IFWG Publishing will be publishing the third novel by Geraldine Fitzsimmons, A Reason to Kill, in about a week. Geraldine has a penchant for crime, thrillers, espionage, most often with an historical bent, and this thriller/suspense novel is no exception. The cover below, by Luke Spooner of Carrion House, carries the sense of the character cast and the hardboiled edge to this significant novel.

“I’m gonna kill you!” is a common response, said as often in jest as in anger. Humans have a lot of reasons to dispose of one another so most of them could well mean it. Political games haven’t changed much since Mankind learned to walk upright. The same tools popular in Greek and Roman cultures are active today, including monetary schemes and sexual ploys used to enhance the power plays. Anything is acceptable, even murder (but don’t get caught) to advance one’s ambition.

Did a psychopath kill Andrea Nelson? In 1984 at the time of the murders a stage was set and the law might have accepted this if it wasn’t for the diaries she left behind. At first, Andrea’s scribbling appears worthless, even her mother claimed she was a habitual liar; so who bothered to send the books to a police captain’s home and for what reason?

Shelia Connors Beechen’s death has been judged an accident. Without a body can the truth be found out? Unbeknownst to them, Andrea Nelson and Shelia Connors have the same biological daddy—a nasty problem as Andrea is having an affair with Shelia’s brother.

We leave 1984 and the murders of the half-sisters; the story drops back to 1976 when Thomas Devlin first met Andrea Neilson. His future was looking grand, he was moving into a position in the powerful Connors’ political group. Already involved with the married Shelia, he finds himself in an uncomfortable situation when Andrea decides to pursue him. Although the women have been close friends since childhood, at this time neither is aware they share the same biological parent.