A warm welcome to author C.S Poe joining us today to talk about new audiobook release “The Mystery of the Curiosities” narrated by Derick McClain.

C.S shares a part of an exclusive story !

Welcome C.S 🙂

Title: The Mystery of the Curiosities (audiobook)

Series: Snow & Winter

Publisher: DSP Publications

Author: C.S. Poe

Narrator: Derrick McClain

Length: 7 hours, 15 minutes

Release: July 31, 2017

Hey there, everyone! I’m C.S. Poe, author of the mystery-romance series, Snow & Winter. Today is the final stop of the blog tour for The Mystery of the Curiosities on audio, narrated by the wonderfully talented Derrick McClain. If you’ve missed the previous posts— this is a short story about Sebastian and Calvin taking a vacation to Colorado, inspired by my Highway to Heck road trip and attendance at GRL. Be sure to check the schedule below and catch up on Parts 1 – 3!

 

The complete story is at the following blogs:

October 23 – The Novel Approach

October 24 – Boy Meets Boy

October 26 – Two Chicks Obsessed

October 27 – Love Bytes

 

“Think it’s a Strater ghost?” I asked, still staring at the open suitcase.

“No,” Calvin replied as he rubbed his lightly bristled cheek.

“Not open to the supernatural?”

He gave me side-eye. “It was housekeeping.”

“Not that smart of them, don’t you think? I mean, whoever is assigned to cleaning this room will get blamed.” I stared at Calvin. “I heard the door on my way upstairs, but obviously there’s no one in here.”

“Probably whoever it was leaving.”

“But I was on the stairs.”

“There’s an elevator,” he stated, before crouching down to go through the rumbled contents.

“I guess….” Not that I was debating whether or not the elevator existed— I just hadn’t heard it being used.

“Nothing seems to be missing.”

I crossed my arms and looked down. “It’d be a sad day in hell when my underwear is worth something on the black market.”

“I’ll call the front desk.” Calvin stood once more.

“Do we have to?”

“Someone was in our room, Seb.”

“They’re not anymore.”

“Yes, but—”

“I’m drunk and easy right now. Let’s deal with it later.”

I wrapped my arms around Calvin’s neck and pulled him down to kiss. I curled one hand through his thick hair, giving it a good tug. Calvin put his hands on my hips, pulling me against his own body. He deepened the kiss, tasting like heat and male and delicious whiskey.

“You’re terrible,” he murmured against my mouth.

“You fucking love it,” I whispered.

Calvin growled, shoved me down on the bed, and climbed over me. “You’re damn right.”

 

 

I’m not sure what had woken me. I tried falling asleep again, focusing on Calvin’s warm breath against my neck and shoulder, and the weight of his arm draped over my chest. I was hanging precariously in a state of semi-consciousness when I heard the floor creak.

My eyes snapped open and I turned my head to the door. Fuzzy though it may have been, I watched the shape of it fall shut in the dark, the lock clicking quietly.

“Holy shit.”

After the insanely hot hotel sex, I’d spent a few minutes reading through the ghost diary we’d found earlier. At least until Calvin had snuggled up close and made a passing comment about the likely made up stories of dead people who never exist not being very romantic.

And whatever my knight wanted, he got. So I’d tossed aside the book in favor of post-orgasm cuddling.

Anyway. Point being, several of the written accounts by previous guests mentioned the door opening and closing in the middle of the night— enough that one couple slept with a chair shoved under the knob. Others mentioned items being moved around the room, or just going missing entirely during their stay.

So. Uh. Was there a ghost visiting our room while I was currently pantless?

I eased out from under Calvin’s hold, surprised my movement didn’t wake him. I grabbed my glasses from the table and put them on before going to the door and checking through the peephole. The light from the hall caused me to squint, but I saw the almost… semi-translucent… shape of… something vanish around the corner.

“What the fuck?” I whispered. I turned around and hastily grabbed my pajama pants from the suitcase. I yanked them on, picked up my magnifying glass left beside the ghost diary, and slipped out of the room.

I tiptoed down the short hall from our door, wary of the floor making sounds and giving my location away.

Not that— well, I’m not sure if that mattered to a ghost, but whatever.

I poked my head around the corner. The halls appeared empty, and no noise filtered up from the open staircase that looked all the way down to the lobby.

Christ. I must have looked like a lunatic. Half dressed, wandering around a hotel at like two in the morning, with nothing but a magnifying glass.

Why did Calvin adore me?

I had nearly turned around and gone back to our room when one, I realized I’d have to wake said boyfriend because I didn’t take a room key with me, but two and more importantly, that weird spectral thing I thought I had maybe seen through the peephole was standing in front of a door further down the hall.

I leaned awkwardly to one side, watching it. My eyesight may have been shoddy, and I may have still been an itsy bit drunk, but that wasn’t a ghost.

Someone dressed like a ghost, sure. But not a real dead person haunting the halls and rattling chains.

Hold up.

That meant a living person had been in our room, pilfering through our things…. Had we been robbed and not yet noticed?

“Hey!” I shouted.

The person startled, turned, and looked right at me. They were dressed in what appeared to be a historically accurate representation of maid’s clothing from the late 1880’s. Their complexion looked wrong though, even from a distance, so I ventured to assume they were wearing makeup of some sort.

“Don’t move!” I said— like an idiot and not intimidating in the least.

And of course they ran. I moved to the left to cut them off, but the person skidded and turned on a heel to go the opposite way toward the stairs. I thought about throwing my magnifying glass at them, but all that’d accomplish was breaking it. I dropped it to the carpeted floor and instead picked up a potted plant from a nearby stand.

“Shit, shit!” I didn’t know how else to slow the person down, so I blindly threw the house fern.

 

 

People were standing outside their rooms, watching the scene.

I couldn’t blame them.

Must have been interesting from the outside looking in.

“So you heard the door close,” Calvin stated.

I nodded.

“And you went to investigate.”

“It’s a thing I do from time to time.”

He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair still mused from sleep. “You saw this intruder—”

“Dressed as a maid,” I interjected.

“Right.”

“Is he wearing makeup?” I continued.

Calvin stared at me for a moment, then at the man now in handcuffs. He was sitting on the hotel floor with several uniformed officers and hotel staff surrounding him. The burglar was covered in potting soil from where the container had broken on his head, and the fern’s sad existence was strewn all down the staircase.

“He is wearing gray makeup, yes,” Calvin replied.

“For the spooky.”

“I’d suspect so.”

“Detective Winter,” one of the officers said. He held out a wallet to Calvin. “This appears to be yours.”

Calvin frowned and took the wallet while patting the back pocket of his jeans he’d thrown on after hearing the crash and screams from the hallway, courtesy of yours truly. “I had it when we returned from the saloon.”

“Looks like Mr. Michaelson here has been using hotel keys to access rooms,” the cop replied, eyeing the suspect. “He must have slipped into your room during the middle of the night to look for valuables.”

“I was already in there,” Michaelson said from the floor, sounding like he’d given up entirely. “In the shower.”

“You heard us having sex!” I declared.

He frowned in response.

“You tried to steal my phone too,” I said. “I remember putting it on the table, but then I found it on the bed.”

“I was already in the closet when you checked in,” he muttered, narrowing his eyes at me. “You came back to the room too fast and I panicked— had to hide again.”

“Asshole,” I murmured. Not that the phone was particularly valuable to me. I just had a lot of pictures of me and Calvin and our dog on it, and I’m a sentimental sonofabitch.

“Your partner here stopped Michaelson from making another burglary tonight,” a second officer said to Calvin.

Calvin looked at me.

I grinned. “All in a day’s work.”

End

Blurb:

Life has been pretty great for Sebastian Snow. The Emporium is thriving and his relationship with NYPD homicide detective Calvin Winter is everything he’s ever wanted. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Sebastian’s only cause for concern is whether Calvin should be taken on a romantic date. It’s only when an unknown assailant smashes the Emporium’s window and leaves a peculiar note behind that all plans get pushed aside in favor of another mystery. Sebastian is quickly swept up in a series of grisly yet seemingly unrelated murders. The only connection tying the deaths together are curiosities from the lost museum of P.T. Barnum. Despite Calvin’s attempts to keep Sebastian out of the investigation, someone is forcing his hand, and it becomes apparent that the entire charade exists for Sebastian to solve. With each clue that brings him closer to the killer, he’s led deeper into Calvin’s official cases. It’s more than just Sebastian’s livelihood and relationship on the line – it’s his very life.

Purchase Links: | Audible | Amazon | iTunes | Goodreads |

Author Bio: C.S. Poe is an author of gay mystery, romance, and paranormal books.

She is a reluctant mover and has called many places home in her lifetime. C.S. has lived in New York City, Key West, and Ibaraki, Japan, to name a few. She misses the cleanliness, convenience, and limited edition gachapon of Japan, but she was never very good at riding bikes to get around.

She has an affinity for all things cute and colorful, and a major weakness for toys. C.S. is an avid fan of coffee, reading, and cats. She’s rescued three cats, including one found in a drain pipe in Japan who flew back to the States with her. Zak, Milo, and Kasper do their best on a daily basis to sidetrack her from work.

C.S. is a member of the International Thriller Writers Organization.

 

| Website | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Blog | Goodreads | Newsletter |

 

Narrator Bio:

Ever since my voice dropped, people have been telling me I “should go into radio”… What people don’t realize is that you don’t go into radio just because people like the sound of your voice. You go into radio because you have a passion for what’s on the radio – for music, or for news, or sports. While I can appreciate these things, I don’t have a passion for them.

Now, books on the other hand…books I can get behind.

After eight years of professional and competitive public speaking and (live) oral interpretation of literature, Derrick has turned his powerful voice to the world of audiobooks.

While he enjoys reading, listening to, and narrating a wide variety of genres, he has a particular affinity and passion for romance novels of all types.

Derrick records in a professional quality studio at his home in Tallahassee, FL, where he enjoys the quiet North Florida lifestyle along with his fiance and insanely hyper dog. He has previously lived in rural Pennsylvania as well as Orange County California, and has extensively traveled the United States, becoming familiar with a wide range of American accents and sub-cultures.

To connect with Derrick, email: voiceofderrick@gmail.com or find him on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Goodreads.