Hell To Pay
by
Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Blurb
USA Best Book Award-Winning Series, Cross Genre Fiction.
Third book in the Emily series, a spin-off from Katie & Annalise.
Big-haired paralegal and former rodeo queen Emily thinks she’s got her life back on track. Her adoption of Betsy seems like a done deal, her parents have reunited, and she’s engaged to her sexy boss Jack. Then client Phil Escalante’s childhood buddy Dennis drops dead, face first into a penis cake at the adult novelty store Phil owns with his fiancée Nadine, one of Emily’s best friends. The cops charge Phil with murder right on the heels of his acquittal in a trail for burglarizing the Mighty is His Word church offices. Emily’s nemesis ADA Melinda Stafford claims her witness overheard Phil fighting with Dennis over a woman, right about the time Phil falls into a diabetic coma, leaving Nadine shaken and terrified. Meanwhile Betsy’s ultra-religious foster parents apply to adopt her and Jack starts acting weird and evasive. Emily feels like a calf out of a chute, pulled between the ropes of the header and the heeler, as she fights to help Phil and Nadine without losing Betsy and Jack.  She says her first book came out in 2012 and that her latest, Hell to Pay, is the seventh book in the series. The books all have ties to Texas, with “an interrelated cast of kick-ass female protagonists.” She says the novel's heroine (“a former rodeo queen turned paralegal”) returns to her home town in west Texas and discovers an extremist cult has set up shop and is terrorizing the local townsfolk.
Read a Teaser
Chapter One ExcerptDisco lights whirled around me, or was it the room? My inner party animal had atrophied, not that I’d ever been a real heavyweight. If it wasn’t for the fantastic people-watching—and the fact that this was the celebration party for the burglary acquittal of our firm’s client Phil Escalante the day before, and his engagement to Nadine, one of my best friends in Amarillo--I've bagged this shindig. Instead, there I was with tendrils of fake smoke floating past my face, tenfeet from a DJ dressed in a black latex fetish costume and spiked dog collar and A tall woman maybe ten years older than me appeared out of the low lights and sidled up to me, engulfing me in the odor of cigarettes. Her vanilla hair sported a generous dollop of dark chocolate roots, which was pretty funny to me since she had a body shaped like a cone. A waffle cone. A waffle cone with sparkly sprinkles from the spinning ball overhead. Behind her trailed a paunchy man of roughly her height. His eyes had locked on me in a way that made my skin crawl with leeches that weren’t there.Rick James’s “Super Freak” ended. The silence in the cavernous L-shaped room was immediate and complete, but short-lived. A clamor of voices from the one-hundred- or-so guests resumed, their voices echoing off the bare walls and “Hey, Foxy Loxy,” the man mouthed at me. Or did he? Surely not. It was hard to tell with the lights playing tricks on my eyes.The woman spoke past me. “You and your wife got any plans later?” Her bellow seemed to fill the room to its farthest corners, even with all the other voices. I winced and shrank under the eyes that shifted our way.Not Jack, though. The horse rancher cum criminal attorney was nothing if not unflappable. His topaz eyes twinkled. “Emily’s not my wife.”The man surged toward Jack. “You’re not together?”“I’m his fiancée,” I said through my recently tightened braces and painfully rubber-banded teeth, leaving out “and he’s my boss.” I waved my big, fat teardrop-shaped diamond at him to accentuate my point, then I pinched Jack’s arm where my hand was looped through its crook. I’d capitulated to the mouth gear when my childhood orthodontist saw the gap between my front teeth and insisted I needed Invisalign then, filled my mouth with metal instead. Payback for never wearing my retainer, I guess.The man and woman looked at each other and nodded. She asked, “Care to join us? We’ve got a room at a no-tell hotel nearby.”Jack’s whole body shook and I didn’t dare look at him. I was a sucker for his laugh. In fact, I was a sucker for everything about him, from his lived-in boots to his permanent tan to his Apache cheekbones. Before either of us could think of an appropriate response, Phil interrupted.“Millie, Pete, leave my poor friends alone.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me aside to clap his other onto Jack’s. “They’re not swingers. And this isn’t a swingerssocial. I’m out of the business.”The space between Millie’s eyebrows narrowed and puckered as drops oflight rained down on her face. “It’s a free country, ain’t it?”
Grab your Copy @
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long emails, best-selling, award-winning mysteries (WINNER USA Best Book Award, Fiction: Cross Genre, Finalist) and hilarious nonfiction. The Houston Press named her as one of Houston's Top 10 Authors (2014).
She is a recovering attorney and investigator who resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and in the frozen north of Wyoming. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, traveling in the Bookmobile, and her Keurig. Visit her athttp://pamelafaganhutchins.com or drop her a note pamela at pamelahutchins dot com. And if you would like her to visit your book club, women’s group, writer’s group, or library, all you have to do is ask.
Stalk Her @
   |
 | FEW REVIEWS...
Encounters consists of 5 stories with a paranormal theme. Sumana creates such vivid scenes from the very first page that the reader is sucked into the stories. All the five stories are beautifully woven, with intricate details, believable characters and goosebumpy endings. It is hard to point at one story as a favorite. This one is a page turner you should not miss if you are a fan of paranormal tales.
Those who have read Sumana Khan's The Revenge of Kailavya will understand when I say that this is one book I will pick up without even thinking or reading the blurb. I was a bit surprised that she went for an anthology. Her description in describing scenes always has proven picturesque and more than often eerie.
|
WHAT IS THE BOOK ALL ABOUT
ENCOUNTERS is a potpourri of five sumptuous stories involving a motley crew of protagonists. Skating along the borders of fantasy and paranormal themes, the stories track incredible and poignant journey of self-discovery, tracing the cathartic aftermath of fleeting encounters.
My Review
Encounters is a book with five stories that will keep you engrossed while making you ponder over the ending. Each of them has a distinct flavor to it, and I should commend the author, Sumana for being able to keep that thin line of balance under the same theme--Encounter!
First Love takes you on the coaster wheel of life of a woman who is independent, well established but still stressed out by her parents and society cause she is single. The drama unfolds after that, and it is gripping yet sensuous until the end. I absolutely loved the angle to this story.
The Storyteller is a meetup of a typical agarbatti salesperson who encounters a handful of people running an NGO, and the impact of those footsteps trailing along him when he cleans the bench will give you goosebumps!
Reminiscence is an absolutely touching story of a middle class retired family giving a peep into his daily life. The narration is earthy giving a clear picture of all the scenes thus, making the reader feel the depth of each enjoyment, sorrow, and socializing.
Happiness Clinic provided an unusual angle, and it's amazing how the subconscious mind can actually help change the mindset of a man's dynamics if it is talked to.
Best Friends Forever had a twist, which is hard to believe esp with today's times. No doubt the author presented it flawlessly, but a soul to unite with her parents and the drama behind it is hard to digest.
Overall, an enjoyable read but some words would pause my read since difficult to understand. Example: homa, mangalya, ghatam, ammouru, vatara, etc. Also sometimes the necessity of words slowed down the pace such as: cream-geem, embroidery-seroidry, software – geeftware, finance – ginance, etc. It was fun to read in the beginning, but to have it again was losing its charm.
 |  |  |
YOU CAN GET THIS BOOK DIRECTLY FROM THE PUBLISHER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sumana was born and raised in Bengaluru, Karnataka, where she went on to graduate with a BSc in Electronics, much to the surprise of her teachers, and relief of her parents. In what can only be described as a quirk of fate, she ended up as an IT consultant - a role she essayed for more than a decade. She then moved to the UK where she quit her job and pursued academic and literary interests. The result of this pursuit has been two Masters, one published book, quite a few manuscript drafts, and above all, being stone-broke perpetually. She currently lives in the UK with her husband and several books.
STALK HER @
 |  |  |
Follow Us +Pinterest
