Title	The Wages of Sin
Author	Alex Beecroft
ISBN#	978-1-60820-125-9 (ebook)
Release Date	January 2010
Paperback:	230 pages
Available At:	MlrBooks (ebook)

Charles Latham, wastrel younger son of the Earl of Clitheroe, returns home drunk from the theatre to find his father gruesomely dead. He suspects murder. But when the Latham ghosts turn nasty, and Charles finds himself falling in love with the priest brought in to calm them, he has to unearth the skeleton in the family closet before it ends up killing them all.

********************************

Moonlight sucked the colour from damp grass and silvered rising wisps of dew. The deer-park lay dim and still to Charles’ left, receding to a black horizon. To his right, the Latham family chapel loomed dark against the lead-colored sky.

Sultan’s hooves whispered across the verge as Charles rode past the private graveyard’s wrought iron gate and averted his eyes from the white glimmer of Sir Henry’s mausoleum. It was one thing to laugh together over newspaper reports of vampires in Prussia while reclining in the comfortable lewdness of an actor’s garret—lamps blazing, the magic revealed as greasepaint, squalor and hard work—quite another to think of it here, beneath a slice of pewter moon, in a silence so huge it annihilated him.

A fox cried. Sultan snorted, ears flicking. His own heart racing, Charles gentled the horse over the gravel drive that swept up to the white Grecian pillars of the mansion. They turned towards the stable-yard—coach houses, stalls and groom’s quarters arranged about an enclosed square, entered by a short cobbled tunnel beneath the stable-master’s rooms. Both of them balked at the darkness beneath the arch, Sultan sidestepping as Charles dismounted. He wrenched his wrist, landed with a slap and slither loud enough to conceal the footsteps of a thousand walking corpses and stood propped against the horse’s strong shoulder, gathering himself. Sultan’s warm, straw-scented breath spiralled up comfortingly into the pre-dawn sky.

“Easy there, Sultan. Nothing to worry about.”

Thanking God that no one was watching his folly, Charles slung an arm about Sultan’s neck, took the hilt of his sword in the other hand. Emboldened by the feel of it, he urged Sultan forwards, towards his own stall and rest. (continue reading…)

Meme posted by Alex Beecroft.

I thought I’d post a quick meme just for fun and to get to know us all better.  The rules are simple: if you’re tagged, answer the questions, post the answers on the blog, and tag someone else (not the person who tagged you).

Meme

01. What are your nicknames?

I was called ‘Sarnie Bucket’ at school, for reasons that still elude me.  Recently one of my friends on Livejournal has taken to calling me ‘Beery’, which is an improvement.

02. How does your hair look currently?
I’m growing it out of a short layered style, so it’s currently shoulder length, straight at the top and curly round the bottom.  Auburny-ginger in colour.

03. What’s new in your life right now?
My book, False Colors, just came out a couple of weeks ago, so that’s still my biggest new arrival.  But I’ve also recently joined a morris dancing side (the Ely and Littleport Riot) and last Sunday was the first time I went out and danced in public for an audience.  This is a bad YouTube video of us, if you’re interested, though I’m not in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwUE6ssTJw

04. How many colours are you wearing now?
Three: blue jeans, black and grey T-shirt.

05. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Strongly introverted. (continue reading…)