Book spotlight on Toxic Diamonds by @Liza0Connor

It's been a rough year for me and The Maze, with the loss of my dad in March and his youngest sister in May, but today I welcome back an author-friend whose novels always lift my spirits. I guarantee they will lift yours too!

Liza O'Connor's Toxic Diamonds blog tour, 7-28 July 2017

A Bullet proof vest made of silk.
In 1881, a faro dealer, Charlie Storms was shot twice by a cranky patron. Tombstone physician George E. Goodfellow discovered that one bullet was stopped by a silk handkerchief in Charlie’s breast pocket. As strange as it sounds, a silk handkerchief prevented that bullet from penetrating.

Now before you cry ‘bullocks’, keep in mind guns were far less powerful than now.

In 1887, Dr. Goodfellow wrote an article titled Impenetrability of Silk to Bullets[1] for the Southern California Practitioner documenting the first known instance of bulletproof fabric. He experimented with silk vests resembling medieval gambesons, which used 18 to 30 layers of silk fabric to protect the wearers from penetration.

A European, Kazimierz Żegleń used Goodfellow's findings to develop a bulletproof vest made of silk fabric at the end of the 19th century, which could stop the relatively slow rounds from black powder handguns. The vests cost $800 USD each and several gentleman of the Parliament bought and wore them.

Synopsis:

Determining whom to trust is getting very hard, indeed. This may be the most trying cases imaginable. Director Stone has gone missing and it appears Ministers of Parliament are involved. Xavier is arrested and placed in a jail meant to kill him, while Vic, disguised as a woman, attempts to locate the Minister of External Affairs and ask for his help.

Everyone is called in to assist: Jacko, his wife Alice, their son Pete, Samson the Crime Lord, David and Claire, Tubs and his wife Sara, the boys: Cannon and Ham, plus the bloodhound Arroo.

The Wasp who escaped punishment for her attempts to murder her bigamist husband’s first wife last year is back. Vic discovers love letters between Ben, their terrible secretary and the Wasp. Worse yet, he shared Xavier’s financial advice with the Wasp, making her and her husband very wealthy.

With Stone missing, and Barns and Meyers stretched to their limits, Vic decides it’s time to train more of the Scotland Yard officers in intuitive and deductive reasoning. While only half the class makes it through her two-day course, everyone is pleased with her results.

Be warned, Vic’s sister, Claire, is becoming more difficult than ever. Gregory thinks she is going mad.

Once Vic, Cannon, Casey, and Fagan left, Xavier rushed upstairs and returned five minutes later as an old man.
 
Tubs waited at the door. “I’ll stay in the shadows, but I’m going.”

“I need to check the place out anyway,” Jacko stated.

“Well, damn it all, I’ll go as well.” Samson declared. “Mason spent so little time in my company, he’s probably forgotten me entirely.”

Xavier studied him a moment. “Don’t count on it. Wait here,” he ordered, then hurried upstairs. When he returned, he handed Samson a thick silk vest.

“I am wearing a vest,” he replied.

“Is it bulletproof?” Xavier challenged.

“No. Are you saying this one is?”

“Yes. There was an incident in which an American doctor reported that a man’s silk vest stopped a bullet. He shared the matter with Connors who shared the matter with me. I, of course, asked David to see if he could create such a vest, and here it is.”

“Has it been tested?” Samson asked, doubtful that silk could stop a bullet.

“It has. In fact, several men in the parliament wear them now.”

Samson smiled. “Thank you for sharing this. I would be most willing to buy my own—”

“David handmakes them, and he is a bit busy at the moment, so just enjoy my vest.”

“That is very kind of you. Does this mean you are starting to like me?”

Xavier chuckled. “Not at all.”

Book 8

TOXIC DIAMONDS

The Queen’s Diamonds have been stolen, Director Stone of Scotland Yard is missing, and there is a toxic gas that may kill hundreds of Londoners.
Free with Amazon Kindle Unlimited

Need to catch up?

Book 1

The Troublesome Apprentice

 The greatest sleuth in Victorian England hires a young man who turns out to be a young woman.

Book 2

The Missing Partner

 Oops! The greatest sleuth in Victorian England goes missing, leaving Vic to rescue him, a suffragette, and about 100 servants. Not to mention an eviscerating cat. Yes, let’s not mention the cat.

Book 2.5

A Right to Love

 A romantic detour for Jacko. Want to see how amply rewarded Jacko was when he & Vic save an old woman from Bedlam?

Book 3

The Mesmerist

 The Mesmerist can control people from afar and make them murder for her. Worse yet, Xavier Thorn has fallen under her spell.

Book 4

Well Kept Secrets

The problems with secrets is that they always come to light, no matter how you wish to silence them.

Book 5

Pack of Trouble

 Changes are a part of life, but these changes almost kill Vic.

Book 6

The Darkest Days

 Muddled cases make Vic very grumpy.

Book 7

The CrimeLords’ War

Vic is almost killed twice as she tries to prevent a CrimeLords’ War, stop a female Russian spy, and locate Xavier.

All Xavier & Vic books are Free with Amazon Unlimited

Liza O’Connor was raised badly by feral cats, left the South/Midwest and wandered off to find nicer people on the east coast. There she worked for the meanest man on Wall Street, while her psychotic husband tried to kill her three times. (So much for finding nicer people.) Then one day she declared enough, got a better job, divorced her husband, and fell in love with her new life where people behaved nicely. But all those bad behaviors has given her lots of fodder for her humorous books. Please buy these books, because otherwise, she’ll become grumpy and write troubled novels instead. They will likely traumatize you.

You have been warned.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT LIZA O'CONNOR’S MANY BOOKS

Investigate these sites:

Liza's Blog and Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Liberty!

To enter, click HERE.

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All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Blog Tour: Pack of Trouble by @Liza0Connor humorous Victorian mystery #BookPlugs #BYNR #IARTG

Vic is certain that if Claire has a baby, she’ll turn herself around. But try as she might, Claire cannot get pregnant.

Today, I’m sharing some possible reasons why Claire can’t seem to have babies.

At sixteen, Claire decided to give herself to her beloved, the butler in training. However, she didn’t dare have children, so like her Aunt Maddy, she took droughts.

While most Victorian women knew very little about how to prevent pregnancies, the women in Aunt Maddy’s line had successfully passed down a ‘recipe’ book from the fourteenth-century book that contained various recipes to prevent and stop pregnancies.

Her aunt made the acid-based drought exactly as the original book instructed and she never had a child. So she naturally shared this with Claire. However, Claire wished to improve upon the concoction based on all that she had read from the various erudite pamphlets to which she subscribed under Victor’s name.

It is possible the constant and daily use of these acid draughts scarred her ovaries, especially if her changes were to ‘strengthen’ the potency.

The second possible reason Claire cannot have children is her interest and work using uranium dust. Vic has warned her not to handle it, knowing people who use it often begin to lose their health. However, neither realized the full extent of the danger. Thus, it is possible her exposure was enough to make her sterile.

A final possibility is that David’s use of an x-ray machine in his dental office has made him sterile and the problem is not Claire’s at all.

We will never know for sure why Claire could not have children, but even when she gave up her butler in training and married her gentle, obliging, highly intelligent David, no matter how often they tried, no seed would set in her womb.

The lack of a child, left her without purpose, and to be frank, was making her a bit crazy.

Vic knew her baby sister needed a baby, so when she rescued little Maddy from certain death, she brought the child to Claire, only to be left waiting at the front door like unwanted vermin.

While Xavier’s plan to take a holiday in Europe for Vic to have her baby incognito works well enough, complications during the birth almost takes both mother and child. Dr. Connors performs his first cesarean ever. While successful, it Vic takes months to recover. A prisoner to the bed, she spends her time encouraging marriage between two of their employees. Unfortunately, Xavier’s original negotiations with Tubs prevents the giant from acting upon his heart. While Xavier chases ladies enjoying the sun, Vic convinces Tubs to resign his service.

When Xavier and Vic return to England, the head of Scotland Yard awaits them at the dock. A great change in Parliament has occurred due to the fallout of their last investigation. England is crumbling beneath an outbreak of crimes and their help is desperately needed before lives are ruined and jobs are lost.

When they arrived at Vic’s prior estate, no one answered the door for fifteen minutes, although someone was home because curtains kept moving. While Vic had a wheelchair to sit in and Tubs was used to standing for long periods of time, Sally was left standing, with the baby in her arms. “You might want to take Maddy back to the carriage.

“A little sun is good for her. But if no one answers in five minutes, I’ll find shade. However, if no one answers then maybe this isn’t meant to be.”

“She has a point,” Tubs muttered.


“Hit the door again,” Vic said.

Tubs slammed the side of his fist against the door once, creating a loud explosion, rather like a small bomb.

Finally, the door opened to one very angry sister.

“How dare you come here and terrify my servants!”

For the first time in her life, Vic stared up at her petite sister. “If I had a fern, I would lay it down now in a declaration of peace, but I don’t. So just listen to what I have to say. Our fight has been going on for long enough. It’s time for each of us to forgive and move on.”

Claire’s eyes rimmed with tears. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”

Vic stared up at her. “We survived a shipwreck, surely we can survive this as well.”

Her pretty forehead crinkled. “Why are you in a wheelchair?”

About to reply ‘it’s nothing’, Vic decided the truth might actually move matters along faster. “I almost died recently.”

Claire’s face paled. “Oh…I’m sorry.”

“Well, I wasn’t too happy about it either, but it saved a life and got me to thinking about what’s important.”

Her sister’s eyes grew watery and her head shook. “No, I mean I’m really sorry, Vic. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Vic had no clue which horrible thing she thought she shouldn’t have done. Was it claiming Jacko abused L’il Pete, firing Gregory when he wouldn’t lie to help her steal Pete, or demanding sweet Sara be fired? Maybe it was telling Alice that ridiculous story about Pete dangling a baby off the carriage.

“Could we come inside? Maddy’s turning pink,” Vic said.

“Maddy?” her confusion turned to rapture as she spied the tiny baby. “Maddy…oh she’s beautiful!” Claire rushed to the baby, pulling her out of Sally’s arms. She then hurried inside without actually inviting the rest of them to enter.

Book 5
Pack of Trouble
AMAZON
Free with Amazon Kindle Unlimited

Need to catch up?
Book 1
The Troublesome Apprentice

The greatest sleuth in Victorian England hires a young man

who turns out to be a young woman.

Book 2
The Missing Partner

Opps! The greatest sleuth in Victorian England goes missing, leaving Vic to rescue him, a suffragette, and about 100 servants. Not to mention an eviscerating cat. Yes, let’s not mention the cat.

Book 2.5
A Right to Love

A romantic detour for Jacko. Want to see how amply rewarded Jacko was when he & Vic save an old woman from Bedlam?

Book 3
The Mesmerist

 The Mesmerist can control people from afar and make them murder for her. Worse yet, Xavier Thorn has fallen under her spell.

Book 4
Well Kept Secrets

L’il Pete’s mum is murdered,

and discovering who & why reveals a great deal of secrets.

All Xavier books Free with Amazon Unlimited

Liza O’Connor was raised badly by feral cats, left the South/Midwest and wandered off to find nicer people on the east coast. There she worked for the meanest man on Wall Street, while her psychotic husband tried to kill her three times. (So much for finding nicer people.) Then one day she declared enough, got a better job, divorced her husband, and fell in love with her new life where people behaved normally. But all those bad behaviors have given her lots of fodder for her humorous romances. Please buy these books, because otherwise, she’ll become grumpy and write troubled novels instead. They will likely traumatize you.

You have been warned.

Mostly humorous books by Liza:

Ghost Lover— Two British brothers fall in love with the same young woman. Ancestral ghost is called in to fix the situation. And there’s a ghost cat that roams about the book as well. (Humorous Contemporary Romance)

Untamed & Unabashed—The youngest of the Bennet sisters, Lydia, tells her story. A faithful spinoff from Pride & Prejudice.

A Long Road to Love Series: (Humorous Contemporary odd Romance)
Worst Week Ever — Laugh out loud week of disasters of Epic proportions.

Oh Stupid Heart — The heart wants what it wants, even if it’s impossible.

Coming to Reason — There is a breaking point when even a saint comes to reason.

Climbing out of Hell — The reconstruction of a terrible man into a great one.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

***

All this month, you are invited to...
— Add Kim as a favorite author on Amazon.com
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Add Kim to Google+
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Amazon, Twitter, and/or YouTube follow
...and each action this month is good for one chance to win an e-book copy of Morning's Journey. Please enter often, and good luck!

Character interview: Alice Collins from the Adventures of Xavier & Vic series by @Liza0Connor

Today, we have Alice Collins from the Adventures of Xavier & Vic series to talk about poison.

Kim: Welcome Alice. I’m curious as to why you are discussing the matter of poison instead of Vic.

Alice: Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that. All I know is that I received a most peculiar letter that I wished Vic to investigate. However, when I arrived at Thorn’s Private Inquiries, Vic was not there and Xavier was barely there.

Kim: What do you mean ‘barely there’?

Alice: He was behaving in a confused and angry manner. When I offered him coffee to help him wake, he slapped it away and accused me of trying to poison him…again.

Kim: Have you tried to poison him before?

Alice: Of course not! I do not go around poisoning people. I realize my social standing in society is persona non grata, but that doesn’t mean I’ve resorted to poisoning people, and even if I had, I assure you I would never harm Vic or Xavier. Vic discovered where my step-father had hidden my mother so Jacko could rescue her.  Thus, she—I meant to say he—helped to return my mother and also sent me the love of my life. I had never expected to marry, and now I’m having my second child with the most wonderful, loving man in the world.

Kim: Sounds lovely. But why did Xavier think you had poisoned him?

Alice: Evidently, the butler of one the Ministers of Parliament poured a half cup of arsenic into his coffee. As you may be aware, poisoning people with arsenic has become a Victorian pastime. It has been said that more people die from arsenic than rats do. The Parliament has attempted to stop the improper use of poisons by requiring the pharmacist to know the person he is selling the poison to. But at most, that can only delay matters a short time as you purchase a few items in advance of asking for arsenic to kill the rats.

Kim: A poor solution indeed.

Alice: Next they passed a law that arsenic must be mixed with charcoal or indigo ink. Fortunately, for Xavier, the butler possessed arsenic with charcoal, which caused Xavier to spit the coffee back into the cup upon first taste. He said it was like licking the inside of a chimney.

Kim: That seems like a much better deterrent.  I believe pure arsenic is considered to be almost tasteless and odorless.

Alice: That is correct, which makes soot an effective warning substance.

Kim: What about the other option of mixing indigo ink with the poison? What does that taste like?

Alice: Indigo ink comes from the leaves of Indigofera Tinctatoria. It’s a tropical legume and is used to improve soils between plantings. Depending on the base used to stabilize the coloring, its taste might not have been detected in a strong coffee. If lye was used, it would have been, but there are other options.

Kim: For someone who claims not to be poisoning people, you sure do know a great deal about poisons.

Alice: Well, I run an estate of some of the finest farmland in England. Rodent control is critical to a successful farm. Some farmers use arsenic as a pesticide since it attacks the internal organs of a bug just as easily as it does a human. However, arsenic remains in the soil a very long time, and some vegetables will mistake it for nutrients and absorb it. So while we do use it on rats and other small pests, we are very careful to keep it away from our plants, livestock, and most importantly, the children.

Kim: What are the symptoms of arsenic poisoning?

Alice: If you swallow the poison, first you will feel a burning in your throat, followed by difficulty in swallowing. Next you incur violent stomach pains, which will cause continuous vomiting as the body attempts to purge the poison. Diarrhea, fainting, cramps in the calves, and vertigo would follow, ending in a loss of consciousness and death.  It is most fortunate Xavier spit out the first sip at once. In this case, the use of too much poison saved his life.

Kim: Most fortunate indeed. Thank you, Alice. Let’s check out a bit more about this story.

The great Victorian sleuth Xavier Thorn and his partner Vic Hamilton take a case close to home. Their youngest staff member, L’il Pete, discovers his mother murdered in the alley. Jacko is called up from the country to assist in solving the crime. The good woman’s murder proves to be tangled up with a much larger and shocking list of crimes perpetrated by a powerful man who may truly be above the law. Making matters more complex: Vic discovers her recent weight gain may be the result of a condition that could destroy her life and everything she loves.


When Davy dragged his boss through Dr. Connors’ waiting room, which contained the elite of London, they gasped in horror at ‘the poor’ polluting their space. They were baffled when the nurse led the two men straight in to see the doctor.

One gentleman rose to object, but whatever the nurse whispered silenced him at once. Once seated, he leaned to the woman beside him and shared what he had been told. Upon taking in the information, she told the woman beside her.

By the time Davy hurried out to his carriage, the entire lobby of very fine people smiled and nodded as he rushed by.

***
Davy didn’t notice the people in the lobby, not when he carried Xavier into the doctor or when Connors told him to bring Inspector Stone at once.

All he knew was someone had poisoned his boss.

Davy ignored the people scrambling to get out of the way of his speeding carriage. Upon arriving at New Scotland Yard, he ignored the policeman yelling at him that he couldn’t leave his carriage in front of the building.

He ran past the officer at the front desk demanding he stop and state his business and up what seemed to be a thousand flights of steps to Inspector Stone’s corner office. Just before he reached the door, he was tackled from behind.

Fortunately, the noise of his fall and his shouts for Inspector Stone brought the head of Scotland Yard to him.

Upon seeing it was Davy, the Inspector demanded his men to release him.

Davy scrambled to his feet. “Xavier’s been poisoned. Dr. Connors says to come at once!”

Book 4
Well Kept Secrets
AMAZON
Free with Amazon Kindle Unlimited

L’il Pete’s mum is murdered,

and discovering who & why reveals a great deal of secrets.

Need to catch up?
Book 1
The Troublesome Apprentice

The greatest sleuth in Victorian England hires a young man

who turns out to be a young woman.

Book 2
The Missing Partner

Opps! The greatest sleuth in Victorian England goes missing, leaving Vic to rescue him, a suffragette, and about 100 servants. Not to mention an eviscerating cat. Yes, let’s not mention the cat.

Book 2.5
A Right to Love

A romantic detour for Jacko. Want to see how amply rewarded Jacko was when he & Vic save an old woman from Bedlam?

Book 3
The Mesmerist

 The Mesmerist can control people from afar and make them murder for her. Worse yet, Xavier Thorn has fallen under her spell.

 
All Xavier books Free with Amazon Unlimited

Liza O’Connor was raised badly by feral cats, left the South/Midwest and wandered off to find nicer people on the east coast. There she worked for the meanest man on Wall Street, while her psychotic husband tried to kill her three times. (So much for finding nicer people.) Then one day she declared enough, got a better job, divorced her husband, and fell in love with her new life where people behaved normally. But all those bad behaviors have given her lots of fodder for her humorous romances. Please buy these books, because otherwise, she’ll become grumpy and write troubled novels instead. They will likely traumatize you.

You have been warned.

Mostly humorous books by Liza:

Ghost Lover— Two British brothers fall in love with the same young woman. Ancestral ghost is called in to fix the situation. And there’s a ghost cat that roams about the book as well. (Humorous Contemporary Romance)

Untamed & Unabashed—The youngest of the Bennet sisters, Lydia, tells her story. A faithful spinoff from Pride & Prejudice.

A Long Road to Love Series: (Humorous Contemporary odd Romance)
Worst Week Ever — Laugh out loud week of disasters of Epic proportions.

Oh Stupid Heart — The heart wants what it wants, even if it’s impossible.

Coming to Reason — There is a breaking point when even a saint comes to reason.

Climbing out of Hell — The reconstruction of a terrible man into a great one.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

Enter this great giveaway for e-books, note cards, 

and an autographed print copy of Dawnflight!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


All this month, you are invited to...
— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Add Kim to Google+
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on this blog, especially if you have done the Twitter and/or YouTube follow
...and each action this month is good for one chance to win an e-book copy of Dawnflight. Please enter often, and good luck!