Thursday, October 27, 2016

Blog Tour/Excerpt: Mâtowak Woman Who Cries by Joylene Nowell Butler


Author Joylene Nowell Butler is on tour this month with MC Book Tours featuring her new novel, Mâtowak Woman Who Cries, being released Nov. 1 by Dancing Lemur Press L.L.C.

You can follow Joylene's tour schedule HERE for excerpts, Q&As,  chances to win copies of her book and more.

A murder enveloped in pain and mystery...

When Canada's retired Minister of National Defense, Leland Warner, is murdered in his home, the case is handed to Corporal Danny Killian, an aboriginal man tortured by his wife's unsolved murder.
The suspect, 60-year-old Sally Warner, still grieves for the loss of her two sons, dead in a suicide/murder eighteen months earlier. Confused and damaged, she sees in Corporal Killian a friend sympathetic to her grief and suffering and wants more than anything to trust him.
Danny finds himself with a difficult choice—indict his prime suspect, the dead minister's horribly abused wife or find a way to protect her and risk demotion. Or worse, transfer away from the scene of his wife’s murder and the guilt that haunts him...

Chapter 11

Back in my car, my hands wind so tightly around the steering wheel, my knuckles turn white. I'm not supposed to be thinking about Angie. But even a dope like me can understand how the cop in me can't let it go. Revenge is sweet for a reason.

Is revenge what killed Warner? Meshango suggests that he died because he was a rotten husband and father.

Declan died seeking revenge. He killed his brother because Bronson was psychotic, destined to kill again. He killed himself to ruin his father's political career, and probably because he couldn't live with murdering his brother. Meshango may be right about one thing, if I want to nail Mrs. Warner for the murder, all I have to do is delve into her marriage.

Or maybe I'm being a schmuck, and Meshango killed him. Her attitude seems to teeter between justice and revenge. Shouldn't I have seen her guilt in her eyes? Known immediately if she did it?

I didn't because my head is messed up. Since Angie's murder, my mind feels like a ploughed field after a war, a perfect landscape for an eternity of white crosses. Judge, and ye shall be judged. A lesson from bible class three decades ago. What made me think of that now?

The ice on the windshield evaporates from the metal-burning heat rattling up the defrost vents. Slowly, steadily, the view through the glass clears, like fog dissolving from my brain. No, I don't like what I see. No more than I like what I feel. I'm beginning to sympathize with Mrs. Warner.

I call Carrigan at the detachment. “Have you learned anything from Warner ’s cases?”

“Honestly, my head hurts reading this crap. It's all a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit. No wonder our penal system is in such shit condition. Lawyers get their scumbag clients off on technicalities that should never have happened. It's disgusting.”

“I was actually referring to our problem, Stan. Did you find anything that might explain his murder?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you believe his death is related to one of his cases?”

“What's wrong, Danny? You're the one who says never speculate.”

True. “Do you think Warner was an abusive father? Maybe an abusive husband?”

Carrigan hums and haws. I can tell he feels put upon by the question. But I need his opinion. Since the interview with Meshango, it feels like my head's on backwards.

“You found something?” he asks.

“I spoke with Meshango and she confirms Declan killed himself in hopes it would destroy his father.”

“Shit, that's heavy. I got a teenage monster living in my house, but…I'm pretty sure she's not that far gone. Yeah, I heard stories about Warner. His boys, especially Bronson, were on our radar a few times. But nothing serious, just stupid punk stuff. Every single time we picked one of them up Warner arrived to collect them, and the kid would look scared to death. I figure whatever we did to put the fear of God into them wouldn't compare to what the old man would do when he got them home. If he wasn't in Ottawa, he was here every time one of his boys got in trouble, bailing them out.”


Mâtowak Woman Who Cries is available in eBook at the following sites:

The print copy is available at: 



When Joylene's father died in 1983, she wrote her first full–length manuscript to channel her grief. The seven-year process left her hooked and she began Dead Witness within a few weeks of finishing Always Father's Child. Today Joylene is the author of three suspense novels: Dead Witness, Broken But Not Dead, and the steampunk collaboration Break Time. While she'll admit being published didn't fix all the wrongs in her life, she wishes her parents had lived to see her success. Dead Witness was a finalist in the 2012 Global eBook Awards. Broken But Not Dead won the 2012 IPPY Silver Medal and its sequel Mâtowak Woman Who Cries is due for release November 1, 2016.

Joylene lives with her husband and their two cats Marbles and Shasta on beautiful Cluculz Lake in central British Columbia. They spend their winters in Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico.

For more on Joylene and her writing, visit her website and blog then connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and her Amazon Author Page.


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3 comments:

Mason Canyon said...

Great post, Melanie. Thanks for being a part of Joylene's tour.

Thoughts in Progress
and MC Book Tours

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

thank you so much for hosting me today, Melanie. I'm thrilled to be here.

Unknown said...

Great chapter! Sounds interesting! Thanks for bringing this book to my attention :)

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