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About the Author

L.M. Preston, a native of Washington, DC. An avid reader, she loved to create poetry and short-stories as a young girl. She is an author, an engineer, a professor, a mother and a wife. Her passion for writing and helping others to see their potential through her stories and encouragement has been her life’s greatest adventures.She loves to write while on the porch watching her kids play or when she is traveling, which is another passion that encouraged her writing.

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The Aberration Series: Book 2

Thriller / Noir

Date Published: 03-07-2022

Publisher: Happy London Press

This is the second book in the Aberrations Series, a collection of ten new, short stories to tease and tickle.

How would you feel if you came face to face with a contract killer? I did, and it formed the basis for my title story .

But then, most, if not all of my yarns have a foundation in something I’ve heard, read or personally experienced.

I’ve kept a diary, for example, but have not had as macabre an experience as the old man in my tale, Dear Diary .

One might wonder, for example, whether, given the chance, the leopard might ever change its spots? Read my take on it and find out for yourself. This story was based on an actual event involving my wife, when she was just six years old. Her mother was so appalled by what happened, she refused to ever speak about it, or hear about it for the rest of her life.

I am not, and have never been a Gigolo, but decided to have our hero from Book 1 meet his comeuppance in Book 2 when he meets a Courtesan, who tumbles his well-kept secret. It’s all there for you to appreciate.

In this second Book in the series, I’ve also looked at taxidermy, car crime and conditions under which an innocent journalist might be tortured and imprisoned in Vietnam? All based on personal experience, or else events I’ve read about in the press which struck me as being worthy of a view to be expressed in a short story .

These are just a few tasters of a collection of tales I hope you’ll enjoy reading as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.

Andrew Segal

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EXCERPT

The glint of steel defined the blade held in the man’s right hand. The
shank was at least eight inches long. Its owner, in his twenties, over
six feet tall, in tight blue jeans, with muscles bursting from his shabby
white T- shirt, frowned like one intent on a task in hand. His three
colleagues, of similar height and build, seemed equally absorbed. They
were fanned out across the pavement like a herd of approaching
buffalo, in the otherwise deserted street, on what was a cold grey
October afternoon.
The object of their attention was the two men approaching them.
The older of the two, in his early forties, bull-necked, shaven headed,
around five feet eight, his companion, in his late teens, lean built and
slightly taller.
The younger man spoke first, his voice tremulous, “Christ dad. I said
we shouldn’t have come down this street. It’s asking for trouble.”
“It’s a free country son. We don’t need permission to walk any street
we want.”
“But what’re we gonna do? There’s four of ‘em.”
“Stand still son. Now! Let them come to us. We start nothing. Maybe
they’ll walk on. If they start getting clever, well, just remember what
I’ve taught you.”
The four were closer now. “Dad?” The boy sounded frightened, felt
frightened, his heart hammering painfully in his chest.

Excerpt From: Andrew Segal. “I’m a Contract Killer: Murderous,
Explosive, Deviant.”

All Copyrights reserved by the author Andrew Segal 2022

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About the Author

My inspirations have come from real people, events or situations that have presented themselves. Titles like, I am a Contract Killer, I am a Gigolo, Death Zone, License to Kill, are all based on my own lifetime experiences, questions asked, incidents occurring.

Let me be reassuring, thus-far, nobody has been murdered on my watch. But the notion gave rise to the impetus to write my first murder mystery, The Lyme Regis Murders. Could I make the jump after years of writing macabre short stories to a full length drama? That familiar beating in the gut, said, ‘Yes, try it. Give it a go.’

And so to that cosy coastal town where nothing untoward ever happens. Or perhaps it does. The author seeks to shatter notions, change people’s perceptions, spoil long held views. That was my intention in entering into the world of crime thrillers. I’ve found that ‘nice’ people are not always what they seem. The helpless can be transformed into the most dangerous, the most dangerous become the most harmless. It’s all up to the writer and what they’re hoping to achieve.

For me there have been 10 children’s books, 4 books of short stories and so far, three novels, with a fourth in the mixer.

Whilst a short story might be written with a flurry of adrenalin in the space of a few hours, a book will need more than just a flash of creativity. It will need perseverance, discipline and dogged determination.

But then, isn’t that what is required of every ambition?

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