Book Name: For by Grace
Author Name: Adrian J. Smith
Author Bio:
Adrian J. Smith, or “AJ” as she is often called, is a part time writer with an epic imagination, sharp wit, and kind heart that gets her into a bit of trouble when it comes to taking in all the neighborhood stray cats. Being obsessed with science fiction, Smith often goes off on tangents about the space-time continuum. She is also a part time lunatic with a secretive past. It’s been rumored that she was once a spy for the government, but anyone who has gotten close enough to know the truth has never lived to tell the tale. When traveling around the world on various classified tasks, Smith requires the following be provided: buffalo jerky, mimosas, and eighty six pennies. This is all we know about the reclusive woman.
Author Contact:
www.facebook.com/adrianjsmithbooks
www.facebook.com/booksbysnow www.facebook.com/supposedcrimes
www.twitter.com/@AdrianAJSmith
Cover Artist: Heidi DeCausemaker
Publisher: Supposed Crimes, LLC
Buy Links:
Amazon US
Smashwords
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Amazon CA
Blurb:
Being a Sheriff’s Deputy is not all about saving lives and arresting criminals, and each day Grace wonders if she’ll make it home. While kids at the schools Deputy Grace Halling visits see her as the knight in blue-cotton armor, people involved in the cases she is dispatched to have a different opinion. She has every confidence in her ability to do her job and arrest criminals. She easily takes down a knife-wielding woman and a drunken combatant teenager without hesitation. Everyone—victim, suspect, or witness—has a story to tell or to lie about, and Grace is never perturbed by their tales. That all changes when she looks down the barrel of a gun. She loses confidence in her ability as a deputy, she loses trust in herself and fellow officers, and she struggles to stay afloat as shift after shift passes. Grace cannot find her rhythm of being a deputy again. And when the Police Chaplain unexpectedly barges into her life, her personal and professional lives are flipped upside down. Grace struggles to find her even ground, worrying that the next time she stares a murderer in the face will be the last.
The most dangerous call…
Most people don’t know that I worked alongside the sheriff’s department when I was in college. I was working in an outside agency, but we had a sheriff’s deputy working with us throughout every single shift. I learned a lot from them, including what their most dangerous call was.
DVs or Domestic Violence calls are the most dangerous call for a police officer to be sent on. You’d think bombing, shooting, suspicious persons, vehicular thefts, but no. Domestic Violence. It’s not only the worst-case scenario for those involved in the violence, but it is for the police officers being called out.
When I started writing this novel and thinking about what was going into it, I wanted to make it as real as possible to the life of a regular Joe (or Jane) cop. There isn’t a lot of bells and whistles. Grace writes reports, she talks to her boss, she sits in her cruiser a lot (which she doesn’t have her own cruiser by the way, they all share), and she goes out to the most dangerous and one of the most common calls.
DVs have high emotions, and usually, they don’t care or think about what is going on. The potential for harm to the victims and to police officers is very high. Usually these calls have 2-3 police officers on them. And they all deal with the situation at hand. They separate the individuals and figure out what is going on.
Grace goes to quite a few DV calls through this novel and throughout the series. I actually just got done writing one with a gay couple. Domestic violence isn’t necessarily two people in a romantic relationship with each other. They can be brother/sister, parent/child, roommates. These calls are often bloody, brutal, heart-wrenching, and oh so very common.
That’s why I wrote them in. Domestic Violence is a huge problem in the United States and throughout the world. It’s something we need to talk about, write about, think about, and then finally, it’s something we need to take action about. It’s not just those involved in the argument getting hurt.
Deputy Halling tensed her shoulders as her cruiser sped up—she was always ready for the next suspect. The truck was already four blocks ahead of her and did not look to be slowing down. She reached up and hit the mouthpiece of the radio at her shoulder, tilting her head as she spoke. “337—speeder on Hosmer and 126th, heading northbound. Red Ford Ranger, early model, plate is boy-boy-charles-seven-zero-nine. In pursuit.”
“10-4,” dispatch responded.
Hitting the gas, Grace got as close to the truck as possible. They weaved in and out of traffic, cars pulling over to the side and hitting their brakes as the driver either caught sight of the truck or heard her sirens. He blasted through a red light, horns beeping continuously at him as she drove to catch up. Grace slammed on her brakes. She let out a quick breath as a black mustang came to a forceful stop, letting her drive past them. She picked up her speed, scanning the roadway ahead to try and see where the Ford had gone. Biting her lip, Grace cocked her head to the side, skimming the intersections to make sure everyone had stopped or was coming to a stop before she went through them. One car was too close of a call for her.
Tour Dates/Stops:
8/18: Prism Book Alliance
8/25: The Hat Party, Velvet Panic, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
9/1: SA McAuley
9/8: Jade Crystal
9/15: Cate Ashwood
9/22: Fallen Angel Reviews
9/29: Hearts on Fire
10/6: My Fiction Nook
10/13: Wake Up Your Wild Side
10/20: Love Bytes, Regular Guys, Hot Romance
10/27: Parker Williams, Iyana Jenna
11/3: Dawn’s Reading Nook, Amanda C. Stone, LeAnn’s Book Reviews
Rafflecopter Prize: Ebook of ‘For by Grace’ and ‘Forever Burn’
hi adrian .. book sounds great