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Road to the Mansfield - Book Tour and Giveaway

11/13/2022

54 Comments

 
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Road to the Mansfield
An Express Investigations Prequel
by CB Laurence
Genre: Historical Mystery 

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Three stories. One destination.

A swamp rat-turned lady, a hotshot southern attorney, and a small-town dreamer endure life’s cruel twists on the way to Hollywood’s swanky Mansfield Supper Club.

Louisiana, 1927. A brutal fate sweeps seventeen-year-old Francie Roubideaux from the Louisiana bayou to the iron rule of Miss Claire in New Orleans. She survives using her daddy’s wits and mama’s grace, but fickle fortune isn’t done with her yet….

Illinois, 1937. Rose Donovan’s dreary small-town life takes a turn when a New York City music man whisks her away to Hollywood. But soon she’s torn between addictive passion and another man’s arms…and more than Rose’s heart is on the line.

Georgia, 1936. A rising star on the Atlanta legal circuit, Beau Hartwell is the envy of every lawyer in the city…until his past desperately comes to call. Can big-city Beau handle backwoods justice, or will the case break more than his career?

In one fateful night, their worlds collide in ways no one saw coming…



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​Summer 1927
Alouette Parish, Louisiana


On the third night of the last full moon of summer, Françoise Rae Roubideaux stood poised to kill. Knee-deep in the warm freshwater of the bayou, her four-pronged gig raised over her shoulder, she aimed at a pair of red eyes the size of her baby brother’s belly button.
Thwack! The barbed blades sliced through the back of the fat bullfrog and straight to the other side. Dat one’s for Mama. She prodded and peeled her catch from the spikes then dropped it in a feed sack with the others before yanking the drawstring tight. One more and she’d have enough to buy Mama the coughing herbs from Madame Bérengère and have a little money left over for the general store.
Madame Bérengère loved frog legs almost as much as Daddy had. Every time Francie brought big, fat legs to trade, she’d say, “Francie, I declare! You da best frogger in all of Alouette Parish!”
It was true, too. Daddy taught her how to catch frogs with her bare hands at only four years old. “You smarter den dat ol’ frog,” he’d say. She’d cried the first time she saw Daddy smash one’s head with a hammer then cut and clean the legs. “Dere born to die, cher.” By the time she turned six, she caught frogs all summer long—even during the daytime.
Quiet as a dragonfly on the breeze, she crept along the bank in the shallow waters and thought about the good times with Daddy.
When Mama didn’t need her to help around the house, or to clean and cook the fish Francie had caught for supper, she’d be with him. They’d check his traps for raccoon and mink to skin and sell. They’d catch crawfish, shrimp, and crappie. Then they’d set up shop down at the pier. “Drive a hard bargain, cher. Don’ get soft or dey’ll take you for all you worth.”
The moon rose higher and higher in the sky and the sack weighed heavier on her shoulder. Thick bayou mud sucked at Francie’s shoes. One more chunky frog and she could go home. You gotta be out dere. You gotta be somewhere.
She held her kerosene lamp up high and scanned the reeds for red eyes. There! The biggest bullfrog yet set Francie’s heart to racing. Madame Bérengère would pay extra for this meaty fella. She stuck her gig in the mud. Only a hand catch would do—she wanted to keep it alive and fresh for as long as possible.
Careful not to break the beam of light currently freezing her prey, she silently edged closer. Quick as a cat, she shot her hand out to snatch the frog.
But another red-eyed beast had the same idea.
A cottonmouth snake struck out a half-second too late and missed the frog—and Francie’s hand—by less than an inch.
“Cho Laud!” Francie stumbled backward, holding her lantern in one hand, the prized frog in the other. She shoved the frog down her shirt, grabbed the gig, and backed her way up the bank, keeping her light high. The slimy, muddy body hopping and struggling against her naked belly did nothing for her nerves.
“Mais, dat was too close,” she said to her catch as she dropped him into the bag with the others. She untied her canoe from a big cypress tree and paddled toward home, taking great care to look out for more snakes—or heaven forbid, a gator—along the way.
Francie always thought about Daddy on nights like this—every night, truth be told—and how he’d have loved her story about the snake. His eyes would have twinkled, he would have swirled her around in a dance. “Aiyee! Dat’s my girl, Francie!”
A few months before Francie’s tenth birthday, Daddy went to jail. Mama said Daddy whupped some society gentleman something fierce when he refused to pay what he owed, so they threw him in jail up in Angola. She and Mama struggled to get by for two years—Francie hunted and traded, Mama sewed beautiful dresses for the fine ladies of New Orleans—until finally Daddy came home. Francie had been so happy to see him. She thought for sure he’d make their lives whole again, but when he returned, he didn’t laugh, or sing, or dance anymore. The twinkle had gone out. He drank moonshine noon to night. “Not today, cher,” he’d say when she asked him to go trapping or sing with her.
Mama and Daddy fought like two dogs over a ham bone until one day he left and didn’t come back. Francie waited for weeks--months--for him to come home. It had been over three years, and she still caught herself watching for him to walk up the drive.
She blamed Mama for chasing him off. Mama said, “Men can’t be trusted to do right by their women, Francie. Best you learn that now.”


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CB had been threatening to write the Mansfield stories for twelve years after being inspired by the Reba McEntire video for ‘Because of You.’  In 2020, she finally birthed the books. (Thank you, COVID)  The Mansfield books launched The Express Investigations Series.

After bouncing around the country, CB settled in Phoenix for twenty years, but now connects to wi-fi in Texas. She lives with her seven-pound Yorkie, Benji, who rules her life with an iron paw.



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54 Comments
Beyond Comps
11/13/2022 03:28:23 am

Great cover!

Reply
CB Laurence link
11/13/2022 09:09:56 am

Thanks so much! I went through a bunch of trial and error, so glad you like it!

cb

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Will G
11/13/2022 04:35:50 am

That's awesome that you were able to crank out these books during COVID. Had you ever written any other books pre COVID?

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cb laurence link
11/13/2022 09:07:01 am

Hi Will!

Prior to COVID, I only tried desperately to write! I had the idea for the first two in 2007 and tried for about four years to write before I gave up and put it aside. I learned a lot in those four years, so I was ready (for at least the first draft) when the cork popped on my writer's block!

Thanks for asking!

Reply
Michele Soyer
11/13/2022 05:57:28 am

I just love this cover - great art work...

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CB Laurence link
11/13/2022 09:08:12 am

Hi Michele,

Thanks so much! I have a great designer on 99designs. Rita V. I'll send her your compliments!

CB

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Jon Heil
11/13/2022 08:45:28 am

Rocking it up in the asylum

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Marcy Meyer
11/13/2022 09:21:53 am

Very nostalgia cover. I love it. This sounds like a really good story. .

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Rita Wray
11/13/2022 11:19:42 am

I like the cover.

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xjanelx78
11/13/2022 01:23:10 pm

Really nice cover and excerpt, looking forward to reading this!

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wendy hutton
11/13/2022 01:32:34 pm

very nice cover, congrats on the release

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Terri Quick
11/13/2022 02:52:25 pm

Great cover

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Bea LaRocca
11/13/2022 05:08:25 pm

Road to the Mansfield sounds like a great mystery read and I am looking forward to it. Thank you for sharing your bio and book details and for offering a giveaway

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lleinphx@aol.com link
11/13/2022 05:13:52 pm

Hi Bea,

Road to the Mansfield isn't a mystery until the end and it leads into a mystery series. This is historical fiction. That said, I still think you'll enjoy it!

cb

Reply
Sherry
11/13/2022 06:41:18 pm

I enjoyed the excerpt and really like the cover.

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Debbie P
11/14/2022 12:22:38 am

This sounds like a really great read!

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Valerie Seal
11/14/2022 06:58:25 am

Looks OK

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CB Laurence link
11/14/2022 12:25:48 pm

Thanks for the kind words everyone!! Much appreciated. :)

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Wendy Jensen
11/14/2022 05:36:40 pm

The book details are very intriguing.

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Thomas Gibson
11/14/2022 10:18:24 pm

Story backdrop is inviting. Cover goes well with storyline.

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David Basile
11/15/2022 10:44:33 am

Looks like a good mystery

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Heather Mahley
11/15/2022 12:01:34 pm

Sounds really good

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Samantha J
11/15/2022 12:58:36 pm

The premise sounds great! And I love the cover!

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David Hollingsworth
11/15/2022 02:56:13 pm

This sounds like an entertaining read.

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kelly tupick
11/15/2022 04:40:56 pm

The book sounds great.

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Serge B
11/16/2022 05:03:40 am

I enjoyed the excerpt

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Cynthia C
11/16/2022 02:34:36 pm

The excerpt is interesting. Thank you for sharing it.

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beth shepherd
11/16/2022 03:01:41 pm

This looks like a great read.

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Ann Fantom
11/17/2022 02:08:44 pm

This sounds like an interesting book and I also like the cover.


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Julie Bickham
11/18/2022 10:24:11 am

I look forward to reading this.

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Angela Heerde
11/18/2022 07:16:34 pm

I like book details

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Barbara Montag
11/19/2022 09:26:02 am

I like everything about this - genre cover and title!
Thank you for sharing this.

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Randall Curran
11/19/2022 01:00:22 pm

Like the cover.

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Walter Sidor
11/19/2022 06:23:12 pm

I like reading any type book, any genre. This one looks very interesting.

Reply
Kelly D
11/22/2022 05:19:38 pm

The book sounds great with interesting characters.

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bn100
11/22/2022 05:52:07 pm

intriguing

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Debbi Wellenstein
11/22/2022 09:20:32 pm

I enjoyed the excerpt. Thank you for the giveaway!

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Elizabeth H.
11/24/2022 10:20:32 pm

This sounds exciting! Fate intertwining the lives of three people, how intriguing! Thanks for sharing an excerpt!

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Stephanie Liske
12/4/2022 10:56:21 pm

I like the book details.

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Karin
12/5/2022 06:29:28 am

nice excerpt

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Calvin
12/7/2022 02:10:03 am

Fantastic new book! Liked learning about it.

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jose rosado
12/9/2022 04:35:23 pm

What do you think of the book details? Do you have any questions for the author?


A very good blurb

THX

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Christy R.
12/11/2022 09:12:28 pm

The book details sound like this would be a gripping read. It's just the kind of mystery my Mom loves to read! I'll have to tell her about it.

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Daniel M
12/12/2022 02:39:23 pm

like the cover

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BILL HOFF
12/12/2022 07:43:35 pm

Looking forward to reading this book

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Jonathan W
12/12/2022 08:03:37 pm

That’s a fascinating cover, and the excerpt drew me in. Great work!

Reply
Alma fisher
12/12/2022 08:11:23 pm

Looks very good

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Francine A
12/13/2022 09:13:07 am

Sounds like a good book

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Jen R
12/13/2022 04:26:14 pm

The historical mystery looks very good.

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Judy Gregory
12/13/2022 04:28:40 pm

How do you "flesh out" your characters?

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Alessandro Pampolino
12/13/2022 04:51:51 pm

love it! this is awesome

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Renata
12/13/2022 09:20:16 pm

Sounds good!

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Betty Curran
12/13/2022 10:42:43 pm

I really enjoyed the excerpt. I'm looking forward to reading the whole book.

Reply
Sand
12/13/2022 11:14:19 pm

Sounds like a great book!

Reply



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