Do book excerpts hook readers?

 

Does an excerpt really
help a reader decide if this is a book he/she wants to read? Myself, I find I’m
rather too busy to stop and read every one I run across. But every once in a
while, a word here, or a phrase there catches me. As we say in the business, it
hooks me. Almost invariably, if my interest has been wetted, I will follow the
book to it’s Amazon page and check out the sample read there. Fives times out of
ten, I buy it!

 

So taking that concept
to heart, I’ve decided to give you an excerpt from my newly released, romantic
suspense short story called “Partners”. Since this is my first foray
into this genre, I hope you all agree I’ve done it well.

 

Back page blurb:

 

Suspenseful
and fast-paced, this short story will introduce you to Aurora Morelli and Kai
Lawson; the characters who star in the full-length sequel “Roll the
Dice” (to be released September 15, 2012). Forced to take on a new
partner, after a serial rapist attacks her former one, annoys Aurora big time.
Especially when he’s the kind of hotshot she normally stays as far away from as
possible. But, because they both want this man more than anything else, they
ignore the irritating explosions they set off from one another. And finding
this slimeball becomes their ultimate goal.  

 

Excerpt:

 

The night
Rhondo had attacked her partner, Aurora had shown up early with food for their
“junk and drunk” girl’s night—eating junk and getting drunk.
Something they did whenever they broke a case.

Only that
night, as Aurora remembered, she’d felt sickly, with a pounding headache that
began as soon as she’d pulled into the parking lot, gathered the stuff from the
car and headed towards the apartment. Then, while approaching the door juggling
an aromatic pizza box, bags of chips and Cookies and Cream ice cream, and two
bottles of wine she’d heard a loud thud and a blood-curdling scream coming from
inside Debbie’s suite.

As if someone
opened a trap door, her stomach plunged while her heart pounded out a rhythm of
choking fear that nearly had her paralyzed. Only her training kicked in as she
threw the food away and pulled out her purse gun. Without hesitation, she shot
the lock and busted in.

What she saw
made her pulse ramp up even higher as rage like she’d never known filled her
and tuned her into a killer. Her eyes like lasers, scanned the room to see
Debbie, bleeding, partially naked, clothes ripped and hanging, laying on the
floor sobbing. The half-dressed male, who looked like he’d escaped from some
scudsy Elvis wedding chapel, hovered over the writhing body of her friend,
using her for cover. Yanking up his pants, he shot at Aurora to give himself
some time.

And he
laughed—no he giggled like some kind of a freakish maniac. He took another shot,
and as she dove for cover, he fled out the open window and down the ancient
fire escape.

Aurora ran to
Debbie’s side and found her rolled into a fetus-like position, knees curled
together almost under her chin and her arms clamped around them.

“Dear Lord,
Deb. I’m so sorry I wasn’t earlier. I—” Aurora felt the guilt gorging huge
chunks from her soul.

“I’m fine.” Deb
choked on the words as saliva ran over her chin to mix with the waterfall of
tears. Smudged mascara highlighted bruises that had formed around cuts and
scrapes. Her lipstick, a parody of color, was now smeared over her cheeks and
on her chin which gave her a grotesque look of a woman who’d been through hell.