I am so excited that THE GUARDIANS OF TRUTH by Barry Finlay is available
now and that I get to share the news!
If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book, be sure to check out
all the details below.
This blitz also includes a giveaway for 2 eBooks of THE GUARDIANS OF TRUTH
courtesy of Barry & Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, check out the giveaway info below.
About The Book:
Author: Barry Finlay
Pub. Date: November 5, 2022
Publisher: Keep On Climbing Publishing
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 276
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon,
Kindle,
B&N,
TBD,
Bookshop.org
He's a refreshingly different hero, definitely not young and six-packed, but...
Now Jake and an insider, Cassie Wright, want to expose the leader and protect his followers from financial ruin or worse. Their harrowing quest isn’t without peril, as one will disappear and the other will be forced to fight for survival.
If you like your heroes to be, well, like you and I, the second book in
the Jake Scott Mystery Series will draw you in and have you wishing you
could dive in to help.
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
SHE PLANNED TO expose him for the fraud he was. Nothing about him was
real.
It couldn’t be.
She had witnessed Julian’s diatribes for weeks now. At first, he had her
convinced. His sincerity. The conviction with which he spoke. The vivid
neon-like blue eyes and the charismatic voice. All very compelling. But now
she was positive of the identity and motivations of the man who held over
100 followers in the palm of his hand. He was the worst kind of fraud.
Cassandra Wright, or Cassie, as her friends called her, peered at her
companion who drove the car. He stared straight ahead; his countenance was
as inscrutable as a Buddha’s. She studied the chiseled features of Robert
Weatherby’s handsome face and recalled how they had met a few weeks ago, and
what had led them here.
Cassie first became aware of Robert while idly skimming profiles on a
dating site. She was attracted to his photo, but she also learned that he
practiced psychology. She contacted him and they dated a few times. She
eventually sought his professional help to stave off feelings of depression.
The sessions started with Cassie detailing her anxiety and sleepless nights.
Over time, he seemed to help her, and her attraction to him deepened. Cassie
thought Weatherby sensed the connection, too, so she wanted to take things
to the next level.
She wore her prettiest dress, emphasizing her shapely figure, for a dinner
date. They ordered exquisite steaks with lobster at a high-end restaurant
and, halfway through, Weatherby leaned in and asked about her religious
beliefs. She informed him she would describe herself as “uncertain.” Since
she enjoyed being with him and didn’t want to risk offending on the topic,
especially that night when she had other plans, she let him lead the
conversation.
He continued by describing an organization with a charismatic leader that
met every Monday night, or more frequently if deemed necessary, on a farm
west of the city. He called the organization the Guardians of Truth. The
attendees thought organized religion had let them down and that their
freedoms were under assault from repeated intrusions by the government.
Simply put, they had become disenchanted with the institutions and people
they had trusted. To Cassie, they sounded like a dissatisfied group of
people looking for something better, which she had to admit defined her.
Left to raise a teenage daughter on her own, life had been a struggle
lately. She worked in a dead-end government job. Recently, despondency had
settled over her, so this might be what she needed.
She laughingly suggested the organization sounded like a cult, which
produced a frown and an immediate defensive denial from her companion. The
night she had planned fizzled out, as Robert became more and more insistent
that she should attend a Guardians of Truth meeting. The kindness and
gentleness he had displayed seemed to develop into an obsession to convince
Cassie to attend a session. He assured her it would be the answer to
everything she needed.
He described the group’s arduous admittance process. Only certain people
and true believers were allowed to join. Cassie’s curiosity rose.
What did they truly believe in?
And why were they so secretive? Robert had told her how they vetted
everyone through a questionnaire, and that she would have to sign a
non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. She ignored the red flags and agreed to go
through the process to please him.
Eventually, she passed the screening and Robert delightedly invited her to
an assembly, as Julian referred to them. Any hint of a romantic connection
with Robert evaporated like moisture on a hot sidewalk, as he insisted
Cassie’s treatment must remain professional.
They had traveled in silence as they left the suburbs of Ottawa, Canada’s
capital, and headed west. As they drove, the wipers fought to clear the
windshield from a torrential downpour that had occurred sporadically
throughout the day.
The weight of the silence in the car wore Cassie down.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” she asked.
Even in the vehicle’s gloom, a crimson tide washed over Robert’s face from
the neck up. He grew angry when Cassie had warned him as they left Ottawa
that she intended to speak with Julian. She had considered it for weeks but
wanted to be sure. Tonight was the night, but had she miscalculated by
revealing her suspicions about the man to Robert? She told him she planned
to expose Julian as a fraud and demanded a face-to-face meeting with him.
Robert wouldn’t have any of it. His eyes narrowed, and his voice sounded
flat and threatening.
“You’re making a big mistake. Why can’t you let it go? Julian has given so
many people hope and will ultimately save them from what’s coming. You can
be one of the saved ones. I’m begging you not to do this.”
Cassie’s frustration mounted. She realized she didn’t know Robert as well
as she had thought. “Save them from what? A comet that’s going to miss earth
by millions of miles? All people have to do is follow the science to realize
it’s all BS. How many people have died because he told them vaccines
implanted microchips in their bloodstreams? How many more people will he
kill because of his stupid ideas? Besides, I’m confident the name he uses is
fake. I think I know who he is, and if I’m right, he’s nothing but a
charlatan.”
“You signed an NDA,” Robert growled.
“So what? It’s worth nothing if Julian is doing something illegal. At the
very least, he’s doing something unethical. The NDA means nothing.”
The rest of the ride passed in stony silence until they arrived at their
destination, where cars sat scattered like marbles in the farmyard and into
the adjoining field. The recent heavy rain left the ground spongy, so stones
picked up by the tires ticked against the undercarriage of the car as they
skidded through the mud to a vacant spot. They entered a dilapidated barn,
but the outside appearance foretold nothing about the interior. A red carpet
on natural stone tiles ushered the attendees inside. Chandeliers hung on
long wires from the roof. Spinning ceiling fans cooled the room, and rows of
occupied oak benches faced the front, where a red velvet curtain separated a
raised stage from the gathering waiting patiently for something to
happen.
Cassie and Robert asked a couple to squeeze together, so they could sit in
the only space available. The couple nodded but stared straight ahead as
they shoved over without a word. As usual, an unnerving silence hung in the
room. At precisely seven o’clock, the lights dimmed, and the silence
shattered like glass hit by a boulder, as raucous rock music blared from two
enormous black meshed speakers on either side of a raised stage. The
performance was about to begin. Theatrical fog streamed from machines under
the stage, obscuring the front of the room. The bench vibrated under Cassie
from the music’s thundering bass, and the crowd stirred. Cassie did an
inward eye roll at the spectacle.
The front of the raised platform remained dark, save for one strategically
placed brilliant spotlight that created an eerie shimmering glow in the
remaining dry ice cloud at the center of the stage. The music stopped, and
the crowd quieted until the man of the hour magically appeared and started
speaking. His sonorous voice soothed the masses. It surprised Cassie when
Robert wandered away for a few minutes.
Perhaps he went to the bathroom, Cassie thought.
She examined the faces staring at the front of the room. They hung on every
word, enraptured by the man speaking. But something about the man had always
bothered her. She listened closely again, as she had done for a few weeks.
The face didn’t match the familiar voice, yet she knew this man. She
recalled her shock when she had recognized something at one assembly as his
sleeve inadvertently rode up on his arm. It confirmed her suspicions.
When Robert returned, Cassie stared at the man on stage, even though his
gloomy dissertation barely registered. As he wound down, she glanced again
at the attendees. Some closed their eyes, others wrung their hands, while
still others raised their arms to the ceiling, their lips silently
acknowledging every wonderful word Julian spoke. While she didn’t consider
herself an expert by any means, she understood people brought together by
anxiety and lack of trust could be led to a common goal, almost like
hypnosis. That’s what was happening here. Robert interrupted her reverie
when he reached for her hand and squeezed it, until she pulled away from his
painful grip.
The room became stifling hot. Some attendees appeared to be on the verge of
fainting. Young women passed through the crowd offering bottled water at
seven dollars a pop. Then, Julian masterfully lowered his voice to a medium
level, saving the best for last.
“We can all be saved if you will continue to support building the
underground bunker here on our farm. You will be the ones to carry forth a
civilization that can start over and make things right. We need young people
to ensure civilization continues. We need older people who lived their lives
when things were good to teach the young people.” Then, with his voice
barely above a whisper, he said, “You are the chosen few. Give everything
you can. We don’t have a lot of time, folks. God has spoken to me directly
and Doomsday is coming. We’ll have another meeting on Sunday to discuss it
more. We can all be saved if you give generously. An underground bunker will
keep us safe from the catastrophic event that will end the world as we know
it.”
The crowd murmured, and some shouts echoed through the enclosed space. The
same young women who sold the extravagant bottled water passed through the
audience again, and the sound of whirring credit and debit card machines
filled the air as attendees poured their life savings into Julian’s words.
When a pretty teenager of about seventeen arrived in front of Cassie and
Robert, Cassie shook her head, which caused the teenager to frown.
“Don’t you want to be saved?” she breathed.
Cassie replied, “Save yourself by getting out of here.” The girl gasped and
moved on.
When the spectacle ended, and the crowd filed out of the building, Cassie
turned to Robert and said, “I’ve had enough. I’m going backstage to confront
this fraud.”
Robert’s chest heaved with a heavy sigh. “Wait,” he intoned. He sat
expressionless with his arms crossed as the last of the crowd made their way
through the exit. Cassie glanced around, thinking that only the two of them
remained. She didn’t see Robert motion to someone behind them. He said icily
to Cassie, “I’ll tell him you want to meet with him. You wait here.”
As Robert stalked away, Cassie sensed movement behind her. Before she had a
chance to turn, a sharp pain shot through her neck. Everything became fuzzy
in an instant. The room blurred as it closed in on her. She grabbed at her
gasping throat, desperately trying to draw a breath. She reached out to hold
on to something, anything, to stabilize herself, but her hand grabbed at
empty air. Her legs buckled. It was as if a hole opened in the floor, and
she couldn’t prevent her boneless body from sliding in.
For Cassie Wright, everything faded to black.
About Barry Finlay:
In 2009, Barry Finlay went up a mountain as an accountant and came down as
a philanthropist. After over thirty years in various financial roles with
the Canadian federal government, he took his life in a different direction
and climbed Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro at age 60 with his son Chris. The
climb and their fundraising efforts to help kids in Tanzania changed his
life in a number of ways, including the start of his writing journey. He
wrote his first book, the popular Kilimanjaro and Beyond: A Life-Changing
Journey with his son in 2014.
He followed that up with the hilarious travel memoir, I Guess We Missed The Boat, and then The Marcie Kane Thriller Collection was born. Barry completed his debut fiction book, and the first in the series, The Vanishing Wife, in 2014. His next novel, A Perilous Question, was released in May 2016. His political thriller, Remote Access, was released in April 2018. That was followed by a novella, Never So Alone, in May 2019. The fifth book in the Marcie Kane Thriller Collection, The Burden of Darkness, was released in May 2020.
Each of the thrillers has a socially relevant theme, and has achieved Kindle bestseller status.
Now, he's introducing a new character named Jake Scott in what will undoubtedly be a new mystery series. The first in the series, Searching For Truth, was released in 2021.
Barry's books have received multiple literary awards and he was named to the Authors Show's list of "50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading" in 2012. In 2013, he received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee medal for his philanthropic work in Africa. He lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife Evelyn.
Sign up for Barry's newsletter at his website and receive a free download of An Interview With Marcie Kane.
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Giveaway Details:
2 winners will receive an eBook of THE GUARDIANS OF TRUTH, International.
Ends November 29th, midnight EST.
0 Comments
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