On a glorious sunlit afternoon in New York City, I prepared for my wedding, exuberant with the promise of a future with Nas Zia, the man of my dreams. My heart racing unbridled, the emotions slicing through me were overwhelming. Flickering images of times spent with Nas spooled past my mind’s eye like frames of celluloid movie film. It should’ve been a day like no other. Instead it was an unimaginable nightmare.
I should’ve been on a tropical beach with sand between my toes and a cocktail in my hand. We should’ve been dancing to the point of exhaustion or taking a moonlight stroll along the water’s edge. But what should’ve been never came to be. Instead, I was in the tomb-like office of Dan Ohana, a retired intelligence officer turned private investigator. Chaperoned by my father, Ohana interrogated me like an enemy of the state, asking questions so intrusive and humiliating that I wished for a sudden death. But I couldn’t carry the burden any longer. Not alone. I needed help and if this is what help looked and felt like, so be it. I had to know why Nas had abandoned me on the day we were to marry, why he vanished into thin air as if at the snap of a magician’s fingers.
And so I endured. “Did you have any sense that he was insincere? Did you have any suspicions that he might…?” No. No. No. “How often were you intimate? Did you think he was dissatisfied sexually?” Again, no. Sex was great, and we went at it every chance we could. Answers to questions no one had the right to ask. And all the while, my father sat there, listening and dying inside. It was as if we stood side-by-side before a firing squad, our bodies riddled by bullets.
And all I wanted. All I ever wanted was Nas, to have and to hold until… I had been warned but never heeded my father’s advice. “This will never work. Get out now before it’s too late.” But every warning made me want Nas all the more. He was the forbidden fruit I hungered for. And so it began. Abandoned at the altar, the path before me was to navigate a crosscurrent of deadly secrets and deception to learn the truth behind the devastating betrayal.
Beyond The Veil
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: October 2024
Format: Digital (Print to follow)
Purchase Link
He picked the wrong woman to betray.
On a glorious sunlit afternoon in New York City, Gwen Winter prepares for her wedding, exuberant with the promise of her future with Nas Zia, the man of her dreams.
Her heart races unbridled, outpaced only by the overwhelming emotions slicing through her. Flickering images of times spent with Nas spool past her mind’s eye like frames of celluloid movie film. Outside, a church bell clangs, hammering away at Gwen’s veneer until it shatters and all the warnings she’d refused to accept come crashing down around her. Nas is everything she’s ever wanted and at the same time everything she’s been told she can never have. A final knell rips through her proclaiming that she’s been forsaken and what was supposed to be the best day of her life is no more than a ghastly farce.
Abandoned at the altar, Gwen must navigate a crosscurrent of deadly secrets and deception to learn the truth behind the devastating betrayal.
About the author
Lawrence Kelter hails from New York but now calls North Carolina his home. He is the bestselling author of more than twenty-five mystery and thriller novels including the Stephanie Chalice Mystery Series that has topped bestseller lists in the US, UK, and Australia. In 2017 he penned BACK TO BROOKLYN, the studio-authorized sequel to the cult comedy classic “My Cousin Vinny.”
His novels are quickly paced and crammed full of twists, turns, and laughs.