Friday 56 & #BookBeginnings: Mortom (+ Giveaway!)

For Book Beginnings:
At first glance, Andy Crowl thought they had the wrong house: the property at 21 Abel Avenue looked as if it had been vacant for weeks, not days. Two garbage cans lay overturned by the mailbox, a nest of rolled-up newspapers had collected by the front steps, and the lawn was easily overgrown by a foot. Something that resembled a station wagon was parked in the gravel beside the driveway. All four wheels were missing and the front end had been stripped to the frame.

- the beginning

For Friday 56:

She met his eyes, trying to decide if he was being sincere or sarcastic. It would be easy enough to tell him what had occurred at the cemetery—or that she just met the Debbie mentioned in the letter—but what was the point? The last thing Andy needed was more ammunition for his stupid cause. Games and puzzles didn’t concern her, but family matters did. She had her own agenda now. If something had happened between Debbie’s grandpa and Craig, there was only one person in town she could talk to about it. 

- p. 56, PDF

Giveaway Time!

Synopsis of Mortom by Erik Therme: Mortom: population 986. On the outskirts of town, 33-year-old Craig Moore is found drowned in the lake. A loner and town eccentric, few attend the funeral.

One week later Andy Crowl arrives in Mortom, still stunned by his cousin’s death and equally confused why everything was left to him. The two hadn’t spoken in years and shared little outside of fierce childhood competition.

But Craig hardly did him a favor. The estate amounts to little more than a drained bank account and a property overridden with junk. When Andy finds a dead rat under the refrigerator with a key in its mouth, he thinks it’s some sort of sick joke. Then he finds the letter left by Craig, written two days before his death ... detailing the rules of “the game.”