Guest Post & #Giveaway: SWIPE by R.G. Belsky & Bonnie Traymore
- Archaeolibrarian
- 8 hours ago
- 11 min read
Book Details:
Published by: Indie
Publication Date: May 1, 2025
Number of Pages: 300
@RGBelsky @bonnietraymore @partnersincrimevbt
@dickbelsky @bonnietraymore @partnersincrimevbt
Sonya's fed up with bad internet dates.
But she never meant to kill anyone.
After a stressful day at work and a creepy first meetup, Sonya Romano goes on a mission: teach a lesson to the smarmy guys she's meeting on her dating app. But when one of them falls to his death as a result of her confrontation--a married man posing as a single guy--she realizes she's gone too far.
Meanwhile, Jake Parker, former Pulitzer nominee, has hit rock bottom. His boss gives him an assignment: go under cover and produce a click bait story about dating apps. Things start to look up when another married man on the app is murdered, and Jake suspects that there may be a serial killer targeting cheaters.
With Jake hot on her trail, Sonya races to cover her tracks, until they finally meet. Fighting a powerful mutual attraction but suspicious of each other, neither of them know that a deranged psychopath is closer than they think, and much more of a danger than either of them realizes.
Can they figure out what's going on, before one of them is next?
Add to Goodreads | StoryGraph | Smashbomb | BookBub
"*Swipe* is a chilling, taut and twisty psychological thriller that will have you frantically turning pages until its stunning end. Clear your schedule because once you start reading, you won't be able to stop." — Lisa Regan, Bestselling Author of The Josie Quinn Series
"R.G. Belsky and Bonnie Traymore have teamed up to create a journalistic cat-and-mouse game that's suspenseful, addictive, thoroughly modern and loads of fun. Swipe right on this one — you'll be glad you did!" — Alison Gaylin, USA Today Bestselling Author of "We Are Watching"
ONE
Sonya
Is he dead?
He must be.
I watched his body fall backward off the jagged Palisades cliffs, bouncing off the rocks like a crash car dummy before plunging into the Hudson River five hundred feet below. Nobody could survive a fall like that.
I’m not a violent person.
I didn’t want him to die.
But who would believe me?
And now what?
Competing thoughts flash through my mind in rapid succession.
Call for help.
Get out of here as fast as I can.
I opt for the latter.
Thankfully, he’s a morning person. It’s early autumn in New York, and there’s a chill in the air. I passed a few other hikers on my way up here. But looking around, I don’t see anyone here now. No one saw us together.
My body starts to tremble as I turn around, nice and easy, and head back down the short, steep path toward the spot where I locked up my bike. I wasn’t stupid enough to bring my car with its GPS and identifiable license plate number. I’ve learned a few things over the last month or so about being stealthy.
Funny. I actually kind of liked this guy. I thought it might go somewhere, and that my string of disaster dates would finally be broken. Then I could retire this little mission of mine and get on with my life. Silly me. I should have known better than to get my hopes up. No one finds love on the internet these days.
We’d been chatting on MetMee for the last few weeks. He called himself Greg. I found out later he was using an alias—but then so was I. At one point, I thought he was a catfisher because he kept saying he wanted to get together, but I couldn’t pin him down. He was average-looking, though, and if one were making a fake profile, wouldn’t they put up the hottest photo they could find? But he was attentive and funny, as much as I could tell over chats, and we were actually getting to know each other. Perhaps he simply liked to take it slow.
Then we made plans to meet up, about a week ago, but he canceled at the last minute. Something about a sick dog. We hadn’t exchanged our real names yet. This seemed to validate my suspicions that something was hinky. By coincidence, earlier this week, I recognized his photo on a real estate website.
Matt Furman.
He worked in White Plains, I discovered, about thirty miles north of Manhattan, but lived over on the other side of the Hudson, in New Jersey.
He’d told me that he was a real estate agent, so at least that much was true. I suppose it wasn’t a complete coincidence that I found him online, because I’d been looking at real estate company websites, trying to figure out if he was stringing me along. And with a first and last name, his life unfolded before me.
I discovered that he liked to hike.
His social media was peppered with scenic vistas, and he revealed that the one he was on this morning was his weekend favorite.
Oh, and I also found out something else.
Something very important.
He’s married.
With two small kids.
I couldn’t let it go.
I needed to teach him a lesson.
My plan was to confront him somewhere where he would least expect it, but secluded enough so I wouldn’t be making a scene. I wanted to record him admitting what he’d done so that I could tell his wife.
It wasn’t that hard to find him. The guy’s a serial poster, providing the world with a play-by-play of his every move, as if we are all waiting on the edge of our seats to see what he’ll do next.
Can’t wait for my Palisades hike tomorrow.
Stopping for a latte.
Heading up the trail now.
I caught up with him as he was stepping out on the rocks to take a selfie, beyond the warning sign, over the railing they put there to stop people from getting themselves killed.
That’s how idiots die.
“Hey, Matt,” I called out, a little out of breath. I had planned to catch him in the parking lot but my timing was off, as it had been all morning. So, I high-tailed it up the trail to try to catch him, but he was fast.
His brow furrowed. “Oh, hi…”
I could see the wheels turning in his head as he struggled to place me. I wore black bike shorts and a tan cycling jersey. Nothing too flashy so I wouldn’t stand out. My hair was in a ponytail and sunglasses covered my eyes and forehead. I was standing a few feet away from him, so it wasn’t too surprising that he didn’t recognize me.
“Gina,” I said, hoping that he wouldn’t notice the phone in the palm of my hand, recording our conversation.
His mouth froze half-opened, until it finally clicked. “From…the app?”
I stared him down, one hand on my hip. “Yes, Matt. Gina. From MetMee.”
“How did you…? Um. Hi!”
I walked toward him.
He took a step back, although he was already dangerously close to the edge.
I smirked. “I decided to take your recommendation. About how nice and peaceful this trail is at this time of day.”
“I don’t remember saying anything about…”
He squinted, his mouth still agape, as if seeing me more sharply would clear the fog in his brain.
Then he shook his head. “Wait. You what?”
“You really should be more careful about what you put on your social media. You never know who might see it.”
Maybe it was my snarky tone, but his attitude shifted. He narrowed his eyes at me. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here, Gina.”
“What I’m trying to pull? Seems like you’re the one who’s trying to pull something, Matt. You’ve got a wife and two little kids. Is this how you get your kicks? Chat up single women on dating sites and get their hopes up? Or did you actually plan to cheat on your wife at some point?” I struggled to contain my growing outrage, gritting my teeth so hard, I feared I might chip a tooth.
“Look. I’m sorry, okay? My wife and I are having problems. I should’ve told you the truth. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just got carried away.”
“Well, you’re going to have bigger problems when I play this for your wife.” I held up my phone, which was recording our conversation. “Hi, Olivia. Sorry about this. But I thought you deserved to know.”
A hint of fear flashed in his eyes. For a moment, I thought he might bargain with me or beg me not to do it. Then his face contorted like an angry, cornered reptile.
“Are you some kind of psycho?” he barked. “Everyone lies on those sites. Look at you! You must be ten pounds heavier than you were in those photos you sent me. What’re they, from college? Olivia will never be able to handle this. My wife’s unstable. Fragile. If you play that recording for her, I’m warning you, it might be the last thing you ever do.”
“You’re threatening me?”
Fury exploded in me.
I lunged toward him, waving my phone in his face. “You hear that, Olivia? He says you’re crazy. He doesn’t want to take responsibility, just like my—”
Matt reached over the railing and tried to grab the phone out of my hand, but I pulled away. He stumbled but regained his footing, or so I thought. But then a look of confusion washed over his face and he started to wobble. And then he fell backward—and went barreling down the Palisades cliffs, plunging into the river, five hundred feet below.
The ground seemed to shift under my feet as the enormity of what had just happened hit me. My knees went weak. For a moment, I felt dizzy. Maybe it was a touch of vertigo. Expecting a wave of panic, I braced myself, but it didn’t come. Instead, I felt detached, like I was watching a movie. Like this couldn’t possibly be happening for real.
I didn’t push him, I swear.
But who would believe me?
It’s still my fault that he fell, and even if I could convince the cops that I didn’t shove him off that cliff, I would probably end up in prison. Involuntary manslaughter, isn’t that what it’s called?
Especially if they find out what else I’ve been up to on that dating app.
This was an impulsive move.
What was I thinking?
He could have grabbed me and hurled me off that cliff. I try to remain calm as I make my way down the trail, passing a few other hikers heading up. I replay the events in my mind, thinking of how I can spin this if someone sees me, but hoping to reach the end of this trail without being spotted. This little mission of mine has gone way too far. On the plus side, Matt Furman will never cheat on his wife again.
That’s probably not a normal thought to have at a time like this, and I wonder for a moment if I’m some kind of sociopath. But if I’m worried about being a sociopath, I’m probably not one. I’m in shock, I decide. Anyone would be in my position. I’m in self-preservation mode, and I’m sure the guilt will hit me at some point.
But not right now.
Now, I need to focus on getting out of here, unseen.
I reach the end of the trail, hop on my bike, and pedal like my life depends on it—hoping that he hasn’t, by some miracle, survived the fall.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY OF SWIPE
By R.G. Belsky and Bonnie Traymore
For us, writing SWIPE was a very different experience than all the other books we had each done in the past.
That’s because the two of us co-authored this book, each writing half of it - which turned out to be an extremely fascinating, fun first-time experience for us both as crime fiction authors.
Now the idea of writing a book together like this wasn’t exactly some well thought-out calculated plan on our part – hey, we barely even knew each other when we started working on SWIPE.
Instead, this book just kinda…well, happened.
Things began when R.G. reviewed one of Bonnie’s books for BookTrib, liked it a lot and reached out to tell her that. The same thing happened after a glowing review of another one of Bonnie’s books. She then began reading R.G.’s stuff and at some point broached the concept of writing a book together.
She had already come up with the idea for a story about terrible things - even murder - happening to singles looking for love on those online dating apps that are so popular these days.
She first got the idea talking with women friends who had all experienced many of these kinds of nightmarish dates with men they’d met on dating apps. So she decided to use this juicy material as inspiration to write a thriller about what might happen to one specific person - a woman named Sonya Romano - out there in the online dating jungle.
But Bonnie wanted a second character too - an investigator of some sort, like a police officer or (even better!) a journalist - to be investigating the crimes that occurred and trying to find out who was doing them and why.
Which is where R.G. - a lifelong journalist with the New York Post, New York Daily News and NBC News - came in to create a kind of down and out former newspaper reporter named Jake Parker looking for a big sensational exclusive story to make a comeback in the media world.
And so we divided up the book - Bonnie writing the Sonya chapters and R.G. doing Jake – with both main characters trying to solve the deadly mystery of who’s killing people on these online dating sites. And, even more importantly for Jake and Sonya, to make sure they didn’t become victims themselves.
Making it even more interesting for us in writing a book this way was the logistics of our writing partnership for SWIPE.
Bonnie lives in Hawaii, R.G. in New York City - so all of our conversations and our planning and our editing of the book needed to be accomplished over a distance of 5000 miles or so.
And - complicating things even a bit more - then there was the six-hour time difference between Hawaii and New York City too.
Let’s just say there were plenty of early morning and late night phone calls, emails and text conversations between the two of us until we finished writing the book.
Of course, each of us only had to write one half of a book, instead of a complete one like we normally do on our own - so we actually finished SWIPE very quickly in only a few months.
It was a lot of fun to write a book this way.
The pages just flew by as we wrote them, and we fell in love with the characters of Sonya and Jake.
We hope you readers out there will too.
Oh, and one more interesting thing we discovered along the way: No matter how outrageous or fantastic or unbelievable the stuff was we made up that happened to Sonya and Jake on the dating apps might have seemed to be at first – well, it all turned out to be based on true incidents.
Yep, pretty much every bad dating experience that you’ll read about in SWIPE actually happened to people out there on the dating apps looking for love in real life.
Now that’s a story!
Tour hosted by: Partners in Crime Tours
"Bonnie writing the Sonya chapters and R.G. doing Jake" ~ I love this idea!!! And I love knowing this before I read the book. :-) Can't wait to start reading!
Thanks for featuring us and SWIPE on your site today! - R.G. Belsky