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Gae-Lynn Woods
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The Devil of Light (Cass Elliot Crime Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Gae-Lynn Woods (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 129 ratings
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A BIZARRE MURDER

When young Detective Cass Elliot responds to a 911 call at the home of a prominent businessman, she finds him violently murdered in the barnyard with his battered wife unconscious near the tool that killed him. Still raw from her own unsolved attack six years ago, Cass is stunned when confronted with graphic photographs scattered across their kitchen floor that lead to a shadowy sect called The Church of the True Believer.

A COVERT WEB OF LIES AND EXPLOITATION

Cass and her partner Mitch Stone delve into a cunning world of blackmail and violence – and find a cult concealed for nearly a century beneath the genteel, small town façade of Arcadia in East Texas. Their investigation triggers a brutal response from powerful men who will protect their identities at any cost. They unleash a ruthless killer whose actions create a media frenzy and destroy the fabric of trust within the police department.

A PERVASIVE EVIL

Cass and Mitch circle closer to the cult’s few members, following a slim lead into a night lit by fire. A night that begins with a blood ritual and ends with Cass holding a man's life – or death – in her hands and struggling to walk the fine line between vengeance and justice.
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  1. Book 1 of 3
    Cass Elliot Crime Series
  2. Print length
    428 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    June 20, 2011
  6. File size
    2439 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This debut effort is further proof that there are undiscovered novelists out there who can more than keep up with the big names. I expect we'll be hearing more of Gae-Lynn Woods in the future." -- (Amazon Review) Russell Blake, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Geronimo Breach, the Zero Sum trilogy, and the acclaimed Jet series


"This murder mystery has all the elements of a great book. A beautiful detective with a troubled history; bodies turning up in strange circumstances; a villain who himself is only the tip of the iceberg. If that sounds like cliche, think again. The Devil of Light is full of surprises. ... Bottom line: The Devil of Light is an extremely well crafted mystery, a complex web of treachery and betrayal building to a killer finale. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery, or just good writing." -- (Amazon Review) Frederick Brooke, author of the Annie Ogden Mystery Series


"...the good guys are not perfect. They experience moral and ethical dilemmas, but you as the reader know that they are still doing the right thing. Or are they? I recall one of my favorite lines in the book, where one of the good guys questions whether they did enough to try to save the life of a bad guy. And another good guy responds, "Who cares. He needed killin'." That is classic Texas!" -- (Amazon Review) Burl Hays, Japan

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0057XNRB4
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dead Head Press (June 20, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 20, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2439 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 428 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 129 ratings

About the author

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Gae-Lynn Woods

Gae-Lynn Woods

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Gae-Lynn Woods is a Texan who has traveled the world, lived overseas, and come back home. She and her husband, British jazz guitarist Martyn Popey, share a ranch in East Texas with one very cranky donkey and The Dude, a rescue kitty who now rules the world.

When she's not playing the roadie, tending to cows, fixing fence, or digging post holes, Gae-Lynn is working on the next Cass Elliot novel.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
129 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Brooke Frederick
5.0 out of 5 stars Trouble in East Texas
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2012
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This murder mystery has all the elements of a great book. A beautiful detective with a troubled history; bodies turning up in strange circumstances; a villain who himself is only the tip of the iceberg. If that sounds like cliche, think again. The Devil of Light is full of surprises.

It all starts when they turn up a half-buried body out in the woods. The strangest thing about this body is that it's missing a foot. Mystery lovers will enjoy putting the pieces of this puzzle together. There's a mysterious fire at a local greenhouse. Then a local rancher is impaled on a hay dolly, a sort of giant pitchfork mounted on the front of a tractor. That's the end of him. What's interesting here is why the sheriff refuses to arrest the rancher's wife, who freely confesses to driving the hay dolly.

A large number of colorful Texas characters populate this mystery, from the hard-bitten detective, Mitch, to the pudgy Baptist minister, David Cronus. Wallace and Wilbur Pettigrew are twin ranch hands who play a role in the story. The star of the show is Cass Elliot, whose personality is complex, strong and lovable. This is a woman for whom work and career come first, but the choices are never easy.

The author masterfully identifies the main characters with their quirks, like the old man and his sweet smelling pipe, and the way a person listening on the phone hears
the pipe stem clacking against his teeth. Or the crime scene investigator who sniffs the air and declares that there has been no accelerant used for the fire, but maybe cooking oil. Wow, I like the way the author doesn't skimp on details like this.

The dialogue is equally masterful, establishing these characters in their roles, and fixing them in the reader's mind. The story takes place in a small town in East Texas, near the Sabine River. Racing up and down the back roads in this county, picking our way down the rutted trail through the forest down to the river bottom near Deuces Flat, I just felt as if I was there, smelling the mud and the smoke and the blood.

Bottom line: The Devil of Light is an extremely well crafted mystery, a complex web of treachery and betrayal building to a killer finale. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery, or just good writing.
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Joshua E. Bigger
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Impressive!
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2012
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THE DEVIL OF LIGHT by Gae-Lynn Woods is an amazing read. In fact, her prose is so good it's ridiculous. In a genre that must have thousands upon thousands of books and stories, TV shows and movies, THE DEVIL OF LIGHT is never cliche or stupidly cute, repetitive, or boring. I was fully engaged from the very beginning to the satisfying, though bittersweet, end. It's a magnificent balancing act of characterization, pacing, and tension. And Ms. Woods achieves this wealth of detail and description without a single simile. Imagine that!!

This book hits you in the heart, kicks you in the crotch, because it comes from the heart. You can't move the heart without coming from the heart. We all know this. This is obvious.

The heart is full of many mansions and some cannot bear the light. This is also obvious, and we know it all too well in our own experience.

THE DEVIL OF LIGHT is a shining example of the highest quality you'll ever find in any writing, anywhere, on any level, period.

Ms. Woods grabs your attention, and thrusts you into the midst of the action. There is never a reason to suspend disbelief, because she never gives you the opportunity. There are no holes in her game! Ms. Woods is a true magician, manifesting a universe that is absolutely real and interesting. You know it!! She puts you in it! You live it!

Scenes of visceral intensity are never heavy-handed or overbearing. Dialogue flows smoothly, beautifully, full of humor. The multi-sensory world is rich and completely realized; bodies eating and drinking, spilling BBQ sauce and mustard, while brains go on thinking, examining, analyzing data - simultaneous dimensions of action corresponding to our many dimensions of being.

Ms. Woods' mind is a chameleon, transforming into an educated snob, narcissistic psychopath, or inbred hick with equal facility. What amazing patience she must have! What vision and awareness of people and the world.

Gae-Lynn Woods is an incredible talent, and I can't wait to read her next book.

THE DEVIL OF LIGHT is a complete story in and of itself, while laying the essential foundation for future books in the series, a series I'll be following for years to come. Hitch and the Old Man are a lot of fun, wonderfully diabolical, and I'm eager to see what she does next in weaving the dynamic tapestry of Cass Elliot Crime Novels.
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HAMM
4.0 out of 5 stars Complex Story, Easy Read
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2013
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This one opens with some serious intrigue. Between the disturbing introduction to a drifter named Hitch and the bizarre findings of a couple of teenage boys at a remote campsite, I was definitely ready to know more. There are a lot of characters to be sure, much like watching a good ensemble crime/drama on TV, and soon enough I found myself enveloped into their world. The writing is smooth and comfortable, and I must admit that after reading several crime/mysteries with sudden overwhelming romantic elements in the midst of messy and intense investigations, I was happy with this one that did not succumb to romantic trappings and therefore remained true to the character of Cass Elliot, and her past as brought forth in these pages (I know there is more story to tell there, about her personal life, more to be meted out by Woods over the course of the series). Overall, the story is complex, with many pieces, and there is definitely plenty of meat to take it further... after a righteous cliff-hanger. This was kind of like a literary game of chess between the good guys and the bad guys--check, not checkmate.
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Top reviews from other countries

JPD
5.0 out of 5 stars SIMPLY OUTSTANDING!!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 29, 2012
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Clearly Gae-Lynn Woods is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the crime thriller genre. The Devil of Light begins as a classic crime, murder mystery but very soon the reader learns it is so much more.

Following the death of upstanding member of the community, Lenny Scarborough, at the hands of his wife, a disturbing trail begins to emerge, a trail that threatens to shake Forney County to its very foundations. Following that trail are the story's protagonists, Cass Elliot, a firey young rape victim determined to prove herself in a man's world, and Mitch Stone, an experienced detective who remembers Cass before her world caved in on itself, as they seek to uncover the truth behind Scarborough's dark past.

At its root, the plot is a mystery, but unlike most this is no ordinary case of the good catching the bad. Packed with intrigue, deception, and a century-old conspiracy, The Devil of Light is an epic tale that delves into the unquestionably real scenario of what happens when the professional success of powerful individuals develops into a capability of undermining local authority. In similar vein, Woods powerful writing deals with the horrifying effects of when such men are misguided by the ambiguity of Christianity's most controversial beliefs and warped by the effect of ancient cult, blurring the line between right and wrong.

The Devil of Light is excellently written, beautifully paced and offers such great eye for detail that the reader will have no problem following the locations in vivid detail. The main characters are both convincing and likeable and the development of the main protagonist is excellent, allowing for the effects of personal trauma and dealing with the horror of overcoming events that threaten to unleash the demons of her past.

Fans of the crime thriller genre will undoubtedly be charmed immediately by the writing of Ms. Woods, but this is not merely confined to the fans of Marple or Wexford. Fans of the thriller genre will love it for its intrigue, fans of horror will relate to its darkness, and, as the author's career develops, I'm sure Cass Elliot and Forney County will earn a special place in the hearts of many of the genre's hardcore fans...

Bring on the next one!
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Erania Pinnera
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story, superb dialogues
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2013
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Gae-Lynn Woods is a superb storyteller. I am totally delighted by how she managed to create her characters and the twists of the plot.

One of the most interesting character is Mitch, who very soon became my favourite one along with Kado.

As a crime author myself, what I particularly appreciated about Wood's writing is the dialogues. They are so lively and real that you can feel yourself inside the novel, like you were living the story with the characters, standing on their side.
It's something which is not so common, so all my kudos go to Gae-Lynn, well done.

The final cliffhanger has kept me literally glued on the story, so I can't wait to read the #2 book.
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James Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic thriller which kept me flicking the pages on the Kindle!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2011
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This book was recommended by a friend and having finished the book on the train this evening its fair to say I was very impressed. Having reread the other reviews, they give you a good sense of the story setting. The author spends time building the depth of the characters and even as the story reaches its natural break, the reader is left with a number of cliff hanger questions, I cant wait to read the next book in what I assume from the quality of the first book could be quite a series. Having been recommended to me I now recommend it to you.
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AlwaysReading
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Fantastic!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2013
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What a fantastic story with great, realistic characters and a wonderful plot. It had me hooked so much that my usual lack of sleep became even less! It is a long book, but that only gives it credence into the detail and magnificent writing.

I don't want to give spoilers but will say that I would recommended it as a fabulous crime novel of the highest calibre - and yes, I'm already reading book 2 in the series. The problem will be waiting for more.

A definite, must read!
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Mrs. M. Jobbins
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2013
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I am always wary of trying out new authors but this was recommended to me from a friend and all I can say is that I can't wait for the next episode.
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