To Catch A Bad Guy Excerpt Tour

To Catch a Bad Guy

by Marie Astor

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BLURB:

Janet Maple is convinced that her life could not get any worse: her stellar career at the DA’s office ended with a lay off and her boyfriend of five years told her that he wants to be just friends. When she lands a job at one of New York’s premier boutique investment firms, Janet begins to hope that her luck is finally turning for the better. Not only is she happy with her new paycheck, but things also seem to be looking up on the personal front, as the company’s handsome attorney expresses keen interest in Janet. However, her euphoria is short-lived, as Janet soon discovers alarming facts about her new employer’s business tactics. When her boss dismisses her suspicions as groundless, Janet finds herself confiding to a cute IT engineer, Dean Snider. The closer she gets to Dean, the more Janet is tempted to break her rule of not dating co-workers, but what she doesn’t realize is that everything she knows about Dean, including his occupation and even his name, is a lie.

Dennis Walker is a top-notch white collar crime investigator who will stop at nothing to put culprits away. When an opportunity for an undercover assignment at one of New York’s premier boutique broker dealers comes up, Dennis jumps at the chance, adopting a persona of geeky IT engineer, Dean Snider. While he may be an ace at his job, years of experience fail him when Dennis meets Janet Maple and finds himself torn between his professional obligations and his personal desires. Will he have to choose between his feelings and duty, or will he find a way to satisfy both?

On Monday morning Janet sat in her office, tallying up the results of the weekend, which even taking her most humiliating adolescent memories into account had been the most embarrassing weekend of her life. Blankly staring into her computer screen, Janet compiled a mental list of all the indignities she had endured in the past two days: attending an engagement party as the only single guest under the age of fifty – check, being harassed by your friend’s mother regarding your appearance – check, being badgered by the same friend’s relatives about your personal life – check, and last, but by far not the least, becoming an unwitting object of lust of a formerly puny, sex-obsessed teenage pest, who had turned into a much better looking, but still equally sex-obsessed man.

“Am I interrupting anything?” Lisa sauntered into Janet’s office.

“Oh, no, I was just looking through some regulatory updates.” Janet mastered a vague enough excuse.

Lisa rolled her eyes, indicating that such a subject was not worthy of her interest. “Janie, I’m so sorry about the party. What a jerk Andrew turned out to be! I meant to call you on Sunday, but Paul and I were busy looking at catering venues.”

“How did you hear about what happened with Andrew?”

“The prick had the nerve to complain to me about it. He got all upset about me dragging him out for nothing. Apparently, my engagement is not worthy of his attention; he also had to score with you.”

Janet’s irritation spiked. Lisa’s narcissism was unending. Never mind that courtesy of Lisa, Janet had been pawed by Lisa’s sleazoid cousin in the middle of nowhere; in the end, Lisa was still the victim.

“What exactly did you tell Andrew about me, Lisa?”

Lisa fiddled with her blazer. “Oh, nothing much. That you were going to be at my party…”

“Are you sure? Then how come he knew about me being single? He also used the word ‘desperate.’”

“Oh, I might have mentioned that you were single, but I never said a word about desperation. Clearly, you have no reason to be desperate.”

There it was again: Lisa’s old trick of switching the tables on you, but this time Janet was not budging. “Do me a favor, Lisa, stop setting me up on dates.”

“Not to worry. Your personal life is now solely in your capable hands. Rest assured, there will be no interference from poor, sloppy me.” Lisa cocked her head as she began to slowly exit Janet’s office.

Janet guessed from Lisa’s measured walk that she was awaiting an apology, but remained silent. Her boss or not, there was a limit as to how much humiliation one person was allowed to inflict upon another.

Lisa stopped short before exiting through the door, and Janet’s heart lurched. Could it be that Lisa was going to apologize? That would be an unprecedented occurrence worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records.

“Oh, and I almost forgot, I’m going to look at wedding dresses next weekend. I expect you to be there.”

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Marie Astor is the author of contemporary romance novels Lucky Charm, On the Rim of Love, This Tangled Thing Called Love, romantic suspense novel, To Catch a Bad Guy, and a short story collection, A Dress in a Window.

If you would like to find out more about Marie’s books, please visit Marie at her website: www.marieastor.com.

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Marie-Astor/e/B004EBDX9Q/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marieastorcollection

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4665230.Marie_Astor

Books by Marie Astor:

To Catch a Bad Guy: http://www.amazon.com/To-Catch-Bad-Guy-ebook/dp/B008W1L5IA/ref=la_B004EBDX9Q_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1344820115&sr=1-5

This Tangled Thing Called Love: http://www.amazon.com/This-Tangled-Thing-Called-ebook/dp/B0078IPNCW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344820073&sr=8-1&keywords=marie+astor

Lucky Charm: http://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Charm-Contemporary-Romance-ebook/dp/B005BZL3L4/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

On the Rim of Love: http://www.amazon.com/On-Rim-Love-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B005TOWI7K/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3

Marie will be giving away five prizes of custom made jewelry to randomly drawn commenters during the tour(Continental US only):

Prize 1: Agate and labradorite necklace with sterling silver accents
Prize 2: Smoky Quartz sterling silver plated necklace
Prize 3: Multi-quartz sterling silver plated necklace
Prize 4: Gray quartz, carnelian and onyx sterling silver plated necklace
Prize 5: Aventurine necklace with sterling silver plated accents