SLEIGHT OF HAND—Character Interview

Today I'm welcoming Aurora Brentano and Huntington Wolfe III to my blog, the main characters from SLEIGHT OF HAND, a mystery/romantic suspense scheduled for release on Monday, March 3, 2025, from The Wild Rose Press.

Welcome Aurora and Hunt. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to be here with us today. Is it okay if I call you Hunt?

Hunt:  Please do. Thanks for the invitation to participate in your blog.

Aurora:  It's our pleasure to be here. What would you like to talk about?

Why don't we start with how the two of you met?

Hunt:  (laughs) Well…that's a bit convoluted. I had been hired by the CEO of a large international insurance company to recover high value jewelry. The property they insured had been stolen in a series of jewel thefts that had taken place over the last five years, all of them occurring following a charity fund raiser held at the home of one of the wealthy members of the socially elite of the greater Seattle area.

It's my understanding that you belong to that group of the wealthy socially elite. Born into money, attended the best schools, leading a high-profile international playboy existence—

Hunt:  (a slight frown wrinkles across his brow) You make it sound as if it's a crime to be lucky enough to not need to worry about how I'm going to pay my bills.

I apologize. I certainly didn't mean to sound accusatory. I merely meant that your background,  status, and lifestyle put you in a perfect position to have access to information the insurance company's staff investigators wouldn't have. How about you, Aurora? What put you in the path of Hunt's investigation?

Aurora:  I was born and raised in the greater Seattle area. My father and I had always been very close, especially after my mother's death when I was eleven. In addition to his job as a jewelry appraiser, he was an amateur magician who performed locally at charity events. I became his assistant from age twelve until I graduated from college and accepted a job offer from a company in San Francisco. I was happy with my life until the day I got the phone call from a Seattle police detective telling me my father was the chief suspect in a series of jewel thefts and had been killed in a high-speed police chase. I was livid. There was no way my father could have been involved in criminal activity. So, I decided to investigate on my own. After carefully going over all the information I could get my hands on, I ended up with a suspect list and the name at the top of that list was Huntington Wolfe III. After all, who better to know the ins and outs of the super wealthy, to know their secrets, than someone who is one of them? Since the police had apparently already decided my father was guilty, I was determined to prove him innocent. I took a leave of absence from my job and returned to Seattle.

Hunt:  I may have been at the top of her suspect list, but she wasn't on my radar yet when we first came in contact.

What put her on your radar?

Hunt:  As soon as I was handed this case, I went over all the available information. I was particularly interested in Quentin Brentano, the man the police were chasing whose car went off a cliff and crashed on the rocks below. Something about that entire event felt off to me. Two months after that crash, the thefts started again. The police theory was that Quentin had an accomplice—his daughter, who was carrying on the family tradition. I attended a charity event, just the type of function that had ended with a jewelry heist.

Aurora:  I was using a false name and working as a server at the catering company, the same company that had catered all the events held in private homes where jewelry had been stolen. I wanted an in-person look at some of the victims and the high profile guests. I was surprised and pleased when my prime suspect showed up at the event.

Hunt:  I didn't know who she was other than apparently an employee of the catering company, but I saw her do something that really caught me by surprise.

What was that?

Hunt:  (shoots a quick grin at Aurora who laughs) You'll have to read the book to find the answer to your question. I can tell you that it put me on a new investigative trail.

What about you, Aurora? How did things move from Hunt being your prime suspect to the two of you working together?

Aurora:  How better to observe someone than to have a legitimate reason for daily contact. It seemed like the best way to achieve my goal of finding the truth about my father's death and prove his innocence.

How did you get Hunt to agree to the two of you working together? Or was it his idea?

Aurora:  As Hunt said, you'll have to read the book. I can tell you that what started as jewel thefts escalated into attempted murder then murder, a surprise that shocked both of us with some very tense and challenging moments along the way.

Attempted murder? Then an actual murder? That's quite a leap from cat burglar jewel thefts with no one in physical danger. Can you tell me anything about what you just mentioned?

Aurora:  For the answer to that—

Hunt:  —you'll have to read the book.

Then that's what I'll do right away. Thank you Hunt and Aurora for being here today.

Hunt:  It was our pleasure.

SLEIGHT OF HAND release date is Monday, March 3, 2025. Available in ebook an print.

Buy Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Sleight-Hand-Shawna-Delacorte-ebook/dp/B0DQQFLBMR/ 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sleight-of-hand-shawna-delacorte/1146673688?ean=2940184576602 

And other online vendors

Blurb:

Six years ago, Huntington Wolfe III, heir to a fortune and with a reputation as an international playboy, was a jewel thief. Now, he uses his skills and knowledge as a freelance insurance investigator to recover stolen jewelry, and he has a new case. But when he encounters a beautiful pickpocket at the scene of the next heist, he sets out to discover her identity and what other secrets she might be hiding.

Devastated by her father’s death during a high-speed police chase, Aurora Brentano goes undercover to prove his innocence. At the top of her suspect list is Huntington Wolfe III...until he catches her red-handed in her quest for clues and suggests they work together. She's not sure she can trust him, but they say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

As their unexpected alliance leads to an undeniable attraction, can they bring the true thief to justice, or will they be caught in a web of danger and deceit? 

Excerpts and other information available on website

www.shawnadelacorte.com          https://shawnadelacorte.blogspot.com