Buy the Latest, Get the First

Polis Books is running a very nifty giveaway for the upcoming release of my latest Jack Keller Novel, DEVILS AND DUST, as well as Dave White's new one, NOT EVEN PAST. Here's how it works:

1) Purchase DEVILS AND DUST by J.D. Rhoades in hardcover or ebook, or NOT EVEN PAST by Dave White in paperback or ebook.

2) Email your confirmation to info@polisbooks.com. Include your preferred e-reading device.

3) Enjoy your FREE copy of THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND by J.D. Rhoades or WHEN ONE MAN DIES by Dave White!

Find out where to buy the books here:

DEVILS AND DUST
http://www.polisbooks.com/books/devils-and-dust/

NOT EVEN PAST
http://www.polisbooks.com/books/not-even-past/

Review: Louise's War, by Sarah Shaber

Louise's War by Sarah R. Shaber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At the height of World War 2, young widow Louise Pearlie comes up to Washington DC from her home in Wilmington, NC and finds a job as a file clerk at the ultra-secret OSS (precursor to the CIA). When her boss is murdered and a file with connections to an old friend of Louise's who's trapped and endangered in Vichy France disappears, she dives in to set things right.

Louise is an engaging character, the kind of tough, no-nonsense Southern girl I can't help but like. Sarah Shaber also perfectly evokes the setting of the nation's capital in time of war: the near-chaos, the paranoia, the unsettling sense that the world is changing in ways no one really understands or has any control over. I definitely recommend this one.


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The Face That Was Made for Radio Returns

I'm interviewed by ace book blogger and podcaster Pam Stack at Authors On The Air, where we talk about the writing process, newspaper columns, trying to make marketing interesting, and what I'd be doing in an alternate universe. Check it out, and don't miss the Final Five.

Check Out Books Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Authors On The Air on BlogTalkRadio

What the Heck, Let's Just Go For Full Monarchy

Latest  Column- The Pilot Newspaper:


So the world has another royal baby, and he has a name: George Alexander Louis. His official title will be “His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge.”

What is it with this family and the name George? His granddaddy, the Prince of Wales, is Charles Philip Arthur George, his great-granddaddy was King George VI, and his great-great-granddaddy was King George V.

I mean, I know they’re all about the tradition, but come on, it’s the 21st century. Why couldn’t they have mixed it up a little?

Prince Bubba has a nice ring to it. Or maybe they could defray some of the costs of the monarchy by selling naming rights. Prince Nokia Samsung Hyundai, for example, could bring the family the kind of international branding that’s so important in this global economy.

There was some talk, by the way, that the Prince of Wales intended to rule under the name King George VII. Other sources I’ve read, however, claim he has denied saying that, possibly because it seems a bit rude to pick your monarch name while the current sovereign is still breathing.

Some of England’s pricklier rulers might have even removed one’s head for that sort of thing. Fortunately, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II doesn’t seem the head-chopping type. I’ve seen the look in her eye, though. I wouldn’t want to risk my neck by crossing her.

In any event, the new royal whelp has, like all things royal, captured the imagination of millions of us commoners on both sides of the pond. In fact, some of the gushing I’ve heard over here about the event made me think that if the Brits wanted to reconquer the U.S., all William and Kate would have to do is carry the little fellow between them in a sedan chair, like that picture of the Ark of the Covenant in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and people would just fall all over themselves to surrender.

As always, with a great craze comes a great backlash, with various and sundry commentators raising the old cry that the monarchy should be abolished as an archaic and horrendously expensive relic of a bygone age.

Oddly enough, many of those seem to be coming from Americans. Perhaps the most vociferous one came from Hamilton Nolan of the website Gawker, who wrote a blistering polemic titled “Imprison the Royal Family and Abolish the Monarchy.” Nolan writes, “In a just world, this innocent child would be going up for adoption, since its family would have been imprisoned for crimes against humanity.” It gets worse from there. The rather overheated Mr. Nolan, as noted above, is an American, which raises the question of what standing he has to be so indignant.

In the U.K., on the other hand, a British friend (the talented thriller writer and journalist David Thomas, aka Tom Cain) tells me that only about 18 percent of Britons polled actually want to see the monarchy abolished and that even the most fervent Scottish nationalists promise to keep the queen as head of state.

On the pro-royalty side, Dylan Matthews of The Washington Post recently wrote a column in which he suggested, with tongue only partially in cheek, that the U.S. might be well served by becoming a monarchy — a constitutional one, of course.

“Constitutional monarchies,” he points out, “have an average GDP per capita of $29,106.71 and an average life expectancy of 75.6. All other countries have an average GDP per capita of $12,518.76 and an average life expectancy of 68.3. Point: constitutional monarchies.” In addition, he asserts, the royal family, instead of being a drain on the British economy, actually generates “tiny stimulus boomlets” around events such as the royal birth.

So, hey, why not give it a try? It’s got to work better than the current state of gridlock. The only problem is actually picking a monarch. But does it really have to be? As various royals have shown, a member of the royal family doesn’t have to be particularly smart, talented, or even good-looking (at least if you’re a male). So the choice should be obvious.

Call me Prince Dusty, and feel free to grovel.

Review: BOOK OF SHADOWS, by Alexandra Sokoloff

Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Alex Sokoloff blew me away with her first novel "The Harrowing", and she's just gotten better and better with every book. She writes what I like to call "whatdunnits": mysteries and thrillers with a supernatural overtone in which the main characters (and the reader) are trying to figure out if their enemy is a particularly evil human or...something else, something Other. This is a brilliant example of that style, with some added eroticism to spice things up. Sokoloff is an deft, assured writer with a real gift for putting your head right into the scene using all the senses. She can really bring the shivers, both the sexy and the scary kind. Highly recommended.



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Review: CHOKE ON YOUR LIES, Anthony Neil Smith

Choke on Your Lies by Anthony Neil Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Anthony Neil Smith set his best book yet in one of the country's best known cesspools of corruption and wickedness: academia. There's enough viciousness, backstabbing and sexual depravity among Smith's small-college faculty to make Caligula look like an episode of The Little Rascals.

The last decent man in this pit of vipers is Mick Thooft, a good guy but, apparently, a wretchedly bad poet. When Mick discovers his wife's infidelity and her attempt to defraud him out of the marital home, he turns to his friend Octavia, a big woman with a bigger intellect and a capacity for malice that dwarfs both. Octavia pronounces "let's punish the bitch," and proceeds to use her considerable wealth to make that happen. But even Octavia's sheer meanness may not be a match for the evil mind of the antagonist pulling the strings.

Smith pulls off one of the hardest tricks in all of writing: he fascinates you with characters who, for the most part, are completely unlikable. Mick's such a wimp you just want to pick him up and shake him, the only sane reaction to Octavia would be to flee from her screaming in terror, and the rest of the cast (with only a couple of minor exceptions) range from slightly creepy to downright demonic. And yet, you can't look away.

Great book.


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Review: BECOMING QUINN, by Brett Battles

Becoming Quinn - A Jonathan Quinn Novella by Brett Battles

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


One of the coolest things about the e-book revolution is that it's provided more openings for the shorter literary forms, like the short story and the novella. I've always enjoyed the novella form. It's a quick read, but there's more time to develop character and more chances to crank up the suspense than you can usually found in the short story.

Becoming Quinn is the novella done right. It's short, tightly written, full of action, but at the same time it gives you the opportunity to really get to know and to care about the main character as he makes his journey from idealistic cop Jake Oliver to become the hard-edged "cleaner" Jonathan Quinn.

Brett Battles also has the one indispensable gift for a thriller writer: he makes events that you would normally find absurd seem not only possible, but inevitable.

This book's a lot of fun. Check it out.



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Allison Brennan Hits One Out of the Park

Over at Murderati, Allison Brennan gives an impassioned response to the recent Wall Street Journal Op-Ed slamming a lot of recent Young Adult novels as being "too dark." Read it. Now.

I'D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE, by Laura Lippman

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


22 years ago, Eliza Benedict became briefly famous as the only one of serial killer Walter Bowman's victims to survive. Now, Bowman has contacted Eliza through an intermediary and says he wants to meet her. Laura Lippman deftly sets up this chilling premise within the first few pages, and the rest of the book is a steady, inexorable tightening of the tension towards Eliza's confrontation with the man who so irrevocably altered her life.

The premise of a serial killer manipulating someone from inside prison walls inevitably invites a comparison to Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter books. But quiet, apparently contrite Walter manages to be creepy in a much more subtle and ultimately more disturbing way that the more lurid fictional serial killers. I can put down Harris and breathe easy in the belief knowing a real criminal super-genius like Lecter doesn't exist outside of fiction; I know Walter Bowmans exist in the real world.

Which brings us to another great thing about this book, and about Laura Lippman's work in general: her mastery of the small, mundane details of modern American middle-class suburban life and how she juxtaposes the everyday with the horribly out-of-joint to make the evil seem even more unsettling. Stephen King does this a lot as well, but unlike King, you can always depend on Laura Lippman to bring things to a satisfying ending.

Superb craftsmanship, characters you can believe, steadily building suspense and a great ending...yep, it's a Laura Lippman book all right, and one of her best.

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Review: THE GIRL IN THE GREEN RAINCOAT, Laura Lippman

The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Laura Lippman's wonderful PI character Tess Monaghan finds herself confined to her bed on doctors' orders due to unexpected complications of her pregnancy. What happens next is right out of REAR WINDOW: a woman who Tess is used to seeing out her window every day disappears, leaving her neurotic Italian greyhound running free. Tess resolves to solve the mystery from her sickbed, all the while dealing with the abandoned canine, worrying about the impending delivery and terrified at the prospect of being a mother.

What's so striking about this book is its compactness: it's only 158 pages, but there's a full, rich, multi-textured story told in that short time. THE GIRL IN THE GREEN RAINCOAT originally ran as a serialized novel in the New York Times magazine, and every chapter is a perfectly crafted, self-contained little gem. As so often happens with a Laura Lippman book, I put it down at the end and went "Wow. That was AMAZING." I loved this book.



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Review: ONE WAS A SOLDIER, Julia Spencer-Fleming

One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I tell some people that one of my favorite mystery series features a female Episcopal priest as the main character, they act as if they expect the Rev. Clare Fergusson to be some cozy-fied, charming old cleric with a twinkle in her eye and a ready supply of quaint homilies for every occasion. Nope. Julia Spencer-Fleming writes about passionate, headstrong people with complicated emotional lives, and she does it in a way that brings them beautifully to life on the page.

In this one, the Reverend Clare is back from her National Guard deployment in Iraq, after a year and a half away from her parish--and from her lover, small-town police chief Russ Van Alstyne. Other citizens of the small town of Millers Kill are returning from overseas as well, and they all carry their own wounds, both visible and invisible. Even Clare isn’t immune, and their various struggles to come to terms with the damage of war provide as much of the dramatic tension and conflict in the book as the actual mystery. In fact, the death that drives the mystery plot doesn’t actually occur until about halfway through the book, when a member of Clare’s Veterans’ support group dies, apparently by her own hand. I for one was so caught up in the threads of the characters’ individual stories that I didn’t mind.

To her credit, Spencer-Fleming doesn’t editorialize about the wars or the politics behind them. She does unflinchingly face the fact that some soldiers come back maimed, wounded, and suffering in ways even they can barely understand and which sometimes baffle and frustrate the people around them, even those who love them most.

ONE WAS A SOLDIER is engrossing and beautifully written. A solid five stars.

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Win a Kindle or Nook from One Very Righteous Chick

The supremely cool and outrageously talented Toni McGee Causey gives a shout out to LAWYERS, GUNS AND MONEY as part of her contest in which one can win a FREE Kindle or Nook over at her blog:

J.D. has a talent for creating characters you feel like you know, deeply, from your own life, and showing you the tensions that they're under that threaten to crack and break them wide open—and like the ladies above, he'll have you turning pages until the wee hours of the morning, because you won't want to put it down until you get to the end.

Head over, enter the contest (I mean, free stuff, amirite?) and show Toni some love. She's not only a kick-ass writer, she's good people as well.

UNCAGE ME Hits the Streets.

From Human Under Construction:
...today UNCAGE ME makes it's appearance in bookstores. La.

In case you missed the earlier warnings, UNCAGE ME is:



The follow-up to 2007's Expletive Deleted. New stories from Scott Phillips, Allan Guthrie, Christa Faust, Victor Gischler, J.A. Konrath, J.D. Rhoades, Declan Burke, Brian Azzarello, Steven Torres, Stewart Macbride, Simon Kernick, Patrick Shawn Bagley, Greg Bardsley, Stephen Blackmore, Tim Maleeny, Nick Stone, Martyn Waites, Talia Berliner, Maxim Jakubowski, Gregg Hurwitz, Blake Crouch, and more! As if all of that wasn't enough, there's an introduction by New York Times best selling author John Connolly.

It's a rare privilege to be included in such a stellar lineup. Thanks to Jen Jordan for letting me be part of it.

Good Wishes for Good Folks

From Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind:

Benjamin Leroy and Alison Janssen have announced their departure from crime and literary fiction publisher Bleak House Books in Madison, WI to launch their own venture, Tyrus Books. Leroy founded Bleak House in 2001 and the company was sold to Big Earth Publishing in 2005. Tyrus's inaugural list has three titles - novels by Peter Gadol and Michael Lister and an anthology of crime short stories edited by Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg - that were originally part of Bleak House's fall catalog; Tyrus will publish the titles as scheduled.

Fair winds and following seas, guys. It's a damned gutsy move, especially right now.

Oh, HELL Yeah!

Not only is Ken Bruen's BLITZ coming to the big screen but Jason Statham's playing Brant.

I'd always seen Bob Hoskins or maybe Ben Kingsley in the role, but they're getting some age on them, and Statham's a solid choice.

I am extremely happy about this. Ken's an amazing writer and a great guy, and I would love to see him get the recognition he deserves AND get absolutely filthy stinking rich. This might do it.

Guest Blogger Jack Kilborn Saves the Economy!

Ladies and gentlemen, What Fresh Hell is pleased today to host a writer who needs no introduction to most of you. Raconteur. Beer Connoisseur. Provocateur. Above all, a man who's always been a good and generous friend to me. The one, the only...Joe Konrath, er, Jack Kilborn.

My name is Jack Kilborn. My new horror novel, AFRAID, comes out today. Many people are saying it's the scariest book ever written.

It's not the best time to be a writer, because of the recession. Books, even paperbacks like AFRAID that are reasonably priced at $6.99, aren't selling very well.

This is a shame, because a good old-fashioned buying frenzy would help stimulate the economy.

In fact, I've crunched the numbers, and if only 1,889,011 people buy AFRAID, it will result in the creation of 23,007 new jobs, the DOW will climb by 949 points, gas prices will drop to 83 cents a gallon, and herpes will be cured.

Naturally, I want to see this happen, and I want to do my part. So here's what I'm proposing. If you follow these simple instructions, you will be personally rewarded, while also helping to stimulate the economy. Win win. Plus it's easy, fast, and fun.

Here's what you can do:

1. Buy AFRAID. You can buy it online, or in a store. Or you can borrow it from the library and then steal it (it's okay, they'll order a replacement.)

2. Save the receipt.

3. Scan the cover of Afraid and print out one hundred copies of the cover.

4. Handwrite on each of these flyers "This book is the greatest book ever written" and place them on the windshields of every car you see. (helpful hint: make sure the cars are stopped first)

5. Turn to page 54 of Afraid and circle the ninth sentence on the page.

6. Take the third letter from each word on the ninth sentence and rearrange them, Boggle-style, to form a new word that has never been heard before. Define this word as "Afraid is the greatest book ever written."

7. Handwrite this word on 250 Post-It notes, and hand draw the cover of Afraid on each, making sure the title and author are legible and the colors are correct.

8. Place these Post-It notes on the backs of homeless people, turning them into walking billboards. Also, maybe you can buy them a sandwich. And deodorant. Make sure you videotape this.

9. Pick up your local phone book and randomly call 50 people and/or businesses and read them the first six chapters of AFRAID. If they hang up, call them back.

10. Visit your local community college and enroll in a pottery class, then make a large vase with the words "AFRAID by JACK KILBORN" glazed onto the side. Fill this vase with healthy "green" snacks, like radishes, or buckwheat, and go on a cross-country bus tour, handing out handfuls of green goodness to people you sit next to, and to the bus driver, who sits on his ass 14 hours a day and could use something healthy.

11. When you return from your trip, Fed-Ex me the vase, the video footage of you tagging homeless people, your phone bill, and the license plate numbers of all the cars you put flyers on.

12. I'll send you a one dollar coupon, good toward the purchase of the next Jack Kilborn book.

It's that easy.

You can enter this contest as many times as you like, as long as you meet all the requirements for each copy of AFRAID you buy.

I know you care about the economy as much as I do. It's time for both of us to stop talking about it, and actually do something.

I'm doing my part. I urge you to do yours.

Your friend in economic recovery,

Jack Kilborn
http://www.JackKilborn.com

AFRAID releases today. Some early reactions:

Jack Kilborn's "Afraid" is a true page turner, a novel that offers a million mile a minute action and suspense. Definitely, a must have with constant thrills and chills. (Heather Graham, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author )

Full of colorful characters and dynamic action, this hard-to-put-down page turner will keep readers riveted and squirming in their seats. Hands down, AFRAID by Jack Kilborn is perhaps the best psychological horror novel to come along since Silence of the Lambs. (Michael Laimo, author of DEAD SOULS and DEEP IN THE DARKNESS )

"Kilborn kicks down your psyche's front door and RAISES HOLY EVER-LIVING HELL. Never have I read a novel so gruesome and simultaneously relentless. AFRAID throbs with unmitigated, inexorable. sheer friggin' TERROR." (Edward Lee, author of CITY INFERNAL and BRIDES OF THE IMPALER )

A bloody, terrifying, hurtling assault across a landscape of non-stop mayhem. A guilty, guilty pleasure. (F. Paul Wilson, creator of Repairman Jack )

"The moment I heard about this book, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it." (David Morrell, NYT bestselling author of Scavenger )

"AFRAID is a bungee jump into pure terror, a story that plays brilliantly on all our primal fears, and stands shoulder to shoulder with the very best of Harris, Koontz, and King. A classic horror novel." (Blake Crouch, author of Locked Doors )

"AFRAID is a masterpiece of unrelenting horror. And I'm not exaggerating. Masterpiece. It's the best piece of fiction I've read in several years. It simply NEVER lets up." (James Rollins, NYT bestselling author of Black Order )

Jack Kilborn's AFRAID is appropriately named. It will scare the hell out of anyone who reads it. Fast and ferocious, this is a dangerous thriller that will take a bite out of you. An absolute must read for anyone who loves the adrenaline rush of a shocking story told with style, speed and savage grace. (Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award winning author of PATIENT ZERO and THEY BITE )

Charlie Stella Speaks Out!

Shocking, I know...but this one's an interview over at Ed Gorman's always excellent blog.

Don't miss Charlie's advice to the publishing world.

Terrenoire Explains It All

The AIG Mess Made Comprehensible, If Somewhat Profane, courtesy of my good friend, David Terrenoire.

Congratulations, Kristy!!

We interrupt this blog's brutal repression of dissent to congratulate my good friend Kristy Kiernan on her Florida Book Award for the amazing* MATTERS OF FAITH:

"It received a bronze medal, and considering the other authors under consideration this year--including John Dufresne, Jeff Sharra, Brad Meltzer, Debra Dean, Tony D'Souza, & Bonnie Glover just to name a few-- I am truly honored."

Congratulations, Kristy!

*How amazing? I teared up at the end. That's pretty damn rare.

Quote of the Day

Katy Munger, writing at Breakfast in Bed:

Being a fiction writer is just like being a little kid who has lots and lots of invisible friends.