-distance moves necessitated by my husband’s career, I realized I would never have enough time in one particular job to develop a career. So after the tenth move, out of sheer desperation I decided to try writing a book. When a major publisher bought it, I knew that I had found a career! Or, as I mentioned, it had found me.
Writing fulfills something inside me like nothing else. I’m interested in people, in their lives, in who they are, in their interests, in what makes them tick, in what makes them happy or sad or good or bad. Spinning a tale with characters drawn from whole cloth out of my imagination is just plain fun.
But I want my books to speak to my readers. I’m drawn to explore the problems of contemporary women. With three daughters of my own, I see first hand the ups and downs of relationships, the difficulties women face in balancing career with marriage and motherhood, the challenge of blended families as a result of divorce. Looking beyond my family, I see the issues facing society as a whole.
Ten years ago, I lost my husband to a heart attack. Not only was my world changed, but I was changed in ways too numerous to mention. One was joyous: I was drawn back to the faith of my childhood. And, along with that, I began to explore the possibility of writing inspirational fiction. Over the years as I’ve conceived and developed plots relevant to the lives of contemporary women, there is one element that I feel is overlooked. And that is spirituality—faith. My books have always included the tension between right and wrong, but I mostly avoided adding the spiritual tension, those hard questions and struggles when characters inevitably dealt with trouble. Writing good inspirational fiction is not about adding a religious component to a book; it’s so much more. Now I freely explore the spiritual dimension of my characters.
After living in many places, Texas is now home. I love to hear from readers.
Learn more about me at: www.AuthorKarenYoung.com.
Karen Young
the Book
How did you come to write this book?
My ideas for a book come from various sources, media, current events, observations of people I know, people I read about, etc. I saw a TV interview that featured a group of college students devoted to freeing people from death row who were wrongly convicted. Whether you believe in the death penalty or not, no one wants to put to death an innocent person. I do a lot of “what if-ing” in developing a plot. What if someone were directly responsible for releasing a prisoner and he killed again? My plot just grew from that. I write about issues that are relevant to contemporary women. It was natural that I’d weave into my story a hero and heroine with “issues.”
What was different about writing this book?
I have written 35 books of popular fiction. But Blood Bayou is a first for me, in some ways. It’s the first story where I weave into the plot a faith journey for a character. I was worried about several things. First of all, I was inexperienced in adding the element of faith to a book. How much or how little of that element should be in the plot, I wondered. I have a whole fan base of readers who may not be familiar with Christian fiction. Would they be accepting of the new direction I’d taken in my writing career? In short, a lot was different in writing this book.
What surprised you in writing Blood Bayou?
That’s easy. I loved writing Camille’s faith journey. It seemed natural, right from the first moments of her realizing her ex-husband had changed as a result of Christ entering his life. Even though she’s suspicious at first, she can’t deny he’s different from the man she married. I also felt right about Jack’s character, both as a redeemed man and as a minister. He is a hero “larger than life,” of course, which is pretty much expected in writing romantic fiction. But I didn’t expect that Jack would literally be a character who practically wrote his own dialogue. Once in a while a particular book will almost write itself. For me, Blood Bayou was one of those. Who knew?
The “hook” in this story is that a man is wrongly incarcerated on death row, gets out, kills again. Was much research required?
There is a ton of information on the Internet about the Innocence Project, which has been very much in the headlines for several years with the development of DNA as a means of identification. In my book, Chester is released as a result of something other than DNA evidence. I didn’t want that element of the story to overcome the mystery and growth of the characters’ relationship. So I learned far more about the Innocence Project than I used in the book. I recall once hearing another author state that only about one-twentieth of the research that is collected is used in actually writing fiction. I found that to be true in this case.
How do you continue to be productive after 35 novels?
Writing is my life. I dabbled in several careers before I wrote my first book, but I never felt much regret when I was forced to move on to another place and another job as a result of my husband’s career. It was only after I discovered the joy of coming up with a plot and weaving it into a story with characters straight out of my imagination that I realized what I was meant to do for the rest of my life. The most fun part of being a novelist—for me—is thinking up the story. The hardest part is writing it. But I can’t imagine doing anything else. So when I’ve finished one book, I am already in the process of coming up with the bare bones of the next one. I do not dream of retirement.
Do you consider yourself a mystery writer? A romance writer?
Both. When I come up with the basic idea for a book, I always look for elements to move the plot forward. For me, a mystery works best to do that. There must be tension, action, and good character development, all combining to spin a good story. But I never forget that I write fiction for women, so I am naturally drawn to the problems and issues of women. Possibly that could be traced to the fact that I am the mother of three daughters
Describe how you work, your creative process.
I work from a synopsis, which is usually about 35-40 pages of running narrative containing the main points of the story. One of the most difficult things I had to learn as a writer was how to develop that synopsis. It was my natural inclination to begin writing a story and just go with the flow. But to meet a deadline continually, book after book, I find it necessary to think through the plot thoroughly, develop the characters and generally decide the pacing of the story before beginning to write it. I write every day and usually am most productive in the afternoon and evening. Also, I belong to a brainstorming group with four other seasoned authors. We meet annually to discuss our current work-in-progress. Each of us brings different skills, different sensibilities and a different outlook on a plot. It’s incredibly useful and valuable to discuss the idea for a book and to hear different points of view about it from experienced writers.
Karen Young
the Conversation
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Which character did you like most? The least? Why?
What personality traits did you find most appealing in the character you liked most? Which trait(s) did you like least?
Did you guess the killer? When?
Ray Wyatt was a retired cop. Did you find it believable that he abandoned his principles for money? Or was the inclination for evil always there?
Cops see the dark side of humanity every day. Some “go bad.” Why? Do you think that is rare or not so rare?
Secondary characters can add richness to a story. Which character(s) did you like?
Camille’s father was a controlling parent. What traits in her behavior might be traced to her controlling father?
Jack’s father was an alcoholic. Did he display characteristics of the classic “adult child of an alcoholic?”
Did you find it believable that Jack could overcome his many character flaws?
Camille worked diligently to free Chester. Statistics show that there are people on death row who might be innocent of the crimes for which they are incarcerated. Do you think the death penalty is right?
Camille divorced Jack when he caused serious injury to a boy while driving drunk. Was her decision legitimate? Was it moral?
What about her marriage vows? What about sticking through sickness and health, through good times and bad?
When a marriage is in crisis, what are some of the ways to resolve issues rather than to resort to divorce?
Jack caused great pain and suffering to others. How do you feel about those individuals when they have attempted to make amends?
Do you think Jack did all within his power in hoping for and praying for Camille’s conversion to faith? Name things he might have done, but didn’t.
Once Camille and Jack are reunited, what do you feel their future holds? Will Camille have difficulty assuming the role of a minister’s wife?