Tag: Orenda Books
I'm really excited that Deep Dark Night – book four in the Lori Anderson thriller series – will be out in paperback next week.
In advance of the launch, my publisher Orenda Books has made this fab trailer 🙂
I'm thrilled to announce that book four in the Lori Anderson thriller series – Deep Dark Night – is published in ebook now!
This book sees Lori and JT head to the city of Chicago to do a job for FBI Special Agent Monroe but, as always, things don't go to plan. Here's the blurb…
A CITY IN DARKNESS. A BUILDING IN LOCKDOWN. A SCORE THAT CAN ONLY BE SETTLED IN BLOOD…
Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.
An exclusive high-stakes poker game is arranged in the penthouse suite of one of the city's tallest buildings, with Lori holding the cards in an agreed arrangement to hand over the pieces. But, as night falls and the game plays out, stakes rise and tempers flare.
When a power failure plunges the city into darkness, the building goes into lockdown. But this isn't an ordinary blackout, and the men around the poker table aren't all who they say they are. Hostages are taken, old scores resurface and the players start to die.
And that's just the beginning…
Find out more over on Amazon here:
UK: Deep Dark Night on kindle
US: Deep Dark Night on kindle
Fancy lunch with Lee Child and me? Here's how… #crimefiction #comp #win
To celebrate the publication of Deep Dirty Truth my awesome publishers are running a very cool prize – lunch for two in London with my writing hero, Lee Child, and me.
Sound like your sort of thing? If so, here's how to enter…
#DeepDirtyTruth Blog Tour starts today!
I'm super excited that my latest Lori Anderson thriller will be published in paperback later this month.
To celebrate the paperback launch (and that you can grab the ebook for just 99p on Kindle UK and Kobo this month) a fabulous blog tour kicks off today.
So make you hop on the tour bus and don't miss any of these fabulous blogs…
BARGAIN ALERT: DEEP DOWN DEAD 99c and DEEP BLUE TROUBLE 99p on #Kindle now!
If you're looking for a new read, two of my Lori Anderson bounty hunter thrillers are 99p/99c on Amazon Kindle until the end of the month, and they'd make great fast-paced beach reads for your summer holidays.
IF YOU'RE IN THE US and CANADA:
DEEP DOWN DEAD: Book 1 in the Lori Anderson bounty hunter thriller series is available on Kindle in the US & Canada for the bargain price of 99c until the end of June.
A finalist for the eDunnit ebook of the Year award, Dead Good Reader Choice Most Fearless Female Character award, and a nominee for the ITW Best First Book Award at Thrillerfest next month – it's a fast-paced, high octane thriller perfect for fans of Lee Child, Zoe Sharp and Alexandra Sokoloff. Find out more on Amazon by clicking here: DEEP DOWN DEAD
IF YOU'RE IN THE UK:
DEEP BLUE TROUBLE: Book 2 in the Lori Anderson thriller series sees single mom bounty hunter, Lori, return to take an off-the-books job from FBI Special Agent Monroe to track down an escaped convict heading for Mexico. Full of action and suspense, Deep Blue Trouble has been getting fabulous reviews from readers, reviewers and bloggers in the UK and beyond.
Perfect for fans of Mason Cross, Lee Child, and Zoe Sharp, you can grab it now in the UK Kindle store for just 99p until the end of June. Find out more on Amazon UK by clicking here: DEEP BLUE TROUBLE
CTG's #threewordbookreviews – THE OLD YOU by LOUISE VOSS
Today in my feature series – three word book reviews – I'm reviewing THE OLD YOU, a psychological thriller from crime writer Louise Voss. The Old You will be published in May 2018 by Orenda Books.
My verdict: INGENIOUS. TWISTY. SECRETS.
To find out more and pre-order the book in ebook and paperback click this link to AMAZON
THE LAST RESORT – A LORI ANDERSON SHORT STORY – IS OUT NOW! #CrimeFiction
If you're looking for a Lori and JT fix before the next book in the Lori Anderson thriller series – DEEP BLUE TROUBLE – comes out later this year don't fear!
You can download a Lori short story – THE LAST RESORT – that goes back in time to when Lori was training with JT and learning the bounty hunting business.
Here's what the blurb says:
"Done with a life of exploitation and violence, Lori Anderson is training to be a bounty hunter. Holed up in the Georgia Mountains with her reclusive mentor, JT, Lori is determined to put her new skills into practice. Behind JT's back, she breaks his rules and grabs the chance she's looking for. Will her gamble pay off, or will she have to learn the hard way?
The Last Resort is the first in the Rookie Bounty Hunter series of short stories, marking the nail-biting start to a high-octane series of thrillers featuring one of the most unforgettable and fearless female protagonists in crime fiction."
It also includes a free extract of DEEP DOWN DEAD, book one in the Lori Anderson Series.
I've been totally blown away by the fabulous crime fiction bloggers and reviewers who've read and shared their thoughts on THE LAST RESORT – here's what they're saying:
"Raw, edgy and a real page turner – the short story will satisfy your urges" Noelle @nholten40 – read full review on CrimeBookJunkie here
"What a start to the day! We all need a bit of Lori Anderson's courage and determination" Christine @northernlass73 – read full review on Northern Crime here
"Broadribb has a tough vulnerability that really draws you in. I think she's a superstar on the rise" Craig @craigsisterson – read full review on Kiwi Crime blog here
"A punchy, fast paced short story and I absolutely loved it. More please!" Emma @damppebbles – read full review on damppebbles.com here
"Ooh Lawdy, how it all began (think I need a nap). Great prequel to Deep Down Dead." Sandy @rowingwabbit – read full review on Goodreads here
Fancy a Lori and JT fix?
CLICK HERE to hop on over to Amazon.com to buy and download THE LAST RESORT
GIRLS ON TOP: SEX IN CRIME FICTION (PART 1) with STEPH BROADRIBB & SJI HOLLIDAY #GirlsOnTop
Today it's time for something a little different. Susi (SJI) Holliday and me, in conjunction with CrimeTime, have been thinking about sex in crime fiction. You can read our thoughts in a few places – the first half of our conversation here on the CTG blog, the second half over on Susi's blog HERE, and the full article over on the CrimeTime website HERE
Once you've had a read, we'd love to know your thoughts – do you like a sprinkling of sex with your crime? And, if you do, what's the most memorable sex scene in a crime thriller for you? Tweet us at @crimethrillgirl and @SJIHolliday using hashtag #GirlsOnTop to let us know.
[STEPH] Let's talk about sex. Sex in crime fiction, specifically. Okay, so I'll go first – I'm not embarrassed – there's a couple of sex scenes in my debut novel DEEP DOWN DEAD. One is more of a cut away as the action happens, but the other one, towards the end of the book, is very much the action as it happens; my protagonist Lori Anderson riding a male character cowgirl style. I put it in because the scene felt right for the story and (I hope) conveys something about the characters, adding additional conflict and raising the emotional stakes of the decisions they're about to make and the (negative) consequences they could have for their relationship. That's a whole lot of subtext to put on a sex scene, but that's my rationale.
Back when I was starting to write my novel, I was told that sex and crime fiction don't mix, but that doesn't seem quite right to me. I can think of memorable sex scenes in the crime thriller genre like Lee Child's The Affair – Jack Reacher has sex as a train thunders along the tracks – and that chilling sex scene in Gone Girl between Amy and Desi – the book, and the slightly more bloody film version! But, now I think about it, I can't think of many detective stories that have sex scenes playing out in full in them unless the sex itself is the crime to be solved. Surely there must be more and my memory is just playing tricks on me? To help, I've enlisted crime writer S.J.I. Holliday – author of the Banktoun series – to answer the question, do sex and detective fiction mix?
[SUSI] I really don't see why not. When you ask people about this, you get very mixed responses. Readers (in general) are absolutely fine with serial killers, blood, gore, death and destruction. But throw a blow job in there and they're skimming the pages faster than a quickie in the stationery cupboard.
The Slice Girls [L-R]: Alexandra Sokoloff, Steph Broadribb, AK Benedict, Louise Voss, Susi Holliday, Harley Jane Kozak
Personally, I love a bit of sex. Slotted in at the right time, it can help add to the tension of your story, especially if the characters are having sex with people they shouldn't. In all three of my books, there is a hint of sex – an encounter reminiscent of 9½ Weeks on a kitchen table in BLACK WOOD, where various food items are strewn around the kitchen… In WILLOW WALK, there's a first-timer's sex scene down by the river which I thought was quite touching (so to speak) and entirely relevant to the plot. There's actually less sex in THE DAMSELFLY than in the other two. A thwarted BJ and an illicit scene in a lock-up that's kept mainly off the page. It totally depends on the story. It definitely shouldn't be shoehorned in if it doesn't advance the plot.
[STEPH] Seems like Susi and me are on the same page about sex-on-the-page, but what about other crime writers, what do they think? We asked a few to find out.
Neil White – From the Shadows (Bonnier Zaffre) – said, 'Never written a sex scene. Too buttoned up. My mum will read it' and Mason Cross – The Time To Kill (Orion) – said, 'I've only included PG13 sex scenes so far, although I may need to change that for plot reasons in the new one. But Jeez, my dad reads these!' So it could be the fear of family members reading intimate scenes is in the forefront of some writers's minds (and limits them going all the way) but that's not all. Chris Ewan – Long Time Lost (Faber) – said, 'I almost wrote one yesterday and then … just cut away again. Performance anxiety.'
It also depends on the character. James Oswald – Written In Bones (Penguin) – said, 'I don't put much sex in my books. Tony McLean is incredibly repressed anyway, so there's that too … on the other hand there's auto-erotic asphyxiation and death by priapism in my latest, so maybe I do write sex after all.'
Andy Martin – Reacher Said Nothing (Transworld) – said, 'Sad to say there are few explicit sex scenes of note in Reacher Said Nothing. I only looked over Lee Child's shoulder while he was writing Make Me. I think there is the occasional manly handshake. But Lee – as straight as a die – had some wry remarks to make on the subject. "Never sleep with someone you know," still resonates in my mind. And more recently he said that the most erotic experience he had ever had was a brief encounter on a train. They shared a moment but had no actual language in common. I think I may have been influenced by Childean minimalism, that "zero degree" of writing recommended by Roland Barthes. I was at a Norman Mailer writers colony in Wyoming recently when a brilliant Indian writer devised an elaborate sex scene about a dozen pages long. I wrote one, rather shorter, that went like this: "We had sex." It's not exactly lyrical or spiritual but it gets the job done.'
It seems, from the guys we spoke to, that male crime thriller writers generally prefer not to write on-the-page sex and to cut away before the act takes place. Mark Edwards – The Devil's Work (Thomas & Mercer) – bucks this trend, he wants more sex in crime fiction, and said, 'we Brits are notoriously squeamish when it comes to the squelchy bits. Wouldn't it be nice if more of our great detectives were as skillful in bed as they are at solving crimes? Don't you think there should be more people handcuffed to beds in thrillers because they like being handcuffed to beds?'
To find out what the female crime writers thought, why Susi hates 'panties' and what the trick to writing a good sex scene is, hop over to Susi's blog HERE then come find us on Twitter @crimethrillgirl and @SJIHolliday and tell us your thoughts on sex in crime fiction using hashtag #GirlsOnTop
And check out the article in full on Barry Forshaw's CrimeTime at www.crimetime.co.uk and check out his Rough Guide to Crime Fiction here
Buy DEEP DOWN DEAD by Steph Broadribb here
Buy THE DAMSELFLY by SJI Holliday here
And you can buy books by our contributing authors by clicking the book titles below:
Neil White – From the Shadows (Bonnier Zaffre)
Mason Cross – The Time To Kill (Orion)
Chris Ewan – Long Time Lost (Faber)
James Oswald – Written In Bones (Penguin)
Andy Martin – Reacher Said Nothing (Transworld)
Mark Edwards – The Devil's Work (Thomas & Mercer)
More about Steph and Susi:
Steph Broadribb is an alumni of the MA Creative Writing at City University London and trained as a bounty hunter in California. Her debut novel DEEP DOWN DEAD is out now. Find out more at www.crimethrillergirl.com right here!
S.J.I. (Susi) Holliday grew up near Edinburgh and now lives in London. She works as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry and writes books set in a creepy and claustrophobic small town in Scotland where the crime rate is apparently higher than in New York. BLACK WOOD, WILLOW WALK and THE DAMSELFLY are a mix of psychological thriller and detective fiction, featuring the terminally unlucky in love, Sergeant Davie Gray. You can find out more at www.sjiholliday.com
CTG HITS THE ROAD: STEPH BROADRIBB TALKS DEEP DOWN DEAD (AND MORE!)
February 3, 2017 February 2, 2017 2 Comments
I'm thrilled to have been invited to speak on panels at a whole bunch of fabulous crime writing events and festivals this year. While some of the details are still being finalised, I thought I'd give you a heads up on where I'll be heading between now and May.
Hopefully see you there …
6 FEBRUARY at 6.30pm – FIRST MONDAY CRIME at BROWNS, THE JUDGE'S COURT, LONDON
Panel with M.R. Hall, David Young, Sheena Kamal and Steph Broadribb, chaired by Barry Forshaw
Details: https://www.goldsborobooks.com/event/february-first-monday/
28 FEBRUARY at 6.30pm – INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION EVENT at WATERSTONES LIVERPOOL 1
Orenda Books Roadshow with Kati Hiekkapelto, Michael J. Malone, Antti Tuomainen, Louise Beech, Steph Broadribb, Matt Johnson and Matt Wesolowski
Details: https://www.waterstones.com/events/join-us-for-an-evening-of-international-crime-fiction-writing-with-the-orenda-roadshow/liverpool
11 MARCH at 8.15pm – AYE WRITE, GLASGOW
3 Slices of Crime panel with SJI Holliday, Russel McLean and Steph Broadribb chaired by Gordon Brown
Details: http://www.ayewrite.com/Pages/default.aspx
25 MARCH – DEAL NOIR, KENT
Panel details tbc
Details: https://dealnoir.wordpress.com/
29/30 APRIL – NEWCASTLE NOIR FESTIVAL
Details: http://newcastlenoir.blogspot.co.uk/
18-21 MAY – CRIMEFEST, BRISTOL
Details: http://www.crimefest.com/
#RUPTURE Blog Tour: Ragnar Jonasson's book launch in a deserted fjord
February 1, 2017 January 30, 2017 Leave a comment
Photo credit: Tomas Jonasson
This evening I'm thrilled to be joined by Icelandic crime writer Ragnar Jonasson whose latest book RUPTURE is out now with Orenda Books. The book is already published in Iceland, and Ragnar's popped by to talk about its rather unusual launch.
Over to Ragnar …
In 2012, Rupture was published in Iceland (as Rof). In Iceland, I usually have a traditional book launch at a downtown bookstore in Reykjavik, and we did just that for Rupture, but then I also had a bit of a crazy idea. I suggested to my publishers that we would do a second book launch in Héðinsfjörður, a fjord next to Siglufjordur, in the northernmost part of Iceland, where the book is set (actually the first crime novel ever to be set in this beautiful location).
Héðinsfjörður, in terms of its natural beauty, is of course an ideal spot for a launch, but there was this one downside; the fjord hasn't been inhabited since 1951, so no-one lives there. But we decided to go for it, and I drove up north in the middle of winter ahead of the scheduled launch date, and those who may have read Snowblind know that Siglufjordur and neighbouring areas can be very unpredictable in terms of weather in the winter! So that was the second challenge, preferably to avoid any snowstorms.
When we arrived there, it turned out that the weather was actually incredibly good, still and bright. But would someone actually show up? Well, it wouldn't be just me, because my parents, my brother and brother-in-law had joined me, but I was fully prepared to read a bit from the book to just them. Incredibly, though, people started showing up. Some from Siglufjordur, and some even further away, from Akureyri for example (the capital of the north, featured in Blackout) – and in the end we had about 40 people there listening to the reading. Needless to say, this was the first ever book launch in Héðinsfjörður!
RUPTURE is the fourth book in the fantastic Ari Thor series. Here's the blurb: "1955. Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Héðinsfjörður. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances. The case is never solved. Fifty years later an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couples may not have been alone on the fjord after all. In nearby Siglufjordur, young policeman Ari Thor tries to piece together what really happened that fateful night, in a town where no one wants to know, where secrets are a way of life. He's assisted by Isrun, a news reporter in Reykjavik, who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town of Siglufjordur in quarantine, the past might just come back to haunt them. Haunting, frightening and complex, Rupture is a dark and atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland's foremost crime writers."
RUPTURE is out now, you can buy it from Amazon here
And be sure to follow Ragnar on Twitter @ragnarjo