Guest ~ Lindsay Townsend ~ The Magic of 'A Secret Treasure'

It's Saturday! Normally we don't do a lot of posting on Saturday here at Title Magic. However, I asked Lindsay to share her blurb, her fab five review and an excerpt from A SECRET TREASURE ~ simply because this is a lovely, lyrically written novella about an intriguing and suspenseful time in our history, and her story reflects those themes of intrigue and suspense. Yet, love triumphs, despite the danger and the odds. Hey, the location is on a Greek island. One of my fave locations.

Hi,
Many thanks to Savanna and to Title Magic for inviting me today to talk about my romantic suspense title, A SECRET TREASURE.

This is now out, on the Bookstrand Bestseller list and has been given 5 Stars by Ecataromance. (Many thanks, Donna!)

Here's is Donna's review, plus the blurb and excerpt of the novella.
5 Stars: "Historical novelist Lindsay Townsend spirits her readers to the Island of Rhodes, painting a gorgeous setting with words, among the ancient streets and rolling countryside during the fascist Mussolini's pre-WWII reign. A Secret Treasure has a solid well-researched background that brings this time and place to life.
As the suspenseful plot unfolds, we are treated to well-defined characters, smart dialog, thrilling escapades, and a beautiful developing romance between unlikely participants. I guarantee that readers will not be able to put down Lindsay Townsend's engrossing A Secret Treasure until the last entertaining page is read." —Donna, Ecataromance

Even more precious to me was a comment a reader made on the Beth Wylde chat group. She had read and enjoyed the novel and she said: "This is a romantic suspense set in 1937 Rhodes. A very interesting plot, great characters, but best of all, I'm been to Rhodes and it is SO clear the author has also. Lindsay Townsend knows the island. So if you're looking for an armchair vacation..."

Book details and the cover are here:
http://www.bookstrand.com/authors/lindsaytownsend/ast.asp

And here is the blurb and an excerpt where the heroine Eve realises that the hero is following her in Rhodes Old Town.

A SECRET TREASURE
ISBN: 1-60601-105-7
BOOKSTRAND
Here's the blurb:
A Secret Treasure
The Greek island of Rhodes: luxurious and hot, beloved haunt of the Sun God, steeped in the mysteries of the past. In the late 1930s during the gathering storm-clouds of war, it is a dangerous place to fall in love.
When pretty, passionate Eve Burnett meets the darkly intriguing Julio Falcone, she is torn. As a man, Julio is powerfully attractive. As a policeman, he is bound to be a Fascist. Her brother, David, who is missing, is connected to the Greek Partisans who wish to liberate Rhodes from their Italian overlords.
Now, as David appears at their parents' house soon after Julio makes Eve's acquaintance, Eve is compelled to hide her brother and a mysterious gold statuette. The Fascists are looking for him and this secret treasure. Soon, Eve realizes that she may be forced to choose between the man she loves and the ultimate safety of her family.

Here's the excerpt from my romantic suspense, A SECRET TREASURE. In this section, the heroine Eve realizes that the Italian policeman Julio Falcone has been following her.
Excerpt.
Weaving round the wooden jetty of one of the overhanging balconies, Eve heard a sharp cry behind her. She looked back, ready to help, and saw an old woman sweeping her whitewashed step with a twiggy broom.
Under the widow's black headsquare, the wrinkled eyes were bright and aware, motioning towards a deeply shadowed archway.
Eve saw him then, the Italian policeman Julio Falcone. He had failed to duck under one of the many carpets hung out to air from the ancient wooden balconies, and had dragged a striped hearth-rug down over his broad shoulders. He must have been trying to extract himself from the heavy wool folds, but now he was utterly still, frozen in the shadow of the arch. Only because her eyes were good and she'd had the old woman's warning did Eve know the man was there at all.
The shock that Falcone was actually following her—and trying to disguise it—made Eve light-headed with alarm, but then her natural instinct for self-preservation stirred into action. Whatever this man suspected her of, she wasn't going to make it easy for him. She certainly wasn't going to bring Falcone within a hundred yards of Andreas' house. She would pick up her meat order and talk to the butcher later, when she had lost her irritating `shadow' and could be sure of not being watched, or overheard. Mr. Falcone might well be fluent in Greek, as well as English.
Curiously exhilarated as well as uneasy, Eve marched back the way she had come, towards her unwanted escort, smiling to herself as she imagined his consternation. Just at the last moment, she stepped beneath a wooden-reinforced, half-ruined gate into Sophocles Street.
Darting down the ochre steps, she made for the noisy road junction beside the Ibrahim Pasha mosque, whose dome and scaffolding-enclosed new minaret she could now see clearly. Swinging her shopping basket and increasing her pace as the flagged street opened out, she dropped towards the long bazaar. Eve thought she heard a drumming of footsteps in the road behind her. Disgusted by her own nervous giggle, she stopped by a leatherworkers' shop, pretending to be mesmerized by the workers' busy treadling of sewing machines.
Think! Eve told herself. Her parents said she was an intellectual light-weight, a bit of a fool, ready to be seduced by any beggar or hard-luck story. This time she had to do better than that: she had to lose Julio Falcone.
Above her head she heard a light breeze shifting in the plane tree close to the mosque, an eerie sound which made her shiver, despite standing in full sun. From the street of the long bazaar, she caught the badgering chant of one of the Turkish residents selling hibiscus flowers, and she wished fiercely that Falcone would go away. She knew she ought to confront him but shrank from the encounter, shy of accosting a virtual stranger.
I must, she thought. Think of David. Do it for his sake.
She turned and, as before, walked straight towards the Italian. `Are you lost?' she demanded.
He stalked out of the shadows, his face showing a perfect surprise. `Why should you think that?'
`If you aren't lost, why are you following me?'
`Am I? Perhaps we are merely going in the same direction.' He pointed further along the street. `Shall we go together?'
Infuriated by his obvious lie, Eve stayed where she was. `Admit it. You were following me.'
`So? Perhaps it is my job to follow you.'
`I thought you said you were on holiday.'
`And also to help Signor Grassi with the case of your missing brother.'
`So what about David? Why are you not looking for him?'
He shook his dark head. `Do you not think I can do more than one thing at once?'
`Why are you following me?'
`Because you interest me.' He looked her up and down and smiled. `Why do you think?'
His frank admission made her forget altogether that he was a stranger, or a threat. At that moment all she wanted to do was beat him at his own game.
`Fine!' she snapped. `Then see if you can keep up with me!'
She spun round, catching him off-guard and walking so swiftly that she was almost running. Ignoring his warning, `Wait!' she moved even faster, clutching her basket tightly and chanting in her mind, think!
Think!
Then she saw a way out. Darting into a nearby shuttered alley, full of musty shops and strutting pigeons, she saw a gaggle of boys crouching over a game of marbles. She called to them softly.
`Have you got a ball?' she asked the eldest urchin in the sing-song Rhodian dialect.
`For sure!' came the reply.
Careful that the coins did not catch the by now glaring light, she showed the boys a handful of change. `Yours—if you play ball along by the mosque steps.'
`For sure!' The eldest boy snatched the coins and roared off in the direction of the washing fountain of the Ibrahim Pasha mosque, his gang in rapid pursuit. Moments later, kicking a ball about the paved street, their yelling, boisterous figures soon surrounded the tall, light-suited foreigner, who could not move or see past them for several vital seconds.
Seconds were all she needed. Eve pelted down the dingy street where the boys had been playing. Soon she was hidden amongst the bustle of crowds, motorbikes and donkeys moving along Socrates Street, home of the long bazaar and, more importantly to her, one of the roads leading out of the Old City.
I've done it, she thought. I've beaten him. She grinned and swung her basket, telling herself she was glad, while part of her wondered when she would see him again.
Many thanks, again, Savanna, for having me along today at Title Magic! It's always a blast!
Best wishes and happy reading and writing.
Lindsay?
Please visit my website at www.lindsaytownsend.com
and my blog at http://lindsaysbookchat.blogspot.com

P.S. Don't you just adore all our across-the-pond authors featured on Title Magic, especially thanks to Helen and Evonne, our own Title Magicians from Britain and Wales, respectively.