Leopold Borstinski's Blog, page 27
June 14, 2019
History mystery and other thrills
I’d like to offer you a fresh opportunity for some free books. This time, their connecting theme is that they are all historical stories, set no later than the 1960s. There’s quite a mix of different types of tales so hopefully you’ll find something of interest.
Fill your boots. You know it makes sense.
June 7, 2019
Little Known Purple Fact
I found out an interesting fact while I’ve been researching The Eastside Hustler, the second book in my Alex Cohen series…
In between the world wars, there was a Detroit gang who were part of the St Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago 1929 and they were called the Purple Gang. As violent a bunch of guys and you’d be scared to meet in the middle of the day, let alone on a dark night.
Oh, you think. And here is the interesting fact: there is a reference to the Purple Gang on Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.
Chill ‘n’ Thrill with no Pill Skill
Here is another collection of free books to grab what you want. They are all free and are mystery, chilling and thrilling stories so hopefully you’ll be able to find something of interest to download and read. This set of tales is online until the end of June so, as ever, get the novels that grab your fancy. I hope you enjoy.
History Repeats Itself (Burp)
I hope you are having a lovely week and now we are at the weekend, here is an opportunity to grab a bunch of free books. What’s the connection? Simple – all the stories are set in the past just like my prequel novella, The Stickup, which is on the list.
They are going to be available for the whole of June but I always advise people to grab their copies soonest so you don’t forget. Fill those boots of yours!
June 1, 2019
Image of a grave in my head
Quick update on what I’ve been up to this last week…
I’ve been editing the first story in the Alex Cohen series in preparation to hand it over to my editor, Melanie Underwood. The good news is that I spotted several howlers including duplicate character names aplenty.
As I am getting to the end of this task, my mind has hurtled forwards to the next book in the series and the opening scene. Without wishing to issue spoilers on my own series before I’ve even published a single page, suffice to say, I’ve been pondering how to kick off the novel and I am currently drawn to this: my main character stands in a cemetery and stares at his own grave.
Who knows if it’ll last the course, but it would be a great start to a story, don’t you think? Let me know if you think a gangster tale should begin that way.
May 31, 2019
Boot filling options: click here
Another opportunity for free stuff.
This time it is a single UK-based thriller from Ben Westerham called Good Investigations. The deal is simple – and not that unusual: you can get his book in exchange for signing up to his newsletter. What you do after that is entirely up to you.
Here are some brief details about the story with more available from the link above:
She’s blonde. She’s clever. She’s in his office. Private investigator David Good doesn’t stand a chance.
Dark Remnants for you
Here is a tense thriller for less than a cup of coffee for an author friend of mine. The book is called Dark Remnants and here are some details…
Kyra knows one thing for certain…
Cops are trouble. Especially handsome detectives with kind voices and beautiful eyes.
So when her conscience just won’t shut the hell up, and convinces her to corner one such cop in a dark parking lot to tell him what she’s learned, she can just feel this won’t be the end of it.
She doesn’t have time to worry about it, though. She has gangsters to piss off, homicidal gangs to infiltrate, and people to search for. Yes, this is Kyra’s life. The endgame is worth it, though. If she lives long enough to attain it.
Join Kyra and Gabe in a pulse-pounding chase through Abstreuse City to find a killer and save a child before it’s too late.
Because everyone loves good cop meets mysterious woman meets serial killer. And darkness lives in us all.
May 24, 2019
Death is not the end (of the detective)
I thought I’d spend a couple of minutes of your time talking about what I’ve been up to since the start of the year.
The release of Mama’s Gone, the final book in the Lagotti Family series, launched in March to critical acclaim and I also had a record sales month. So thank you if you were kind enough to buy the novel.
From January I started work on a female sleuth story featuring Becky Greene. I’ve previously talked about this and won’t repeat myself again. I have also mentioned I was finding this a tough tale to get written and, two weeks ago, I decided to shelve the damn thing. The first draft was four months of my time and I was only halfway through when normally I would have completed the first draft with a month to spare.
I can’t begin to describe the weight that lifted from my shoulders the instant I made the decision to jettison the parachute and go into freefall. The first thing I did was to think how I could reuse the characters I had already invented and then I settled down to edit two books which I hadn’t finished getting ready for publication. The first is a stand-alone story – a steamy thriller involving financial crime set in the UK and the second is the first book in a new series, set in the US. The lead character is Alex Cohen and we will follow his life from 1915 when he arrives in Ellis Island through to the end of the 1970s.
Both books will launch September to November this year and Alex sequels will drop in 2020 and 2021. Of course, my latest release, The Case goes live on Amazon on June 23 and can be picked up now. It’s in paperback too if you prefer a more hard copy feel to your heading.
Light-hearted relief in a book
Today I’d like to let you know about Naan of your Business, a funny book from a writer friend of mine, Jack Roach. Here’s the details of this new-launch novel…
Too shy to reply? The Comeback Kid will do it for you!
In this hilarious take on the modern-day detective story, Frank “The Comeback Kid” Davenport has made a cozy living finishing arguments for people too embarrassed to speak up for themselves. But when a beautiful young woman hires him to tell off her dad, he quickly discovers that this job will be unlike any he’s had before. If he’s going to finish it, the unlikely sleuth will have to hunt her father down himself. The only problem? Ruthless killers are also looking for him, and now Frank is in their sights. His only hope is to find out why the dad skipped town before Frank’s life, career, and floundering love life are ruined.
Fans of Douglas Adams and Christopher Moore will love this uproarious thrill ride.
Fill your boots.
May 17, 2019
Great novels going cheap
If you’ve got a buck hanging around loose in your pocket you could do much worse than spend it on a book in the Felony Books $0.99 sale, which is running now until the end of May. It contains a bunch of top reads for not much outlay (unless you buy everything on the page I suppose).
As ever, this is a boot-filling chance for you and your eReader to enjoy some page-turning moments on the privacy of your couch or favourite armchair. I don’t judge.
Enjoy.
