Spotlight for Continuance by Marta Tandori

Join Marta Tandori, author of the suspense family saga novel, Continuance, as she tours the blogosphere  August 5 – September 27, 2013 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

Continuance

By Marta Tandori

Publisher:  Marta Tandori

Release Date: April 17, 2013

Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Family Saga

Length: 301 Pages

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Book Description:  

When seven-year-old Ethan du Maurier, only son and heir of New York City real estate tycoon, Alexander du Maurier, disappears during school recess, the FBI quickly determines that his disappearance was an abduction. Within hours of a special news bulletin airing nationwide, the FBI’s hotline is inundated with anonymous tips relating to sightings of a little boy matching Ethan’s description outside a historic Savannah building, now a newly-renovated eatery. The FBI quickly assembles a task force and searches the premises but instead of finding little Ethan, they stumble upon the century-old remains of what appears to be a murdered man hidden in a pirate’s tunnel under the historic building.

With her restaurant on temporary lockdown pending the FBI’s forensic investigation, owner Annie Eastwood researches the history of the building she inherited, hoping it will shed some light on the identity of the murdered man, but what she uncovers are bits and pieces of a horrible scandal that nearly destroyed the du Maurier family over a century ago. With hopes for Ethan’s safe return dwindling by the hour, Annie finds an unlikely lead in an old classified ad from a Boston newspaper which connects the events of the past to the present-day abduction of Ethan du Maurier—and to the identity of his abductor. Determined to rescue little Ethan before time runs out, Annie quickly realizes that the boy’s abductor will stop at nothing—even murder—in order to exact his revenge.

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Excerpt

Present Day

Seven-year-old Ethan du Maurier didn’t like arithmetic because adding and taking away numbers wasn’t any fun . You just had to add or take away some silly numbers and write down what you got. Not that he thought it was hard like his friend, Byron. Ethan just thought it was boring. He much preferred drawing dinosaurs to arithmetic. In fact, he loved everything about dinosaurs – how they looked, what they ate, where they used to live –everything. The Jurassic Park movies were his favorite and he wished there were actual dinosaurs still running around – not that he wanted them eating everybody – but at least he could have one of the smaller dinosaurs for a pet instead of a dog. Come to think of it, he’d be pretty happy with a dog. Maybe that was going to be his Big Surprise; bigger than his birthday and Christmas all rolled into one , he’d been told.

Thinking about the surprise got Ethan all excited again to the point where he couldn’t concentrate anymore on the dinosaur he was drawing on the back page of his arithmetic. Luckily, the bell rang just then and he was thefirst one out the door once he’d handed his arithmetic sheet to Mr. Stoops, his teacher. It was recess time and the hall was full of kids.

“Hey, Ethan!”

Ethan turned and saw Bryon running down the hall, trying to catch up to him. He waited for his friend impatiently.

“Wanna play tag?” Byron asked hopefully. “You can be “it”.” 

He and Ethan hung out every recess.

“No thanks,” Ethan replied. “Not today.”

“What do you want to do, then?” asked Byron, removing a half-eaten cookie from his pocket and shoving it into his mouth.

“I’m going home early today,” he lied. “My dad’ll be here soon.”

His friend looked disappointed. “Oh.” He gave Ethan a small wave. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, he took off down the hall and out the school doors to the yard outside.

Ethan also made his way down the hall but instead of going out the double doors, he turned right and quickly headed towards the storage room. Once there, he looked around to see if anyone was watching before trying the door. It was unlocked just like he had been told it would be. Ethan couldn’t hear any of the kids anymore and the silence was kind of making him nervous. Once his eyes got used to the dark room, he found the large blue bin with the number 3 written on the side exactly where it was supposed to be. Lifting the lid, Ethan carefully climbed in before closing the lid over his head. He had just enough room in it to sit down cross-legged. After a little while, he became drowsy and closed his eyes…

ABOUT MARTA TANDORI

By the time Marta Tandori reached fifth grade, she was an avid reader and writer with a stack of short stories collecting dust in a box under her bed but it wasn’t until she began studying acting in her early twenties at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York that Marta realized acting wasn’t really her passion – writing fiction was. What followed was years of writing workshops as well as correspondence courses in writing for children through the Institute of Children’s Literature in Connecticut. She credits the award winning author, Troon Harrison, as the instructor who helped her find her literary voice.

Marta’s first work of middle-grade fiction, BEING SAM, NO MATTER WHAT was published in 2005, followed by EVERY WHICH WAY BUT KUKU! in 2006. With her more recent endeavors, Marta has shifted her writing focus to “women’s suspense”, a genre she fondly describes as having “strong female protagonists with closets full of nasty skeletons and the odd murder or two to complicate their already complicated lives”. To learn more about Marta, visit her blog, The Marta/Kindle Project at http://www.martatandori.com.

Visit her website at http://www.martatandori.com

My Review

A well crafted mix of genre, Continuance by Marta Tandori, is a combination of mystery, romantic suspense and family saga.  Well developed characters, good dialogue and just the right amount of romance kept me turning the pages to discover what was going to happen next.  Moving between the present and the past, Ms. Tandori’s book is a clear example that sometimes the sins of the past can influence our present.

When seven year old Ethan du Maurier, the only child of Alexander du Maurier, a New York real estate tycoon, disappears the FBI naturally assumes he’s been kidnapped and is being held for ransom.  No one dreams that Ethan’s kidnapping could have anything to do with the past – they all think it’s a part of the present.  When anonymous clues lead the investigators to Savannah, Alexander du Maurier realizes he’ll have to face his family’s past in order to rescue his son.

Renovating and turning the historic building she inherited into a restaurant was a dream come true for Annie Eastwood.  At least until the FBI declared her building the scene of a crime and closed her business to investigate how it could be tied to the disappearance of a seven year old boy.  Determined to get to the bottom things, Annie becomes involved in the investigation and discovers a tie between the Du Maurier family’s past, an old classified ad in a Boston newspaper and Ethan’s current day abduction.

Ms. Tandori does a really good job developing both Alexander and Annie’s characters; both determined to locate Ethan, it soon becomes apparent they have really good chemistry.  While neither was looking for a romance, an unlikely romance does develop, which adds a nice touch to the story as we discover about Alexander’s family’s past.  A past filled with darkness and tied to America’s immigrant past.

Will Annie and Alexander be able to locate Ethan before it’s too late?  Will Alexander be able to face everything they discover about his family’s dark past?  You’ll have to read Continuance to find out.  I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of Ms. Tandori’s work.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Crowns

FTC Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review as a part of a book tour.  I did not receive any additional compensation for my opinion of the reading material provided.

Continuance Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

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Monday, August 5 – Book review and 1st chapter reveal at Miki’s Hope

Wednesday, August 7 – Guest blogging at From the TBR Pile

Thursday, August 8 – Book reviewed at Kaisy Daisy’s Corner

Monday, August 12 – Guest blogging and 1st chapter reveal at Inside BJ’s Head

Tuesday, August 13 – Book review and Guest blogging at Queen of All She Reads

Thursday, August 15 – Interviewed at Review From Here

Monday, August 19 – Book reviewed at Love Books! Book Reviews

Monday, August 19 – Guest blogging and 1st chapter reveal at Cindy’s Love of Books

Tuesday, August 20 – Book featured at Beyond the Books

Wednesday, August 21 – Book  featured at My Cozie Corner

Friday, August 23 – Interviewed at Book Marketing Buzz

Monday, August 26 – Book featured at My Devotional Thoughts

Tuesday, August 27 – Guest blogging at The Writer’s Life

Thursday, August 29 – 1st chapter reveal at Read 2 Review

Friday, August 30 – Interviewed at Broowaha