All The Write Stuff: Specimen

While investigating a viral internet game, 17 year old Thea Riggs stumbles upon a series of unsolved murders and the global crime syndicate that orchestrated them. Can she alone bring down a secret crime syndicate, or is the cost of justice too high?

Specimen

by Lisa Towles

Genre: YA Psychological Thriller, Suspense

Thea Riggs is shocked by a dead body in the empty house she was summoned to. It feels like a setup, like she’s being framed for murder. By the time she discovers a connection between the body and the internet game everyone’s playing, it’s too late. They know she’s onto them. Now she’s their next target.

Lured to an underground San Francisco lab, she pieces together the hidden agenda behind what she’s seen – scientific experiments, a secret society of operatives, a labyrinth of lies hiding a decades-old cold case. She’s in deep and knows too much, but now they’ve threatened her mother. Can she alone bring down a secret crime syndicate, or is the cost of justice too high?

Specimen is an action-packed, Young Adult contemporary thriller. Fans of Blake Crouch and James Rollins will love Lisa Towles’ technical thrill ride. Join Thea’s quest for the truth and Buy Specimen today.

EXCERPT

Prologue

“Mmmmm.”

“Is that you?” I asked, unsure. Her voice sounded dreamy. And who

answers the phone that way?

Now an exhaustive sigh.

“Lise, answer me!”

“What was the question again?” I heard her footsteps on the other end,

walking slowly, rhythmically on a hard surface.

“Where are you right now?”

“How is that relevant?” she clipped back. Salty. That sounded more

like her.

“Because! I’m a–” My words caught in my throat. I wiped my eyes

and coughed, hoping to swallow the feeling of horror. “I’m at your house,

where-you-summoned-me, where your—” Breathe, Thea. “Why did you

run?” My raspy voice ricocheted against the marble walls of the colossal

foyer.

“I’ve got nothing to say.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Well ask me something easier then.”

I had no time to pause and think, to consider a strategy or explain the

shocking circumstances to the part of my brain grasping for reason.

“Why call me in the first place, then?”

The footsteps halted. I now heard the roar of cars on the other end of

the phone; she was outside. I ran to one of the front windows. No sign of

her platinum hair or Burberry trench.

“You’re just leaving me here?? What about the police? Who does

this?”

“Couldn’t be helped.” Her monotone told me she was dissociating

from the situation, which might imply she was as upset as I was. Or maybe

that was just a fairy tale.

“What do I tell them?” I whispered.

“Cops? Whatever you want. You know nothing so they won’t waste

time on you.”

“Cut it out.” I moved from the front windows back to the same spot

inside the front door, where I’d placed the call. A safe distance from the

kitchen. Then my emotions caved in, sobs rippling out through my nose

and mouth. My eyes were a mess. I couldn’t wipe the tears fast enough.

“Calm down, Thea.”

“Calm down? Are you high? They’re gonna ask me what I know about

—”

“My dead mother? No kidding. Believe me, she’s better off this way.

We all are.”

She’d said the words finally – dead mother. So I hadn’t imagined it?

Now I needed to close it up and get the hell out of here. “Lise, did you—”

A thud from the kitchen yanked my attention from my phone. I felt the

vibration under my feet. Maybe Lise hadn’t actually killed her. Maybe the

killer was still here.

Chapter 1

Blood pooled under the mop of the woman’s dark brown hair, her skin a

horrid chalky color, gray almost, body awkwardly twisted like she’d been

on her way somewhere and shocked by the thrust of something blunt and

resolute intended to stop the beat of her heart, or at least her intentions. As

to what—I hadn’t gotten there yet. Was it a good day to die?

I stared down at her body from the kitchen doorway, one hand

covering my mouth to quell the shaking in my soul. I knew her. How

could this possibly be real?

The house was quiet except for the howl of wind, the Fenning’s giant

sycamore scraping the east side of the house like a demon’s fingernail.

Fitting.

Something made me turn, not a sound exactly, more like a sensation. I

gazed at the upstairs landing that overlooked a foyer the size of a

basketball court. A much better vantage point to say the least. I tore up the

stairs and pancaked myself to the cold tiles. My erratic pulse banged in my

ears. Tha-thump, tha-thump. Breathe, Thea. Breathe. Okay, my frantic

brain re-engaged for the moment, I could see this was a much safer place

to assess. The woman’s lower half was visible from here on the marble

floor beside the island – dark gray pants, expensive black heels, one of

them on and the other three inches from her body exposing a bare, grayish

foot. Lying on my stomach, pain jarred me from the phone in my pocket—

glass on bone. I hadn’t pulled it out yet or called for help because I needed

time to gather my wits, I had no idea what I’d say and, more importantly,

what if her killer was still here?

I used to think a day that began with a game of cards was destined to

be good. With a father and grandfather in the Navy, of course I grew up

playing cards. I could beat them both at cribbage by the time I was fifteen,

or maybe they let me win. There was something about numbers that had

always comforted me, like a tacit reminder of the ordered universe despite

all the visual evidence of chaos. And cribbage was a game that valued

numbers and pairs, and in my fragile heart that symmetry felt, somehow,

like safety. Okay sure, life in the Marshall Islands was a little sheltered,

but my dad wanted it that way. My mother disagreed and tried to move us

all to San Francisco, where we’d have the support of her family along with

the contemporary imprint of urban life. She won the battle but lost the

war. My father remained five thousand miles away in Majuro Atoll, and

after my brother Rudy died she and I built a new life in San Francisco’s

Mission District without them. The culture and beauty of my Islander

roots lives in my heart forever but honestly failed to prepare me for the

spectacle of Roberta Fenning’s bludgeoned body. Could anything have?

Rudy died on his seventeenth birthday, my age now, which my mother

said was like being erased by the universe and twice as bad as just losing

him. Now we can’t even celebrate his birthday without reliving the trauma

of his loss. The closest thing I had to a brother now was Fergus Wilde, my

best friend since the third grade.

“Stop dreaming and cut the deck,” Fergus had said this morning while

we drank coffee on the floor of my bedroom, preparing for another game

of cribbage during the lazy, summer lull before college. And I had been

daydreaming while he decided which cards to throw in the crib. Nothing I

hated more than wasting time. And there was nothing I wanted more than

A razor sharp, edge of your seat thriller"

- The Prairies Book Review

"A sharp, thought-provoking examination of technology's dark side and the elusive nature of truth"

- BookView Reviews

"A rollercoaster ride of a story that readers will find exhilarating and heart stopping"

- San Francisco Book Review

"A gripping thriller for readers who love mystery, suspense, ambition, betrayal, and intrigue" - Literary Titan

Amazon * Apple * B&N * Kobo * Smashwords * Bookbub * Goodreads

Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Specimen-Lisa-Towles-ebook/dp/B0DJH6B4C2

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/specimen/id6736629680

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/specimen-lisa-towles/1146388636?ean=2940180480002

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/specimen-6

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1630011

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/specimen-by-lisa-towles

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220196635-specimen

Book Trailer:

https://youtu.be/iVkLJpcJYeA

About the Author

Lisa Towles is an award-winning, Amazon bestselling crime novelist and a passionate speaker on the topics of fiction writing, creativity, and Strategic Self Care. Lisa has 11 crime novels in print with her newest title Specimen freshly released in November 2024. The first two books of her E&A Investigations Series (Hot House and Salt Island) were both #1 Amazon Kindle Bestsellers. Lisa also writes standalone thrillers, such as her 2022 political thriller, The Ridders, which won an American Fiction Award. Lisa is an active member and frequent panelist/speaker of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She has an MBA in IT Management and works full-time in the tech industry.

Read more about Lisa’s book on her publisher’s website.

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