A Stand-Alone Novel
EXPOSING THE PAST is Alice Zogg’s fifth stand-alone mystery novel.
What do you do when you meet someone who looks just like you? Sherry Rinaldi and her husband were on a vacation on Maui, Hawaii when she happened to see the reflection of another woman in a mirror who had her face. What else did they have in common?
Returning to her home in California, Sherry does a little research, even though her husband tells her it might not be a good idea. Despite the warning, she tracks down her look-a-like and soon discovers there are things buried in both their lives that are deadly.
A murder from forty years ago triggers another death as the truth slowly comes to the surface. This will change everybody’s life.
Exposing the Past is available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book format at
www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and other online vendors.
Purchase Information
Publisher: Aventine Press (August 2020)
Hardcover ISBN number: 978-1-59330-979-4
Paperback ISBN number: 978-1-59330-978-7
eBook ISBN number: 978-1-45663-536-7
List Price – Hardcover US$ 27.00
List Price – Paperback US$ 14.00
eBook Price – US$ 4.99
Excerpt from Chapter 1
Had Sherry Rinaldi not run into her Doppelgänger on that fateful day on Maui, Hawaii, she could have avoided all the misery that digging up the past brought.
She and her husband, Dave, were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary on the island. Since Sherry was a foreign language high school teacher, the two had picked their wedding date and honeymoon at the end of the schoolyear in June. They did so now with their anniversary getaway one-and-a-half decades later. The ten days of bliss - - snorkeling, swimming, boating, and playing golf - - ended with a luau in the hotel gardens.
The traditional “pig in the ground” had roasted for many hours, turning out mouthwatering in the end. And equally delicious was the huli-huli chicken, poi, mango bread, and sticky rice. Sherry had finished her dessert of Hawaiian pudding kulolo and went inside the hotel to use the restroom. Rather than taking the time to go all the way to their own room, she opted to use the hotel’s facility next to the lobby.
In the ladies room, she glanced up to the mirror while washing her hands and froze. Dare she trust her eyes? Two images of herself stared back at her. At that instant, the woman freshening up at the sink next to her made the same eerie discovery.
They turned to face each other, stunned by their striking likeness. They both had light-blue eyes and exaggerated arched brows, an oval-shaped face, and a turned-up nose. Their bone structure was identical. They even wore their blondish hair the same way, tied up in a bun at the crown of the head. The one difference was their outfits. Sherry wore a turquoise wrap-around skirt with a white blouse and the stranger was clad in a flowery Hawaiian dress.
The other woman recovered first, laughed with a deep chuckle, and burst out, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we were related!”
“Yeah, like twins,” Sherry agreed, trying not to seem freaked out.
The other woman extended a hand, “I’m Kirsten.”
Sherry shook it and likewise introduced herself.
“Where are you from?” her double asked.
“Pasadena in Southern California. And you?”
“What a coincidence! I spent my first few years near there. Now I live in San Diego. We’re flying home tomorrow.”
“It’s my last night here too.”
They seemed tongue-tied at that point, dried their hands, refreshed their lipsticks, said “bon voyage,” and walked out of the ladies room together.
The young man at the concierge desk in the lobby called out, “A moment please, Mrs. Hiller! We have a message for you.” Kirsten stopped by his desk as the other walked on.
By the time Sherry rejoined Dave in the garden, the luau had progressed to the entertainment part. Instead of enjoying the performance of the hula dancers, she could not get the image of Kirsten out of her mind and was passive and absent-minded for the rest of the evening.