Hard Exit, page 26
Shit.
The End
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My wife, Sedonia, is my everything, so I owe my writing success to her. She believes in me when I don’t, and it’s amazing how powerful her belief can be while I’m stumbling through the fog of self-doubt.
As usual, my beta readers were invaluable. They pointed out my errors and let me know which aspects of this novel worked well for them. Thank you, Andrew Balmat, Jessica Carroll, Colleen Friesen, Biz Lyon, Mary Ellen Lyon, Jen Mauerman, Jenny Raith, and Sedonia Sipes.
Eva Spring employed her impressive talents to create the cover. Thank you, Eva.
I’d like to thank my mother, Barbara Leonard, my brother, Brett, my sister, Brigette, and my late father, Bruce Sr., for the support they’ve shown me for decades.
Please stay tuned for the second Jack Drake Mystery: Stronger at the Break. But it may be a while before I write that one because I’m currently writing a thriller, and I’ll follow that up with the fifth Hadley Carroll Mystery — Quilt City: Safety Second.
If you enjoyed Hard Exit, please leave a rating and/or a review on whichever platform you prefer.
This novel took me decades to write, and I never would have completed it if readers hadn’t responded so positively to the Hadley Carroll Mysteries.
So, I thank you for your support.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bruce Leonard earned a B.A. in English with a creative-writing emphasis from UCLA. He has been a travel writer, a magazine- and newspaper editor, an owner of a bakery, and a guinea pig for the U.S. Government. He writes the award-winning, bestselling Hadley Carroll Mysteries, the first of which, Quilt City Murders, was named Best Mystery of 2022 in one contest. The fifth installment will be titled, Quilt City: Safety Second.
The second Jack Drake Private-Eye Mystery will be Stronger at the Break.
Quilt City Murders, the first Hadley Carroll Mystery, named Best Mystery of 2022 by the National Indie Excellence Awards
Quilt City: Panic in Paducah, the second
Quilt City: Measure Once, Cut Twice, the third
Quilt City: Proving a Negative, the fourth
Quilt City Cookbook, a companion book narrated by Hadley at her funniest and most vulnerable
Bruce’s website is: https://bruceleonardwriter.com/, where his books are available. While there, please sign up for his infrequent newsletter, in which he keeps readers informed about upcoming releases, and you can look at a smattering of the thousands of photos he took when he was a travel writer.
Happy reading!
Bruce Leonard, Hard Exit
