✍The First Page: Hush Hush City by Jo Denning

 


Hush Hush City

by Jo Denning

Fantasy Romance

Cruel Prince meets Law & Order in Hush Hush City, the thrilling sequel to Dead Blood City and second installment in the Saoirse Reilly series! Saoirse Reilly, police detective and wayward psychic, is still reeling from the events of Dead Blood City. Her lies are piling up but there’s no time to deal. She and her loved ones are in danger once again. While investigating the murder of a Boston blueblood, Reilly is drawn into a supernatural power struggle centuries in the making. 

Ancient monsters are prowling the streets and Domenico Alderisi, newly installed vrykolakas master, needs Reilly’s help securing his territory – which just so happens to be her hometown. Alderisi, once her enemy, may be the only one who can save the city. But he has his own agenda and a taste for Reilly’s blood. The only way for Reilly to protect all she holds dear may be to rely on her two-faced teacher, Dr. Emrys Somerled. The criminal psychologist and occult expert is something more than human. If anyone can take on monsters, it’s him. And he’d like to get closer to Reilly than ever before. There’s just one problem. Somerled is keeping secrets, too, and there’s nothing more dangerous. After all…

Stepping out of the silence is scary but secrets can kill.

Will Reilly escape the web of death and deception?

Find out in this urban fantasy meets gritty noir detective novel featuring imperfect heroes and slow burn dark romance with beautiful monsters who can’t be trusted.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/41Z1UUq

 


 
                     




“Up, all you Austmen, and help me!”
Tyr raced through the narrow streets of Dyflin, and Death followed with him. His
sweat-soaked hair obscured his vision. Limbs oft praised for their might failed him.
There were few more pitiful sights than a fallen úlfheðnar, save one dogged by a monster.
He fell upon the first door he saw. “Please!”
Shifting bodies could be heard inside but the door did not budge.
His father had warned him, in a fashion, of what punishment awaited. Of the Noble
Virtues, he said truth was second only to courage. But Tyr had spat lie after lie since taking the
cursed cup for himself.
Now, a revenant had risen from its burial mound across the sea to recover its hoard of silver.
In the way of his people, none would answer his pleas. The Austmen were a brave people. It
was not fear that stilled their hands. Rather, they had accepted the judgment of their gods.
Tyr pushed off the door and flew to the next. Meanwhile, the draugr drew closer—a
fearsome giant with skin the lurid blue of death and eyes like foxfire. The scent of deathrot
emanated from the lumbering corpse, filling Tyr’s lungs.
As the draugr advanced, the icy winds swirling about it froze Tyr in place. He expected his
heart to burst long before its fangs sank into him.
The monster let out a sudden roar of pain.
Flame lit up the night sky, sparking on the rags hanging from the creature’s arms.
As it stumbled backward, Tyr was released from his trance.
“Run!”
A solid body crashed into him. Tyr’s blood brother was named Caldar, a tall, broad man
with sunset red hair.
“What Hell have you wrought upon us?” Caldar shifted the torch he’d used to burn the
draugr, illuminating his frenzied face.
“Brother, you—”
“We must make for the graveyard,” Caldar hissed, accustomed as he was to disentangling his
younger brother from mad schemes.




Jo Denning is the author of the Saoirse Reilly series. She has spent her career as a behavioral health therapist supporting kids and teens who struggle with addiction. Jo began writing supernatural crime thrillers as a way of processing the traumatic things she has seen and heard. Her characters may be supernatural but their stories, their fear, and their pain are real. So, too, are the triumphs over impossible odds.

When she’s not writing, Jo enjoys baking, drawing, and watching trashy reality TV. She makes her home somewhere in the contiguous United States with her husband, one fluffy cat, and one barely domesticated cat.

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