Saturday, August 2, 2014

Saturday's Excerpt from The Heist by Adriana Kraft #MFRWauthor

The Heist, by Adriana Kraft

Planning a Heist

Our latest release, The Heist, got its start on a rainy Monday a while back, when hubs and I attended a behind-the-scenes tour at our small Iowa town’s exquisite art museum. A new exhibit was about to open, and we were treated to detailed descriptions of the process of locating and ordering traveling exhibits, shipping them, storing them, uncrating them, hanging them, insuring their safety, and repacking them.

You must know by now that hubs is a criminologist  by profession. It didn’t take us long to be looking for vulnerable spots in the museum’s process, and by the end of the day, with a little internet research on the high stakes world of stolen paintings, we had our basic plot sketched out.

Our next problem was—what painting should be stolen? Clearly, we couldn’t go with an existing well-known piece of art. We opted to create The Three Maids, an entirely fictional trio of medium sized Impressionist portraits, based on what we knew about Monet, Manet, Renoir, Caillebotte, and the women they painted. We’ve put so much detail into the paintings’ descriptions that I keep expecting to see them when I enter an Impressionist display. If no one has painted them yet, I definitely think someone should!

I’ll leave the details of how the actual heist was planned, carried out, and (we hope) foiled for readers to discover—we hope you enjoy reading The Heist as much as we enjoyed creating it!

The Heist
July, 2014
B&B Publishing
ASIN:  B00LNE7366
Romantic Suspense, 81,000 words
Heat rating: Three Flames (Warnings: explicit sex, m/f; light bdsm; sex toys)

BLURB

A heist? A murder? It’s villain’s choice.

A special-order art theft? Tedious, but seamless – until small town museum director Kara Daniels calls in the experts. Furious her favorite trio of priceless impressionist paintings has been stolen from its traveling exhibit on her watch, Kara is determined to save not only the paintings, but her future in the art world. She’ll stop at nothing to entrap the thief.

Ted Springs knows the underbelly of the criminal world a little closer than he might like—but he’s turned it to good advantage, first as a police officer, and now as detective for the Upper Midwest Arts Council. His job? To guarantee the security of the valuable paintings in the Council’s traveling exhibits.

Heat sizzles when Ted and Kara collide—can they work together, before it’s too late?



REVIEWS
Five stars at Goodreads: “The sex is hot and I loved the phone sex scenes. Never did I expect the ending. It was brilliant. The Heist is a winner!” Sheila G.

Five stars at Amazon: “Very hot…engaging, entertaining, funny and serious, well written and extremely enjoyable to read.” Donna H.         “From the start, the perspective of Kara, the museum’s director and the thieves are cleverly interwoven…  rich in detail…   held my interest and kept me reading forward.” Gaele


EXCERPT

“I and my staff have already done fairly thorough background checks on all the museum employees,” Ted said.
“Oh.” Kara scowled. “I’m not sure I like that.”
“But you expected it?”
“Of course. At some point.”
“I believe in being efficient. Even before certain added incentives.”
“I can always change my mind. I don’t know a thing about you.”
“You know enough. I have large hands.” Ted chuckled when she winced. “I’ve worked for the Upper Midwest Arts Council for five years.”
“And before that?”
“I was a Chicago cop.”
“Oh.”
“I went into the army right out of high school and completed my BA degree at U.I.C. while on the force. Funny, isn’t it? While you were working on your MA at the University of Chicago, I was patrolling the streets of Hyde Park and South Chicago.”
“Really?”
“That’s right.”
“Maybe we bumped into each other.”
“I highly doubt that. I wouldn’t forget bumping into you. Remember?”
“Oh, right.” Kara’s flush returned.


ABOUT ADRIANA KRAFT

Adriana Kraft is the pen name for a husband/wife team writing sizzling romantic suspense and erotic romance. The award-winning pair has published over thirty romance novels and novellas to outstanding reviews. Romantic pairings include straight m/f, lesbian, bisexual, ménage and polyamory, in both contemporary and paranormal settings.

ADRIANA KRAFT ON THE WEB


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