**I received a complimentary copy of this book for consideration. All thoughts are my own.

About the Book

Book: Catch Me If You Can

Author: Carole Brown

Genre: Romantic Suspense with a touch of quirkiness

Release date: August 5, 2021

The big cat sat on the oversized rock, ears pointed toward the sky, every muscle taut, every sense at the ready.

“S-s-shut up and f-f-forget it. You’ve s-seen nothing and know nothing. I won’t warn you again. G-g-got it?”

The cat’s head swiveled, his ears twitching as if catching the hint of threat in the whisper. A soft hiss slid from his open mouth and reinforced the overtone of evil pressing in upon the scene. Within hours, lies and dark secrets are slithering all over the campground.

Coaxed into finding the animal killer at Jamieson’s Outfitters, Tara Layne, with her sidekick, Boet, is welcomed by a threatening whisper and the unfriendly eyes of a rugged and devastatingly handsome manager. Wesley Clarke, both interesting and frustrating, holds an attraction for Tara that is primitive and exasperating.

Intermingled with her search, Tara deals with her own heartbreaking buried secrets. When a strange old Native American probes into the recesses of her heart, he encourages her to face her bitter feelings.

As Tara closes in on her search, she finds herself—and Boet—the target of someone who’s determined to outrun and outsmart her. Someone determined not to get caught.

His theme:

Fun as fast as you can, you can’t catch me.

The question:

Can Tara run fast enough to catch this real live Gingerbread boy

before he decides to get rid of her and Boet?

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About the Author

Besides being a member and active participant of many writing groups, Carole Brown enjoys mentoring beginning writers. An author of thirteen full-length, best selling and award winning books (with a novella in an anthology), she loves to weave suspense and tough topics into her books, along with a touch of romance and whimsy, and is always on the lookout for outstanding titles and catchy ideas. She and her husband reside in SE Ohio but have ministered and counseled nationally and internationally. She has found that the traveling and ministering has served her well in writing her novels. Together, they enjoy their grandsons, traveling, gardening, good food, the simple life, and did she mention their grandsons?

More from Carol

Who doesn’t like a good book while nibbling on cookies and sipping your favorite drink?

Writing Catch Me If You Can, Book One of the Nursery Rhyme Series, was a fun endeavor. I can’t remember how I came up with the idea, but I do know it’s been interesting and a long-time coming. Both Tara Layne and Wesley Clarke have personal and spiritual issues to resolve which are more serious topics to address. So I knew definitely that I not only wanted to include those, plus suspense and romance, but also a bit of quirky-ness to the story.

What were the two quirky things that help make it special?

Tara Layne comes from a very special family. Her older brother, Tory, four years older than the twins: Tara and Tomas, and her grandfather, Poppy, an archeologist, who cared for them when their parents died. He raised them while on dig sites, teaching them and giving them a unique view of the world.

When Tory was murdered, while studying to follow in their grandfather’s footsteps, Tara, an elementary teacher, resigned and took the schooling she needed to be a detective because the authorities seemed unable to discover why Tory was murdered.

Her brothers were always pranksters, and after Tory died, Tomas bought her an expensive gift: A Savannah cat, sort of as a joke. But instead of being irritated at her nerdy computer brother, she fell in love with her cat and proceeded to name him Boet (An African name that means brotherly love). Boet not only hisses at those he’s not crazy about, but shows tolerance for those who he favors.

Here are some fun facts about a Savannah cat:

Crossbred between a African Serval cat and a domestic cat.
Many Savannah cats enjoy water.
They are inquisitive and extremely intelligent.

The antagonist leaves Gingerbread cookie men at each site of the animal killings.

Now that seems weird enough, but when you discover why and how the cookies play a part of his/her past, you’ll understand the title better and why the antagonist is so obsessed with these specific cookies.
I’ve included a recipe below for your enjoyment! If you love gingerbread, these are sure to become a favorite!

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients

Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla
additional flour for rolling out dough

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp extract of choice – lemon almond or vanilla

Instructions

Cookies

In a small bowl mix together baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon until well blended. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, and eggs on medium speed until well blended.
Add molasses and vanilla and mix until well combined.
Gradually add in dry ingredients and mix until combined, but do not over-mix.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place into an airtight container or freezer style zipper bag, and place in refrigerator for at least two hours and up to 24 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 deg. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats ore parchment paper.
Let dough sit at room temperature for 5-15 minutes or however long is needed to make it pliable enough to divide in half. The time it takes will depend on how long it’s been chilling.
Place 1 portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle additional flour over dough and gently roll dough out to approximately 1/4 – 1/3″ thick. The thicker the dough the softer the cookie will be. If dough sticks to rolling pin, sprinkle additional flour onto dough.
Cut out cookies with cookie cutter. Whatever scraps are left over after cutting out cookies can be rolled out and rolled out to cut out more cookies.
Place cookies on baking sheet approximately 1 1/2-inches apart.
Bake each sheet of cookies for 7-10 minutes until tops and edges are starting to firm up.
Remove baking sheet from oven transfer to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool on baking sheet for ten minutes, then use a spatula to transfer cookies to another wire cooling rack to cool completely.
If desired, once cookies are completely cooled decorate.

Icing

In a medium size bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well to combine. For thicker icing, add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time. For thinner icing, add more corn syrup, one teaspoon at a time. Place into a piping bag and pipe onto gingerbread cookies as desired.

My Thoughts

I must admit when I saw that this was a suspense book based on the old nursery rhyme about the Gingerbread Man, I was both intrigued... and also more than a little confused. I couldn't quite see how that would make for a good mystery. And yet... somehow the author truly made it work in this rather unique story! While it took me a little bit to get into the story, it was definitely that quirkiness that kept me wanting to read on to see how it all came together.

The characters were well written and the suspense kept me guessing. Overall, I thought the author did a great job of bringing this unique idea to life. As I said, I never would have imagined combining the Gingerbread Man nursery rhyme with the suspense genre, but I loved the creativity of it and it certainly has me looking forward to seeing what other nursery rhymes the author might take on next!