Blog Tour: Tramps and Thieves (Murder and Mayhem #2) by Rhys Ford. Includes Part #3 of a Rook Stevens and Detective Dante Montoya short story and Giveaway.

We are thrilled to welcome Rhys Ford to Sinfully today as she celebrates the release of Tramps and Thieves, the second book in the Murder and Mayhem series. Follow the tour to read a short story about the main characters Rook Stevens and Detective Dante Montoya and don’t forget to enter the giveaway.

One of the best things about being a mystery writer is that there are always murders to solve so I get to revisit a fantastic-to-write couple like Rook Stevens and Detective Dante Montoya. There are endless possibilities and plot lines for the characters, the city and their circumstances that I cannot wait to explore over the years. With the second book coming out, I wanted to do a blog tour that was just a bit of fun so in this serial, I welcome you to join Rook and his cousin, Alex, on what should be an estate sale of macabre curios but what awaits them is something neither of them planned for.

So sit back, be sure you read the whole story AND please enter the blog’s giveaway! One lucky winner will be chosen to receive a $20 USD gift certificate from the online store of their choice!

I hope you enjoy this small jaunt as the cousins set out on their quest and be sure to pick up Tramps and Thieves, the sequel to Murder and Mayhem. Published by Dreamspinner Press, it will be out on September 18th on the DSP portal, Amazon and other fine book stores.

Tramps and Thieves (Murder and Mayhem #2)

Rhys Ford

Title ~ Tramps and Thieves (Murder and Mayhem #2)

Author ~ Rhys Ford

Publisher ~ Dreamspinner Press

Published ~ 18th September 2017

Genre ~ Contemporary M/M Romance, Mystery/Suspense

Rating

Synopsis

Murder and Mayhem: Book Two

Whoever said blood was thicker than water never stood in a pool of it.

Retiring from stealing priceless treasures seemed like a surefire way for Rook Stevens to stay on the right side of the law. The only cop in his life should have been his probably-boyfriend, Los Angeles Detective Dante Montoya, but that’s not how life—his life—is turning out. Instead, Rook ends up not only standing in a puddle of his cousin Harold’s blood but also being accused of Harold’s murder… and sleeping with Harold’s wife.

For Dante, loving the former thief means his once-normal life is now a sea of chaos, especially since Rook seems incapable of staying out of trouble—or keeping trouble from following him home. When Rook is tagged as a murder suspect by a narrow-focused West LA detective, Dante steps in to pull his lover out of the quagmire Rook’s landed in.

When the complicated investigation twists around on them, the dead begin to stack up, forcing the lovers to work together. Time isn’t on their side, and if they don’t find the killer before another murder, Dante will be visiting Rook in his prison cell—or at his grave.

 

::: DEBRA’S REVIEW :::

AMAZON GLOBAL LINK

Three

“This house looks like Spaceship Ruthie designed it. What’s with all the spaceship things and the turrets? The landscaping is early Flintstones except for that one big tree which is right next to the house. You just asking somebody to break in. I’ll close it is to the roof .” Rook stood in front of the sprawling pale stucco house, seemingly perplexed by the architect. “Why are there so few windows? This house is six bedrooms and God knows how many useless rooms because rich people need rooms just to put their shit into so why are there hardly any windows?”

“Those rich people are the ones who keep us in business, remember?” Alex poked at his cousin’s ribs. “And you’re the one who literally has a warehouse to put stuff into. And you can’t tell me that everything in there is for sale, because I know it isn’t.”

“I liked you better when you were slightly scared of me,” growled Rook. “You were a lot more agreeable.”

“If you wanted agreeable, you’d have gotten a dog,” he teased, climbing out of Rook’s SUV. “Wow, this place is…”

“Deserted,” Rook grumbled, slamming the car door behind him. “Where the hell is everybody? The sale’s supposed to start in an hour.”

“Maybe they got lost?” It didn’t seem likely, especially since the mansion was only three right turns off a main drive but Rook wasn’t hallucinating. There was no one at the house, no other car but their own. “Maybe we’re not in the right place?”

“Address matches the email. So does the house.” Rook checked his phone, scratching his jaw as he scrolled through a few screens. “Nope, it’s today and supposedly in one hour. Let’s go see if someone’s inside. The curator could have been dropped off or sent her assistant to go grab something in town.”

“Maybe…” The prickle of a bad feeling already began to spread over Alex’s spine. “How about if we check the front door and if no one answers, we go get something to eat then head at home?”

“Where’s your sense of adventure, cuz?” Rook’s smile was wicked and that never boded well. “You grab the front and I’ll go around the back and see if someone is there.”

The front door should of been a safer option. It was in view of the road and the driveway. Since the house was situated on a hill, Alex could see for miles around. The low-lying brush covering the California hills was sparse, dry from lack of rain and the landscaping around the estate ran mostly to pampas grass and neglected short palms, hardly anything anyone could hide behind. Still, as Alex mounted the concrete steps leading to the modern looking home, he felt as if he was being watched.

“You think we should call Dante or James first?” After he said it, Alex realized he sounded more like a little girl homesick at sleep over instead of a successful businessman married to a homicide cop.

Thankfully, Rook was someone he could always depend upon not to point those kind of things out. If there was anything that he gained in the emergence of his cousin out of the carnival life that he led and into the Martin clan it was not only a relative he could stand, but also his first true friend. He could depend upon Rook, unlike anyone he had before and Alex is fairly certain that if Rook had already been in his life, opening him up to the possibilities of what the world had to offer, he wouldn’t have chanced falling in love with James.

To his credit, Rook actually stopped contemplated what Alex said. Or at least that’s how it looked. Rule one of dealing with Rook Stevens was to remember he been raised by pack of liars and thieves. His obfuscation skills ran high — way out of Alex’s league — so there was a good chance he was just been humored. Id like to think otherwise but he knew better. Just because he loved Rook, it didn’t mean he was blind to his cousin’s faults.

And one of Rook’s biggest faults, was leaping before even thinking about looking.

“I think we’ll be fine,” his cousin said eventually but the gleam in his mismatched eyes gave Alex pause. It was as if Rook welcomed a bit of adventure out in the middle of the sticks and if it wasn’t there for him to trip over, he was going to find one. “Besides, by the time either one of them got out here, we could have been murdered four times over. Let’s just see what we can find.”

A rumble in the far distance sounded just as wicked and foreboding as Rook’s smile. Along the mountains a dark sinister bank of clouds rolled towards the valley center, flashes of lightning sparking through their billowy undersides. A stream of mist led the storm’s way like the Wild Hunt running free over the glens. The leading-edge was moving fast, eating at the distance between the mountains and the house. Calling Rook’s name, Alex wasn’t surprised he didn’t get a response. His cousin moved swiftly and silently, more shadow than human and Alex resigned himself to knocking on the door and hoping somebody answered.

When his knuckles hit the hard wood, the door swung open and Alex promptly fell into the trouble he was hoping to avoid.

Be sure catch the entire story on the Tramps and Thieves Blog Tour and enter to win the giveaway featured on every blog!

Murder and Mayhem

Dead women tell no tales.

Former cat burglar Rook Stevens stole many a priceless thing in the past, but he’s never been accused of taking a life—until now. It was one thing to find a former associate inside Potter’s Field, his pop culture memorabilia shop, but quite another to stumble across her dead body.

Detective Dante Montoya thought he’d never see Rook Stevens again—not after his former partner’d falsified evidence to entrap the jewelry thief and Stevens walked off scot-free. So when he tackled a fleeing murder suspect, Dante was shocked to discover the blood-covered man was none other than the thief he’d fought to put in prison and who still made his blood sing.

Rook is determined to shake loose the murder charge against him, even if it means putting distance between him and the rugged Cuban-Mexican detective who brought him down. If one dead con artist wasn’t bad enough, others soon follow, and as the bodies pile up around Rook’s feet, he’s forced to reach out to the last man he’d expect to believe in his innocence—and the only man who’s ever gotten under Rook’s skin.

Review :: Amazon

Meet Rhys Ford

Rhys Ford is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and was a 2016 LAMBDA finalist with her novel, Murder and Mayhem and a 2017 Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Florida Authors and Publishers President’s Book Awards for her novels Ink and Shadows and Hanging the Stars. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications.

She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal. Rhys shares the house with two cats, Yoshi, a grumpy tuxedo and Tam, a diabetic black shorthair, as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. She is also responsible for the care and feeding of a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.

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Follow the whole story on:

14 MMGoodbook Reviews

15 Love Bytes

18 Sinfully Gay Romance Book Reviews

19 Joyfully Jay

20 NDulgent Bloggers

21 It’s About the Book

22 The Novel Approach

23 rhysford.com (Epilogue)