Literary Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Imagery Lit
A Kind of Hush explores whether there is a gray area between right and
wrong. The Mackie family is enjoying a June outing at a rugged park near
their Buffalo, New York home when tragedy strikes. One parent survives along
with their teenage daughter and seven-year-old son found hiding in the
woods. Was this a horrendous accident or something more heinous, and if so,
whodunnit and whydunit? A mantle of ambiguity – a kind of hush –
hangs between the survivors like a live grenade without its pin as each one
deals with the circumstances and revelations surrounding the incident.
A Kind of Hush is one of five finalists in the 16th annual National Indie
Excellence Awards contest in the highly competitive mystery category.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
BUFFALO, NEW YORK. Gabriel Mackie had just celebrated his fourth birthday
the first time he visited the whisper room, a windowless enclave with lavender walls
brimming with daydreams, obscured from reality. All he knew for certain was that his older brother,
Griff, nicknamed Boo, was gone. His bedroom at the end of the long hallway had been transformed into
a guest room with ecru lace duvets instead of the blue and white pinstriped spreads covering the
twin beds. Vanished were his toy box and New York Yankee American League pennants that had plastered
the walls, replaced by paintings of water lilies and wheat fields. A stray tear trickled down
Gabe’s cheek when he remembered Boo’s curly blonde hair and how he snorted when he
laughed. Silence is deafening and the Mackie household screamed heartbreak.
Tree branches dipped in the wind tossing shadows across the windows
heralding a tempest gathering force. Matt sipped his coffee and thumbed through last
night’s restaurant receipts. Summer, lost in her on own thoughts, mindlessly poured herself a refill with one
hand while twirling a strand of hair with the other. Gabe tiptoed to the kitchen doorway, jumping back
when he heard his mother slam her fist on the counter.
“It’s Willa’s fault Griff is gone,” her voice
stringent and tight. “Tickling him while he sucked on a gumball, for God’s sake. I trusted her to take care of him for
fifteen minutes—fifteen damn minutes—while I picked up Gabe from a birthday party. He
couldn’t find his shoes . . . I would have been home sooner and maybe . . . I love my daughter, but . . . She knew to
call 911 in an emergency . . . Why the hell didn’t she?”
Matt shook his head. “Summer come on . . . you’ve got to quit
blaming her,” his voice rising an octave in frustration. “You’re as responsible as
Willa.”
Summer turned her back to her husband shielding the wounds caused by his
words.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” regret echoed in his
apology. “I’m so sorry . . . Please, we don’t need to be playing this blame game. . . .”
“I guess it’s too much to ask for you to understand what
I’m going through, Matt. What part of my daughter killing our son don’t you get?”
“Honey, you’re overreacting. . . .”
They both turned as Gabe scampered into the room dragging a stuffed
elephant by its trunk.
“Mommy, did Willa find where Boo’s hiding? Quackers and me
wanna play next . . . you count to ten and say ready-or-not, here I come . . . okay?”
*****
About the Author
JoDee Neathery is a firm believer that dreams do come true with the release
of her debut award winning novel, Life in a Box, in July 2017 asking the
question, how much would you sacrifice to hide a secret? A few colorful
characters were plucked off her family tree, encasing their world inside
fictional events to create her literary novel.
The idea for her latest novel, A Kind of Hush, appeared in the middle of
the night with the profile of the young boy and the first few sentences
scratched out on the every-present notepad on the nightstand beside her bed.
“I didn’t know the whole story, but I knew that whatever I wrote
next, this young lad had to play a major role in the narrative and Gabriel
Edward Mackie doesn’t disappoint.”
JoDee was born in Southern California moving to Midland, Texas at the age
of five. Her professional career began in the banking industry moving into
public relations executive recruiting until relocating to East Texas where
she experienced more opportunities to write and enjoys a byline, Back Porch
Musings, a lighthearted view of life in general, in an area newspaper. Her
dream “job” has been chairing and writing minutes and reviews
for the community book club, Bookers, for eighteen years and it was those
members that championed her novel writing journey. “They believed in
me before I did.”
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