Let us Talk of Many Things; of Books and Queens and Pirates, of Mystery and Kings...: Rachel's Random Resources Book Tour: Wheels of Destruction: Death in Petra by Gina Cheyne

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About the Book

Wheels of Destruction: Death in Petra

Where do you hide an escaped prisoner? On a wheelchair holiday perhaps. Like a spoke in a wheel, the villain is seen but not seen.

Aspiring writer Sandy Blee is stuck in a dead-end receptionist job until she wins a working holiday to Jordan, pushing a wheelchair for Wheelchair Warriors Holidays. Even though she quickly realises she was the only entrant in the Blerglergle writing competition she is extremely excited about leaving England for the first time.

However, after arriving in the pink city of Petra she discovers her fellow travellers are not all they seem, and most are not who they claim to be. Moreover, the whole group is under investigation by the SeeMs Detective Agency who have been sent out to search for an escaped convict.

When members of the group are kidnapped and one mysteriously dies, Sandy finds herself pulled into the SeeMs detectives’ investigation. Is she, who so wants to write bestselling crime stories, ready to take on a real-life mystery – one that might just turn deadly?

This book will be enjoyed by readers who like travel crime, plus devotees of Agatha Christie, Grease the movie and MM Kaye

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheels-Destruction-Death-Detective-Agency-ebook/dp/B0FFHGKHM6/

https://www.amazon.com/Wheels-Destruction-Death-Detective-Agency-ebook/dp/B0FFHGKHM6/

Author Bio – Like many authors Gina has had a lot of different jobs and careers. She has been a physiotherapist, a flying instructor and pilot, a dog breeder, and a journalist. This is her sixth book in the SeeMs Detective series: the agency that looks behind what seems to be true.

Gina had two lengths of time when she was in a wheelchair (after a car crash and a helicopter accident) and having experienced the difficulties of wheel chair travel first hand she wanted to write a book that showed the challenges for wheelchair users when travelling, not just steps and narrow doorways, for example, but unexpected things like the difficulties of traversing cobbles.

When not writing or travelling Gina lives in Sussex with her husband and dogs.

Social Media Links –

https://ginacheyne.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ginacheynewriter/

https://www.facebook.com/gina.cheyne.books

https://reedsy.com/discovery/user/ginacheyne

https://www.tiktok.com/@flyfizzi

read an extract

A unique extract from the novel Wheels of Destruction: Death in Petra. Abbey who is in charge of a holiday group for the elderly and disabled, has recently discovered one of the guests is an investigative journalist and wonders why she is here. In this piece she is stopped by one of the guests who has a complaint.

‘Don’t get me wrong,’ said Mrs Cox, and Abbey felt her jaw muscles clench while she tried desperately to keep her sunny smile. ‘I really like the people on this trip. And, now I’m in one too, I feel so, so sorry for the people permanently in chairs. It must be so awful being…’ her voice dropped to a whisper, ‘…disabled. But I’m afraid Roxanna is really too rude and unpleasant and I must ask that she isn’t placed anywhere near me at any time. Just today she said she was glad I was in a wheelchair as now I’d stop being so snide about people who were disabled. As though I ever was. I am never rude!’

Abbey sighed internally. Adam had advised her not to worry about Mrs Cox’s alleged incident and even Mr Cox said his wife was always making things up, so that, at least, was past. Only now, Mrs Cox was back to complaining about other things. Apparently, Roxanna and Sandy had pushed in front of her at the buffet.

‘… although I don’t blame Sandra, who is a lovely, gentle girl and not at all worldly, but sadly, that Roxanna is all too worldly. Moreover,’ she said, ‘when I said I was glad of my chair because I felt very tired these days, something I put down to the altitude, Roxy gave a very callous laugh and said it was more likely my spherical abundance than the spatial altitude, which wasn’t making anyone else tired. No doubt she thinks that kind of language is funny! And,’ she continued, just as Abbey thought she had finished, ‘as for those “girls” Sugar and Spice…’

‘Jolly,’ said Abbey.

Mrs Cox sneered. ‘Jolly indeed. They are clearly Lebanese!’

Abbey stared at her. ‘Lebanese?’ This trip was getting madder and madder. First of all, the Bulgarian man turns out to be Arabic speaking, and now these two English girls are Lebanese. Was anybody on the trip who they claimed to be?

Mrs Cox laughed and wiggled her hips in her chair. ‘No, lebanese! You know…’ She touched her nose.

Abbey suddenly understood what she meant and tried to repress the laugh that bubbled up in her throat. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘lesbian.’

Mrs Cox looked as though Abbey had just sworn. ‘Sssh,’ she said, ‘no need to be rude.’

Abbey rushed out to collapse in giggles.

Jade was outside having a cigarette. ‘Oh, sorry,’ said Abbey, dropping down and laughing hysterically. ‘It’s just…’ She waved her hands. What could she say?

‘Yeah,’ said Jade, ‘I heard. F’ing Boomers. My gran’s the same.’

Abbey sobered up suddenly. ‘Your gran? I thought…’

Jade shrugged. ‘Yeah, she’s not really. I call her that. Makes her feel like one of the family.’

‘Oh,’ said Abbey. ‘OK.’

Jade stubbed out her cigarette and sloped off. Abbey watched her curiously. There was another mystery there, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. Jade and her grandmother, Lady Bumstead, had originally booked together on the trip. But then they were informed Lady Bumstead was in hospital and her place was being taken by a Mrs Tank. They had paid a hefty excess for a change of passenger so it would seem odd if they were smuggling in the original guest. Abbey had seen people pretending to be the guest and hoping to get a free holiday, but this would be the other way around. A guest pretending not to be who she actually was and paying double. That was a first, and it was hard to imagine why anyone would do it.

This trip was turning out to be concerning for someone with a hungry journalist on board. For some reason, Abbey thought about that Agatha Christie film where everybody on the train knew each other but pretended they didn’t. And then there was a murder. There’d better not be a murder on this trip; that really would give the journalist something to write about.