Newest Mystery Novel: Death & Disappearances is OUT!

Money, crime, death, unrequited love with a little voodoo in the mix – best characterize this book. 

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PETULA BEAUJOLAIS, ARTIST?

When Montgomery Clark wakes up, two weeks after his wife’s disappearance, he finds a bump on the back of his head, a painting (done by his wife) missing, a note in his own handwriting which reads, “You killed my sister, now I’ll kill you,” and a dead sparrow in his dresser drawer. He realizes he must solve the mystery of the disappearance of his wife or face charges for her disappearance.

Death and Disappearances is a psychological thriller. Young, rich and promising novelist, Manhattanite, Montgomery Clark, “Mont.” has had one un-successful book, and an interesting marriage to Petula Beaujolais, a Parisian artist he met while attending Columbia University. They’d been married about two years when life as they know it began to unravel. Petula was unhappy because Mont didn’t take her career as an artist seriously. To make matters worse, Mont belongs to that elite class of first American families –to which Petula could not find acceptance. After a heated argument at a club function on Gramercy Park, Petula leaves their apartment at 2am in nothing but her sable coat and a pair of fuzzy pink slippers –never to be seen or heard from again. Did she go back to Paris to visit her twin sister at the asylum (Clarenton)? Where is she? Mont elicits the help of his friends Bea, and Peter. Bea discovers a cancerous lump on her throat and is advised by her psychic root worker to leave the country. While rushing to his parents’ home in Westchester, Peter’s Astin Martin careens off the cliffs of Bear Mountain and crashes into the Hudson River. With nowhere else to turn, Mont files a missing person’s report with Detective, Draza Vicaru, (a first generation American of Slovakian descent and a Coney Island resident). Together, with the help of Bea’s psychic and a little time travel, Mont uncovers the truth about the disappearance of Petula Beaujolais-Clark and the deaths that surround it. Vampires, Witches, black magic and evil lurk in the city streets. This novel will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Richard Smiraldi holds a degree in English Literature from The King’s College. He has been a member of The Salmagundi Club in New York City (on the entertainment committee), which allowed him to visit practically every private social club in Manhattan from which many of the details in this novel are gleaned. Already published is his mystery novel, Seven Murders In Sussex in 2012. His readership is over 700,000 worldwide.