This is the one series of JA Redmerski that I hadn't started yet! Nevertheless, I am convinced it is the bomb =D such is my confidence in this lady's writing. The reviews and ratings on Amazon and Goodreads prove my point, fyi for the skeptics! =D
So anyway, this fourth book was initially announced to be a prequel featuring Fredrick Gustavsson, one of the main characters in this kickass series. That's no longer the case now. Read on below to find out why J.A. Redmerski changed her mind, plus an excerpt from the book!
Lastly, book 1 KILLING SARAI is on sale for a limited time at $1.99 starting today!
Release Date: October 1, 2014
Book 4 of In The Company Of Killers
Synopsis:
Victor Faust's new Order is growing. Business is good as there is no rest for the wicked in an underground world of hardcore criminals and contract killing. Relationships among the operatives have changed little over the past year—but things are about to change now, and all six high-ranking members of the new Order will be blindsided by an unlikely enemy.
Loved ones whose only ties to Victor's organization are their relationships with its members, are abducted. The price to get them back safely—the six must confess their deepest, darkest secret to this mysterious young woman named Nora, who is as deadly as she is beautiful, and who seems to know more about each of them than they know about each other. And although no one has any clue about who Nora really is, it becomes clear that she also isn't who she appears to be.
So much more is at stake than secrets and the lives of innocent loved ones; with each member that Nora forces to confess, the truth about their dark pasts and their present objectives will cast suspicion, pit some against each other, and may tear others apart.
Before the game is over everyone will know who this woman is and why she is here, but the damage she will leave in her wake could be the beginning of the new Order's destruction.
Whose dark secret will be the darkest of all? And can Victor's Order survive any of them?
Why isn't SEEDS OF INQUITY a prequel book for Fredrick Gustavsson? Here's why, from J.A. Redmerski herself:
My original idea for the series, In the Company of Killers, was to eventually write a backstory book for each of the main characters. With Fredrik Gustavsson's history with Seraphina being so volatile and bloody and sexual, I thought that beginning the backstory books with him would be the best place to start. However, after THE SWAN & THE JACKAL released, I admit that reader opinions played a hand in my decision not to do it. Many readers, while although they enjoyed THE SWAN & THE JACKAL, expressed their disappointment in the 4th book, SEEDS OF INIQUITY, being a prequel—and their arguments were, in my opinion, very justified. They didn't want to read a book that they already knew what had become of one of the main characters. However, on the flip-side of things, I still think it's important that readers know Fredrik's (and everyone else's) backstory. And I didn't want to disappoint all of the readers who did want the fourth book to be a prequel. So I decided that to please both sides, I won't write full-length prequels, but will still be telling all of the character's backstories throughout the series in bits and pieces.
Lastly, I came to the realization that prequels would only slow the series down instead of driving it forward with current events.
Who knows? I might write their backstories as novellas at some point, but right now I want to keep this series moving forward because these characters have so much yet to go through in future books! :)
Something inside of me snaps, and my eyes spring open wildly in my face. I scream out something I can't even decipher and finally get my fingers between the chain and my throat. I pull it away with everything in me, spurred on by rage and vengeance and the will to live, until I overpower her and set my neck free, slamming her legs down against the floor.
She starts to crawl away on her hands and knees in the direction of my overturned chair. I leap to my feet, pulling Pearl from my boot before I'm fully upright, and I'm standing over her with the blade against her throat and the back of her hair in my fist, pulling her neck back as far as it'll go without snapping.
"I'll cut off more than your finger, bitch!"
She freezes; her hips and pelvis and legs pressed against the floor; the whites of her eyes visible to me as I stand over her from behind.
"Where is Dina?!" I yank on her scalp, pulling her neck back even farther; if she even flinches the wrong way the blade will break the skin and she knows it. "Fuck these games of yours! Tell me where you took her!"
"Come closer and I'll tell you," she says with difficulty, her voice strained.
Without even thinking about it I do, but I keep the blade against her throat as I sit down on her back.
"Try anything and I'll kill you," I growl, my lips next to her ear.
She doesn't try to fight back, but I'm not feeling defeat from her. It's something else. That confidence about her that I've grown to despise. Even though I'm the one sitting on top of her, the one with the knife pressed to her throat, I can't help feel like she's still the one in control.
"Where is she?" I whisper harshly against the side of her face.
"If you want Dina Gregory to live," she says, still in a whisper too low for the audio to pick up, "then you and I need to have a talk about the specifics of the relationship you had with Javier Ruiz."
It feels like an eternity that I sit on top of her, straddling her back, lost in some kind of stunned submission. I can't find words. Or my heartbeat. And my mind is running away from me.
Then my knife hand begins to tremble and my breathing becomes unsteady.
I slide the knife away from her throat, push her head down forcibly against the tile with the other hand, shoving myself angrily to my feet and off of her. I don't look at her when she gets up, struggling into a stand with her ankles bound. And I look only at the floor when she shuffles right past me, picking up her black heels along the way, and goes back over to her seat on the other side of the table.
I keep my back to her, unable to move; my eyes beginning to burn from the angry tears pushing their way to the surface. My knife is gripped within my hand firmly, resting down at my side. I feel like using it on myself.
"Shall we begin?" Nora says as calmly as ever, waiting for me at the table.
Here are the rest of the books of In The Company of Killers:
Book 1: Killing Sarai
Amazon ($1.99 SALE!) | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible
Book 2: Reviving Izabel
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible
Book 3: The Swan & The Jackal
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible
J.A. Redmerski, New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author lives in North Little Rock, Arkansas with her three children, two cats and a Maltese. She is a lover of television and books that push boundaries and is a huge fan of AMC’s The Walking Dead.
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