Here I am, back on Long Island where I swore I’d never return, driving out to Montauk. I left three years ago to get away from my bossy aunts who raised me and tried to micromanage every aspect of my life. So after I graduated from college, I moved to Upstate New York and have been managing perfectly well on my own. I got a job at a magazine, fell in love and married the most wonderful guy.

Terry adores me. I love being married to him, although it bothers me that he takes off every so often. He says it’s business, so I don’t ask any questions. And I haven’t seen him or heard from him in days. Then those two thugs came to our apartment and told me Terry was gambling and owed their boss a lot of money. It was time to face facts and do something to help my husband. Helping meant getting money to pay off his debt, and that meant going home to Manordale, Long Island.

This morning I stopped by the office of Sherman Hartley, our family lawyer and my deceased father’s best friend. Unbeknownst to my aunts, Sherman has been sending me small monthly checks from my parents’ trust. I told Sherman I needed twenty thousand dollars, the amount of money Terry owes. I was surprised when Sherman told me he’ll gladly give me the money, but only after I turn twenty-five in fifteen days. Because on that day I will inherit several million dollars.

I was both shocked and thrilled to learn this, but my main concern was getting the money to pay off Terry’s debt ASAP. But Sherman refused to budge. Which is why I’m on my way to Montauk to see my old friend, Jason Hartley, Sherman’s son. I know that Jason inherited a lot of money when his mother died. Surely, he will loan me the money, especially since I can pay him back in two weeks’ time.

Finally, Terry calls me! I give him directions to my Montauk cottage, thrilled that I’ll be seeing him tonight. After all this turmoil, I’m certain everything will work out.

Why is that car riding on my tail? There’s no traffic on the road. I slow down. He slows down. And now the driver’s pulling up beside me, edging me off the road, practically into the bushes. The driver’s wearing a Darth Vader mask. There’s a pistol in his hand. Now the passenger window is rolling down. Terrified, I step on the gas and pull ahead just as a shot rings out.

Am I hit? No. I speed ahead, but the car is back on my tail. I see a narrow road on my right and spin the wheel to make the turn. I drive along the bumpy surface that’s little more than a path that leads to a cabin. A woman is hanging clothes on a line. We stare at each other. Surely whoever is after me won’t come and kill me in front of a witness.

I hear the car move on. I’ll wait a bit before I turn around and continue on to Montauk. I’m safe, at least for now.

Come Home to Death
Genre: Suspense
Release: April 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Erica Parker has barely been a bride nine months when two thugs show up at her apartment while her husband is away on one of his infamous business trips, claiming he owes their boss a large gambling debt. Frightened for her life, and without any other options, she heads for her childhood Long Island home she escaped three years ago. And swore never to return.

The aunts who raised her are as interfering and controlling as ever, but soon as the family attorney advances the rest of her trust from her parents’ life insurance, she can return to normalcy. Except he refuses, instead spouting nonsense about how, if she waits, she will soon inherit millions. On her twenty-fifth birthday.

Problem is, someone doesn’t want her to live that long.

Her aunts are harboring secrets, people are turning up dead, her husband is nowhere to be found, and someone’s trying to kill her. It appears you can go home again, but sometimes, you shouldn’t.

Tropes: coming home, lies, on the run, damsel in distress, no one to trust, secret heir

About the author
A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, romantic suspense and novels for kids. Her books have received many accolades. As Allison Brook she writes the Haunted Library series. Death Overdue, the first in the series, was an Agatha nominee for Best Contemporary Novel in 2018. Booked on Murder, the eighth book in the series, will be published in August, 2024. Other mysteries include the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series, and the Twin Lakes series. Her romantic suspense, Come Home to Death, was released April 30, 2024, and her romantic suspense, Dangerous Relations, will be republished in 2025.

Marilyn’s juvenile novel, Rufus and Magic Run Amok, was an International Reading Association-Children’s Book Council Children’s Choice and has recently come out in a new edition. And Don’t Bring Jeremy was a nominee for six state awards. Her YA horror, The Devil’s Pawn, came out in a new edition in January, 2024.

Marilyn lives on Long Island, where many of her books take place. She loves traveling, reading, doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku, chatting on FaceTime with her grandkids and playing with her kittens, Romeo and Juliet.

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