Sue Coletta Delivers With Savage Mayhem!

Greetings! Today we welcome award-winning crime writer Sue Coletta to the Indie Spot! Take it away, Sue . . .

Thank you for hosting me today, Beem! I appreciate your kind invite to help me share the good news for my latest eco-thriller, Savage Mayhem.

When I first plotted Savage Mayhem, I planned for my characters to stop the poaching of grizzlies, wolves, and lynxes. But then, I learned the heart-wrenching history of American Buffalo aka Bison. In the annals of American history, there is no greater destruction of a single species than the massacre of these magnificent animals. The true story shattered me. From the shards of my broken heart emerged Savage Mayhem.

Rather than share what devastated me, which I included in the novel, this excerpt shows Shawnee Daniels’ first encounter with the animal.

Excerpt:

For fresh air, I moseyed down the stairs of the covered porch. Rubbing my tired eyes, I ventured into the yard with my head down, my mind whirling with the chaos of leaving Alaska and my subsequent talk with Ferron, windswept hair shielding my face.

A low rumble shook the earth.

A spade-shaped hoof stepped into my sightline.

It took me a minute to work up enough courage to raise my head. Please let it be a deer and not a…

My gaze inched up the burnt sienna legs and furry culottes of an American Buffalo. All the oxygen in my lungs escaped. Dirt, pollen, and grasses coated a straggly beard and wet nose. Furious eyes bulged out the sockets—a six-foot impenetrable wall of rage deadlocked on me.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, my moccasins rooted to the grass. Frozen in place, I fell under his thrall. Two feet separated me from the most Herculean land mammal in North America.

A gazillion things coursed through my mind in seconds.

Shicheii taught me how to gauge a Bison’s mood. If the tail hung loose and switched, the animal felt relaxed. Not so with the enraged individual towering me. His tail flexed upward, the fluffy end bent forward like a scorpion. The hair on his ginormous shoulder hump hackled. Even his thick, grayish-black tongue stiffened, the muscular organ protruded out his mouth, long strings of saliva dripping from black lips.

Uh-oh. Not good.

Why, why, why, why, why did I leave the porch? No one even knew I strolled outside. If I’d stayed near the stairs, the Bison’s near-sightedness might help me. Not now, while he stood close enough to kiss. Everything about his demeanor screamed our chance encounter flipped a sullen and disgruntled switch.

When he snorted, a watery mist smacked my face, lashes fluttering to clear the phlegm.

O Great Spirit, please don’t let my journey end this way. I might deserve it after all the crap I’ve pulled over the years, but I’m not ready to die. Not yet. The Innocent Ones, including the pissed off individual in front me, count on us to stop their destruction.

Foot after careful foot, I backed away. The closest tree stood about ten feet behind me, to the right of the covered porch. If I made it there in time, I might survive this encounter. Keyword—might.

 

Book description:

Amidst the wild and unforgiving landscapes of Yellowstone Park, join Mayhem, a fearless Apache warrior and champion of the Natural World, and his partner and protégé, Shawnee, as they race against the clock to protect an American Buffalo herd from the ruthless Killzme Corporation.

 With a massive bounty on their heads and an army of killers on their trail, Mayhem and Shawnee must use all their cunning and survival skills to outsmart their enemies. They will risk it all to preserve the sacred lineage of the Innocent Ones.

There is no line Shawnee and Mayhem won’t cross.

Even murder.

As the danger intensifies and the clock winds down, will they be able to save the herd? Or will this be the mission that finally breaks them?

99c Preorder Sale! Savage Mayhem releases April 11, 2024, in paperback and digital formats. Though Savage Mayhem is book 9 in the Mayhem Series, it can also be read as a standalone.

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