Here’s the set-up for Catherine Astolfo’s The Bridgeman, just $1.99 on Kindle:

Some secrets can come back to haunt you…

Principal Emily Taylor feels safe in the friendly little town of Burchill—until she finds a body in her school. The murder of caretaker Nathaniel Ryeburn brings back memories she’d rather forget and plunges Emily into a mystery that involves a secret diary, an illegal puppy mill and a murderer innocently disguised as an ordinary citizen.

As fear rips through the traumatized town, Emily’s investigation inadvertently leads the police to her door, and to her husband Langford, who is hiding a secret of his own. It becomes clear to Emily that many of Burchill’s residents are merely wearing masks. And it’s time for those masks to be ripped away…and for a killer’s identity to be revealed.

From the reviewers:

In The Bridgeman, Astolfo throws opens the door of her idyllic setting into a world of darkness, depravity, and danger. Her safe haven turned inside out, Emily Taylor bravely untangles a web of lies and unthinkable acts of degeneracy. Threatening her own closely held secrets, the charming teacher dares to push boundaries of personal safety to right dreadful wrongs. After reading The Bridgeman, you’ll want to go home, lock the doors, and hug your pet.     –  – Anthony Bidulka, Author of The Russell Quant Mysteries

“A story rich in detail with unexpected twists and turns.” —Meredith Henderson, actress, film producer, poet

“Love and depravity, rebirth and rot, veneer and the real wood underneath—Astolfo brings these opposing forces into play.” —Garry Ryan, author of the Detective Lane Mysteries

“Master storyteller Cathy Astolfo pulls out all the stops as old secrets come back to kill…in this chilling story of twisted desires.” —Lou Allin, author of She Felt No Pain

Visit Amazon’s Catherine Astolfo Page

Catherine Astolfo retired in 2002 after a very successful 34 years in education. Catherine has always aspired to be a published writer (she can recall writing fantasy stories for her classmates in Grade Three), so she started finishing her books the day after her retirement became official. Her short stories and poems had been published in a number of small Canadian presses in the past.

Catherine, through film production company,Sisbro & Co. Inc., self-published a series of four books called The Emily Taylor Mysteries, which are all optioned for film by Sisbro. In the fall of 2011, she was awarded a four-book contract by Imajin Books for the e-rights to the series. She is also the co-owner of an online ezine for writers and readers, Scribes Digest.

And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample of THE BRIDGEMAN by Catherine Astolfo: