Renee Miller
Excerpt:
Excerpts: In the Bones
Short:
“I don’t have no intention of being friends with you, Mr. Cassidy. You can save that cocky little grin for another female. One that falls for that sort of thing. I just wanted to say something, so it’s clear and we can go on about our lives without any trouble. You understand what I’m saying, Mr. Cassidy?” She spoke his name as though it tasted foul on her lips.
Well shit.
Audrey kept her face averted, focused on wiping her hands.
Back to the woman Ryan smiled again. “All right. I’m all ears.”
“I know your type and I don’t like it. I don’t like the problems you’re causing already. You think you can come in here and charm everyone with your baby face and that butter-won’t-melt smile, but you’re wrong. What was that bullshit at the meeting? Trouble, that’s what. Some of us have a brain in our head and we remember where you come from. Your mother was a conniving little slut and your father no better than a pedophile. White trash. That’s what you are. Melvin and Rachel used their money to gain respect. Cassidys always did feel they were better than anyone. I don’t care if your great granddaddy helped found this town; none of them were worth shit. Lord knows there was nothing about your parents that’s respectful. Weren’t even married.”
Audrey choked and sputtered. Grabbing her beer she swigged down half the bottle before she set it down. She still didn’t look at Ryan.
He raised an eyebrow at the woman, startled at the outburst. “I’m sorry you feel that way, ma’am. I’m afraid I can’t speak for my father or my grandparents as I didn’t know them and I have to give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they were all jackasses, I don’t know. But I can speak for my mother, and I’ll politely ask that you never let her name pass your lips again. I promise you won’t have to tolerate my cocky smile or charm if you do.”
Long:
The figure in the blue shit-box rifled around the passenger seat. Carroll shifted his feet. Mr. Cassidy should be eager to meet the elite of his new town, not pissing around. Good thing he had Fred bring the computers back yesterday. Carroll was almost blindsided by Melvin’s careful attention to details that would make his life difficult. Not only did the bastard include a list of his property but he also wrote out a list of files on the computer and laptop that he didn’t know Melvin had. Carroll had informed residents more than a year ago that Albertsville couldn’t get Internet, being too far out of the way for such things. How did Melvin of all people figure out the lie?
Carroll found the evidence, though, and it hadn’t been in any computer files. A plain white folder stuffed into the back of the grandfather clock, which was not included on Melvin’s list of property. Fucking Farley had bent the damn mechanism inside the clock while getting it out, but Carroll didn’t stress over that. This kid wouldn’t guess the clock had worked fine before Farley got his grubby hands on it. The files on the computer held nothing of significance. It annoyed Carroll that he’d wasted his time going through them.
The door opened and a tall, lanky figure emerged from the car. Carroll’s chest tightened and he pressed his lips to stop the profanity that leapt to the tip of his tongue. A ghost from his younger years stretched and smiled at him. Hate curled up and made itself comfortable in Carroll’s belly. Except for the tousled mane of sandy brown hair, Ryan Cassidy was the spitting image of his father and grandfather. The same sparkle that Carroll so hated in the elder Cassidys reflected in Ryan’s blue gaze, mocking him.
“Hello,” Ryan strode toward them.
His easy gait, so like Chad’s, sent Carroll’s stomach churning. The only man he’d ever envied had been Ryan’s father. Everything came to Chad naturally, everyone liked him, and he didn’t lift so much as a finger for their approval. Carroll had to work his ass off to get even a fraction of the respect they’d simply given to Chad. Christ, he never understood it. He had money, looks, and a first rate education. What did Chad have? Nothing. That damn shit-eating grin and those fucking eyes. He’d enjoyed every minute of Chad Cassidy’s death.
Review by Mallory Heart Reviews:
Review of In the Bones by Renee Millerex
5 stars
“In the Bones” is an exceptionally complex novel, one which
in the form of a multiple-mystery/suspense actually treats of many important
issues. A large cast of characters serves as backdrop to the setting, a tiny
and inexplicable town in rural Canada called “Albertsville,” a town of almost
no business and industry, yet of extraordinary, and well-shared, wealth. The
community is run by a “Reeve” (in medieval England that was the chief
administrator, often the Sheriff), who is elected, but is actually an inherited
position. The current psychopathic incumbent is one Carroll Albert, a man of
intrinsic and almost unlimited evil. That’s the evil end of the continuum,
along with Farley, and Calvin (who does have some human qualities, which Farley
doesn’t). The good is represented by a newcomer, Ryan Cassidy, who only moves
to Albertsville to fulfill the terms of this deceased paternal grandparents’
will, which requires him to live in the farmhouse for one year, in order to
inherit. With his mother and stepfather both deceased, Ryan decides to take
this opportunity, and perhaps finally write the novel he has been pondering.
Soon after his arrival, he decides that Albertsville is like its own soap opera
(I would say an evil Peyton Place), and plans to fictionalize it; but it’s
scarcely days before his life takes some really ugly turns, as Carroll Albert’s
paranoia has already deemed Ryan Cassidy a worse troublemaker than his late
father and grandparents.
“In the Bones” is a really well-written story, and very
suspenseful. Thank goodness for the character of Ryan Cassidy and his moral
integrity, because there’s very little of either in Albertsville. But Ryan is a
character for whom the reader feels enormous empathy.
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