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    Promissory Payback: A Jane Perry Novelette
    Promissory Payback: A Jane Perry Novelette
    Promissory Payback: A Jane Perry Novelette
    Ebook121 pages1 hour

    Promissory Payback: A Jane Perry Novelette

    By Laurel Dewey

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Raves for Protector:“A great novel and a fabulous mystery.”– Mysterious Reviews“A unique, entertaining, emotionally powerful, deftly crafted, highly recommended work.”– Midwest Book ReviewAnd for Redemption:“I took my time reading this book, actually savoring every page as it is possibly the best book I have read in a couple years.”– TCM Reviews“I loved it and can’t wait for book three.”– Armchair InterviewsLaurel Dewey’s Detective Jane Perry is quickly becoming one of the most distinctive, dynamic, and unforgettable characters in suspense fiction today. She’s rock hard, but capable of extraordinary tenderness. She’s a brilliant cop, but she’s capable of making life-altering mistakes. She’s uncannily talented, and she’s heartbreakingly human.In this novelette, Jane is called in to investigate the gruesome murder of a woman who profited greatly from the misfortunes of others. The case leaves Jane with little question about motive...and with a seemingly endless number of suspects.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFiction Studio Books
    Release dateOct 8, 1126
    ISBN9781943486274
    Promissory Payback: A Jane Perry Novelette

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    Reviews for Promissory Payback

    3.5/5

    19 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      PROMISSORY PAYBACK by Laurel DeweyPublished by The Story PlantISBN-10: 1611880076ISBN-13: 978-1611880076At the request of The Story Plant, a PDF EBook Edition of a double novelette, Promissory Payback and Unrevealed were provided, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion. Synopsis (from publisher): In PROMISSORY PAYBACK Jane is called in to investigate the gruesome murder of a woman who profited greatly from the misfortunes of others. The case leaves Jane with little question about motive...and with a seemingly endless number of suspects. My Thoughts and Opinion: This was my first introduction to both this author, Laurel Dewey and character, Detective Jane Perry. Although it was only 80 pages, I instantly knew that I had been missing out on a very talented author. Within 80 pages she made the characters come to life and "transported" the reader into the plot. The writing style was fluid and very descriptive, which made it quite easy to create my own vivid visualizations as if I was watching a movie. The novelette was a stand alone read but gave hints of giving the reader to want more and to know more about this tough, street smart, but sensitive detective. My Rating: 4 As for marketing, in my opinion and this is only my opinion, this would be a perfect solution for those times when a reader is one of those reader's slumps. It is a quick, yet detailed, descriptive, gripping story line. It would also be good for those times when you need to purchase a "small gift" such as a hostess gift, get well visit, teacher's gift, a little something, etc.
    • 3/5
      Promissory Payback stars the intrepid detective, Jane Perry. I felt like this was a sort of Encyclopedia Brown for adults. (I may be dating myself here but if you missed Encyclopedia Brown as a child, you did miss out.) The clues are obvious and there is little emotional investment required of the reader but the writing is good, the case is interesting and the characters are likable. It's an easy read, there's lots of good irony and sarcasm and it's worth the half hour (OK maybe an hour) it takes to read.
    • 5/5
      This novella/novelette is in the Detective Jane Perry series of novels. It is the first one I’ve read, so it is likely that I didn’t catch everything that a long-time reader of the series might have; however, the story is written in such a way that it can be read and stand by itself.Perry is called to a murder case – the woman is hog-tied on her own bed, no sign of forced entry or struggle, and has been suffocated with duct tape over her nose and mouth. She was discovered by her long-term friend, Laura Abernathy, who says she was responding to a call from the previous evening requesting that she come over to see Carolyn, the victim. As Perry investigates the murder, she untangles a complex web of lies and plots to discover the reason for the killing, as well as who was involved.I really enjoyed this quick read – it is cleverly written and plotted. I am definitely going to be tracking down the series of books – Perry is an interesting and complex character and I’d love to read more about her escapades and exploits. A very satisfying read for fans of mystery and suspense alike!
    • 4/5
      This is one story that illustrates one of many ways I would not want to die, thank you very much. I mean, whew! It’s certainly memorable and not one for the kiddos. It’s also a story that while chock full of suspects, the final reveal will totally make you think. NO, really! Imagine you could stop a whole lot of people from being hurt or bad events from happening if just one person were removed from the picture. Could YOU justify said person or persons lives essentially being ended?
    • 3/5
      Promissory Payback is a short crime story following Detective Jane Perry's investigation into the murder of the much-hated Carolyn Handel. It is difficult to find someone who wouldn't want to kill the self-obsessed money-grabbing sixty year old who made her living out of other people's suffering. Though absent from the action, Carolyn Handel still twists and manipulates emotions from beyond the grave. “Evil requires the sanction of the victim” is Jane Perry's motto. In her life victims are in a situation of their own doing. If someone wants to kill you it's because you have done something so terrible you deserve it or because you are too weak to fight them off. Be strong. If not carry a gun. Dewey paints Jane Perry with all the colours of feminism. A strong woman who loves her gun and who takes yoga only to keep herself flexible in order to catch the 'perps'. Perry despises other women, predominantly for their 'cattiness' and doesn't seem to respond well when they try to bond with her. Forming friendships with women seems to Perry to leave oneself vulnerable:“Jane deduced this was how the trap was set between all women – cradle you in the disingenuous arms of familiarity and then hover until you become vulnerable.”Perry remains suspicious and detached from every character in the novel as one would expect from a murder investigator. However during their first interview each potential suspect falls foul of verbal diarrhoea and spews incessant facts about themselves. This seems unusual for a first conversation with a stranger, especially when that stranger is a detective. Snappy dialogue exchanges propel the story forwards with a gripping pace. A lot is revealed about each character from what they say; any gaps are filled in with Perry's impeccable intuition. Her skills at reading people do border on omniscience at times which is distracting. Long descriptions and the occasional runaway sentence make for awkward reading at the beginning of the story and the abundance of clues does dilute the suspense at times. However the ending is powerful and packed with the emotional vengeance of Carolyn's greatest victim.
    • 3/5
      This is a short direct to the point case forDetective Jane Perry, is called out on a murder case.Caroyln Handle age 62 is found tied up and dead on her bed by lifetime friend Laura Abernathy. Turns out she was stealing money 50,000 for people to invest in condos in Mexico that did not exist.Jane interviews Laura and learns about her robbing investers of their money and how their is 3 investers who lost money.Jane interviews relative that was in LA at time of murder and who benefits from her death. Figures out who the three investers were. and solves the case.You don't learn much about Jane except she is recovering acholic,smokes and swears. She did yoga but got kicked out for having her gun by excersie mat.I think you might have learned more from a previous book. I wish she had more interactions than just the suspects so we could care about her.I was given this ebook in exchange for honest review.

    Book preview

    Promissory Payback - Laurel Dewey

    Promissory Payback

    Laurel Dewey

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

    Studio Digital CT, LLC

    P.O. Box 4331

    Stamford, CT 06907

    Copyright © 2009 by Laurel Dewey

    Cover design by Barbara Aronica-Buck

    Author photo by Carol Craven

    Fiction Studio Books e-book ISBN-13: 978-1-943486-27-4

    Visit our website at www.thestoryplant.com

    All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by U.S. Copyright Law. For information, address Studio Digital CT.

    First Story Plant Paperback Printing: July 2011

    Printed in the United States of America

    Prologue

    Detective Jane Perry took another hard drag on her cigarette. She knew she needed to quiet her nerves for what she was about to see.

    Another victim. Another senseless, gruesome murder that she would add to the board at Denver Headquarters. When Sergeant Weyler called her half an hour ago, she hadn’t even finished her third cup of coffee. This one is odd, Jane, he told her with that characteristic tone in his voice that also suggested an evil tinge behind the slaying du jour. Be prepared, he said before hanging up. It was a helluva way to start a Monday morning.

    As Jane drove her ’66 Mustang toward the crime scene in the tony section of Denver known as Cherry Creek, she tried to look on the bright side. If she’d still been a drinker, she’d be battling an epic hangover at that moment and doing her best to hide it from Weyler. But since becoming a friend of Bill W., her addictions involved healthier options such as jogging, buying way too many pounds of expensive coffee and even briefly joining a yoga group. She stopped attending the class only because the pansy-ass male instructor wasn’t comfortable with her setting her Glock in the holster to the side of her mat during class. Since she was usually headed to work after the 7:00 am stretch session, Jane was obviously carrying her service weapon. She wasn’t about to leave it in her car or a locker at the facility. Nor would she be so careless as to hang it on one of the eco-friendly bamboo hooks that lined the yoga room.

    So for Jane, it was obvious and more than natural for the Glock to lie next to her as she attempted the Salutation to the Sun pose and arched into Downward Facing Dog. In her mind, there was no dichotomy between the peacefulness of yoga and the brain-splattering capacity of her Glock. As the annoying, high-pitched flute music played in the background—a sound meant to encourage calmness but which sounded more like a dying parakeet to Jane—she felt completely safe knowing that a loaded gun was inches from her grasp. The other people in the class, however, did have a problem, and they showed it by arranging their mats as far from Jane as humanly possible. None of this behavior bothered Jane until the soy milk–chugging teacher took her aside and asked her to please remove the Glock from class. Since Jane wasn’t about to take orders from a guy in a fuchsia leotard who had a penchant for crying at least twice during class, she strapped her 9-mm across her organic cotton yoga top and quit.

    That’s what predictably happened whenever you shoved a square peg like Jane Perry in a round hole of people and situations that don’t understand the real world. Crime has a nasty habit of worming its way into the most unlikely places—churches, schools, sacred retreats and possibly yoga studios. The way Jane Perry looked at life, yoga might keep you flexible but a loaded gun kept you alive so you could continue being flexible. She knew what it felt like to be the victim of circumstance, to be held hostage by another person’s violent objective. Even though it was a long time ago, she’d never wash the stench from her memory. Her vow was always the same: Nobody would ever make Jane Perry a victim again.

    Chapter 1

    But somebody apparently had made the old lady inside the Cherry Creek house a victim. Jane rolled to the curb and parked the Mustang, sucking the last microgram of nicotine from the butt of her cigarette. Squashing it onto the street with the heel of her roughout cowboy boots, she flashed her shield to the cops standing at the periphery and ducked under the yellow crime tape that was draped between the two precision-trimmed boxwood shrubs that framed the bottom of the long, immaculate brick driveway.

    Jane checked the front door. There was no sign of forced entry. Stepping back, she searched and easily found two security cameras. Property protected by S.O.S.—Security On Site the decal read. One camera was poised above the front door and the other located at the corner of the house directed toward the rear of the property. Entering the home, Jane gazed at the gleaming marble floor that gracefully skirted the entry. A French reproduction crescent-shaped walnut wood table stood to the left with a Waterford vase atop it filled with nine strikingly fragrant stems of Oriental Stargazer lilies. Jane leaned closer and took a deep whiff of the aromatic flowers. She figured they were damn near fresh due to the sturdy wax coating still remaining on the petals. The heady scent was alluring and certainly disguised the stink of death, urine and fear that awaited her up the magnificent marble stairway and in the master bedroom. Jane steadied herself, fastening her armor around her heart so she’d be able to view what she was about to witness without losing whatever was left in her stomach of the pad thai dinner from the previous evening.

    "Evil requires the sanction of the victim," she said to herself, recalling the line from Atlas Shrugged. It was a powerful statement and one that Jane was too often reminded of when she viewed the battered and often unrecognizable corpse at a violent crime scene. The way she interpreted Ayn Rand’s words, in order for a murderous act to take place, somewhere in the chain of events, there had to be compliance by the victim. That compliance didn’t have to be conscious. In fact, it was usually unconscious. But the adage that you attract to yourself what you put out rang true for Jane, no matter how politically incorrect that belief was. Whether it be naively allowing the wrong people into your life or putting yourself in situations that are rife with nefarious outcomes, the one who is labeled the vic on the sheet down at Headquarters, usually made some lapse in judgment that allowed evil to take them out of this world in a black body bag.

    Sergeant Weyler met Jane just outside the bedroom suite door. Inside, she could see the flash of a camera documenting the crime scene. Several CSIs lifted prints. In the far corner of the room, a street cop sat next to a petite woman who looked to be in her early seventies. The moonfaced woman stared aimlessly at the carpet, seemingly detached from the grisly scene just twenty feet away.

    What do we know so far? Jane asked Weyler.

    Not much. Except it sure as hell wasn’t a suicide.

    Jane was familiar with gallows humor, but Weyler wasn’t normally one to participate in it. When she walked further into the bedroom and saw the body, she realized his comment was meant more as a statement of the obvious.

    There on the king-size bed was a woman, early sixties, nude, lying on her stomach and hog-tied. Her mouth and nose were taped shut with several pieces of duct tape. One eye was still slightly open and seemingly staring at Jane from across the room. The fear and understanding of death was still imprinted on the woman’s orb. Her body may have been cold but somewhere in that shell, Jane felt as if this victim was still transmitting the last impressions she took in before the specter of death choked her final breath. Jane could taste it in the air—the freshness of madness and chaos.

    Her name is Carolyn Handel, Weyler offered. She’s sixty-two and lived in this house for almost thirty years. Her best friend, he gestured tactfully

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