#BlogTour #Extract: Wicked Girl by I. V Olokital @OlokitaI @damppebbles #WickedGirl #damppebblestours

Book Synopsis:

“Even if a dog goes mad, it will always be a dog.” 

So said a small white sign hung on a wall in Birmingham Mental Institution Ward number 3. It had a black frame, written in a hand they were all well acquainted with. The letters had faded over time. In the end, among all the calligraphy in the frame, one could detect a blurred signature. It was mine.

John Wilcox is a young idler who loathes people except for young women. His destiny brought him near Birmingham Mental Institution during an earthquake. At that time Wilcox saves Elsie, an eccentric, half-deranged teenager. John pulls out every manipulation at his disposal to convince her that he is the right person to help her recover. Grey, Alessi’s father, goes on a quest for his lost daughter. She, too, like her mother, was trying to escape him. And so, began the tragic story between prey, and it’s supposed predator.

Wicked Girl is a psychological crime fiction, where a sequence of accidents generates cold-blooded, and blood-curdling actions. It is a fascinating combination of romance, tension, and humor, unpredictable to the very end. Presented in a clear, straightforward way, yet its plot is packed with wit, action, and surprises grabbing the reader’s attention all the way to the last word.

Wicked Girl is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

Extract:

Barry had always wished for a heroic death, or at least some glorious death to be remembered by. If he couldn’t die heroically or gloriously, he would at least die without his wife, Evelin. He was in love with her when they got married, or at least assumed there was something in her he had once loved. Even years later he could endure her fattened face and squeaking voice, as far as she kept making his dinner and watching her favorite televangelists, leaving him alone. But, whenever she talked to him, that is, yelled at him until he surrendered, he nearly went nuts, withdrawing into himself, like some turtle or snail. It was a small wonder that Barry felt this terrible morning was one of the most delightful ones of his life. He acknowledged that if it wasn’t for the perfect timing of all the events after the earthquake, he would’ve never have gotten to smile that day.
When the TV reporter in a dark suit and bowtie called the crew “angels in orange,” Barry pressed his head to the screen to receive every single alarmed word. For a moment, he thought he was delirious since their TV set was hooked on the same evangelical channel with rosy-cheeked preachers bringing the Word of Jesus to their flock. Now, the usual program was interrupted for breaking news. “At last, a sign of God’s Grace,” he thought. “So the Second Coming must be near.”
“After sending rescue teams to take care of buildings that collapsed all over the city, now they’re deploying around the rubble of Birmingham Mental Institution,” the reporter went on with his Mr. Know-All tone. “They’re climbing the rubble, leaving no stone unturned in search of survivors trapped, while others send the canines to search the spaces between the rubble, and, upon hearing a bark, risking their lives crawling in, too.”
“I just can’t sit here watching it,” Barry cried to Evelin who was busy brewing up the tea.
“What’s the matter?” Evelin responded with a horrible yell.
“I must be there,” Barry explained slowly and clearly, turning the TV off, to make sure she heard him loud and clear.
“Where?” she yelled.
“Where Roy’s hospital used to stand,” he replied impatiently.
“But I’ve just made tea,” Evelin tried to delay him, realizing that once her hard-headed man made up his mind, she would have to muster every trick in her book to dissuade him.
“You nag,” he muttered, waiting for her to return to the living room from her self-imposed exile in the kitchen for the last ninety minutes. “It’s small wonder that Roy…” Barry started a monologue but cut himself short at once. “Some things are just unthinkable,” he scolded himself, his face reddening with indignation and shame.
“Do you hear me? I must go,” he shouted again at Evelin with restrained fury, while she was on her way to the living room with two teacups.
“Just as I thought,” she remarked. “You always have to be somewhere far away from me.”
Yet on this wonderful morning, Evelin stopped, placing the cups on the table, and stretched her hands forward hoping for a hug.
“Really?” Barry wondered, radiant with happiness, looking straight into her tiny eyes, which now expanded till they nearly exploded. Making a hesitant step towards his wife thinking she may be tricking him, and then walked all the way towards her.
“Really,” she confirmed, taking him again in her arms, making him nearly disappear in her fat folds.
“But promise me to be careful. I cannot go through the loss of another family member,” she implored him with tearful eyes.
“I promise,” he whispered in her ear and even kissed her cheek, carried away a little, despite having no intentions to keep his promise.

About The Author:

I.V. Olokita has been providing medical care most of his life, specializing in management of medical aid to disaster areas all over the world. He also has a BA degree in logistics, and an MA degree in emergency and disaster situations management. He volunteers to rescue missions in disaster areas all over the world. I. V. Olokita is a happily married father of two adolescents and a foster father of five cats and two dogs.
Olokita’s first book (in Hebrew), Ten Simple Rules, was published in 2014. It won an Israeli literary prize, and immediately made an online bestseller. The following year, another book by Olokita, The Executioner From The Silent Valley, made a local bestseller in Israel. In May 2016, his third novel, Wicked Girl, was published, to great success, and is now presented in English. Olokita’s books are characterized by direct writing, twists and turns, requiring the reader to delve into and maintain vigilance from the beginning of the book to its surprising end.