ENCORE
A Contemporary Love Story of Hypnotic Abduction
Tantra Bensko
Series: The Agents of the Nevermind Book 3
Genre: Psychological Suspense, Romantic Suspense, Gothic Novel
Publisher: Insubordinate Books
Publication Date: October 1, 2018
Genre: Psychological Suspense, Romantic Suspense, Gothic Novel
Publisher: Insubordinate Books
Publication Date: October 1, 2018
Hypnotized to believe she's his wife.
A troupe in England performs the history of a gem which features in legends of Shambhalla and Atlantis. The troupe's hypnotist, Dune, has made them famous, especially his wife Susan, who is the star.
After the star's disappearance before the show, her standby, Miriam, takes Susan's place. Dune always hypnotizes the standbys to believe they are the actors they replace: the post-hypnotic suggestion ends when the final curtain lands, and they remember their identity. Before the curtain lands, Dune whisks Miriam to a castle.
Meanwhile, Miriam's friend, Colin, who just kissed her for the first time, seeks against all odds to rescue her, though she's told he's a crazed criminal.
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Excerpt
Next morning, I splashed water from a pewter pitcher. The kitchen, on a sunken floor, with a chimney that whisked the smoke at an angle, had a modernized small window reinforced with iron bars and thick glass that opened to let out smoke in emergencies. The only window that wasn’t along the top of the castle.
I prodded around to find the keys. Leaving would be noisy, even if I were strong enough to lift the portcullis. But sometimes he left it up. I was unused to requesting permission to leave. The cupboards built into stone walls had ancient, sturdy locks on them. That must have been where rare spices lived. If I found Dune’s keys to get to the keys and figured out the secret way to use them. Oh, bother.
There, at the kitchen window, inches from my eyes, Colin’s face!
Suede jacket soaked, his sandy hair darkened, flattened against his head, his smooth skin almost translucent in the clustered lightning flashes. I gasped and knocked over a goblet.
Dune called out, “Is everything all right?”
“Just being clumsy me.”
“Did the thunder startle you?”
A storm was blowing over us, the wind hurling the dark clouds along, rain pelting everything, including the unfortunate man.
“Yes. Sorry, just bustling in here.”
Was Colin hungry? Did his wound need tending?
Has he confused me with Miriam because of delusion from hunger? I liked the hungry look in a man, making his cheekbones angular, his abdomen concave, his waist narrow. I gawked as he mouthed something. I feigned overlooking him, that the lighting created a glare on the windows. I continued moving without disrupting my stride, peripheral vision heightened. I warmed when he lay hand over heart and then opened it toward me.
Was Miriam making noises in the corridors? Was she in the room with me?
That’s what he’s seeing! Miriam’s ghost! Haunting me! I spun. I called out her name. “Miriam, give a sign.”
Meanwhile, Colin scratched on the pane.
I scurried around and put tape, gauze, and peroxide in a bag. I put in matches, too, in case he needed to start a fire for warmth, cooking, or sterilization. I threw the bag, missing some feisty shrubbery that would have obscured it from his view. Would he find it? I closed the window and moved away.
I hoped Dune wouldn’t find it or realize it was missing. I’d never get the chance to help Colin again. Colin tapped against the glass, but I didn’t look. It seemed he might have died from infection if he didn’t have some way to treat it. But, now what?
I lifted my chin going about my breakfast preparations, to present to him my most fetching profile, lengthening my neck, and upturning my lips. Two men I found enticing: one inside the fortress, one outside thick stone walls. The electricity could shatter the glass into a million pieces.
I skinned a hare. I put it over the fire to cook with older gorse leaves and a side of fresh gorse salad. Not my typical breakfast. The cooking smell was better than I’d expected. Was I tormenting Colin, cooking while he watched, starving out there?
When Dune came in to eat, Colin ducked down and ran off into the darkness. I moved in front of the window. The windows had numerical symbols I recognized from Luke’s books. I was code breaking.
I jumped, startled by bright light. A loud snap, followed by thunder. “That struck close!” A tree had cracked, falling, hitting other trees, parts of it breaking off. I ran to the window to see if it had landed on Colin. Couldn’t tell.
Fun Facts
Castle Portcullis: You might possibly have heard of the knitting Portcullis Stitch. It’s named after a cleverly deadly protection for the entryway of a castle.
Portcullises are long wooden spikes plated with iron as a vertically-opening gate operated by pullies. Attackers can be trapped as they walk into the entry if there are double portcullis grids. The internal spikes can descend first, and when the enemy turn to flee, the external portcullis drops.
While the people are caught between the portcullises, the “murder hole” above them can open and flaming logs, sand, boiling oil and so forth can be thrown down upon them.
Double portcullises make for dramatic scenes in Encore, as the castle where Miriam, believing she is Susan, is abducted to keeps her intensely isolated and thus vulnerable and easily manipulated, which is a trope in Gothic fiction, as is mistaken identity.
Book Tour Schedule
Follow the book tour from October 13 - November 2, 2018.
Visit each tour stop daily and discover more features, excerpts, reviews, interviews, fun facts and more! To check the latest tour schedule, visit the Encore: A Contemporary Love Story of Hypnotic Abduction Book Page at Book Unleashed.
Other Books in the Series
In these contemporary psychological suspense novels, unlikely heroes work to expose how intelligence agents fund and perform social engineering. To end coups and proxy wars, the heroes must overcome the effects of gaslighting and discover who they are. Can their lovers help put the pieces together before it's too late?
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About Tantra Bensko
Tantra Bensko, MFA, teaches fiction writing with UCLA Extension Writing Program and Writers.com. She is a manuscript editor with Book Butchers and her own Online Writing Academy. She won a gold medal in Intrigue from Readers Favorites. Hundreds of her stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies. She lives in Berkeley.
Website: http://www.insubordinatebooks.com
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