CARNAL KNOWLEDGE by Rachael Tamayo | #Showcase #Interview #Giveaway
Carnal Knowledge
by Rachael Tamayo
on Tour July 11 – August 14, 2020
Synopsis:
What do you do when you know you’re on a serial killer’s hit list?
Six women are dead, and Wren Addison is the next victim on the SMS Killer’s list—or so she’s been told after waking in a pool of blood with no memory of the events that have transpired.
Newly separated and struggling to start her life over after her husband’s infidelity, Wren tries to remember what happened to her, but nothing is adding up as more horrors unfold around her. With her life on a timer and the murderer taunting her, she realizes there is nothing typical about this serial killer.
Wren is pushed to the edge as she dances between knowing she’s likely to die and fighting to be the first to survive. As the truth starts to emerge, she rises to the challenge and decides not to go down without a fight.
Someone is going to die, and she’s determined it won’t be her.
Book Details:
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Published by: Tangled Tree Publishing
Publication Date: July 11th 2020
Number of Pages: 301
ISBN: 9781922359124
Series: A Deadly Sins Novel, #2 || Stands Alone
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Author Bio:
International Amazon bestselling author Rachael Tamayo is a former 911 emergency operator and police dispatcher. After twelve years in those dark depths, she’s gained a unique insight into mental illness, human behaviour, and the general darkness of humanity that she likes to weave into her books. A formerly exclusive romance author tried her hand at thrillers in her award-winning novel, “Crazy Love,” and loved it so much that she decided not to turn back. Born and raised in Texas, Rachael lives in the Houston area with her husband of almost fifteen years, and their two young children.
Q&A with Rachael Tamayo
Welcome and thank you for stopping by CMash Reads
What was the inspiration for this book?
The seven deadly sins. I am striving to make each sin its own twisted tale, and hopefully a bit different than the reader would expect. Carnal Knowledge is a tale of lust, but nothing that you would ever expect.
Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
Well, considering that it’s about a serial killer, I can say it’s not about personal experience, ha! Just my knowledge of mental illness, police procedure, and the like. I pulled it all together into this book.
Are any of your characters based on people that you know?
No, I have never been brave enough to do that. I create people in my head and put them into their own world in the books. They are entirely fictional.
Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I can write anywhere the mood hits me. I don’t outline or plan, I just go when it hits me. I’ve been known to write on my phone in a doctors’ waiting room before. I’m not picky. I have a distinct ability to focus and tune out things when I need to, and I will use it to write if I have to, no matter where I am.
Tell us why we should read your book?
It’s dark and mysterious. It’s twisted, shocking, and it’s different. You will be surprised in the end, and you won’t see any of it coming.
Are you working on your next novel? If so, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Yes, book three in the series is about the sin of greed. It’s titled: Mine. Expect it out sometime next year, and it’s full of plot twists that will leave you with whiplash.
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Hendrix. I love it!
Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
I never know how to answer this one. I would love to hear readers answer this one for me.
Favorite leisure activity/hobby>?
I have two small kids, so I don’t get much down time. When I do, I like to lay in the sun, swim, have a glass of wine, or watch a movie with my family.
Favorite meal?
Either tacos with everything topped with salsa and sour cream, or a burger and fries (hold the pickles please!)
Either one and Im a happy camper. Of course, I also love it when my husband makes stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos, yum!
Catch Up With Rachael Tamayo:
RachaelTamayoWrites.com, Goodreads, BookBub, Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook!
Read an excerpt:
You really don’t know how you feel about some things until they happen to you. You can guess. You can pretend you’d be strong, that you’d stand on the rooftops and shout your indignation as you shake your fist to the skies, but those are only guesses. Hopes. What we think we know about ourselves. They say no one ever really knows anyone. I think it’d be a safe bet to say that we don’t really know ourselves either. You think you do. The “Oh, I’d never do that! Look at how she’s acting. If I were in her shoes….” but you don’t. No one does.
I said the same things to myself when I walked out on my husband, Ricky, months ago. Those thoughts went through my head as I closed the door behind me for what I told myself was the last time. I wouldn’t let myself cry as I said goodbye to him, only feeling the first tears fall when I heard the click behind me, the locking of the door to what used to be our home together. When he didn’t chase me and beg me to stay.
I wept in that moment, wondering how much pain a person could take.
Over the days that followed, it faded into something more akin to numbness as I found an apartment and got a new checking account. As I arranged to find movers to get my things while he was at work, all while thanking God that we had no children.
Now I find myself in that place once more, though for an altogether different reason. Something has happened to me, something that leaves my body sore and my head feeling as if I have a hangover. These are the moments that tell you who you really are, leaving you exposed to your own darkness.
I found that out about myself. No one ever imagines themselves in this position. You’re not prepared. No amount of self-defense can prepare you for the shock that is the next morning, waking up in a bloody mess, knowing you’ve been sexually assaulted.
I can’t even say it out loud. I won’t. I refuse to do it. It makes it real, and I don’t want it to be real. I want it to be some horrible nightmare that I can wake up from.
But it’s not.
It’s the middle of the night. I’m sitting on the floor of my shower, the water finally not running pink anymore. My face feels puffy from crying as I carefully wash the wounds, the soap burning. I wince and then stand up before the water turns cold. Sitting here won’t accomplish anything.
I look down at the mark on my left breast, swollen and purple. The definite outline of teeth, broken skin, tender to touch. It’s not the only place I’m hurting, but it’s the only one I can easily see. The only one I can’t really hide from. It’s a slap in the face, a calling card from someone I can’t remember. A face that won’t ever haunt my dreams.
So, what do I do now? It’s about 4:00 a.m. Do I call someone? The police? My friend Lily? My husband? Maybe Alex? Surely she would believe me.
I blink away tears, dipping my head back into the hot spray to wash the blood out of my hair.
No, I won’t tell anyone. It’s too embarrassing. Too humiliating. This big foreboding thing happened to me. What they warned us all about. My drink was tampered with, and someone hurt me. I broke the rules, and I got this for it.
I should have listened, I suppose.
I feel sick knowing what someone did to me while I was asleep. Or was I? Maybe I did fight and just can’t remember. I’d fight, surely. I wouldn’t just lie there and take it, right? The thought gives me some minimal sliver of peace, like passing through the eye of the hurricane—you know it’s not real, not the end, but you relish it just the same.
By the time I get out of the shower, I realize I haven’t really slept. My alarm will go off at seven for work so I can catch the bus and be on time for the morning meeting. I could get three hours of sleep before that, maybe.
I shut off the water, suddenly a bit afraid. Knowing someone was here gives me the creeps. Makes me wish I’d gotten that gun Ricky tried so hard to get me to agree to, the one I refused. I wouldn’t give in, fearing some horrible accident. He kept his locked up, and I never bothered to learn to shoot. He begged to teach me, tried to get me to hold his Glock to “get the feel of it.” Nope. Now I regret it.
In the months I’ve lived here, I haven’t been afraid to be on my own until now. Someone got to me. I’m without defense in my own home.
***
Excerpt from Carnal Knowledge by Rachael Tamayo. Copyright 2020 by Rachael Tamayo. Reproduced with permission from Tangled Tree Publishing. All rights reserved.
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Enter To Win!:
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Rachael Tamayo. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card. The giveaway begins on July 11, 2020 and runs through August 16, 2020. Void where prohibited.