BOX SET NEWS

If you’re thinking of maybe buying an Inspector Walter Darriteau murder mystery Ebook, here’s something that you might like to consider instead.

On November 14^th 2019 the first Walter Darriteau Box Set will be released as an Ebook and this Set will include all of the first four Walter Darriteau books, namely:

• The Murder Diaries - Seven Times Over
• The Sound of Sirens
• The Twelfth Apostle
• Kissing a Killer

And the good news is that you can save more than 30% of the usual price when you buy the Box Set.

The whole thing runs to more than 1,475 pages (nearly half a million words) and is an ideal collection to keep you entertained in the late autumn and early winter months.

This Box Set is available to order right now on Amazon, Apple iBooks and Kobo and soon it will be on Nook too, and will be delivered to you on November 14^th 2019.

Here are some easy buy links for you:

To Buy on Amazon UK Click Here

To Buy on Amazon.Com Click Here

To Buy on Apple iBooks Click Here

To Buy on Kobo Click Here

Thanks for reading, and a big thank you if you place an order. I really appreciate it.

Have a great day,

David.   

Here's my book review for John Grisham's

latest book, "The Reckoning".

Click here to read the full review 

If you’re a writer and you’d like to get your books for sale on Apple iBooks and have been struggling to do so, then check out Draft 2 Digital.

They should be able to help you do precisely that, and there are NO upfront fees.

For more information CLICK HERE

Here's my book reveiew for the John Grishan book, "The Activist". This is one of his series of books for younger readers featuring the thirteen-year-old main character, Theodore Boone.

To read the full review CLICK HERE 

Check it out!

I have just put up my book review for Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher thriller called "Past Tense" and if you are intersted in reading that you will find it by clicking here

L J Ross is a phenomenally successful indie published author specialising in crime novels based in he north-east of England.

She has reportedly sold more than 1.5 million books in just over two years and here is my book review for her 2017 work, Dark Skies. Click here for the full review

I have two new book reviews up today.

The first is John Grisham's "The Whistler" from 2017

and the second is Grahame Green's "Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party" from 1980.

Hope you like them.

Happy reading,

DC.

“The Legal & the Illicit” is out on December 4^th 2018 and is now available to pre-order on Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble Nook.

This is the sixth book featuring my laid-back detective Inspector Walter Darriteau and his sidekick, Sergeant Karen Greenwood.

It’s a chunky read running to 430 pages, so if you like longer books this is definitely the one for you.

It will also be released as a paperback for those readers who prefer a book they can hold in their hand.

Click here if you’d like to read more.    

Daring thieves break into the vault at Princeton University and steal the original F Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts from his five novels. This stuff is worth maybe $30 million and the great and the good at the Uni sit back and wait for the inevitable ransom demand to appear. This is all fiction, of course, and Mr G even includes a wee apology at the end, just in case he should upset anyone at Princeton.

But could the thieves actually be stealing the items for a specific order, with some wealthy collector hanging around in the background interested in buying? The insurance company don’t feel like sitting back and waiting and a plan is hatched to get those expensive papers back.

So begins John Grisham’s novel “Camino Island”.

But if you are imagining and waiting for long drawn out court scenes with a cutting finale you are going to be disappointed, because there is barely a court scene in the entire book.

So this is something of a departure for Mr G, but don’t let that put you off because this is an engaging story and certainly a page-turning one. There’s even something of a love story element in there too, dare I say that in parts this book borders on chicklit, (shock horror!), though it never strays entirely that way.

Being somewhat different to Mr G’s normal fare it has come in for some (unwarranted) criticism. I have mentioned before about how ultra-successful writers attract trolling reviewers who seem to get a real high out of trashing top selling authors.

You only have to check out the one star reviews for John Grisham, Lee Child, Dan Brown, J K Rowling, etc etc, to see that, but people seem to forget that the reason these writers, and many others besides, sell books in great quantity, is because they write engaging books, something that the one star review brigade conveniently forget.

“Camino Island” is different, but it does suck one in, and in the end I read this work in as quick a time as any book I have read this year, and the reason for that is because this is good book. Don’t let the one star review-moaners put you off. I enjoyed it, and I think you will too.    

"Set the Boy Free" by Johnny Marr – Book Review

If you have any interest in guitar bands and especially indie guitar bands, and most particularly The Smiths, this book is essential reading.

As you’d expect the book catalogues Mister Marr’s incredible career from an early age, and boy did he start early, right through to the present day. If you don’t know the whole story you might be surprised just how many bands he has played with.

It looks like he wrote the book himself, though it is always difficult to tell with celebrity biogs. All too often there is the small print that says with so-and-so, or as told to so-and-so, and in those cases you can bet who did 90% of the writing. But there is nothing like that here, though in saying that, there is thanks at the end to eleven people who helped in various ways in the writing and production of this book.

No matter, this is a very readable and interesting story. Perhaps inevitably, the first half is far more engaging than the second. And yes, that is the part that deals with the incredibly rapid rise of The Smiths from nowhere, to their massive worldwide success, and their ultimate implosion, and it is this implosion that probably sparked most readers to buy this book in the first place.

In truth, are we any the wiser after reading of what caused the break-up? Not really, other than an unequal share of the royalties and revenue, though in truth, it was clear to everyone that two members contributed far more to this band than the other two, and I guess that is always going to create tensions that will ultimately break the whole. It had happened before and it sure as heck will happen again.

One piece of advice. If you ever have the opportunity to ask questions at a Johnny Marr press conference, never ask him if there is any chance of The Smiths getting back together. Not if you know what’s good for you. Oh, and another little gem too. If you ever form a band make sure you all know precisely who will get what in the way of revenue and credits right from day one, and make sure that is written down and agreed on, and that way you stand a better chance of not falling out later, and maybe even avoiding expensive litigation that could drag on for almost twenty years. The REM and U2 route is always preferable when it comes to things like that.

“Set the Boy Free” is a decent read, I enjoyed it, and a book I can recommend, though maybe at the end of it all, it left me with a feeling of sadness, and maybe that is not so ridiculous. It is The Smiths we are primarily talking about, after all, despite Johnny’s huge successes elsewhere afterwards.

As someone else once wrote, thank you for the music. I'm glad I was there.