"The Twelfth Apostle" Featured on the I'm Loving Books Website

You can check that out here if you'd like to see and read more

They did a good job!!

DC.

Kissing a Killer OUT Now on Ebook and In Paperback

As so often happens with new book releases there was a slight delay in finally releasing the new Inspector Walter Darriteau murder/mystery “Kissing a Killer” - but it is OUT NOW.

Here are the first BUY links.

My all new Inspector Walter Darriteau murder mystery is OUT soon. This one is very much a traditional whodunnit and it should keep you guessing till the very end.

Here's a brief extract to whet the appetite. 

Kissing a Killer by David Carter – Extract

Corla Revelation resembled Oliver Cromwell, high forehead, large flat nose, and hefty warts aplenty, yet for all that, she was a vivacious woman, and rarely short of admirers.

   She made a decent living through her full-time counselling work, and part-time fortune telling business, though where one finished and the other began was becoming increasingly blurred. She liked to say she was a spiritualist, and a medium, and had gone to the trouble in the past of inventing highfaluting sounding associations that she christened: “The British Spiritualist Congress” and the “European Mediums Association” and proceeded to have printed expensive and impressive looking Articles and Certificates, that she framed and set on her walls. They sure as hell impressed Corla, and in due course wowed her clients too. That was the plan, and most times, it worked.  

   In a good light and on a bright day she could pass for thirty-nine, as her friends would eagerly confirm, especially after Corla had bought the drinks. But on a bad day after a heavy night out, and maybe not standing her corner, those same friends would swear she was fifty-nine, looking sixty-nine. Fact was, no one really knew how old Corla Revelation and her close-knit family of warts were, and that was exactly as she liked it.

   She’d always had an eye for the main chance, and that had served her well in the past, and it would continue to do so in the future, and she always paid a great deal of attention to the criminal cases covered in the press, and especially ones from Chester and surrounding areas, and most particularly the ones where financial rewards were offered, and of special interest to her were the worst crimes imaginable, and that invariably meant rape, murder, and death.

   The Chester baseball bat murder had certainly piqued her interest, as she devoured all the media coverage she could find. It was causing quite a stir, for it wasn’t everyday that a well-liked and well-known local woman was murdered in her own home in the genteel city of Chester.

    In her quiet moments Corla believed she possessed ESP powers, and she would test that ability to the max by sitting back in her favourite wing-backed armchair, a bottle of whisky on the small table close by, with her favourite crystal cut glass, as she attempted to reconstruct the face of the killer in her mind. If you don’t believe in yourself, she mused, how could you expect others to believe in you? He will come to me, she would say aloud. He will come.

   He’s a tall man, and dark too, that was eminently clear, though whether that intelligence had been garnered through her imaginary powers, or subconsciously, via the increasing media coverage, it was difficult to tell.

   Corla sipped twenty-year-old malt whisky, and closed her eyes and blanked her mind, and let the force swirl over her, and through her, and then she said aloud in a real strange voice: It will appear, as it always does, everything about him will materialise, and sooner than we think, and then, I shall be famous.

   She reached out and topped up the glass. Always nice to whet the whistle before one went out on the town. She glanced at her expensive wristwatch, a present from a long ago wealthy lover. She’d quite forgotten his name. The watch ticked on, as it always did, never missed a beat. 8.22pm. Give it another ten minutes, she thought, and she would slip on her favourite faux leather coat, and head down to the city centre, and meet some friends, and drink the night away.

*****

It's going to be fun! - Stay tuned for full details of release date and where the book can be bought - it will be out in paperback and ebook.

As ever, thanks for reading,

David Carter

*****

Promoting Your Indie Published Book For Free

If you are a self published writer, or are thinking of becoming one, you will be needing additional places to promote and publicise your work, so you might be interested in checking out Dave Mayall’s site where he offers promotional services for indie writers, and the really great thing is that at the time of writing he may well promote your book for free.

Dave lives and works in Birmingham, England and you can check out his stuff here and it makes interesting reading.

And while you are there make sure you take a look Dave’s poetry too. 

Subnormal by Stuart Kenyon – Book review.

The start of this book reminds me of a shoot-em-up computer game, so if you are interested in that kind of thing, this could attract you too, but it soon develops into so much more.

Stuart Kenyon’s Subnormal is set in Britain and across many cities, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham and London to name but four, and though you might think it is set in the near future, or an alternative past, it’s actually set in an alternative here-and-now where a new political party beginning with U fronted by a charismatic leader has seized power quite legitimately through the ballot box, so frustrated are the electorate with traditional parties who have overstayed their welcome. Sounds somewhat familiar in these strange times in which we live? And not a ’kipper in sight. Alternative facts, anyone?

One of the main characters, indeed the most interesting character, and there are a lot of them in here too, is a young guy with autism, and maybe that character comes across as forcefully and true to life because the writer himself has a son who suffers from that condition, and thus the descriptions of his behaviour and reactions and conversation are particularly believable.

As you can possibly guess all does not go well, and the book harbours Orwellian and Kafka-esque overtones, or undertones if you prefer. I could say a lot more, and all of it good, though I won’t for fear of giving anything away. For me it was a political thriller, and a pretty good one at that.

It’s been well proofread and when I bought the ebook it was just 99p and that is great value in anyone’s language, so do yourself a favour and buy it. Subnormal is the first in a series of three books, though this one has a clear ending, and stands well by itself.

If you enjoy political thrillers with a distinctly darker edge then this could be right up you street. Recommended.

"Kissing a Killer" Scheduled for March 2017 Release

David's all new Inspector Walter Darriteau novel, "Kissing a KIller" is now scheduled for release as a paperback in March 2017, with an ebook to follow shortly after that.

Here's the back cover blurb:

In the outskirts of the ancient city of Chester, twenty-something Eleanor Wright lives in a run down caravan in an isolated spot down by the river. 

She does tricks for men, for cash, to fund a burgeoning drugs habit. It’s early winter, late Friday night, and there’s a thunderstorm hitting the town. 

A handsome young man knocks on her door. He’s a nice guy, far better than the usual creeps who come calling. Eleanor’s tired and depressed and not really in the mood, but against her better judgement, she lets him in. 

 At midnight the caravan burns down and Eleanor perishes a hideous death, but is it an accident, suicide, or murder? Inspector Walter Darriteau and his team are given the case, and embark on a journey that none of them could possibly predict. 

“Kissing a Killer” is the fourth Inspector Walter Darriteau murder/mystery, and could well be his most difficult case to date.

P.S. Someone asked me the other day why my twitter handle is @TheBookBloke - the answer is simple, I am a bookseller. You can go here to see one of my online stores. 

tags: murder/mystery, crime fiction, crime novels, cozy mysteries, thrillers, British crime fiction, English crime fiction, whodunnits,  

#RRBC 

2016 Indie Author State of the Union by Michael La Ronn - Book Review

Grow Your Author Business, Stay Informed and Sell More Books.

If you are an indie author looking to self-publish, or maybe you have already taken the plunge and done so, this book is full of information that you will find of interest, and some of it you really need to know.

Michael looks at all the big players in the game, such as Amazon, Createspace, ibooks, Google, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Nook, Kobo, D2D, etc etc, along with indie publishing trends, and analyses them all and reports back on the many changes we have seen in the past year, (the copy I read was a 2016 one and I think he updates things every year,) and then interestingly he puts on his Nostradamus hat and tries to forecast where we, and they, will be going in the following year, and the years to come.

It all makes for very interesting reading and I defy any indie author not to learn something of interest from within these pages. There's a lot more stuff in there too.

Plus an enormous number of links and resources included in the book as well, and yes there are plenty of affiliate links as well, and Michael is open and upfront about that, so maybe just occasionally one has to take some of the buy recommendations with a pinch of salt, but we are big boys here now, and big girls too, we know how the world works, and we can tell when we are being sold something we don’t particularly want to buy. Don’t worry about it, there is plenty here to keep you reading right through to the very end.

The book is well written, engaging, and perhaps most important of all, is truly useful to any indie and prospective indie author and self-publisher. 

I have no hesitation in recommending it.  I enjoyed it.      

The Murder Diaries - New Revised Edition

A new and completely revised second edition of “The Murder Diaries – Seven Times Over” has been released today on ebook – they’ll be an updated paperback version coming soon too.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

“The Murder Diaries - Seven Times Over”. 

A Lay Preacher is run down on the by-pass. A Right Reverend falls beneath the London Express. An old fisherman drowns in the canal. Accident, suicide, or murder?

Inspector Walter Darriteau of Chester police doesn’t believe in coincidences. He is interested, and his doubts are confirmed when another body is discovered. 

Maggie O’Brien, propped up on a bench in Delamere forest, dew dripping from her nose, a cobweb stretched from her hat to the arm of the bench, death by carbon monoxide poisoning, yet there is no car to be seen in the damp, gravelly car park.

There is a killer at large. A random killer. A serial killer. A ruthless killer who will seemingly stop at nothing. But why? What is the purpose behind these seemingly unrelated deaths? 

It’s a race against time. He or she must be stopped before they can kill again.

The Murder Diaries – Seven Times Over, is set in and around the City of Chester in the north-west of England.

Walter Darriteau is an adopted Cestrian, he’s nearing retirement, and now his colleague sergeant Karen Greenwood covets his job, but Walter is not yet ready to end things on a sour note for he knows this case will define his career. 

He is determined to trap the killer, putting his own life at risk in the process. 

Someone has to.

It’s available in ibooks/itunes, Nook, Kobo, Kindle and just about every ebook platform around so do check that out.

It comes with a nice new cover too, and I hope you like that as well. 

101 Things I Have Learned by Vernon Coleman – Book Review.

Vernon Coleman has always been something of a rebel, insisting on doing things his own way, as I imagine he would be the first to agree.

He has sold upwards of an amazing two million books and his titles have been translated into twenty-four languages, and one of the interesting things about that is that he has self-published the vast majority of those.

But not self-published using any print on demand facility, oh no, but publishing in the traditional way, printing a whole stack of each title, and then setting about selling them.

101 Things I Have Learned sees him relaying his wisdom gained over forty odd years, and these titbits range from medical, illness, and medicinal matters, (he is a doctor after all, so is well qualified to talk on such issues), to diet, and on through financial matters and commodity prices, cars, the taxman, dealing with bureaucrats and bureaucracy, human rights, and of course the European Union of which he has been a long time and fierce critic, and much more besides.

Of course he is at pains to tell you that he is not dispensing advice, and especially financial advice, for that would be illegal to do so, but he gets pretty close sometimes, and as with most of his writings, it all makes for interesting stuff and a worthwhile read.

101 Things I Have Learned is a small book, barely a hundred and twenty pages, but it’s an interesting one, and the really good news is that when I last looked, it could be bought now online for just one penny, plus postage and packing, and that is a good deal in anyone’s language.

If you are looking to write books and maybe establish a small publishing company of your own, you could do a heck of a lot worse than check out Mr Vernon Coleman and his long career, for he has made a habit of writing interesting books, and more to the point, he has been incredibly successful in selling them.

Recommended.

Don't forget if you would like a completely free copy of the forthcoming Inspector Water Darriteau novel, "The Death Broker" all you have to do is sign up to my occasional newsletter and it will be yours. Click here for more info on that.       

Claim Your Free Murder Mystery Book Here

Another all new Walter Darriteau murder/mystery book is coming soon, and the good news is that you can claim a full copy absolutely FREE simply by subscribing to my series of occasional newsletters.

So if you enjoy thrillers and British murder/mysteries this is the deal for you!

The FREE ebook is entitled "The Death Broker" and was originally planned as a short novella, but it's already more than 200 pages long, so it is much more than a short story.

It features many of the same characters that appear in the other Inspector Walter Darriteau books, and this one is a full standalone story too - not a taster that requires you to buy something else to find out how it all ends!!

The fact is there is absolutely no obligation to buy anything at all - it's a little thank you to you for visiting my blog and website and showing an interest in my books.

"The Death Broker" will be ready in a matter of weeks and early subscribers will receive a special pre-publication edition as soon as it is available, and you can even contribute some feedback on the book before it is published too if you wish, so don't miss out on that.

Go ahead and subscribe today to guarantee your FREE book.

Oh, and by the way, you can cancel your subscription to my newsletter at any time and I guarantee that your mailing details will NEVER be sold or shared with anyone else.

Please go ahead and subscribe by clicking right here:

Here’s the deal: “The Death Broker” will be available in a few week’s time and if you subscribe to my newsletter today you will receive a full ebook copy absolutely FREE.  

Here's that link one more time to subscribe and get that free ebook deal:

CLICK HERE

As ever, thanks for reading...

Tags: Free book, Free mystery book, Free murder/mystery, free crime novel, free crime fiction, free thriller, crime thriller, murder mystery, free book offer, free book deal, free ebook, free ebook offer, ARC mystery, ARC thriller, free books,