**Blog Tour** It’s Killing Jerry by Sharn Hutton #Extract & #Giveaway @SharnHutton1 #itskillingjerry

Today I’m thrilled to be hosting the next stop on the It’s Killing Jerry by Sharn Hutton blog tour. Not only do I have an very intriguing extract from the book, but Sharn is also offering you the chance to win a fabulous giveaway, I’m just sorry I can’t enter, you can find details further down this post.

It’s Killing Jerry is a comedy thriller and it’s already getting some fabulous reviews over on Amazon. So if you think this is a book you may enjoy you, may just want to read an extract……..

PROLOGUE
THE IMAGE OF A CRISP-UNIFORMED police officer filled the TV screen. Bathed in sunshine, his features were rounded and friendly, but said more hopeful puppy than hardnosed detective. He ducked his head, cleared his throat and gazed down the lens.
“My name is Detective Dinwiddy,” he began, speaking slowly and carefully, “and I am investigating the disappearance and suspected murder of one Jeremy Brian Adler, a British man.”
Three pairs of eyes widened on the sofa and snapped to the screen.
“Do you have any suspects, Detective?” barked a voice out of shot.
“Well, I am still conducting my investigation.” He nodded deliberately to someone beside the camera, then back to the lens. “But there are certainly some individuals I would like to interview.” Dinwiddy held up a photo and the camera zoomed in.
The line of people on the sofa recognised it as Jerry’s passport photo, but only two jaws descended in a gape. The newscast had arrived out of the blue and with such authority: a nugget of truth beamed over the airwaves and into their living room, a living room that hadn’t seen much honesty for a while.
In the short lived hush that followed, Isabell’s heart beat so hard she wondered if the people to either side could hear the pounding in her chest. Jerry being dead changed everything. It meant she didn’t have to pretend.

ONE
FOUR MONTHS EARLIER
Jeremy dear, can you come over on Sunday to connect my new computer to the dangle – Daddy doesn’t understand it. Thank you. This is your mother.
Jerry lounged against the kitchen counter, new green jogging bottoms pinching up a roll of flab at his midriff. He surveyed the text and tapped reply.

No need to tell me who you are Mum. To the dangle eh? Are you into something kinky? No wonder Dad’s a bit flummoxed
He tapped send and smirked. Jerry’s mother was not a woman to be trifled with and wilful misinterpretation of her words was guaranteed to get her hackles up. Jerry knew she’d be forced to restrain herself as she was looking for a favour. Almost immediately it beeped in reply.

Don’t be so puerile Jeremy. You know perfectly well what I mean. What time shall I expect you? Mummy.

Of course, Jerry’s attendance was never really in question, so he angled for lunch in his reply. Decent food had been in short supply since Rachel had returned from the hospital with their first child in tow a couple of months ago. One of Mum’s Sunday roasts would go down a treat.

Jerry slid the phone into his back pocket, put his hands on his hips and pursed his lips. “Jeh-remy!” he called out in impersonation, “Don’t mock my dangle! Daddy doesn’t understand it!” He minced over to the table, right arm held tightly cocked to his chest, fingers bent over, “Jeh-remy, really!”

He let his eyes trail across the spread of unopened brown envelopes on the table and settled instead on the paper, flicking it open from the back. The Blues were dicing with relegation.
“Nearly ready?” Rachel appeared in the kitchen doorway, crumpled t-shirt hanging limp over faded grey jeans.
“Hmm?” Jerry turned in another page, looking for news on the Gunners.
“The bottles, Jerry. Is the steriliser running?”
“Steriliser?” He looked over his shoulder at her, tapping at his bottom lip with a stiff forefinger. “Was I meant to…?”
“Yes, you were meant to. Of course you were meant to. When I say: It’s time for a feed, could you put the bottles on? What else could that possibly mean?”
“Oh. Um. I thought maybe put the bottles on the counter, ready, you know?”
“No.”
“Well, ready to the put the milk in.”
Rachel looked up and down the kitchen work surface with exaggerated sweeps of her head. “So where are they then, these bottles that you’ve put on the counter, ready?”
“Um.” Jerry turned, perched on the table’s edge and pushed back a floppy mouse-brown curl from his eyes. “Hey, well, I had to get changed, of course, ready for the gym. Leaner, meaner, fitter husband and all that and then there was the, er, message. Very important one actually. One’s expertise is required.” He wobbled his head in feigned pride, but Rachel didn’t want to hear it. She raised her palm to stop his flow and let out a warbling laugh that rattled a little too high. “Don’t tell me any more. You haven’t done it. Why am I surprised? Why should I be surprised? I’m not surprised. You never fucking do anything.” She started sorting through the waiting crockery at the sink, dismantling bottles and tossing them into the bowl. “I’ll do it, shall I? Yeah, why not?”

She cranked the hot tap on full and shoved through the clutter to reach for the detergent. A displaced dirty coffee cup slid from the counter to the floor, where it chinked off its handle and rolled to rest in a puddle of grey milky liquid. Rachel closed her eyes for a beat then plunged on with the bottle washing, banging each soapy piece down on the drainer as she went. “I’m amazed you can even get yourself to the gym.” She turned to look him up and down. “Although of course, you haven’t yet, have you?” She gave the bottles a hasty wipe over with a muslin cloth and wedged them into the steriliser. “Don’t wear yourself out, don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Jerry snorted out a laugh, but a quick glance revealed Rachel not to be smiling. She stared down at her feet and scraped a stray lock of chestnut hair behind her ear. “Look, Jerry, do you think you could cover the night feed tonight?” Her tone was short and tired. Jerry rubbed at his neck. “Um, well I’d like to help, but she doesn’t seem to like it when I do it.”
“You’ll get the hang of it.”
Jerry sucked his lips against his teeth. “There’ll be all that crying and you’ll end up awake anyway. I think she needs her mother, Rach.”
“She cries anyway.”
Jerry blew out his lips in a fleshy rattle, “Yeah, but I have to go to work in the morning. I’ll be dead on my feet.”
“Unlike me.” Their eyes locked for a moment and Jerry was the first to turn away, suddenly interested in the newspaper again. He heard Rachel trudge from the room and up the stairs. The steriliser hissed.
“Jeh-remy! Look at Daddy’s dongle!” He cocked his hand back to his chest and gave a little head wobble. “Ah, mm, yes,” he sighed and looked over his shoulder to where his wife no longer stood. He really ought to be a bit more helpful. Wouldn’t hurt him to make up just one bottle.

With that in mind he drifted over to the steriliser, which gurgled and clicked, still busy with its business. He could get a bottle ready, wiggle his way back into Rachel’s good books. The trouble with all this domestic stuff was that it was all just so dull. It was an endless cycle of thankless tasks where there was never any progress, only the maintenance of equilibrium. Life at the office felt much the same. Every day he worked on PR programs to sell the sizzle of his client’s newest sausage, only for it to be replaced a few months down the line with something tastier. He was a cog in a churning machine and it was all just so dull, dull, dull.

Jerry pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed it to his ear. “Remi here.” He spoke in a hushed tone, pretending to answer a non-existent call. “A mission? I’m listening, Aqua. Yes, I can put together a hydro bomb. I’m on it.” He squinted out into the hallway, checking for spies and, seeing none, made his way to the furthest wall cabinet, next to the kitchen window. Snapping open the door, he scanned its contents: marmalade; Super Noodles; SMA. “Ah, there you are, the secret formula.”
Jerry carefully manoeuvred the tin of milk powder with both hands from cupboard shelf to countertop. He pulled at the neckline of his sweatshirt and spoke into the collar. “I am ‘go’ for formula. Commencing opening sequence.” Jerry cracked his knuckles, spread his feet apart and flexed at the knee. Very slowly he clicked up the rim of the lid and ran his thumb around the circumference to free it. Once it was loose, he cautiously lifted the lid and placed it beside the tin on the counter.
“Clear, clear, lid clear,” he informed the fantasy Spy Master.

A quick scan of the instructions on the side of the tin revealed the necessity for boiled water and accurate measurement using the doll-size plastic scoop Jerry had discovered inside. He lay his palm against the kettle and snatched it away again to tuck into his armpit, belatedly remembering the cup of tea he’d just drunk. He bit at his lip and eyed the steaming steriliser suspiciously. He wasn’t taking any chances with that.
“Aqua, radiation levels are increasing, switching to thermo tongs.”
The cooking tongs hanging behind the hob would do nicely.
“Agent Remi on point,” Jerry breathed, pinching off the steriliser lid and tossing it into the sink. A great cloud of steam mushroomed into his face and up to the ceiling.

He found the tongs were remarkably agile, considering their culinary heritage, and picked out a bottle with ease. Jerry filled it with water from the kettle and scooped in the requisite amount of powder. The top and teat proved somewhat more difficult to capture with the tongs and spent a brief time of the floor. Jerry checked the hallway for spies once more. “Five second rule,” he mumbled, scooping them up and giving them a blow, before screwing them into place. Returning to the tongs, he clamped the bottle and transported it to the kitchen table, where he stood it in central isolation.
“Aqua, mission complete, Remi out,” Jerry informed his collar, “Don’t know what all the fuss is about.”

He surveyed the kitchen counter and decided that the clutter should wait for Rachel. After all, she’d need to make up the rest of the bottles and she was bound to spill a bit too, wasn’t she? No sense cleaning up twice.
Jerry snatched up his gym bag and bounded out into the hall. “I’m off, Rach, see you later. Milk’s done.”

“Oh, oh thanks, Jerry,” Rachel called, from out of sight. She actually sounded really pleased: a rare response to Jerry’s activities. Amazing what a little imagination could achieve. It was rather a shame that a few minutes later, whilst Jerry bounced happily along the High Street toward the gym, Rachel would discover his parting gift to be much less pleasing. Returning to the kitchen, mewing baby clutched to her chest, she would find the lidless, steam-free steriliser, open formula tin and scattered powder. “Lovely,” she’d say with a sigh, “Just lovely.”

About the author

Sharn Hutton scuttled along in the rat race with everyone else, until the advent of babies provided an excellent excuse not to go back to the office. Before too long she realised, however, that ‘giving up work’ wasn’t really that at all. In fact, career motherhood had just as many challenges and disappointments as the corporate world, the hours were longer and the pay was rubbish! The best laid plans and all that…

Time marched on and as the children spent more hours at nursery and then school, she started to write during stolen moments. The seed of a story took hold and eventually grew into her first novel.

Now working from home in Hertfordshire, she wouldn’t trade her tiny writing room at the back of the house for the fanciest of corner offices. Apart from anything else, where would the dog’s bed go?

‘It’s Killing Jerry’ is her debut novel and she’s expecting many more to come. (Books that is, not babies. Definitely not babies.)

Links: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Goodreads

Book Description

Fantasist, push-over and all-round crap father: Jeremy Adler’s an inspiration. For scandal, treachery and blackmail.
–
Fleeced by his ex-wife, oppressed by a narcissist boss and ridden over rough-shod by a two month old infant, Jerry might have thought he’d been keeping the peace but, the tide of resentment is turning against him.
Fighting for his job, control of the bank statement and, ultimately, his life, Jerry’s got problems and they’re about to get a whole lot worse.
Breakdowns and break-ups, manipulation and thievery, green-eyed phoneys and unscrupulous deals. Pretending to be someone else just won’t cut it this time and featuring on the late evening news as: missing, presumed murdered, is only the beginning.

With adult themes, ‘It’s Killing Jerry’ is the head-hopping tale of Jerry’s desperately funny demise.

Amazon UK 🇬🇧 Amazon US 🇺🇸

Please note but this giveaway is open to UK residents only. The prize will be posted directly by the author. The winner will be contacted within 24 hours of winning by myself, and I will send your postal details directly to the author. To win this awesome prize (see photo below) you just need to click here to enter…….