NOVEMBER HUNT - a Carl Brookins Review

November Hunt
By Jess Lourey
ISBN: 978-07387-3136-0
A 2012 269 page TP release
From Midnight Ink Books

The eleventh novel in her Murder By The Month series brings sometime librarian-cum-private investigator Mira James squarely up against some respected town leaders. Mira is angling to become a licensed P.I. and needs many hours of supervised investigation in order to qualify. Given that her account in the local Battle Lake bank is flatter than the pancakes served at the local eatery, she has two powerful motives to take on the investigation of a local philanthropist and business man’s murder by his long time buddy.

November in Minnesota can be cold. Not only does the weather provide impediments, so do many of the town’s citizens, but Mira perseveres against bone-cracking cold and icy stares. The author is a good writer and the story is enhanced with clever characters, and a lot of tongue-in-cheek dialogue.

The series is known for the self-deprecating insouciance of the main character and her slightly twisted outlook on life. The danger of this kind of approach is in going over the cliff. Sometimes the impact of a really powerfully crafted scene can be lessened by the odd verbal swipe.

The plot is well designed and while there are few large surprises, the author spins this tale tightly and nicely to its conclusion with the aid of several interesting and amusing characters. This edition contains a series of discussion questions which can be useful to book clubs.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I note that the author and I are long-time acquaintances.

--

-- 
Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com  http://agora2.blogspot.com,
Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky

THE LAST TEMPTATION - a Carl Brookins Review

Carl Brookins is one of my favorite reviewers; he gives books a thorough reading and honest reviews. I often post his reviews here, and I'm happy to be posting his review of my novel.

The Last Temptation
by Gerrie Ferris Finger
ISBN: 978-1-4328-2589-8
A 2012 hard cover release
from Five Star, Gale. 367 pages

Retired cop and owner of an investigative service called Child Trace, Moriah Dru, is an intriguing mix of highly aware, slightly cynical, and romantic at her core. She's in love with her ex-partner, a Lieutenant of Police in Atlanta, Georgia. She traces lost children. He, Lieutenant Richard Lake, traces murderers. When their cases intersect, mayhem sometimes ensues, sparks fly and the bad guys, if they're smart, go somewhere else.

Local brilliant academician, Bradley Whitney, has joint custody of his young daughter, Linley. Her mother, Whitney's ex-wife, is still struggling with addiction, but institutes proceedings for full custody. When the girl fails to turn up on a flight back to Atlanta from Palm Springs, the court hires Dru to find and retrieve her. In Palm Springs, Dru discovers that both the girl and her mother are missing. A lot of people seem to know parts of the story and aren't willing to talk to Dru. By this time there have been several brutal murders in Atlanta that have Lake's attention and Dru's old, Saab has been blown up. Connections? Not immediately apparent.

This is a tautly constructed, tightly written, punchy novel of horrific crime, family entanglements, love and sex, loss and reconnection. The protagonist is a fascinating, flawed, woman with substantial skills and attitudes. The story flows logically from a series of disparate violent events and the presentation of pieces of evidence that eventually all come together.Although the events described are mostly difficult, this is at its center, a life-affirming novel that will leave readers completely satisfied and waiting for the next story from this excellent writer.

Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky

Thanks, Carl!

THE LAST TEMPTATION - What it's about

Synopsis from publisher Five Star

Release date July 18

Recovering addict Eileen Cameron and her daughter Kinley Whitney have vanished from Eileen's Palm Springs home. Kinley's custodial father, Bradley Whitney, lives in Atlanta. Eileen and Bradley are locked in a custody battle, and Bradley believes Eileen has taken Kinley to hide with the Indians in the desert. The court hires Moriah Dru of Child Trace to find and bring Kinley home.


Bradley's academic credentials are solid, but Dru is wary. He's rich and involved with the secretive Cloisters. Dru and lover, police Lieutenant Richard Lake, delve into Bradley's past, while Lake investigates the Atlanta Suburban Girl murders.


In Palm Springs, Dru meets a host of glitzy suspects, including Dartagnan LeRoi, a cop; Arlo Cameron, Eileen's movie director husband; Heidi, Arlo's widowed neighbor; Eileen's hairdresser, a cross-dresser named Theodosia; a donut-maker named Zing; Indian princess Contessa (Tess) Rosovo; and Phillippe, a self-styled Frenchman who claims he's a Cordon Bleu chef. Phillippe says everyone in "The Springs" is an actor.


To help find Eileen and Kinley, Tess takes Dru to the high desert for a Moon Maiden ceremony. Dru spots a young girl in a wig. Tess notices Dru's attention to the girl. Dru passes out then wakes in the desert scrub as a monsoon rages. Terrified, she's swept over a rock waterfall to certain death. Her miraculous survival brings her even greater pain.


The Last Temptation is an edgy mystery thriller loaded with eccentric oddballs. Murder and deceit are no strangers to glamorous Palm Springs. Nor to Atlanta.

Submitted by Gerrie Ferris Finger

Available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

(to name two)

Happy Reading

THE MYSTERY WRITERS - Jean Henry Mead

When Jean Henry Mead asked me to contribute to her anthology of advice from mystery writers, a broad category as you can see, I was honored and delighted. If you're a writer, would-be novelist or an interested reader, this book is for you. It's available on Kindle and paperback.

Pat Browning, herself an excellent mystery writer, posted the following list on her Amazon review of the book:

THE MYSTERY WRITERS is chock full of good advice and interesting personal tidbits. In all, there are 60 mystery writers within 12 categories.
The categories and authors are:
SUSPENSE: James Scott Bell, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Joan Hall Hovey, Ellis Viler, Cheryl Kaye Tardif.
CRIME NOVELS: Lawrence Block, J.A. Jance, Bruce DeSilva, Diana Fanning, Craig McDonald, Geraldine Evans.
POLICE PROCEDURALS: Leighton Gage, Alafair Burke, Martin Edwards, Pat Brown, Marilyn Meredith, Bob Sanchez, Maryann Miller.
THRILLERS: Robert Liparulo, Vicki Hinze, Shane Gericke, Timothy Hallinan, Lise Glendon.
PRIVATE EYES: Sue Grafton, Randy Rawls, Mark Troy.
NOIR: Vincent Zandri, Roger Smith.
TRADITIONAL MYSTERIES: Sandra Parshall, Gerrie Ferris Finger, Madeline (M.M.) Gornell, Earl Staggs, Holli Castillo, Alan Orloff.
HISTORICAL MYSTERIES: Julie Garwood, Ann Parker, Nancy Means Wright.
CONTEMPORARY WESTERN MYSTERIES: Vickie Britton and Loretta Jackson, Curt Wendleboe.
HUMOROUS MYSTERIES: Lois Winston, J. Michael Orenduff, Rebecca (R.P.) Dalke, Marja McGraw, Susan Santangelo, Ann Charles, W.S. Gager,Chris Redding.
COZIES: Elizabeth Spann Craig, Anne K. Albert, Ron Benrey, Maggie Bishop.
AMATEUR SLEUTHS: John M. Daniel, Margaret Koch, Jacqueline King, Lou Allin, Karen E. Olson, Pat Browning, Leslie Diehl, Sunny Frazier, Jinx Schwartz.

Happy Reading!

Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com
Coming in July: THE LAST TEMPTATION, sequel to
THE END GAME

Johnny Depp - From Dark Shadows to The Ghost Ship?

"Johnny Depp to play Lawrenace Curator and his great grandson, Rod Curator, in THE GHOST SHIP!"

It's a Hollywood headline I'd love to read.

 

Those who know me know I love Johnny Depp. He's proved himself an actor of unsurpassed talent and originality. The best of our time. Examples: John Dillinger in Public Enemies; the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland; Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean; Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Willie Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And that's just a few since he first starred in Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. 

Now comes the newly released Dark Shadows, and coming next year (2013), we'll see him as Tonto in the Lone Ranger. He is evil, kind, ugly and gorgeous. (The movie actor I got giddy over last was the young William Shatner in Star Trek.)

I haven't seen Dark Shadows yet - I'm waiting to see it with family - but I've read the reviews and the disappointing box office stats. I reserve judgment, but I can't help but wonder if the critics aren't missing the concept.

The original Dark Shadows television daytime soap, which first aired in 1966, was cheesy and campy with disparate plot lines that left a viewer wondering. With over 1200 episodes, the directors attempted to bring them together in subsequent episodes, but usually they continued to defy continuity and logic. If the movie, which was released May 11, follows the same style as the TV show, then I would venture to say it was a successful revisit to Barnabas Collins and his cast of ill-assorted creatures. However, if the reviewers want a vampire movie like Breaking Dawn, that would not be Dark Shadows.

Now for Mr. Depp's roles in the movie of my novel, The Ghost Ship. His first would be that of Commander Lawrence Curator, the ghost who meets a vulnerable young woman on the beach and takes her back in time to sail on the ghost ship. His quest is to learn why the five-masted schooner was scuttled on a beach in The Graveyard of the Atlantic.

After Lawrence and Ann Gavrion experience the scuttling, Ann is left to wash ashore and meet Rod Curator, Lawrence's great grandson - the second role for Mr. Depp. Rod's a rather surly young marine biologist who has lost his wife and doesn't believe a word Ann tells him about her voyage with his great grandfather.

Perfect roles for adventurous Johnny Depp. 

About Dark Shadows, I'll report back with my own review.

Gerrie Ferris Finger

THE GHOST SHIP

WHISPERING

THE LAST TEMPTATION

THE END GAME

HONORED DAUGHTER

WHEN SERPENTS DIE

WAGON DOGS

Novellas: HEARTLESS, MERCILESS

 

The Artist and Whispering: The Year of 1920 Historicals.

I've written it before. If you loved The Artist, I guarantee you'll love Whispering.

I love historical novels and last year had published two that were set in the 1920s. I love the period because a great cultural change happened in America: World War I, then called The Great War ended, women got the vote, and that misguided law that created Prohibition and its ills - elevating gangsters to idols - went into effect only to be repealed when saner lawmakers got to Congress. These changes were reflected in the language, clothing, art and archetectural styles, to name a few, but mostly in the attitudes of young people. The Flapper Era had begun.

Whispering isn't The Artist. It's not about silent films or stars, it's a romance set on an island that reflected the cultural changes and a change or heart and mind in heroine, Cleo Snow.

It's 1921. Cleo travels with her cousin, Neill Connolly, to Sago Island, Ga. to lessen the sadness of her fiance's death in The Great War (later called World War I). He'd been missing, presumed killed in France, and his body recently returned home.

America's victory celebration is in full swing.  Cleo is poised between her Victorian raising and post-war liberal ideas. Hemlines are rising. Jargon is spicier. Songs are racier. The fox trot is the cat’s meow. Everyone smokes coffin nails. The great experiment, Prohibition, has ushered in an epoch of fascinating gangsters and illegal speakeasies. Drinking and dancing go together like bathtub gin and painted dolls.

On Sago Island Cleo meets fly-boy hero Graham Henry, the dazzling son of a steel magnate. They fall in love dancing to "Whispering", the rage song of the year. Complicating their love-at-first-sight is Shafer and Josie Drake. Shafer is Graham's cousin. He lost his liquor business and knows he's about to lose his money-loving wife, Josie.

The morning after the dance, Josie is missing. A note she purportedly wrote says she's leaving the island to get a divorce and marry Graham. Graham swears the note's a lie and that he and Josie were nothing more than "boozing" companions.

Where did Josie go and when? Did she return to New York where she once danced in the Ziegfeld Follies? No one saw her leave the island. But Cleo knows Graham had nothing to do with her disappearance because Cleo was with him in the lighthouse the night Josie vanished. Cleo vows she will never confess to making love with a man she's known only two days. But Will Graham compromise Cleo to clear himself?

Island resident, the enigmatic Doc Holliday, who is said to be related to the infamous gunslinger, is a veterinarian and a falconer. His falcon, Billy, captures Cleo’s severely crushed heart. Cleo captures Doc’s heart, but she’s reeling over her gullibility. Will he win her with his darkly sensuous charm?

Everyone on Sago, it seems, has something to hide, even villagers who distill homemade "hooch" - and it all pivots around Josie and Graham. With her spirit firmed by shame and outrage, Cleo vows to uncover the truth and thus keep her own secret.



Happy Reading
Gerrie

On sale at: http://amzn.to/vnkv7u

Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.crimewritersblog.blogspot.com

The sequel to The End Game (titled The Last Temptation) will be relased in July 2012. These novels represent my contemporary writing period, which exists alongside my historical writing period. :-D

How can someone be so HEARTLESS

FREE On Kindle May 2nd and 3rd.

Get to know Gemma Summers and the citizens of Roscommon in this novella series that features those with "less" sympathy, guts, fear, faith, sense or clues than we have.

HEARTLESS is the second in the Gemma Summers Series. MERCILESS introduced Gemma when she got promoted and headed to the north Georgia mountains and the Chattooga River to raft and celebrate her goal of becoming a Major Crime Case detective.

Her town Roscommon, a fictional place smack in the middle of Georgia close to the Oconee River, has to deal with the same problems that big cities like Atlanta do, but citizens are proud to say that cold, callous murder is rare.

But when it happens, it can happen to the best of Roscommon citizens.









Coming in August: THE LAST TEMPTATION, second in the Moriah Dru/Richard Lake Series. THE END GAME, a national award-winning novel, debuted the series.

Other Books:

THE GHOST SHIP
WHISPERING
WHEN SERPENTS DIE
HONORED DAUGHTERS
WAGON DOGS

Check them out at: http://amzn.to/nASzI0

PLATFORM SCHMATFORM

What's all this talk about platform?

I'm confused. It used to be a platform was something a non-fiction writer needed to sell a book. Think of it as an expertise. Think Dr. Spock. A pediatrician writing about raising children.   

But the last few years platform has come to mean a lot more. Not only must you be an expert on your subject, you must bring along an audience to buy the book on your expertise. You must, in other words, have guaranteed publicity. Which is why celebrities of every ilk write books. Have you become infamous, involved in a sex scandal, now everyone knows your name? Write a book, go on TV, sell a million copies. 

A few years ago, novelists didn't worry about platform. Your editor bought your book, arranged book signings, provided a little upfront money so you could hit the streets and help sell your book.

Not true today. You must have a platform to get your fiction published and that platform must be in place before a lot of editors look at your book. You must have a website, blog, do workshops, book clubs, Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, LinkedIn, every list you can think of, pester librarians and book store owners - every avenue that leads to sales. If you're young and cute, so much the better. Write a (fictional) memoir ala James Frey and his million little pieces and touch the public's heart strings. Voila! There's your platform.

Editors say they want great writing, and they do. The marketing department wants great sales. Where the twain meet is your platform. The bigger it is, the more buyers it will entice. Buyers equal audience. Audience equals publicity. Publicity equals sales.  

I must go lie down. Standing on this platform is exhausting.

Cheers,

Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com/

THE END GAME
THE LAST TEMPTATION (AUG 2012)
THE GHOST SHIP
WHISPERING
MERCILESS
HEARTLESS

ARC Giveaway - THE LAST TEMPTATION

I'm Jenny's guest, blogging about writing in general and my second in the Moriah Dru/Richard Lake series,THE LAST TEMPTATION. The first in the series is THE END GAME.

Comment and be entered to win an Advance Reader Copy.
http://www.jennymilchman.com/blog/?p=2234

Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com
http://www.crimewritersblog.blogspot.com

WHISPERING - An Island Affair

I take much pride in the book because, firstly, my granddaughter, Tori Ferris, did the cover photography. The story is set on Georgia's Cumberland Island, called Sago Island in the novel. The back of the print edition is just as gorgeous as the front cover. I predict an artful future for my lovely high-schooler.

I set the love story on Georgia's gorgeous Cumberland Island, no better place for an historical romantic mystery. The late John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his fiance Caroline were married in the little African church you'll read about in Whispering. (More about Cumberland in a later essay, but much is published on the web.)

A synopsis:

It's 1921. Cleo Snow travels with her cousin, Neill Connolly, to Sago Island, Ga. to lessen the sadness of her fiance's death in The Great War (later called World War I). He'd been missing, presumed killed in France, and his body recently returned home.

America's victory celebration is in full swing. The Flapper Era has begun. Cleo is poised between her Victorian raising and post-war liberal ideas. Women got the vote in 1920. They work – Cleo’s a nurse. Hemlines are rising. Jargon is spicier. Songs are racier. The fox trot is the cat’s meow. Everyone smokes coffin nails. The great experiment, Prohibition, has ushered in an epoch of fascinating gangsters and illegal speakeasies. Drinking and dancing go together like bathtub gin and painted dolls.

On Sago Island Cleo meets fly-boy hero Graham Henry, the dazzling son of a steel magnate. They fall in love dancing to "Whispering", the rage song of the year. Complicating their love-at-first-sight is Shafer and Josie Drake. Shafer is Graham's cousin. He lost his liquor business and knows he's about to lose his money-loving wife, Josie.

The morning after the dance, Josie is missing. A note she purportedly wrote says she's leaving the island to get a divorce and marry Graham. Graham swears the note's a lie and that he and Josie were nothing more than "boozing" companions.

Where did Josie go and when? Did she return to New York where she once danced in the Ziegfeld Follies? No one saw her leave the island. But Cleo knows Graham had nothing to do with her disappearance because Cleo was with him in the lighthouse the night Josie vanished. Cleo vows she will never confess to making love with a man she's known only two days. But Will Graham compromise Cleo to clear himself?

Island resident, the enigmatic Doc Holliday, who is said to be related to the infamous gunslinger, is a veterinarian and a falconer. His falcon, Billy, captures Cleo’s severely crushed heart. Cleo captures Doc’s heart, but she’s reeling over her gullibility. Will he win her with his darkly sensuous charm?

Everyone on Sago, it seems, has something to hide, even villagers who distill homemade "hooch" - and it all pivots around Josie and Graham. With her spirit firmed by shame and outrage, Cleo vows to uncover the truth and thus keep her own secret.

Note:
After writing The Ghost Ship, partially set in the early 1920s, I'm calling this my historical writing period. The sequel to The End Game (titled The Last Temptation) will be relased in July 2012. These novels represent my contemporary writing period, which exists alongside my historical writing period. :-D

Happy Reading
Gerrie

On sale at: http://amzn.to/vnkv7u

Gerrie Ferris Finger
http://www.crimewritersblog.blogspot.com

WHISPERING - a Night Owl Top Reviewer Pick

WHISPERING
Night Owl Reviews
http://amzn.to/scXRp0

Score: 4.50 / 5 - Reviewer Top Pick

I love reading historical romance and mysteries set in the past, but I have never had a story so utterly transport me to another time and place as Gerrie Ferris Finger's WHISPERING.

The author manages to perfectly capture a sense of the past, in this case the 1920s, by writing with careful attention to the language the characters use, the descriptions of their clothing and the historical events that impact them, such as the effect of World War I.

In the story, interesting and independent heroine Cleo Snow travels with her cousin to Sago Island, Georgia. The trip is meant to be a vacation of sorts from her work as a nurse and a chance to get past the grief she feels over losing her fiance in The Great War

Upon arriving at the palatial home of her cousin's friend, Graham Henry, Cleo is struck with an instant attraction to the smooth-talking former fly boy. When a woman disappears from the island, claiming she'd been having an affair with Graham, Cleo sets about to solve the mystery of the woman's disappearance. Island resident, vet and falconer Doc Holliday, is another source of attraction and a bit of mystery for Cleo.


Cleo is an utterly charming heroine, intelligent and curious about every new experience. She comes to the island with personal wounds, but a cunning and perceptive eye that helps her to discover the secrets of its residents. Most impressive, after great loss, she has the courage to risk her heart again. The ending of the story gives me hope that there are more Cleo Snow stories to come, and I can't wait. WHISPERING is the perfect blend of romance, suspense and a vivid historical setting.

Jan 26, 2012

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Reviews/Christy-Carlyle-reviews-Whispering-by-Gerrie-Ferris-Finger.aspx

Happy Reading,

Christy Carlyle

The Night Owl Reviews Team
WEtap Media, LLC
2459 SE TV HWY, #153
Hillsboro, Oregon 97123
http://www.nightowlreviews.com

http://amzn.to/scXRp0

THE GHOST SHIP - Blending history and fiction

A Review of:

The Ghost Ship
Author: Gerrie Ferris Finger

Reviewer: Paul Kendall - K3Book - U.K.

The ghost ship is The Carroll A Deering it was lost in 1921. What happened to her crew? Nobody knows. Woo, spooky, The wild Atlantic coast of the United States, North Carolina is where the ship went down and the book really does take you there.

You can hear the sea birds, you can smell sea air, you feel like you are walking down a wild wind swept beach, as the words of the kindle text to speech, appear in your head. This book is well written.

Ann Gavrion is the main character, At first, Ann seems to be a stereotypical superstitious type with a liking for gin and tonic. I thought hello, she has had a few too many (poor girl) and is seeing ghosts. we have all done it, (if we are honest), I used to see visions of Dolly Parton singing 9 to 5 at the end of my bed after a heavy nights drinking.

Anyway, then you the reader are captured by the story. Ann, as it turns out is just the opposite of what you first thought, she is not this irrational superstitious mystic, because she is not just "seeing things".

The ghost are usually in the head of the beholder, but not in this story. I don't know why, but this aspect of the book came as a bit of a surprise, a real punch in the kisser.

There is more than a hint of science in the book, the answer to the ghostly goings on? Well I am not sure about that, but may be… it's interesting. That's all I want to say, read the book to see what I mean.

If anyone asks me about the secret of this book, I grab ahold of their arm and say (in a dramatic fashion), "we don't like to talk about it round hear, OK".

The book is full of brilliant characters all very memorable. Mr and Mrs Sweeny were my favourites. But the author has also built a light house in our imagination, we see and feel the spirit of the wild Atlantic coast, the ghost ship, the bar, the guest house, the media following, Ann around like those storm chasers, it all works.

The book is a good read, it's gripping and very enjoyable. The whales beaching. (my theory is they don't want to drown, so they commit suicide by beaching themselves on land). May be desperate men in storms do the same ? The book is full of thought provoking events and encounters and theories. The history of that coast line, the storms, the names and places are all well researched. Take the place name Cape Fear for instance, (mentioned in the book), whoever named it cape fear was more than hinting at the legions of dead sailors who had encountered a horrific death there over the years. That's partly what the book is all about, lost souls that come back to haunt the living? Come back from where is the secret that I dare not tell you,, woo, spooky. Err well.. Yes it is actually.

The book has a lot of bread crumbs left around for the reader to follow, as I have said, some interesting historic references, some clues for the detectives to enjoy, some sex, some romance but not too much. Throw in the Bermuda triangle, whales, birds, a cat with six toes, the media, the ghost ship, small boats, a lighthouse and a cast of great characters, then you have it. So slug back a gin and tonic and enjoy. (Remember if you want to splice the main brace you will need some Rum for that). It's not just salty old sea dogs who will like this book (the 2 million people with boats in Europe, Australia and North America) I think the market for this book is of course much wider.

The book is highly recommended. 
Paul Kendall Leeds, UK

Print edition now available: http://amzn.to/v47bAo

Kindle ebook: http://amzn.to/r3imp5

Read and enjoy!

Gerrie Ferris Finger

http://www.gerrieferrisfinger.com