It's Giveaway Time Again!

Enter for your chance to win 20 or more Crime/Thriller eBooks!

You could win:

Darknet by Matthew Mather, a best seller in Amazon’s techno thriller, conspiracy, and science fiction categories;

Three, Four ... Better lock your door by Rose Willow;

Of Half a Mind by Bruce Perrin;

The Advocate by Teresa Burrell;

Chained Guilt by Terry Keys;

and 15+ other titles!

Two grand prize winners get all 20+ eBooks

20+ others win individual eBooks

Enter here:  https://AuthorsXP.com/giveaway

Winners and Awards

The Winners

First, let me thank all the new and long-time subscribers who entered the giveaway for a signed, proof copy of Killer in the Retroscape.  I appreciate your interest and support.

The winners of the three copies of the book are:  Angie L., Rita R., and Terri P.

The books are ready to be shipped ... as soon as I dig out of the snow and get to the post office. 



The Awards

I am honored to announce that my last two books have both received recognition in international book competitions.

In early February, Of Half a Mind was named a finalist in the Adult Fiction category in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards.  This program is based in the United Kingdom and uses panels of readers (in the UK and Sweden).  It's always good to hear what the reading crowd has to say.

And on the first of March, I learned that Killer in the Retroscape was selected as a finalist for The Montaigne Medal from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards.  The Medal is awarded to the year's most thought-provoking books.  (I'm still pondering that news ....)

February's Book Reviews and Previews

Although romances may be the traditional reads for February, I stuck with my favorite genres.  This month, it's a new release of a cozy mystery (Never Enough), a violent crime thriller (Righteous Assassin), and a crime mystery by one of my favorite authors (Memory Man by David Baldacci). 

And, if you haven't already, don't forget to enter the drawing for a signed, proof copy of Killer in the Retroscape.  You only have until midnight, February 28.  Whether you're already subscribed or new to the blog, you'll find complete instructions here:  https://bit.ly/2FKtxtU

Never Enough by Isabella Adams

Another Genre-Blending Tale from the Pen of Isabella Adams

Never Enough finds the series protagonist, Dr. Andromeda (Andie) Markos, her gal pals, and her wanna-be fiancé, Sean, embroiled in a tale of family secrets revealed and addiction-driven drama.  As with the two previous books in the series, the camaraderie and unqualified support among the women is extremely well portrayed.  Likewise, the cultural constraints of Andie’s Greek heritage strike home, the expectations of her mother and Andie’s own conflicted feelings between old and new traditions being center stage.  When you read the book, you’ll feel the muggy days of this small, Florida, coastal town (Tarpon Springs), as well as the sand between your toes.  Adams paints these scenes well.  And finally, the author deals with the topic of addiction with such an authoritative voice that I could not help but suspect there is something autobiographical in the Dr. Markos’ character.   But in guiding potential readers to this book, things become murkier, as Adams bends the rules a bit on her chosen genre, a cozy mystery, while putting emotional drama center stage.  It’s a blend that gives the story a fresh voice and can be engaging, if the combination works for you.  Find the complete review or get more information from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2WKJkyZ

Righteous Assassin: A Mike Stoneman Thriller by Kevin Chapman

A Familiar Crime-Thriller Plot Implemented with Some Gruesome Action

Righteous Assassin features a dinosaur of a police detective (Detective Mike Stoneman) who has seen it all.  He’s partnered with a young, ambitious rookie.  Over the course of the story, he develops a romantic interest in an intelligent, attractive woman.  And of course, he has a brilliant, psychotic, serial killer to chase.  Sound familiar?  If you’re a reader of crime thrillers, these threads should be.  And so, the question becomes, how effectively are they implemented by the specifics of this book?  For the most part, I’m happy to say, quite well with one ‘it depends’ on the list.  That last factor is the author’s use of violence to provide much of the tension.  You only need look at the first three sentences of the book’s synopsis to know that rather bizarre deaths play an important role in the story.  The descriptions of those assassinations are often explicit, which may make the violence over-the-top for some readers.  Be forewarned.  Find the complete review or get more information from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2N7B7Rn

Memory Man by David Baldacci

A Taut Mystery Solved by a Detective with an Unusual Gift/Curse

In a few reviews, I’ve criticized books for portraying memory as if it was video; you find the right episode and memory plays in vivid, accurate detail.  For most of us, that’s not the case, not even close.  But for Amos Decker, the protagonist of Memory Man, it is.  As a result of a vicious hit on a football field, Decker develops a condition known as hyperthymesia – the ability to remember every detail of every minute of every day.  So, when the book begins with the brutal murder of Decker’s brother-in-law, wife, and young daughter, the reader soon realizes how this gift is also a curse.  The image of his slain family will never, ever leave his mind.  Find the complete review or get more information from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2Ept6UY

Some Sweethearts of a Deal

Let these limited time, Kindle Countdown deals on mysteries/thrillers sweeten your February just a bit more.

Start Date: NOW  End Date: 2/20
Mind in the Clouds
By Bruce M. Perrin
Suspense, Techno-Thriller
Usual Price: 2.99  Sale: 0.99

New psychologist, Dr. Sam “Doc” Price, is excited to be working on the training developed for a team.  It is, however, a team like no other, because only one of the team members is human; the other is a silent, deadly military drone – the Joint Aerial Combat Capability (JACC).

Soon, Doc finds himself in a deadly cat and mouse game with an unknown adversary.  In a fight for his life and the lives of his friends, Doc asks himself, how do you match wits with the mind in the clouds, when you are not sure if you are facing the cold, exact logic of machine intelligence or the coldblooded urges of a human murderer?

http://amzn.to/2AVtuXw


Start Date: 2/16  End Date: 2/18
Whiskey Kills
By Lolli Powell
Cozy Mystery/Humor
Usual Price: 3.99  Sale: 0.99

When bar owner, Ricki Fontaine’s friend, Ruby Fogarty, is charged with murdering her boyfriend by clubbing him to death with a bottle of whiskey, the police consider the case closed. But Ricki is convinced Ruby is innocent and sets out to find the real murderer. Although Waterton police detective Gabriel Russell is crazy about Ricki, he isn’t too crazy about her trying to do his job.

The killer’s not too happy about it either.

A 2017 Wishing Shelf Book Awards Bronze winner!!!

https://amzn.to/2WFoZuX


Start Date: NOW  End Date: 2/15
The Blue
By Nancy Bilyeau
Historical Thriller
Usual Price: 3.99  Sale: 0.99

In eighteenth century London, porcelain is the most seductive of commodities; fortunes are made and lost upon it. Kings do battle with knights and knaves for possession of the finest pieces and the secrets of their manufacture.  For Genevieve Planché, an English-born descendant of Huguenot refugees, porcelain holds far less allure; she wants to be an artist, a painter of international repute, but nobody takes the idea of a female artist seriously in London. If only she could reach Venice.  When Genevieve meets the charming Sir Gabriel Courtenay, he offers her an opportunity she can’t refuse; if she learns the secrets of porcelein, he will send her to Venice. But in particular, she must learn the secrets of the colour blue.

https://amzn.to/2GpeMOv


Start Date: NOW  End Date: 2/17
Strawberry Donuts and Scandal
By Cindy Bell
Cozy Mystery
Usual Price: 2.99  Sale: 0.99

Business is booming for Donuts on the Move. Joyce and Brenda have hired their first employee, Melissa, and they are excited that the donut truck is part of a local food fair. When a popular vlogger turns up at the food fair and does a feature on the donut truck they are thrilled.

But when there are violent protests at the fair, business is put on hold. Then things go from bad to worse when someone is murdered. Joyce and Brenda cannot resist a good mystery, so they decide to do a little investigating of their own. But their sleuthing leads them straight towards trouble, and they find that they have bitten off more than they can chew. 

https://amzn.to/2BBiz7l


Start Date: NOW  End Date: 2/17
Forgotten Boxes
By Becki Willis
Historical Thriller
Usual Price: 3.99  Sale: 0.99

Named sole heir to her aunt's estate, Charity Gannon arrives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, hoping to find a link to her past. She's not looking for lost treasures; she is searching for a connection to the aunt she barely knew.
What she finds is a thirty-something-year-old mystery and questions with no answers. A sad, secluded cottage, all but hidden amid the vines. A man's suit of clothes, tainted with dried blood and a bullet hole. Four forgotten boxes, stuffed into a large bag and buried in the far corners of the shed.

These are not just any boxes. These are unopened, undelivered boxes, left behind by the now-defunct Kingdom Parcel. All four boxes are marked March 14, 1984... the very day her uncle, president and driver for the delivery service, was said to have committed suicide. Four forgotten boxes, whose owners might still be out there, waiting for a delivery that never arrived.

https://amzn.to/2TRjrvS


Start Date: NOW  End Date: 2/17
Murder on the Old Bog Road
By David Pearson
Crime Mystery
Usual Price: 2.99  Sale: 0.99

It’s a cold winter evening and rain is sweeping in from the Atlantic when a young woman, having braved the weather to visit her sick mother in a remote part of Ireland, comes across an obstacle in the road. She clears the highway of stones from a damaged bridge only to see the body of a woman in a ditch. 

A game of cat and mouse ensues when the inquiry is upgraded to a murder investigation. The trouble is, when the victim is recognised as a sex worker, there is no shortage of possible suspects. And few of them, if any, are willing to tell the truth to the police. It will take all of Galway detectives Hays and Lyons’ experience to cut through the web of lies and identify the killer in their midst.

https://amzn.to/2TN4tXE


Start Date: NOW  End Date: 2/16
The Empty Place at the Table
By John Ellsworth
Legal Thriller
Usual Price: 4.99  Sale: 0.99

It was just a quick sandwich in the hospital cafeteria, but when she returned to her daughter's room...  Whatever happened to Melissa's daughter is anyone's guess. The police seal the hospital doors; a search proceeds but the four-year-old is nowhere to be found 

No matter, Melissa is determined. She is also very, very bright, a woman who refuses to give up, a woman who knows what motherhood means. She journeys to Mexico in search of her missing child. She confronts the Tijuana Cartel. Do they have her daughter? Twelve years have passed by and she no longer has any idea what the little girl even looks like.

Then...two unmistakable eyes peer out at her from a passing van. But was it Melissa's daughter? Watch one desperate woman and one lost child try to reach across time and connect. A story to please you to the very end.

https://amzn.to/2GFPfQv

And if you haven't already, sign up for a chance to win a proof copy of Killer in the Retroscape:  https://bit.ly/2FKtxtU

Please verify all prices before purchase.

GIVEAWAY - Get a Signed Proof Copy of Killer in the Retroscape!

It's time for some early spring cleaning and I still have a few proof copies of Killer in the Retroscape (https://amzn.to/2Cn7xE0) laying around the office.  So, I'm signing and giving away three of them!

How do you enter?  If you're currently subscribed, simply send an email to bmperrinAuthor (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject line, "Enter Me."  That's it!

If you're not subscribed, it's almost as easy.  Just follow the instructions at this link:  https://bit.ly/2FKtxtU

Live outside the continental United States?  If you win, I'll order you a copy from your country's Amazon site.  It won't be signed, but you'll get the book!

Winners will be selected randomly and notified during the first week of March.  Best of luck.

January's Book Reviews and Previews

Happy 2019!  

This month, I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing a teen fantasy (yeah, I know.  I'm a bit outside the target market, but I still enjoyed it), a murder mystery with a metaphysical twist, an outer-space, murder mystery, and a police procedural and occult-themed novel (yes, it was both; that's not a typo).

Use the link at the end of each summary if you want to see the full review or to get more information about any of these books.

Tainted Luck by Cynthia Austin

A Mixture of Humor and Horror in a Fast, Enjoyable Read

Tainted Luck features a seventeen-year-old high school student, Levi, who worries that he’s “… invisible when it came to the female species” and that he’s a distant second in his dad’s life.  Then, we have the cute cheerleader, Stacy, the object of Levi’s dreams if only he had the courage to act on them.  And finally, there’s the enigmatic, gothic, new girl in school, Taylor, who attaches herself to Levi, never taking no for an answer.  Sound a bit like the setup for a typical story about teenage angst?  Tainted Luck is that … and more.  Taylor’s darkness turns black.  Is it witchcraft or just a crush taken too far?  Levi, on the other hand, starts off annoyed with Taylor, describing her as a gawky scarecrow with a shaggy, black mane but later, as “mesmerizing”.  Has Taylor bewitched him?  Or is this just the normal course of male hormones?  And Stacy actually seems interested in Levi … or is this just part of his delusion as well?  It’s an enjoyable undertaking to find out.  See the complete review or get more information from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2COZyPL

Hopatcong Vision Quest by Steve Lindahl

A Murder Mystery with Some Unusual Investigative Techniques

Hopatcong Vision Quest is a murder mystery that starts fast with the killing of two women.  Subsequently, the police conclude the deaths were accidental, leaving the families of the victims (Ryan and Diane) to solve the crime.  Believing that Ryan’s daughter may have witnessed her mother’s death, they turn to a hypnotist to help her retrieve this repressed memory.  What they get from the process, however, is much more.  It’s information from their past lives in a Native American village hundreds of years ago.  Those lives differ in many ways from today, but in one important respect – the commission of the crime – they are identical.  Those glimpses of the distant past become the basis for solving the present-day crime.  See the complete review or get more information from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2SQS58B

Perax Frontier by Alistair Potter

Likeable Characters in a Taut Mystery Set in a Fascinating Outer-Space World

How do you fight crime without the benefit of electricity and electronics?  No computers.  No phones.  No cars (as we know them).  That’s the quandary facing Sheriff Artur Perax in Perax Frontier.  That, and the fact that he’s sitting on a potentially lethal boundary between two universes and dealing with complex, government bureaucracies on both sides.  And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a mix of alien races, each with their own characteristics and capabilities.  If you’re thinking author Alistair Potter had his world-building work cut out for him, I’d have to agree.  And for the most part, he does it well, describing technologies like phonographs driven by compressed air and aliens who read human body language like a book, but don’t understand our slang.  See the complete review or get more information from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2TTSw1Y

The Coven Murders (The Inspector Sheehan Mysteries Book 3) by Brian O’Hare

Mix of a Police Procedural and the Occult (Seriously – and Seriously Scary)

If you are prone to check a book’s genre, as I do when seeking a new read, you may do a doubletake when you view The Coven Murders.  It’s listed in the occult and the police procedural genres, the latter having a focus on investigative processes.  Are we talking about arresting demons?  Actually, that guess is not far off, as author Brian O’Hare has penned a unique and intriguing mix of detailed detective work in pursuit of some bad guys, not all of whom may be human.  And if you’re thinking that could be amusing, you’re at the wrong end of the spectrum.  It’s bone chilling, truly scary, without resorting to graphic details of ritualistic murders or grotesque beasts.  Not many authors can do that.  See the complete review or get more information from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2MxrmLI

Five Takeaways from 2018

As exciting as a new year is, I always find it interesting to look back for a moment as well.  Here are five things about 2018 (writing-wise) that stuck out to me.

1. Many of You Share My Curiosity Gene

What was my most popular post of 2018?  It was “Nice, but tell me when it’ll do my laundry” (https://bit.ly/2AqYSyy), a tongue-in-cheek look at some state-of-the-art home automation.  I fully admit a fascination with future technology and how it will affect humanity, and it appears a few of you feel the same.

2. You Like Giveaways

You’re thinking, ‘well duh, doesn’t everyone?’  And they do, but you, the subscribers to this blog, enjoy them more than most.  How do I know that?  When I got the addresses from the last one I participated in, you were a disproportionately large part of the list.  And when I look at page visits on my blog, the giveaway of a signed proof copy Of Half a Mind drew over 2,000 visits in three weeks – I typically get about 1,000 visits a month.  With that information, you can probably guess what you'll see again in 2019!

3. Two New Books 

Independently publishing two books in 2018 has to be a highlight - I am an author, after all.

Of Half a Mind (http://amzn.to/2ozkD9g) came out March 24th.  

Killer in the Retroscape (https://amzn.to/2Cn7xE0) followed on November 5.

Both have been very well received.  Thanks readers (and reviewers)!

4. Book Reviews Yield Blog Visits

After the giveaway page, the most visited one on my blog was ‘Book Reviews’.  To cut down on your inbox clutter, in November, I changed from individual posts on each book to a monthly summary, so I can no longer trace visits to specific books.  However, before the change, Silent Waters by Jan Coffey, Tomb of Aradia (Lost Origins Book 1) by Antony Davies, and Stolen Prey (The Prey Series Book 22) by John Sanford had drawn the most looks.

Since most blogs on blogging talk about the importance of the ‘About the Author’ page and mine was a distant third for visits in 2018, I may have to let slip some details of my secret life helping Einstein with his theories … you know, in a former life.

5. You Searched for What?

And finally, it’s always interesting to see how people find my blog.  I’ll just have to say, however, that whoever is using the search phrase ‘bruce perrin arrested’ is going to be disappointed.  So far, even the grammar police are leaving me alone.

Enough looking backwards.  Happy 2019!

Image by Ramchand Bruce Phagoo [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons