Title: The
Dreamer of Downing Street
Author: Roberta L. Smith
Series: The Mickey McCoy Series (Prequel)
Genre: Paranormal/Mystery/Romance/Historical
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: Aug 23 2014
Edition/Formats Available In: eBook & Print
Blurb/Synopsis:
In 1944 Denver,
twenty-six year-old Franklin Powell is doing what he does best, helping clients
with his psychic gift. Then his brother causes the past to come crashing into the
present and a memory Frank has kept buried since the age of six surfaces. Now
his life is in an uproar. He must prove that what he remembers is true or his
mother may spend the rest of her life in prison. But even if he succeeds, it
appears there is a powerful someone behind the scenes who could care less if
she is innocent. Why? Because of a seething hatred for Frank. To make matters
worse, the woman he loves needs his help with a serious problem of her own—a
problem that could get him killed. Frank can’t let that stop him. He dives
right in and while his psychic gift doesn’t seem to be doing him any favors,
it’s a good thing that a couple of newly-acquired ghosts appear to be on his
side.
~ * ~
Excerpt:
Prologue
Leadville, Colorado - 1924
I COULD FEEL Mother’s anxiety the moment
she took my hand to pull me out of the canvas top touring car. I landed with a
squishy sound as my boots hit the sloshy ground and I righted myself. The sight
before me was forlorn to say the least: a couple of cabins―shacks really―a
privy, shed and the hoist frame of a mine shaft no longer in use, all dusted
with snow. It was spring, but just barely. And it was cold.
“You’ll be all right with the boy,” our
driver called to my mother from his seat inside the car, arm outside the
window, finger pointed. “Just remember what I told you. Call her Mrs. Tabor.
She don’t like when people address her as Baby Doe. Show her respect. If she
opens the door with a shotgun in her hand, just talk real nice. She guards the
Matchless like a rabid dog and don’t trust people much. I ain’t sayin’ I blame
her, just that’s how she be.”
Mother nodded and started toward one of the
cabins, my hand in hers. I nearly cried out that she was hurting me, her grip
was that tight. But I thought better of it. A tongue lashing would most likely
result and that would be more painful. I stuck my free hand in the right-hand
pocket of my coat and grabbed hold of one of the toy cars I kept there.
My heart beat rapidly. I was anxious, too.
Not because of where we were or who we were about to meet. I was concerned for
Mother because I’d never seen her in such a state. She paused for a moment and
took several deep breaths as she stared at the small, one-room shack ahead of
us. It cast a friendless feel out here on the hill amid the other wooden
structures that were all part of the derelict mine. Constructed of planks that
had weathered many winters, it wasn’t exactly ramshackle, but it was close. Not
that I would have thought of that word at the time. I was six.
After a few more steps, my anxiety left me
and the happiness I felt at being on a trip with Mother—just me, not my older
brother Bobby nor my older sister Jane, just me—took hold. My siblings got most
of Mother’s attention at home. With only me in tow, I would be foremost in her
mind.
I looked at the front door of the cabin and
“knowings” hopped into my head. Back then, that’s what I called the psychic
thoughts that came to me. I knew we were about to meet an old woman who had
been beautiful at one time. So beautiful that other people had been jealous. I
knew that she was hated and that she lived alone.
I
will just have a talk with that woman. So what if she’s peculiar, if they say
she’s lost her marbles . . .
I glanced up at Mother. “Here, Mama,” I
said, offering her a fistful of aggies and cat’s-eyes I kept stashed in my
pocket along with the cars.
“What?” Her brows knit together as she
looked at the contents of my hand.
“You said she lost her marbles. She can
have these.”
Immediately my mother’s face turned to
granite. I’d responded to something I thought
she’d said aloud. “Why do you like to torment me?” There was a frantic
undercurrent to her tone and the lines around her mouth deepened.
My heart seemed to freeze as it always did
when I said something wrong and she glared at me with disapproval. La-la-la-laa. La. La . . .
I sang in my head to block any more of her self-talk.
Mother took another step and the front door
creaked open a few inches.
“Stop!” a sharp, clear voice rang out.
“What do you want? Who’s that boy with you?”
Mother stalled. The word “ostracized” came
to me. My brain changed the word to “ostrich-size” which made me think the
woman we were about to meet was big like an ostrich.
Mother’s voice cracked when she spoke.
“This is my son, Franklin.”
The door opened farther and my jaw dropped.
We were in the presence of the old woman I had seen last night amid one of the
strangest experiences that had ever happened to me.
~ * ~
Roberta L. Smith was born and raised in
Southern California. She is a graduate
of the University of Redlands and lives in the High Desert with her
husband. She is an active member of the
High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club. Roberta had always been intrigued by the
unexplained. Her favorite stories
growing up involved ghosts and sometimes the macabre. As a child, she wrote a
letter to Boris Karloff telling him she knew he didn’t mean to kill the little
girl in “Frankenstein,” so it’s no surprise that the four novels she has
published thus far are in the paranormal genre.
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Author Links
Blog
Goodreads
Website
Authors
Other Works
The Mickey McCoy Paranormal
Mystery Series
The
Dreamer of Downing Street Prequel
The
Accordo #3
One of Life’s Distorted Moments
In
His Shoes and The Miracle #2 & #3 {2 in 1 Book}
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