12 Quotes from Cornell Dyer and the Eerie Lake

When we were getting ready to release Bryony back in 2011, my daughter Sarah (who did a lot of the marketing for me) suggested I pull thirty teaser quotes from the book that she could post on Facebook, one each day.

We did the same for the second book, Visage, which is also part of the BryonySeries.

But for some reason, I never did the same for another book.

So now I am catching up.

Here is the synopsis and twelve quotes for Cornell Dyer and the Eerie Lake, one from each chapter.

Enjoy!

Before supernatural super sleuth Cornell Dyer can figure out the questions, one man disappears and another dies. To find the answers, Cornell must cross the lake - but all who tried never came back. Will Cornell survive and solve the mystery?

Prologue: 

"Will you leave me, too?" she sobbed.

"Hush," he squeezed her hand. "I will never leave you."

But she left him because of a man, a mean old man with important papers. He grabbed her arm and dragged her to his boat.

Chapter 1: A Stone's Throw Away

Mr. Hogley and Mr. Basset looked up from their game of checkers and sneered at Cornell, too.

But Cornell did not care. Supernatural super sleuths are too busy to pay attention to the scorn of others.

Chapter 2: Stumps, Dumps, and Car Trunks

Finally, they reached the dump. It was full of broken items on top of each other: sinks and lawn mowers and grills, along with rolled-up moldy carpet, yellow-stained mattresses, dry-rotted truck tires, broken lamps, sofas with scattered cushions, upside down desks and bureaus, and random trash bags and plastic wrappers.

Cornell tossed his empty can and bottle in the direction of the wrappers, not because he liked to litter, but because that seemed like the place they should go.

Chapter 3: Jack of all Trades

Cornell hadn't seen smoke that thick and dark since the heat wave of 1972 when he was in New York banishing a poltergeist from a shoe store.

But Jack turned to Cornell with a wide smile. "Don't worry, friend. I can fix that."

Chapter 4: Trouble Under the Hood

"Don't forget to collect your things," Jack said. "There's a boarding house at the end of the lane. Tell the owner I sent you, and she won't charge you a cent."

So Cornell pulled his magic carpetbag from under the sofa and began grabbing a few essentials: potions, cards, crystal balls, maps, an entire shelf of code-breaking books, and a llama.

Chapter 5: A Haunting Tale

"Inside this town lived a boy and girl, the strangest boy and girl you could ever meet."

"What made them strange?" Cornell asked.

"They were inseparable." Jack said as he set a small part on the floor. "They were born right next to each other. They learned to crawl together and walk together. As they grew up, they played together. They were like one person with two bodies."

Chapter 6: The Very Sad Funeral

Someone else in Marbleheart had also wanted to sail to the other side of the lake. Someone Cornell had met in the dump right before he met Jack.

That's when he realized someone very important had not attended Jack's funeral.

Chapter 7: A Splinter on Deck

"Sir, do not interfere with important work. I am the great Professor Cornell Dyer, supernatural super sleuth. I fear nothing and no one. And I most certainly do not fear this lake and what's on the other side."

The boatman pointed his finger rudely at Cornell's face. "Bad things happen to people who try. Look what happened to poor Jack. I'm warning you, don't go."

Chapter 8: Big Water and Deep Trouble

"It's a trick," Cornell thought. "My mind is tricking me because of the fever."

But a supernatural sleuth that cracks the hardest supernatural mysteries and breaks the most stubborn of curses won't be broken by a splinter and a fever.

Chapter 9: Sometimes He Comes Back

Jack wore a bright excited look, the type little boys wear on Christmas morning when they see the tree and know the gift they wanted most of all is lying beneath it.

Chapter 10: Two for the Price of One

Only water surrounded him on every side as the boat sailed at an even pace across the placid, sparkling lake under a pleasant sunny sky.

Epilogue

"I'll help you!" Cornell cried. "Just as soon as I have a snack!"

With that, he headed to the broken-down car and began rummaging for food.