Spotlight & Giveaway: Cold-Blooded Liar by Karen Rose

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Karen Rose to HJ!

Hi Karen and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Cold-Blooded Liar!

 
Hello! Thank you for inviting me 🙂
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

COLD BLOODED LIAR is the story of Kit McKittrick, a San Diego homicide detective, and Dr. Sam Reeves, a psychologist. One of Sam’s clients is a pathological liar, but startles Sam by sharing what might be the truth—about a murder. Sam is torn between respecting patient confidentiality and doing the right thing by a possible victim. He makes an anonymous call to McKittrick, reigniting an investigation into a serial killer who’s tormented the city for many years. Initially at odds, Kit and Sam have to find a way to work together. It’s a slow burn romance, the first book of (hopefully) many featuring Kit and Sam!
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

One of the themes of this book is the way crime ripples, effecting more than the victim. Kit knows this fact well, as her sister was murdered when they were fifteen. She says: “Murder doesn’t just affect the victim. It touches family, friends, colleagues. The person who discovers the body, even if they’re a stranger. No one in the victim’s circle will ever be the same.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• There is a park mentioned close to the beginning of the book, where one can smell strawberry from the flavor-making factory. There isn’t one in San Diego, but there was one on my way home from work when I lived in Cincinnati (when I was an engineer). On strawberry days—the flavor went into Duncan Hines Strawberry cake mix—we’d open the windows, even in the dead of winter because it smelled so good. When it was cheese or meet flavor days, we held our breath because that smell was just nasty.
• Kit’s dog is a standard poodle named Snickerdoodle, and I wanted the cookies throughout the entire writing of this book.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Sam is first attracted to Kit by her passion for the victims for whom she gets justice. Kit is attracted to Sam from the moment she sees his driver’s license photo—while she, unfortunately, considers him a suspect. She thinks he is “nerdy” and sincere and that is just her type.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I cried a few times throughout this book, and always at the prologue. Even after all the times I’ve read it, it still makes me tear up.

This snippet is from the prologue, sixteen years earlier. Fifteen-year-old Kit and her foster father, Harlan McKittrick (later her adoptive father) are grieving the loss of Wren, who was murdered and who they’d just buried that afternoon. The relationship between Kit and her father is a lovely thing.

She looked up at him then, hating the tears that she couldn’t stop. But he was crying, too, and that shook some more words loose. “What are we gonna do, Mr. McK?” she whispered. “She’s gone. And she’s never coming back.”
He took a step forward, giving her a chance to step away.
But she didn’t. She couldn’t. Her feet were frozen.
Her heart was frozen.
Finally, he brushed his fingers over her hair. “We go on, Kit. We’ll remember her always, but we go on. It’s what we have to do.” He hesitated for a long moment, then cupped her cheek in his big hand. “We’ll cry for her, but we’ll also live for her. You’ll live for her. You’ll make yourself a good life, Kit Matthews. We’ll make sure of it, me and Mrs. McK. You will live.”
Katherine closed her eyes then and leaned into Mr. McK’s warm palm. Just for a second. He was … safety. Security. Strength. And affection she didn’t need to repay. She’d take just a little. Just for a second. “I want to make whoever hurt her pay. I want them to die.”
“Me too, Kit. Me too. But we’ll do it right. We won’t be stupid. We won’t take any chances. We won’t be reckless and get killed and leave Mrs. McK all alone.”
She chanced a look up at him. He was serious. “You’ll help me?”
“I’ll help you. I’d search for her killer even if you didn’t want to.” One of his wide shoulders lifted in a half shrug. “I’d already planned on it. But I’m a farmer, not a cop. It’s not going to be easy.”
She met his eyes directly. “And if I want to be a cop?”
“You’ll be a damn good one. You’ll never make any family feel like their loved one didn’t matter.”
She scoffed. “You sound pretty sure of yourself, Mr. McK.”
He withdrew his hand, stooping down to pick up the carving knife that he’d dropped at some point. He slid it into its sheath and dropped it into his pocket. “I’m pretty sure of you, Kit.”

Readers should read this book….

Because it’s got mystery, police procedure, some lovely characters (in my humble opinion of course!) and a burgeoning romance. Oh, and dogs. Both the hero and the heroine have the sweetest dogs 🙂
 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I just finished the second book in the San Diego Case file series. Kit and Sam are back, solving a mystery and growing closer. Now I’m starting the third book in my ongoing New Orleans series and I can’t wait to get into it!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One print copy of COLD-BLOODED LIAR for a U.S. only winner.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Have you ever witnessed a situation where you were compelled to do the right thing even though you were uncomfortable or even frightened? It can be anything from standing up to a school bully to intervening in the attack on someone you’ve never met.

 
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Excerpt from Cold-Blooded Liar:

COLD-BLOODED LIAR by Karen Rose
Berkley Hardcover | On sale February 28, 2023
Excerpt

Longview Park, San Diego, California

Monday, April 4, 5:30 p.m.

Kit pulled the handkerchief across her nose and mouth as she watched the two CSU techs meticulously uncovering what was, indeed, a grave. Based on the odor, the body had been there awhile.

They’d arrived at the mystery caller’s coordinates to find that the ground had settled somewhat, creating a slight depression that measured five and a half by two and a half feet.

Ground-penetrating radar had shown a body.

The victim had been small.

Kit slipped her hand into her pocket, finding the little cat-bird figurine. Stroking it with her thumb. Please don’t be a child.

“I hope it’s not a kid,” Baz murmured, echoing her thoughts.

All homicides were difficult. Even drug dealers murdered on the street had been loved by someone. Were missed by someone.

But the child homicides were a completely different level of hell.

She looked away from the grave to where Sergeant Ryland, the CSU leader, was making a plaster cast of the only footprint they’d found in the area. It was a man’s shoe, size eleven.

“You got anything for us, Ryland?” she called.

“I just might.”

She and Baz walked from the grave site to where someone had stepped off the asphalt path, leaving the single footprint in the strip of ground between the path and the field of grass.

Ryland finished pouring the plaster over the footprint, smoothed it out, then set the timer on his phone. “Thirty minutes for the plaster to set. Come see the photos I took of the print while I wait.” He retrieved his camera and beckoned them closer. “There was lettering on the sole of the shoe-likely a brand name. I can’t quite make it out in the photo, but I’m hoping to get detail from the plaster cast.”

“So it’ll be seventy-two hours or so,” Baz said and Ryland nodded.

Kit leaned closer to the screen. “Can you zoom in on it?”

Ryland did, handing the camera to Kit. “I can make out what looks like a Y at the end of the brand name, but-”

“Sperry,” Kit said. “Sorry to interrupt, Sergeant. I recognize the logo. They’re Sperry Top-Siders.” She gave him back his camera. “My sister runs a charter fishing business and sometimes I first mate for her on my days off. A lot of her customers wear them.”

Ryland studied the photo. “You could be right.”

She was, Kit was certain. “Trouble is, that’s a popular shoe. I’ve even got a pair.”

“So do I,” Baz said. “Tracking those will be nearly impossible.”

Kit shrugged. “But when we find the guy who owns these shoes, we can put him at the scene. Any way to get a weight estimate on the wearer?”

Ryland shook his head. “Ground’s too hard. Barely enough sinkage to get the plaster cast. I’ll let you know when I have something definite.”

“Detectives?” one of the techs at the grave called, his tone urgent. “Something over here you need to see.”

“Thank you, Sergeant,” Kit said, then approached the grave alongside Baz, schooling her expression. If it was a child’s grave, she would maintain her professionalism. She’d let herself react later, when she was alone.

“Victim’s a postpubescent female,” the tech said when they were graveside. “The ME will be able to give you a better age than I can, but I’m guessing somewhere between fourteen and eighteen.”

Feeling Baz’s eyes on her, Kit reassured him with a quick glance. She was fine.

He always worried about her reaction when the victim was the same age that Wren had been when she’d been murdered, but after four years as a homicide detective, Kit had seen far too many victims who’d been Wren’s age. It never got easier.

She hoped that it never would.

Excerpted from Cold-Blooded Liar by Karen Rose Copyright © 2023 by Karen Rose. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Brace yourself for a scorching new series from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Karen Rose, where San Diego means sun, surf, sand…and serial killers.

Sam Reeves is a kindhearted psychologist who treats court-ordered clients. After one of his patients—a pathological liar—starts revealing plausible new details from a long-unsolved serial murder case, he’s compelled to report anonymously to the SDPD tip line, though his attempts to respect patient confidentiality land him facedown and cuffed by the aggressive (and cute) Detective McKittrick.

San Diego homicide detective Kit McKittrick loves the water. She lives on a boat, and when she’s not solving crimes with the SDPD, she’s assisting her foster sister with her charter fishing business or playing with her poodle. But there’s nothing that intrigues Kit more than a cold case, so when an anonymous caller leads her on the path of a wanted killer, she’s determined to end the decade-long manhunt.

Sam is soon released but goes home with both a newfound distaste for the SDPD and a resolve—not unlike Kit’s—to uncover the truth. Kit and Sam repeatedly butt heads in their separate investigations but are forced to work together to find one of the deadliest serial killers the city has faced in years.
Book Links:  Amazon |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Karen Rose is the award-winning, #1 international bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the bestselling Baltimore and Cincinnati series. She has been translated into twenty-three languages, and her books have placed on the New York Times, the Sunday Times (UK), and Germany’s der Spiegel bestseller lists.
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