When this shows up in my yard, the Stranger Danger alarm goes off, i.e. the dogs
Photo a Day Challenge is hosted by Fat Mum Slim
Readers' Favorite
July 24, 2012
Pub Day: Broken Harbor by Tana French
Today, Tana French's fourth book in her Dublin Murder Squad series is available. Broken Harbor features Detective Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy from Faithful Place.
Summary:
Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French’s bestselling Faithful Place, plays by the book and plays hard. That’s what’s made him the Murder squad’s top detective—and that’s what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands.
On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care.
At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointing at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spains’ computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks.
And Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher. Seeing the case on the news sends his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family one summer at Broken Harbor, back when they were children.
With her signature blend of police procedural and psychological thriller, French’s new novel goes full throttle with a heinous crime, creating her most complicated detective character and her best book yet. From Goodreads.com
Praise:
"[Tana French] has irresistibly sly ways of toying with readers’ expectations." New York Times
"Once again, Tana French introduces us to a whole cast of characters who will immediately grab a place in your life, and they won't let go." Seattle Mystery Bookshop
"Once again, Tana French introduces us to a whole cast of characters who will immediately grab a place in your life, and they won't let go." The Kansas City Star
About the Author:
Tana French is the author of three bestselling novels, including the award-winning In the Woods. She has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for Best First Novel and the IVCA Clarion Award for Best Fiction, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Best Mystery/Thriller. She lives in Dublin with her husband and daughter.
Three Questions with Tana French
There
are also practical advantages to the acting background. If I write a line of
dialogue and then realise that, as an actor, I couldn’t say that, or if I have
a character do something and then realise that I couldn’t play that, then I
need to do some rewriting.
Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French’s bestselling Faithful Place, plays by the book and plays hard. That’s what’s made him the Murder squad’s top detective—and that’s what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands.
On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care.
At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointing at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spains’ computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks.
And Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher. Seeing the case on the news sends his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family one summer at Broken Harbor, back when they were children.
With her signature blend of police procedural and psychological thriller, French’s new novel goes full throttle with a heinous crime, creating her most complicated detective character and her best book yet. From Goodreads.com
Praise:
"[Tana French] has irresistibly sly ways of toying with readers’ expectations." New York Times
"Once again, Tana French introduces us to a whole cast of characters who will immediately grab a place in your life, and they won't let go." Seattle Mystery Bookshop
"Once again, Tana French introduces us to a whole cast of characters who will immediately grab a place in your life, and they won't let go." The Kansas City Star
About the Author:
Tana French is the author of three bestselling novels, including the award-winning In the Woods. She has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for Best First Novel and the IVCA Clarion Award for Best Fiction, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Best Mystery/Thriller. She lives in Dublin with her husband and daughter.
Three Questions with Tana French
We first met detective Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy in Faithful Place and he was regimented and unlikable. What made you turn this character around in Broken Harbor?
One of the things I like about writing ‘chain-linked’ books, where a secondary character from one turns into the narrator of the next, is that it gives me the chance to explore how complex and subjective identity can be. One person’s view of another is likely to be skewed, and almost certain not to be the whole truth. In Faithful Place, Frank Mackey sees Scorcher Kennedy as a pompous, rule-bound, boring git – but that’s because of who Frank is and what he needs to see. From Scorcher’s own viewpoint, he’s much more complicated than that, much more intense and much more deeply broken.
How did you become so expert on police procedures?
I’m lucky: I know a retired detective who’s been kind enough
to help me out with a huge range of questions, as well as telling me the
stories that give me some feeling for what that life is like. When it comes
down to it, though, I often ditch the reality in favour of what works for the
story. To take the most obvious example, there’s no Murder squad in Ireland –
but In the Woods needed to have that
tight-knit, elite, hothouse atmosphere, so I invented one. I still need to know
the reality, though. If there are inaccuracies in these books, I want them to
be because they benefit the story, not because I goofed.
How
has your background in theater shaped the way you write/reach out to your
audience?
I
definitely write like an actor, and I think acting was great training for
writing. Deep down, it’s basically the same skill: your job is to create a
real, complex, three-dimensional character and draw your audience into his or
her world, deeply enough that they go away feeling like they know this person
intimately. Every now and then I get an e-mail from someone who feels like the
characters have become close friends. It’s probably the best compliment I can
get.
July 23, 2012
Reading this week
News:
My article about S. R. Johannes' book signing appeared in Athens Patch.
I was quoted in a post at Terri Giuliano Long's The Art and Craft of Writing Creatively - Review Wars: Why Be Caught in the Drama?
Giveaways:
Still time to enter Friday Fun with Jonathan Gould for a chance to win an ebook of Magnus Opum.
This week at The Indie Exchange you can win ebooks from Mohanalaksmi Rajakumar.
Finished:
Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student, Julia Mitchell. Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the raptures of sex. But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover. When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he succumb to Dante's fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever? In Gabriel's Rapture, the brilliant sequel to the wildly successful debut novel, Gabriel's Inferno, Sylvain Reynard weaves an exquisite love story that will touch the reader's mind, body, and soul, forever. From Goodreads.comFind Gabriel's Rapture at Goodreads, IndieBound, and Amazon
Reading:
When a trained killer threatens ex-cop Travis Mays-and those Travis loves-he finds a skilled adversary and an unexpected fight.Find Revenge at Goodreads and Amazon
After a high stakes gamble ends in personal tragedy, Travis walks away from years of training and a highly successful law enforcement career. Determined never to look back, he starts a new life and a new career, teaching criminology at the university and building a cabin in the idyllic Idaho Mountains. He hires a beautiful river guide, Jessie White Eagle from the Nez Perce tribe, to guide him safely down the Lochsa. The turbulence of the whitewater, however, is just the beginning of his troubles. Travis finds himself in the crosshairs of a killer-calling himself Creasy-bent on revenge.
This fast-paced thriller takes readers on a wild ride down Idaho's whitewater rivers, along the historic Lolo Trails once tread by the Nez Perce nation, and onto the city streets of California. Tighten your helmet. This ride never stops until the last shot is fired and the final body falls. From Goodreads.com
Government agent Derrick Thomas awakes from a disturbing dream to find a message from his father asking for help. As he sets out to lend his assistance he quickly discovers that not only can he not find his father, but that a clandestine government agency is out to derail his search before it can begin. After the murders of two of his father’s colleagues and the further disappearances of his mother and sister, Derrick is thrust into a fight for his own life and the struggle to uncover details of a secret government experiment which his family may be part of. Will he be able to save them and uncover the truth before he becomes the next victim of a government bent on keeping him silent? From Goodreads.comFind Dark Side of the Moon at Goodreads and Amazon
Listening to:
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.From Goodreads.comFind Catching Fire at Goodreads, IndieBound, Amazon
This Week:
Tuesday: Pub Day - Broken Harbor
Wednesday: Review of Gabriel's Rapture by Sylvain Reynard
Tips on Thursday: StumbleUpon
Friday Fun with K. B. Hoyle
Saturday: Review of Revenge by Mark Young
July 22, 2012
Sunday Shorts: Sex, Life, & Hannah Spring Season
ebook
Published December 2009 by The Adventured of Hannah
ISBN13: 9780976886976
Read July 2012
Goodreads, Amazon
The Spring Season picks up just where the Winter Season ended (see my review). I always thought it was kind of bad that I had to see my ex every Sunday at church, but I think being involved in a car accident where you rear-ended The Ex would be even worse. You get an idea just how much of a loser The Ex is with the opening scenes.
I was curious to check in again with Hannah. She seemed to have something good going with Mr. Smythe, but I wasn't sure if she keep it together. Hannah does seem to have matured a bit, but that doesn't mean things go well or that she doesn't make poor decisions. One thing is for sure, when you are with Hannah life is an adventure.
Life the Winter Season, the Spring Season is a quick read. You feel like you are catching up with an old college friend, one who has some wild adventures and tales to tell. While not a cheap read (the ebook is $9.99 at Amazon), it is a quick fun read for the weekend, You could probably read both Winter and Spring in a weekend. Summer Season was just released and it's sitting in my TBR pile.
Sunday Shorts is a weekly meme hosted by Cabin Goddess to feature quick reads, short stories, and cheap books.
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