Arleen Alleman's Page

Cold Coffee Press Endorses Currents Deep and Deadly:
Darcy Farthing Adventure Book One by Arleen Alleman

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Currents Deep and Deadly
Darcy Farthing Adventure Book One by Arleen Alleman

In her travel log of murder, romance, and a personal journey of discovery aboard a cruise ship, Darcy Farthing manages to entertain the reader with her descriptions of Caribbean and South American ports, while also detailing the horrific and wondrous events that take place during her four week adventure. A pragmatic scientist by nature, she says she has given up all belief in a spiritual component to life and knows that coincidences are either man-made or chance occurrences that seem related but have no significance. That is, until a series of unbelievable coincidences challenges her belief.

In telling her story, she lays bare her "non-existent" soul and the deeply hidden emotions she has kept in a fragile prison of cold logic and denial for 20 years. She is a savvy, professional woman who has been fighting her internal demons ever since she made a colossal mistake in her personal life from which she knows she can never recover. But on a hastily planned cruise with Dr. Peter Johnson, her latest romantic interest, Darcy's non-belief system is shaken when she is confronted with a set of bewildering and frankly unbelievable coincidences that bring together a tangle of strangers, and people and events from her own past. Darcy is already feeling trapped on the gigantic floating village when she accidentally overhears discussions about a murder for hire plot. Then when members of the crew begin to die under suspicious circumstances, she learns the hard way that she cannot trust anyone onboard the ship. She is forced to run for her own life as she tries to identify both the intended victim of the plot and the murderer before even more disaster strikes.

Finally, as the cruise sails through its final week the mystery appears to be solved and Darcy believes that further tragedy has been averted. Onshore in a beautiful Argentine city she experiences the pain of breaking out of her emotional prison when she meets the one person who will either fulfill her life or destroy her completely. While Darcy finds much needed closure to one chapter of her life, the cruise sails on to what promises to be a restful and romantic end. However, just short of their destination Darcy and Mick meet with unimaginable violence and loss when they are finally forced to confront and battle a vicious killer.

Genre: Exciting Suspense-filled Mystery, Action Adventure

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Cold Coffee Press Book Review For Currents Deep and Deadly:
Darcy Farthing Adventure Book One by Arleen Alleman

Darcy Farthing boards the $550-million cruise ship named Sea Nymph with every reason to believe that Captain Espen is in full command of his crew, his passengers and this four week voyage taken by thousands before her to the scheduled exotic Caribbean and South American ports.

She follows close behind her traveling companion Dr. Peter Johnson through the maze of narrow hallways where every hall and every door look alike. Darcy feels uneasy as she becomes intensely aware that her sense of direction is being challenged within this floating mega city. Her senses are on overload. Every movement, every sound and even the conversation of two men in a room off to her right catch her attention. The men don’t see Darcy as they are deeply entrenched in a serious, secretive conversation that catches Darcy’s attention and leads her to believe that they are up to no good. To make matters worse, later that day she overhears people discussing a “scheme”.

Questions bombard her mind; Is it coincidence? Is it two unrelated things that she wants to see meaning in? Should she go to security and tell them what she heard? But what can she say? The fact remains, she knows she has no proof of what she believes she overheard or the identity of who these people are.

Amidst the beauty, history and customs of the off-ship port excursions and the luxurious accommodations with the relaxing people friendly environment, suspicions intensify as members of the crew begin dying under suspicious circumstances.

Join Darcy Farthing by way of her detailed travel journal as she is on a voyage of self-discovery along with a ship full of complex characters, inter-relational story-lines, historical ports, secrets, mystery, suspense, romance and foreign investigations as the Sea Nymph is far from America’s shore.

Author Arleen Alleman’s Darcy Farthing Series books stand alone. She reports that at book signing events, readers tend to read her books in order of publication. Currents Deep and Deadly: Book One, Currents Of Vengeance: Book Two, Current Assets: Book Three, Alternate Currents: Book Four and A Current Deception: Book Five are all sold in print and eBook format at Amazon.

Cold Coffee Press Endorses Currents Deep and Deadly: Darcy Farthing Adventure Book One by Arleen Alleman. This well researched fictional Cruise Ship adventure will bring you a brief pause as you book your next travel cruise. We reviewed this book in a Kindle/PDF format. This review was completed on December 12, 2015. For more information please visit http://www.coldcoffeepress.com

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Currents Of Vengeance:
Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Two by Arleen Alleman

"New author Darcy Farthing and GAO manager Mick Clayton struggle with the aftermath of their traumatic South American cruise.

As Darcy gets to know her new daughter Rachael, Mick battles depression from his near-death in Valparaiso. Reluctantly, he decides to return to the Sea Nymph with Tom Smythe the ship’s fired security chief to conduct a joint GAO/FBI investigation of crime on cruise ships and to bring a murder suspect to justice.

Darcy and Rachael reluctantly go along, but the nightmare begins anew when they encounter a shipboard saboteur, a rapist, and much more. Mick finally succumbs to his emotional stress and Rachael falls victim to a violent predator, as they all meet with violence and madness wrought by vengeance.

Genre: Exciting Suspense-filled Mystery, Action Adventure

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Current Assets:
Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Three by Arleen Alleman

Author Darcy Farthing is writing at her new home in Marco Island, Florida while her boyfriend Mick Clayton conducts a GAO investigation of government property—asset forfeitures—stolen from under the noses of U.S. Marshals and a sheriff’s office.

When close friend, Tom Smythe, is arrested for attempted murder of a deputy sheriff, the couple tries to identify who is behind the property thefts and corruption. When more deputies are attacked, Darcy and Mick are drawn into a bewildering government investigation and an alarming web of murder and conspiracy with a surprising link to Middle East terrorists; as well as a smuggling operation on a luxury yacht.

As they inch closer to identifying a vicious murderer, the violence hits close to home when desperate criminals target Darcy and her deeply troubled daughter, Rachael.

Genre: Exciting Suspense-filled Mystery, Action Adventure

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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Alternate Currents:
Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Four by Arleen Alleman

"Author Darcy Farthing is living in Washington, DC, with her fiancé, Mick Clayton. They are enjoying a much needed respite from trauma and crime fighting while preparing for a wedding and a romantic cruise. Everything changes when an alarming phone call halts their plans. A good friend, Charlie Scott, has mysteriously disappeared—the apparent victim of an abduction.

Against Mick’s wishes, on an impulse and without much thought of consequences, Darcy flies to Seattle to help Charlie’s partner, Don, and their daughter, Penelope, cope with the loss. She is worried about Mick’s negative attitude about the couple and worries that he is prejudiced toward her friends. As a result, she finds herself reevaluating the direction of her personal and professional life.

Soon after her arrival in Seattle, she becomes immersed in the unfamiliar world of domestic partnerships, birth surrogates, and assisted reproductive technology. Don and Charlie, who became unlikely heroes in the first novel in this series, Currents Deep and Deadly, have their lives turned upside down by elusive kidnappers with no apparent motive. At the same time, their well-intentioned decision to pay a surrogate to bear their daughter for them turns into a nightmare, when the biological mother returns after eight years, claiming that Don and Charlie are not Penelope’s fathers as they believed, and she wants her child back. This revelation sets in motion a series of tragic events that threatens to destroy a parent-child bond, and worse.

Before the police and FBI are able to solve Charlie’s kidnapping, an even more devastating case materializes when Penelope also vanishes. The FBI and Seattle police detectives frantically look for clues. In the process, they implicate a local antigay organization and its leader, two local business owners who are being harassed by antigay demonstrators, a flamboyant stalker who is obsessed with Don, and the birth mother herself. There is no hard evidence against any of the suspects, and the leads are curtailed when two of them are murdered. The authorities are no closer to finding Penelope and now worry that she has been abducted by a vicious killer.

In the midst of turmoil surrounding Penelope’s birth status and abduction, true to her nature, Darcy tries to help her friends. When she ventures into the midst of the case by conducting a freelance interview with a local clergyman, she is nearly killed in a vicious attack by an unknown assailant. Mick rushes to her side and soon overcomes his reluctance to get involved with Don and Charlie’s plight. Together they try to gather information to help solve the case. Before the hostility ends, Don also becomes a victim and then a hero, and Mick must fight an unbalanced killer intent on revenge.

Genre: Exciting Suspense-filled Mystery, Action Adventure

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Amazon Customer Reviews
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A Current Deception:
Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Five by Arleen Alleman

"Freelance reporter Darcy Farthing boards a luxury cruise ship for a trip to beautiful Australian seaports with family and friends, where a baffling murder mystery challenges her investigative skills. The crimes begin when a small-town Kansas woman traveling with a class reunion tour group is plagued by an attack of yellow crazy ants—a dangerous, invasive species—as well as an illness caused by mysterious foodborne bacteria and the odd cancellation of an onshore tour. The bizarre but relatively minor incidents escalate when the ants injure more passengers and crew members. Soon, a peculiar death on the streets of Adelaide and attempted murders on board the ship threaten to cause panic. It is obvious that a crew member or passenger is targeting individuals, but who is it and why?

Meanwhile, Darcy is distracted by daughter Rachael’s uncharacteristic behavior and intense friendship with a handsome passenger. Reluctant to make waves, Darcy tries to suppress her concerns. She turns her full attention to the crimes when evidence is found in Brooks’s stateroom and the security chief names him as the sole suspect. Brooks is clearly innocent, but the chief is inexplicably reluctant to conduct a more thorough investigation to clear him; then Darcy’s best friend, Sid, who is also Brooks’s fiancé, becomes the latest victim. Clue by clue, with husband Mick’s help, Darcy uses her skills to reveal a homicidal master of disguise and world-class computer hacker intent on exacting revenge related to a twenty-year-old crime."

Genre: Exciting Suspense-filled Mystery, Action Adventure

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Amazon Customer Reviews
Amazon Hard Cover Purchase Link
Amazon Soft Cover Purchase Link
Kindle Purchase Link

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Cold Coffee Press Spotlight Interview With Author Arleen Alleman

Arleen Alleman is a former analyst with the U.S. Government Accountability Office where she wrote extensively on many topics ranging from satellite systems to endangered species. She has a science education and worked as a fashion model, insurance adjuster, jewelry designer, and proprietor of a home décor shop.

Her interests include reading, health and fitness, world religions, and travel. Her world travels supply authentic backdrops for her stories. Born in England and raised in New Hampshire and Nevada, she spent many years in Colorado before moving to SW Florida with her husband, Tim.

She is working on the sixth book in her The Darcy Farthing Adventures.

In order of publication: Currents Deep and Deadly, Currents of Vengeance, Current Assets, Alternate Currents, A Current Deception.

Winner of Books and Authors 2012 Best Trilogy Award for "Currents Deep and Deadly" "Currents of Vengeance" and "Current Assets".

The latest Darcy Farthing Adventure, A Current Deception, explores themes of computer hacking, identity theft, and long-held grudges and revenge played out on a cruise ship sailing around Australia. Murder-mystery with the added plots of a yellow crazy ant infestation as well as food-borne pathogens.

The fourth Darcy Farthing adventure "Alternate Currents" was a finalist in Foreword Reviews Magazine's 2013 Indie Book of the Year Awards. This is a timely topical story of mystery, child abduction, and murder set in Seattle, WA. Darcy rushes to the aid of good friend, Don Freeburg, when his partner, Charlie Scott, disappears. She is soon immersed in a murder investigation and the shocking abduction of Penelope, Don and Charlie's daughter by surrogacy.

The first two novels in the series are based on crime and mystery aboard cruise ships. The third in series "Current Assets" is set in South Florida and involves local corruption, terrorism, and the U.S. Marshals asset forfeiture program.

The series is unique in that it addresses social issues along with the murder-mystery elements of the stories. Themes addressed in the first four installments include, family issues and adoption, PTSD, alternative lifestyles, religion, government corruption, and cruise ship safety. This is a series that follows the lives of the characters over time, but the author has taken great care to write each book so it can stand alone. This said she reports that at book signings most people still want to begin with the first book.

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Interview:

What makes you proud to be a writer from SW Florida? I am a recent transplant to SW Florida, but have included this area in all my books from the beginning because I am drawn to it. We have many authors living in Naples and Marco Island and I am proud to be among them.

What or who inspired you to become a writer? My inspiration came from many fiction authors and thousands of books from the time I began reading adult fiction at the age of thirteen. Since then, it was a persistent dream to become a novelist---one that I did not pursue until later in life.

Did your environment or upbringing play a major role in your writing and did you use it to your advantage? Perhaps the freedom I enjoyed to read anything and pursue any activities I wanted helped give me confidence to finally try fiction writing. I’ve drawn on my history to create a few of the characters and locations in the books. My career as a GAO analyst has helped immensely because I received an education in a wide variety of topics, and my biology degree has given me the ability to research and understand technical information.

When did you begin writing with the intention of becoming published? I began the first novel in 2007 with the intent to try to publish it. I achieved that in 2008 and went on to publish four more books in the series. I’m working on the sixth and final installment of this series now.

What has been your most rewarding experience with your writing process? When I began the first book I had written a lot of nonfiction for my employer, GAO, but had very little experience with fiction writing. Improving my writing over time has been very rewarding. A while back, I reedited the first book without changing the story because I wanted to improve the grammar and style.

What has been your most rewarding experience in your publishing journey? I think all the book signings I’ve been able to arrange on cruise ships and various Barnes and Noble stores around the U.S., along with accolades from readers are the most rewarding. The first three books in the series were given an award for best trilogy of 2012 and that was very nice as well.

How many published books do you have? Five and another on the way.

Author Arleen Alleman’s Published Books
Currents Deep and Deadly: Darcy Farthing Adventure Book One
Currents Of Vengeance: Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Two
Current Assets: Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Three
Alternate Currents: Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Four
A Current Deception: Darcy Farthing Adventure Book Five

Do you come up with your title(s) before or after you write the manuscript? Most of the titles have come during the writing. In fact, because I’ve chosen to use the word Current in each title it has been a challenge to come up with each one. The titles convey something about the theme of the book using one or another definition of the word. Sometimes it is a play on words. My protagonist, Darcy Farthing, has a personal philosophy that includes envisioning life running on currents and colliding with other people’s currents as well as obstacles.

Please introduce your genre and why you prefer to write in that genre? I call my books mystery adventures. They cross genres. I love murder-mysteries so that is what I began writing. However, I’ve interwoven the mysteries with crime fighting, family and social dilemmas, humanist values, science, and world travel.

What was your inspiration, spark or light bulb moment that inspired you to write the book (one book) that you are seeking promotion for? The first book in the series came about while I was traveling by cruise ship around South America. I was retired from GAO and was working as a silver jewelry designer. Relaxing onboard, I started thinking about my old dream of writing fiction. Right then I decided to try it. As it turned out, I used the Cape Horn cruise as the backdrop for the first two books.

What one positive piece of advice would you give to other authors? I don’t like to give advice, but I usually tell people who ask that they should write because it gives them great pleasure, rather than believing it will be a way to make a lot of money. If that happens—great, but competition is stiff for new unknown authors.

Who is your favorite author and why? This is an impossible question for me. I love so many authors. If pressed, I would say Diana Gabaldon is certainly a favorite with her Outlander series. Weaving history, anthropology, and fiction together in an educational way is appealing to me.

Which book title would you like featured in this interview? I’ll go with the first in series, Currents Deep and Deadly because I find that most people want to start reading the series from the beginning. In this case, the first book introduces all the main characters to each other and the reader.

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