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Slumbering Beasts: A Rett Swinson Mystery
“Definitely another winner!”
—KATE PARKER, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Deadly Mystery Series
When Scott Novak, Raleigh’s youngest technology mogul, is found dead in his country home strangled with a strip of yellow cloth, it’s unclear whether the cause is suicide, accident, or murder. North Carolina billionaire Samarth Patel, who bought Scott’s company hoping it would transform his business, hires Harriet “Rett” Swinson to work alongside his personal private eye to investigate the deceased’s alluring ex-girlfriend, the protege who has lived in Scott’s shadow, and a neighbor who resents his success.
What new technology was Novak developing before he died, and why did he think owning a menagerie of zoo rejects would inspire his next innovation? The case will take Rett all the way to the Alaskan wilderness to confront Scott’s enigmatic brother, Adam. Along the way, Rett butts heads with Detective Darryl Schmidt, who isn’t sure he likes competing with his girlfriend for clues, while Rett wonders if Darryl is liberated enough to accept her blossoming artistic sensibility. Was the accident that almost killed Rett caused by a hacker—or by a computer intelligence embodied by the ghost of a 19th century German philosopher? In Slumbering Beasts, the suspenseful follow-up to Soft Hearts, Rett’s deepest resolve is tested as it takes her on a dangerous journey that is all too darkly real.
meet the Author
Eric Lodin
Author Eric Lodin has been playing with words on paper since the third grade. Over the years he has tinkered with several novels and screenplays, trying to improve his craft one sentence at a time. A fan of slapstick comedy, long runs, and most anything British, he lives in Raleigh, N.C., with his wife, children, and a mischievous Havanese named Duke. Slumbering Beasts (2022) is the follow-up to Soft Hearts: A Rett Swinson Mystery (2021).
What Reviewers are Saying About Soft Hearts
A finely tuned drama … A page turner.
The narrative is smooth and precise. The plot, absorbing … If you are a mystery buff, then pick this one up. You will not regret it.
– Book Vue
The author cleverly ties all the clues to the storyline from start to finish… Amazing writing.
I thoroughly enjoyed Eric Lodin’s first novel. Soft Hearts has all the ingredients mystery fans love: a solid plot with ample suspects, vividly portrayed characters who feel both familiar and fresh, just enough hints of romance to make the reader want more, and a conclusion that is satisfying in multiple ways. But most of all, Soft Hearts has Rett Swinson, an outstanding leading lady with intelligence, humor, and zero tolerance for injustice. She’s spent a few months wondering what to do with her future after her husband deserted her for a girl half his age. But when the nastiest woman in the neighborhood is murdered and homicide cop Daryll Schmidt recruits Rett to ferret out local secrets, she throws herself into the task with a new purpose. Readers will cheer for Rett as she solves a murder while discovering her own strength and independence, and they will want to see her in action again and again.
–Sandra Parshall,
Agatha and Daphne award-winning author
of the Rachel Goddard mysteries
Author Blog
What Do You Mostly Think About?
I had been married twenty years before I turned to my wife and asked, “What do you mostly think about?” I decided to share with her that most of my reflection time was spent thinking about ethics, philosophy, and religion. Now I wanted to know what mostly occupied her mind.
What Took You So Long?
I’ve known since a very young age that I wanted to write books. In fact, it was probably more than forty years ago that I decided I would like to do the thing that Donald J. Sobol did with Encyclopedia Brown, or what Franklin W. Dixon’s ghostwriters created with the Hardy Boys. It wasn’t just detective stories.
No Surprises, Please.
The little local TV station in the Alabama town where I grew up in the 1970s and ‘80s ran tape year-round from the previous Christmas season in which area children tentatively approached the throne of the station’s official Santa Claus.