Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The Body on the Doorstep by A.J. Mackenzie Blog Tour + Guest Post

Kent, 1796.

Shocked to discover a dying man on his doorstep - and lucky to avoid a bullet himself - Reverend Hardcastle finds himself entrusted with the victim's cryptic last words.

With smuggling rife on England's south-east coast, the obvious conclusion is that this was a falling out among thieves. But why is the leader of the local Customs service so reluctant to investigate?

Ably assisted by the ingenious Mrs. Chaytor, Hardcastle sets out to solve the mystery for himself. But smugglers are not the only ones to lurk off the Kent coast, and the more he discovers, the more he realises he might have bitten off more than he can chew.

The Body on the Doorstep by A. J. MacKenzie 
Series: Romney Marsh Mystery #1 
Published by Zaffre 
Published on 21.4.2016 
Genre: historical fiction 
Pages: 272 
You can buy the book on amazon.co.uk or  amazon.com 
Goodreads 

Detection without DNA


Some of our friends and fellow authors who write police procedurals are frankly envious of our working in the eighteenth century. So is Marilyn’s sister, a crown prosecutor in Canada. ‘You don’t have to worry about DNA or any of the technical stuff’, she complained. ‘You’ve got it easy.’

On one level we do, and we are full of admiration for our friends who write police procedurals and other modern crime drama. To make these books believable requires a lot of technical knowledge and – even more important – the ability to make that knowledge interesting to a non-technical reader and integrate it into the story. Very impressive, you guys. Don’t know how you do it (but love the results).

Our technical problems are few and simple. If we need to know whether it is possible for someone to be murdered in a particular way, we tend to act it out ourselves. This will get us in trouble one day, as our windows face onto the village street and we sometimes forget to close the curtains. To any members of Devon and Cornwall Police who may be reading this: we really are writers, what you saw as you drove past just now was just research. Honest.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Blog Tour + Review: The Missing by C.L.Taylor




You love your family. They make you feel safe. You trust them. Or do you…?

When fifteen-year-old Billy Wilkinson goes missing in the middle of the night, his mother, Claire Wilkinson, blames herself. She's not the only one. There isn't a single member of Billy's family that doesn't feel guilty. But the Wilkinson’s are so used to keeping secrets from one another that it isn't until six months later, after an appeal for information goes horribly wrong, that the truth begins to surface.

Claire is sure of two things – that Billy is still alive and that her friends and family had nothing to do with his disappearance.

A mother's instinct is never wrong. Or is it?


Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Hello, guys. Today is my stop on the great Cally Taylor's blog tour for her super gripping psychological thriller The Missing. My first book from this amazing author was a chick-lit story Heaven Can Wait, which I absolutely adored and proudly own, and I was very surprised when she went into another so different genre. But she managed well. The Lie, The Accident, and now The Missing, they are all among the best on the bookshelves. I must say that I was a little bit skeptical about this book, but when I started reading, I was the one missing from the rest of the world.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: Chapter 1 of Dodgers by Bill Beverly

‘A dazzling crime novel that’s equal parts coming-of-age tale à la Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and travelogue à la Kerouac.’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

‘Propulsive, brutally honest and yet unexpectedly tender, Dodgers is one of the best debuts I've read. I was absolutely gripped by the voice, the world of East and his brother, and surprised at nearly every turn. I audibly gasped at the end.' ATTICA LOCKE, author of Black Water Rising and Pleasantville

‘One of the greatest literary crime novels you will read in your lifetime’ DONALD RAY POLLOCK


For fans of THE WIRE, GEORGE PELECANOS, and CLOCKERS, Dodgers announces the arrival of an exceptional new talent. This gripping literary thriller, with an ensemble cast, fuses a moving, coming of age story with a meditation on the very nature of belonging.

When fifteen-year-old East, a low-level lookout for a Los Angeles drug organization, loses his watch-house in a police raid, his boss recruits him for a very different job: a road trip – straight down the middle of white, rural America – to assassinate a judge in Wisconsin.

Having no choice, East and a crew of untested boys – including his inscrutable, trigger-happy younger brother, Ty – leave the only home they’ve ever known. Setting off in a nondescript blue van, with a roll of cash, a map and a gun they shouldn’t have, this amateur crew embark on a life-changing odyssey into the unknown.

Along the way, the country surprises East. The blood on his hands isn’t the blood he expects. And he reaches places where only he can decide which way to go – or which person to become.

An intense, dangerous thriller delivered with a poignancy that will break your heart, Dodgers is the American road trip for our times. From the mean streets of south LA to the hinterlands of the American Midwest, the pared down, a raw prose of Beverly’s incredible debut will keep you spellbound, shocked and thrilled to the very last page.

‘Dark, edgy and riveting and, for all that, deeply, humanly serious, Dodgers is white knuckles for the mind.’  Robert Olen Butler   'A wickedly good amalgam of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Clockers that stands firmly on its own as a remarkable debut. A harrowing road trip into the heart of America that will shock you, move you, and leave you marveling at its desolate poetry.'  Richard Lange


I

THE BOXES


  The Boxes was all the boys knew; it was the only place. 

  In the street one car moved, between the whole vehicles and skeletal remains, creeping over paper and glass. 

  The boys stood guard. They watched light fill between the black houses separated only barely, like a row of loose teeth. Half the night they had been there: Fin taught that you did not make a boy stand yard all night. Half was right. To change in the middle kept them on their toes, Fin said. It kept them awake. It made them like men.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Book News: Dodgers by Bill Beverly

‘A dazzling crime novel that’s equal parts coming-of-age tale à la Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and travelogue à la Kerouac.’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

‘Propulsive, brutally honest and yet unexpectedly tender, Dodgers is one of the best debuts I've read. I was absolutely gripped by the voice, the world of East and his brother, and surprised at nearly every turn. I audibly gasped at the end.' ATTICA LOCKE, author of Black Water Rising and Pleasantville
‘One of the greatest literary crime novels you will read in your lifetime’ DONALD RAY POLLOCK DODGERS BILL BEVERLY

For fans of THE WIRE, GEORGE PELECANOS, and CLOCKERS, Dodgers announces the arrival of an exceptional new talent. This gripping literary thriller, with an ensemble cast, fuses a moving, coming of age story with a meditation on the very nature of belonging.

When fifteen-year-old East, a low-level lookout for a Los Angeles drug organization, loses his watch-house in a police raid, his boss recruits him for a very different job: a road trip – straight down the middle of white, rural America – to assassinate a judge in Wisconsin.

Having no choice, East and a crew of untested boys – including his inscrutable, trigger-happy younger brother, Ty – leave the only home they’ve ever known. Setting off in a nondescript blue van, with a roll of cash, a map and a gun they shouldn’t have, this amateur crew embark on a life-changing odyssey into the unknown.

Along the way, the country surprises East. The blood on his hands isn’t the blood he expects. And he reaches places where only he can decide which way to go – or which person to become.

An intense, dangerous thriller delivered with a poignancy that will break your heart, Dodgers is the American road trip for our times. From the mean streets of south LA to the hinterlands of the American Midwest, the pared down, a raw prose of Beverly’s incredible debut will keep you spellbound, shocked and thrilled to the very last page.

‘Dark, edgy and riveting and, for all that, deeply, humanly serious, Dodgers is white knuckles for the mind.’ Robert Olen Butler 'A wickedly good amalgam of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Clockers that stands firmly on its own as a remarkable debut. A harrowing road trip into the heart of America that will shock you, move you, and leave you marveling at its desolate poetry.' Richard Lange

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: BILL BEVERLY was born and grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He studied literature and writing at Oberlin College, including time in London studying theater and the Industrial Revolution. He then studied fiction and pursued a Ph.D. in American literature at the University of Florida. His research on criminal fugitives and the stories surrounding them became the book On the Lam: Narratives of Flight in J. Edgar Hoover’s America. He lives with his wife and daughter in Maryland and teaches American literature and writing at Trinity University in Washington D.C. He collects beer cans. 

PRAISE for DODGERS

'An excellent book . . . Imagine the young corner boys from The Wire on a road trip across the USA' James Brown, Sabotage Times

'Akin to William Gibson in its staccato blizzard of sentences, each as taut and tight as a drumhead, and reminiscent of James Ellroy in its sense of social injustice and of a life and upbringing etched caustically across the pages. A compelling debut.' Luke McCallin, author of The Man from Berlin and The Pale House

‘Not only is the fast-paced and masterfully plotted Dodgers one of the greatest literary crime novels you will read in your lifetime, Bill Beverly has also created, in the teenage boy, East, one of the most unforgettable and heartbreaking characters ever encountered in American fiction.’ Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time

‘Dodgers transcends genres. Its main character East, is part Kerouac’s Sal Paradise, Part Wright’s Bigger Thomas, and even part Salinger’s Holden Caulfield. The hero’s journey is an American story.’ Ernesto Quinonez, author of Bodega Dreams

‘A terrific novel, urgent, thrilling and dangerous from start to finish. In East, Mr. Beverly has created a character who stays in the mind after the book is finished, an Odysseus straight out of Compton. His venture into the unknown lands of the American Midwest has a classic, mythic shape and scope. And the writing throughout is lovely, economical and exact. You could read this for the sentences alone.’ Kevin Canty, author of Into the Great Wide Open

‘The sentences will snare you, and the story keeps you hooked – a thrilling cross-country journey that takes on the poetry and resonance of myth.’ Adam Sternbergh, author of Shovel Ready and Near Enemy

‘In Dodgers, Bill Beverly delivers with honesty and empathy as he takes us into the hope-killing shadow of LA’s street-level drug kingdom. His prose is a perfect match for young East’s life-altering journey; spare, clear-eyed and with the cutting edge of flint. Beverly leads us into the heart of a young man molded by circumstance and, much as Richard Price’s The Whites, gives us a view that will change the way you look at the world.’ Susan Crandall, author of Whistling Past the Graveyard

‘Bill Beverly’s wild and auspicious debut takes off from page one and never lets up. Dodgers, a kind of modernized and urban take on Theodore Weesner’s The Car Thief, is lightning quick and world-wise, full of pitch-perfect dialogue and criminal misadventure. Most importantly, it’s a lot of fun.’ Tom Cooper, author of The Marauders   

If you are intrigued by this amazing blurb, come back tomorrow for Chapter 1 of this terrific read!

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Book Review: A Disguise to Die For (Costume Shop Mystery #1) by Diane Vallere





Someone is dressed to kill in the debut Costume Shop Mystery from the national bestselling author of the Material Witness mysteries.

No sooner does former magician’s assistant Margo Tamblyn return home to Proper City, Nevada, to run Disguise DeLimit, the family-owned costume shop, than she gets her first big order. Wealthy nuisance Blitz Manners needs forty costumes for a detective-themed birthday bash. As for Blitz himself, his Sherlock Holmes is to-die-for—literally—when, in the middle of the festivities, Margo’s friend and party planner Ebony Welles is caught brandishing a bloody carving knife over  a very dead Blitz.

For Margo, clearing Ebony’s name is anything but elementary, especially after Ebony flees town. Now Margo is left to play real-life detective in a town full of masked motives, cloaked secrets, and veiled vendettas. But as she soon learns, even a killer disguise can't hide a murderer in plain sight for long.


Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A young woman, Margo, comes home in a small town to help her father after having a heart attack. He runs a costume shop and she practically grows up there. No wonder she dresses in costumes her entire life. A rich client comes to the shop to order a costume-themed birthday party. Famous detectives, that's the theme. But the birthday party goes all wrong. The birthday kid is found dead, and Margo's dear friend and the closest thing to a mother is standing next to him with a knife. She is absolutely sure and believes in her innocence, but the thing is, who dun it? Is it Miss Marple, or Veronica Mars, or maybe the Great Sherlock Holmes? That's the problem with the costumed parties, everyone wears a costume. But the question is, who killed the rich kid, and who is trying to frame an innocent person?

Margo takes the things in her own hands. The costumes are hers and it is her friend convicted of murder!

Monday, April 11, 2016

Book Review: Who Are You? By Megan Henley





A dramatic and terrifying memoir of a ‘catfish’ scenario - when a woman meets a man online but nothing is what it seems.

25-year-old Megan Henley put her five-year-old daughter to bed one evening and switched on her laptop. A Facebook ‘friend request’ seemed to be genuine. There were a few common friends and very similar interests, so Megan accepted.

With that one simple act, she changed her life forever. In her words: ‘looking back on it, it was as if I had opened my front door to a stranger, as if I had thrown away every precaution I’d ever put in place, as if I had freely given access to my whole world – all because of some naïve belief that it was ‘just’ a friend request on a social media site.’ Megan is tricked into a relationship, paranoia and ultimately betrayal by the man she loved and trusted but nothing is as it seems.


Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

With this busy life we have, meeting the right person is a real challenge. No wonder many people feel lonely and turn to the internet just for talk. Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, you name it! But we never know who are we really talking to. It might be just a normal person spending the free time just like us, or it might be a serial killer lurking for his next victim....

When I finished reading this book, I was hard for me to believe that it was a real life story. Not that it couldn't happen in real life. It happened, that was the problem! Psychopaths do exist also in real life, not just in movies. Luckily, this woman managed to escape, some women didn't. Megan Henley was brave enough to tell her story. If she had succeeded to warn at least one woman out there, her story hit the target.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: Pigeon-Blood Red by Ed Duncan


Excerpt from Chapter 1
When Rico knocked on Jean’s door he was happy to hear the sound of footsteps. At least she was there. Maybe it was a good omen. Jean, a stunning redhead with a figure that made the heart leap, looked through the peephole, opened the door, and greeted him wrapped in a towel. She was even more tantalizing than she’d been in the car earlier that day. She wasn’t completely dry, and here and there tiny droplets of water glistened on her arms and shoulders. Rico inhaled the subtle fragrance of her shower gel, but before it could distract him, a voice in his head reminded him, “Point one percent.”

I wasn’t expecting you back so soon,” she began, a playful, sultry smile on her face.

From the doorway Rico scanned the living room and saw nothing amiss. He walked in and closed the door behind him. Too bad. He only knew how to do this one way. “Jean, how long have you known me?” he asked stoically.

She was baffled. “You know as well as I do. What kind of a question is that?”

I never tried to hide from you how I make my living, true?” They stood face to face, inches apart, before she took a few halting steps backward. “So you know what happens to people who don’t tell me what I want to know, don’t you?”

Rico,” she stammered, her voice trembling, “you aren’t making any sense. What’s this all about? I don’t know what you’re accusing me of, but I haven’t done anything, I swear.”

He took a straight razor from his coat pocket and opened it. As he walked toward her, she covered her face with her hands. He stepped behind her, thrust his left arm through the triangle formed by her hands pressing against her face, and grabbed her right shoulder. With his right hand he held the blunt side of the open razor against her right cheek.

Monday, April 4, 2016

BOOK NEWS: Pigeon-Blood Red by Ed Duncan

Pigeon-Blood Red is a fast-paced and suspenseful crime thriller by Ed Duncan. It was released in March 2016, published by Zharmae and is available for sale on Amazon.” 

Synopsis

For underworld enforcer Richard "Rico" Sanders, it seemed like an ordinary job. Retrieve his gangster boss's priceless pigeon-blood red ruby necklace and teach the double-dealing cheat who stole it a lesson. A job like a hundred before it. But the chase quickly goes sideways and takes Rico from the mean streets of Chicago to sunny Honolulu, where the hardened hit man finds himself in uncharted territory when a couple of innocent bystanders are accidentally embroiled in the crime.

As Rico pursues his new targets, the hunter and his prey develop an unlikely respect for one another and Rico is faced with a momentous decision: follow his orders to kill the couple whose courage and character have won his admiration, or refuse and endanger the life of the woman he loves?

Fast-paced and full of surprises. Will keep you on the edge of your seat!” – Amazon Customer