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Strong Female Protagonists
Broken Image centers around a woman grieving after tremendous personal loss, recovering from an accident, and healing after an abusive marriage, who finds herself in an area terrorized by a serial killer. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
Broken Image is part of a four-book series, with each book centered on one of the four Bennett siblings. I needed a love interest for Jay, and a reason for her to be in Edmondsville, so I decided to bring back Joe Grimes, one of my favorite secondary characters from The Row Series. Making Sage, his great-niece, felt like the perfect way to root in the small town.
I also enjoy creating strong female protagonists who face real challenges, so I gave Sage the dual burden of grieving her daughter while escaping an abusive marriage. That enabled me to bring in Brooke O’Connor Matthews from my Victory Hill Series. Brooke runs a social network that helps women and children escape dangerous situations, and in this story, she’d been corresponding with Sage’s Uncle Joe. Writing is the fun part, but marketing matters too, and I’ve found that intermingling my series is a great way to introduce readers to worlds they might not have discovered otherwise.
As for the killer…he’s hiding in plain sight, living within the very community that trusts him. He will stay there, quietly keeping everyone on edge, until he finally makes one fatal mistake in book four, Final Image.
Sage’s healing feels just as important as solving the mystery. Was it always your intention for her emotional recovery to be the heart of the novel?
As a retired librarian and educator, I tried to weave in details that might genuinely help readers deal with their own grief or hardship. Jay dealt with the loss of a bullied high school classmate to suicide by keeping a journal of his thoughts and recovery, and that experience shapes how he connects with Sage. He buys her a journal and encourages her to do the same. I included excerpts from Sage’s journal throughout the book, and I’m hopeful that the idea resonates with readers. Journaling can be a simple and powerful tool for working through pain.
I wanted Sage to overcome her grief and abuse and come out the other side a strong, independent woman. She was never really weak. She was just a victim who got in over her head, desperate to do the right thing by her little girl. While editing the book, I took Donald Maass’ Advanced Fiction Methods course, an invaluable tool that helped me sharpen my focus on Sage’s recovery arc. I didn’t want her to simply survive her circumstances. I wanted readers to watch her grow. We see so much grief and abuse in today’s world, and I wanted Sage’s story to show that it’s possible not just to endure it, but to come out the other side stronger than before.
You occasionally let readers see events from the criminals’ perspectives, creating suspense by revealing dangers the other characters don’t yet recognize. What made you choose that narrative approach?
I am an avid Nora Roberts/JD Robb fan, and I’ve always admired how she lets readers into everyone’s head, not just the hero’s. There’s something powerful about that kind of access. It creates a sense of dramatic irony where the reader knows more than the characters do, which increases the suspense. When you see the danger coming before the characters, you’re not just wondering what will happen; you’re bracing for when it will happen.
I also love creating strong, distinct characters, even frightening ones, and letting readers see the world through their eyes. It’s a way of making the threat feel real and immediate, rather than abstract. Readers aren’t just told a killer is dangerous; they are inside his thoughts, seeing how close he already is.
Can readers look forward to more installments in the Bennett Auction Series?
Yes! I am currently working on book three, False Image, which follows Mary Kate Bennett and Sheriff Duane Peterson’s story. Book four, Final Image, will wrap up the series with GW Bennett and Miranda Dooley.
There’s still plenty left to resolve – a ghost who needs to cross over, symbols on a brass key that need to be located to solve a century-old town mystery, and a serial killer who still needs to be caught. I’m excited to bring the Bennett siblings’ stories full circle in 2027, and I hope readers will stick around to see how it all comes together.
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When Sage Grimes returns to the small town of Edmondsville, she carries more than grief. The loss of her beloved great-uncle Joe and her four-year-old daughter Grace has left her shattered, her memories fractured, and her trust in the world destroyed. She came to Joe’s home to heal. Instead, she finds returned letters that hint at buried secrets, evidence that someone has been inside the house Joe left her, and terrifying gaps in her memory about the accident that changed everything.
She thought coming home would save her. She didn’t know someone was already waiting.
Jay Bennett has spent years trying to outrun his own painful past. When he meets Sage, he recognizes something in her eyes he’s seen before – the quiet devastation of someone standing at the edge. Determined to help her find her way back, he offers her something unexpected: a journal, a community blog, and a reason to believe her story isn’t over yet. But as Sage’s voice grows stronger, someone works anonymously in the shadows to destroy everything she’s building.
And Jay is keeping secrets of his own.
As fragments of memory begin to surface about the accident that killed Grace, a chilling possibility emerges that will change everything Sage thought she knew. Her dangerous ex-husband is circling. Anonymous threats are growing bolder. And Edmondsville, already gripped by fear as a serial killer terrorizes the community, offers fewer safe places than Sage had hoped.
The closer she gets to the truth, the more deadly the danger becomes.
When Sage discovers that the one person she’d begun to trust has been keeping things from her, her fragile recovery threatens to collapse entirely. Sage must find the strength to face the past before it destroys her future.
Because someone doesn’t want her to remember. And they’ll do anything to make sure she never does.
Broken Image is a gripping small-town romantic suspense perfect for readers who love emotionally complex heroines fighting to reclaim their lives, heroes with wounded hearts and protective instincts, small-town settings with secrets hiding in plain sight, slow burn romance woven through pulse-pounding suspense, and stories about grief, healing and the courage to trust again.
If you loved Mirror Image, don’t miss Sage and Jay’s story in Broken Image – the next chapter in the Bennett Auction Series.
Broken Image
Kay Brooks’s Broken Image is a small-town romantic suspense novel that blends murder, grief, family secrets, and a touch of the supernatural. The story centers on Sage Grimes, who returns to Edmondsville after losing both her young daughter, Grace, and her beloved great-uncle Joe. Sage is also recovering from an accident she can’t fully remember and separating from an abusive husband. While she tries to make a home out of the house Joe left her, a serial killer is stalking women in the area, another woman is fighting to survive captivity, and several people close to Sage are pulled into the growing danger.
Sage’s emotional recovery gives the novel its heart. Her grief isn’t treated as a single obstacle she needs to overcome, but as something that shapes her routines, relationships, and sense of self. Baking, exploring Joe’s collection of local history, and planning a meditation gazebo all become meaningful parts of her healing. One of the book’s most affecting observations comes when Leona tells her, “Our hearts break because they are tender and vulnerable.” That idea runs through the entire story. Sage’s pain leaves her exposed, but it also allows her to form deeper connections with the people who welcome her back into the community.
The suspense unfolds through several intersecting storylines. Sage’s missing memories gradually raise questions about the crash that killed Grace, while Abby receives increasingly disturbing attention from a killer who believes she belongs to him. Ivy’s struggle to escape captivity adds urgency, and Sheriff Duane Peterson works to connect the evidence before someone else dies. Brooks frequently shifts viewpoints, sometimes letting readers see events through the eyes of the criminals. This creates tension by revealing how close the danger is even when the characters don’t recognize it. The mystery surrounding Walter, Sage’s estranged husband, becomes especially gripping as Sage begins trusting her own instincts again.
Edmondsville itself plays a major role in the book. The auction business, fall festival, cemetery, apple orchard, local history society, and community Facebook page give the town a lived-in personality. Brooks fills it with a large, affectionate network of friends and relatives who cook for one another, investigate strange events, share old stories, and show up when someone needs help. The many characters and plot threads make the novel feel busy at times, but they also create the sense that Sage is entering a community with a history that extends well beyond her personal crisis. The ghostly presence of Isabella fits naturally into this setting, adding warmth and lingering mystery rather than shifting the novel into full supernatural horror.
Broken Image is about rebuilding a life after fear and guilt have distorted the way a person sees herself. The thriller plot supplies danger and momentum, but Sage’s movement from isolation toward belonging provides the most satisfying journey. By the closing chapters, her statement, “I’m going to be okay,” feels earned because it comes after she has confronted both the truth about her past and the person who tried to control it. Readers who enjoy romantic suspense with an active community, multiple mysteries, gentle paranormal elements, and a strong emphasis on emotional healing will find plenty to engage with here.
Pages: 292 | ASIN : B0GZFNJZ9G
The Mysteries That Would Follow
Mirror Image follows a couple preparing an estate auction who discover an eerie portrait, a restless spirit, and a killer with his sights set on their little town. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
I have always enjoyed antiques and attending auctions. I learned to refinish furniture in high school and refinished my great-aunt’s washstand and my grandmother’s kitchen table. That table had four coats of paint on it! The washstand is next to my bed, and the table is in my office.
My husband and I enjoyed attending live auctions, but busy schedules made it difficult to attend them on a regular basis. After retiring, my husband discovered online auctions and purchased a few items. The auction company was located in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, near James Madison University, my college alma mater, and when we travelled there to pick up his purchases, I found myself observing the terrain, twisting back roads, then this huge warehouse situated in the midst of a big field that had been converted into a little complex that included a wholesale bookstore and the auction house. I was in seventh heaven.
But as we followed the attendant to where my husband’s items were stored, I found myself imagining a family-owned auction business on the outskirts of a small town on a huge plantation that had been made into the Bennett compound where the family lived but had built the business in a warehouse on the property close to the main road. My husband and I are also friends with an auctioneer who for twenty-plus years conducted auctions for my public library as a fundraiser. He was very charismatic and always held lively auctions. He was my inspiration for Gilbert Bennett.
So, that “what if” moment in a new-to-me setting planted the seed for the Bennett family, their auction business, and the mysteries that would follow, including a ghost and a serial killer I couldn’t resist adding to the mix.
The opening premise is immediately eerie and intimate. What drew you to the idea of a woman confronting a portrait of someone who looks exactly like her?
Another “what-if” situation. When the idea of the story grabbed me, I started recalling auctions I had attended and remembered one estate auction where framed family portraits were for sale. Firstly, I hated that they had callously chosen not to keep the family heirlooms, but as I studied the faces, I thought, “what would you do if you found a portrait that was the image of you?”
That reminded me of another instance when I saw a Cousin’s Facebook post with a 1910 picture of a young woman that looked very familiar. I texted her and asked, “Is that Grandma?” to which she responded, “Yes, and she looks like you!” Well, that explained the skipped heartbeat when I saw the picture, but it also had me thinking, “what if a woman discovered a spitting-image portrait of herself from an earlier era.”
The story started percolating then. One thing led to another, and once I had the image, I wanted Abby’s reaction to be more than fear. I wanted her to feel a pull toward this woman, almost a responsibility to her. That compassion became the emotional heart of the story.
You have a strong eye for physical detail, especially heirlooms and rooms. Do you often begin scenes with objects before dialogue or action?
As a retired librarian, I value education and helping people better themselves. I also strive to include something new or educational in my stories. In Mirror Image, I decided to elaborate on the beauty of the antiques in the White house. The Lladro sculptures, the grandfather clock, the furnishings, the china. Some are unique and exquisite, but they also help to set the tone of a setting or scene, give the reader a sense of being there and maybe wondering, “why is she describing this?” I hope readers will google some of them as they read the book and let me know if I accurately described them.
Sometimes, objects can be the reason for dialogue, or action. It may play a major role in a mystery as some of them do in the Bennett Auction Series. I like to keep my readers alert, on their toes.
To directly answer the question, yes, I often begin with an object or a room before dialogue enters. The setting tells its own story first, and I find that when a reader is grounded in the physical world of a scene the emotional beats that follow land more powerfully.
Can you give us a glimpse inside the second installment of the Bennett Auction Series? Where will it take readers?
Broken Image, book two of the series, was released on Mother’s Day 2026. I like to launch my books on days that are important to me. In Broken Image, Sage Grimes is dealing with a mild case of amnesia and the grief of losing her four-year-old daughter in a car accident. She is also grieving the death of her great-uncle, Joe who was like Edmondsville’s local historian. He collected local memorabilia from estate auctions and yard sales. Remember my use of objects?
Broken Image is Sage and Jay Bennett’s story where they discover the local artifacts in Joe’s house that turn out to be clues to mysteries that have haunted the town for hundreds of years. It is also a story of emotional healing and finding peace with someone who understands and values you.
Isabella, the ghost who is Abby’s twin, picks up on Sage’s sorrow as she too, has lost a child. Another mystery.
The serial killer who has an affection for Abby still lives among them and despite a few setbacks, his threat continues to cast a shadow over Edmondsville and the people Abby loves most.
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When estate auctioneer Abby Adams steps into the historic White house, she expects to find valuable antiques—not Isabella, a ghostly resident who could be her twin. As Abby catalogs the estate’s treasures, her fascination with Isabella’s story grows, along with an inexplicable desire to uncover the truth behind their startling resemblance.
But her investigation takes a deadly turn when local women who look just like her start turning up dead. Anonymous gifts appear at her door, each more unsettling than the last, making one thing clear: someone is watching, waiting, and Abby’s time is running out.
TJ Bennett has always kept relationships professional at Bennett Auctions, but his attraction to Abby becomes impossible to ignore. When he realizes the killer’s victims mirror Abby’s appearance, his need to protect her wars with family obligations and a past that won’t let him go. Together, they must untangle a web of long-buried secrets before the killer strikes again.
As the body count rises and Isabella’s century-old mystery intertwines with present-day murders, Abby races to understand their connection. The White house holds the answers—and a killer who will stop at nothing to keep them hidden. With both a ghost and a murderer haunting her steps, Abby must solve two mysteries spanning a hundred years before she becomes the next victim.
From spectral whispers to calculated killings, Mirror Image delivers a pulse-pounding blend of paranormal suspense and passionate romance. Perfect for fans supernatural thrillers, this tale proves that some connections transcend time—and death itself.
Mirror Image (Bennett Auction Series)
Mirror Image, by Kay Brooks, opens the Bennett Auction Series with Abby Adams and TJ Bennett entering the secluded White house to prepare an estate auction, only to find a portrait that looks exactly like Abby, a restless ghost named Isabella, hidden family secrets, and a present-day killer circling Edmondsville. The book braids a haunted-house mystery, a slow-burn romance, and a serial-killer thread into a story where antiques, diaries, portraits, and old rooms become evidence rather than scenery.
I appreciated the way the house is presented as more than a setting. Brooks has a strong instinct for objects: Lladró figures, old furniture, sketchbooks, diaries, a missing vase, and the kind of heirlooms that seem to remember more than the living do. That auction-world texture gives the paranormal mystery a pleasing specificity. I also enjoyed Abby’s curiosity; she is not merely frightened by Isabella’s presence, but pulled toward her with compassion, which gives the ghost story an emotional hinge.
The romance between Abby and TJ has a familiar push-pull rhythm, sometimes heated, sometimes prickly, but it works best when their banter is interrupted by real danger or tenderness. The book is busy with ghosts, genealogy, murder, family business, romance, and a killer’s stalking presence, all of which compete for space, but that abundance gives it a pulpy, page-turning energy. I was especially drawn to the idea that history is not dead here; it is ambulatory, wounded, and occasionally mischievous.
This book is for readers who enjoy paranormal romantic suspense, small-town mystery, serial killer thrillers, and family secrets fiction. Fans of Heather Graham’s Krewe of Hunters novels may feel at home with the blend of romance, ghosts, investigation, and danger, though Brooks adds her own auction-house flavor. Mirror Image is a ghost story that feels old, mysterious, and alive.
Pages: 299 | ASIN : B0DYZPL83J
