Win a $10 GC: The Man in the Black Fedora by Tom Johnson

 

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Tom Johnson will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

In a city of mob rule and crime, death is cheap, and police have their hands tied. In this dark metropolis, a new paladin arises to fight against injustice. A man of education, dedicated to fighting evil with fire against fire, the man in the black fedora.

Read an Exclusive Excerpt

Merrenelli was still in a bad mood when he pushed his office door open and stepped inside. He wouldn’t feel better until he got word that the girl was dead. A good looker, and she could sing like a bird, but she’d seen things tonight that weren’t good for her health, and she had to die. He expected Carl, his bodyguard, to be sitting behind his desk like always, but was shocked to see a huge black man with a hat pulled down over his eyes, shading the rest of his face, seated where Carl should have been. Then he saw Carl stretched out on the floor, his head at an odd angle, his open eyes glassy.

His bodyguard was dead!

“Who the hell are you?” Merrenelli asked as he started backing towards the door.

Hearing the portal shut and lock behind him, Merrenelli turned with a jerk to stare at another figure that at first made him want to laugh.

“You mugs just step out of a paperback book?”

The man in the black fedora behind him laughed, a chilling sound that turned his blood cold in an instant.

“The men you sent after Kay Shannon met with a violent accident,” the eerie voice told him. “Like your man, Carl.”

“Okay,” Merrenelli said, “I get the drift. What do you punks want? A piece of my action? You know it won’t be healthy for you mugs!”

“I want to pick up Kay Shannon’s contract,” the man standing near him said.

“How much are you willing to pay?” Merrenelli snapped, and then felt a powerful invisible force that sent incredible fear throughout his being.

“You will not die like Carl,” the strange man said, and again Merrenelli felt that awful surge of fear. “Give me her signed contract, and you may live – for now.”

Merrenelli looked at the man sitting in the chair in place of Carl, then back to the stranger in front of him, and shrugged. “Her contract doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ll get it, but first I want to see the face of the man demanding so much from me.”

“As you wish, Merrenelli,” came the eerie voice, and the man standing before him removed the red scarf and black fedora.

The mobster began a low scream, his eyes bulging out like he had seen something from the grave, and then he dropped to his knees and began bawling like a child as he crawled to the safe. After he twirled the dial, the metal safe was open within seconds, and Merrenelli reached in and pulled out folders, scattering them about him on the floor.

About the Author:

Tom was a voracious reader from an early age, beginning with comic books at age seven and reading novels by age 10 or 11. He has never stopped reading for pleasure, though his interest in genres have often switched from SF to western, to hardboiled detectives, the classics, and back to science fiction again over the years. In his own writing, readers will often find something about his love of zoology, whether insects, reptiles, or saber-tooth cats. Tom had a stroke in March 2002. Now retired, he and his wife, Ginger, devote their time to keeping Tom’s books in print, as well as helping promote other writers.

They settled in Tom’s hometown of Seymour, Texas, home of the Whiteside Museum of Natural History, and the red-bed digs near the town where Permian fossils have been discovered for over a hundred years. A 250-million-year-old amphibian, the Seymouria was discovered in the red-beds and is named after Seymour. One of the main predators of the Permian was a large finback reptile called a Dimetrodon, and a statue is displayed outside the museum. Several of Tom’s books are on hand in the museum. With over 80 books in print that he has contributed to, Tom has slowed down now. He is still writing children’s stories while promoting his books still on the market. Plus, he still has hopes of one day seeing his short novel, Pangaea: Eden’s Planet, made into a film.

Note: The Man in the Black Fedora was released September 26, 2019. Tom passed away on November 5, 2019. The book will remain in print posthumously for the length of the contract.

Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook (Tom) ~ Facebook (Ginger) ~ Goodreads

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