Who killed media mogul Connie Ross during the party on her yacht? Her mysterious disappearance exposes a web of shockingly dark and twisted secrets.
The mysterious disappearance of media mogul Connie Ross during a party on her yacht exposes a web of dark and twisted secrets. Jimmy Frail, Chief of Detectives, suspecting foul play and the potential media circus, partners a most unlikely pair of detectives. Gigi Mirabelli, a missing persons' officer, is recalled early from maternity leave to work with Harry Burns, a brilliant, but tormented homicide detective looking to restart his sidelined career.
Suspecting murder, but unable to prove it, Mirabelli and Burns must first find a way to work together before they can hope to solve this perplexing crime. They first develop a working partnership of opposites and then skillfully sift through the evidence; all while walking the political and media tightrope in this high profile case.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
The blaring party noise seeped out of every crevice, breaching Connie Ross’
sanctuary. The dramatic change in the weather compelled the party to convene in the lounge one deck below. Connie could hear the persistent, low buzz of indistinguishable chatter marred by occasional bursts of laughter. It shocked her from her languid stupor.
Ross staggered from her compartment onto her private deck, and leaned against the rail as the yacht unhurriedly cruised to its final destination. Her head swirled in unison with the swirling waters below. Breathe, Ross told herself. Breathe. She hoped that the fresh air would bring her back to life. Inexplicably drowsy, Ross had been forced to leave her party. She now held tightly onto the rail as she bobbed and weaved in time with the churning waters.
Standing in the dark shadow of the doorway, a gentle-voiced visitor cooed, “Here you are, clutching the rail.”
She turned her head, recognizing the familiar voice. “Where are you? I-I can’t see you.”
Stepping out of the darkness, the velvety-voiced visitor could barely be heard above the ear-shattering party music.
“I’m here.”
“I’m glad y-you’ve come. Not feeling well, too much to drink...guess.” Ross heaved, wiping the perspiration from her brow with her hand. She felt breathless.
In slow measured movements, the solicitous-voiced visitor came up and stood behind Ross whispering, “Allow me to help you.”
“Yes, can use your h-help.”
“Relax. Close your eyes and take long deep breaths,” said the reassuring visitor whose hands traveled from Ross’ lower back up her spine to Ross’ neck and head, and back again, over and over.
“Oh-h-h...yes-s-s...” Ross purred as those wonderfully strong hands repeatedly worked their black magic. Drifting, drifting off, she soon released her grip on the deck rail. Ross was floating now. The hands, with palms flat against her back, deliberately massaging her, now lingered in position with fingers tenderly tapping along her spine before giving her lasting relief with one forceful push against her back that sent Ross over the rail.
She plunged into the abyss.
Drugged, pushed overboard, murdered. Her last conscious feeling was the painful splat her body made against the churning wake of the yacht.
Professional Reviews
Reader's Favorites
Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite
How the Mighty Fall by EJ Chadwell is a thriller of mammoth proportions. Connie Ross, powerful media mogul, has disappeared. She was last seen on her yacht at a party, but didn’t get off when the yacht docked. Now it’s down to missing persons’ officer Gigi Mirabella and homicide detective Harry Burns to uncover the truth, paired together by Chief of Detectives, Jimmy Frail. An unlikely pair, the detectives set out to prove that Connie was murdered, but without a body that might prove difficult. Their investigation leads them down a dark path, one that is full of twisted secrets. Secrets that someone didn’t want anyone to find out about. Secrets that will make the mighty fall.
How the Mighty Fall by EJ Chadwell is a first class detective story, absolutely chock full of exciting twists and turns. It is a well crafted tale that grabs reader attention right from the outset, written in an easy to understand style. The characters are well developed and the two detectives, although complete opposites, are written to draw a reader in, which they do. There is a vein of humor that runs through the story, giving it a bit of a lift and engaging the reader even further. The ending is a complete surprise. I certainly never thought of it and I guess that is the mark of a good writer – keep them guessing and then throw them a real curve ball! Excellent story, plenty of action and a great plot. Looking forward to reading more from this author, preferably with the same detective duo!
Indie Reader Review
INDIE READER REVIEW
Dense and full of colorful characters, HOW THE MIGHTY FALL is an engaging, and at times funny, mystery.
This is from Indie reader a website that reviews ebooks. Ed Bennett
GoodReads
Brenda Ayala's Reviews > How the Mighty Fall
How the Mighty Fall is a solid detective novel with an enticing mystery and fun characters to follow. Scandal plays a really big role here, and as I'm sure you can imagine there's quite a bit at stake for the characters. Prominent people with big secrets to hide.
Where this really shines is the final reveal for who the murderer is and the motive behind why that person did what they did. It was clever and I enjoyed the way the case for the detectives came to fruition. But the WAY everything was handled after the climax was truly the best part. With detective stories you always sort of expect things to end a certain way. It's like romance novels--a boy and a girl meet. Do you think they'll fall in love!? Detective stories are similar. They either successfully catch the bad guy or someone dies in the process of trying to catch the bad guy. That's what I was expecting. That isn't what I got, and I really appreciated the deviation away from typical formulas.
I really only have two complaints, and they're small ones. I thought Mirabelli was a bit irritating since she was constantly just off-the-cuff. She was too impulsive and just kind of annoyed me because of that. The second thing is that I think it needs a bit more fine-tuning. There were some sentences that had the wrong punctuation, even later on in the novel:
(view spoiler)
Aside from those, it was a fine detective story and I appreciated the plot more than anything.
The third book in the funny Silver Sisters Mysteries series. The twins and their 80 year-old mother and uncle get into trouble sleuthing in Sin City.
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Six straight men in the cast plus free Tex-Mex food? My friend Lida Rose sure knew how to persuade me. I signed on the dotted line and dusted off my dance shoes. I knew Bad Business on the Brazos would have them rolling in the aisles and standing up
