Little Girl Gone by Brett Battles

Little Girl Gone by Brett Battles“Hit ’em fast, and hit ’em hard. Don’t ever give them a chance” – Carl Stone

Had Logan Harper known just how non-routine his routine morning stop for coffee on the way to work was going to turn out he may well have stayed in bed. Surprised to find the shop still closed, Logan goes around to the back entrance and finds the owner, Tun “Tooney” Myat, beaten, on his knees, a gun to his head, one short trigger pull away from being murdered.

Logan, an ex-military man now working as a mechanic, uses his not entirely rusty skills to run the would be murderer off and calls his father, Tooney’s longtime friend, to come to the shop and help Tooney while Logan gives chase. After losing the assailant during a car chase, Logan rendezvous with Tooney and his father at the hospital, where he finds the two men are not alone.

Their group of friends – who affectionately call themselves the Wise Ass Old Men, or WAMO (yes, they know the M and O are reversed, thank you very much) – have put in an appearance. Not only that, but they are lying to medical personnel, claiming Tooney’s injuries are the result of a mugging. Despite Logan’s pleas to the contrary, Tooney insists the police not be called. When the WAMO crew stands behind Tooney’s decision, Logan demands to be told why they are so opposed to the idea.

The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (iPod Giveaway)

The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus SakeyA man wakes up naked and cold, half-drowned on an abandoned beach. The only sign of life for miles is an empty BMW. Inside the expensive car he finds clothes that fit perfectly, shoes for his tattered feet, a Rolex, and a bank envelope stuffed with cash and an auto registration in the name of Daniel Hayes, resident of Malibu, California.

None of it is familiar.

What is he doing here? How did he get into the ocean? Is he Daniel Hayes, and if so, why doesn’t he remember? While he searches for answers, the world searches for him-beginning with the police that kick in the door of his dingy motel, with guns drawn. Lost, alone, and on the run, the man who might be Daniel Hayes flees into the night.

All he remembers is a woman’s face, so he sets off for the only place he might find her. The fantasy of her becomes his home, his world, his hope. And maybe, just maybe, the way back to himself.

But that raises the most chilling question of all: What will he find when he gets there?

That’s the setup for The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey, which will be released on June 9th. Intrigued? You should be. I’m about halfway through the book and I promise you it is every bit as exciting as it sounds. You know what else is exciting? Marcus Sakey is offering you a chance to win an iPod and the audiobook version of his novel The Amateurs if you pre-order The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes.

The Silenced by Brett Battles

The Silenced by Brett BattlesIt wasn’t Quinn’s job to stand in judgment. He was only there to make the condemned disappear.

Jonathan Quinn is a professional “cleaner,” which means it’s his job to makes things, usually bodies, disappear. It’s a crucial function, but one that usually allows Quinn and his crew to stay out of the direct line of fire since their job doesn’t begin until the operation they’ve been hired to clean up after has ended.

The Silenced, the fourth entry in the Quinn series (following The Cleaner, The Deceived, and Shadow of Betrayal), finds Quinn and his crew hired to handle a multi-operation job. First, there’s the matter of a long dead body in London a client wants removed from its resting place before the building serving as its tomb is demolished. Sounds simple enough.

And then there’s the matter of cleaning up after a few interconnected operations in several different locations in the U.S. A bit more involved, but still relatively straightforward. That is until while cleaning up after the first U.S. job someone else shows up at the job site, a remote location they shouldn’t have any idea even exits. Quinn follows the uninvited guest, a mysterious woman, back to her car and overhears her speaking Russian to a companion before they drive away.

When the same woman shows up again at a job clear across the country, and before the hit is even carried out this time, it becomes apparent there is another team working from the same list as Quinn and his client. Stranger still, the Russian woman and her team also appear to be interested in that dead body in London. Whose toes are Quinn inadvertently stepping on, and how far will they go to get Quinn out of their way?

Shoes That Can Never Be Filled

David ThompsonYesterday Spinetingler Magazine announced its nominees for the 2011 Dave Thompson Community Leader Award. To say I was shocked to wake up to posts and tweets congratulating me on my nomination is an understatement of epic proportions. It honestly wouldn’t have crossed my mind in a hundred years that Musings of an All Purpose Monkey would be in the running for such a meaningful award. And that’s not “aw, shucks” false modesty. That’s a fact. I was floored.

Even though I mentioned my nomination yesterday on Twitter and Facebook, I wanted to do so formally here on the blog today in order to pay tribute to the man the award is named after. If you’ve even dipped a toe in the crime fiction pool you are well aware of David Thompson. But for those who aren’t, David Thompson was a bookseller (Murder by the Book) and publisher (Busted Flush Press) who was a force of nature in his advocating of crime fiction books and authors. His love of crime fiction and the community surrounding it was deep, genuine, and contagious.

Tragically, David passed away unexpectedly last year. He was only 38. Spinetingler renamed the Community Leader Award in David’s honor. To get a true sense of the footprint David left on the crime fiction community visit Sarah Weinman’s blog, where she compiled a deservedly lengthy list of the tributes that poured out from every corner of the crime fiction community in David’s honor.

That the people at Spinetingler Magazine found my blog worthy of being nominated for an award named for David is both an honor and truly humbling. And I’m rubbing elbows with some amazing people, all more than representative of the community spirit that exists amongst crime fiction readers and authors. I don’t care how clichéd it sounds, this truly is an honor just to be nominated. Thank you.

Spinetingler is also giving awards in several other categories, including: Best Short Story Collection, Best Anthology, Best Crime Comic/Graphic Novel, Best Cover, Best Novel: New Voice, Best Novel: Rising Star, Best Novel: Legend, and Best Mystery/Crime Fiction Press, Publisher or Imprint. Voting in all the award categories runs April 1st through April 30th.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Every Last One by Anna QuindlenI know what the world wants: It wants me to heal. But to heal I would have to forget. – Mary Beth Latham

By all appearances the Latham family is a happy, successful, average American family. The father, Glen, has a thriving ophthalmology practice. Ruby, the oldest of three siblings, is a popular girl entering her senior year of high school.

Twins Alex and Max are freshmen; Alex a star at sports, Max more inclined to artistic endeavors. And overseeing the whole brood is Mary Beth, who somehow manages to keep both the family and a successful landscaping business on track. It’s snapshot of picture-perfect suburbia.

Except things aren’t perfect. Ruby announces, seemingly out of nowhere, that she is breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, a young man who has become like a member of the family. Even more concerning, Max slowly starts to withdraw. Concerned he is slipping into depression, Mary Beth focuses all her attention on helping him through his difficulties.

So complete is her focus on Max that Mary Beth never senses the storm gathering around the Latham family, and she’s completely blindsided by a devastating act of violence that forever changes their lives.

The Lost Sister by Russel D McLean

Lost Sister by Russel D McLeanSometimes I feel as though my life is made up of other people’s stories. – J. McNee

When we last saw J. (first name never given) McNee in author Russle McLean’s debut, The Good Son, he was on a slow rebound after having lost his fiancée to a car crash and his job as a police officer to a violent outburst that left both his career and his boss’ nose shattered.

He’s settled into life as a private investigator, more or less, and The Lost Sister kicks off with McNee taking a call with a request from a reporter he’s worked for before: look into the disappearance of a missing fourteen-year-old girl. It seems like a simple enough request, but McNee should have known better.

For starters, the police are also actively working the case, and though he still has a few contacts on the force he’s not the most popular guy around the precinct house anymore. Worse, it turns out the missing girl’s godfather is none other than David Burns, the local crime boss and a seriously nasty piece of work.

Given that his last run-in with Burns ended with McNee’s assistant shot and in a wheelchair, and McNee nursing a severely broken hand and barely escaping a murder charge, McNee makes the decision to walk away from the case least his emotions get the better of him. And he almost makes it. Almost.

The One Percenters by John Podgursky

The One Percenters by John PodgurskyMurder is only murder when it robs the world of innocence. – Edward Pritchard Caine

To say Ed Caine has some interesting views on life, and death, is putting it mildly. He could be forgiven though, given the tragedy he has endured. His wife, Jill, was one of the nine victims of the Solemn Stalker serial killer. That Ed was inside watching game shows when she was murdered just across the street while gardening only adds to the crushing intensity of his loss.

Perhaps not unexpectedly, Ed spirals down into a deep depression. He quits his job, rarely leaves the house, and retreats into his own head, obsessing over Jill’s murder. Over time, and with tremendous effort, he slowly pulls himself out of his dark hole, moves to another town, and begins a new relationship.

Just when things seem to be resuming some semblance of normalcy, while on a camping trip Ed again loses the woman he loves. Except this time he is responsible through more than just negligence. Ed is the instrument of her death, and not only does he not feel guilt this time, he feels it was his duty. Ed, you see, has discovered he is a One Percenter.

“Origins” by Russel D McLean

Russel D McLeanYou may notice that I am not Elizabeth. There may be several clues to this fact. The first in my accent. Let me assure you I do not have a speech impediment. I am merely Scottish. Secondly my beard. I call it “hobo chic” while others call it, “can’t be bothered shaving.” Both are true.

I am taking over Elizabeth’s site today in what will be the penultimate stop on my Blog Tour. For thirteen days I have been trawling the internet to promote the release of my latest novel, THE LOST SISTER. I believe Elizabeth may already have posted her thoughts on the book. I don’t know what they are. I sure hope she enjoyed it. [Elizabeth’s Note: Review tomorrow, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.]

As we are coming to the end of the tour (this is the penultimate post – if all goes well, tomorrow I shall be invading fellow Scots crime writer, Stuart MacBride’s blog), I have covered a variety of topics. I have talked about setting books in a relatively unknown Scottish city. I have discussed movies and books that played a huge part in my development. I have toppled the myths of genre and discussed the best way to approach writing a sequel.

What I have not talked about is why I do any of this.

What made me a writer?

Because, seriously folks, you have to have your brain examined if you want to try doing this for a living. It’s a tough life. Your work has no intrinsic value. This thing that you for a living rises and falls on people’s opinions and moods. Technical skill counts for little if you don’t engage readers on some emotional level.

“Does One Book Create One Writer?” by Dani Amore

Death by Sarcasm features Mary Cooper, a smartass private investigator in Los Angeles who has been described as “Stephanie Plum on meth.” Today I’m pleased to welcome the author of Death by Sarcasm, Dani Amore, for a guest post.

Does One Book Create One Writer? by Dani AmoreWhen I heard the news that Thomas Perry was publishing a new book in the Butcher’s Boy series, I was thrilled. By the way, the book is called The Informant, and yes, I’ve pre-ordered. As a reader, Mr. Perry’s two Butcher’s Boy novels simply blew me away. At the time, I was reading all kinds of books. Everything from Stephen King to James Clavell to Robert Ludlum.

In talking with other fans of Mr. Perry’s, I believe I actually read the books out of order. Because the first book, The Butcher’s Boy, may have only been released in hardcover. The sequel, Sleeping Dogs, was released in mass market paperback. So I’m almost positive I read Sleeping Dogs first.

Fast forward many years later. I had already set out on the course of being a writer. At the time, I was writing short stories, poetry, non fiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, Westerns, pretty much any story that came into my head, I wrote.

The only “success” if you want to call it that – was that I was learning. Most of it was quite dreadful, but even though deeply pessimistic about my writing, I was able to admit that each story seemed to be just a smidgen better than the last.

But I vividly remember finishing a project, a short story, and feeling the itch to write another novel. However, instead of rushing headlong into the idea, I sat back and thought about it. Really, really thought about it. And I remembered the piece of writing advice that I had always considered sound: Write the kind of book you want to read.