Westobou Gold by Hawk MacKinney - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hello lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Hawk MacKinney and his new book, “Westobou Gold”!  For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card.  Also, come back daily to interact with Hawk and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you lots of luck in this exciting giveaway!

Westobou Gold

by Hawk MacKinney

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GENRE:  Mystery/Suspense

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BLURB:

The Indian Queen would risk torture and worse to keep her secrets from these barbarians in suits of metal and their search for cities of gold. They never found the gold. Empires rose; empires fell, the centuries passed. Legend became fireside myths, but no treasure was ever found. Yet, among the grey-green drapes of wisteria and wild jasmine along the misty shrouded lowlands of bayous and marshes of the Westo River, the folktales persisted.

In the lazed creep of a near-tropical dawnlit the pungent Turkish coffee permeated Moccasin Hollow. Beyond the kitchen door Lucky, Craige Ingram’s German shepherd gnawed a favorite bone. Looted burial mounds seemed a world away until plundered mounds on Moccasin Hollow land brings amateur archeologist PI Craige Ingram into the crosshairs of kidnapping. Stealthy hideaways are concealed in old colonial brick-lined river grottos beneath the big house of Ardochy plantation. Sex-tape underage blackmail and thrill killings on federal land spur a medical examiner’s preliminary postmortem to more than a hired cleaner’s quickie cover-up passed off as drug deals gone sour. Greed tangles a witch’s pigswill of illicit affairs and murder-to-hide-murder. Shady investigators and shadier politics stir an unexpected concoction that threatens the lives of those at Moccasin Hollow in a spiteful plot against ex-SEAL Craige Ingram and the woman he loves.

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EXCERPT TWO:

She hadn't noticed the figure carrying a fishing pole walk into the yard until Lucky’s ears perked, and he bounded off the porch to greet Billy and his stringer of Blue Gills.

At first Terri was startled, “Who're you?” She’d had enough surprises for one day.

Billy hadn't seen Terri. “Oh... hi. I'm Billy, Mister Ingram an’ me are friends. I just caught me a mess of fish for supper. Clean ‘em soon as I get home. You must be his girlfriend. The one he likes so much.” Lucky nuzzled at Billy's hand.

“You’ve certainly got the dog’s approval. That's something not just anyone can do. Craige doesn't invite many to fish on his place.”

Billy grinned, pleased at having such a special invite. “Mister Craige told me I could come fish anytime. He sure has been to lots of places. Done things I'd like to do some day.” He sat down on the bottom step and laid his cane fishing pole next to the steps. “I thought you were awful pretty the day I saw pictures of you on the shelves next to those of that old woman.”

Terri said, “The elderly woman is his grandmother.”

The growl of a pickup truck coming down the drive interrupted them; Lucky bounded out to meet it, as Sam Crawforde swung into the yard. Crawforde turned off the engine, and climbed out dressed in faded coveralls and a pair of well-worn, second hand army boots that were Crawforde’s version of snake boots. “Well now, Terri, you’re a sight for sore eyes. It’s been a spell since I’ve had the pleasure of seeing you.”

“It has been a while.” Terri gave a nod toward Billy, “This is Billy, an acquaintance of Craige’s who fishes here.”

Crawforde asked, “Craige here?”

Terri said, “He’s inside asleep right now. He had a long night.”

Crawforde propped one foot on the bottom step, “I’d like to sit a spell, but I have several things to take care of before heading back to my office. Tell him I dropped by. He might want to come down to the dig and see some of the things we've uncovered.”

Billy, excited, “Find any arrowheads?”

“There’s lots of them,” Crawforde said. “Lot of Indian sites around these parts.”

“My dad had some. All kinds of things, one axe head. Got two bowls. They're broken but we have the pieces.”

Crawforde said, “You know where they come from?”

“My dad said some come from Edisto Island near the shell hills back in the marshes. My uncle has a farm up near Aiken. Sometimes when he plows, he’ll turn arrowheads all over the place.”

“If the broken pottery hasn’t been meddled with, the shards can help date artifacts. Once a site is dug through, it’s spoiled for dating. If you like to know how people used to live, you might want to give some thought to studying it beyond high school.”

“I guess,” Billy sort-of replied.

“You could study all about the Indians.”

“That what you do?”

Crawforde said, “Been doing it longer than you are old,” to him his work as fresh as ever. “You can tell what tribes lived where; where they moved; who they traded with; how they reused every-day things. How their pottery designs changed, different axe heads like you found. They didn't throw away much. Recycled most of what they had. Couldn't run down to the nearest hardware store and buy a new one.”

“We just finished studying about the Cherokees.”

“Sad, the way they were treated.”

Billy said, “Cherokees had newspapers.”

“That kind of stuff interest you?”

“Sometimes.”

“What year are you in school?”

“Senior.”

Crawforde said, “Keep your grades up. College is your next step.”

“USC Columbia. My Dad went there.”

“What's your GPA?”

“Little above a three point.”

“SATs?”

“English 550, math 600”

Crawforde smiled, “Sports?”

“Football, but I like baseball best.”

“You going for a scholarship? Either football or baseball?”

Billy sighed, “Probably not. You got to be a spotlight quarterback or pitcher to get that.”

“What you got to lose by trying?”

Billy thought for a moment. “Nothing I guess.”

“Don’t say no to yourself. Go after what you want. I've served on several university admissions’ boards. When other folks say no to you, treat it as a roadblock to be overcome.”

“Or go around,” Billy said.

“You might be surprised how most people want to help. You won't have problems with USC. If you’d want, maybe one of these days you could come in the field with me. Look at some of the mounds discovered last month by one of the grad students from our department. We covered it back up to protect it.”

Billy's eyes lit up, “I’d like that.”

“Hope nobody dug it up since then.”

“That happen much?”

Crawforde said, “It’s a big problem. What's really sad is how some museums pay big money for cultural artifacts with no questions asked.” Glanced at the sky, time of day was moving on, “Got to get going. Use what daylight's left.” Gave a nod to Terri, “Nice seeing you again.”

Terri watched the pickup disappear through the trees and down the curved drive toward the highway. Summer’s darker green leaves were already tinged yellow-green around the edges along the drive.

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GUEST POST:

Growing up in the open spaces of hill-country southwest with horses and dogs and every critter that could crawl, climb, fly and snarl, Hawk MacKinney is an internationally acclaimed author and public speaker. A retired U.S. Navy officer, Hawk was on the postdoctoral faculties in the states, as well as the Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, and put down “Southron” roots in deep-south Dixie to begin a love affair with characters and places roundabout that was just beggin’ to be writ about.

Hawk writes across several mix-genres that include his mystery/thriller series—The Craige Ingram Mystery Series, and his science fiction series, The Cairns of Sainctuarie, Volume 1 - The Bleikovat Event and Volume 2 - The Missing Planets. His historical romance, Moccasin Trace, was nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award, and is a historical cross-genre prequel love story of the family bloodlines of his protagonist, Craige Ingram, a retired Navy SEAL/part-time private investigator, in the Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series.

ABOUT WESTOBOU GOLD:

The double-double-crosses and greed in Westobou Gold takes Craige Ingram from his South Carolina ancestral home of Moccasin Hollow to the underbelly of dirty backrooms. The violence against loved ones, written as “fiction” is often more gruesome fact than fiction. The treacherous psychotic lives among us. They live by their own rules, and if they perceive a threat, paranoid or real, they become a most deadly predator, leaving one with a sense of naked prey, a John/Jane Doe-on-the-street run to ground…sometimes as close as the head on the pillow next to us. The twists in tales of Westobou Gold, Book 2 of the Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series, is the night-horse haints-and-specters of fear-come-into-daylight, and sucks the reader into the unexpected.

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AUTHOR BIO:

Internationally acclaimed author and public speaker, Hawk MacKinney began writing mysteries for his school newspapers. He served in the US Navy Reserve for over 20 years, and was a tenured faculty member at several state medical facilities, teaching postgraduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem, Israel. Since retiring Hawk has authored several novels that have received national and international recognition. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel, was nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award. The Cairns of Sainctuarie, his science fiction series, includes The Bleikovat Event and The Missing Planets, with a third book in the works. Hawk’s latest project focuses on The Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series. Book 1 in the series, Hidden Chamber of Death, was released early 2016.

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CONNECT WITH HAWK:

Website:

http://www.hawkmackinney.net/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011826991252

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/698008.Hawk_MacKinney

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33016110-westobou-gold

Amazon Author Page:

http://amzn.to/2gGXBKm

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BOOK BUY LINKS:

Amazon Kindle:

http://amzn.to/2hi02DJ

Amazon Paperback:

http://amzn.to/2gw5Ntu

Barnes and Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/westobou-gold-hawk-mackinney/1124806694

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Hawk MacKinney will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.