A tourist’s death, an alluring young teacher, a father’s carnal desires, and a stepdaughter’s vendetta ultimately destroy a village dynasty.
The Tarnished Son
by Elizabeth McKenna
Genre: Domestic Suspense
“This is a nice, quiet town. Things like that don’t happen around here.”
But they do.
In THE TARNISHED SON, a tourist’s death, an alluring young teacher, a father’s
carnal desires, and a stepdaughter’s vendetta ultimately destroy a village
dynasty.
The respected Clark family has governed Williams Bay since 1837. On a hot
August day, seventeen-year-old Liam causes a tragic boating accident. What
happens next—infidelity, drugs, theft, and more—deepens long-hidden cracks in
the family’s façade, exposing their secrets and tarnishing their golden image.
Meet the family:
William Sr., the grandfather who rules the family and the village with an iron
fist
Hank, the father who lets temptations lead him on a path of self-destruction
Liam, the shining son who gets away with everything
Rose, the stepdaughter who has had enough and pushes the whole house down
Grab some popcorn and watch the destruction unfold in Elizabeth McKenna's
unpredictable family drama!
ROSE
Saturday, September 2
Entry from the Journal of Rose
McCabe:
I can’t sleep. We saw a
man drown today. Liam killed a man today on Geneva Lake, and we didn’t tell
the whole truth.
***
Earlier
My phone
buzzed for the tenth time in the past half hour. My stepbrother, who made it
clear I was a waste of space and deserved to be ignored or tormented based on
his mood, needed me.
I deleted his message without
opening it.
It was the last Saturday before
Liam, or William Henry Clark III, per his high school registration forms, began
his senior year. But instead of being happy that he was a little more than nine
months away from freedom, Liam and his best friend Sawyer were feeling the
end-of-summer blues and dreading the start of teachers and sports monopolizing
their lives. They decided the only cure for their misery would be an afternoon
on Geneva Lake with girls in bikinis.
But none of their friends were
home, and I had become my stepbrother’s last resort, which baffled me. Had he
spared my life more than a glance over the past five years, he would have
noticed my minuscule social circle. So, even if I wanted to help him out, I
couldn’t.
I adjusted the pillows on my bed
for a more comfortable reading position. Liam called me a nerd and a bookworm,
thinking these were hurtful insults. But it was better than being a shallow
jock like him and his friends.
A page later, someone knocked on
my bedroom door. Would Liam plead his case in person? It went against our
unwritten rule of exchanging no more than one to two sentences when forced to
be in the same room. An unfamiliar sense of power over my stepbrother gave me
the courage to continue ignoring him.
“Rose? Can I come in?” Mom’s
muffled voice came from behind the door.
I winced, realizing my rudeness
toward the only person who mattered to me in the house. “Yes, sorry. I didn’t
hear you knock.”
She opened the door, and I held
up my book. “Guess I was lost in another world.”
A frown marred the pixie-like
features of her face. “Sometimes, you need to be in this world, honey.”
I pressed a knuckle against my
lips to keep from asking why. It was an old and tired argument, and I knew what
Mom would reply. Though I loved her to the moon and back, our personalities
were polar opposites, which left us at odds every so often. Where she blossomed
in a room full of people, I shrank into the nearest dark corner, enduring a
slow death.
“I hear Liam wants a favor from
you,” she said as she sat on my bed, her feet dangling above the floor.
More out of habit than anything
else, she leaned over and twisted a lock of my unruly dirt-colored hair away
from my face. It was another trait we didn’t share, as her ash-blond hair
framed her face in a bob that swung with every move of her head but then
settled into place when she stilled. The only things I inherited from her were
my brown eyes, slim build, and below-average height, which I would gladly
return for a refund. Genetics was so temperamental.
She took my silence as a
willingness to continue listening to her pitch. “It’s obvious you kids don’t
get along. It distresses Hank and me, but we understand. Blended families can
be hard. However, Liam is reaching out to you. Maybe this could be a turning
point in your relationship.”
My real dad was a US contractor
working in Iraq when the enemy ambushed his convoy. I was six when he died. We
were living in Chicago, but growing up, Mom spent her summers in Williams Bay,
and that’s how she knew Hank. They reconnected via social media several years
after Dad’s death and married when I was ten. Hank’s first wife divorced him
after deciding small-town life wasn’t for her. I overheard Liam tell Sawyer she
was a street artist in Paris.
“He wants me to pimp out some of
my girlfriends.” I glared at my phone, which had buzzed again. “Like I even
have any.”
“I think both of those statements
are pretty harsh,” Mom chided, but her voice was kind. “He wants to have fun on
the last weekend of summer. Don’t you?”
My fingers tightened around the
book in my lap. “Actually, I was.”
Praise for The
Tarnished Son
“I could not guess where the story was
going, and I found the plot to be interesting and dramatic, but also
believable.” ~ Lacy Challe, beta reader
“The book caught my attention really quick,
and I found myself invested in the story right away.” ~ Kathleen Fossum, beta
reader
Goodreads – 5 stars “This was a wonderful
book. Each chapter brings another twist or an unexpected turn of events. Each
character surprises you throughout the book. You think you know them and then
wow, you really don’t. If you love a book that is filled with twists, turns and
interesting characters this is the one for you! It is one you will not be able
to put down!”
Goodreads – 4 stars “A steady paced,
suspenseful drama. This was well written and easy to read. Intriguing and
heartbreaking.”
**Get it for Only
.99cents for a limited time!**
Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4R8HM6S
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-tarnished-son-by-elizabeth-mckenna
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213734031-the-tarnished-son
About the Author
Elizabeth McKenna’s love of books reaches
back to her childhood, where her tastes ranged from Nancy Drew and the Hardy
Boys to Stephen King’s horror stories.
Her novels reflect her mercurial temperament
and include romances, mysteries, and suspense. Some are “clean,” and some are
“naughty,” so she has a book for your every mood.
Elizabeth lives in Wisconsin with her
understanding husband and Sidney, the rescue dog from Tennessee. When she isn’t
writing, reading, or walking the dog that never tires, she’s sleeping.
Website
* Facebook
* X * Instagram
* Bookbub
* Amazon
* Goodreads
Author
Links
Website: https://elizabethmckenna.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethMcKennaAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabeth_mckenna_author
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/elizabeth-mckenna-d33b040e-0455-462e-8496-635b50c65b6c
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elizabeth-McKenna/author/B005POMYBO
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5337654.Elizabeth_McKenna
Giveaway
$20 Amazon
Follow
the tour HERE
for special content and a giveaway!
