Intermission & 3 Great Reads

Normally, I post about a particular author and his or her books. Today, I decided to mix it up a little and feature three great reads.

Justice For Emily
by Sandy Wolters

Find @Amazon

The Paranormal Romance Guild nominated Justice For Emily as one of 2011's best reads.

Rachael Merchant is on a cross country trip running from the tragic images of her last case that are embedded deep in her soul. She is a City of Phoenix Homicide Detective that is trying to deal with the freak show her life has become.

Three days ago, she was sitting in a hospital room with a man that had just murdered his three small children because he was angry his wife had left him. After making the arrest, she let the perpetrator know that when he got out of prison she was coming after him. He would not be able to hide from her. She left the hospital, went back to work and quit on the spot.

After a great deal of persuading, her captain convinced her that an indefinite leave of absence was in order instead of quitting. She went home, packed her bags and jumped in the car. With no destination in mind, she just drove.

Rachael found herself on the side of the road, unsure of where she was and on the phone with her partner. All she wanted to do was run as fast and as far as she could from the image of those three small babies with bullets in their bodies.

Officer Patrick Sheehan pulls in front of Rachael while she is bent over the hood of her car looking at a map. He overhears the conversation between Rachael and her partner and thanks fate for dropping a homicide detective right in his lap. His good friend, Emily, was murdered just days ago and Patrick knows who killed her, her husband and his boss, the Chief of Police of Brownwood, Texas.

Boyd Campbell has taken extreme measures to cover up his wife's murder but Patrick is going to do everything in his power to put this monster away. He doesn't care what he has to do or say to get this cop to stay and work this case. He needs her help and she is just going to have to deal with it. She could just blame fate for bringing her here when he needed her expertise. After all, the only important thing at the moment is getting Justice For Emily.

Dead Game
by Jennifer Chase

Find @Amazon

2010 AWARD WINNER for Thriller at Readers Favorite

In her independent efforts to catch child killers, Emily Stone discovers the evidence that the cops can’t — or won’t — uncover. Now, this covert investigator is back on the hunt for the world’s most sick and twisted murderers. But even with help from ex-police detective Rick Lopez, this time she’s facing her most dangerous opponent yet.

The headlines in the San Jose Mercury News blare updates on a serial killer who seems able to slaughter with impunity. Men, women — it doesn’t matter; the victims serve only to satisfy a perverted need to kill. The killer watches the moment of death on multiple computer screens, over and over again. The only connection is that they’re all devotees of the latest video-game craze — a sophisticated brain-puzzler called EagleEye.

When the killer goes after Lopez’s law-enforcement mentor, Lopez and Stone decide to give the cops a little extra, unsolicited help. What follows takes them deep inside a shocking high-tech world, a kind of social-networking community for serial killers. But when they start getting too close to the truth, all hell’s going to break loose.

Now, Stone and Lopez become the killer’s next target as Stone must make a difficult decision to leave the ones she loves in an all-or-nothing effort for survival. Can they stay alive long enough to blow the whistle on this unlikely perpetrator?

She Belongs To Me
by Carmen DeSousa 

Find @Amazon

When wealthy construction company owner and Charlotte detective, Jordan Monroe, meets Jaynee for the first time he is awestruck and determines to make her his wife. Jaynee, however, has a history she cannot easily overcome and is fearful to submit to love. Jordan succeeds in making her his wife, but five years into their marriage he realizes she is keeping secrets. Before he can decipher her duplicity, he discovers her unconscious in their home from a gunshot wound only hours after giving her an ultimatum concerning their relationship.

With Jaynee’s life hanging in the balance, the mystery of her past drives Jordan to investigate. But what appears to be an attempted suicide turns out to be something far darker. Is someone from her past stalking her? Or worse, is someone close to Jordan trying to kill them both? As Jordan edges closer to the truth, it may be deadlier than he could ever have imagined.


Thanks for reading!

Time Travel & The Titanic

Earlier today on the Read Indies Blog (http://readindies.blogspot.com/2012/04/explore-titanic-in-way-you-never.html), I talked with Marlene Dotterer about her book The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder, which my friends over at the Sony Reader Store were kind enough to feature in yesterday's Reader Store Newsletter spotlighting Titanic related books. (Thank you, Audrey and Cindy @ Sony -- you're the best!)

I decided to follow up with an official interview here at Robert Stanek's Around the Town Books.

Tell my readers more about your book.

My book is about Thomas Andrews, who built the Titanic, and was one of the 1500 people who perished when she sank. I've used a time travel/alternate universe format to tell his story - what he was like, how he lived, and to give him a second chance at life. The book is fiction, of course, but based on actual events in his life. I wanted this book to be available for the hundredth anniversary of Titanic's sinking, which is this April.

Where can people get your book?

For Sony e-reader: The book can be purchased here.

For Amazon Kindle: The book can be purchased here.


In your book, who is your favorite character?

Oh, it's Tom Andrews, no doubt about that. It was a joy to write about him, and include him in my time travelers' attempts to change history. He was a very intelligent man in real life, and I think he would have been delighted to work with real time travelers. He just came to life for me, as I wrote the book.

What's your favorite indie book that you've read recently?

I've read so many, it's hard to choose! But one that I had a great time with, was "The Boots of Saint Felicity" by Jean Cross. The first line is "Eloueese Turtlewine stood in her kitchen and gazed out the window." Well, any book that has a character named Eloueese Turlewine is a book I need to read. The first page went on to reveal how Eloueese hates Tuesdays and why she hates Tuesdays, and it has all these delightful names for everyone and everything, and a wonderful, lilting voice to the narrative.

What's your favorite book of all time?

I can't say that I have a favorite of "all" time. I change too much.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

I love authors who give me worlds I want to live in and characters I want to know. Some of my favorite are Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Anne McAffrey, Diane Duane, and Julie Czernada.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Participate in critique groups, and use an editor. If we want Indie Publishing to succeed, we need to put out quality products.

What's next for you in your writing?

By fall, I hope to publish the second time travel journals book: Bridgebuilders. It spins off from Shipbuilder, but takes place in the future, and is much closer to actual science fiction than Shipbuilder is. It's about people from the alternate universe of Shipbuilder who figure out how to return to our original universe. They aren't prepared for what they find when they get here.

I also have several other novels in progress. Sometimes it's a race to see which gets done first, but I'm concentrating on Bridgebuilders for now.

Anything else you'd like to tell us?

My husband and I are on board the Titanic Memorial Cruise, which is tracing the path of Titanic - except we hope to end up in New York. We are also touring the shipyards in Belfast, where Titanic was built, and also the house that Thomas Andrews lived in. I'll be blogging about the trip as it happens, so everyone tune in to follow along!