39 Winks with Maggie O'Malley

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Please welcome Kathleen Valenti, author of 39 Winks. Leave a comment below, or visit her links and say hello!

Medical Mystery/Thriller
2nd in Series
Henery Press (May 22, 2018)
Print Length 298 Pages
Digital ASIN: B07B9M3VZ7

You know how people say “Go with your gut”? I think they’re dead wrong. I’m all about going with my brain. Trusting my intellect. Employing the scientific method I’ve leaned on my whole life to solve problems and find answers.

And yet…

Recently my gut has become my most trusted barometer. I feel an inner plunge when I hear bad news. Feel its contents rise with regret. Sense when the seeds of doubt drop one by one deep into my belly, growing fat and rangy and poisonous on fear that the worst is about to happen. And that’s what my gut has become. An incubator of doubt and fear. It’s like a tiny science experiment. I feel the poisonous seeds drop and sprout. Then I wait to see if they’ll bear fruit. That’s what we’re doing now, my gut and I. We’re waiting to see if my suspicions about Howard’s murder are right. Because the terrible act that ended his life didn’t just release a torrent of platelets and white blood cells. It also let loose a flood of lies. My gut sussed that out, outpacing my brain, which struggled to make sense of everything I learned and all that I refused to believe. Now I have information, the data scientists like me so revere, but no actual answers.

Just more doubt. More fear. More fodder for my gut to churn.

I’m taking a little field trip today. I’m going without Constantine. I’ve dragged my best friend on enough misadventures. So I’m girding my loins and following my gut. Part of me feels like I’m a fool headed into the lion’s den. But a bigger part of me feels a sense of liberation, a chance to silence the voice of reason that has been both guide and prisoner.

I just hope my gut knows what it’s getting me into.

Former pharmaceutical researcher Maggie O’Malley is losing sleep. Her boyfriend Constantine’s aunt is a multitasking sleepwalker who, in addition to wandering her stately home, prepares meals, folds laundry and, one winter night, stumbles across her husband with his throat slit. It’s a rude and gruesome awakening that’s upsetting to Aunt Polly. And interesting to the police. Maggie and Constantine work to uncover who killed the cosmetic surgery mogul and why. As they dig into the lives of those who knew him best, they discover that the truth is only skin deep and doctoring perception is a treatment with deadly side effects. A gripping page-turner with more twists than a surgeon’s suture, 39 Winks is a tale of lies, betrayals and greed that will keep you up at night. And looking over your shoulder.

When Kathleen Valenti isn’t writing page-turning mysteries that combine humor and suspense, she works as a nationally award-winning advertising copywriter. 39 Winks is the second of the Maggie O’Malley mystery series and follows her debut mystery, Protocol. Kathleen lives in Oregon with her family where she pretends to enjoy running.