QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH BLAIR DENHOLM

Blair Denholm author of Sold answers a few questions on the blog

Sold was up in the blog yesterday, a few thoughts here.

Is the writing full time? If not, what’s the day job? (Maybe a brief bio?)

I'm not writing full time at the moment. Of course, I'd love to become successful enough to abandon my job and make writing my one and only pursuit. I'm working my arse off to achieve that and, with a bit of good fortune, the dream just might come true. But I’m under no illusions about how hard that is.

In the meantime, I work as a translator for an international conservation organisation with a long and cumbersome name: Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The Commission operates in four official languages, one of them being Russian, a language I've learned to a degree of fluency that allows me to translate and interpret at the highest levels. I also do private translation work, mainly in the areas of business and immigration.

[Here's my bio on the Tasmanian Writers' Centre website].

I believe Sold is your debut book, how long from conception to completion and publication did Sold take?

SOLD is my debut novel through a traditional publisher, although I did self-publish a kids' book in the middle of last year. The idea for SOLD came from my partner, a real estate agent here in Australia. We were driving somewhere one day, to the hardware store I think, when out of the blue she said, 'You've always wanted to write a novel. Why don't you write one about a real estate agent?' She'd told me plenty of fantastic tales about her life in the industry, so I thought, yeah, why not? That was at the beginning of 2015. From that point it took until mid-2016 to finish the first draft. The book was published in November 2017. Not a rapid process, but the sequel is coming along much faster, thankfully.

Did the end result resemble the book you envisaged when you set out? Were there many bumps in the road along the way?

Good question. I have to admit my vision for the book changed considerably as I wrote. New characters emerged that weren’t in my plan, others discarded. Others still were given more prominent roles beyond the cameos I had in mind for them. The published version of the book is about 27,000 words lighter than my first draft, so you could say most of the bumps on that particular road were plowed over and obliterated.

How difficult is it blending comedic elements into a mystery? There was one scene in Sold, where Gary meets the vendor of a property he’s trying to sell which had me laughing like a drain.

Comedy is such a personal thing, and it can be hit and miss with your audience. Often I’ll be watching a movie or TV show and be chuckling away and my partner, Sandra, will look at me askance and ask me what the hell’s so funny. With SOLD, there are comedic elements I thought would only be appreciated by men, but to my surprise many female reviewers have said they get it. Even in the USA, where the style of humour is so different to what we relate to in Australia and the UK. I’ve always appreciated ridiculous writing, Spike Milligan for example. I enjoy writing funny stuff, but it’s hard to sustain the laughs over an entire novel.

Are you a plotter, or is it all making up shit as you go along?

Plotter? What’s that? I tend to start off with a vague idea, a theme, a nebulous plot, and then my strategy becomes even looser. For the follow-up to SOLD, I wrote an outline with a list of characters and their bios. But once I got to writing, the whole storyline changed by the second chapter. It doesn’t worry me in the slightest, though. I’m happy for the characters to take over and tell the tale for me. I feel a bit like a medium, channeling their thoughts.

What’s your typical writing schedule?

I don’t have a schedule as such. I need to be better at this sort of thing but self-discipline isn’t one of my strongpoints. I try to get in at least an hour a day, five days a week, and extra on weekends where possible. However if a big chuck of free time opens up, I’ll do my best to devote it to writing.

Any unpublished gems in your bottom drawer?

There are no completed, unsubmitted work lying in that proverbial drawer. It’s all out there – both of them.

Is there a current work in progress? How’s it going? Any hints as to what it’s all about? (I’m only halfway through Sold so far, so I’m unsure if Gary survives his trials and tribulations – a second with him would be one to look forward to.)

I’m working on the second installment of what I pompously call the “Gary Braswell Franchise”. It’s called Sold to the Devil. Gary’s been living with me for the last couple of years so I’ve got a good handle on exactly who the prick is. And that makes the writing easier and more fun. I can tell you this much: the action has shifted to the island state of Tasmania, away from the hot sun to a much colder environment. There are more crazy characters, including a dysfunctional cop who’ll do anything to keep out of trouble, a steroid-fueled body-building businessman with a penchant for kink and a tenacious journalist trying to uncover the truth behind a horrific murder. Plus some surrealistic goings on with abnormal weather and wildlife.

I’ve also written the first chapter of a thriller set in Moscow in the late 1980s. The novel, Revolution Day, is based on a real event, a racially motivated hate crime (a murder) that shook the community of foreign students living there at the time. I was one of them. This is the novel I’ve always wanted to write.

What’s the best thing about writing?

For me it’s when motivation is high, the muse has come to visit and the words just flow. I love the freedom of being able to say what I like, no restrictions. As a new writer, I get an amazing feeling when I read positive reviews from people I’ve never met. One said bluntly “Denholm is a master storyteller”. I could barely fit my head through the door the day I read that.

The worst?

I’d have to say rewriting and editing. It can be difficult ditching large chunks of text you agonized over, but if it ain’t moving the story ahead or it’s just plain confusing for the reader, it’s gotta go.

What are the last five books you’ve read?

The Last Train to Zona Verde by Paul Theroux

Calamity: Being an Account of Calamity Jane and Her Gunslinging Green Man by JD Jordan

Intoxic by Angie Gallion

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr

  

Who do you read and enjoy?

I like Scandinavian noir in general, Camilla Lackberg in particular. She sets a nice brooding atmosphere. I’ve also become a big fan of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels. I have to say, though, my tastes are eclectic. As long as a story engages me, I’ll give it a go. From the classics of Dostoyevsky and Dickens to James Patterson, as well as unheralded indie writers.

Is there any one book you wish you had written?

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. I read it late last year and was completely captivated by the outlandish story and the bizarre characters.

Favourite activity when not working or writing?

I’ve always enjoyed running and have recently stepped that up to high-intensity training. And reading anything and everything, especially at a leisurely pace when on holidays.

What’s the last film you watched that rocked you?

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. A stunning dark comedy in the tradition of many Coen Brothers’ classics.

TV addict or not? What’s the must watch show in the Denholm household? 

I watch more television than I should, although I’m cutting down on the hours. I’m a massive fan of Father Ted, Black Books and other comedy series in that vein. The whole world’s gone crazy for Netflix and the like, but I’m wary of getting on that bandwagon and wasting more of my life watching TV. For me there’s nothing better than watching a good game of rugby or Australian football. There’s as much drama packed into an hour or two of football as there is in an entire series of Homeland.

In a couple of years’ time…

I’ll be sitting in a cinema watching the premier screening of SOLD, the movie.

---------------------------------------------

Many thanks to Blair for his time and Lindy Cameron of Clan Destine Press for connecting us.

Blair Denholm has his website here  http://www.blairdenholm.com/

He's on Twitter  https://twitter.com/blairdenholm

Clan Destine Press website - https://www.clandestinepress.com.au/

BLAIR DENHOLM - SOLD (2017)

Synopsis/blurb.....

The Gold Coast swelters in record temperatures, and car salesman Gary Braswell's hot under the collar. With sales at rock-bottom, and up to his neck in debt to loan shark Jocko Mackenzie, Gary's sweating on a fat commission from a mysterious Russian couple.

If the loan is not repaid, there's more than Gary's kneecaps at stake - his long-suffering wife's also in peril. But Jocko demands more than repayment and has sinister plans for the hapless salesman.

Gary turns his skills to real estate and is soon embroiled in the murky world of money laundering. With the federal police sniffing around and Jocko on his tail, Gary concocts an audacious scam.

Success means money - lots of it.
Failure means death.
But can hard-drinking, cocaine-snorting Gary pull it off?

Hilarious and dark, Sold is noir at its best - a whirlpool of sex, drugs, and real estate.

Another new author to me and a debut mystery set in Australia's Gold Coast.

I really enjoyed this one. Gary Braswell is not a pleasant man. His addictions have control of him and despite his best intentions to be a decent husband to his wife, it just isn't happening. Not when the allure of another drink or another bet are so easily surrendered to.

Braswell owes money and his problems are mounting. His loan shark, bookie has him by the short and curlies and a trip to Thailand smuggling drugs for Jocko Mackenzie is on the cards. Refusal is not an option with Jocko's sidekick waiting in the wings to inflict physical damage on Gary and more frighteningly extreme sexual assault on his innocent wife.

Braswell may have an out. His salvation may lay with some dubious Russian clients he has gotten involved with. Or conversely his friend’s suggestion to involve the federal police may bear fruit. Always assuming he can keep his head long enough to execute a plan.

Money laundering, bent cops, a dodgy bookie, a long suffering wife, Russian gangsters, infidelity, marital strife, a career change, a gambling addiction, a worse addiction to the booze, a sex tape and more.

For a big part of the novel it was a kind of light-hearted read. Yes our main character is in trouble and he’s out of his depth, but there were some fantastic comedy scenes which kind of suckered me into thinking things would be resolved without too much pain or injury to our main characters. Denholm then pulled the rug from under me, when a long threatened event occurs (albeit from an unexpected source); an event - which gives the novel a seriously dark turn.

As well as the comedy elements, I did feel a kind of sadness as Gary stumbles from one crisis to the next, on an ever-increasing downward spiral. I didn’t like the man, but there was enough about him that had me hoping he could turn his life around – get a grip on his addictions and move forward with his wife and his life. His turmoil isn’t pretty to observe, though I have to say it’s never boring. Denholm achieves a delicate balance, by having me rooting for a character – one with more faults than virtues.

Blair Denholm and Gary Braswell are definitely an author and main character that I’d like to read more of in the future.

5 from 5

Blair Denholm has his website here.

Margot Kinberg spotlighted Sold recently over at her blog – here.

Read in February, 2018
Published – 2017
Page count – 328
Source – copy received from publisher, Clan Destine Press (thanks Lindy)
Format – trade paperback

JANUARY 2018 - ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY - SIX OF THE BEST!

Here's another dirty half dozen added to the collection last month - there were more than that, but I'm only shouting about these ones.....

Dan Ames - Sugar (2018) - Amazon purchase

Wade Carver is a dangerous man. So when a shady lawyer needs to find a boat filled with extremely valuable - and highly illegal - cargo, she hires Carver. Unfortunately, he's not the only who's been hired to do a risky job. A powerful drug dealer has targeted Carver for elimination, and offered a steep contract to any killer who can execute...the job. When Carver investigates the missing boat, the case takes him on a collision course with his search for his missing sister. The action is hot and heavy, just like the Florida sun.

"Ames is a sensation among Kindle readers who love fast-paced thrillers." -MysteryTribune

Chris Orlet - In the Pines (2016)

"Ames is a sensation among Kindle readers who love fast-paced thrillers." -MysteryTribune
"Chris Orlet's debut novel (In the Pines/New Pulp Press) is what I've been waiting for for years. Finally a worthy successor to James Crumley and Newton Thornburg and Kem Nunn, the 1970s godfathers of true noir's long-needed revival. His characters are, by and large, unscrupulous in the way they live. They're broken and their morals have been watered down by bad choices and unalterable circumstance, but the reader can't help but feel he's only a few bad days from taking permanent residence in the hopeless world they populate."

Jonathan Ashley, author of South of Cincinnati, Out of Mercy and The Cost of Doing Business

Emily Ahrens is dead. Just how she died, no one is quite sure.

Authorities eventually confirm that the young woman died of arsenic poisoning. But a coroner's inquest, called to decide whether the death was suicide, accident, homicide, natural or undetermined concludes that the death is undetermined.

With no evidence of foul play, local authorities are reluctant to investigate. The girl's father, however, refuses to let the matter die and begins obsessively seeking answers, even as the town seeks to put the tragedy behind them.

Stonewalled, the father hires a shady private investigator from a nearby city to look into the circumstances of his daughter's death. When he, too, fails to turn up any answers, the desperate father turns up the screws on one rather unsavory suspect, a fatal accident ensues, and circumstances begin to spiral out of control.

In the great tradition of Noir fiction, In the Pines is a tale like nothing you've read before.

Ronald Colby - Night Driver (2018) - copy from publisher

So this was it, he thought. He had his first fare and was now officially a cab driver. He shook his head as he exhaled the smoke into the morning cold. Well, he’d use the taxi time just as he had promised himself. He would figure things out, get a hold on himself, keep a little money coming in, and find the men who had murdered his wife.

Nick Cullen's wife was brutally murdered in a burglary gone horribly wrong, and he's not the type to move on with his life, especially when he has seen the faces of the murderers in person. His plan: learn how to drive a cab so he can find his wife's murderers on the streets of Los Angeles.

Nick's nighttime rides lead him down dead end after dead end, until one day he manages to get a hold of the ID of one of the men who destroyed his life. Nick's chase heats up and he's forced to face the truth of how far a man will go who has nothing left to lose.

Night Driver takes the reader on a white-knuckled thrill ride through the dimly lit streets of after-hours Los Angeles and into the dark heart of a man pushed to the brink. An unforgettable journey of obsession, sadness, and revenge.

Patricia Skalka - Death Rides the Ferry (2018) - review copy from Edelweiss site

It's a sparkling August day on Washington Island and the resonant notes of stringed instruments float on the breeze toward sailboats and the approaching ferry. After a forty-year absence, the Viola da Gamba Festival has returned to the picturesque isle on the tip of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula. Sheriff Dave Cubiak enjoys a rare day off as tourists and a documentary film crew hover around the musicians.The jubilant mood sours when the ferry arrives and an unidentified passenger is found dead. Long-time residents recall with dismay the disastrous festival decades earlier, when another woman died and a valuable sixteenth-century instrument-the fabled yellow viol-vanished, never to be found.Cubiak follows a trail of murder, kidnapping, and false identity that leads back to the calamitous night of the twin tragedies. With the lives of those he holds most dear in peril, the sheriff pursues a ruthless killer into the stormy northern reaches of Lake Michigan.

Ed Lynskey - Wrong Orbits (2015) - Amazon purchase

 Loomis McTeague has good reasons to fear his safe, little world in suburbia is skidding into a wrong orbit. His best friend Stu O'Fryer is involved in a disgusting criminal enterprise. Loomis suspects his wife Enola Jo is cheating on him. His new co-worker Zoey, actually a con artist, is blackmailing him with the compromising photos taken during their tryst. Loomis does his best to hold things together. But nothing he tries seems to work out. He finds a resolution of a sort, but at what cost? Wrong Orbits is a modern crime noir written much like Ed Lynskey's other well-received suburban crime noirs Ask the Dice and Blood Diamonds. JT Lindroos, who designed the front cover for The Blue Cheer (Pointblank, 2007) , also did this spiffy front cover.

T.M. Logan - 29 Seconds (2018) - copy from publisher

The sensational new page-turning thriller from the number 1 bestselling author of LIES. Perfect for fans of FRIEND REQUEST by Laura Marshall and I AM WATCHING YOU by Tessa Driscoll.

Give me one name. One person. And I will make them disappear . . .

When Sarah rescues a young girl in trouble, she expects nothing in return. But her act of bravery puts a powerful and dangerous man in her debt. He lives by his own brutal code, and all debts must be repaid - in the only way he knows how.

He offers Sarah a way to solve a desperate situation with her intolerable boss. A once-in-a-lifetime deal that will make all her problems disappear.

No consequences. No comeback. No chance of being found out.

All it takes is a 29 second phone call.

BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A NAME TO GIVE. DON'T THEY?

Praise for T. M. Logan, the master of the everyman thriller

'Assured, compelling, and hypnotically readable - with a twist at the end I guarantee you won't see coming' Lee Child

JANUARY 2018 - FILMS + TV

A few films enjoyed in January, though I had hoped to have watched a bit more - I've still got another half dozen backed up on the black box recorder in the front room - maybe February then?

Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

An okay watch, more than a few twists and turns as you'd expect. Tom Cruise does what he does. I enjoyed Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames. Rebecca Ferguson offers a bit of love interest (maybe) and Sean Harris is the bad guy. There's worse ways of spending an hour or two.

From IMDB....

Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet, eradicating the Syndicate - an International rogue organization as highly skilled as they are, committed to destroying the IMF.

Focus (2015)

I do like movies with a con man and this was no exception. I was taken in a few times, especially at the football game, though with hindsight I should I have been a bit more savvy to what was going on. That was probably the highlight for me and the subsequent Buenos Aires twist felt a bit anti-climatic in my opinion. I do like a bit of Will Smith. My daughter raves about Margot Robbie, but I can't recall seeing her in anything before.  As far as confidence movies go - Matchstick Men is still my favourite by a country mile.

From Google....

Nicky (Will Smith), a veteran con artist, takes a novice named Jess (Margot Robbie) under his wing. While Nicky teaches Jess the tricks of the trade, the pair become romantically involved; but, when Jess gets uncomfortably close, Nicky ends their relationship. Three years later, Nicky is in Buenos Aires working a very dangerous scheme when Jess -- now an accomplished femme fatale -- unexpectedly shows up. Her appearance throws Nicky for a loop at a time when he cannot afford to be off his game.

Brick Mansions (2014)

Not the best thing I've ever recorded and watched - Shit Mansions might have been a better title. An okay story, but it kind of seemed like the director wanted to show of David Belle's acrobatic prowess. He's very jumpy and leapy in this thing, which kind of took me out of the story. Paul Walker was okay.

From Google...

In a dystopian Detroit, grand houses that once housed the wealthy are now homes of the city's most-dangerous criminals. Surrounding the area is a giant wall to keep the rest of Detroit safe. For undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker), every day is a battle against corruption as he struggles to bring his father's killer, Tremaine (RZA), to justice. Meanwhile, Damien and an ex-con named Lino (David Belle) work together to save the city from a plot to destroy it.

Takers (2010)

Much more my sort of thing - a gang of crooks and a dogged cop who won't give up. A decent story line and an entertaining cast - I like Matt Dillon and Idris Elba - though he might have got a bit too big for his boots lately. The rest of the cast were very good also.

From Google...

Gordon Jennings (Idris Elba) and his friends enjoy a luxurious lifestyle funded by bank robberies, and they avoid capture by sticking to a strict set of rules. As they celebrate the latest job, a former associate arrives with a daring plan to rob an armored car. The lure of so much cash is too tempting to resist but, unbeknown to Gordon's men, this heist puts them on a collision course with Russian mobsters and a detective (Matt Dillon) who will do anything to capture them.

Now You See Me (2013)

Second time around for this one and still just as enjoyable. Apart from Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher and Morgan Freeman, I couldn't tell you who any of the other illusionists were. Michael Caine also features. I do like Ruffalo, though I've not seen him in too much - Spotlight and Shutter Island.

From IMDB....

An F.B.I. Agent, and an Interpol Detective, track a team of illusionists, who pull off bank heists during their performances, and reward their audiences with the money.

Now You See Me 2 (2016)

More of the same, but still a decent couple of hours viewing.

From IMDB....

The Four Horsemen resurface, and are forcibly recruited by a tech genius to pull off their most impossible heist yet.

MEET THE MILLERS (AND THE MILLARS)

Six more from the estranged library in a warehouse, 5 fiction, 1 non-fiction

Millar's - Peter, Margaret and Sam

Miller's - Wade, James and Geoffrey

Peter Millar - 1989 The Berlin Wall (2009 I think)

It was an event that changed history, bringing the Cold War to a sudden, unexpected end and seeing the collapse not just of Communism but of the Soviet Union itself. Stereotypes disappeared overnight, and the maps of a continent had to be redrawn. Peter Millar was in the middle of it, literally - caught in Checkpoint Charlie between bemused East German border guards and drunk Western revellers prematurely celebrating the end of an era. For over a decade Millar had been living in East Berlin, as well as Warsaw and Moscow, and in this engaging, garrulous, bibulous memoir we follow him on a journey in the heart of Cold War Europe, from the carousing bars of 1970s Fleet Street to the East Berlin corner pub with its eclectic cast of characters who embodied the reality of living on the wrong side of the Wall. We relive the night that it all disintegrated, and its curious domino-like effect on Eastern Europe. We find out how Peter Millar felt when he opened his Stasi file and discovered which of his friends had - or hadn't - been spying on him. A compelling, amazingly insightful and entertaining read, this book swiftly dispatches the mythology of the Fall and brings Peter Millar's characteristic wit and insight to one of the most significant moments in history.

Sam Millar - Bloodstorm (2008)

Gritty and gripping, Bloodstorm is the beginning of a chilling series.Karl Kane is a private investigator with a dark past. As a child, he witnessed the brutal rape and murder of his mother. The same man sexually molested Karl, leaving him for dead with horrific knife wounds covering his body. Years later, Karl has a chance to avenge his mother's murder by killing the man responsible. The opportunity arises on one unforgettable Good Friday night. For reasons he later regards as cowardice, Karl allows the opportunity to slip through his hands, only to be shattered when, two days later, two young girls are sexually molested and then brutally murdered by the killer on Easter Sunday morning. Karl now holds himself responsible for their deaths.

Margaret Millar - Beast in View (1955)

At thirty, Helen Clarvoe is only: her only visitors are the staff at the hotel where she lives, and her only phone calls come from a stranger. A stranger whose quiet, compelling voice lures the aloof and financially secure Miss Clarvoe into a world of extortion, pornography, vengeance, madness and murder...

Wade Miller - Branded Woman (1952)

International jewelry smuggling may be a man's business, but beautiful Cay Morgan can hold her own with the best. Until a rival known only as The Trader has her scarred for life as a warning to stay out of his way. Now Cay's on her way to Mazatlan, where one of The Trader's men has been spotted. There's a big deal going down but she's not there to make a score. Just to settle one.

James Miller - Sunshine State (2011)

Mark Burrows is an 'invisible man', a British secret agent adept at moving undetected through the most hostile environments. Summoned for one last mission, he must make contact with Charlie Ashe, his fearsome former colleague and brother-in-law. Ashe has reappeared with a new name and a terrifying new agenda in the Storm Zone, a mysterious region racked by devastating hurricanes and inhabited by cults, criminal gangs and insurgent armies.

The mission will force Burrows to question his loyalties and to understand that the greatest danger lies not with his target, but with the forces that seek to control the world around him.

Geoffrey Miller - The Black Glove (1981)

NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AWARD

Terry Traven is an L. A. private eye who modeled himself after Philip Marlowe and thrived in the 1960s, becoming a minor celebrity for his hardboiled style and his skill at tracking down runaways. But now it’s the 1980s, his minor fame has completely faded, and he’s barely making a living. So he jumps at the opportunity to find a wealthy, born-again industrialist’s missing son who has been dabbling in drugs and punk rock. It’s not just a chance to save the kid… but himself. Traven’s search leads him into a bizarre, cocaine-drizzled world populated by kidnappers, drug dealers, talent agents, greedy entrepreneurs, religious zealots and desperate killers.

“Miller pretty much equals the masters — Hammett and Chandler — of the hardboiled detective story,” Houston Post

JANUARY 2018 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

A cracking start to a new year of reading - 19 books read in the month, though only half of them would weigh in at over 100 pages long.

Nothing sucked  only 1 - 3 STAR read, conversely a lot of them were very good but only 1 - 5 STAR read.

Pick of the month - Lawrence Block's Keller in Des Moines - another episode in my favourite hitman's life and a story with no resolution as such - just an urgent invite to read the longer novel where our tale concludes.

The month could in some ways be regarded as a Lawrence Block tribute month - I read one old lost and recently found book from him - Sinner Man - and seven of his Kindle singles with Keller, a few of which had been enjoyed before as they also form part of the longer work Hitman.

The full list with links...

Paul Heatley - The Boy (2015) (4.5)

Lawrence Block - Keller in Dallas (2009) (4.5)

Christopher Davis - Walking to Babylon (2017) (4)

Lawrence Block - Keller's Adjustment (2005) (4)

William E. Wallace -  Hangman's Dozen (2016) (4.5)


G. B. Williams - Locked Up (2017) (3)

Lawrence Block - Keller on the Spot (1998) (4.5)

Lawrence Block - Keller's Horoscope (2001) (4)

David Putnam - The Innocents (2018) (4.5)

Lawrence Block - Sinner Man (1968/2016) (4.5)

Kevin Berg - Indifference (2016) (4.5)


Joe R. Lansdale - Briar Patch Boogie (2016) (4.5)

Lawrence Block - Keller's Therapy (2013) (4)

Nick Kolakowski - A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps (2017) (4.5)

Lesley Welsh - In the Blood (2018) (4.5)

Jeffrey Archer - The Man Who Robbed His Own Post Office (2007) (4)

Graham Smith - Past Echoes (2018) (4)


Lawrence Block - Keller in Des Moines (2016) (5)

Lawrence Block - Keller the Dogkiller (2016) (4.5)

Dissecting the month to the nth degree.....

11 x 4.5 STAR READS...... Lawrence Block x 4, Paul Heatley, Nick Kolakowski, Lesley Welsh, Kevin Berg, Joe R. Lansdale, William E. Wallace, David Putnam

6 x 4 STAR READS.....Lawrence Block x 3, Christopher Davis, Graham Smith and Jeffrey Archer.

1 x 3 STAR READ ..... enjoyable, but not without a few niggles - G.B. Williams and Locked Up

19 reads from 12 different authors, 8 from Lawrence Block

7 of the 12 were new-to-me authors....... Kevin Berg, William E. Wallace, Christopher Davis, Lesley Welsh, Nick Kolakowski, G.B. Williams and Jeffrey Archer - though I may have read Archer about 30 years ago.

I have more on the pile from William E. Wallace, Christopher Davis and Nick Kolakowski (well I did, but I've since read his second book - Slaughterhouse Blues.)

5 authors have been read and enjoyed before - Lawrence Block and Joe R. Lansdale - numerous times, David Putnam (4), Graham Smith (2), Paul Heatley (3) and

I have more on the TBR pile from all of them.

Gender analysis -  mostly male authors, 2 females - Lesley Welsh and G.B. Williams....... despite assertions that I'm going to correct the imbalance in my reading, I never do.

I believe of the 12 authors I read, 5 are English, and 7 hail from the US.

All 19 of the reads were fiction - 8 novels and 1 collection of short stories, 10 reads were less than 100 pages long

One of the books - Sinner Man - the re-discovered Lawrence Block originated from the 60s, one of the reads was penned in the 90s -  a Block - Keller episode.

4 reads were from the 2000s, the other 13 from this decade - including three 2018 books and three from 2017.

10 of the 19 books were accessed via a Kindle Unlimited trial, 2 were review copies made available from the publisher - Bloodhound Books, 2 came from the authors, 4 were pre-owned with the last accessed free through iBooks and finished off via Amazon Freebie purchase.

Favourite cover? Sinner Man - Lawrence Block

Second favourite – Nick Kolakowski's A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps




My reads were this long 85 - 43- 186 - 72 - 155 - 288 - 30 - 47 - 324 - 240 - 308 - 56 - 38 - 134 - 300 - 42 - 348 - 30 -35

Total page count = 2761  (2323 in December)....... a 400 page increase

16 and a half Kindle reads, 1/2 a read on my phone, 1 PDF and 1 trade paperback ARC.

7 < 50,
3 between 51 < 100,
3 between 101 < 200,
3 between 201 < 300,
3 between 301 < 400,
0 > 400 pages

Graham Smith's Past Echoes was the longest read at 348 pages.

A couple of Lawrence Block - Keller's the shortest at 30 pages each - Keller on the Spot and Keller in Des Moines