Welcome to Sue Coletta’s crime writer website!
Sue’s authored five novels, short stories, and long ago, children’s books. Her biggest passion has always been crime fiction, both as a reader and a writer, and she gravitates toward longer works like thrillers, suspense and mysteries rather than flash or short fiction.
Sue is a proud member of Sisters In Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and the co-administrator and contributor of Prose & Cons, an authors’ blog with twenty-four traditionally published authors. You can find out more about Prose & Cons as well as two other blogs she contributes to in About me.
In her Murder Blog you can expect to find fascinating interviews with incredible guests, novel excerpts, writing tips, research, and anything and everything in between. She welcomes all new followers, comments, likes and shares. If you have a post idea shoot her an email, or fill out the contact form below. You can find her contact information on the About me page. If you’re wondering where to start she suggests a three-part series, entitled Q & A With A Real Undercover Operative. Or a fabulous Interview With Bestselling Author Larry Brooks, author of Story Engineering, Bait and Switch, and other critically acclaimed thrillers and craft books. Please feel free to use her Crime Writer’s Resource, an invaluable tool for those who have murders in their plot.
Sign up to receive a free gift — 50 Ways To Murder Your Fictional Characters. Click the image (below) to go directly to sign-up, or the link (above) for a sample of what’s inside.
Blurbs of her novels…
MARRED (85K word psychological thriller/mystery) Scheduled for release 11/11/15 by Tirgearr Publishing.
A serial killer breaks into the home of bestselling author Sage Quintano, and she barely escapes with her life. Her husband Niko, a homicide detective, insists they move to rural New Hampshire, where he accepts a position as Grafton County Sheriff.
Sage buries secrets from that night. Secrets she swears to take to her deathbed.
Three years of anguish and painful memories pass, and a grisly murder case lands on Niko’s desk. A strange caller torments Sage…she can’t outrun the past.
When Sage’s twin sister suddenly goes missing Sage searches Niko’s case files and discovers similarities to the Boston killer. A sadistic psychopath is preying on innocent women, marring their bodies in unspeakable ways. And now, he has her sister.
Cryptic clues. Hidden messages. Is the killer hinting at his identity? Or is he trying to lure Sage into a deadly trap to end his reign of terror with a matching set of corpses?
Timber Point (90K word thriller/mystery)
Cat burglar Shawnee Daniels always believed her “fearlessness rules” mantra would keep her on top and out of jail. When her latest break-in leads her to a secret room with an aquarium filled with cockroaches — roaches like she heard about on the news — she instantly realizes there are some people more dangerous than cops… serial killers.
She tells herself it’s no big deal until a mutilated chipmunk arrives at her door soon after. Somehow, he’s found her. When the midnight phone calls start, she knows he’s not going away. She listens as his demon-like voice whispers how she inadvertently stole his precious trophy box — and he wants it back!
The only problem is, she can’t find what he wants. Did she drop it when she ran from the house? She’s afraid, but going to the cops isn’t an option without risking her freedom. When her “helpful” best friend insists on a blind date with charismatic Detective Levaughn Samuels it might make that impossible, though. Ordinarily Shawnee would rather drink bleach than date a cop, but Levaughn might help her get this psycho off her tail.
Now she’s juggling being stalked by a killer, dating the lead detective on the case and trying to hold on to her own heart. Plus, the closer she gets to Levaughn and the case, the more she realizes she’s responsible for the killer’s next victim. If she doesn’t find the trophy box, the killer’s coming for her. If she doesn’t come clean with Levaughn more will die. And if she does, she could lose the only man she’s ever loved.
To read an excerpt from Timber Point, click on Murder Blog, then on the title in the sidebar, under novels.
A Deadly Yearning (stand alone psychological thriller)
What if you could reunite with dead loved one? What if the only way was at the expense of your dearest friend? How far would you go?
These questions and more haunt Aubrey Meadows after her husband Lee dies in a car crash. (More on this coming soon.)
Silent Betrayal, Timber Point’s sequel. (99K word suspense/mystery)
There’s an underground chamber buried deep in the woods. A site of an underground tomb, where a secret society holds ceremonies in blood. A site of worship, where unscrupulous men pay homage to an ancient Biblical tale. A site of murder, where half-truths result in an unspeakable acts of violence for profit.
When thirty-year-old Shawnee Daniels, a prolific cat burglar, prowls into the wrong house and discovers someone’s darkest secret, she’s thrust into a world of murder, deceit and corruption. As she fights to stay alive, she tries to put the pieces together to a puzzle so bizarre that even her fiancé, homicide detective Levaughn Samuels, doesn’t believe. Everything is not how it seems. Noms de guerre cloak fraud, chicanery, skullduggery. If Shawnee doesn’t unravel the mystery before it’s too late, a coppery-red moon could trigger a cataclysmic bloodbath. And then no one is safe.
To read an excerpt from Silent Betrayal, click on Murder Blog, then on the title in the sidebar, under novels.
HEARTLESS, sequel to MARRED, but can easily stand alone. Psychological thriller/mystery. (work in progress, and so is the pitch.)
To get in the last word during an argument, Deputy Sheriff Frankie Campanelli chases her husband Chance into the woods behind their house. Up ahead, they stumble across a gruesome crime scene… a dead woman impaled by deer antlers, braced to a silver birch tree, the woman’s heart missing, a playing card — the king of hearts — left instead.
Ever since her brother-in-law’s visit Frankie barely recognizes Chance. He lashes out, both verbally and physically. She has no idea what transpired between the two brothers to prompt this kind of change. Could Chance’s past be the key that unlocks the mystery behind the recent murders?
When startling evidence leads Sheriff Niko Quintano to question Chance’s involvement in the crime her gut reaction screams to defend him. What if she’s covering for a murderer? As she begins to untangle the threads Frankie must decide between protecting her family or her badge. If she chooses wrong the next victim’s blood will be on her hands.
To read an excerpt, go to the blog’s sidebar and click the title.
A Strangled Rose (A stand alone 99K word mystery/paranormal)
Novice clairvoyant, Blu Castalioni, retires early in life with her husband, Jake. They move north to a secluded mountain in Northern New Hampshire and discover their dream home abuts a serial killer’s property.
Blu struggles with visions of murder. She has no idea how to control her foreshadowing. Night after night, her visions become more and more detailed, but she never sees the killer’s face. Her certainties prevent it. If she doesn’t learn to surrender her unyielding views not only will the truth never reveal itself, she may not live to tell the tale.
This was my first novel, and it will never see the light of day. LOL (Sorry, no sneak peek on this one!)
