Posts Tagged ‘suspense/thriller’

I’m a huge fan of short stories and collections. And I enjoy Suspense Thrillers.

Check out Seven Threads.

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

But first, enjoy this interview with Author Jason Atkinson.

Q: There are plenty of fiction books out there, what makes yours so special?

A: I realize that in this great big world that there are those that read a lot, and those that only read small portions. This book stands apart because it fits both audiences. My book of short stories is split into parts. Each story has parts that make up the entire story. If a reader wishes to read an entire story at once, they can. If another reader wants to digest smaller sections without getting lost – they can! It’s great.

Plus, my stories are just fun to read and have twists and turns all their own. Each story is unique so you are bound to find a few favorites to read over and over again.

 

Q: What made you choose these stories to write about?

A: Honestly, I didn’t have a plan going into this. It was all about what hit me at that moment. The only thing I knew for sure was to make sure I was true to myself in the process and made sure I would have stories that reflected possible life circumstances with the opportunity for human kind to ring through in the way it should be remembered – good, kind hearted souls that want to see empathy, not cruelty win.

 

Q: Do you snack while writing?

A: Typically I do not. I try to stay zoned in as much as possible, although I do love my snacks and often find myself grazing as soon as I am done with a writing session!

 

Q: Have you ever started writing and then just decided to throw it away?

A: Yes and no. I have begun stories and part way through realized that my heart isn’t in it, so I stop. I don’t throw it away though as I may find myself needing it again one day. But as mentioned, I certainly have found myself second guessing and just moving away from a story. If I have to force it work, then it’s probably not coming from me. I want pure, honest stories.

 

Q: Do you have a profession besides writing?

A: I do, amazingly publishing books isn’t a get rich quick type of deal! I actually have a career in Operations with a company based out of California, even though I am located in Iowa. I get to work from home and sometimes travel to work with different clients, and because of that I can soak in the new surroundings that I encounter and apply them to my imagination when writing stories for people like you.

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Book Details:

Book Title: Seven Threads: A Book of Short Stories
Author: Jason Atkinson
Category: Adult Fiction, 151 pages
Genre: Thriller and Suspense
Publisher: Mascot Books
Release date: July 4 , 2017
Tour dates: July 10 to 28, 2017
Content Rating: PG

Book Description:

In this collection of seven short stories from Jason Atkinson, follow a man accused of murder, a runaway girl on a train, a scientist at the heart of a government conspiracy, and more! Full of twists and turns, Seven Threads offers a selection of fast-paced stories full of heart and excitement.

Buy the Book:

 

 
 
Meet the Author:


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Jason Atkinson lives in the Midwest with his wife and son. With a love of writing, this is his 3rd book, but first book in the fiction category. Short stories are easy to digest, and yet, this book still provides all the joys for the long haul reader. Jason write for everyone in mind when creating this piece and hopes you will enjoy it as much as he did when writing it.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Facebook

Enter the Giveaway!
Ends Aug 5th.

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Title: The Kept Woman
Author: Karin Slaughter
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Format: Ebook/Paperback/Hardcover/Audio
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My Review

The title and cover art for this book had me curious how it pertained to the story inside. i was hopeful the author tied it in. She sure did. As with the other books in this series, Karin delivers plenty of twists and surprises to keep the pages turning.

The character’s continue to grow. Although a few grow laterally instead of forward. I could just kick Will. Will he ever boot Angie to the curb? He’s in love with Sara, but how long will she put up with that woman toying with their lives?

Sara is my favorite character. She’s been through so much and still manages to see something good in people. Figures Angie has to torment her, and in some really sick ways.

About Angie. She’s as much a twist as ever. She has a moment or two where the opportunity to be somewhat human comes along. I think she fails miserably.

There’s all the mystery, suspense, and thrills you can take in this book. As I’d hoped, Karin delivered a convoluted path to the end. Gotta tell ya, though. This is not the end.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

Husbands and wives. Mothers and daughters. The past and the future.

Secrets bind them. And secrets can destroy them.

The author of Pretty Girls returns with an electrifying, emotionally complex thriller that plunges its fascinating protagonist into the darkest depths of a mystery that just might destroy him.

With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.

Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn’t belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished . . . and who will die soon if she isn’t found.

Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away.

But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case . . . and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

Relentlessly suspenseful and furiously paced, peopled with conflicted, fallible characters who leap from the page, The Kept Woman is a seamless blend of twisty police procedural and ingenious psychological thriller — a searing, unforgettable novel of love, loss, and redemption.

 

Author Karin Slaughter
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Karin Slaughter is the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the Will Trent and Grant County series and the instant New York Times bestselling standalones, Cop Town and Pretty Girls. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print around the world.

Visit her at http://www.karinslaughter.com

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Follow The Tour

 Monday, September 19 – Book featured at A Title Wave
Tuesday, September 20 – Book featured at The Writer’s Life
Wednesday, September 21 – Book reviewed at The Bookworm Lodge
Thursday, September 22 – Book featured at The Dark Phantom
Friday, September 23 – Book featured at Voodoo Princess
________
Monday, September 26 – Book reviewed at Cover2Cover
Tuesday, September 27 – Book featured at As the Page Turns
Wednesday, September 28 – Book featured at The Literary Nook
Thursday, September 29 – Book featured at From Paperback to Leatherbound
Friday, September 30 – Book reviewed at Doing Some Reading
________
Monday, October 3 – Book reviewed at fuonlyknew
Tuesday, October 4 – Book featured at The Review From Here
Wednesday, October 5 – Book reviewed at The World As I See It
Thursday, October 6 – Book reviewed at Polished Bookworm
Friday, October 7 – Book reviewed at Chick with Books
________
Monday, October 10 – Book reviewed at Shelley’s Book Case
Tuesday, October 11 – Book reviewed at I’m Shelf-ish
Wednesday, October 12 – Book reviewed at Fundinmental
Thursday, October 13 – Book reviewed at Cheekypee Reads and Reviews
Book reviewed at Deal Sharing Aunt
Friday, October 14 – Book reviewed at A Word at a Time
________
Monday, October 17 – Book reviewed at Svetlana’s Reads and Reviews
Tuesday, October 18 – Book reviewed at Art, Books and Coffee
Wednesday, October 19 – Book reviewed at Authors and Readers Book Corner
Thursday, October 20 – Book reviewed at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews
Book reviewed at Freda’s Voice
Friday, October 21 – Book reviewed at Why Girls are Weird
Book reviewed at The Book Tree
Book reviewed at Nay’s Pink Bookshelf
Book reviewed at True Book Addict

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Partners In Crime Tours

I’ve read several of Wendy’s books and she’s always given me mysteries not easily solved and thrills to keep me awake.

And so it goes with….

Blue Moon

by Wendy Corsi Staub

Genre: Thrillers, Suspense
Published by: William Morrow, Mass Market
Publication Date: July 26th 2016
Number of Pages: 448
ISBN: 0062349759 (ISBN13: 9780062349750)
Series: Mundy’s Landing #2

My Review

Chaos descends on Mundy’s Landing.

Annabelle starts to wonder if buying one of the notorious Murder houses was such a good idea. Sure, it was cheap, but with a socially challenged son and all of the lookie loos gathering outside, it’s not such a good deal.

One hundred years ago, three young girls, the Sleeping beauties, were murdered. Their bodies dressed in white nightgowns, arms crossed, and left in three different houses. They didn’t live in them. In fact, their identities were never discovered. And their deaths remain unsolved.

Now, the town overflows as people from all over crowd the streets during Mundypalooza, the 100th anniversary of the murders, hoping to solve the crime and win the large reward.

When Annabelle spies a stranger lurking in her back yard, she’s hesitant to report it as she fears the police will brush it off as just another snoop. Perhaps they’re right. But what if they’re not?

Told from several different perspectives, this was a chilling mystery and not easily solved. I had no idea who the killer was, past or present, until the author revealed it.

How Wendy told the story was a good choice, giving us insights from the killer of a hundred years ago through his diary entries, thoughts from the present copycat killer, and the desperate sleuthing of Annabelle.

Sure keeps you guessing as you flip through the pages. I watch a lot of crime shows and Criminal Minds came to mind while I read this. I used it to visualize scenes and that made it especially creepy.

Good stuff for mystery, suspense, and thriller readers. Wendy never fails to get your heart pumping and your body jumping at those strange noises outside.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub returns to Mundy’s Landing—a small town where bygone bloodshed has become big business.
Hair neatly braided, hands serenely clasped, eyes closed, the young woman appeared to be sound asleep. But the peaceful tableau was a madman’s handiwork. Beneath the covers, her white nightgown was spattered with blood. At daybreak, a horrified family would discover her corpse tucked into their guest room. The cunning killer would strike again . . . and again . . . before vanishing into the mists of time.

A century ago, the Sleeping Beauty Murders terrified picturesque Mundy’s Landing. The victims, like the killer, were never identified. Now, on the hundredth anniversary, the Historical Society’s annual “Mundypalooza” offers a hefty reward for solving the notorious case.

Annabelle Bingham, living in one of the three Murder Houses, can’t escape the feeling that her family is being watched—and not just by news crews and amateur sleuths. She’s right. Having unearthed the startling truth behind the horrific crimes, a copycat killer is about to reenact them—beneath the mansard roof of Annabelle’s dream home . . .

Purchase Links:

Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Goodreads

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Author Wendy Corsi Staub

Wendy Corsi Staub

USA Today and New York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub is the award-winning author of more than seventy novels and has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in the New York City suburbs with her husband and their two children.

 Catch Up:

Website

Twitter / Facebook

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Click here to view the ‘The Veritas Deception by Lynne Constantine’ Tour Participants

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That Which Maddens and Torments banner

Title: That Which Maddens and Torments
Author: Christopher Keating
Publisher: Christopher Keating
Pages: 274
Genre: Suspense/Thriller

That Which Maddens and Torments cover

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My Review

This is tagged as a suspense. thriller and that’s exactly what it is.

Josephine Back, a reporter who’s focus is on science and climate change, comes under attack by some very powerful corporations.

Global warming is a touchy subject and many in the fossil fuel business don’t want it to be legitimized. Big brother at work again.

She finds an unlikely ally in Bennett Mills. As they probe behind the red tape, they stumble into dangerous waters. Soon, they are in a race to expose those behind horrific events before they are silenced, permanently.

Right from the beginning, the story intrigues you. The suspense builds slowly, leading you into the many pots and subplots. As the action builds, so does the thrills.

I was particularly drawn to this story because of the topic of climate change. It’s being argued that mere humans can’t affect the globe. That global warming is a scare tactic by radical and those with their own agendas.

I feel differently. Do the research. Explore the information that’s out there. I can’t see how we’re not affecting this planet.

While the plot was serious, it did have some humorous scenes. I guess I’m a bit macabre. There were two scenes where what started as scare tactics turned into tragedy. The two interrogators made me think of the movie Fargo. If anything could go wrong, it did.

You’ll feel this author’s passion about climate change, experience reporting from the inside with Jo, enjoy the dialogue between Bennett and Jo and there burgeoning romance, and cross your fingers that they emerge safely and all of the bad guys get their just desserts.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

With the encouragement of her uncle, a retired professor of geophysics, Josephine Black, a recent college graduate, begins reporting on the issue of climate change for a major New York City newspaper. She quickly discovers that she has a passion for the subject and a talent for investigative journalism.

It’s not long before Jo’s hard-hitting articles are being noticed. However, leaders within the powerful fossil fuel industry don’t like what they are reading. They believe that the information in Jo’s articles could threaten their profits eventually, and they are also concerned that Jo will uncover a scientific report written by a friend of her uncle’s that proves the truth about global warming. The industry’s leaders are ruthless and are willing to stop at nothing to silence Jo and protect their profits.

Soon, Jo finds herself caught up in a very dangerous high stakes “cat and mouse game” related to the climate change debate. A game that combines politics and policy brokering at the highest levels of government with criminality. However, Jo is determined to outwit her ruthless enemies no matter what it takes.

Full of twists and turns, That Which Maddens and Torments is an entertaining, page-turning read. However, it also provides readers with insights into the debate surrounding the issue of global warming and helps to explain the motivation behind many of the global warming skeptics or deniers we read about or see on TV.

For More Information

  • That Which Maddens and Torments is available at Amazon.
  • Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
  • Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

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Book Excerpt:

Introduction

They hadn’t hurt him. In fact, they had treated him quite well. That didn’t really change things, though. They were waiting for him in the apartment when he arrived and forced him to sit at the table. One of them sat with him while the other searched the apartment.

“Are you comfortable, Dr. Chriswald? Can I get you something to drink? Maybe something to eat?”

The old man shook his head.

“Why are you still in my apartment? I answered all of your questions. I don’t know anything about this report you keep asking me about.”

“Please, professor. Don’t lie to me. We know that you had the report. Just give it to us or tell us where we can find it and we’ll leave. No one is going to hurt you, but I must know where to find that report. You’re an old man and it wouldn’t take me long to force it out of you, but I don’t want to do that. Tell me what I want to know and we’ll be on our way.”

He was an intimidating figure. He wasn’t large or muscular, but there was a look about him that made you think this was someone to avoid, someone that would make you cross the street so you didn’t have to walk by him.

He was sitting at the table with professor when his accomplice came in.

“I can’t find anything. It’s not here.”

The professor’s questioner looked at him and said, “We’re going to have to do this the hard way. You are not going to like this. But, don’t worry; you’ll give in quickly enough.”

He was surprised at how fast the old professor could move and was caught off guard. Before he could do anything Chriswald jumped up from his chair was racing across the room – not towards the locked door, but to the window behind him. Without uttering a sound he went head first through the window.

The second man started to run after him before the first man stopped him.

“No! Someone might see you. Its five stories to the sidewalk. He’s done.”

“Oh, man! This place is going to be crawling with people. We need to get out of here.”

Seth Kern agreed. He could already hear the screams outside.

“Did you leave any evidence?”

“No. I was careful.”

Kern calmly nodded his head, “Good. Did he have some kind of list of contacts? He knew he would be forced to talk and he was willing to die instead. That means he had some secret he didn’t want to tell us. My guess is he did something with the report. He might have sent it to someone he knows for safe keeping.”

“Yeah, I saw an address book. I’ll get it.”

They took the address book and quickly let themselves out, leaving the building before anyone had a chance to see them. The clamor out front helped cover their escape. People were looking to see what the fuss was all about and weren’t in the hallway.

Once clear of the building Conrad Holiday asked, “Did you mean it? Were you going to just let him go?”

“Sure. I wasn’t paid to kill him, just to recover the report, and a dead body always results in an investigation. Besides, what was he going to do? Tell people about the report? Even if he did talk, people would have ignored him. It would have been just another crazy conspiracy theory with no proof or evidence. No, he wasn’t a threat to us.”

He wasn’t concerned about the dead professor. They had been careful breaking in and had made sure to not leave any evidence of their presence as they searched the apartment. He had no idea what kind of explanation the police would come up with, but he was sure it wouldn’t involve the two of them.

He was more concerned with what to tell his client. The professor was dead and the only lead they had was an address book. But, he had been in bad situations before and he would explain it somehow. Besides, he knew his client wanted that report too badly. He would let some things slide, as long as Kern was making progress.

“I wonder. If he had the report, why didn’t he take it to the press?”

Holiday shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe he was trying some blackmail?”

Kern shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything like that. Besides, the people involved would have just paid and moved on. It would be pocket change to them. No, I have a feeling there is more to this than we know about.”

With a sigh he pulled out the address book and began looking through it.

“Hopefully, one of these people knows something,” he thought.

About the Author

Christopher Keating

Chris Keating had his first story published when he was just seven years old and in second grade. He has been writing both fiction and nonfiction ever since.

He wrote his first book, Dialogues on 2012: Why the World Will Not End, while he was a professor of physics at the U.S Naval Academy. He was inspired to write it because of continually being questioned on all walks of life about the myth the world was going to end on December 21, 2012 according to the Mayan calendar.

After the world didn’t end, Chris decided to tackle the controversial topic of climate change by writing Undeniable! Dialogues on Global Warming, which was published in 2014. He also began the online Global Warming Skeptic Challenge, offering $10,000 to the first person who could prove the fallacy of global warming. His challenge quickly went viral and Chris spent his entire summer that year responding to submissions. He later published a compilation of the submissions and his responses, which can be purchased at Amazon.com or downloaded as a free PDF at ChrisKeatingAuthor.com. Chris also writes the blog, Dialogues on Global Warming, which is devoted to climate change issues.

Chris most recent book is the thriller, That Which Maddens and Torments. It pits an ambitious, hard-hitting young newspaper journalist writing about global warming against villainous denier lobbyists in Washington, D.C., who are working for the fossil fuel industry. At the behest of their clients, the lobbyists will stop at nothing to protect the industry’s profits and to ensure that a scientific study proving the truth of global warming does not become public. Chris hopes that by tackling the issue of global warming via a work of fiction, he will engage a broader cross section of people in the issue.

After successful careers as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy and the Navy Reserve and then as a professor of physics, Chris now lives in the Texas Hill Country, where he continues to focus on climate change research and to write.

For More Information

  • Visit Christopher Keating’s website.
  • Connect with Christopher on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Find out more about Christopher at Goodreads.
  • Visit Christopher’s blog.

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Until the next time…..

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

Island Bluffs banner

Title: Island Bluffs
Author: Alan A. Winter
Publisher: KBPublishing
Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Format: Kindle/Paperback

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My Review

You’d never know it by the lovely cover, but this is a story that delves into the dark side.

And the title is an excellent choice as it can be construed different ways in the book.

Carly can’t conceive and she’s desperate to carry and deliver a child. She and her husband Gabe go above and beyond to have their baby, seeking help from a fertility specialist.

The doctor is supposed to work miracles and he does. Carly is now in her third trimester and it’s time to move.

When they first met with the doctor, he had some peculiar ideas. One deal breaker was, they had to move somewhere during the last trimester that was within a 30 minute drive of the clinic.

The other thing, the strange thing, is Carly must carry two embryos. One is from her and Gabe, the other is unknown. She will never see this other child. It belongs to the doctor.

Gabe is a boat nut. He never passes up a chance to be on the water. One day he spies a house on the peninsula of Island Bluffs. He’s inexplicably drawn to it. Despite Carly’s misgivings about the long empty and fixer upper, they buy it and move in.

So many angles in this book.

The strange doctor with his odd stipulations and deeply troubled past. What’s with the children? Why does he only want boys? My mind played havoc with the scenarios.

Megan, Gabe’s 17 year old daughter from his previous marriage. She’s still not over her mothers death and she’s playing the role of step-mother hate to the hilt. I had hopes she’d come around to Carly eventually. And her adoration and respect for her grandfather, Yehuda, is heartwarming.

You’ll like Yehuda. He’s a survivor of the holocaust, yet still sees good in people. He forms a friendship with Buck, the local eccentric and handy man. I loved their friendship.

Buck has his own story that ties into Carly and Gabe’s new house. Can’t tell you why though. Buck went off to war and had to leave his true love many years ago. When he returned he learned she’d gone missing and was never found. To this day, he still loves and misses her, and the police keep her yellowed missing poster up at the station in deference to him.

Then the house has a story. One that will surprise and chill you. Music is heard in the house when there’s no radio on. Voices are heard in the walls.

The town of Island Bluffs is shrouded in mystery. The people that live there are insular. They take time to warm up and accept the new family. And they keep many secrets.

This sounds like a horror thriller doesn’t it? You could call it that. But there’s mysteries in mysteries, darkness and light, and some very surprising revelations.

I was drawn in quickly and felt a connection to the characters. They each had their own flaws, which made them more genuine. I like strong characters and found plenty in this story.

Set aside some reading time when you start this. You won’t want any interruptions.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

Island Bluffs is a story of love, forgiveness, and understanding the dark side of the human spirit. It explores the age-old question: are children accountable for the sins of their parents and grandparents?

Carly Mason is a successful New York City forensic dentist. She and her widower husband, Gabe Berk, are trying to start a family. Thinking they had exhausted the options by consulting with all of Manhattan’s fertility experts, Carly and Gabe learn of an eccentric scientist who runs an exclusive clinic.

The doctor commits to helping the couple conceive the baby they so desperately want, but only if they agree to what seems like an outrageous stipulation; Carly must carry twins, one biological and one that she is a surrogate for. Once the twins are born Carly has to surrender the non-biological twin to the doctor at birth, no questions asked. Further, should the old doctor die before Carly gives birth, she has to agree to give the baby the name chosen by the doctor.

As required for treatment, Carly and Gabe move into a new house, which is within thirty minutes of the clinic. They soon discover that their new home and town, Island Bluffs, are far from ordinary. Carly and Gabe feel eyes spying on them at every turn. Gabe’s father, Yehuda, hears strange noises that only he can hear. Megan, Gabe’s rebellious sixteen-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, is attracted to the son of a Neo-Nazi.

The mysteries continue to deepen as a scavenger ship appears on nearby waters searching for sunken treasure along with glimpses of a lone swimmer lumbering through the waves of Barnegat Bay. Island Bluffs is a present-day town bound to the past by horrible secrets and pacts made long ago. Keeping secrets buried as some had hoped was no longer an option for the Berks. Their new and some thought long-forgotten home made that impossible by putting them squarely in the middle of it all. When the truths are revealed, the shocking twists and turns will challenge the very notions of what is right and wrong.

Purchase Links

Amazon / B&N

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Author Alan A. Winter

Alan Winter

At first blush, Alan is quick to say that he never intended to be a writer. But when he thinks about it, he’s been writing in one form or another, for his entire adult life. In college, he wrote paper after paper for his history and literature courses. Professionally, he edited a dental journal and wrote more than twenty
scientific papers. That still doesn’t explain how a dentist came to write fiction!

It started in 1982 when Alan made small talk with a patient about a sci-fi idea he had. She thought the idea was so terrific, she urged him to write a movie treatment about it. Alan dismissed her offhand. What did he know about writing movies?

The patient persisted. Each time she would visit his office, she would demand to see the finished movie treatment. Seeing she was serious and relentless, Alan agreed to hand her a treatment. But how? He had no clue where to start. Asking other patients for guidance, Alan was introduced to a young screenwriter who agreed – for a fee – to write the treatment. They worked together, produced a treatment, and shopped it around to a number of studios. One studio took the idea (without permission or payment) and turned Alan’s treatment into a movie.

Alan experienced two revelations at the time:

  1. Rather than waste energy being litigious, be flattered that a studio felt Alan’s idea was worthy of turning it into a movie. Knowing a stranger valued his creativity supported all of his future projects.
  2. 2. Collaborating with the screenwriter gave Alan the validation he needed that if and when he chose to write a book, it wouldn’t be foolhardy…not that it really mattered what others thought!

3. Still, Alan had no desire to write fiction. That changed in 1985. That was the year that Alan began writing his first novel, “Someone Else’s Son,” which was eventually published by MasterMedia, Ltd.

What prompted Alan to write “Someone Else’s Son” is a story in itself. When Alan completed his periodontal training at Columbia, he joined a prestigious Fifth Avenue periodontal practice. Day after day, the well-to-do, prominent patients asked Alan if he was old enough to be a dentist. (He looked that much younger than the two senior partners). Trying to convince the patients that he was old enough to be a dentist and, therefore, experienced enough to treat them, Alan put his two sons’ pictures on the treatment room wall. When his third son was born, he added that one, too. Every few months, he updated the photos.

But a curious thing happened on a daily basis. The patients kept asking why Alan had pictures of children on the wall. When he replied, “They’re not just any children; those are my sons,” no one believed him. They claimed the boys looked too dissimilar to be brothers. They joked that he must have taken the wrong one home from the hospital. Though this was not the case (at least he didn’t think so), Alan wondered what he would’ve done had he discovered, years later, that he and his wife had brought the wrong child home from the hospital. The result was “Someone Else’s Son.”

While maintaining his periodontal practice, Alan has continued to write since he first took up pen to paper, although now he is very appreciative that his mother forced him to take typing in summer school after his sophomore year of high school. Boys just didn’t do that back in the ’60s, but it has been an invaluable skill over the years.

In 1999, “Snowflakes in the Sahara” was published by iUniverse. “Savior’s Day,” also published by iUniverse, was published in 2013 to critical acclaim. It was selected by Kirkus Reviews as a Best Book of 2013.

“Island Bluffs,” Alan’s newest novel, is published by KB Publishing to excellent reviews. He is at work on his next novel, “The Legacy of Izaak Wolf,” about an adolescent with Asperger’s Syndrome achieves the near impossible to save his family from a surefire calamity.

Alan and Lori live in his native New Jersey. They have five children and five grandchildren.

For More Information

Visit Alan’s website.

Twitter / Facebook

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Follow the tour

July 6

Book featured at Undercover Book Reviews

July 7

Book featured at My Life, Loves and Passions

July 8

Book featured at The Literary Nook

July 9

Interviewed at The Writer’s Life

July 13

Interviewed at C.A. Milson

July 14

Guest blogging at Mythical Books

July 15

Book featured at Mary’s Cup of Tea

July 16

Guest blogging at Mom with a Kindle

July 17

Interviewed at Review from Here

July 20

Book featured at Chosen by You Book Club

July 21

Interviewed at As the Page Turns

July 22

Book featured at Confessions of a Reader

July 23

Interviewed at I’m Shelf-ish

July 24

Book featured at Celticlady’s Reviews

July 27

Guest blogging at Bent Over Bookwords

July 28

Book featured at Voodoo Princess

July 29

Book reviewed at FUOnlyKnew

July 30

Book reviewed at A Room Without Books is Empty

July 31

Book featured at Lover of Literature

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Until the next time…..

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

Welcome to The Friday 56 hosted by Freda’s Voice.

 

This is a really fun meme!

The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!

My 56 for this week is from

Shadow Of Danger

The CORE Shadow Trilogy #1

by Kristine Mason

25361209

 

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My 56

“We found the first body here.” Roy pointed toward the first area sectioned off by police tape and approximately twenty feet from the road. “The other three were found deeper in the woods. Lying nearly side by side.”

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My Review

There’s nothing like a good suspense thriller to get the old endorphins pumping and Kristine delivers. I read this some time ago and recently realized I’d not written a review. I reread this in one night and it’s just as exciting the second time around.

Celeste Risinski is a clairvoyant. It’s not something she wants. It just is. She’d be perfectly happy to skip the horrific visions and nightmares that jolt her, screaming, from her sleep.

She senses something different about these dreams. A deeper, more personal connection.

The sheriff calls on an old friend from CORE,  a private investigation agency, to assist and apprehend the killer before he kills again. Ian, as owner, distances himself from Celeste because of a mysterious family history, and sends John Kain, an FBI agent, to help with the investigation.

That’s about all I can tell you without spoilers.

Let’s get to the good stuff.

The characters. The two main ones are Celeste and John.

John is wounded and bitter. He needs this case to get him back in the game. What he doesn’t need is some chick who thinks she has visions.

Celeste is learning to better control her visions. To interpret and use them more efficiently. This also paints a target on her back. What she doesn’t need is some sexy know it all FBI guy scoffing at her. Brushing aside her visions as ridiculous.

So you see what’s coming, don’t ya? Yep. These two meet. Sparks ignite. Even though they don’t much care about each other when they first meet, the chemistry is firing on both burners.

I had as much fun following this reluctant yet burning romance as I did with the murder investigation.

About that. Kristine leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for you to follow. The opening scenes are about a murder. But that doesn’t reveal who’s doing it or why.

Trying to solve the crime is like following a trail. It moves forward, sidesteps, backtracks to cover it’s steps, and jumps forward again.

There are some strong secondary characters that I’m sure will have larger roles in other books in this series. And there are some surprises and a huge secret that will be revealed.

Looking for something to keep you up into the wee hours, reluctant to stop until you reach the end? This oughta do it!

5 Stars

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Synopsis

Four women have been found dead in the outskirts of a small Wisconsin town. The only witness, clairvoyant Celeste Risinski, observes these brutal murders through violent nightmares and hellish visions. The local sheriff, who believes in Celeste’s abilities and wants to rid their peaceful community of a killer, enlists the help of an old friend, Ian Scott, owner of a private criminal investigation agency, CORE. Because of Ian’s dark history with Celeste’s family, a history she knows nothing about, he sends his top criminalist, former FBI agent John Kain to investigate. John doesn’t believe in Celeste’s mystic hocus-pocus, or in her visions of the murders. But just when he’s certain they’ve solved the crimes, with the use of science and evidence, more dead bodies are discovered. Could this somehow be the work of the same killer or were they dealing with a copycat? To catch a vicious murderer, the skeptical criminalist reluctantly turns to the sensual psychic for help. Yet with each step closer to finding the killer, John finds himself one step closer to losing his heart.

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

Leave your link and I’ll drop by your 56.

Welcome to The Friday 56 hosted by Freda’s Voice.

 

This is a really fun meme!

The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!

My 56 for this week is from

Terror Never Sleeps

Jack Gunn #2

by Richard Blomberg

24018697

 

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My 56

I actually used page 55 since page 56 was the end of the chapter and only had one sentence.

He disappeared into the dark, screaming, until they heard a splash forty feet below.

Nina screamed hysterically as she scrambled to her bare feet and tried to run to the rail. Only, she made it about ten feet before her leash snapped tight and knocked her to the deck again…”Please let me go. I want to jump. I have to jump. You win.”

Last week I shared the first books in this series, Warpath. It’s getting even more intense in this one.

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Synopsis

Navy SEAL Jack Gunn’s life is turned upside down when terrorists kidnap his family and disappear without a trace. While Jack and his team search frantically for clues in Virginia, half-way around the world, his wife, Nina struggles to survive the terrorist’s daily persecutions.

Terror Never Sleeps is a sizzling tale of Nina’s transformation into a warrior who is fighting for her life, and Jack’s relentless pursuit of the terrorists from Timbuktu to Diego Garcia to Pakistan. A military coup, propaganda, dirty bombs, and the launch of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal with one target—Israel—is all part of the terrorist’s master plan, who are hellbent on blowing the world back to the eighth century. The non-stop action keeps the reader constantly off balance with the bizarre and unexpected.

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

Leave your link and I’ll drop by your 56.

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Ribbons of Death banner

I enjoy a good suspense thriller and Ribbons Of Death sounds exciting.

Science, myth, and legend clash.

Is the curse real? Can it be explained away? Are they doomed?

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Ribbons of Death 2

 

Title: Ribbons of Death
Author: Edita A. Petrick
Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Pages: 371
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Format: Paperback/Kindle

The ancients believed that once in a Blue Moon a child with Peacetaker powers is born. Such child, when grown to maturity, can seed murderous madness in people’s minds by merely walking amongst them. A simple amulet activates the Peacetaker’s powers. When a horribly scarred man knocks on the door of Stella Hunter’s ramshackle cottage in upstate Montana, she lets him in. What’s there to lose? The book critics killed her chances to warn the world about myths and legends behind the myths and legends.

But once the man pushes a book smudged with bloody fingerprints across the table, Stella sees a glimmer of hope. She may re-establish her credibility within the scientific community and vindicate her ‘peace-taker’ theory. She may also be murdered by anyone standing next to her if her theory is correct because the ancient curse is anything but extinct. In fact, the ancient curse has a new attitude….

Ribbons of Death is available at Amazon.

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About Author Adita A. Petrick

By profession, I’m an engineer and ten years ago, I left a corporate job to concentrate on writing. It was perhaps the scariest thing I’ve done. Of course, there were other considerations at the time, life, kids, economy and my mother who was battling cancer. I wrote as means of staying grounded because I had to hold it together. There was no one else to pitch in. There wasn’t a single moment that I didn’t have doubts about whether what I was doing was the right thing or not, but doubts come and go, while the need to write goes on forever. Since 2005 I’ve published 5 books and this year alone I have 6 new ones coming out. I live in Toronto with my family and our two pets – wheaten terriers. And whenever I’m tempted to look back, and start second-guessing my past decisions, I sit behind the computer and start another book. At least for me, that’s a cure-all.

Website ~ Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

iRead Book Tour Logo Medium

I usually shy away from books that deal with true life evil like the sex trade. Something about the characters described in the synopsis drew me to this one and I’m glad I read it.

I hope you enjoy my review of and give this book a read.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

You can be one of ten lucky winners of a copy of The Scwarzschild Radius in print or eBook.

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My Review

I was hesitant to read this story when I read what the topic was about.

Exploiting young people for sex is prevalent in our society today. The research for this story must have been dark indeed and gave cause to many nightmares.

Evil men. Men of influence and power. Men that think being wealthy gives them license to buy whatever they want. That’s what prowls these pages, preying on the weak, the lost, the vulnerable. And the monsters willing to provide it for them.

Shining a light, a ray of hope, in this dark tragedy, are three young girls.

Olivia, adopted by an American family, learns she has a sister, Achara, forced to work in a brothel in Thailand. To save her, she enters the seedy world of sex and depravity and disappears.

Achara. Sold to a brothel and forced to spend her days servicing the men that come to her door, no one to turn to for help except a sister she never met, Olivia, living in America and offering to rescue her.

Rachel, Olivia’s sister in America. Desperate to find Olivia, who vanished without a trace. Or so she thinks until she gets on her sisters computer and stumbles upon emails from Olivia’s long lost sister, Achara.

I wondered I far I could go to save someone I loved. Rachel is just starting college. She’s led a happy, carefree life with friends and family. She knows nothing of the dark and deadly world of the sex trade. Yet she braves it to find Olivia and save Achara.

Her lack of experience and wiles are apparent to her clients and Rachel won’t be able to stay on the sidelines for much longer. How the author showed this to her clients and to me made her very genuine. Her bravery endeared her to me and I feared for the worst.

The scenes of sexual depravity are not written in big detail. They are shocking and the author spares you a lot of that by being somewhat brief. There’s enough to make you cringe, to sadden you, to outrage you.

The monsters are real and walk among us, going to work, paying their bills, going home to their families, and hiding behind the world wide web to satisfy every vile, deviant desire you can imagine. They look like us on the outside, but on the inside is an evil so deep you couldn’t bear to look upon their true form.

Don’t let the topic scare you off. These girls are inspiring, the chapters are short and make for fast reading, and all is not dark in these pages.

Bravo  to the author for writing about such a vile and tragic topic in our society today and giving me a bright light to follow with his strong, brave characters.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

Rachel, an 18-year-old Columbia University student descends into the netherworld of runaways and predators to find her sister, Olivia, who has suddenly disappeared. After getting a job in a strip joint where Olivia worked, then doing private shows in the homes of rich clients, Rachel discovers that Olivia has been abducted by a killer who auctions the deaths of young girls in an eBay of agony. As she closes in on the killer who has taken Olivia, Rachel becomes his next target.

Author’s Bio:

Gustavo Florentin

Gustavo Florentin was born in Queens, New York and received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York. He spent a decade in the defense industry working on the F-14 fighter jet and classified electronics projects. After the fall of the Soviet Union, many thought America wouldn’t need weapons anymore, so while others waited for the peace dividend, he moved on to the financial sector in New York where he is currently a network engineer. His passions include violin, travel to exotic places and exploring worldwide conspiracies. He lives in New Jersey where he is working on his third novel. His thriller, In the Talons of the Condor, won the following awards:

WUACADEMIA–Prix d’Or Best Novel
The Verb First Chapter Contest–First Prize
Mount Arrowsmith Best Novel 4th place
The Writing Show–Second Prize best first chapter of a novel.
Second Prize–16th Annual International Latino Book Awards

Connect with Gustavo: Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter

Where to buy the book:

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble

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Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Click on the button below to follow the tour for more fun, exciting posts!

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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WWW Wednesday

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Hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

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What are you currently reading?

Red is for Rage

The Color of Evil #2

by  Connie Corcoran Wilson

17613095

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Synopsis

RED IS FOR RAGE is the second book in the award-winning THE COLOR OF EVIL series. It was named the winner in the Thriller category of the Pinnacle book award by NABE (National Association of Book Entrepreneurs) in 2013.

At the end of Book One (THE COLOR OF EVIL), Stevie Scranton, best friend of Tad McGreevy, went missing. Best friend Tad McGreevy, who has the ability to see auras around others that lead him to “see” the crimes of the evil-doers, vows to do everything he can to find Stevie. In their search, they discover a monster every bit as dangerous as Pogo, the killer clown, and must confront him in order to save Stevie.

Pogo, from Book One, still is a threat, hoping to kill Tad to keep his freedom, since he thinks Tad has the power to turn him over to the police. Now, Tad must learn to harness his unique gift. Stevie’s fate hangs in the balance as well as his own life.

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What did you recently finish reading?

The Color of Evil

Book One

by Connie Corcoran Wilson

13496817

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Tad McGreevy has a power that he has never revealed, not even to his life-long best friend, Stevie Scranton. When Tad looks at others, he sees colors. These auras tell Tad whether a person is good or evil. At night, Tad dreams about the evil-doers, reliving their crimes in horrifyingly vivid detail.
But Tad doesn’t know if the evil acts he witnesses in his nightmares are happening now, are already over, or are going to occur in the future. He has no control over the horrifying visions. He has been told (by his parents) never to speak of his power. All Tad knows is that he wants to protect those he loves. And he wants the bad dreams to stop.
At Tad’s eighth birthday party (April 1, 1995) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the clown his parents hire to entertain Tad’s third-grade classmates is one of the bad people. Pogo, the Killer Clown (aka Michael Clay) is a serial killer. So begins 53 nights of terror as Tad relives Pogo’s crime, awakens screaming, and recites the terrifying details to his disbelieving family. The situation becomes so dire that Tad is hospitalized in a private institution under the care of a psychiatrist–who also does not believe the small boy’s stories.
And then the police arrest Pogo, the Killer Clown.
Flash forward to the beginning of Tad’s junior year in high school, 8 years later. Tad is 16 and recovered from the spring of his third-grade year. When Michael Clay was caught and imprisoned, the crime spree ended and so did Tad’s bad dreams.
Until now, in the year of our Lord 2003, when evil once again stalks the land.This is a terrifying, intense story of the dark people and places that lurk just beneath the surface of seemingly normal small-town America. As one reviewer says, “Wilson nails the darkness beneath the surface of small-town Midwestern life with an intense story based on fact.”Tad must wage a silent war against those who would harm the ones he loves. A battle to the death.

 

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What do you think you’ll read next?

Khaki = Killer

The Color of Evil #3

by Connie Corcoran Wilson

22022544

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HAKI = KILLER, the third novel in THE COLOR OF EVIL series, follows young Tad McGreevy and friends at Cedar Falls’ Sky High Lab School through the second semester of their senior year.

Recently named a “PageTurner” by Shelf Unbound magazine and NABE Pinnacle Thriller winner, the series details the adventures of the young man (Tad McGreevy) with the power to detect auras around others (Tetrachromatic Super Vision) and to relive the crimes of those with “the color of evil” in his dreams. Khaki = Killer.

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So, whatcha readin?

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