Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Special Offer: The Corinna Chapman Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood

MysterEbooks: Mystery, Suspense and Thriller eBooks

More emystery news from Poisoned Pen Press.

We have written about this specialty publisher's recent promotions (here and here) but today we're going to focus on the mysteries by Kerry Greenwood, more specifically those featuring Melbourne baker Corrina Chapman. (We previously wrote about Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries, with the additional news that the first in its series, Cocaine Blues, is now free from both Amazon.com and iTunes.)

Corinna Chapman was introduced in the 2007 mystery Earthly Delights. (You can read a biography of the character on the Allen & Unwin website.) Since then she has appeared in six books, the most recent being this year's Cooking the Books.

Ebook editions of the first three titles in the series are currently being offered by Poisoned Pen Press at discounted prices. The Kindle edition of Earthly Delights is 99 cents; the book is free from iTunes. (It may be free on Amazon at some point in the near future, if the recent history of some of the publisher's other first-in-series titles holds true.) The other titles are currently $2.99.

Poisoned Pen Press has been a little coy about indicating when this special pricing will end, but we don't expect it to go on for much longer.

Important note: Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the sale is the price of the book.

Earthly Delights by Kerry GreenwoodEarthly Delights 
Kerry Greenwood
Series: A Corinna Chapman Mystery (1st)

Amazon Kindle Book
Apple iBook

Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry GreenwoodHeavenly Pleasures 
Kerry Greenwood
Series: A Corinna Chapman Mystery (2nd)

Amazon Kindle Book
Apple iBook

Devil's Food by Kerry GreenwoodDevil's Food 
Kerry Greenwood
Series: A Corinna Chapman Mystery (3rd)

Amazon Kindle Book
Apple iBook

Important Note: Prices can and do change without notice. The price shown on the vendor website at the time of the sale is the price of the book. Please confirm the price before completing your purchase.

Please Welcome Novelist E. B. Kavanagh

Omnimystery News: Guest Author Post

We are delighted to welcome new mystery author E. B. Kavanagh as our guest blogger today.

E. B.'s debut novel is One for Sorrow (CreateSpace, April 2012 trade paperback and ebook editions), a murder mystery set in a small town in the middle of Ireland in 1982 during the Tidy Towns competition.

Today E. B. shares with us how his adventure in writing came about.

— ◊ —

E. B. Kavanagh
Photo provided courtesy of
E. B. Kavanagh

I wanted to write a novel simply to see if I could. "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." (Mary Heaton Vorse) Is that true? Well in my case it actually was.

My deadline was set by the impending birth of my daughter (my wife was three months pregnant when I began) and so she gestated at the same rate as my book. Six months later I bounced a beautiful baby manuscript on my left knee, and the very gorgeous Katie on my right. My writing process was simply to get started as if I was shooting the breeze with a friend that I could relax around. This took the pressure off the blank canvas effect. Don't forget that once you are up and running you can cut off the fat. Move it all around, put the middle at the beginning, whatever works. You are not Jack Karouac. We have the joy of the word processor now. Then when I was up and running I sort of danced around doing dialogue until I eventually found myself just using my natural voice. You have to trust it. Turns out for me it's kind of hard to shut up. There was a lot of walking quickly around parks (sometimes pushing a pram) figuring out how the mystery elements fit together. If you are still nervous about letting your voice out at the beginning, I recommend getting drunk some night and get a start that way. Next day when you look at it you will be forgiven for thinking that someone else wrote it. I don't recommend however that you continue to write in this fashion.

Now that, as they say is that. Or is it? No, it isn't. Not at all. Turns out if you want anybody to read your masterpiece you have to be all things to all men. Firstly it seems that you have to be a computer whizz and to be very au fait with social networking and web design. Publishers are not interested in authors who are not already successful and you have to first get yourself a literary agent. Persuading one of these to represent you is like performing in front of Simon Cowell.

The further adventure continues …

— ◊ —

One for Sorrow by E. B. Kavanagh

Amazon.com Print and/or Kindle Edition

The prologue to One for Sorrow:

In the shadows…

At the bottom of everyone's ocean, river, pool or puddle, lives a big ancient fish.

Who knows how long it's been there, or what it started as.

It survives, because it keeps it simple.

It stays in the shadows, in the deep parts.

It survives because it never changes, except to become even more of itself, and to gorge on its own darkness when it can.

People don't like change. I have never liked change.

It's been my experience that anything good that might happen to you comes at a price, and you don't collect Green Shield stamps on the bad news either.

My fish loves the darkness.

It's been growing ever larger on the coolness of isolation, become the colourless camouflage of its murky bed. Some fish are better left alone.

You can read the first two chapters of the book at OneForSorrow.net78.net.

Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff as today's fifth free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ◊ —

Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff

Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff
Publisher: Murderati Ink

This is the fourth — and most recently published — crime novel by this author.

About Book of Shadows (from the publisher): Homicide detective Adam Garrett is already a rising star in the Boston police department when he and his cynical partner, Carl Landauer, catch a horrifying case that could make their careers: the ritualistic murder of a wealthy college girl that appears to have Satanic elements.

The partners make a quick arrest when all evidence points to another student, a troubled musician in a Goth band who was either dating or stalking the murdered girl. But Garrett’s case is turned upside down when beautiful, mysterious Tanith Cabarrus, a practicing witch from nearby Salem, walks into the homicide bureau and insists that the real perpetrator is still at large. Tanith claims to have had psychic visions that the killer has ritually sacrificed other teenagers in his attempts to summon a powerful, ancient demon.

All Garrett's beliefs about the nature of reality will be tested as he is forced to team up with a woman he is fiercely attracted to but cannot trust, in a race to uncover a psychotic killer before he strikes again.

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Book Amazon Kindle Edition Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond as today's fourth free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ◊ —

Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond

Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond
Publisher: HarperCollins

About Whole Lotta Trouble (from the publisher): Three single female mystery book editors living in Manhattan meet regularly for drinks to discuss their demanding jobs and their rollercoaster love lives. Tallie Blankenship is a small town girl made good, determined to leave her mark in publishing. Her senior editor is taking a leave of absence for mysterious reasons and has entrusted her with the manuscript of their most popular (and eccentric) author, and Tallie sees the responsibility as a huge stepping stone. But she’s livid when the author’s agent, infamous bad-boy Jerry Key yanks the project and gives it to her coworker who’s willing to sleep with him in return.

Felecia Redmon is a city-bred senior editor with an impressive stable of writers, yet she fantasizes about being a homemaker, stocks her pantry with designer household products and bakes like Betty Crocker. Her brief relationship with agent Jerry Key was a demeaning disaster; he keeps resurfacing to make her life miserable, professionally and personally. When she receives a nude picture of herself in the office mail that she suspects Jerry sent, Felicia is desperate for revenge.

Jane Glass is a neurotic e-book editor with an identity crisis. She’s adopted, and of unknown ethnic background, so she celebrates every cultural holiday and dresses flamboyantly with no apologies. Jane, too, has a beef with agent Jerry Key—a client of his plagiarized one of her e-book authors, and she knows that Jerry was fully aware.

The women decide to give Jerry a taste of his own medicine, and as carefully as they would mold a bestselling plot, they concoct a plan to lure the bad-boy agent into a compromising situation, take a digital photo of him, then send it to everyone in his e-mail address book. The plan goes off without a glitch … until they discover the next morning that Jerry is dead, and not of humiliation. To make matters worse, half of Manhattan’s publishing industry received a picture of him at the crime scene that they sent.

The shaken women realize how incriminating their escapade will look to the police. They agree to remain silent, but loyalties are strained, especially after another person close to them turns up dead. Toss in a missing manuscript worth millions, a sexy cop too smart for their good, and a plot twist on a scope larger than anyone could have imagined, and the women suddenly realize that when it comes to friendship, flirtation and felony, they’re in a whole lotta trouble.

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Book Amazon Kindle Edition Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Whiskey Rebellion by Liliana Hart is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Whiskey Rebellion by Liliana Hart as today's third free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ◊ —

Whiskey Rebellion by Liliana Hart

Whiskey Rebellion by Liliana Hart
An Addison Holmes Mystery
Publisher: Bodysways Publishing

About Whiskey Rebellion (from the publisher): My name is Addison Holmes, and I teach history at James Madison High School in Whiskey Bayou, Georgia. You might be under the assumption that my life went to the dogs when my fiancé left me at the altar for the home economics teacher, or when I got notice that my apartment building was going to be condemned, or even when I was desperate enough to strip to my unmentionables to earn some extra cash. The truth is that I'm pretty much used to disasters following me around on a daily basis, but I could have gone without finding my principal dead in the parking lot of a seedy gentlemen's club.

After the initial shock of finding my first dead body, which included throwing back shots of Jack Daniels like it was water, I decided to take stock of my life. I was in a desperate situation and if the school board ever found out I'd been a stripper, even a bad stripper, I'd be jobless as well as fiancé-less and homeless. Fortunately, I had a friend who felt sorry enough for me to give me a job doing some surveillance work at her detective agency. Not to mention the fact that I was now able to stick my nose into other people's business for a good cause, find a murderer, and pick up helpful tips from an incredibly attractive detective.

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Book Amazon Kindle Edition Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Project Moses by Robert B. Lowe is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Project Moses by Robert B. Lowe as today's second free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ◊ —

Project Moses by Robert B. Lowe

Project Moses by Robert B. Lowe
Publisher: Enzo Publications

This author won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for investigative journalism. This is his first novel.

About Project Moses (from the publisher): After several years of zealous investigative reporting on the East Coast, reporter Enzo Lee is enjoying his new, quiet life in San Francisco, churning out light, fluffy features for the local paper. Lee adores his North Beach apartment and days filled with running, tai chi, great food, and women. Life is good.

So when Lee’s boss orders him to cover the mysterious deaths of a local judge and prosecutor, he is flushed out of his comfort zone and thrust into a story that is both exhilarating and dangerous.

With help from the judge’s attractive niece Sarah Armstrong, Lee begins to uncover a bioterrorism scandal. The perpetrators will kill to conceal and Lee and Sarah soon become their prime targets. Will the pair evade their hunters and piece together the story before time runs out?

Or will the government agents and Silicon Valley titans who are the masterminds behind the scandal stop the pair and add them to the list of victims?

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Book Amazon Kindle Edition Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

A Rush to Violence by Christopher Smith is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Rush to Violence by Christopher Smith as today's free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ◊ —

A Rush to Violence by Christopher Smith

A Rush to Violence by Christopher Smith
Publisher: Fifth Avenue Productions

About A Rush to Violence (from the publisher): A billionaire investor dealt a grisly death.

The suspects? Six of his seven children, all so desperate for their father's money, they'd kill for it.

His seventh child, Camille, a former assassin who left that life behind to raise her now sixteen-year-old daughter Emma, must tap into old instincts to learn who killed her father and why. What she never sees coming are Emma's plans to go into Manhattan and find out on her own.

Meanwhile, Camille must be found. Private investigator Marty Spellman is threatened by a mysterious man to find her. He has seventy-two hours or do so--or members of his own family die.

Over the course of one day, Spellman, Camille, Emma and Spellman's own fifteen-year-old daughter, Beth, must intervene to finish this and shut it down. Twists abound. Few are who they appear to be. Soon, all parties are in a rush to violence, but in spite of how quickly they act, it's clear that no one is safe.

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Book Amazon Kindle Edition Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Review: Fallen Angels by Connie Dial

Fallen Angels by Connie Dial

We've just published our Review of Fallen Angels by Connie Dial. An "LAPD" Mystery. The Permanent Press Hardcover, April 2012.

Our rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available to purchase from …

Amazon.com Print and/or Kindle Edition

Five New Savages "Interrogation Series" Videos

Savages (2012)

Last Friday we featured three new television spots for the crime thriller Savages. Today the studio released five more videos, embedded below, part of its "interrogation series" featuring interviews with the actors in character.

The five interviewees are Ben and Chon (Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch), their girlfriend Ophelia (Blake Lively), and two members of the Mexican Baja Cartel that wants to take over their operation (Salma Hayek as Elena and Benicio Del Toro as Lado).

Adapted from the novel by Don Winslow — who co-wrote the screenplay with director Oliver Stone and Shane Salerno — the storyline follows Ben and Chon, who raise some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia. Life is idyllic in their Southern California town … until the cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them. But they underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends when Ben and Chon — with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (John Travolta) — wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel.

Savages opens in theaters on July 6th, 2012.

The Mystery Bookshelf: Niceville by Carsten Stroud

The Mystery Bookshelf: New Mystery,  Suspense and Thriller Books

The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a world of mystery and suspense, is pleased to feature a new crime novel we recently received from the publisher.

— ◊ —

Niceville by Carsten Stroud
Knopf (Hardcover)
Publication Date: June 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0-307-70095-7

Niceville by Carsten Stroud

About Niceville (from the publisher): A boy literally disappears from Main Street. A security camera captures the moment of his instant, inexplicable vanishing. An audacious bank robbery goes seriously wrong: four cops are gunned down; a TV news helicopter is shot and spins crazily out of the sky, triggering a disastrous cascade of events that ricochet across twenty different lives over the course of just thirty-six hours.

Nick Kavanaugh, a cop with a dark side, investigates. Soon he and his wife, Kate, a distinguished lawyer from an old Niceville family, find themselves struggling to make sense not only of the disappearance and the robbery but also of a shadow world, where time has a different rhythm and where justice is elusive.

— ◊ —

About the author: Carsten Stroud realized long ago that he was a One Trick Pony and that his one trick was "telling a good story". He began to write everything from magazine articles to fiction and non-fiction books and screenplays on subjects ranging from cops to horse cavalry to surgeons and US Marshals, winning along the way a multitude of National Magazine Awards, making the New York Times Best-Seller list, and selling several books to Hollywood. Learn more about the author at his website, CarstenStroudBooks.com.

Purchase Options for Niceville:

Amazon.com Print and/or Kindle EditionBarnes&Noble Print and/or Nook Book editioniBookstore (iTunes)

The Dark Monk, a sequel to The Hangman's Daughter, Publishes Today

The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch

Back in 2010 AmazonCrossing, an imprint of Amazon.com, published its first title, The Hangman's Daughter, a Kindle version of the English-language translation of the 2008 historical thriller Die Henkerstochter by Oliver Pötzsch. It became a runaway bestseller.

Today, the sequel is published: The Dark Monk. It is 1660. Winter has settled thick over a sleepy village in the Bavarian Alps, ensuring every farmer and servant is indoors on the night a parish priest discovers he's been poisoned. As numbness creeps up his body, he summons the last of his strength to scratch a cryptic sign in the frost.

Following a trail of riddles, hangman Jakob Kuisl; his headstrong daughter, Magdalena; and the town physician's son team up with the priest's aristocratic sister to investigate. What they uncover will lead them back to the Crusades, unlocking a troubled history of internal church politics and sending them on a chase for a treasure of the Knights Templar.

But they're not the only ones after the legendary fortune. A team of dangerous and mysterious monks is always close behind, tracking their every move, speaking Latin in the shadows, giving off a strange, intoxicating scent. And to throw the hangman off their trail, they have ensured he is tasked with capturing a band of thieves roving the countryside attacking solitary travelers and spreading panic.

A&E Sets New Premiere Date for Coma Miniseries

Coma (A&E)

For those of you who may have wondered what happened to A&E's 4-hour miniseries Coma, which was supposed to premiere this past Memorial Day weekend, the cable network cleared up that little mystery by announcing today that its modern day retelling of Robin Cook's thriller — and Michael Crichton's film adaptation — will now premiere this coming Labor Day weekend. The two day event will begin on Monday, September 3rd and conclude the following day.

Executive produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, the storyline in Coma follows a young doctor (Lauren Ambrose), who discovers that something sinister is going on in her hospital after routine procedures send more than a few seemingly healthy patients into comas on the operating table. Mikael Salomon directs the John J. McLaughlin screenplay.

A&E hasn't (yet) uploaded a trailer to its YouTube Channel, but you can watch a preview video on its website.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120612)

MysterEbooks: Mystery, Suspense and Thriller eBooks

Here is today's list of the top bestselling free Kindle mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (120612)

Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller Films on DVD and/or Blu-ray Disc

Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, shown below are those that fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller and adventure categories.

See also a list of current mystery and suspense DVD, Blu-ray, or VOD deals on Amazon.com.

— ◊ —

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Purchase/Rental Options
Available on DVDAvailable on Blu-ray DiscAvailable on Amazon Instant VideoAvailable on iTunes

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Film Synopsis (from the studio): Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room... until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large—Professor Moriarty—and not only is he Holmes' intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective. When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, the evidence, as construed by Inspector Lestrade, points to suicide. But Sherlock Holmes deduces that the prince has been the victim of murder—a murder that is only one piece of a larger and much more portentous puzzle, designed by Professor Moriarty. The cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead of Holmes as he spins a web of death and destruction—all part of a greater plan that, if he succeeds, will change the course of history.

Directed by Guy Ritchie from an original screenplay by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, the film runs 129 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some drug material.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

— ◊ —

Thin Ice
Purchase/Rental Options
Available on DVDAvailable on Blu-ray DiscAvailable on Amazon Instant VideoAvailable on iTunes

Thin Ice (2012)

Film Synopsis (from the studio): Greg Kinnear stars as Mickey Prohaska, a small-time insurance agent looking for a way to jump-start his business, reunite with his estranged wife and escape the frigid Wisconsin weather. This self-proclaimed master of spin believes that salesmanship is about selling a story — all he needs is a sucker willing to buy it. He hits pay dirt with a lonely retired farmer (Alan Arkin), who is sitting on something much bigger than an insurance commission. But Mickey's attempt to con the old man spins out of control when a nosy, unstable locksmith with a volatile temper (Billy Crudup) dramatically ups the stakes, trapping him in a spiral of danger, deceit and double-crossing.

Directed by Jill Sprecher from a script co-written with her sister Karen Sprecher, the film — which was originally titled The Convincer — runs 93 minutes and is rated R for for language, and brief violent and sexual content.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

Poisoned Pen Press Free eMystery Offer Update

MysterEbooks: Mystery, Suspense and Thriller eBooks

Over the weekend we wrote about Poisoned Pen Press offering several of its ebook mystery titles for free. Except they were only free on iTunes, not from the other major vendors.

We're happy to report that incremental progress is being made on that front. Amazon is now listing the Kindle editions for two of the books, Artifacts, the first Faye Longchamp mystery by Mary Anna Evans and In the Shadow of the Glacier, the first Constable Molly Smith mystery by Vicki Delany, as free. They are not likely they'll remain that way for very long, so we encourage you to take advantage of this offer from Poisoned Pen Press — as well as the publisher's other offers we wrote about — soon!

Important Note: Prices can and do change without notice. The price shown on the vendor website at the time of the sale is the price of the book. Please confirm the price before completing your purchase.

Please Welcome Author J. W. Metcalf

Omnimystery News: Guest Author Post

We are delighted to welcome author J. W. Metcalf as our guest blogger today.

Jaime's new mystery is Wasted Space (JWMetcalf, April 2012 ebook), the first in "The Case Files of Tony Gavel".

Today Jaime tells us about what worked for him as an author.

— ◊ —

I have always wanted to write since I was 7 years old. I still have the first story I wrote when I was in school. I wrote things here and there throughout my life, but nothing ever worth publishing. Always had a ton of ideas, but just never did anything with them. Procrastination was my middle name. I had the character idea of Tony Gavel for a few years, but in his original form he was an Investigative Reporter working for the Daily Times. I had a few stories planned out for him and I always started them during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Needless to say I never finished any of them. Got about 20K words in or so and stopped. It was always one thing or another that I didn't like, so instead of fixing the problem I would just scrap it.

This year was different. I started a new approach to writing. I decided to make Tony Gavel a Private Investigator. I had always enjoyed mysteries. Growing up I was a big fan of Mickey Spillane (The Mike Hammer Series) and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series. I started the book Wasted Space on November 1st, 2011 and finished it April 9th, 2012. I did not write during the month of February. I wrote it every night at work during my break and lunch hour. It made work more bearable. (I work for the United States Postal Service.)

The way I wrote this book was different for me and it worked. I started with the last chapter. I knew the crime from top to bottom. Why the killer did it, how they did it, what did they gain from doing it, where they did it, etc. Once the last chapter was done, I began my book. I put myself in the shoes of Tony and went on the investigation. I knew Tony well so it was no problem for me to think like him and act like him. From there the book kinda flowed on it's own. I had beta readers to check out story flow and believability for me after each chapter so things wouldn't seem impossible or ridiculous. I had a school teacher friend do all my editing for me. My job was to just write. I was able to get almost 1200 words done in the hour and fifteen minutes I wrote each day.

Not knowing what was going to happen while I wrote was pretty exciting. A few times things popped up that I didn't plan at all. There was one point in the story when he was driving back to his office at 4:30am when something popped into my head totally out of the blue. I put it in the story. It just seemed logical for that event to happen. When my beta readers got to that point, they liked it and didn't expect it, but said it fit. I like looking through the eyes of Tony Gavel, it makes writing fun for me.

I have a whole series planned for Tony. I am calling it: From the Case Files of Tony Gavel. Then each case itself will be the name of the story. At the moment I have the first four books in my head. I just need to write them. I am currently on the sixth chapter of the second book Gone Fishing. You can read the first chapter of my book Wasted Space at my blog, authorjwmetcalf.wordpress.com. I also have a repost from an interview that Pat Bertram — the author of Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire — did with my main character Tony Gavel.

I'm looking forward to writing the next few books in the series and I hope you enjoy them.

— ◊ —

Wasted Space by J. W. Metcalf

About Wasted Space:

When a successful business man is found dead in his home, the police rule it a suicide. However, not everyone is convinced that a man who seemed to have it all would take his own life.

Private investigator Tony Gavel is hired to find out the truth of the matter. Tony's investigation leads him from the carefully manicured lawns of the suburbs to the seedy underbelly of the Big City. As he delves futher into the case, he uncovers secrets, lies, and danger at every turn.

When an attempt is made on his own life, his friend and former partner, Officer Dwight O'Toole, gives Tony until the end of the week to solve the case before the police take over. Can Tony crack the case before the clock runs out, or will his unstoppable pursuit of justice land him in the morgue as the latest victim?

Amazon.com Print and/or Kindle EditionBarnes&Noble Print Edition and/or Nook Book

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