After 10 years, after thousands of reviews, blogtours, and author spotlights, we've decided to draw the final curtain (for now). As of today, My Fiction Nook will not create new content for the foreseeable future.
It's time for a break. Blogging and reviewing is a labor of love, but it's also a lot of work.
We have loved our time with you, our readers, our visitors. Thank you for your support over the years, for the comments and encouragement.
Being granted an ARC is an honor and a privilege, and one we've never taken for granted. We are ever so grateful to the many authors and publishers with whom we've had the privilege to work these many years. You gave a small book blog a chance and helped us make amazing memories.
Existing content will stay up. And we will still be around on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Come find us there.
Twin
brothers. One gay, one straight. Two romances with double the
hijinks.
Skye:
I love my twin dearly,
I really do. The thing is, I'm not so sure about River's latest plan.
On the surface, it looks solid. Work for the cruise line, save up the
cash, and buy a used bus to do up so he can go out on tour.
Only thing is, he
failed to tell me that while he was doing his act as Cha Cha Larue
for the drag queen variety show, he'd signed me up to do so as well!
Rather than lose our jobs and get him into trouble for fraud, I
decide to go along with it. After all, River promises I'll only have
to cover for him if he's ill. He says I'll get to mostly just
lounge around the pool. Somehow, I doubt it's going to go quite that
easy for me.
It never does when it
involves Cha Cha, but, really, how bad can it be? It doesn't take
long to find out when someone starts sabotaging the show and targets
Cha Cha! We're going to get to the bottom of it. We're not going it
alone, though. River's got a security expert admirer on board, and I
have my own little shipboard romance going on with a lawyer. Between
the four of us, the saboteur doesn't stand a chance.
Hopefully, the opposite
will prove true for our romances as River and me? When we fall, we
fall hard. And boy, have we fallen- broken heel, face plant hard.
Cruisin'
in High Heels is a fun romp with a cozy mystery edge and
contains both mm and mf romance. It takes place in the Cruisin'
Around series world of which it is an official part.
An instant family…Is life-changing! Pregnant construction supervisor Jo Bertoletti doesn’t need anyone’s help…or another heartbreak. So she’s putting handsome, kindhearted firefighter Ozzy Lakeman firmly into the friend zone.
After all, she’s just passing through Butterfly Harbor, and her life is too complicated for a summer romance.
But Ozzy feels an immediate connection. Can he convince the woman of his dreams to take a chance on building a forever family with him?
Excerpt:
The truck’s engine suddenly went silent. Ozzy walked over to greet the driver. “That is a thing of beauty,” he said as the door opened and the driver dropped to the ground in front of him.
Every thought he had disappeared straight out of his head.
Tall, curvy and with sun-streaked blond hair knotted into a messy pile on top of her head, Butterfly Harbor’s latest arrival faced Ozzy with a wide, welcoming smile on her round face. Beneath the barely-there sunlight of the May morning, her skin seemed to glisten in the chilly air. She had light brown eyes, almost amber with flecks of gold that sparkled when she smiled. She wore snug jeans that accentuated everything a man like him enjoyed, sneakers that looked as if they’d been worn into the ground and a snug short-sleeved turquoise T-shirt that displayed a surprisingly round stomach.
Wounded ex-marine Aaron Jamison always follows orders—and the assignment to take on a service dog is just that. Still, trainer Ruby Winslow is definitely barking up the wrong tree when she insists a beauty-parlor poodle is his perfect match.
But Ruby and her clever canine are determined to melt the heart of this battle-hardened marine. And they'll teach him an unforgettable new trick—love.
Excerpt:
“You should probably know I don’t want to be here.”
Those were the first words United States Marine Corps Sergeant Aaron Jamison blurted out to the ginger-haired woman who’d just approached him, welcoming him with a pretty smile and an enormous, dorky-looking black standard poodle standing at her side, both with curious gazes. As far as Aaron was concerned, her choice in froufrou dogs obviously said a lot about her, kind of like the movie stars who carried tiny pups around in their purses to show off to everyone.
This was the breed of dog she’d chosen to own, and she was supposed to be an expert? She was going to be his service-dog trainer, put him through the program, and his first impression was she was probably as fluff brained as her dog, not someone he wanted to be in charge of him. He’d been told to meet up with Ruby Winslow, his new contact at A New Leash on Love, and since she was standing out here in front of the building, waiting for him, he assumed this was she.
In general, he didn’t say much, and yet this time the moment he had stepped out of his truck, he’d put his foot in his mouth.
Two feet, even.
He’d blabbed exactly what had crossed his mind, and it wasn’t the greatest beginning for either of them.
Neither did it bode well for him when she immediately stopped in her tracks fast enough to make the dust cloud around her cowboy boots, sparks snapping in her light blue eyes as her gaze narrowed on him and her smile wavered. The black poodle stopped with her and stared up at her, curious as to her sudden halt.
Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way . . . and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.
Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves—and Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory. Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it’s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs—about herself, her family, and her desires.
Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition—and the ovens—heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.
My rating:
I had very high expectations going into Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake. First off all, Boyfriend Material was my favorite book of 2020, and I thought it was hilarious so the promise of another funny book with a bisexual female MC and a take on the Great British Baking Show and, man, I was hoping for the moon.
But... when I started reading this book I felt... irritated.
Do yourself a favor and rearrange your expectations (this is what I had to do in order to fully appreciate the story, by the way). Repeat after me: this is women's fiction, not romance. I think that's what tripped me up and annoyed me for so long. The story is all about Rosaline and her own personal journey to figuring out more about herself and her needs. The romance aspect is very underdone and felt half-baked (*ehem*), so if you are impatiently waiting for the relationship to start cooking (okay, I'll stop now), you will be waiting a very, very long time. Sure, there are some sweet elements that happen towards the end of the story, but that's just a bare hint of a true romance and is more in line with what you'd find in a women's fiction story. That's fine, just not what I was anticipating.
Also, Rosaline often annoyed me, I'm not going to lie. I found her personality to be a bit bland and wishy-washy, while also being too pointed at times. I really enjoyed the side characters a whole lot more, and I adored all of them. I even enjoyed the ones I ended up hating, just because they had unique personalities (some of those personalities were simply: wanker). I really liked Rosaline's ex, Lauren, and all of the competitors on the show (and the judges!). The only true laughs I got from the book were from the producer, who is hilariously, aggressively aggravated at all times.
When Levi Miller learns Eve Summy will be forced to marry her would-be attacker or get shunned, he marries her instead. Now husband and wife, but complete strangers, they must figure out how to live together in harmony.
But with Levi’s family questioning the motives for their surprise wedding, getting to know each other—and possibly finding love along the way—is harder than they expected.
Excerpt:
Through the trees, Eve spotted her father’s windmill and ran faster, ignoring the branches and underbrush that tore at her hair and scratched her arms and face. She took in great gulps of air, sobbing with relief as she sprinted the final distance. She had prayed to God over and over throughout the night. She had begged Him to see her home safely. Now the sun was breaking over the horizon, and she had made it the more than ten miles home in the dark.
Bursting from the edge of the woods, she hitched up her dirty and torn dress, the hem wet from the dew, and climbed over the fence. In her father’s pasture, she hurried past the horses and sheep, her gaze fixed on the white farmhouse ahead. If she could just make it to the house, her father would be there. She would be safe at last, and he would know what to do.
Trying to calm her pounding heart, Eve inhaled deeply. At last, her breath was coming more evenly. She wiped at her eyes with the torn sleeve of her favorite dress. She was safe. She was home. Her father would protect her.
At the gate into the barnyard, she let herself through and slowed to a walk as she neared the back porch. Her father’s beagle trotted toward her, barking in greeting. Through the windows, she could see into the kitchen where a light glowed from an oil lamp that hung over the table. Her father and sisters and brothers would be there waiting for her. As she climbed the steps to the porch, her wet sneakers squeaked. Hours ago, she had crossed a low spot in the woods and soaked her canvas shoes.
She had almost reached the door when it swung open.
“Dat,” she cried, throwing herself at him, bursting into tears. “Oh, Dat.”
Needing time to heal after a rodeo injury, Kate Rainbolt heads to her family ranch to accept the foreman job her brothers offered her months ago.
But the position’s already been filled by her ex-boyfriend, Jess McNally, and the only open job reports to him.
With Jess as her temporary boss—and turning into something more—might he finally convince Kate to put down roots?
Excerpt:
Kate Rainbolt’s gaze followed the man who entered Eagle Donuts. He moved past the tables of early morning customers with smooth, long-limbed confidence. A tall man, he wore a black barn coat, faded jeans and scuffed boots, not unlike dozens of other Oklahoma cowboys.
She was ready to dismiss him when something set off an internal warning, urging her to take a second glance. Kate tensed and stepped away from the counter, feigning interest in a display of coffee mugs. When the cowboy lifted his head and tipped back the brim of his hat to assess the inside of the shop, she saw his face, and her heart slammed against her chest.
Jess McNally.
She’d been back in Rebel for an hour, and naturally, she’d run into her former beau.
Her only beau.
Usually, Kate kept her emotions hidden behind a mask of greasepaint and an outrageous, red felt cowboy hat. But she wasn’t a rodeo clown any longer, and it would take work to hide the emotions rocking her to the core. The last time she’d seen Jess was ten years ago, when she’d rejected his marriage proposal. It was unfortunate that time had only improved his good looks. Dark hair peeked out from beneath a black Stetson, and a scruffy five o’clock shadow emphasized the angles of his face.
Jess’s slate-gray eyes connected with hers, and she froze, chin down, her gaze going everywhere but back to the cowboy in front of her. She willed her pulse to slow before she dared to meet his gaze again.
Ten years. He should not have this effect on her after all that time.
Just as things start to come together for single mom Avery Hammons, her carefully ordered world is flipped upside down by the unexpected arrival of Grayson Stone, a man from her past.
Now Grayson wants to be part of her and her daughter’s lives, even as he plans to return to California. But can Avery trust the man who once abandoned her with her little girl’s heart…and her own?
Excerpt:
The door to room 204 in the Pleasant Residential Care center squeaked open. Avery Hammons glanced that way but didn’t greet the visitor. She finished taking the vitals of her patient, then gave the redhead at the door a questioning look.
“There’s an incredibly gorgeous cowboy waiting for you at the front lobby. He might be all hat and no cattle, but I’d take him if I wasn’t happily engaged.” Assistant to the administrator of Pleasant Residential Care, Laura Anderson, winked.
“Gorgeous cowboy type?” Avery asked after settling her patient’s arm back on her bed. She smiled down at the woman, hoping to reassure her. “Margie, your pulse is strong and your blood pressure is better than that of most twenty-year-olds. In another month you’ll be back to walking Dudley in the park.”
Margie Duncan drooped a little, her mouth pulling down in a slight frown. That look had become one of her few signs of discontentment. She’d been a model patient in the four weeks she’d been at the facility, recovering from a fractured hip. “I’m so sorry for making a fuss. I just felt a little funny when I got up a bit ago. You’re probably right about being anxious. And I can’t wait to get home to that silly dog.”
The same silly dog who had wrapped a leash around Margie and tripped her as she went down the front steps of her house a month ago. Avery smiled past the worry she felt for her patient. As a supervising RN, worry was a big part of her job.
“You don’t have to apologize, Margie. That’s what I’m here for. Also, you could have your daughter bring Dudley in for a visit. I won’t tell.”
“Could I really?” Margie’s face lit up at the mention of her poodle.
“I don’t see why not.”
From the door, Laura cleared her throat. “About the visitor…”
Taryn Cook is pregnant with her own miracle baby, and she’s perfectly happy to be a single mom. Then she’s reunited with the baby’s father, Noah Brooks, at her new job in Mountain Springs.
Noah never planned on being a dad, but he’s determined to be there for his son…and Taryn—even if that means being just a friend to the woman he’s falling for.
Excerpt:
The door opened and a tall man stepped inside. He was broad shouldered, lean and looked to be in his early forties with just a touch of gray at his temples. A pair of glasses set off his slate blue eyes. He wore a pair of gray dress pants and a crisp, white button-up shirt without a tie. His belt looked expensive. He hesitated when he saw her, and his gaze dropped down to her belly.
“This is our general manager, Noah Brooks,” Angelina said. “I asked him to come by and meet you. You’ll be working quite closely with him for the next couple of weeks, and he’s a fount of knowledge for everything from operations to food and beverage.”
“Of course,” Taryn said, and she rose to her feet and shook his hand. “I’m Taryn Cook with Cook Marketing.”
He didn’t answer at first, meeting her gaze questioningly. “Right. Taryn. Just call me Noah.”
Noah released her hand and gave her a nod. That seemed to be a common name these days. She’d met another Noah not too long ago…
“Let me show you your office, then,” Angelina said, also rising. “I hope you’ll be comfortable there. If you want any food or drinks delivered to your office while you’re working, just give Janelle a call down at the switchboard, and she’ll get you anything you need. It’s all complimentary, of course.”
For Jackie Pierce, everything changed the summer of 1979, when she spent three months of infinite freedom at her bohemian uncle’s sprawling estate on the California coast. As musicians, artists, and free spirits gathered at The Sandcastle for the season in pursuit of inspiration and communal living, Jackie and her cousin Willa fell into a fast friendship, testing their limits along the rocky beach and in the wild woods... until the summer abruptly ended in tragedy, and Willa silently slipped away into the night.
Twenty years later, Jackie unexpectedly inherits The Sandcastle and returns to the iconic estate for a short visit to ready it for sale. But she reluctantly extends her stay when she learns that, before her death, her estranged aunt had promised an up-and-coming producer he could record a tribute album to her late uncle at the property’s studio. As her musical guests bring the place to life again with their sun-drenched beach days and late-night bonfires, Jackie begins to notice startling parallels to that summer long ago.
And when a piece of the past resurfaces and sparks new questions about Willa’s disappearance, Jackie must discover if the dark secret she’s kept ever since is even the truth at all.
Excerpt:
1
A Girl, Her Cousin, and a Waterfall
1999
I rattle the padlock on the gate, strum my fingers along the cold chain-link fence.
I own this place.
Maybe if I repeat it often enough I’ll believe it.
All along the base of the fence are tributes: shells, notes, sketches, bunches of flowers. Some still fresh, some so old the petals are crisp as parchment. I follow the fence uphill, along the coast side, and stop at a wooden, waist-high sign marking the path up to the waterfall. It wasn’t here the summer I visited.
The sign is covered in words and drawings, so tattooed-over by fan messages that you can barely read the official one. I run my fingertips over the engravings: initials, peace symbols, Thank you’s, I Love You’s. Fragments of favorite lyrics. After coming so far to visit the legendary estate, people need to do something, leave their mark, if only with a rock on fog-softened wood.
Song titles from my uncle’s final album, Three, are carved everywhere. “Heart, Home, Hope.”
“Leaf, Shell, Raindrop.”
“Angel, Lion, Willow.” Someone has etched that last one in symbols instead of words. The angel refers to Angela, my aunt. The lion is my uncle Graham.
And the willow tree. Willa, my cousin.
I have a pointy metal travel nail file in my suitcase; I could add my message to the rest, my own tribute to this place, to the Kingstons. To try to explain what happened the summer I spent here. I could tell it like one of the campfire tales I used to spin for Willa.
This is the story of a girl, her cousin, and a waterfall…
But there’s no time for that, not with only seven days to clear the house for sale. Back at the gate, where Toby’s asleep in his cat carrier in the shade, I dig in my overnight bag for the keys. They came in a FedEx with a fat stack of documents I must’ve read on the plane from Boston a dozen times—thousands of words, all dressed up in legal jargon. When it’s so simple, really. Everything inside that fence is mine now, whether I want it or not.
I unlock the gate, lift the metal shackle, and walk uphill to the highest point, where the gravel widens into a parking lot, then fades away into grass. The field opens out below me just like I remember. We called it “the bowl,” because of the way the edges curve up all around it. A golden bowl scooped into the hills, rimmed on three sides by dark green woods. The house, a quarter mile ahead of me at the top of the far slope, is a pale smudge in the fir trees.
I stop to take it in, this piece of land I now own. The Sandcastle, everyone called it.
Without the neighbors’ goats and Graham’s guests to keep the grass down, the field has grown wild, many of the yellow weeds high as my belly button.
Willa stood here with me once and showed me how from this angle the estate resembled a sun. The kind a child would draw, with a happy face inside. Once I saw it, it was impossible to un-see:
As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.
With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor―the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball―is present throughout.
A treat for Jenny Lawson’s already existing fans, and destined to convert new ones, Broken is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of laughter when we all need it most.
Heather's rating:
Broken by Jenny Lawson oscillates between a real heart-wrenching picture of what it's like to live with depression and anxiety and an uproariously funny collection of observational and awkward humor. I loved both parts of the book equally, though the writing style and some of the chapters felt repetitive towards the end of the book.
I enjoyed Broken much more than Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, which I read years ago and considered too one-note. Broken had some of those elements and sections that felt draggy, and I'll admit that I even skimmed a few parts. However, the bright spots of the story overshadowed the less interesting sections.
Big-city free spirit meets small-town cop. And a symphony begins…
A homestay in Oak Hollow is Alexandra Roth’s final excursion before settling in to her big-city career. Officer Luke Walker, her not-so-welcoming host, isn’t sure about the "crunchy" music therapist.
Yet his recently orphaned nephew with autism instantly grooves to the beat of Alex’s drum. Together, this trio really strikes a chord.
But is love enough to keep Alex from returning to her solo act?
“It’s…okay.” She barely managed to squeak the words out past her surprise and a flare of attraction.
Were all the Oak Hollow residents this polite? And this smoking hot? She adjusted the guitar case over one shoulder, pulled out her cell phone and snapped a photo of him walking away. The historic town square created the perfect backdrop to frame his powerful form. Tight maroon T-shirt over bulging muscles, worn jeans, hat, boots and enough swagger to get a girl’s motor revving. A genuine cowboy in the flesh. Not something she often saw back home in Manhattan.
He paused, and she thought she’d been caught taking his picture, but after a few beats he continued across the street to a black truck. Attempting to look nonchalant, she leaned her large rolling suitcase against a post and sat on top. Her movie-star sunglasses were the perfect concealment for stealthy observation. The cowboy handled his purchases like they weighed nothing, but his flexing muscles told a different story as he put them on the tailgate and leaned in to drag over a cooler. Ice cascaded and chimed like musical notes over the glass bottles.
Alex didn’t want to take her eyes off him long enough to dig out her sketch pad, so she’d have to use her memory and the one photo to paint his image. A hot breeze fluttered her billowy sleeves, and she wished for some of his ice to cool her heated skin. Beer wasn’t her drink of choice, but putting a cold amber bottle to her lips sounded pretty good about now. Maybe she’d run into him again, and they could share a drink, or a meal, or…
Many people are genuinely surprised to find out I have a degree in Film & Video, as well as Creative Writing. Most folks assume I have a degree in Annoying People. Okay, my husband might have thought that at one time. His nickname for me these past 26 years has remained “What Is Wrong With You?” I kept hoping it was an American Indian nickname. It’s not. He truly wonders what’s wrong with me.
My video projects back while I attended Grand Valley State University were driven by music. I set the mood and tone of a piece with the right blend of songs. Propaganda, Hardware (soundtrack), The Motels: Shock album, and the music of Tangerine Dream were and remain some of my favorites. There is a natural playlist when I write a book that begins to develop during the writing process.
The Falling Awake series of books now has an extensive playlist, so new songs aren’t added quite as often with each new story. However, there are three tracks that did with Retribution. Movies rarely reflect the books they’re based on because they’re entirely different mediums. A film version (at least in my head) wouldn’t open the same way as the novel for Retribution does. Still, the opening music for Blade Runner fit perfectly. I envisioned the character of Joe sitting in a cheap hotel room looking over pictures of the crime scene from the end of Falling Awake II: Revenant. A shadowed figure (still Joe) grabs his hat, starts his car, and drives down the Texas highway as the sun rises, heading towards that crime scene to see it for himself.
That’s what I envisioned, and Vangelis’s absolutely beautiful track takes me right there ever time.
The second song is New Dawn Fades by Moby. This is exactly what I think I’d hear towards the end of the book as Joe, Roy and Frank are walking across the street to City Hall to hunt their prey. No song sums the mood up better than this one. Completely visceral. This track was also used at the end of the first Equalizer film. Delicious!
The final song comes from a group my husband introduced me to named Dear Rouge. They hail from Canada and their song, Black To Gold, caught my attention from the start. I listened to that song so many times throughout the writing of the book that it felt like it became a part of the story. If you’ve never listened to it, I urge you to look the video up on YouTube. It’s amazing! And, you know what? They’re pretty amazing, too.
Albums I tended to listen to when not playing anything related to Falling Awake included the soundtrack to both Equalizer films, a good many albums by Tangerine Dream, Jerome Froese, the many scores of John Caprenter, and the score to Monster Hunter. Interestingly enough, Paul Haslinger (composer of Monster Hunter) and Jerome Froese were also once part of Tangerine Dream. You know what that tells you, don’t you? Exactly. I have really good taste in music!
About the book:
Falling Awake IV: Retribution
by Kristoffer Gair
“Some people are so low, they gotta look up to see Hell.”
The death of Thomas Reis continues to ripple through the lives of those connected to his case fourteen years later. Andrew O’Donnell and Lawrence Boggs have already fallen, but three more pick up where the others left off, and each for his own reason.
One believes in justice, the second loyalty, and the third desperately seeks a reason to live. All three, however, share the same final end game; Retribution.
The hunt begins.
Cover Art by Kris Norris
Release Day: June 19, 2021
Genre/s: M/M Suspense, Thriller
Themes: Loyalty, friendship, sacrifice, love
Heat Rating: 1 flame
Length: 74 000 words
There are three prior books, Falling Awake, Falling Awake II: Revenant, and Falling Awake III: Requiem, which need to be read first.
“I’m glad I caught you before you left then. I’m truly sorry.” He bowed his head. “I held your husband in the highest regards.”
“He respected you, too. Can I get you something to drink? I’m afraid I don’t have much. I’ll be leaving in the next day or two, but I think I have some orange juice, and I just made a fresh pot of coffee.”
“No, thank you.”
Norrma led him into the kitchen and sat down at the table, one of the few pieces of furniture left behind until the day she left. Various paperwork lay in little piles on the table, some it from the landlord, and others from the movers, bank, and relatives who’d sent cards.
“Lawrence’s funeral was this past weekend, then I insisted the kids head back to school. I know they wanted to stay with me and help out here, and maybe it was cruel to send them away, but I think staying busy and being around their friends will help them more than being here right now.” She sniffed. “Lawrence would have insisted they get on with their lives as soon as they could. ‘Death,’ he told us many times, ‘is a natural part of things. Living is for the now. Mourning can always be done later.’ He always made sure we knew exactly how he felt. None of us had to guess whether or not he loved us.”
Joe nodded. “His directness is something I appreciated immensely.”
She took a sip of coffee. “The police came, had a look at his case files, and couldn’t really make heads or tails out of them.” Norma chuckled. “Lawrence always had a unique way of organizing things in life that sometimes only he understood. I packed up what they didn’t take. Honestly, I think they confiscated a few things here and there just so it looked good in their report. I don’t believe they’ll ever find anything, though. Nobody really understood what Lawrence worked on, not in the big picture way.”
Joe grinned. “I know the type. Law enforcement through and through. Takes one to know one, I guess.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” She peered down at her cup. “Do you know what might have happened to him?”
