Yvonne
This is a meme for all you ‘First Page Browsers’
‘RICO STAYS‘ – (Pigeon -Blood Red – Book #3) by ED DUNCAN
BOOK BEGINNINGS / FIRST LINES
CHAPTER ONE
“It was a nice day for a ballgame: sunny and mild in the mid-seventies with a slight breeze blowing in from left field. Rico inhaled, appreciating the sweet scent of steaming hot dogs that hung in the air just above the stadium seats.
‘Here we go. Into the bottom of the seventh, all tied up one to one. This has turned into a dandy.’
Rico opened his eyes. It was a nice day for a ballgame, all right, but he was watching it on TV from his favorite easy chair. There were no hotdogs. He had closed his eyes for a second between innings and had drifted away, only to be ushered back to wakefulness by the practiced cadence of the announcer’s voice.
‘Oh, well,’ he said to himself out loud. ‘Time for a beer.’ He rose and as he did, his phone rang. It was his land line, a relic he knew, but after so many years, he couldn’t bear to part with it. Almost no one called him on it except telemarketers and, of course, his stunningly attractive girlfriend, Jean. Along with the remote, the phone rested on a small side table next to his chair. He glanced at the caller I.D., grabbed the remote, and lowered the volume on the TV. He picked up the phone and eased back down into his chair. ‘Hit me,’ he said.
‘Still watching the game?’ Jean asked, on the other end.
‘Yeah.’
‘Close game?’
‘Right again.’
‘I guess it wouldn’t be the best time to ask for a favour then.’
‘Three out of three,’ he said.
‘What if I asked real nice?’ she teased.
‘That wouldn’t help,’ Rico said.
Jean frowned and rolled her eyes. ‘Rico-‘
‘But I’ll come and get you anyway.’
‘Read my mind again,’ Jean said.
‘It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out you bought more than you and the old guy could carry. Do me a favour. Next time take the car.’ …
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So, you have taken a look, would you read the book?
Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
Just to give you an extra helping hand, here is the book’s premise …
My review is currently scheduled for 10th August 2020
I’ll let you into a little secret…I just know that this scene of perfect domestic bliss is not going to be what it seems!
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‘RICO STAYS‘ – (Pigeon -Blood Red – Book #3) by ED DUNCAN
After enforcer Richard “Rico” Sanders stepped in to protect his girlfriend from a local mob boss’s hot-headed nephew, all hell broke loose.
When the smoke cleared, the nephew had vanished, but three goons who had tried to help him lay dying where they’d stood. Fighting for his life, Rico was alive but gravely wounded.
Out of the hospital but not fully recovered, he needed a place to crash – a place where he wouldn’t be found by men who surely would be looking. A place like the cabin owned by lawyer Paul Elliott, whose life Rico had saved more than once. Trouble was, Paul’s girlfriend hadn’t forgotten Rico’s dark history. Or Paul’s fascination with him.
Using Rico’s girlfriend as bait, vengeful killers soon would be coming for him. The only question was whether he would face them alone or with help from Paul.
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You might also like to visit Gilion, over at ‘Rose City Reader‘, where you can share links to the book beginnings from her own reading schedule and that of many of our fellow bloggers. There are always plenty of new authors and titles to be discovered.
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Hi Yvonne! Love this style of stories, and yeah, that bliss is not going to last long lol
Today I’m featuring You Can’t Catch Me by Catherine McKenzie.
I don’t generally read too much from the ‘gang-lit’ genre, however I can ‘hand on heart’ say that I have thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy and I am still busy lobbying the author not to call it a day and to write more cases for ‘Rico’ to solve. He really is the bad guy you love to hate and try as I might, I just can’t dislike him!
Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend 🙂
I love the dialogue, and reading about someone else who also had a landline long past its trend, I had to smile. I wanted to know these characters.
Thanks for sharing, and here’s mine: “THE HALF SISTER”
Hi Lorraine,
I’ll let you into a secret – we still have a landline, as many of our friends and family won’t pay to ring into our mobile numbers and it is always handy to give out when you have to leave a phone number, but you only want the person to have it for that one particular event or delivery!
Given ‘Rico’s’ profession, I must admit that I was quite surprised about the landline thing, especially as it was still installed for sentimental reasons. Although he is a professional with a difference!
Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and have a good weekend 🙂
Oh that looks good! Hope you enjoyed it!
Hi! Angelique,
Thanks for stopping by today, it is good to ‘meet’ you. I appreciate any visits and always value reading your thoughts and comments 🙂
This is the final part of the ‘Pigeon – Blood Red’ trilogy and the books almost turn the pages themselves so good are they, so in fact I have finished this one already!
If ever there was a villain you could love to hate, then ‘Rico’ is that man, he really got under my skin.
Happy Reading and have a good weekend 🙂
I think it’s a good opener… the dialog draws the reader right in! “Book Beginnings” is one of my favorite memes in which you participate. How a book starts off can make or break it for me.
Hi Kelly,
There are so many memes and challenges out there in Blogland, that knowing which ones to feature books in, is quite difficult.
BBOF was one of the first such memes I joined when I began blogging and it has always gathered a good following, whilst it has lasted the course of time with the same lovely host!
So many of the other memes have fallen by the wayside, or have been passed on from one blogger to another, so much so, that eventually I have lost track of them altogether.
I do agree with you to a point, about the first lines of a book needing to set the scene and draw me in, however I am always willing to read at least the first 10 pages or so, just so those slow-burner books, which turn out to be really good reads, don’t slip through the net.
Also, so many authors use prologue pages these days, that I have to read at least that, together with those all important opening lines, just to get an overall feel for the story.
Great to have you stop by and as always, I appreciate your comments 🙂
This series has been in the corner of my brain since it started. This one sounds just as exciting as the first two. I should give it a try.
Hi Gilion,
The three books are full length stories, but I have to say that the pages fly by, so if you could read them back to back, that might be the best option!
I didn’t find them too violent, for all that ‘Rico’ is a hit man and by default, the bodies do begin to stack up. Also, the language is on the whole, quite tame.
‘Rico’ is definitely an anti-hero I came to quite like and as added interest for yourself in particular, his path always seems to cross with that of a lawyer called, Paul, who builds a totally unexpected rapport with and respect for, ‘Rico’.
Thanks for enabling me to share my first line in BBOF, it is one of my favourite memes 🙂
Enjoy this one Yvonne, and that cover is attention grabbing.
Hi Naida,
I really enjoyed this trilogy, now all I have to do is persuade author Ed Duncan to keep on writing adventures for his anti-hero ‘Rico’.
The covers of all three books are quite dark and brooding and although Rico’s ‘profession’ is very dark, his personality is not really and that does peep through in the narrative and dialogue, especially in this final story!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that all is well with you 🙂