PUYB Tour&Review: No One To Hear You Scream by Julia Madeleine

Title: No One To Hear You Scream
Author: Julia Madeleine
Publisher:Black Heart Books
Publication Date: March 22,2011
Pages: 268
Source: From the author for Pump Up Your Book tours (My FTC Disclaimer)
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis:
In the quiet environs of upstate New York, a family can get a great deal of land, a beautiful home, and a chance to live in the throw-back, bucolic world of small town America. For Brett and Pamela Jameson, that opportunity arose when a house they loved went into foreclosure. What they didn’t know was that this dream home was about to turn into their worst nightmare.

Former owner, Irish emigrant and violent ex-gang member Rory Madden, is out of incarceration and wants his house back, and he will stop at nothing to get it. Rory unearths the secrets hidden within the Jameson family, and begins to leverage his knowledge to slowly drive wedges between them. When their seventeen year-old, mentally unstable daughter Justine falls for Rory’s advances, the devious mind of a career criminal turns her against her own parents, setting off a series of increasingly treacherous events that culminates into a charged climactic moment.

At once a classic noir and a modern cautionary tale about the roiling truth lurking within the depths of twenty-first century suburban America, No One to Hear You Scream is a freight train to the heart of an unspoken terror inside everyone who has ever dreamed of a bright future, while nevertheless wary of what the dark past may one day bring to their door.

Excerpt:

“Haven’t seen you around much.” The geriatric woman behind the counter gave him a gummy smile as she set the plate in front of him. The smell of bacon and eggs over easy rose up and assaulted his senses. “What’s wrong, you don’t like my cooking anymore?” What was her name again? Maggie? Yes, that was it: Maggie. She was the cook and sometimes the waitress, and probably the janitor and the bookkeeper too; also known as the owner. She’d gotten thicker around the waist since he’d last been in here. She placed a bottle of ketchup beside his plate, the harsh sound of glass connecting with Formica too loud in his ears, and then showed off her gleaming gums again. Any other day, he wouldn’t have had a problem with her, but this morning with his tender stomach debating whether it could even handle the gelatinous globs on his plate and his head feeling as if the whole River Dance troupe were using his skull as a rehearsal hall, he just wasn’t coping well. “I love your cooking, darling,” Rory managed, forcing the words out. “You make the best damn breakfast in all of New York State. I missed your cooking more than I missed my mum’s.” It hurt to smile, but he did anyway. He winked at the woman and that hurt, too. “Ahh, you say the sweetest things.” “Only ’cause it’s true.” “More coffee for you, Love?” “Aye, I think I’m still down a pint.” “Well, it’s good to see our old customers coming back.” “Good to be back.” He raised his coffee cup in a toast when she’d finished pouring. Once he’d succeeded in getting the eggs into his stomach, he actually felt better. The headache had subsided, the nausea was gone, and the caffeine woke him up. He’d always enjoyed coming here for that “down home cooking,” as Americans liked to call it. But minutes later, as he was driving down the road with the charcoal sky rising above the hills in the distance, a dreary mood surfaced inside of him. Rory stood in a vacant parking lot off Highway 54A, at the edge of Keuka Park. Blackened trees like dead sticks, and straw that was once green grass stitched the roadside, the discarded shell of last year’s living, breathing summer. He hated this time of year, just after the winter thaw, before the spring, when everything was barren and desolate. He turned his attention to the afternoon sun that shimmered over the water, sparkling on the choppy surface. It shined on the lawyer’s bald dome and reflected in his sunglasses. “Got the rest of my money?” Rory said. Blackmore held up a plastic shopping bag as he closed the door of his Cadillac, stretching an arm toward him without saying a word. He was shaking visibly, the plastic of the bag rustling in his leather-gloved hand. Blackmore looked as if he might piss himself. Rory took the bag from him and looked the fat man up and down, thinking how he resembled an undertaker in his black suit and long coat. Rory looked inside the bag, heavy with the bundles of cash secured in paper bands, but didn’t feel a sense of relief or justice the way he had expected. He felt only anger. This man was the reason he was living in a drafty, one-bedroom apartment above a Chinese restaurant, the stench of fried food and the noise of late-night drunken idiots leaching up into his living room. He was the cause of all the shit in Rory’s life. “If you’d been an honest lawyer in the first place, you wouldn’t be in this mess, would you now? And I’d be back living in my house,” Rory said, moving aside his leather coat, which he wore like a cape, and exposing the shotgun he held beside his leg.

Trailer:

 Author Bio:
Julia Madeleine is the youngest daughter of Irish immigrant parents from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Born in Canada and raised in a small town in southern-western Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron, Julia honed her duel passions for art and fiction writng from the time she was old enough to hold a crayon. As a teenager she moved to Toronto and graduated in Media Writing from Sheridan College. She wrote for a number of entertainment magazines, while spending all her free time writing fiction, and then in 2000, her passion for art led her, quite by accident, into a career in the tattoo industry.

Home for Julia is Mississauga, where she lives with her husband and teenaged (future tattoo artist) daughter. For a year she lived in the country on a 30-acre property in the middle of nowhere, which became the inspiration for her second novel, No One To Hear You Scream. Currently she is working on the sequel to her first thriller, Scarlet Rose (2008) which will be released sometime in the fall of 2011.

You can visit her website at www.juliamadeleine.com or her blog atwww.juliamadeleineauthor.blogspot.com. Connect with Julia at Facebook atwww.facebook.com/MadJulia!

My Review:
Thrilling! That’s just one of MANY words that I could use to describe this INCREDIBLE book of suspense! Julia Madeleine is a fantastic author, that I am happy to say is now and forever among my favorite authors list.

No One To Hear You Scream. Just the title itself is enough to spark a chill down your spine. It’s a roller coaster ride of breath gasping, spine tingling events. With an unexpected twist here, and fast moving turn there, the story and it’s characters take the reader on an unbelievable ride!

I’m not sure who’s character I liked the most: Justine, the baby, or her dad. Oh, all the characters are incredible, including the villain. Yep, even the villain was THAT well created. I will have to conclude that Justine really was my favorite character. Her feelings were raw and emotional, and I felt them as if they were my own. I felt every fear that she dealt with. I was shaking by the end of this story!

I definitely recommend this book with highest of 5 stars! You’ll be amazed at the way this book leaves you feeling…..fearful, thrilling, heart pounding….and so much more. I love the writing style of this author, and I am hoping beyond hope, that she will have another thrilling novel just like this one soon!