Category: Blog Series Page 136 of 232

BOOK BLITZ: The Forgotten Gun by John Reid

This morning I’m pleased to host a Book Blitz for John Reid’s The Forgotten Gun—the first book in the DCI Steve Burt Mystery series—to celebrate its publication today.

The Forgotten Gun Blitz Banner

Book Details:

Book Title: The Forgotten Gun by John Reid
Series: A DCI Steve Burt Mystery
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Release date: August 31, 2021
Format: Ebook/Hardcover/Paperback
Length: 210 pages

The Forgotten Gun

Book Blurb:

A Metropolitan Police detective about to be dismissed is given a second chance by his old boss, who is now a police commander. He’s given a new unit to run and two misfit detectives to assist him. All three know their status is temporary.

Their first case together is an impossible double murder. Each murder is identical. Both victims are expertly shot in the head from long range, but the post-mortems reveal no bullets were used in the shootings. The CSI teams calculate that in both cases there was no place for the marksman to have fired from, unless suspended over busy roads.

Although it’s a case apparently impossible to solve, DCI Steve Burt reluctantly agrees to investigate with his new team. Their enquires lead them into the murky world of greed, corruption, fraud and money laundering, but they are no nearer solving the murders. The team is stumped until the DCI meets a retired army major and a WW2 veteran who unwittingly hold the keys to solving these impossible murders.

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon US ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

John ReidThe author was born in Scotland and after serving in the army embarked on a career in industry and commerce. He has worked in several different sectors of business mostly in senior roles and latterly as CEO of a large international data capture company.

He retired for the first time in 1995 but continued to work as a consultant helping new businesses become established. In 2018, he finally retired from business life to become a full-time author. John lives in the UK and Portugal with his wife and they have two grown-up sons.

John has used the DCI Steve Burt series to get involved with Sense, a great charity that supports anyone living with complex disabilities. Sense helps people communicate and experience the world. They, like John, believe that no one, no matter how complex their disabilities, should be isolated, left out, or unable to fulfill their potential.

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this Blitz.

Love Books Group

Saturday Miscellany—9/18/21

Odds n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet The Surprisingly Big Business of Library E-books—This feels like a problem…
bullet 30 cool indie bookstores across the country that you’ll want to check out—You know those people who tour the US to visit every MLB Ballpark or something? Lists like this make me want to try my version of that. If only I had the time, means, and willingness to leave my house that much…
bullet Mystery in the Mountains: 10 Novels Set in the High Country of the American West—On the other hand, I have almost zero desire to visit any of the locations mentioned here outside the pages of a novel (which is a shame, because it’d be pretty easy for me).
bullet I really wasn’t trying to turn these posts into Tori Eldridge-fests, but she’s clearly doing what she can to get her name–and the name of her new book out there–and doing so with interesting articles, so…
bullet Stories Behind Our Names
bullet Binge-Worthy Characters in Books and on the Screen
bullet Robert Crais shared a pic of the first draft of his next book—fans will be happy to see this, people interested in writers’ process should check it out to see his revision notes, etc.
bullet 10 Memorable Roald Dahl Quotes to Live By—Dahl’s 103 birthday was this week, Bookstr noted the day with this fun collection
bullet What makes a good book?—HiuGregg shares some musings
bullet 5 SFF Books Featuring Middle-Aged or Elderly Heroines Who Still Kick Ass
bullet One Key Reason to Read the Book Before the Movie—Yes. (also, some good reasons to watch first…but they pale in comparison)

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire—The 15th (!) Toby Daye novel sees her get married, find a coup, and thinking about her future more than we’re used to. I will post something gushy about it soon. Loved it.
bullet True Dead by Faith Hunter—Jane goes back to New Orleans for reasons personal and regal in her 14th (!) novel. I talked more about it not that long ago
bullet The Ninja Betrayed by Tori Eldridge—Lily visits Hong Kong, where I expect things will get a little hairy.
bullet Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach—Roach’s books always look interesting, but I haven’t gotten around to trying one. This one could change that.
bullet The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the Kingby J.R.R. Tolkien, Andy Serkis (Narrator)—New audiobook editions of The Trilogy were released this week with Serkis narrating. I’ve been kicking myself for a couple of years for not carving out time to re-read these books. I’m going to spend some Libro.fm credits to fix that.

Lastly I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Tarahaddasa and Inspired who followed the blog this week. Don’t be a stranger, and use that comment box, would you?

The Friday 56 for 9/17/21: Headphones and Heartaches by Wesley Parker

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it

from Page 56 of:
Headphones and Heartaches

Headphones and Heartaches by Wesley Parker

We share a long hug, and I apologize for being so moody lately.

“You’re a teenager. I’d have you committed if you weren’t.” She pecks me on the forehead and all is well in our house again. “I was thinking, you start school and your new job on Tuesday, so what would you say about getting a hotel and spending the weekend in New York City?”

“Are you serious?”

She frowns. “No, I enjoy getting your hopes up and crushing them. Of course I’m serious.”

WWW Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Assembling furniture always takes a lot longer than it should, right? Last night, I got a desk halfway assembled when I noticed I’d switched a couple of legs in step 2. So had to disassemble it, redo that part and then complete the desk. Then, when I got to the last step, I realized that I’d actually had the legs in the right spots earlier, they were just backward—sooo back to the beginning one more time. I got it finished, and am just ignoring the extra parts…

This is just to say, that I didn’t have time to get anything scheduled last night, but here’s a quick WWW Wednesday!

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading two books at the moment: the whimsical history, How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages by Cait Stevenson, and the new Toby Daye novel, When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire. I’m also listening to Broken Soul by Faith Hunter, Khristine Hvam (Narrator) on audiobook.

How to Slay a DragonBlank SpaceWhen Sorrows ComeBlank SpaceBroken Soul

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Spencer Quinn’s It’s a Wonderful Woof (a little more Christmas in September) and Bound by Benedict Jacka, Gildart Jackson (Narrator) on audio.

It's a Wonderful WoofBlank SpaceBound

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be Pug Actually by Matt Dunn (because I apparently can’t go more than one novel lately without a dog on the cover) and my next audiobook should be Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper on audiobook which looks like a nerdy kind of fun.

Pug ActuallyBlank SpaceWord by Word

Hit me with yours, they’re always inspirational.

Saturday Miscellany—9/11/21

I feel a little weird posting this today, but maybe some of you will want a break from all the anniversary coverage. And if you don’t? Well, this will be here later.

Odds n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet The Book Biz Tries to Avoid Supply Chain Disruptions—this is only going to get worse for a while…
bullet Publishers, Amazon Move to Dismiss Booksellers’ Antitrust Suit
bullet The third Lily Wong novel comes out next week, so Tori Eldridge is getting a little publicity going, for example:
bullet Tori Eldridge: Going to Hong Kong—how a recent trip inspired the setting for the third novel.
bullet Things Get Personal for Lily Wong—a good interview with Eldridge
bullet Michael Connelly Can’t Stop Chasing Leads—a niece piece on the master
bullet Richard Osman: ‘No one’s born a crime writer. I write crime because I read it’—an interview with the man behind The Thursday Murder Club (and several other things)
bullet The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Nick Rennison on the early days of American detective fiction and the sleuths who competed with Sherlock Holmes for mystery readers.—I’d maybe heard of one of these before, but I think I’m conflating him with someone else (and later). I’m willing to bet most of you would say something similar, which says something about how the rivalries went.
bullet This One’s Too Large, This One’s Too Small: Is There a Perfect Shape for Books?—I really feel like I’m starting to mention too many Molly Templeton pieces lately. But I really don’t see myself stopping. This is one of those things I wish I’d written.
bullet The Best 4 Apps to Keep Track of the Books You Own—huh. Have you heard of any of these? Used one?
bullet What determines reading speed?—I don’t remember seeing this one on Paul’s Picks (and I thought I’d at least glanced at everything there), so I’m glad it was spotlighted this week by The Write Reads.
bullet The D&D Connection: Authors and TTRPGs- What You May Have Missed—I talked about this series last week, here’s a nice wrap-up post with the links to them all.
bullet The NetGalley Shelf app – Grrrrrrr—I suspected NetGalley’s app wouldn’t be that great, Fictionophile kindly confirmed that.

A Book-ish Related Podcast Episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Blood Brothers Episode 66 with Janice Hallet and Miranda Jewess—a fun discussion with the author of The Appeal (a book I’m really looking forward to being available over here) and her publisher.

This Week's New Releases That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Robert B. Parker’s Stone’s Throw by Mike Lupica—Jesse Stone returns in a sold entry for the series, I talked about it recently.
bullet The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes—One of the more pleasant surprises of 2020 to me was how much I enjoyed The Inheritance Games, I’m excited to see how this sequel carries on.
bullet Miss Kopp Investigates by soandso—The Seventh Kopp Sisters novel finds them post-WWI and me two behind.

The Friday 56 for 9/10/21: Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it

from Page 56 of:
Suburban Dicks

Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza

Since he could barely afford water now, much less weed, Kenny hadn’t spoken with Terry in two years. He parked on West State Street in front of a few houses that almost looked habitable. He walked through the park toward the statue of John Roebling, where they’d agreed to meet.

Terry strolled toward him. He walked with a limp now and had gained at least fifty pounds. The gold front teeth were also new and they kicked up a spark of sun. “The famous Kenneth Lee, in the hood,” he said with a smile. They shook hands. “How’s your brother?”

“Married with a kid. Selling life insurance. We don’t talk much. How the hell have you stayed out of jail?” Kenny asked.

“Always run faster, man.”

“With the limp?”

“Ah, got shot in the ankle,” said Terry. “Never fixed up right. Still run faster than any piece of bacon in this slaughterhouse.”

Kenny wasn’t sure if it was the greatest use of slang he’d ever heard or the worst.

Book Blogger Hop: Synopsis vs. Cover

Hey, look, after 1.5 years of meaning to get around to it, I’ve finally dipped my toe into the Book Blogger Hop. I generally find the topics interesting, but have over-thought my responses. By imposing a strict time-limit on myself for answering the question, I figure I can join in the fun.


This prompt was submitted by Julie @ JadeSky:

Are you more likely to choose to read a book based on the synopsis, or the cover?

98.6% of the time, I’m choosing to read a book based on the synopsis. Covers lie and/or mislead. Well, synopses do, too, I guess. But really, those are the exceptions (and those who produce those need to be punished). Whether it’s the official inside-the-jacket-flap/back-of-the-book/author-or-publisher-website synopsis, an elevator pitch I hear on podcast interview with an author, or a blogger’s version of the synopsis–it’s knowing what the book is about more than whatever picture is on the front that’s going to get me to read a book.

At the same time–outside of getting a recommendation from a blogger/author/etc. it’s going to come down to the cover to get my attention and get me to read the synopsis (even if it’s just the author’s name on a cover).

What about you?

COVER REVEAL: Always the Dead by Stephen J. Golds

Welcome to The Irresponsible Reader’s part in the Cover Reveal for Always the Dead by Stephen J. Golds! Before we get to the striking cover down below, I’ve got a few words to share about the book.

Book Blurb

Los Angeles, California. 1949.

Scott Kelly is a World War Two Marine veteran and mob hitman confined to a Tuberculosis sanatorium suffering from consumption, flashbacks and nightmares from his experiences in The Battle of Okinawa and a botched hit for Bugsy Siegel.

When his movie actress girlfriend disappears, he bribes his way out of the sanatorium to search for her.

What follows is a frantic search, a manic murder spree, stolen contraband, and a briefcase full of cash.

A story that stretches from the war torn beaches of Okinawa, all the way to the playground of the rich and famous, Palm Springs, California.

An exploration into the depths of L.A crime, PTSD and twisted love, this is a semi-fictional novel based around the disappearance of Jean Spangler.


And now…

The Cover

Always the Dead

Once again, Red Dog Press wows with a cover. They’ve got to have one of the better batting averages for covers out there, right?

As good as the cover is, I’m betting the interior of the book is better–you can pre-order this now at: Red Dog Press.

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My thanks to Red Dog Press for the invitation to participate in this reveal and the materials they provided.

Red Dog Press

WWW Wednesday, September 8, 2021

I’ve read a couple of killer books in a row, the kind of reads that I’m intimidated to try to write about, you know? Anything I say will be a disservice. But that’s a problem for another time, now, it’s time for the check in that is WWW Wednesday!

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I just started Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza, which I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and am listening to the fairly amusing Yearbook by Seth Rogen (and a supporting cast) on audiobook.

Suburban DicksBlank SpaceYearbook

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished Lee Matthew Goldberg’s Stalker Stalked, which was just stunning, and the unimpressive Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Exile by Joshua Hood, Ron Butler (Narrator) on audio.

Stalker StalkedBlank SpaceThe Treadstone Exile

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be a little Christmas in September with Best in Snow by David Rosenfelt and my next audiobook should be Bound by Benedict Jacka, Gildart Jackson (Narrator).

Best in SnowBlank SpaceBound

Hit me with your Three W’s in the comments! (no, really, do it!)

TRUE DEAD TOUR: A Q&A with Faith Hunter

True Dead Banner
Thanks to an overactive Spam filter, I missed the invitation to submit questions. Thankfully, Audrey at Let’s Talk came through for me and got me this Q&A. I enjoyed it, hope you do, too.


What was your inspiration for Jane’s character/storyline? Was it the Katie’s Ladies idea or something else. You have probably already answered this 1000 times.

It’s always a great question. I started out with Katie’s Ladies. The first time I thought about writing an urban fantasy it was with the description of Katie’s Ladies running through my mind. I had the idea of a vamp bordello and the madam trying to figure out who had killed her girl. But it very quickly morphed into a Cherokee chick solving paranormal crimes and getting sucked into working for the master of the city. I love writing mystery and thrillers, and in fact spent the first 15 years or so my career writing just that under the name Gwen Hunter.

When you started writing Skinwalker, did you envision how many books this would stretch to?

Oh heck no. I planned on three. The end of book three was supposed to be Rick and Jane riding off into the sunset together, a reformed bad boy werecat and a skinwalker. Then while I was writing that book, Charlaine Harris (yes, the Charlaine Harris) posted in her blog that she was reading Skinwalker. I was at Dragon Con when I learned that my book sales took off and Penguin wanted three more books. Soooo. Things changed. I owe it all to a friend who had no idea that Faith Hunter was the Gwen Hunter she met back in my mystery writing days at Mystery Writers of America. The kindness of successful writers helps to make other writers successful. We depend on each other so much!

Did Jane ever have a pet? I know dogs are afraid of her scent, but what about other cats?

No, Jane never had a pet. Well… except Beast. (Wanders away laughing as Beast chuffs with irritation)

How do you decide who will die and does it affect you the same way as it does your readers?

If a character needs to die, I usually know it as I’m writing the outline for that book, but not always. Sometimes it happens as I write the scene and I have been known to have to go back and alter the outline for a whole book when a character dies. And then there are the characters like Adrianna who keep coming back because times change and Leo doesn’t want her dead. Of course, Leo doesn’t want the Sons of Darkness dead either and Jane kinda ignored that all around.

Is Ricky Bo based on an old boyfriend?

Nope. Physically, Rick is based on my first cousin, Frenchy black eyes, Frenchy black hair, lean and rangy, long-lived, and self-contained. Emotionally Rick is based on a template of player, overlaid with cop-think.



My thanks to Let’s Talk! Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour, this Q&A, and the materials (including the book via NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group) they provided.

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