devil of the DUNES

ADDICTIVE PAGE-TURNER ABOUT VENGEANCE AND MURDER

'DYING IS THE BEST REVENGE'

One evening at midnight on a dark Lake Michigan beach, a man peers through binoculars, intently observing a carefree young woman enjoying a bonfire with classmates. Knowing her patterns, minutes later as Cadie McLeod leaves the party and walks into the desolate dunes, ‘The Weirdo’ chokes, drugs, and drags the limp 18-year-old to his hidden truck. As a storm rolls in across the Great Lake, the man drives Cadie to a remote location where he imprisons the unconscious woman in an old root cellar built into a hillside.

The night selected for Cadie’s abduction is not random. Six years ago, on the very night that Cadie is abducted, her parents, Thomas and Aileen, were run down in grisly fashion as they walked hand in hand across a deserted coastal highway. Their killer was never captured, and everyone assumed it was a random drunk driver. However, the truth is far more evil and horrifying. The Weirdo is finalizing his revenge plan that began with the murder of Thomas and Aileen and will end with the murder of their only daughter.

If the highly-intelligent Cadie is going to live and solve the mystery of her parents’ murder, she must escape the unusual prison by her own cunning. Meanwhile, the investigation into her abduction leads police in many directions. At the tale’s end, a fight-to-the death takes place aboard the mini yacht Best Revenge in a raging Lake Michigan storm. The villain and his reasons for murder are revealed - hate-fueled reasons spanning decades that no one could have predicted.

The dark, mysterious, and suspenseful kidnap thriller A Devil in the Dunes is an addictive, plot-driven novel. Readers will be fully immersed in this dark tale, quickly turning page after page to discover why Thomas and Aileen were murdered and what happens to their only child.

EXCERPT

The young woman dances freely on the dark Lake Michigan beach like no one is watching because she doesn’t know I am. I wonder if she’d continue swaying around the bonfire and giggling with her girlfriends if she realized how long I’d been here. Transfixed. Gaping through binoculars. Aching from my perched position behind tufts of dune grass.

The midnight scarlet moon casts a strawberry spotlight over her, allowing me to observe her closely. I lick my lips while I surveil her every move.

Plotting.

Preparing.

In the soft light, she looks more captivating than ever. Twirling in her flowing yellow sundress beside the crackling, dancing bonfire, she interacts with friends – and a few young men in expensive swim trunks sprawled on blue beach blankets. A sudden gust of lake breeze catches the young woman’s long crimson hair and it lifts it upward, causing her and a friend to laugh and stumble in the sand. The winds are cooling, picking up. I notice her touch the gold necklace around her slender neck as she often does. Completely unaware. Completely at ease. Just a lovely girl on an idyllic beach enjoying her end-of-school celebration.

Oh, how I despise her and her happiness.

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She gently lifts the floral sundress and kicks off her matching yellow flip flops. I marvel at her long, graceful legs moving in the cool water. Years of running high school track has sculpted enviable calves. She is a strong athlete.

That might be a problem.

Then I notice her perfectly formed face seems pensive and lost in thought as she toys with her necklace. Half a heart on a gold chain.

Where is the other half?

Yet, it pleases me to observe her pain. Alone with her surely dark thoughts. I, too, have dark thoughts - not that anyone cares. Unspoken, hidden thoughts about the people who have wronged me. (There have been a few!) I laugh when I hear the phrase “holding grudges.” I don’t just hold them, I nurture them. Water them like seedlings in my mind that continue to grow larger and more deeply rooted, eventually consuming my every thought. No wonder my mind overflows with frequent thoughts about vengeance and death.

How do you let go of a grudge that destroyed your life?

One day, I saw Cadie jogging down the street, her red hair blowing in the autumn breeze, not a care in the world, and I saw her happiness. It brought back all the pain, anger, resentment, and bitterness tenfold. I ruminated on my feelings for a good long while.

I decided it’s time.

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AUTHOR BIO

Retired college professor Wendy Byard spent twenty years teaching her students to write creatively and get published.

Now it's her turn.

Byard has penned She Disappeared at Midnight, an engrossing kidnap thriller set on the charming - and sometimes deadly - coast of Lake Michigan.

Byard is the published author of Teach and Reach for Classroom Miracles: Lessons on Teaching with Love . She was a college writing instructor for over twenty years; a magazine writer for On the Town magazine; a journalist with articles published in various Michigan newspapers; a former high school English teacher; a previous advertising and marketing account executive; and is now the owner of a graphic design and website design business: Wordgirl Marketing (wordgirlmarketing.com).

Byard earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and history and a master’s degree in English Education from Michigan State University.

She resides in Metamora, Michigan.

A DEVIL IN THE DUNES

A DEVIL IN THE DUNES

Six years ago, her parents were murdered. Now she's missing.

NEW KIDNAP THRILLER BY WENDY BYARD

ADDICTIVE PAGE-TURNER ABOUT VENGEANCE AND MURDER

EXCERPT

AUTHOR BIO

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