A fiesty young girl has to shoot a man to protect her loved ones. She grows up a timid, traumatized woman. Until a serial killer is on the loose and she seems to be the ultimate target. Can she save herself? Or will it be the undercover detective assigned to protect her? Will the cost of protection result in one of their own deaths?
"Stand and Protect" should probably be rated 'R' due to language, violence and intimacy.
The characters nature's change and evolve as they have to deal with a wide gamut of human emotions. The killer is seriously deranged. You may think you know who the killer is. But will you know which character it is?
The protagonist and the secondary characters evolve in some unexpected ways. You never really know how you will react in a dangerous situation until you actually have to face it.
The question is... How do you out-smart a Madman?
Excerpt
"Stand and Protect" Prolouge
Standing by the lunch table, Sam glanced at his watch as he explained to his daughter why he couldn’t stay for lunch.
“That’s okay, Daddy. I’m going to go find Jill anyway.”
As they were about to walk out into the hall, a loud scream pierced the air, followed by a popping sound. Sam quickly pushed Shannon back into the cafeteria. “Stay here honey; I have to go see what’s going on.”
He put his face down to the same level as hers, looked her straight in the eyes, and repeated, “I mean it, stay here, no matter what.” Then he ran down the hallway.
One of the teachers was yelling for everybody to get down under the tables. Shannon got underneath the nearest one. It got very quiet because no one knew what was going on. She could actually hear each tick of the clock above the door.
After a while some of the children began to whisper, “Are we having another fire drill?
“Maybe it’s a real fire.”
“Maybe it’s a bomb!”
“We’re all gonna die!”
The girl closest to her began to cry. It was starting to feel like a long time had gone by. Shannon wanted to go check on her father. And where was Jill? Getting more worried by the minute, she jumped up and ran out the door. It was too late for the nearest teacher to stop her.
As she moved swiftly down the deserted hallway towards Jill’s homeroom, she saw some black shoes sticking out of a doorway. Sneaking up to the door, she was horrified to discover a policeman lying on his back with a pool of deep red blood spreading across the floor. His eyes were open, staring blankly across the room.
Flyers that had fallen around him had the smiling face of a dog in a trench coat talking about crime prevention. Now she knew she had to find her Dad and Jill to warn them. Her heart was beating so hard; she thought she might throw up. She took a deep breath to try to steady herself and crept along the hallway, staying close to the bright blue metal lockers. Everything felt surreal; she had never seen the school this deserted and quiet. It reminded her of a scary movie that she and Jill had watched late one night, when Jill’s parents had thought they were asleep.
Amazon - 5 STARS
A Standin Ovation, July 27, 2008
By Rebekah A. Petrucci (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
"Stand and Protect" grabs your attention in the first paragraph and holds it all the way through. The characters were alive and breathing and caught my sympathy immediately. A colorful and vibrant cast. The story starts out with the laughter of children in New England in the Fall but quickly turns to a scene that unfortunatley haunts the nightly news far too often - blood and screams in a school room. Most of the action though takes place in bright, sunny Dallas, Texas where a killer stalks a modern luxury apartment complex. Comment | Permalink | Was
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