Front Page Fridays Week-11

Diary Entries

3 May

Welcome to Front Page Fridays Week-11. Every Friday I highlight a newly published book by showcasing the first page.

My Front Page Fridays Week-11 guest is Sheila Bugler. I invited Sheila to take part after I had the delight of reading and reviewing an early copy of her new psychological thriller, Dark Road Home. Here is the first page:

Prologue

Before

It’s a warm summer’s night but I’m shivering from the cold that has buried itself deep inside me, turning my veins to ice and sending a scatter of goosebumps along my arms that are sticky from the slowly drying blood.

There are no street lights out here, on this narrow road at the edge of town, but the full moon means I’m able to see the boy up ahead. I freeze, holding my breath as I try to work out how to get rid of him. Because he cannot see me. Not tonight, with his father’s blood all over me.

Silently, I urge him to turn around and go back home. When I realise that’s not going to happen, I jump sideways and press my body against the scratchy brambles of the thick hedge separating the field from the road.In the silver light of the moon, he looks more like a spirit than a real person as he approaches. But when I start moaning and groaning and calling his name from the darkness, telling him the banshee is waiting for him, he turns from something otherworldly into what he really is: a scared little boy. As he runs back in the direction he’s just come from, I have to press my fist against my mouth to stop myself laughing out loud.

When I’m sure he’s gone, I step onto the road again. I stand for a moment, listening to the sounds of the night: the rustle of the wind through the trees, the lonely hooting of an owl and, in the distance, the steady rhythm of the sea rolling in and out over the land.

Something else, too. Whispering. And while I know there are no such things as ghosts or banshees, I can’t help the shiver of fear that runs through me. I strain my ears, trying to convince myself there’s no one out there, that this is nothing more than my mind playing tricks on me in the way it does sometimes…

Dark Road Home by Sheila Bugler. Published 18 April 2024 by Canelo Crime.

Purchase Links

Amazon

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About the Book

In a small town, it's impossible to hide...Two decades after she left Ireland, Leah Ryan is back. She knows she won't get a welcome reception in her hometown of Dungarry, but she's finally ready to face up to the events that forced her to leave as a teenager.As she arrives home, another tragedy is waiting for Leah – her first love, Eamon Longeran, has been found brutally murdered.At first, Eamon’s murder appears unrelated to Leah’s past. But in a small town like Dungarry, everything is connected and everyone has secrets. Sometimes there’s only one way to ensure the truth stays buried.

About the Author

Sheila grew up in a small town in the west of Ireland. After studying Psychology at university, she left Ireland and worked in Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland and Argentina. These days, she lives in Eastbourne. She is the author of nine highly acclaimed crime novels. Dark Road Home is her tenth novel and the first one she's written set in her native Ireland.