Robert McClure's Blog, page 3

Robert McClure presents Deadly Lullaby to crime fiction fans at Bouchercon 2015

Robert McClure , author of Deadly Lullaby , is on the return trip from Bouchercon 2015 , the world’s largest crime fiction conference, held this year in Raleigh, North Carolina.  McClure views this year’s Bouchercon conference as his most enjoyable yet.  The highlights included special sessions that Bouchercon planners arranged for new authors to introduce themselves and their book to hundreds of crime fiction fans.  One such session, called “Speed Dating”, allowed authors to personally interact with 90 crime fiction fans, six at a time over a 2-hour period.  McClure was gratified to meet one of his new fans after that session, when the fan recognized him the next day in the conference hotel’s elevator.  After telling McClure in the midst of others on the elevator how much she liked Deadly Lullaby , she whipped out a black Sharpie pen and asked him to autograph the back of her metallic eReader.  This gal now has the very first in-person autograph by Robert McClure — we hope it’s worth something someday!
McClure also met up with Robert Pepin , the editor and French translator of Deadly Lullaby, in preparation for publication by Calmann-Levy in France in hardback, paperback and digital in 2016.  More to come about this and other highlights from McClure’s ventures at Bouchercon 2015 after he returns home.  Stay tuned!
Deadly Lullaby: A Thriller , by Robert McClure, published as an eBook by Penguin-Random House and its thriller and mystery imprint Alibi, is available from any of the following digital book retailers:

Download it today for only $2.99!
Filed under: Bouchercon 2015 Tagged: Bouchercon 2015, Calmann-Levy, Crime Fiction Thrillers, French translation of novel, Robert McClure

Deadly Lullaby by Robert McClure featured on Plain Talk BM

The virtual book tour for crime fiction thriller, Deadly Lullaby , published by Penguin-Random House, made a stop with Plain Talk BM yesterday for an interview with its author, Robert McClure.   In his Plain Talk BM interview, titled “10Q with Robert McClure“, McClure describes his writing journey, starting with law school.  There, he published a few scholarly articles, one titled “Thy Shalt Not Kill (Thy Spouse): A Recent Exception to the ERISA Pre-emption Doctrine,” which McClure says, “should have given me a clue where it was all headed . . . .” 
McClure talks about the day his wife insisted he quit his busy law practice for a little while to focus on his fiction writing.  He met success not long afterward with publication of his first short story.  This was followed by other short stories that eventually led to novel writing.  In the interview, McClure describes the different challenge posed by novel writing. 
When asked what readers can take away from Deadly Lullaby , McClure says:

Babe Crucci, one of my two protagonists, poses the life theme very early on in the book, something he says he “knows beyond all else”: “A son is the product of his father’s labors—or the lack thereof—and for that reason a father’s love for his son depends on nothing except that his son is his son.”  

The virtual book tour for Deadly Lullaby kicked off on September 22, 2015, and continues through October 22, 2015.  Other stops on the Deadly Lullaby virtual tour about which we previously posted include:
♥  BooksChatter interview of McClure, where he provides some insight into the inspiration for this father-son suspense thriller and its characters (click here )
♥  The Compelling Beasts , which posts an interview of McClure where he describes a “witching” experience as a child with a famous villain character (click here )
♥  Literary Musings, which also interviewed McClure where he talks about where he gets his ideas, which he described to his daughter’s first grade class shortly after publication of Harlan’s Salvation in 2004, which was later recognized by Best American Mystery Stories 2005 (click here).

For the complete virtual book tour schedule, click here.

Deadly Lullaby: A Thriller , by Robert McClure, published as an eBook by Penguin-Random House and its thriller and mystery imprint Alibi, is available from any of the following digital book retailers:

Download it today for only $2.99!
Filed under: Crime Fiction Novels Tagged: crime fiction novel, Deadly Lullaby, father-son stories, Plain Talk BM, Robert McClure, the writing process, Virtual book tours

“Babe Crucci” of Deadly Lullaby is signing autographs for his readers

We have added Authorgraph to this website for readers who would like a personalized autograph from “Babe Crucci” or Robert McClure , the author of Deadly Lullaby .  Authorgraph is intended to work with multiple eReaders.  Our testing of it has only been with Kindle (the device or the app) and with iBooks on iPhone.  In so far as the ability to download your signed Authorgraph into an eReader, it appears to work best with Kindle.  If you use an eReader other than Kindle, and even with Kindle, you can save a PDF image of the Authorgraph to your data storage or memory device.
To get an autograph, simply click on the Authorgraph image at the beginning of this post or on the Authorgraph button on any webpage in this website and you will be taken directly to Robert McClure’s  webpage in Authorgraph.  Once there, you can request him to sign an autograph and even request that it come with a personal note if you choose.  If you are new to Authorgraph, you will be taken through a few extra steps to set up an account and verify your e-mail address.
If you would like additional information about the Authorgraph autograph process, we lay it all out for you in the rest of this post.  As a bonus near the end, we’ve added instruction on how to “Create a Collection” of autographed Authorgraphs from eBook authors on your Kindle device. 
NOTE: Babe Crucci’s technogoobs tried out the Authorgraph with their Kindles and found the process to be really easy — so do not be alarmed by the length of instructions below, which are there for those who like an overview of things before diving in.  Babe says, “Dive on in!”

Look for Request Autograph and the Authorgraph button on this webpage.  If you are on a desktop, you’ll find this in the top right sidebar of the page.  If you are on a mobile device, scroll to the end of this blog post where you will find the “Request Autograph” button.  Clicking on the Authorgraph button takes you directly to the Authorgraph webpage displaying the Deadly Lullaby book cover.
Under the book cover, click “Request Authorgraph”.
Type a personal message to Robert McClure if you want and submit.
You are then prompted to set up an Authorgraph account, which helps protect the author’s email inbox from spam and also allows you to search for other eBook authors from whom you  may want an autograph.  Enter your name (first name, pseudonym, etc.) and a valid email address.
Important: Go to your email and open the email from Authorgraph and click “Verify your email address”.   This step is necessary to ensure that email requests that authors receive for autographs are legitimate and are not spam, etc.  Verification of your email will take you back to the Authorgraph website where you will complete the set-up of your Authorgraph account, which enables you to receive the signed book cover from the author. 
Enter a password and click next.  (Remember your password – you will need it later to access all the Authorgraphs that you collect from eBook authors.)
Select “Your primary reading device” from the drop down menu (e.g., Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo, Other) and click on “Update”.
When Robert has completed your Authorgraph request, you will receive an email notification from Authorgraph.com.  Open the Authorgraph.com email on the device with your eReader if you can access your email there.  Alternatively, if you have a browser on your eReader, go to http://www.authorgraph.com, log-in, click the drop down menu under your name, and click on Your Collections where you will be able to open and download the Authorgraph into your Kindle  or Kindle mobile app.  (NOTE:  If you open the email or log-in to Authorgraph from your desktop or a device not containing your eReader, you can save the Authorgraph to a PDF file, however, the feature for downloading the Authorgraph directly to your Kindle will not work.  You must open the email or the Authorgraph within the website or email from your eReader device.)
When you open the Authorgraph , an image similar to the following will appear (NOTE: We’ve had some feedback on the signature below.  Babe saw it and said, “Hey, that looks like chicken s#*!  It’s a good thing the manuscript was not written in long hand.”  McClure promises to do better.) Click on Download to Kindle and, on the next screen, click Open in Kindle and Voila!, the signed Authorgraph now appears next to the Deadly Lullaby eBook in your Kindle.

Collections in Kindle.  The Authorgraph can be moved from the Kindle Books list to a “Collection” within Kindle that you can create just for author’s autographs.  This might be preferred by readers who collect multiple Authorgraphs from authors.  The following illustrates, using an iPhone, how to create an Authorgraph Collection within Kindle and how to move a downloaded Authorgraph into that Collection.

Open the Menu in Kindle and select Collections:
Click the plus + sign in the circle in the upper right corner to create a new Collection.  You might name it Autographs or Authorgraphs.
Click on your new Authorgraphs Collections box to open it and then click on the plus + sign and select the Authorgraph to add to this Collection.  You will now see the Authorgraph inside your  Authorgraphs Collections box.
Click the “x” in the upper right corner to minimize this Collection and enable access to the Kindle Menu where you can select the Books list.

You’re done!  Enjoy your autograph via Authorgraphs!


Deadly Lullaby is available as an eBook from any of the following digital retailers:

Order it today for only $2.99!
Filed under: eBook Autographs Tagged: Authorgraphs, Deadly Lullaby, eBook autographs

“Babe Crucci” of Deadly Lullaby is signing autographs for his readers

We have added Authorgraph to this website for readers who would like a personalized autograph from Robert McClure , author of Deadly Lullaby .  Although Authorgraph purports to work with multiple eReaders, thus far, it seems to work best with Kindle (the actual device or the app) in so far as the ability to download the completed Authorgraph into an eReader. If you use an eReader other than Kindle, and even with Kindle, you can save a PDF image of the Authorgraph to your computer.
If you already have an Authorgraph account, you need only click on the Authorgraph button on this webpage to be taken directly to Robert McClure’s Authorgraph webpage where you can request him to sign an autograph and even send a personal note if you choose.  If you are new to Authorgraph, below are first time Authorgraph account set-up instructions. (NOTE: The author’s technogoobs tried this out and found this to be really easy — so do not be alarmed by these instructions, which are merely a fall back for those who like an overview of the process before launching into it.)

Look for Request Autograph and the Authorgraph button on this webpage.  If you are on a desktop, you’ll find this in the top right sidebar of the page.  If you are on a mobile device, scroll to the end of this blog post where you will find the “Request Autograph” button.  Clicking on the Authorgraph button takes you directly to the Authorgraph webpage displaying the Deadly Lullaby book cover.
Under the book cover, click “Request Authorgraph”.
Type a personal message to Robert McClure if you want and submit.
You are then prompted to set up an Authorgraph account, which helps protect the author’s email inbox from spam and also allows you to search for other eBook authors from whom you  may want an autograph.  Enter your name (first name, pseudonym, etc.) and a valid email address.
Important: Go to your email and open the email from Authorgraph and click “Verify your email address”.   This step is necessary to ensure that email requests that authors receive for autographs are legitimate and are not spam, etc.  Verification of your email will take you back to the Authorgraph website where you will complete the set-up of your Authorgraph account, which enables you to receive the signed book cover from the author. 
Enter a password and click next.  (Remember your password – you will need it later to access all the Authorgraphs that you collect from eBook authors.)
Select “Your primary reading device” from the drop down menu (e.g., Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo, Other) and click on “Update”.
When Robert has completed your Authorgraph request, you will receive an email notification from Authorgraph.com.  Open the Authorgraph.com email on the device with your eReader if you can access your email there.  Alternatively, if you have a browser on your eReader, go to http://www.authorgraph.com, log-in, click the drop down menu under your name, and click on Your Collections where you will be able to open and download the Authorgraph into your Kindle  or Kindle mobile app.  (NOTE:  If you open the email or log-in to Authorgraph from your desktop or a device not containing your eReader, you can save the Authorgraph to a PDF file, however, the feature for downloading the Authorgraph directly to your Kindle will not work.  You must open the email or the Authorgraph within the website or email from your eReader device.)
When you open the Authorgraph , an image similar to the following will appear:  Click on Download to Kindle and, on the next screen, click Open in Kindle and Voila!, the signed Authorgraph now appears next to the Deadly Lullaby eBook in your Kindle.

Collections in Kindle.  The Authorgraph can be moved from the Kindle Books list to a “Collection” within Kindle that you can create just for author’s autographs.  This might be preferred by readers who collect multiple Authorgraphs from authors.  The following illustrates, using an iPhone, how to create an Authorgraph Collection within Kindle and how to move a downloaded Authorgraph into that Collection.

Open the Menu in Kindle and select Collections:
Click the plus + sign in the circle in the upper right corner to create a new Collection.  You might name it Autographs or Authorgraphs.
Click on your new Authorgraphs Collections box to open it and then click on the plus + sign and select the Authorgraph to add to this Collection.  You will now see the Authorgraph inside your  Authorgraphs Collections box.
Click the “x” in the upper right corner to minimize this Collection and enable access to the Kindle Menu where you can select the Books list.

You’re done!  Enjoy your autograph via Authorgraphs!


Deadly Lullaby is available as an eBook from any of the following digital retailers:

Order it today for only $2.99!
Filed under: eBook Autographs Tagged: Authorgraphs, Deadly Lullaby, eBook autographs

WAVE3News in “Derby City” features author of Deadly Lullaby

Robert McClure, Author of Deadly Lullaby

Connie Leonard of WAVE3 News in Louisville, Kentucky, provides the local flavor for recently released eBook, Deadly Lullaby , penned by Louisville’s home grown lawyer and author Robert McClure.  Here are some excerpts:

A present-day, crime-fiction thriller, Deadly Lullaby comes from the legal mind of Louisville native Robert McClure.  “A lot of people are going to see it and hopefully love it, ” McClure said.  A couple clicks of a mouse and we see they already are. Many reader reviews on several sites give four stars to McClure’s work.

* * * * *

The Murray State criminology major started building characters when he was a boy.

“I grew up right across the street from Churchill Downs,” he said. “My father was a gunsmith. He had a shop in our garage and later he moved the shop to 7th Street Road, which is notorious in its own right, back in those days.” The stories got better as the [duPont Manual High School] track athlete and football player matured. “I worked in dad’s shop and cops came in all the time and shady people came in, too,” he said.

To view Leonard’s full report, click here .  Deadly Lullaby is published by Penguin-Random House and its digital book imprint, Alibi. 
Available as an eBook from any of the following digital retailers:

Order it today for only $2.99!
Filed under: Crime Fiction Novel, Louisville KY Tagged: Crime Fiction Thrillers, Deadly Lullaby, father-son stories, Louisville Kentucky the Derby City, Robert McClure, Wave3News

Nice guy Robert McClure writes gritty father-son crime novel, Deadly Lullaby

Robert McClure with Ricky, the family pet

Robert McClure’s novel, Deadly Lullaby , is about family relationships.  McClure says, “family relationship is a timeless theme because they can be so rife with conflict.”  Although there is a lot going on in Deadly Lullaby—gangland politics, violence, murder mystery, romance, pure lust—at the core is a story about a man who loves his son.

Deadly Lullaby, a crime fiction thriller, is based on the acclaimed short story My Son previously published by McClure in ThugLit and later reprinted in Best American Mystery Stories 2009 .  The story is about a father, Babe, a career hitman for the mob, who yearns to have a relationship with his son, Leo, a police detective for the LAPD.  Serving two separate stints in prison as a result of his murderous profession has caused Babe to miss his son Leo’s formative years. 
Readers are safe to assume that Babe has some character flaws — he is, after all, a career hitman.  Leo with a career in law enforcement is not free of character flaws either — the first dilemma Babe faces is helping Leo settle his gambling debts to an individual in the very world of organized crime that Leo is sworn as a police officer to fight. 
What led McClure to tackle the challenge of converting his gritty father-son short story into a full length novel?  In an interview with BooksChatter , McClure credits his agent, Nat Sobel of Sobel-Weber, for selecting My Son as the basis for Deadly Lullaby , “a work that never would have happened without Nat coaching me through many drafts and never accepting a single sentence he didn’t consider to be the best I could form.” 
McClure talked about the challenge of making characters with human flaws likable or at least sympathetic in a recent interview with the book blog Compelling Beasts :

The unique feature about Deadly Lullaby is that most people would probably have a hard time finding a character in it who’s “good” in the traditional sense, including the two protagonists, Babe and Leo Crucci. From the very start, though, my goal in writing crime fiction has always been to create characters that thieve, kill and create other forms of mayhem who readers can’t help but love, and the guiltier the reader feels about it, the better. I feel like I accomplished that with Deadly Lullaby.

So do these characters come from actual life experiences?   McClure, a lawyer, devoted husband and father, says there’s not much in the plot of the book that he has experienced (to his relief and, no doubt, to his family’s).  McClure explains that although the characters in Deadly Lullaby are quite different than any in his own life, he has been up close to many seedy characters over the years, and not all of them in the course of practicing law.  McClure was born and raised in downtown Louisville, Ky., directly across the street from the backside of Churchill Downs Racetrack, the site of the Kentucky Derby.  His father’s gun shop, not far from his house, was in the heart of a notorious block that was then known for its strip clubs and prostitutes.

Growing up in the Churchill Downs neighborhood was a study in the characters that surround any race track–professional gamblers, bookies, bail bondsmen (one of the most notorious being the father of my then best friend), fences, pawnbrokers, loan sharks, prostitutes and pimps, hustlers of all stripes and nationalities, and cops. Lots of cops. All these people were my father’s customers, especially the detectives and patrolman who purchased their service weapons from us and often asked Dad to modify shotguns and handguns to their specifications. I hung out at Charlie’s [Gun Shop] often and worked the counter during summers when I hit 20 or so, and like my father grew to respect all these people, and I liked most of them.

For more about Robert McClure, the author of Deadly Lullaby ,  see the interview by Connie Leonard, reporter with WAVE3 News (click here), and the interviews by BooksChatter (click here) and Compelling Beasts (click here).
Deadly Lullaby, published as an eBook by Random House and its Alibi division, is available for download from:

Order it for only $2.99 today!
Filed under: Uncategorized

Deadly Lullaby: by Robert McClure — “a relentless thrill ride”

On October 1, 2015, the book blog, Mythical Books , featured excerpts from Deadly Lullaby by Robert McClure, published by Penguin-Random House. This tour stop was appropriately titled “a relentless thrill ride”.  Click here to visit the Mythical Books web welcome for Deadly Lullaby .  Thanks for hosting us yesterday! 

 Previous book blog tour stops:
♥  BooksChatter interview of Robert McClure, where he provides some additional insight into the inspiration for this father-son suspense thriller and its characters (click here).
♥  The Reader’s Hollow, of Books, Stories and Those Who Love Them, which posted an excerpt of the book (click here).
♥  I Heart Reading review by Majanka Verstraete, who says, ” I did enjoy this book. The writing is excellent, and the family relationship offers an interesting angle.” (click here)   
♥  Compelling Beasts Blog interview that elicited Robert McClure’s “witching” experience as a child involving a famous, fictional villain (click here).
Available as an eBook from any of the following digital retailers.  Order it today!

Filed under: Crime Fiction Novel Tagged: Crime Fiction Thrillers, Deadly Lullaby, Mythical Books, organized crime, Robert McClure

Next Stop on Virtual Book Tour for Deadly Lullaby: The Compelling Beasts Blog

The virtual book tour for crime fiction thriller, Deadly Lullaby, published by Penguin-Random House, kicked off on September 22, 2015, with I Heart Reading and runs through October 22, 2015.   Next up on the tour is an interview of author, Robert McClure, by the Compelling Beasts Blog, a blog dedicated to antagonists, antiheroes and other compelling beasts.  The interview elicits insight into McClure’s experiences contributing to his inspiration for the book, including a “witching” experience as a child involving a famous, fictional villain.  When asked to tell us a little more about the villains in Deadly Lullaby, McClure says: 

The unique feature about Deadly Lullaby is that most people would probably have a hard time finding a character in it who’s “good” in the traditional sense, including the two protagonists, Babe and Leo Crucci.  From the very start, though, my goal in writing crime fiction has always been to create characters that thieve, kill and create other forms of mayhem who readers can’t help but love, and the guiltier the reader feels about it, the better.

McClure then proceeds to outline additional, central characters, besides the father-son duo of Babe and Leo.  These include Italian mafia, an Asian drug lord, and a Russian mobster boss.  The Compelling Beasts Blog also includes an excerpt from McClure’s rollicking novel of family and felony.  To read the excerpt and the full interview, click here.

Other stops on the Deadly Lullaby virtual tour about which we previously posted include the BooksChatter interview of McClure, where he provides some additional insight into the inspiration for this father-son suspense thriller and its characters (click here).  The next stop on the tour about which we posted was with The Reader’s Hollow, of Books, Stories and Those Who Love Them, which posted an excerpt of the book (click here).

For the complete virtual book tour schedule, click here.

Deadly Lullaby: A Thriller , by Robert McClure, published as an eBook by Penguin-Random House and its thriller and mystery imprint Alibi, is available for only $2.99 from any of the following digital book retailers:

Babe and Leo say: “Get it today or you’ll be on our $#!* list”
Filed under: Crime Fiction Novel, Louisville KY Tagged: Compelling Beasts Blog, Crime Fiction Thrillers, organized crime, Robert McClure, Virtual book tours

WAVE3News in “Derby City” features author of Deadly Lullaby

Robert McClure, Author of Deadly Lullaby

Connie Leonard of WAVE3 News in Louisville, Kentucky, provides the local flavor for recently released eBook, Deadly Lullaby , penned by Louisville’s home grown lawyer and author Robert McClure.  Here are some excerpts:

A present-day, crime-fiction thriller, Deadly Lullaby comes from the legal mind of Louisville native Robert McClure.  “A lot of people are going to see it and hopefully love it, ” McClure said.  A couple clicks of a mouse and we see they already are. Many reader reviews on several sites give four stars to McClure’s work.

* * * * *

The Murray State criminology major started building characters when he was a boy.

“I grew up right across the street from Churchill Downs,” he said. “My father was a gunsmith. He had a shop in our garage and later he moved the shop to 7th Street Road, which is notorious in its own right, back in those days.” The stories got better as the [duPont Manual High School] track athlete and football player matured. “I worked in dad’s shop and cops came in all the time and shady people came in, too,” he said.

To view Leonard’s full report, click here .  Deadly Lullaby is published by Penguin-Random House and its digital book imprint, Alibi. 
Available as an eBook from any of the following digital retailers:

Order it today for only $2.99!
Filed under: Crime Fiction Novel, Louisville KY Tagged: Crime Fiction Thrillers, Deadly Lullaby, father-son stories, Louisville Kentucky the Derby City, Robert McClure, Wave3News

Deadly Lullaby by Robert McClure: Good thriller with interesting angle on family relationships

Deadly Lullaby: A Thriller by Robert McClure

The virtual book tour for Deadly Lullaby continues.  The tour made a stop yesterday for a book review by Majanka Verstraete of I Heart Reading, who says of Deadly Lullaby:

I really felt for Babe and Leo. Their relationship was so strained, and it was easy to see why but I still hoped they could make it work somehow. I don’t usually enjoy thrillers that focus on gang-related crime and crime lords that much, but I did enjoy this book. The writing is excellent, and the family relationship offers an interesting angle.

Majanka, age 24, has been blogging about books since 2010 and became an official reviewer for ind’Tale Magazine in September 2014.  She has a Master of Laws degree and is continuing her studies for a masters degree in criminology.  To read her entire review of Deadly Lullaby, click here.

Thanks for the review and recommendation Majanka!

Available as an eBook from any of the following digital retailers.  Order it today!

Filed under: Book Reviews, Crime Fiction Novel Tagged: Author Book Tour, Crime Fiction Thrillers, father-son stories, organized crime