BY: SUNNY FRAZIER

On a blazing July day in California’s San Joaquin Valley, snitch Johnny Blue is murdered by a lethal heroin injection. Undercover narcotic detective James Wolfe, the operative who handled Blue, goes to the sheriff’s department substation seeking ex-girlfriend Christy Bristol. In the past, he ridiculed her hobby of casting horoscopes. Now he needs her expertise to catch the man he suspects is behind Blue’s murder, a drug dealer named Lloyd Parr. Stuck on the lowest rung of law enforcement, Christy becomes first a victim, then a hero, in the high-stakes game of narcotic trafficking. Through her eyes, the drug world is reduced to individual players, lost values, and discarded dreams. The reality of what goes on in the fertile land of the San Joaquin Valley is far more disturbing than the Hollywood version of drug lords and a wealthy lifestyle fueled by drug money. In the drug world of the Valley, there are no winners. Only losers.

TAYLOR JONES SAYS: In Fools Rush In by Sunny Frazier, we are reunited with Christy Bristol and her outrageous side kick Lenny as they solve another mystery with astrology. This time, Christy’s old boyfriend Detective Wolf, jerk that he is, convinces Christy to do an astrological chart for a drug kingpin, which she reluctantly agrees to do. The next thing she knows, she’s been kidnapped. Ooh, boy. Try to do a favor for an old friend and look where it gets you! Fighting for your life.

The first in the series, the story is well written, tense, and exciting. You’ll be riveted from the very first page.

REGAN MURPHY SAYS: Fools Rush In by Sunny Frazier is the first in this talented author’s Christy Bristol Mystery series. Our heroine, Christy, is an astrologer who is also a psychic, making her the real thing and her horoscopes are dead on. But when her ex-boyfriend, a detective in the sheriff’s department where Christy works, comes to her and asks her to do a horoscope, a talent he used to laugh at, she’s furious. Here he is asking her to do the very thing that broke the two of them up in the first place. The horoscope he wants her to do is for a drug lord, and the detective appeals to Christy’s sense of justice. Reluctantly agreeing, she does the horoscope, inadvertently putting herself in harm’s way.

Frazier skillfully combines drugs, murder, law enforcement, and astrology to create a chilling tale of drug lords and their victims, set in the beautiful San Joaquin Valley, home of vineyards, wineries, and meth labs. The story will grab your attention and hold it from beginning to end.

CHAPTER 1

John Ballew lifted his eyelids and looked around the room. Faded green curtains danced in slow motion away from the window. A spider on the sill hung precariously on the strands of a web. Time slowed to a dusty crawl. The young man licked his lips with great effort and relished the sensation of his tongue against the dryness.

“How you doing, Johnny Blue?”

Ballew tracked his eyes to a figure in one corner of the room. A face grinned down at him, showing large, yellowed teeth. Another face, this one hidden in a mass of black hair, appeared next to it.

“How much did you give him?”

“Enough to make him think he’s on his way to heaven.”

Ballew could make out the voices, but the words themselves made no sense. It really didn’t matter. Sound drifted through the thick air and bobbed up and down in the currents, like the green curtain. He let his eyes go back to the window.

“Do ya wanna go to heaven, Johnny Blue?”

The Faces wanted something from him, but Ballew couldn’t understand what that something was. He wanted the Faces to either join him in this soft-focus world or leave. Again, he licked his lips, but his tongue had gone dry. His eyes were dry too, and he was aware of the weight of his eyelids. If he closed his eyes completely, the Faces would go away.

“Seein’ any angels yet?”

His eyelids were so heavy, they pulled his head down. He felt his neck lose muscle and bone as his head swelled and increased in weight. His chin descended toward his breastbone, but the neck stretched and held.

One arm hung loosely across his body. He didn’t know where his other arm was, and he was too tired to look for it. He followed the muted colors of a snake tattoo that slithered up his inner forearm. Between the fork of the snake’s tongue was the needle. The plunger was down and the syringe was empty.

It was the last thing John Ballew saw.

***

The primer gray Ford LTD turned down a dusty road and pulled up sharply in front of a mobile home half-hidden in a nectarine orchard. Without waiting for the dust to settle, two men got out. The driver reached back into the car and furiously pressed on the horn.

“Damn informants,” fumed the bearded man as he gave up on the horn and stood waiting in the driveway. “I told him eleven o’clock at the Texaco station on McCall and 186.”

His partner scratched the stubble of a new beard. “Probably out partying last night.”

The driver walked to the front door of the trailer and took the steps two at a time. “Johnny Blue, get your ass out of bed. We’ve got work to do.”

He started to knock on the door, but it swung open at his touch. He was immediately aware of a stench emanating from the doorway and the sound of buzzing flies.

“Whew, what died?” asked his partner, coming up behind him.

“Let’s hope it’s not Blue.”

They drew their .45s and slowly entered the trailer.

With the air conditioner off and the summer sun beating down on the metal roof, the mobile home was easily ninety degrees inside. The air was dense with the smell of decay. Flies concentrated on an object hanging on the opposite wall.

“What the hell–

Impaled on the wall above a cluttered dining room table was the carcass of a large rat. Written above the vermin, presumably in its own blood, was the word “Blue.”

“Wolfman,” the partner said, as he put a hand on the other narc’s shoulder, “you are in some deep shit this time.”

© 2010 by Sunny Frazier

All Mystery eNewsletter:

“On reading this book, one realizes that the author, in her former life working for the sheriff’s department, must have come into contact with a lot of really creepy characters. And, when Christy is kidnapped by some of these dangerous people, my heart pounded right along with hers. There’s a poignant scene, one of my favorites, when she’s sure that she’s going to be murdered, and she longingly looks out over the Valley landscape and prepares herself for a quick death with a thought that she should ‘remember this.’ Not to spoil the ending, but her musings are later what gets the case solved, and Christy lives to enjoy another day.” ~ All Mystery eNewsletter

The Bookbitch:

“Frazier does an excellent job keeping the reader on the edge of the seat.” ~ Lesa Holstine, The Bookbitch

Armchair Reviews:

“Christy is a great character. Told almost entirely from her viewpoint, we can’t help but feel her fear and cheer her on. She is strong and clever and thinks fast on her feet. This series can go in a lot of directions and I plan to be there to see what comes next.” ~ Kim Reis, Armchair Reviews