Kindle Edition Amazon Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: L & L Dreamspell ISBN-10:  1628303069 Type: Fiction Pages: 184 Copyright: July 1, 2010 ISBN-13: 9781628303063 Price: $4.99 (eBook) A small-town paralegal wipes a smudge off her ATM screen one night - it's blood. Excerpt Trish Morgan wipes a dark smudge off her ATM’s screen and it’s blood. Then she hears a moan coming from the alley near the bank. And her nightmare begins. Entering the alley, she sees a woman lying in a pool of blood. From that moment, she’s in extreme jeopardy. She turns to the only person she thinks she can depend on, her best friend Heather, who recently completed a P.I. course and can’t wait to use her gun. She tries to convince Trish to carry a piece as well. Trish’s life as she knew it has changed. She unwittingly has what the killers want, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it. What’s worse, her marriage is in trouble. Everything seems to be crashing in on her at the same time. Only a former high school boyfriend – a police officer assigned to protect her – appears reliable. She finds herself fighting the obvious attraction they feel foreach other.

Smudge - Chris Speakman
Once again, J.D. delivers a story of everyday people caught in webs of trouble beyond what they thought was possible. Okay, I admit the use of 'webs' with J.D.'s name is a bit wordplay overkill. But, it's true, the character, Trish, is caught up in a life upheaval. The upheaval that always comes when you're least prepared.


There are a number of elements I like about SMUDGE. Trish isn't a super woman. She's not perfect. Her husband is a donkey. A controlling abusive donkey; however, we meet Trish as she's reaching the end of putting up with him.

Which leads us to Bob. Ex-high school boyfriend and current cop. The cop who came to her rescue the night she found the dead woman. The night she's passed the object the killer's after. I enjoy how J.D. didn't push the developing re-relationship between them. You can see it coming, expect more, but are taken to knowing it's around the end page and it works.

I have to admit it's a secondary character who is my favourite...Heather. This gal is spunky.

SMUDGE is a comfort read.

SMUDGE is the read you want when you want to relax. J.D. is the author who gives you straightforward, uncomplicated enjoyment. In a time when everyone is rushing around reaching for the fastest, more this, more that, complicated twists and turns, J.D. gives you the quiet peace you need.

If you're reading this as a negative or lukewarm review, nope, not at all. In today's crazy world of the 'right now' we all need some quiet peace.

Posted by ChrisChat