Welcome, M. Pepper Langlinais!
As a fan of mystery-thrillers, I'd like to hear about The Fall and Rise of Peter Stroller.
Here is the back cover blurb:
In 1960’s London, British Intelligence agent Peter Stoller is next in line to run the Agency—until he falls in love with cab driver, Charles, and his life goes off the road. When Charles is accused of treason, Peter is guilty by association. Peter manages to extract them both, but the seeds of doubt have been planted, putting Peter’s mind and heart at war. Is his lover truly his enemy? And is ignorance truly bliss or merely deadly?
Excerpt:
They had him before he even reached the door; an arm snaked around his throat and his arms were pinned behind his back. Clarkson shouted, “I’ve got another one!”
Peter went limp, forcing Clarkson to bear his weight, little enough though that was. From inside the cabin, Gamby hissed, “Don’t go shouting about it! Get him inside.”
Clarkson shoved Peter through the door. “He was just walking right up like he was in for a visit.”
Gamby frowned at Peter. “What’s your game, eh?”
“We only have the one chair,” Clarkson pointed out. And there was Blevins, tied to it, eyes wide. He was trembling hard enough to see, and Peter wondered the chair didn’t shake apart beneath him.
“Let Blevins go, and you can have our intel,” said Peter.
Gamby snorted. “And you, too, I suppose.”
“I’ll stay if you like. Decipher the papers.”
Gamby stared hard at Peter for a long moment. They did not know one another well, were not cabin mates; Gamby was expansive in every sense of the word, and Peter was the opposite, thin as Gamby was thick, quiet as Gamby was loud. But they were both tall and both shrewd, and they sized one another up now.
“Let him go,” Gamby ordered, and Clarkson released Peter.
“You could have taken him!” Blevins complained, and Peter frowned at him.
“I’m here to save you, you nit.”
“By failing us? Where is Maier?”
“Yes, where is Maier?” Gamby asked.
“Taking care of Tillholm, I expect,” said Peter. “Why did you send him?”
“Same reason you sent Blevins,” Gamby said. “No one wants to spend any time with him.”
With a sympathetic glance at his team leader, Peter felt beholden to answer, “Blevins sent himself, actually,” which sent Gamby into a roar of laughter.
“You’re getting off mission,” Blevins muttered.
“Wish we had a gag for him,” said Gamby.
“Just use his sock,” suggested Peter, earning a look of disbelief and betrayal from Blevins.
Clarkson dove for Blevins’s feet, and Blevins kicked him away.
“Don’t really,” Gamby told Clarkson, then turned a wry face to Peter. “Not enough rope for his feet.”
“This is not how this is supposed to go!” Blevins insisted. “Standing around chatting like you’re at the club.”
“Not a lot you can do about it, though, is there?” Gamby asked.
Blevins turned another accusing look on Peter, and Peter wished he knew what Jules was up to. He could only stall so long.
“What about the papers?” Clarkson asked, and Peter sighed. He was out of options.
“Sorry,” he said to Gamby, and the big man had just enough time to look perplexed before Peter swung.
Bio: M Pepper Langlinais
M Pepper Langlinais is an author and produced screenwriter and playwright. She has worked on film sets, been a Shakespearean actor, and taught Shakespeare, mythology, and creative writing at summer camps. She worked for Houghton Mifflin and Pearson before deciding to devote her time to her own books. She lives with her family in Livermore, California.
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