thriller

Thinking of a new way to write

You know I have a lot more ideas for stories than I’ll ever have time to write. So I’ve been thinking, during idle times like going to the grocery store or walking the dog: maybe I need a new way to write long fiction. One that acknowledges that we’re distracted all the time, that our […]

If you like getting good books, cheap or free, don’t wait

The prices go up on April 1, 2022. It’s no joke! So don’t put it off any more: choose the cheap and free books you’ve been meaning to get.  Why is the sale over? When the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago, I made my books either free or really cheap, to the lowest price […]

Meet an author: Lucy Appadoo

I’m starting a new occasional series on the blog today: interviews with other authors about their journey as artists. And these will be authors with styles very different from my own. We will start with an author of contemporary literature, stories about women, from Australia: Lucy Appadoo. Full disclosure: I recently edited her soon-to-be released […]

A book for mystery fans and anyone who likes a well-written story

Independent review of The Peacekeeper’s Photograph By ML Doyle The Peacekeeper’s Photograph is an excellent book — easily one of the best I’ve read this year. It’s more solid proof that independent writers are publishing some of the best, and most important books today. The Peacekeeper’s Photograph shows up in Amazon’s Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, […]

Run and Hide by Alan McDermott

An independent book review Alan McDermott knows how to push all the right buttons for the action-thriller reader. The author of the fantastically successful Tom Gray series has crossed the Atlantic for his new series focused on the new character of Eva Driscoll: brilliant, beautiful and highly effective special operative for the CIA who’s been […]

Torn Roots cover

With the cancellation of the Kindle Worlds program, many authors are working hard to revise and republish their Kindle World novellas and stories themselves.  I’m one of them, and I’m making good progress on my new four-book Hawaiian Storm series. This weekend, enjoy this taste of the first: the new Torn Roots. Chapter 5: Chase Wednesday, 5:30 […]

Farewell, Kindle Worlds

This is the Farewell Tour for my Kindle World novels and novellas, and for the many other talented and skillful writers who have contributed to them. In another three days, Amazon says, they will disappear from the virtual shelves in the U.S. (They were never available on the Amazon sites outside the U.S.A.) In other […]

The end of the (Kindle) Worlds is the launch of a new series

By now, avid readers probably have heard that Amazon is going to cancel the Kindle World program. As of the end of July, all seven of my Lei Crime, Jet and Sydney Rye Kindle World books will no longer be available. Reminder: Kindle World Kindle World is, or was, a program where authors could write […]

Sample Sunday: Wildfire—Evacuation

On this beautiful Sunday morning, I’m sharing another taste of California Wine Country mystery. Here is part of the evacuation chapter from Wildfire. Tara stuffed her laptop into her duffel bag and grabbed a couple of other personal items. As she followed Greg and Alex to the winery, she hit her parents’ speed-dial on her […]

Seb Kirby, master of the unreliable narrator: An independent novel review

Here the Truth Lies review Seb Kirby has once again hit it out of the park. Seb Kirby has proven he’s a master of the unreliable narrator. In his 2016 novel, Sugar for Sugar, Kirby presented Issy Cunningham, a woman who wakes up with no memory, but is implicated in a murder. Kirby managed a […]