Rebecca Cantrell's Blog, page 11

It depends on where you're sitting

NEWS: Busy week for A TRACE OF SMOKE. SMOKE is Thriller Book Club selection at dearreader.com:

http://www.supportlibrary.com/fm/shelf_main.cfm?win1=LLIST&id1=81&CFID=21947286&CFTOKEN=97892259

 

SMOKE also got a good review in the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper on Sunday:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906280314

 

Finally, SMOKE and I got a write up in the Hawaii Tribune:

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2009/06/26/features/features05.txt

 POST: Do I thi

Not a grown up job

Why do I read crime/mystery/thrillers?

The first part of the answer is: because I read everything. I read crime, mystery, thriller, literary, historical, some sci-fi, the occasional romance, film scripts, and nonfiction. If it’s printed, I read it. Probably some kind of weird compulsion I ought to see someone about.

Reading takes me to different worlds and different lives. I doubt I’ll ever climb Mount Everest, fall in love with a Scottish Highlander, or solve a tricky murder. But because of books

Favorite Criminal Mind

I am currently blogging over at 7criminalminds.blogspot.com with 6 other crime writers. I’ll be cross posting the blog entries here too.

My current favorite criminal mind is a guilty pleasure. I first met him a few years ago in a place I don’t usually hang out: TV. We had mutual friends, so I thought I’d give him a go in spite of my reservations. I Netflixed him.
I didn’t want to like him. He’s brutal, sadistic, and good at what he does. Even the people who do like him don’t want to. Because he do

Life is a cabaret!

Only 6 more days until A TRACE OF SMOKE hits the shelves. So far A TRACE OF SMOKE has been put on Deadly Pleasures “Best First Novel of 2009″ list, was a Writer’s Digest Notable Debut, an Elaine’s Pick at Book Passage, a First Pick from Barbara Peters at Poisoned Pen, a Top Pick from Romantic Times, a Fresh Pick from freshfiction.com, plus it received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly. For someone who had such a rough life, Hannah Vogel is having a great debut!

A Trace of Smoke, Excerpt 24

NEWS: ”A Trace of Smoke” receives starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.  

EXCERPT:

“You seem intent on hurling yourself down the stairs.”  He caught me easily and pushed his beautiful lips into a slow smile.  “Surely things cannot be so bad, young lady.”

No one had called me a young lady since before the war.  “Easy to say from inside such an expensive suit.”  I smiled back.

He retrieved my tattered sketchbook, open to the picture I’d drawn of him glaring at the rapist.  “A mas

A Trace of Smoke, Excerpt 23

NEWS: “A Trace of Smoke” is on page 25 of the March/April Writer’s Digest, on newsstands now. Wow!

 EXCERPT:
“You seem intent on hurling yourself down the stairs.”  He caught me easily and pushed his beautiful lips into a slow smile.  “Surely things cannot be so bad, young lady.”
No one had called me a young lady since before the war.  “Easy to say from inside such an expensive suit.”  I smiled back.
He retrieved my tattered sketchbook, open to the picture I’d drawn of him glaring at the rapist.  “A

A Trace of Smoke, Excerpt 22

CHAPTER 3

 On Friday, before I met him, I had sketched Boris in the courtroom.  At first he had looked tender as he’d bent to talk to Trudi. His look had been so touching that I had turned to a blank page.  I sketched broad strokes with my charcoal pencil, trying to capture the protective arc of his arm as it went around her shoulders, the tilt of his head toward her. His tailored navy blue suit sat on him like a second skin. I guessed he worked as a banker or a lawyer.  Someone used to money.  S

A Trace of Smoke Excerpt 21

The trial was wrapping up, so the curious were here to find out the verdict.  Luckily it was less full than the Kürten trial I’d recently covered in Düsseldorf.  For that one, people overflowed into the halls outside.

I put the box on my lap and automatically got my sketchbook ready, paging through sketches of the suspected rapist I’d drawn at the beginning of the trial.  Round and fat like a ball, he seemed more pathetic than sinister, but I’d tried to find a menacing angle for him.  He looked l

A Trace of Smoke Excerpt 20

Waiting for the train, I tapped the box, anxious to know what it contained, but I dared not pull anything out here.  What if Rudolf had stuffed expensive jewelry in there?  Or cocaine?  Or a bizarre sexual instrument?

I took the subway back toward the courthouse at Moabit, staring at my reflection in the window glass while the train careened through darkness.

I climbed endless courthouse steps and pushed open the absurdly tall doors designed to make us feel that law was a grand process and justice

A Trace of Smoke Excerpt 19

Still, Ernst thought those brown shirts and chocolate-colored shorts quite fetching.  He’d only dated much older men.  I had hoped that he would end up with a nice girl, in the end.  Loving men was dangerous, and I would have shielded him from that danger if I could, or had him not choose to go down that path.  But I knew that he had no choice.  He had been exactly who he was from his earliest days.  Still, he could have chosen a man less predatory than Rudolf.  Perhaps this boy had been an impr