The Tempest Murders Blog Tour (+ Bracelet Giveaway!)

Title: The Tempest Murders
Author: P.M. Terrell
Series: N/A
Pages: 274
Publisher: Drake Valley Press
Date Published: August 21st 2013
Format: eBook
Genre: Mystery
Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours

Synopsis:
Detective Ryan O'Clery is working a series of homicides when he discovers a journal kept by an uncle five generations earlier, detailing the same type of murders as the Night of the Big Wind swept the Atlantic Ocean across Ireland in 1839. As Hurricane Irene barrels toward the North Carolina coastline, Ryan discovers even the killer's description matches exactly. And as he falls in love with television reporter Cathleen Reilly, he begins to wonder if she is the reincarnation of Caitlyn O'Conor, the woman lost to the killer as the storm raged in Ireland-and if he is the reincarnation of Constable Rian Kelly. Now he's in a race to rescue Cathleen before the killer finds her-or is history destined to repeat itself?

~~~Creating Characters by P.M. Terrell~~~

Creating a character for a stand-alone book has many facets, but creating one that will stand the test of time through an entire series brings more challenges. Sometimes characters feel murky to me until I’ve worked with them for a time, but Ryan O’Clery, the Irish detective in The Tempest Murders, felt like someone I’d known my entire life.

I began with his career. Due to the plot, he had to be a detective. And that career would work well through an entire series as he investigates various crimes.

But I knew he wouldn’t be an American, though he would be living in North Carolina and working with the Lumberton Police Department. In order for the plot to unfold and grow even deeper through the series, he needed to be from Ireland. He needed a strong link to his Irish ancestry, and in the book when his sister Claire informs him that with the passing of their aunt, he was now the official keeper of the family records, it seemed perfectly natural. With the Irish ancestry, I can delve into the past—from 1839 Ireland, as portrayed in The Tempest Murders—to even further back, to the time of the Vikings and radical changes in Ireland, which take place in subsequent books.

As a detective, he is methodical and analytical. But he is also passionate; his love for one woman shaking him to his very core.

Physically, I knew he had to be tall and portray a commanding presence—broad shoulders, muscular and active—the kind of man you knew not to cross. He had to be rugged enough to chase down and apprehend the most hardened criminals, and sexy enough to turn heads. His hair is black, an Irish color that goes beyond the Viking’s red-haired invasion. And his eyes are green. Green eyes are not the norm in the world anymore, but green and hazel are still the dominant color in the Irish. His speech patterns are that of an educated Dubliner; not the country speak of the rural areas, but the soft, lyrical brogue the world has come to love.

Ryan O’Clery is multi-layered; he is the no-nonsense detective who can handle a serial killer investigation. He is also the soft-hearted uncle who cooks his precocious preschool nieces macaroni in the shape of a rabbit. And he is the loving brother to a younger sister with whom he has always been close. But perhaps most of all, he is a passionate lover who has dreamed of only one woman—and who, now that he has found her, will do anything to keep her—even if it involves murder.

~~~Try an Excerpt!~~~

“I know you too well,” Claire said. “You’re wanting the story of Caitlín O’Conor, aren’t you?”

“Who?”

She smiled. “Her name was Caitlín O’Conor. She was supposedly the great love of Ríán Kelly’s life. It was a star-crossed love story. Her father was a prominent man in the village and Ríán was a ‘lowly county inspector’ and though they were deeply in love, her father would not permit Ríán to ask for her hand in marriage.”

He felt his chest tighten and he sipped his coffee to avoid Claire’s piercing eyes.

“The tale is that they sneaked around for years; everybody knew it. Everybody except Caitlín’s father, that is. They were madly in love.” She sighed wistfully.

“What happened?” He kept his eyes on his coffee. “Did she marry someone else?”

“Her father died. Quite unexpectedly. Heart simply stopped. And without him in the way, they were clear to be married.” She brushed non-existent crumbs from the countertop before continuing. “He asked for her hand in marriage on New Year’s Eve. Let’s see, I believe it was 1838. Yes, that’s right. December 31, 1838.”

“How can you be so certain of the date?”

“Because seven days later, Caitlín was dead.”

His head jerked up and he stared into Claire’s eyes. They were as green as the fields of Ireland and now she cocked her head and eyed him curiously.

“He’d gone to Dublin, so the story goes,” she continued slowly.

“Ríán Kelly.”

“Aye. He’d been called away on business. And as Fate would have it, the great flood came while he was gone and Caitlín was swept away. It was January 6, 1839—Epiphany.” Her voice took on a whispered note as though she was telling a ghost story. “There were those in the faith who had forecast the end of the world would occur on January 6, 1839—the day of Epiphany. So when the air grew completely still, so still they could hear the voices of neighbors miles apart, there were some who thought the end was near.”

He waited for her to continue. His cheeks were growing flush and he could feel beads of sweat beginning to pop out across his brow. “What happened then?”

“By nightfall, there were gale force winds. They moved from the western coast of Ireland all the way to Dublin, where Ríán Kelly had traveled. Some said the winds were accompanied by an eerie moan, a rumbling of sorts. But not thunder; it was a sound never heard before nor since. It increased as the winds grew. And then the northern sky turned a shade of red that had never been seen before.

“Well, so the myth goes, Ríán Kelly left Dublin immediately. It was a miracle he made it back to the village at all. He traveled through the night, in the rain and the hail, with the winds all about him. Bridges had been washed away; the wind had been so strong—stronger than anything Ireland had experienced in more than three hundred years—so strong that it whipped the Atlantic into a fury and pushed it all the way across the island. Streams and creeks became raging rivers. Whole villages were wiped out. Even some of the castles were beyond repair.”

He rested his elbows on the counter and put his head in his hands.

“You’re sure you don’t want to lie down, Re? You look as if you might faint.”

“I’m fine,” he said. “What happened when Ríán Kelly reached his village?”

“It was gone. Oh, there were a few buildings still intact. The church, for one. But Caitlín O’Conor’s home had been washed away. There was no sign of Caitlín.”

“So that’s where the story ends, does it?”

“Oh, no. I suppose it’s where it just begins.”

~~~Meet PM!~~~

P.M. Terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than eighteen books in four genres: contemporary suspense, historical suspense, computer how-to and non-fiction. Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area: McClelland Enterprises, Inc. and Continental Software Development Corporation. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence. Vicki’s Key was a top five finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards and 2012 USA Book Awards nominee and her historical suspense, River Passage, was a 2010 Best Fiction and Drama Winner. It was determined to be so historically accurate that a copy of the book resides at the Nashville Government Metropolitan Archives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is also the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She is the organizer of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime. For more information on this event and the literacy campaigns funded by it, visit www.bookemnc.org.  She sits on the boards of the Friends of the Robeson County Public Library and the Robeson
County Arts Council. She has also served on the boards of Crime Stoppers and Crime Solvers and became the first female president of the Chesterfield County-Colonial Heights Crime Solvers in Virginia.

P.M. will be giving away a Celtic bracelet (US only!) to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour! The bracelet is pictured below and is pretty sweet! Even if it's not your style, it is a definite plus for next St. Patty's day!