Hi everyone. Today I am featuring "Ashes on the Wind" by: Brandy Purdy. Check out his sneak peek, book details, and giveaway in the following post. Happy reading and don't forget to grab your copy today!
The love story behind the Crime of the Century
Ashes on the Wind:
The Love Story Behind the Crime of the Century
by: Brandy Purdy
Genre: Dark Historical LGBTQ Romantic Suspense, True Crime
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Before I went to bed, I sent a telegram to Dickie, asking him to forgive and forget what I had said, I was on my way home to make amends.
His reply was on my breakfast tray the next morning beside a platter of sliced pineapple: “I HOPE THE BOAT SINKS!”
Clearly my adored one was still upset.
It was Len, looking as sour as ever, who met my boat. Standing beside the silver limousine in his smart gray uniform, he presented me with a note from Dickie telling me to meet him at the castle. I immediately leapt into the car and ordered Len to take me to LaSalle Street Station. I rushed inside and bought a ticket for the next train to Charlevoix with just moments to spare. I ran so fast I lost my hat, but I didn’t care. When the conductor reached down a hand to pull me aboard as the wheels began turning, I grinned like a fool. “I’m in love!” I told him. “Helplessly, hopelessly, and forever!”
I found Dickie on the sleeping porch. He was sitting on one of the cherry blossom chintz- covered beds, hugging Teddy and leaning back against the screen, enjoying the night breeze. He was wearing a light summer union suit of pink and white striped silk. Like a lover, the sun had kissed his skin and run fingers through his hair. His eyes never leaving me, Dickie slowly sucked, licked, and twirled a cherry-red lollipop in his mouth. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was such a delectable sight!
“The boat didn’t sink,” I said and set my suitcase down.
“Obviously!” Dickie replied. “Unlike our fires, I’m sure it would have been in all the newspapers if it had!”
Yes, my darling was still upset. There was an edge to his voice that made me briefly consider picking up my suitcase and running back to the train station. Instead, I took off my coat and loosened my tie.
“I bet they would have put your picture in the paper if the boat had sunk! Millionaire’s son and prominent ornithologist lost at sea! That’s what they would have written! I hate you! The whole time you were on that boat I kept thinking: I hope a seagull pecks your eyes out and when you fall overboard a squid drags you down to a watery death, and jellyfish come and sting you all over, and then a shark eats whatever’s left of your sorry carcass! It would be just like you to let yourself die that way just to cheat me out of the chance to be a pallbearer at your funeral and get my picture in the papers!”
“Well, you can’t expect me to drown like an ordinary person!” I joked and stepped out of my trousers. “And, even without a body, there could still be a memorial service.” I sat down beside him and gave his knee an affectionate pat. “My mother told me that when Mr. and Mrs. Straus perished on the Titanic his body was recovered but hers was never found, so their children collected water from the sea and put it in an urn to be entombed in their mausoleum. She used to like to quote the inscription: Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. You could give the eulogy,” I offered, “that’s much better than being a pallbearer.”
Dickie just glared at me. “Oh, you do not want that, Nathan, you do not want that at all! I’d give a eulogy Chicago would never forget! I’d stand this city on its ear! Your family wouldn’t be able to hold their heads up ever again after I finished talking! Everyone would be expecting me to say all kinds of nice things about you, but I’d tell them exactly what you did to me!”
“Which time?” I smirked.
“Every time! All the time! You seduced, blackmailed, and threatened me to ensure I’d continue to be the helpless and innocent victim of your perverted and unnatural lust!”
“It’s very strange, I don’t remember any of this actually happening…Didn’t you miss me at all?”
“No!”
“Not even a little?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it!”
“No, you were too busy thinking of me as a smorgasbord for sea creatures, that’s perfectly understandable. So…What have you been reading?” I picked up the book lying on the bed beside him. “Ah! Our old friend Venus in Furs! I remember when I gave this to you! You did miss me; didn’t you, My Treasure?”
“You’d like to think so, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I would!” I admitted freely.
I knelt down before him, a supplicant in white silk, and solemnly kissed his knee.
“Yes, I seriously want to be your slave,” I recited. “I want your power over me to be sanctified by law; I want my life to be in your hands, I want nothing in this world to be able to protect me or save me from you. Oh, what a voluptuous joy to feel myself entirely dependent on your will, your whim, at your beck and call! And then what bliss, when you feel merciful, and allow your slave to kiss the lips which mean life and death to him.”
Dickie leaned down as though he meant to kiss me, but just when our lips were a breath apart, he pulled back.
BLURB:
Nathan "Babe" Leopold was a socially awkward genius who used arrogance as a shield. He cultivated a philosophy of absolute selfishness cherry-picked from his reading of Nietzsche and indulged himself with vivid sexual fantasies about kings and slaves.
Richard "Dickie" Loeb was the brightest of the bright young things, a social butterfly as fragile as glass inside, hiding his insecurities behind a dazzling smile and a mouthful of lies. He found escape in thrilling tales and fantasies of crime.
They were two brilliant and privileged boys, each harboring secrets it would have been social suicide to reveal in their 1920s world.
When Babe met Dickie, it was like his favorite fantasy had stepped out of his dreams into real life.
When Dickie met Babe, he thought he had found the accomplice who would help make his criminal dreams come true.
Dickie was willing to give Babe what he wanted, if Babe would give him what he wanted. Quid pro quo. Until Dickie wanted something more, leaving Babe desperate and willing to do anything to hold onto his dream. Even if it led down a dark path to the Crime of the Century and infamy as the thrill killers Leopold and Loeb.
I have read all but one of Brandy Purdy’s novels, since 2010 and I have enjoyed them all including Ashes on the Wind. Brandy spends extensive time doing research and has the knack for telling a great story.~CelticLady Reviews
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Brandy Purdy
Brandy Purdy is the author of several historical novels including The Ripper's Wife, The Secrets of Lizzie Borden, The Boleyn Wife, and The Tudor Throne.
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