All The Write Stuff: 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 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!

EXCERPT

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!**

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

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