HIJACK IN ABSTRACT Goodreads Giveaway, Cherry Tucker #3

Starting August 27 through September 24, you can sign up to win one of ten signed advanced reader copies of Hijack in Abstract, A Cherry Tucker Mystery #3. Hijack in Abstract (Henery Press) releases November 5, 2013, so be one of the first to read the next in the Cherry Tucker Mystery Series!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Hijack in Abstract

by Larissa Reinhart

Giveaway ends September 24, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

"Larissa Reinhart has a unique knack of putting her lead character, Cherry Tucker, through a series of obstacles, increasing the pressure until I'm on the edge of my seat. I find myself not only rooting for this sassy heroine to solve the mystery, but to figure out her deliciously complicated personal life. Cherry Tucker mysteries just keep getting better and better. I can't wait for the next installment!" --Terri L. Austin, author of the best selling Rose Strickland mysteries.

With a classical series sold and a portrait commissioned, Cherry Tucker’s art career is in Georgia overdrive. But when the sheriff asks Cherry to draw a composite sketch of a hijacker, her life takes a hairpin as the composite leads to a related murder, her local card-sharking buddy Max Avtaikin becomes bear bait and her nemesis labels the classical series “pervert art.”

Cherry’s jamming gears between trailer parks, Atlanta mansions, and trucker bars searching for the hijacker who left a widow and orphan destitute. While she seeks to help the misfortunate and save her local reputation, Cherry’s hammer down attitude has her facing the headlights of an oncoming killer.

Exploring Grantville, GA: The Walking Dead and Cherry Tucker

The small, rural town of Halo of Forks County, Georgia, is the fictional hometown of Cherry Tucker and friends in the Cherry Tucker Mystery Series. When I'm attending local events, I'm often asked if Halo is based on a particular town in Georgia. I grew up in and around small towns, and truly Halo is an amalgamation of Southern and Midwestern towns (and even a small Japanese town I once lived in). I've thrown in shops both real and imaginary. The residents are fictionalized versions of personalties I've encountered.

Senoia's tracks I used for a scene in Hijack in Abstract

I live near Senoia, a quaint Georgian town used as a location set for many movies and TV shows (most famously, Fried Green Tomatoes and The Walking Dead) and recently home to Zac Brown's Southern Ground Social Club. Senoia was also a whistlestop with the early twentieth century bungalows and late Victorian houses you find in Halo. Since the production companies have moved in, Senoia has gentrified with a darling downtown with shops, restaurants, and Southern Living Idea Houses (and on certain weeks zombies and camera crews). However, Halo is on the cusp of renewal and lacks the funding of movie studios to pretty it up.

A Walking Dead barricade in Senoia

Downtown Grantville.
Imagine this building as the Tru-Buy grocery store
or Halo Herald

Which brings me to Grantville, another Walking Dead location town. Another whistlestop with turn of the century houses and buildings. Like Halo, Grantville has seen better days. I am friendly with the mayor, Jim Sells, and know he is hard at work to bring businesses and funding to Grantville, to revive its economy. Grantville is Halo in many ways (minus the town square and local businesses) and the moment I drove off the interstate and into the town, I knew in my heart this was Cherry Tucker's world.

Grantville's tracks

Examples of traditional, early twentieth century homes found in small depot towns like Grantville. Or Halo. 

Cherry's bungalow?

Although this is more what I imagined.

Mr. Johnson's (Cherry's neighbor) house.

Or this.

Picture yourself in Cherry's Datsun.

What do you think of when you imagine fictional small towns? Are these examples different than how you pictured Halo? Any Grantville or Senoia fans out there?