Pre-order for just 99c

After discussing the question of how to develop interest in a pre-order title for someone who is still in the early stages of their writing career, I was given the following advice

Make the book 99c/99p during the pre-order period, and let the world know that the book is at a special price prior to release, make sure you also tell them how much the book will be after release.

This advice is obviously based on the notion that most people like to get a bargain, especially when they know how much they’re saving, and how much time they have in which to make that saving. It’s a simple concept but it’s one that didn’t occur to me until it was pointed out, of course, I’m not marketing savvy so that might be why.

Okay, since I’ve now been hit over the head with what I should have already known, I have reduced the price of my upcoming novel, Written In Blood; you can now get my serial-killer thriller for just 99c/99p if you buy it in the next 23 days, on 1st April it will go up to its full price of $3.99.

Let me just repeat that

99c/99p

That’s the bargain price you can get Written in Blood for until the end of March. If you don’t get it before then you’ll have to pay the full price of

$3.99

If you’re interested in buying the book, and so far I’ve had people from North America, South America and Europe taking advantage of my generosity, you can get it at the following link

Written In Blood for the Kindle

A review of Red Rabbit

Red Rabbit

T0m Clancy

Jack Ryan. The early CIA days . . .

When young Jack Ryan joins the CIA as an analyst he is thrust into a world of political intrigue and conspiracy. Stationed in England, he quickly finds himself debriefing a Soviet defector with an extraordinary story to tell: senior Russian officials are plotting to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The CIA novice must forget his inexperience and rely on all his wits to firstly discover the details of the plot – and then prevent its execution. For it is not just the Pope’s life that is at stake, but also the stability of the Western World.

Red Rabbit is the thrilling eighth novel featuring Jack Ryan, following The Sum of All Fears and Debt of Honour. Published after Executive Orders, the novel charts Jack Ryan’s earliest mission for the CIA, and is the stunning prequel to The Hunt For Red October.

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This was written many years after Patriot Games and The Hunt For Red October, though it fits between those two books in the timeline of Jack Ryan. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite match up to those earlier books.

The plot is reasonable, being based around a real event that took place in 1981, and the writing is accessible, if more simplistic than is the norm for an author who often writes in a very easy to access way. Somehow, though, there is something lacking from the book, it’s almost as if the book was written by someone other than Tom Clancy, someone who is familiar with the Jack Ryan universe, but whose writing style is more basic.

Having read a number of the reviews on Amazon for this book I think I have identified one of the things that is lacking from this book; the strongest aspect of Tom Clancy’s has always been his descriptions of combat and weapons, neither of which feature in this particular story.

I read this book because it’s part of the series, and I will re-read it the next time I go through the Jack Ryan series, simply because it is a part of the series, but if it was a standalone novel, I wouldn’t be bothering.

It’s coming – April 1st is the day

Okay everyone, this s**t is getting real; I have an awesome cover, some fabulous bookmarks (who doesn’t like a good bookmark) and I’m halfway through the editing. It’s time to announce the release date for my next novel, and that date is

April 1st

Written In Blood is not a part of my Inspector Stone series, book 2 of which will be coming later in the year, but it is set in a village a little outside of Branton, where Inspector Stone works, and the sequel, A Bloody Rewrite (a little play on words for my writer friends) will feature characters from the series, and maybe even Inspector Stone himself, you’ll have to wait and see.

Here for your enjoyment is the cover and blurb for my upcoming release –

A peaceful village torn apart by murder.

In the small, close-knit village of Oakhurst, residents aren’t willing to believe that one of their own might be a brutal killer.

So when young women begin to die – their bodies found with accusatory words carved onto their skin – suspicion falls on the newcomer to the village. Charming Zack Wild, author of violent crime novels and possessor of a dark history, seems like a perfect suspect.

As they investigate, Sergeant Mitchell and Constable Turner are increasingly unwilling to believe that someone they know could be responsible for such heinous crimes. But will this affect their judgement, allowing the real killer to escape?

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You will be able to pre-order Written In Blood from March, and the book will then be available from April 1st.

Indie Book Showcase 2017

The group I’m part of on Goodreads is having their first showcase of the year, it’s an event featuring books by the many members of SIA (Support for Indie Authors) a wonderful group that is incredibly supportive and filled with great people who write in just about every genre you can think of.

I’ve read and enjoyed several, and got more on my TBR list.

If you’re looking for books to fill up your kindle/tablet or other e-reader, or maybe you’re after some paperbacks to use your Christmas money on, look no further. Whatever you like to read, and whatever your budget, you’re bound to find something to suit you, just follow the link below and see what we have to offer

Support Indie Authors Event

A giveaway and a bargain

Today I’m providing my wonderful followers with not 1 but 2 great opportunities; first up is the change to win 3, that’s right, 3 books from award winning author P D Workman, who is running a giveaway on Goodreads for her Medical Kidnap Files series.

You can enter the giveaway here but before you do, you might want to know a little more about the books, so here they are

Mito, Medical Kidnap Files #1

Gabriel has dealt with mysterious medical issues his whole life. Just when he finally thought that they had all of the answers and he was on the road to good health, he is apprehended by DFS on the grounds of medical neglect.

At first, he thought that he would be back home in a few days, once the misunderstanding was cleared up. But when Renata tells Gabriel her crazy conspiracy theories, Gabriel feels the first pangs of doubt. Is there really a conspiracy? Will he ever be able to get well and go back to his mother, or is he doomed to be another guinea pig for Doctor De Klerk?

EDS, Medical Kidnap Files #2

With a long string of unbelievable stories to explain her frequent injuries, Social Services sees Katt is the stereotypical abused child. When she is admitted to hospital with yet another broken bone, they do the only logical thing to protect her, removing Katt from her mother’s custody.

But Katt and her mother know that something is wrong, and it has nothing to do with abuse, and the longer Katt stays in foster care, the worse her health gets. Can they get the answers they need before it is too late? Can they get the answers and get Katt back home?

 

Proxy, Medical Kidnap Files #3

Fourteen-year-old Seth Wilcox has been admitted to the hospital forty-eight times, according to his mother’s latest social media posts, when Social Services steps in and takes Seth into care, believing his mother suffers from Munchausen by Proxy and Seth is not safe in her care.

Gabriel Tate is now a veteran in dealing with medical kidnap and reuniting children with their families. He knows Seth and his mom, Leva, a tireless mitochondrial disorder advocate. He knows he needs to get Seth back to Leva as soon as he can.

With the authorities hot on their trails, Gabriel and Renata face increasingly difficult challenges. Can they stay one step ahead of the authorities? Can they finally get Seth somewhere he will be safe?

There’s only 5 days left to enter if you’re in the US or Canada for a chance to win all 3 of these novels in paperback, but this is an opportunity not to be missed.

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The 2nd of today’s great opportunities is brought to you by me, my novel, Where There’s A Will, the 1st book in my Inspector Stone series is on sale today as a countdown deal and can be had for just 99c or 99p, depending on which side of the pond that is the Atlantic you’re on.

For those of you who are new to my blog, here’s a bit about the book

Where There’s A Will

Inspector Stone Book One

An armed robbery, a kidnapping, and an enemy that’s closer than anyone realises.

A rich family, a big house, and everything her heart desires, Alice Keating has a life that many want, and now someone has decided to take it.
Inspector Stone has to put aside problems at home and an ambitious underling when Alice is kidnapped, and a multi-million Euro ransom demanded for her return.
Can he find her and return her safely to her parents when the man behind Alice’s kidnapping it closer to home than anyone suspects, and he’s not above murder to stay out of jail and get what he wants.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Make sure you check the price before purchasing as this is a limited time offer.

Mirror Mirror – an honest review

Mirror Mirror

Jessica Jesinghaus

Nearly twenty years ago a teenage girl was murdered…

Samantha Carlson was just a young girl when her cousin, Emily, was brutally raped and killed in her own home. As a child, Sam’s family did their best to shelter her from the gruesome details. Now, working the crime beat for the Portland Tribune, Sam has the resources at her fingertips to investigate the case for herself.

Through the eyes of a killer…

After inheriting a family heirloom, an antique vanity table that once belonged to her murdered cousin, Sam begins seeing visions in the mirror’s depths. Like watching an old home movie, she bears witness to Emily’s murder. As if that weren’t frightening enough, she starts to see other things too: fleeting glimpses of the killer himself! Are the things she sees just a figment of her imagination or could something otherworldly be trying to communicate with her? When the killer strikes again and leaves clues behind meant specifically for Sam it becomes a race against time to try to catch him.

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I was gifted a free copy of this book for an honest review, and here it is.

First, the good – there’s a good plot, likeable characters, and an interesting plot device in the mirror of the title; the plot device is used cleverly, without being overused, and never becomes boring or annoying (I actually think it could have been used a little more, without detracting from the book). The identity of the murderer remains a mystery until late in the book, which is good, there’s some nice misdirection that makes you think about someone else, and enough hints that if you’re paying attention you might figure out who the real killer is, but you can’t be sure until the author is ready to let you know.

The bad – the writing is not as good as it could be, and there are occasions where phrases and words are used either unnecessarily or incorrectly, and this can be jarring. It’s a short while before you get to the main plot, and while that isn’t really a terrible thing, it might have been better if there was an opening scene that featured the murder of Emily – had there been such a scene, I think I would have minded less that it took a while to get things moving, because I would have already had a sense of what was going to happen.

Overall, this is a decent book, that ends with a twist I didn’t see coming; with better writing it could be great, so if you like a thriller, this might well be for you.

Pre-order my debut

As I revealed the other day, my debut novel is coming soon, well thanks to some hard work that soon is closer than expected. I have set the release date as November 3rd and you can pre-order the book between now and then

Where There’s A Will

(excerpt)

Crash smashed a fist into the chauffeur’s kidney a second time, he then pulled him away from Jim and threw him into the side of the van. A kick to the back of the knee made Brian fall forward, and Crash smashed his head into the side door of the van. Twice more he did that until the chauffeur’s body went limp and blood ran down his face.

“Get on with it,” he snapped at his partners, who were still trying to drag Alice from the car. From the back pocket of Jim’s combat trousers, he took the envelope that was sticking out, which he shoved into the inside pocket of Brian Jacob’s jacket. That done, he returned to his previous position behind the wheel, where he revved the engine impatiently.

With two men pulling at her, Alice found it impossible to save herself, and, with a final heave, she was yanked from the Bentley to land with a painful thud on the concrete.

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If that sounds good, you can pre-order the book at the following links

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Murder In Oakhurst

Yesterday I finished typing up the first draft of Where There’s A Will, instead of taking a nice break from writing before I get to work on the second draft, I’ve signed up to the #justwriteit challenge on Wattpad – 10,000 words in 30 days.

Since I already have Murder In Oakhurst on paper and I just need to type the first draft up, I’ve amended the challenge accordingly, I want to get at least 50,000 words done in the 30 days, so that’s an average of 1,700 words a day. I reckon I can do it, but the real challenge will be doing it alongside sorting the second draft of Where There’s A Will and working on a short I’ve been doing.

Ah well, I was never one for being idle.

Murder In Oakhurst is a mystery/thriller about a serial killer.

Oakhurst is a peaceful place to live, a veritable sleepy little village, but all that is about to change.
When a young girl goes missing and another is discovered, murdered, the village finds itself in the grip of a serial killer who is targeting its daughters. With no detective in the village, it falls to Sergeant Mitchell and Constable Rawlings to investigate and catch the killer.
Suspicion quickly falls on Zack Wild, the village’s newest resident and a writer who specialises in grisly murders, both real and fictional. He maintains his innocence, but the coincidences keep mounting, and he has a history of violence.

You can check out my progress here https://www.wattpad.com/story/85527494-murder-in-oakhurst and let me know what you think. (The cover is only a basic thing I knocked up quickly to avoid using a placeholder on Wattpad, when I’m closer to release I’ll get a professional cover organised)

Sleepwalk

John Saul

Judith Sheffield is a young teacher, burnt out from her experience of working in a tough inner-city school in LA, who receives an offer of a job back in the small New Mexico town she grew up in after the current maths teacher has a stroke; the offer couldn’t have come at a better time and she accepts eagerly.

When she arrives in Borrego Judith finds it much the same as she remembers, and she reconnects with old friends, but as time passes she discovers, especially after a big company takes over the oil refinery run by her ‘Uncle’ Max, that there’s something sinister going on below the surface.

It becomes a race against time for her and her boyfriend’s son to figure out what is happening in their town and stop it before they, and a lot more people, get either hurt or killed.

Sleepwalk is a quarter of a century old now, and that shows in a variety of small ways as you read the book, but the plot remains relevant, it might even be more relevant now, given the advantages in technology and medicine. That relevance makes it possible to look past the dated elements and enjoy this.

There’s not quite enough character development for my tastes, no-one is fleshed out quite as much as I would like, but there’s enough for the reader to care about them, and what happens to them. The writing is decent, and the scene-setting good, I can actually picture that blazing heat (I’d quite like to feel it) and the ending is both satisfying and contains more than a trace of poetic justice.

This is a nice book overall and I recommend that you don’t let the age of it put you off.

Patriot Games

Tom Clancy

On holiday in London, Jack Ryan, historian, teacher and former marine, gets in the way of a terrorist attack. When the terrorist he captured escapes custody and his family is attacked Ryan joins the CIA, where he uses his intelligence and his ability as an analyst to track down the terrorists, who are planning a fresh attack on the target Ryan saved.

Despite being thirty years old, Patriot Games never feels dated as it follows Jack Ryan’s efforts to do the right thing while protecting his family. Jack Ryan is a well realised character with a conscience and flaws, all of which make him as realistic as any to be found within the pages of a book; contrasting him are the terrorists, who have a deadly goal and are prepared to kill anyone that gets in their way to achieve it – they are not rabid, indiscriminate killers, though, they’re intelligent and they have a plan.

While there’s no doubt who we’re supposed to root for, Tom Clancy has done a good job of showing that terrorists are not all mindless, suicidal bombers, which makes them all the more frightening. He also shows the work done quietly, out of the spotlight, by the security services who fight such men and woman on a daily business.

In this age of increased terrorist activity, Patriot Games gives an important insight into the war being fought to protect us all.