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Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for June 2018

Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some May books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, hardboiled mysteries, historical mysteries, international mysteries, British mysteries, paranormal mysteries, science fiction mysterie, crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, pulp adventure, noir thrillers, romantic suspense, private investigators, vigilantes, amateur sleuths, serial killers, drug smugglers, street gangs, mobsters, assassins, kidnappers, missing persons, luck thieves, crimebusting accountants, innocents in prison, revenge, murder in London, Greece, Portland, Florida, Hawaii, Bangalore and outer space and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Rose City Renegade by D.L. Barbur:

Dent Miller used to believe in justice.

Now all he wants is revenge.

Six months ago, his enemies took everything from him. It was the biggest mistake they ever made.

He’s been looking over his shoulder ever since, waiting for them to come.

He’s not afraid.

He just wants them back in his sights.

If you loved Rose City Free Fall and thought the tension couldn’t get any higher, buckle up, because this book cranks it up to 11.

Rose City Renegade is chock full of gritty action, believable characters, and a story that just won’t quit.

The Luck Thieves by James Beach:

Someone stole Aurelian’s luck – and is coming for his life.

 

 

 

 

 

In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns by Elizabeth Bear:

A man has been turned inside-out.

Fifty years in the future, in the sleek modern city of Bangalore, a scientist working on revolutionary bioengineering techniques has been discovered inside his own locked home, his body converted into a neat toroidal package of meat. It’s up to Police Sub-Inspector Ferron to unearth the victim’s complicated past and solve the crime, despite the best efforts of the mastermind behind the murder, aliens beaming signals from the Andromeda Galaxy, her overbearing mother, and an adorable parrot-cat who is the only witness.

The Shantytown Robin Hoods by Cora Buhlert:

Latisha, Moses and Tim are three street kids eking out a living in a dystopian future. Together, they are the Shantytown Robin Hoods, a street gang that steals from the rich and gives to – well, themselves.

“The Hole” is the hottest night club in Shantytown, where the rich and the famous can party among the less fortunate. But “The Hole” is also a favourite hangout for Latisha, Moses and Tim to find marks they can rob.

But then their latest job is derailed by a mobster with sticky fingers and a prize on his head, a teen pop sensation, a trigger-happy bodyguard and a red-haired assassin.

Soon bullets are flying in Shantytown and Latisha, Moses and Tim must keep their heads down to survive and steal another day…

This is a short dystopian crime story of 2800 words or approximately 10 print pages.

[image error] Murder Breaks the Bank by Maddie Cochere:

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, a man hires the investigative firm of Two Sisters and a Journalist to protect him. Jo Wheeler accompanies him to the bank with disastrous results. Jo, Pepper, and Jackie must now scramble to find out who murdered their client before Sergeant Rorski sends the wrong man to prison.

A rash of car vandalism and a Brussels sprouts caper also keep the three women on their toes, and it doesn’t help Jo’s mounting headache that Mama is preparing a comedy routine for open mic night at a local pub.

[image error] Only the Truth by Adam Croft:

He’s not the perfect husband. But he is the perfect suspect.

Dan Cooper has never been the perfect husband to Lisa. He travels for work and plays the carefree bachelor when he can. But now, on a solo business trip, in a remote coastal hotel, he’s surprised to find Lisa in his bathroom. She’s dead.

He has no idea how she got there but one chilling fact is clear: everything points to Dan having murdered her. Someone is trying to frame him. Someone who might still be watching. In a panic, he goes on the run. But even as he flees across Europe, his unknown enemy stacks up the evidence against him.

Dan is determined to clear his name and take revenge on Lisa’s killer, but the culprit is closing in. And then there’s the agony of his own guilty conscience. No, he didn’t kill her—but is it all his fault?

Ice Cream and Incidents by Agatha Frost:

A free holiday to a seaside B&B run by drag queens sounds like the perfect way to spend a relaxing week away from Peridale, or so Julia South thought. When she arrives at the quirky B&B with her family, she’s determined to have a fun break, but she quickly finds herself in the middle of another puzzling mystery when a lighting rig falls on the star drag performer, Simone Phoenix.

Was it an accident, or something more sinister? Julia quickly befriends the owner, Russell, and learns that the seemingly tight-knit drag family working at Sparkles are not without their problems. With secrets and lies revolving around love, money, and revenge, each of them appears to have a motive for wanting Simone out of the way. Can Julia resist the lure of cracking yet another case for the sake of having a peaceful family holiday by the sea, or will the urge to uncover the truth take over once again?

[image error] Shallow Breeze by Jack Hardin:

Pine Island, Florida, has a reputation for being a sleepy fishing town, not a coastal waterway for drug dealers.

So when a plane loaded with cocaine crashes into an iconic pier, the locals begin to wonder if any other secrets are about to fall out of the sky.

Fresh off an exemplary career with the CIA, Ellie O’Conner has landed into a new venture with the DEA, and things are off to a blazing start.

But while Ellie secretly struggles with new information unfolding about her family, she tries to unravel the truth, wherever it leads.

And truth often rides in on the back of a lie.

Sierra Bravo by Simon Haynes:

Planet Dismolle is supposed to be a peaceful haven. So what’s with all the gunfire?

A criminal gang has moved into Chirless, Dismolle’s second major city. Elderly residents are fed up with the loud music, noisy cars and late night parties, not to mention hold-ups, muggings and the occasional gunfight.

Chirless has no Peace Force, so Harriet Walsh of the Dismolle City branch has to help out. That puts her up against a gang of hardened criminals with only her training pistol and a few old allies to lend a hand.

And these allies aren’t just old, they’re positively ancient!

Sierra Bravo is the third novel in the Harriet Walsh series. Peace Force and Alpha Minor are already available in print and ebook.

[image error] Pound to a Penny by Cynthia E. Hurst:

Gideon Young was a fast-talking con man who could convince gullible people to gamble on almost anything. But even Young wouldn’t have bet on being outwitted by a clock repairer and a thief turned housemaid, as his plans to fleece the residents of a Cotswold market town go terribly wrong. A woman with a mysterious past and a sheep shearer with a grudge add to the mix as Jacob Silver and Sarah Simm help the police solve a mystery involving love, loyalty and loaded dice.

‘Pound to a Penny’ is the sixth book in the Silver and Simm Victorian Mysteries series.

[image error] Bend the Rules by Susan Amanda Kelly:

Everyone deserves a second chance and Mary Holmes, accountant extraordinaire, is determined to make the most of hers. Sure, she’d love to get her old life back – she used to be thin, well-dressed, engaged-to-be-married, on the corporate ladder and regularly bought three kinds of lettuce. Back then, she could afford the hair products needed to keep her hair sleek. But one unused wedding cake, a regrettable public safety incident and a teensy prison record later, her life goals have shrunk to being able to afford to eat regularly. To do that, she needs to make a success of her second chance… an accounting job with Vetruvious Security.

Everything is proceeding according to Mary’s detailed, color-coded, new-life plan until Vitruvious Security hires a specialist, Crash Coolidge, to work undercover to smash a truck cargo heist ring. Crash is sexy, insolent, sexy, disheveled, sexy and scarily relaxed about the prospect of killing people. Even in a tough-guy company like Vitruvious Security, Crash is the equivalent of a Rottweiler surrounded by Chihuahuas. After Mary is assigned to his team, her life-plan rapidly derails. She is targeted by the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang and only Crash stands between her and an undignified death.

Mary finds herself doing things that most definitely were not in her employment contract like stripping the shoes from a corpse; adopting a deaf, rank-smelling guard dog; clue-hunting with Crash’s crazy, supermodel sister and lurking in a biker bar to locate a specific tattoo artist. All because Mary ends up wanting a second chance for Crash Coolidge as much as she wants one for herself. And she must find the sinister and mysterious head of the heist gang before Crash does. Because she doesn’t want Crash to do something reckless that lands him in prison. Not when he has become a vital part of her detailed, color-coded, new new-life plan.

*A high-octane cocktail of romance, crime and humor. Some strong language and steam.

Outta Crime by Alex A. King:

Two Godmothers. Zero Wands.

It’s not easy being dead. Just ask Kat Makris. She’s stuck in an underground bunker, watching her own funeral, where more people are laughing than crying. Being dead has other consequences, too. Her face is in all the papers, her bank is convinced she’s an identity thief, and the sexy Detective Melas is under siege by his trampy ex-girlfriend, who happens to work for Greece’s version of the CIA.

The timing couldn’t be worse; she just figured out where her missing father might be.

Escaping Grandma’s cozy bunker is the only way find her dad—a feat that would be simpler if she could access her own bank account and ride something other than the local bus. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Marika’s unborn baby is sending her psychic messages—messages that send Kat all the way to Germany, where Grandma’s oldest nemesis is cooking up some payback …

The Governess by Mary Kingswood:

The first of a brand new series by the author of Sons of the Marquess.

When Mr Edmund Winterton of Woodside dies, his daughters find themselves penniless and homeless. What can they do? Unless they wish to live on charity, they will have to find genteel employment for themselves.

Annabelle becomes governess to the daughters of the recently bereaved Earl of Brackenwood. She has no idea how to teach, but her pupils can learn all they need from books, so how difficult can it be? She’ll need all her ingenuity to cope with the rebelliousness of her charges, and the unwanted attentions of their father. But when her past returns to haunt her, she has to make a difficult decision.

Allan is slowly getting used to life as a widower, but his mother is determined that he must marry again and produce an heir. He is determined that he won’t, although the new governess is just the sort of woman he could fall in love with. But when a face from long ago reappears and stirs up suspicion, he has to consider the possibility that his wife’s death was not natural. What is worse, he himself is the obvious suspect. If he can’t prove his innocence, he may lose everything – his home, his new love and even his life.

Book 1 of the 5-book Sisters of Woodside Mysteries series, each a complete story with a HEA, but read all of them to find out all the family secrets!

[image error] The Werewolf Whoops by Amanda M. Lee:

Charlie Rhodes is back on her feet and ready for action. Luckily for her, The Legacy Foundation officially has its first job in weeks and they’re on the hunt for … werewolves.

It seems two campers have gone missing, the campsite littered with strange animal prints. Charlie is excited for adventure but sometimes wishes are more dangerous than they seem.

After meeting a woman and her daughter in the woods – and getting a gander inside her head – Charlie finds she’s on two missions. She wants to find a werewolf and, even more, she wants to find out what makes the secretive Zoe Lake-Winters tick. There’s something about the woman that sends Charlie’s curiosity into overdrive … and that’s not always a good thing.

The Michigan woods are full of dark surprises and Charlie is in for a few herself. She’s hiding a secret, but so are many others, and some of those secrets are worth killing for.

This outing may be one for the record books, especially when multiple mysteries reveal themselves at one time. Survival isn’t always easy, but in this instance, it will be more difficult than Charlie ever imagined.

Sit back and enjoy the show, because the secrets are going to be flying fast and furious … and so is the danger.

[image error] Wired Secret by Toby Neal:

Paradise is filled with deadly secrets.

What would you do if you were a killer’s loose end?

Palm trees, volcanoes, and black sand beaches are the backdrop for murder as security specialist Sophie Ang, and her dog Ginger, are swept up in a multi-layered case on the Big Island of Hawaii working with a US Marshal to protect an important witness. A ghost from Sophie’s past returns to haunt her, and a love triangle tears at her heart. Sophie will need all of her friends, lovers, tech-savvy, and skills to stay alive…and that’s just her day job.

The Sunkiller Affair by Dave Robinson:

When Vic Frank is arrested on trumped up charges while Doc Vandal and the team are searching for a kidnapped scientist, explaining it to her mother is the least of Doc’s problems.

He’s also got to deal with… Vic’s irate girlfriend Ming… Nazis infiltrating the NYPD… and whoever just broke into the 87th floor of the Republic State Building and stole the plans for a device that can blow up the Sun!

Join Doc Vandal and the team in a fight against the Technarchy’s flying commandos, the German American Bund, and the vacuum of space itself!

Enjoy a complete pulp adventure with Nazis, talking gorillas, and Zeppelins in Spaaaace!

[image error] A Lie in Every Truth by Jamie Lee Scott:

It’s spring, and yet private detective, Mimi Capurro, still hasn’t faced the proposal she received from homicide detective, Nick Christianson, at Christmas. She knows she should be making plans, but business is good, and she’s short an investigator. She’ll think about it later.

Just as things are getting on track, Mimi’s mom brings a case to Gotcha Detective Agency. Lydia’s good friend was found dead in her car almost two weeks earlier, and the police ruled it a suicide. Both Lydia and the victim’s husband think the police are wrong.

While Mimi and Lydia investigate, Charles has an investigation of his own. One he’s not sharing with the Gotcha crew.

Do Mimi and Nick have a future together, or will Charles’s investigation change their lives forever?

Stabbed in Shoreditch by Samantha Silver:

Cassie’s living life on the edge of a knife…

When Violet is hired to prove the innocence of a convicted murderer, Cassie discovers that not only is an innocent man’s life at stake, but also that solving a ten-month-old murder has its own unique challenges.

But what initially seems like it might be a straightforward case quickly becomes more complex with the discovery of a secret computer file, and an encryption even Violet can’t crack.

Meanwhile, Cassie finds herself helping Brianne discover who’s been stealing supplies from the hospital – a great distraction as Cassie avoids making a decision about going back to medical school.

As Violet and Cassie get closer to cracking the encryption, they find themselves embroiled in the middle of a conspiracy even Violet couldn’t have predicted.

Will they be able to solve the case and give an innocent man his life back before they become the next victims?

After the Sunset by Mark Stone:

Dark clouds dampen bright futures and, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, you never know when you’ll be stuck in the eye of a storm.

With his wedding fast approaching, Detective Dillon Storm couldn’t be more at peace. The thing about peace though is that it can be fleeting, very fleeting in a place like this.

When Naples’ newest mayoral candidate’s wife comes to Dillon with concerns about her son’s safety, Dillon takes it seriously. When that same son is then involved in a car accident and placed in an ambulance that promptly vanishes on the way to hospital, Dillon knows he’s dealing with something much more deadly than a mother’s worry.

What he finds is a deadly game of cat and mouse that will twist everything he knows, threaten to ruin the reputation he’s built since his return to Naples, send him crashing into familiar waters, and quite possibly derail his wedding before he even has a chance to say ‘I do’.

Happy endings are hard to come by, and sometimes the most dangerous moments can happen AFTER THE SUNSET!

[image error] Taker of Lives by Leslie Wolfe:

How can you outrun a killer you won’t see coming?

Until yesterday, no one knew Miami had another killer on the loose. Special Agent Tess Winnett calls this particularly elusive one the Taker of Lives.

The crimes: bewildering

After a well-known model commits suicide, Tess refuses to accept the findings and pushes for an investigation into the reasons behind the beautiful young woman’s decision to end her life. What she finds surpasses her wildest fears.

The evidence: disturbing

Each new crime scene brings more questions than answers. While secrets are revealed, even those meant to be kept forever in the dark, Tess can draw only one conclusion: she’s not the one in charge; the Taker of Lives controls the game, the players, even the course of the investigation.

The race: intense

With little information and even less evidence, Tess must connect the dots of a deadly scenario with a large number of potential victims. If she fails, another beautiful, young girl will die tonight, and the blood will be on her hands.

The Taker of Lives might be closer than you think. Who’s watching you sleep tonight?

[image error] Medieval to Modern: An Anthology of Historical Mystery Stories, edited by Sarah Woodbury:

Join amateur sleuths, private detectives, and feisty female protagonists in a journey through time with this anthology of historical mysteries spanning nearly a thousand years, from Medieval Wales to 1940s Ohio. This collection of eight novellas and short stories is the perfect introduction to five award-winning series in settings ranging from the back streets of Elizabethan and Regency London to the steep slopes of Victorian San Francisco.

— Libi Astaire, the Jewish Regency mystery series.

— Anna Castle, the Francis Bacon mystery series and the Professor & Mrs. Moriarty mystery series.

— M. Louisa Locke, the Victorian San Francisco mystery series.

— M. Ruth Myers, the Maggie Sullivan mystery series set in Depression-era Ohio.

— Sarah Woodbury, the Gareth & Gwen Medieval Mysteries.

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New dystopian crime thriller available: The Shantytown Robin Hoods

I mentioned in my last post that there would be a new release announcement coming soon and here it is.

The Shantytown Robin Hoods is another story to come out of the 2017 July short story challenge, where the aim was to write a story per day during July 2017. Writing a new story every day means coming up with a lot of inspiration, so I occasionally use short cuts such as writing prompts, artwork, etc… The Shantytown Robin Hoods was inspired by a piece of art, namely this one by an artist known only as macfixed, whose Deviant Art account sadly seems to have been closed in the meantime.

Before I wrote the story, I looked at the image and the various people pictured and asked myself who they were and what they were doing in that place. Once I’d finished that little exercise, the story more or less wrote itself.

The result was a crime thriller set in a dystopian Cyberpunk future, where two very different crimes – a gang of street kids trying to rob the patrons of a club and an assassin about to shoot a mobster – intersect. The cover is a suitably gritty and Cyberpunky piece of art by the talented Thai artist Tithi Luadthong, whose work also graces the covers of the In Love and War series. Of course, the Cyberpunk category in the Amazon Kindle store seems to have been overrun by LitRPG books, since the subgenre doesn’t have its own subcategory, but I hope that there still is something of a market for what Cyberpunk used to be.

So far, The Shantytown Robin Hoods is a standalone story, though I may well revisit this setting and the characters – well, those left standing by the end of the story – again in the future.

And talking of the future, July is almost upon us and so it’s time to decide whether I will do another July short story challenge this year. On the one hand, I find the July short story challenge enormously rewarding and I have done the challenge three years in a row now. On the other hand, the extremely early onset of summer this year (we have basically had non-stop hot weather since early April and it isn’t even officially summer yet, so we may well have three more months of hot weather, if we’re very unlucky) has left my low on spoons, since my body doesn’t handle hot weather well. Not to mention that the current political situation in Germany and elsewhere is leaving me frustrated and angry, which also doesn’t help.

I’ve still got two weeks to decide what to do. I’ll probably give it a go, at least for a few days, to see how it goes.

But for now, enjoy the fruits of last year’s July short story challenge and check out:

The Shantytown Robin Hoods

[image error]Latisha, Moses and Tim are three street kids eking out a living in a dystopian future. Together, they are the Shantytown Robin Hoods, a street gang that steals from the rich and gives to – well, themselves.

“The Hole” is the hottest night club in Shantytown, where the rich and the famous can party among the less fortunate. But “The Hole” is also a favourite hangout for Latisha, Moses and Tim to find marks they can rob.

But then their latest job is derailed by a mobster with sticky fingers and a prize on his head, a teen pop sensation, a trigger-happy bodyguard and a red-haired assassin.

Soon bullets are flying in Shantytown and Latisha, Moses and Tim must keep their heads down to survive and steal another day…

More information.

Length: 2800 words

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Inktera, Playster, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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Cora travels through time to blog elsewhere

Blogging has been light here in the past few weeks, because the unseasonably hot weather has been sapping my energy. I have a couple of posts planned and there will be a new release announcement soon as well.

But for now, you can read my blogging elsewhere, because today I have a guest post up at the Hugo nominated fanzine Galactic Journey. For those who don’t know the site yet, Galactic Journey offers reviews and discussion of science fiction magazines, novels and films, but with a twist. For Galactic Journey is set exactly fifty-five years ago, which meant I had to time travel back to 1963 in order to write this post.

So hop over the Galactic Journey to see me talking about the state of West German science fiction back in 1963, when the “Heftroman” ruled supreme and Austrian scientist and SF writer Herbert W. Frranke (the only person mentioned in the article who’s still alive) was still an exiciting new voice.

In the first part of this three part article, I take a look at the West German science fiction scene in general and the Utopia and Terra lines of science fiction “Heftromane” in particular. The next installment is devoted to Perry Rhodan and his imitators, while the third installment takes a look at what’s going on on the other side of the iron curtain in East Germany. I’ll also be writing something about movies in the future, since the early 1960s were the glory days of the Edgar Wallace and Dr. Mabuse movies.

Regular readers will know that “Heftromane”, the 64-page German dime novels that can still be found at many supermarkets, news stands or gas stations, are something of an interest of mine. I have written a couple of articles about “Heftromane” in the past – which will be collected someday – but so far I haven’t tackled Perry Rhodan, simply because there is so much of it. Fifty-seven years, almost three thousand issues, plus several spin-off series, a plot that spans millennia and a cast of thousands. As Perry Rhodan debuted in September 1961, I only had to look at twenty months worth of “Heftroman”, but even those twenty months covered enough plot to make up their own installment. I read the hardcover collections of the early Perry Rhodan stories years ago, but I had forgotten how fast the plot moved in those early days. Perry needed only approximately ten issues to make contact with advanced aliens, end the cold war, bring about world peace and establish his own world state.

Finally, for your amusement, here is a 1969 report in the German TV program Monitor about Perry Rhodan, which not just totally misses the point (“Perry Rhodan is the galactic Hitler” – I guess that’s why he brought about world peace), but also offers a glimpse into the Perry Rhodan writers’ room, an interview with co-creator K.H. Scheer and two very stoned young fans:

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Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for May 2018

Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some April books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, hardboiled mysteries, international mysteries, British mysteries, paranormal mysteries, science fiction mysteries, action thrillers, crime thrillers, legal thrillers, pulp thrillers, noir thrillers, romantic suspense, police procedurals, spy fiction, lawyers, spies, private investigators, amateur sleuths, serial killers, drug smugglers, kidnappers, missing persons, murderous grandmothers, crimebusting witches, revenge both random and not so random, spy action in the Middle East, crime in Rio de Janeiro, Australia, New Orleans, London and outer space and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Bodies on the Beach by Stacey Alabaster:

Two ex-friends. One dead body. The beach town of Eden Bay will never be the same again.

A fast paced cozy mystery from USA Today Bestselling Author Stacey Alabaster

Claire is an up-and-coming movie exec who inherited her grandma’s book store in the quiet beach community of Eden Bay. Alyson is a surf-bum who embraces the small-town, beach lifestyle. When a surfer is killed, the two ex-best friends are pulled together to solve the murder. Can they put their differences behind them and find a killer before there are more bodies on the beach?

Bodies on the Beach is the first book in the Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery series, a fast paced cozy mystery with an authentic Australian flaire. If you quirky characters and unexpected twists, you’re going to love the Alyson and Claire.

Rose Gold by David Barker

Rose Gold is the thrilling sequel to the bestselling Blue Gold.

In the aftermath of a world war for water, geopolitical tensions remain high and terrorism is a daily fact of life in the 2030s. But a mining base on the moon offers a rare example of international co-operation and a possible solution to the world’s energy problems. Yet not everyone on Earth is keen for this endeavour to succeed…

Sim Atkins and his wife are desperate to start a family. But a shocking message from the moon base tells Sim that he is already a father and that his son’s life is in danger. The mining station is full of suspects and, worse, the woman who fathered his child. Can Sim rescue his son and save his marriage?

Gopal and Rabten – the Gurkha and monk who helped Sim on his last assignment – are on the trail of terrorists and a giant airship. What the agents discover in the cargo hold makes Sim’s mission even more vital. When they get trapped, Freda Brightwell – Sim’s old partner in Overseas Division – is called out of retirement for one more mission.

Once again, corporate greed threatens the lives of millions. Overseas Division s finest are back at the sharp end. And this time, the stakes are far more personal.

Bloody Bananas by Cora Buhlert:

When supermarket employee Nelson Grant is found bludgeoned to death next to a half empty crate of bananas, the case seems a complete mystery. For Nelson Grant was well liked by his colleagues, so who could possibly want him dead?

But then Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd and her team discover that the crate contained more than just bananas and the case suddenly acquires a whole new dimension.

This is a mystery novelette of 12300 words or approximately 45 print pages.

Shameful Justice by M.A. Comley:

Greed is a powerful motive…

With the ultimate goal to achieve something that others have.

This case is close to home… with one of her work colleagues desperate for help.

Lorne’s team are up against the odds… And somebody is restricting Lorne’s usual method of solving a case.

Tick tock… with only 24 hours to raise a vast sum of money to satisfy a kidnapper’s needs, Lorne is forced to seek the assistance of her husband — a former MI6 agent — and a close friend she has turned to before.

More pressure than usual for Lorne to contend with to get the case solved!

Time is of the essence when there is a life at stake…

A fast-paced thriller, ideal for fans of Angie Marsons and Joy Ellis.

Dead and Buried by Adam Croft:

Two dead bodies are found buried beneath undergrowth just outside Mildenheath. The race is on to uncover their identities and catch their killers.

When two young men tell police they’ve escaped with their lives from a local brothel where they were kept as male prostitutes, DCI Jack Culverhouse and DS Wendy Knight are left facing a case like no other before.

But as their investigation into the people traffickers and kidnappers gets deeper, they realise the ringleaders will stop at nothing to evade justice.

Two dead bodies. A corrupt trafficking ring. A betrayal that’ll shake Mildenheath to the core.

Redeemer by Mark Dawson:

Rio de Janeiro. Brazilians call it Cidade Maravilhosa – the Marvellous City – but crime festers in its favelas like cancer.

John Milton is visiting an old friend who runs a close protection business guarding the city’s elite. Milton offers to stand in when one of his bodyguards doesn’t turn up for work. The job? Take the wife and daughter of an anti-corruption judge to a school recital and bring them back again. Simple?

Not so much. The girl is snatched off the street and Milton is nearly killed. As he recovers at a Group Fifteen safe house, he decides on two objectives.

First, find the girl.

Second, punish the kidnappers for what they’ve done.

Milton’s trip becomes a lethal quest into the heart of the lawless slums and against the gangs who wield the real power in Rio. But Milton won’t stop there – he’ll chase them right into the horrific heart of darkness until his special brand of justice has been well and truly served.

Dreadful by Jana DeLeon:

Now you see me…

Six years ago, five friends went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Four of them returned. One simply disappeared. Jenny Taylor has never gotten over the disappearance of her twin sister, Caitlyn, but now things are even worse. Caitlyn calls to Jenny in her dreams, begging her sister to find her. But Jenny’s memory of the entire night is completely gone.

Shaye Archer knows better than anyone what it’s like to have gaping holes in your past, and how horrific dreams can cripple you. But this case presents problems on every level. An adult woman disappearing from the French Quarter during Mardi Gras is hard enough to get answers for, but when it happened years before, the difficulty level increases exponentially. But Shaye’s empathy for Jenny prevents her from saying no, even though she doesn’t expect to find anything.

Then a witness is murdered, and Jenny’s memory starts to return. What did she see in the alley that night? And how many more are in danger because of it?

Lies She Never Told Me by John Ellsworth:

Would You Kill the Man Your Beloved Grandmother Wants Dead?

Lies She Never Told Me is the story of Michael Gresham’s heritage, beginning with his father’s father. The book features mob wars in 1920’s Chicago; World War II invasions and POW camps; romance between powerful men and beautiful women; the most infamous mass murder in 1960’s Chicago; and the complete growing-up story of Michael Gresham himself, from young boy to young lawyer. The book recounts the first meeting between Michael and his famous investigator Marcel in Operation Desert Shield when both young men are soldiers on the track of Saddam Hussein.

Finally, when Michael’s grandmother comes to him with a request that he track down and kill one man, can he refuse? He’s been trained as a lawyer, he believes in the rule of law, and he believes that no man is above the law. But his grandmother won’t let him go. She tells him a certain man must die for his crimes. Michael loves his grandmother with every cell in his body. Can he refuse her dying wish? Will he honor the vow he makes to this most important woman in his life?

And so the hunt begins.

Who will Michael find first: the killer or himself?

Alpha Minor by Simon Haynes:

The Peace Force has a new recruit, and she’s driving everyone crazy.

From disobeying orders to handling unauthorised cases, nothing is off-limits. Worse, Harriet Walsh is forced to team up with the newbie, because the recruit’s shady past has just caught up with her.

Meanwhile, a dignitary wants to complain about rogue officers working out of the station. She insists on meeting the station’s commanding officer … and they don’t have one.

All up, it’s another typical day in the Peace Force!

Alpha Minor is set in the distant future, where humanity has colonised the galaxy. It’s good clean fun, written with wry humor, and while it has science fictional elements they’re incidental to the story. This is the second novel in the series, with a third, Sierra Bravo, due for release around July/August 2018.

Suite Casualty by CeeCee James:

Maisie Swenson has seen a lot of strange things in her career as a hotel manager, so when Mr. Dayton insists there are ghosts in his suite, she handles it with her usual aplomb. When he demands that she visit his room to show her the items that have been moved, she suspects the two empty wine bottles and a half empty brandy bottle might be where the “ghosts” come from. ?But to reassure him, she posts a guard outside his room.

In the morning, Mr. Dayton is found dead. With nothing removed from his suite, and no way in, rumors fly around that maybe he really was killed by ghosts after all. Or his own fear of them. ?

Maisie hopes the police will handle the investigation discreetly while she deals with an anonymous hotel critic who’s threatening to tear down the Oceanside’s reputation. But everything falls apart as Mr. Dayton’s relatives start to show up, each one calling the other an imposter and demanding a letter Mr. Dayton was supposed to have on him. As they start to threaten each other, and then Maisie herself, she starts to suspect the spirits that killed Mr. Dayton are still contained in living bodies.

Closure by Ethan Jones:

Covert operative Javin Pierce will avenge his betrayal or die trying . . .

Off the grid, Javin Pierce is struggling to heal from his wounds. Immediately he’s forced into a shaky deal with former enemies not only to secure his partner’s release from a Saudi jail, but also to settle the score with the traitor who double-crossed them.

While his new rogue team crosses Iraq’s treacherous lands, he can barely stay ahead of the deadly threats coming from all sides. As Javin sets his sights, alliances around him crumble. So with no one left to trust, in an ever-changing maze, how will Javin survive the deadliest mission of his life?

A Breath of Witchy Air by Amanda M. Lee:

Hemlock Cove is mired in a cold snap, which means the town is calm and quiet. That all changes in an instant when a beer truck tips over on the highway and half the town shows up to get drunk.

Bay Winchester is about to be the sole owner of the town newspaper so she heads out to take photos … and accidentally stumbles over several bodies. It seems there’s a serial killer on the loose, although no one can figure out if the dump site was convenient or if the killer is local.

Some hard digging leads Bay to a local college, where the only thing that stands out is a cell phone game that seems to be taking over the populace. Bay can’t shake the feeling that there’s something off about the game, but that pales in comparison to the dead girls and the motive behind multiple killings.

Things spiral out of control when the game developers pick Hemlock Cove for a big event, which means the town is suddenly flooded with gamers … including Aunt Tillie, who decides that winning really is the most important thing.

Things are about to get wicked for the Winchesters. There’s a killer in their midst and Bay appears to be displaying a new power that no one saw coming.

It’s only a matter of time until two powerful forces collide. Who comes out standing is anybody’s guess but Bay’s new power will be on full display … and may be the ultimate factor in her survival.

Hush, My Inner Sleuth by M.A. Meegs:

In the fall of 1947, an impressionable young scholar finds herself seduced by the spirit of a Hollywood pulp detective….

This serpentine saga opens at a New England women’s college, where the ever-playful Betty escapes a meddlesome narrator by slipping her friend a mickey and assuming her identity. Undaunted, the plucky storyteller adopts said friend—the literarily precocious Willie—and accompanies her to L.A.

Meanwhile, the pulp-inflected ghost of Skip Ryker—a recently atomized Hollywood detective—tries in vain to solve his untimely demise. What he needs, it quickly becomes apparent, is a willing instrument.

The ensuing collision of these disparate narratives sparks a battle royal for control of Willie’s suggestible psyche—and subsequently, movie rights to the book.

Random Revenge by William Michaels:

Enter the sordid world of aspiring and often desperate actors and actresses in the no-holds-barred scramble to make it to the big time, where sex is a currency—and a price—way before they reach Hollywood.

Melanie Upton is an ambitious actress stuck searching for her big break. She’s got the talent, but so do thousands of other actresses. She needs an edge, and she’ll do anything to get it.

Lenny Gruse sees himself as a celebrity photographer. All he needs is one great photo to catapult himself into the big time. Melanie, with her sultry good looks, is just who he needs, his ticket to fame. Together, they can blow past the hungry competition.

Detective Robert Winter has a knack for solving seemingly random crimes, yet even he is tested in a world where the players will stop at nothing to succeed and have the ability to con even the most seasoned cop.

Poison Butterfly by Lo Monaco:

Terry Strong has been hired by Martin Oldfield to find his wife. After a bit of confusion, Terry discovers that the wife, Eloise, had disappeared 25 years ago, leaving Oldfield with a five-month old baby. After investigating Eloise’s whereabouts, Terry finds her, but she is now Louise Kingley. Terry arranges for Oldfield and Louise to meet. The day after the first meeting, Oldfield is arrested for killing Louise. Oldfield hires Terry to clear him of the murder, sending Terry on an ever-changing whirlwind search to discover who Eloise/Louise truly was and who, in fact, killed her. A surprise ending brings the investigation to a shocking close.

Death Promise by Jacqueline Seewald:

In this sequel to DEATH LEGACY, New York, psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Reiner is contacted by a woman who claims she was married to his father after his mother’s death and his father’s disappearance from his life. Tiffany Tyler asks Daniel to take charge of the girl she claims to be his half-sister. But when Daniel tries to make contact, it seems the girl has disappeared.

Daniel wants to hire Michelle Hallam to help him investigate the situation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Michelle’s deceased uncle, a former British intelligence agent, operated an international “consulting firm” which she now runs. Michelle and Daniel share some past history as well as a strong physical attraction but Michelle remains wary of him. Daniel has a friendly, warm personality, and urban wit in contrast to Michelle’s outward façade of cool cynicism. Things become complicated and heated in Las Vegas, involving Michelle and Daniel in intrigue, romance and murder.

This fast-paced novel combines elements of suspense thriller, mystery and romance.

Just Shoot Me Dead by Anne R. Tan:

While on a blind date with a doctor and his mama, Lucy Fong gets a call that her estranged mom is found shot in the stomach in her private investigation office. She returns to Morro Cliff Village to search for answers and her sister…and finds only a dead body in her sister’s apartment.

When the local police chief zeros in on her sister as a “person of interest,” Lucy must brush up her sleuthing skills. It’s a race to find her sister before the police—and the killer—do.

She must use all her wits (and those she can borrow) to find this hidden killer before he strikes at her family again.

Don’t miss this fast-paced cozy mystery—get your copy of “Just Shoot Me Dead” today!

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Reactions to the 2017 Nebula Award Winners

Last week, I posted my own comments and reactions to the 2017 Nebula Award winners. Now here is a round-up of reactions from around the web. It’s fairly short, because there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion about this year’s Nebula Award winners online beyond broad agreement that they are some very good choices. Okay, so maybe the puppy contingent disagrees, but a cursory scan of some puppy affiliated blogs shows that they do not comment on the Nebulas at all.

At The Verge, Andrew Liptak has a brief reaction post, which is mainly an overview of the winners and the awards ceremony.

At the B&N SciFi and Fantasy Blog, which also reviewed all Nebula finalists in the best novel category, Joel Cunningham is happy about the results in general and particularly pleased that they managed to predict the winner, The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin.

Coincidentally, Joel Cunningham believes that The Stone Sky will also win the Hugo this year. I’m a bit more sceptical, though to be honest, I didn’t expect The Obelisk Gate, book 2 in the Broken Earth trilogy, to win the Hugo last year either. And personally, I feel that the best novel category in 2017 was extremely strong (which is why I was so surprised that The Obelisk Gate won – because the competition was so strong and The Obelisk Gate was hampered by being book 2 in a trilogy). This year, the best novel category at the Hugos is weaker than last year. John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire is fairly weak (I’ll probably write more about what irritated me about the book later) and also very obviously the first installment in a series, complete with an abrupt ending that doesn’t tie up anything. Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 is a love it or hate it book (I’m leaning towards the later), which will hamper its chances. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty seems to be another love it or hate it book (though I enjoyed it). Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Lee, which I like very much, is the second book in a trilogy, where the first book didn’t win, and also doesn’t stand alone very well. And while I like Provenance by Ann Leckie a whole lot, it’s also a lighter work than the Imperial Radch trilogy and awards voters tend to go for more serious works. So N.K. Jemisin might well win her third best novel Hugo in a row.

At io9, Julie Muncy focusses largely on the winner of the Ray Bradbury Award for outstanding dramatic presentation, which went to Jordan Peele for Get Out! and thus reinforces his place among the best genre creators working today. I for one am certainly interested in seeing what Jordan Peele does next (a TV adaptation of Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country apparently, which should be interesting).

Rebecca Roanhorse, winner in the best short story category, posts a photo of her Nebula Award on the shelf inbetween books by Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin, which is certainly a fitting place.

Meanwhile, SFWA president Cat Rambo offers a report about the entire Nebula Awards Weekend conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which encompasses a lot more than just the Nebulas. Some of those panels sound very interesting. I’ll have to see if they’re online at the SFWA YouTube channel. I’m also happy to see SFWA increasingly embrace indie authors – those that don’t behave like complete and utter jerks, at any rate.

Lela E. Buis, who reviewed the 2017 Nebula Award finalists in the fiction categories on her blog, does not comment on the winners themselves, but does take a look on the shortlist as a whole. She is pleased by the range of subgenres represented, but also worries about the repetition of nominees, repetition of themes, the dominance of certain publishers (mainly Orbit and Tor) and the plight of the poor white straight men who are largely shut out of the shortlist and the winners, all of which she considers symptoms of an inbred and elitist system.

I do agree with her that even though SFWA has been admitting indie authors for a couple of years now, the Nebula shortlists don’t particularly reflect this fact yet, though there was one indie author, Joanthan P. Brazee, nominated for a Nebula this year. What is more, a lot of the “write to market” indies may be financially successful (and SFWA admission requires a certain amount of sales and income, so write to market types may well be overrepresented), but awards electorates look for qualities other than entertaining stories that sell really well. Though I suspect we will be seeing more indie authors on the Nebula shortlist in the future.

As for the repetition of finalists, I already addressed this issue in an earlier post about the 2018 Hugo finalists, though it applies to the Nebulas as well. In short, yes, the same people tend to get nominated for awards over and over again, but this is hardly a new phenomenon. For example, Jack McDevitt used to show up on the Nebula shortlist every other year or so until fairly recently. Besides, the 2017 Nebula shortlist actually had fewer repeat finalists than previous years and several new names. And I don’t think any of the 2017 winners have ever won a Nebula before.

As for certain themes showing up on the Hugo and Nebula shortlists again and again, yes, this is a thing. However, once more this is far from a new phenomenon and indeed one I have observed ever since I started following SFF awards in depth. Certain subjects and themes simply float around the zeitgeist and naturally show up in fiction with increased frequency. For example, in recent years, we have been seeing a cluster of stories and novels written from the POV of artificial intelligences and robots. This is hardly surprising, considering there is also a lot of debate about advances in artificial intelligences and robotics in the real world at the moment. Though it’s interesting that the current gaggle of SF narratives featuring robot and AI POV characters generally portray robots and AIs as likable and well-meaning characters rather than as menaces, which is a striking contrast to the many alarmist news stories about how the robots will take our jobs, usually illustrated with 35 year old clips from Terminator.

A strong theme this year, which Lela E. Buis does not mention, is horror with two blatant and one sort of horror story winning Nebulas and several more making the Nebula and/or Hugo shortlist. We also have perennially popular themes, e.g. the Hugos always have at least one finalist featuring dragons, because a lot of people really, really like dragons. As someone who is not a huge dragon fan, I tend to grumble about “the obligatory dragon book” (which in the past two years was actually a dragon series). Finally, we have seen an uptick in the number of stories with LGBT and particularly trans themes nominated for awards in recent years, but then LGBT stories were relegated to specialist small presses until very recently, so what we’re seeing is not a trend, but the effect of the dam breaking, as LGBT stories finally gain acceptance with the genre mainstream.

As for the plight of the straight white man, for starters several men did win Nebulas and related awards this year. Sam J. Miller and Jordan Peele are both men (though one isn’t straight and the other isn’t white) as is SFWA Grand Master Peter S. Beagle, Kevin O’Donnell Jr. Service to SFWA Award winner Bud Sparhawk and Solstice Award winner, the late Gardner Dozois who sadly died this evening. And all of these men are white, too. Besides, as I’ve said before, women, people of colour and LGBT people have been underrepresented in the major SFF awards for so long now (though the Nebulas have been a little better about representation than the Hugos) that a few years of mainly women and/or people of colour and/or winning awards only serve to even the score.

Finally, at the Italian site Nuove Vie, Franco Giambalvo has an overview over the 2017 Nebula Award winners, in which I’m quoted. The post is only in Italian, though.

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A Classic North German Dish: Bremer Kükenragout

Time for another food post and a recipe.

The background is that a few days ago, the local Bremen newspaper Weser-Kurier tweeted an image gallery of typical Bremer foods. I retweeted the gallery and got into a conversation with Paul Weimer about why there was a photo of a fluffy yellow baby chicken among the many food photos.

I explained that the fluffy yellow baby chicken is supposed to represent Bremer Kükenragout (Bremer Chicken Ragout), because the German name of the dish uses the term “Küken”, i.e. baby chicken rather than the actual German word for chicken. I also explained what Bremer Kükenragout was, namely a stew of chicken, crawfish, mushrooms and some other ingredients, served with rice. And suddenly I thought, “Hey, that sounds pretty good. Maybe I should make it someday.”

Now I happened to have both chicken and crawfish in the fridge, so I thought, “Why not make it now?”

So I took my copy of Bremer Speisen, a cookbook focussing on local specialties, to look up the recipe, because Bremer Kükenragout is not something my mother ever made, though she made chicken fricassee, which is a similar if simpler dish.

To my surprise, the book had not one but three recipes for Bremer Kükenragout, a traditional recipe from Betty Gleim‘s 1817 Bremisches Kochbuch, the recipe used at Grasshoff’s Bistro and the recipe used at the (now defunct) restaurant Alte Gilde. What was more, the three recipes agreed on very few ingredients beyond the obvious chicken. Finally, some of the recipes (and not just Betty Gleim’s 1817 recipe) included ingredients that were either difficult to procure or just “ugh, no way, I’m not eating that”.

I used to assume that the relative scarcity of Bremer Kükenragout, which – though a local specialty – is rarely found on restaurant menus in Bremen, was due to the fact that crawfish was nigh unprocurable for a long time, because the native crawfish that used to live in the river Weser and other German rivers died out due to pollution (though it’s making a tentative comeback) and imported crawfish only started to show up on supermarket shelves in the past few years. However, it turns out that not just crawfish was difficult to procure for many years (and indeed, some recipes use grey shrimp instead of crawfish), but some of the other ingredients are as well. For example, both Grasshoff’s and Betty Gleim’s recipes called for morels, which are very difficult and extremely expensive to procure.

Meanwhile the “ugh, nope, no way” ingredients include strange pieces of meat such as ox tongue, calf mouth and veal sweetbread (which is neither sweet nor bread). Even if it was possible to get them (I suspect the local butcher could hook me up with ox tongue and veal sweetbread and maybe even calf mouth), sorry, I don’t like offal, so this simply wasn’t happening.

Nonetheless, I wanted to give Bremer Kükenragout a try and since apparently every chef has their own version anyway, I set about combining the three recipes into one that worked for me.

I kept the chicken and the crawfish, of course, as well as button mushrooms and asparagus as well as the spices and ingredients for the gravy. From Betty Gleim’s very luxurious version (honestly, I’m not sure how some of those ingredients were even findable in 1817 in North Germany), I kept the pistachios, because they added colour and a nice crunch. The original recipe calls for butter, but I used half olive oil and half butter as cooking oil. Instead of beef stock, I used venison stock, because the flavour is more intensive and besides, I had some in the pantry. I substituted the unprocurable morels with sheathed woodtuft mushrooms though king trumpet mushrooms or even shiitake would probably work as well. Meanwhile, I omitted the “ugh, no way, nope” ingredients. I also omitted the veal meatballs, which most recipes include (coincidentally, chicken fricassee also has meatballs), because making meatballs is a lot of work, I don’t even like them all that much and besides, I didn’t think the dish needed them anyway.

A word about the chicken: Most recipes specify that you should use poussin, i.e. a very young and tender chicken. But while poussin is certainly nice to have, any chicken will do. You can even use turkey, if you want. In fact, I used chicken breasts from the supermarket and chopped them up.

Finally, I should probably also explain Suppengrün (soup green). Suppengrün is a chopped vegetable mixture that serves as a flavour base for soups and stews in German cuisine, similar to the French mirepoix, the Spanish and Latin American sofrito and the holy trinity of Cajun and Creole cooking. Suppengrün consists of carrots, celeriac, leek and parsley. In Germany you can buy pre-packed Suppengrün sets which contain all the required ingredients, but of course you can also buy the ingredients separately.

Pro-tip: Even the Suppengrün sets from the supermarket usually result in way too much Suppengrün for a single dish. So what I do is buy a Suppengrün package or two, chop up everything, use as much as I need for whatever dish I’m making and freeze the rest, so I have Suppengrün on demand.

So here is my take on Bremer Kükenragout:

Bremer Kükenragout (my way):
Ingredients:

1 Chicken (ideally, use a young chicken, but regular chicken, chicken breast or even turkey will do as well)
100 g package of crawfish
1 package of button mushrooms
1 jar of sheathed woodtuft (alternatively use king trumpets or even shiitake or morels, if you can find them)
Suppengrün (i.e. celeriac, carrot, leek and parsley, finely chopped)
approx. 5 spears of asparagus (ideally, use white asparagus, though green will do as well)
1 onion
1 spring onion/scallion
Pistachios
Venison stock (beef or chicken stock will do as well)
1 cup of cream
White wine
Lemon juice
Lobster or crab paste
Butter
Olive oil
Pepper
Salt
Nutmeg
Mace
Cayenne
Brown sugar
1 bay leaf
2 cloves
Rice (I use basmati, but whatever rice you prefer will do)

Method:

Peel asparagus and chop it into small pieces. Chop onion and spring onion/scallion. Wash and clean mushrooms. If necessary, chop up Suppengrün.
Blanch the asparagus
Clean chicken and chop into pieces of the desired size. Season with pepper, salt and brown sugar.
Pour some olive oil into a pan. Add butter and lobster paste. Add bay leaf, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cayenne, pepper, salt and sugar to taste.
Heat up onion, Suppengrün and chicken in the pan, until the oil begins to sizzle.
Add white wine, stock and lemon juice and stir.
Add asparagus, mushrooms and pistachios and stir some more.
While the stew is cooking, cook and season rice
Add crawfish.
Add cream and scallions and thoroughly stir. Season to taste.
Serve with rice.

Finally, here is a photo of the finished dish on the place:

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Bremer Kükenragout, served on a bed of basmati rice.

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New Release No. 2: Anjali and Mikhail become “Hunter and Hunted” in a new “In Love and War” Novella

In my last post, I said that there would be two new release announcements in the near future. This is the second new release announcement, a new novella in my In Love and War series.

But first, I’d like to point out a the SFF Book Bonanza, a huge cross promo that is currently going on. There are more than sixty books in various SFF subgenres included in the promo, including one of mine, and they’re all available for only 99 cents from May 21 to May 27. A list of all participating books, organised by subgenre, may be found here. So what are you waiting for? Grab your next SFF read.

And now back to my own new release announcement. As mentioned above, it’s a new novella in the In Love and War series called Hunter and Hunted which pits Anjali and Mikhail against a crew of bounty hunters intent on capturing them for the prize on their heads.

The initial inspiration for Hunter and Hunted was a piece of music. For one day, I heard the 1980s A-ha song “Hunting High and Low” on the radio, which I hadn’t heard in a long time. Now I am heavily music-synaesthetic, i.e. certain pieces of music basically trigger scenes and sometimes whole mini-movies in my head. “Hunting High and Low” is one of those songs and the scene it always triggers in my head is that of two men fighting in the snow, while the girlfriend of one of the men sleeps peacefully in a nearby cabin. When I heard the song on the radio again lately, complete with the matching mini-movie playing in my head, I thought, “That’s actually a pretty good scene. Maybe I should write a story to go with it.” And then I realised that the scene in question was perfect for an In Love and War story. And so I sent Anjali and Mikhail on a mission to a frozen planet, with bounty hunters on their tail.

I started writing Hunter and Hunted sometime in March, when it was still cold outside, so writing about fight and flight throughout a snowy landscape wasn’t too much of a stretch. However, then it suddenly got very warm very fast and just stayed that way, which was quite jarring, because suddenly I was sweating while writing about Anjali and Mikhail battling hypothermia in addition to a squad of bounty hunters.

Now I tend to classify the In Love and War stories as cozy space opera, because there is as much focus on the characters and their relationships as on the usualy space opera action. However, Hunter and Hunted is actually a very action packed story by the standards of the In Love and War series, because it’s a sequence of fight scenes interspersed by brief moments of respite. What is more, Anjali and Mikhail both get put through the wringer physically in this one (come to think of it, I do tend to put them through the wringer a whole lot), though that also means that those moments of respite include some nice hurt/comfort scenes.

The cozy aspects of cozy space opera as well as the comfort part of hurt/comfort both take place in the supremely cozy setting of a secluded cabin in the snowy woods. Now the cabin already features in the original inspiration (in the mini-movie in my head triggered by the song in question, it’s always a log cabin), but I still had to find a way to make it work in a science fiction setting. I had already established that the mountainous parts of Harketon, the planet where the story is set, were a popular destination for holidaymakers. And so I simply decided to use the mountain lodges in the Alps (and elsewhere) as a model for the cabin where Anjali and Mikhail find shelter. After all, the initial purpose of these lodges was providing food and shelter for stranded travelers, though they have morphed into hostels in modern times.

Most mountain lodges in the Alps have a lodgekeeper, who takes care of the lodge and the guests, keeps it stocked with food and firewood, etc… The lodge where Mikhail and Anjali find shelter has a lodgekeeper as well, but because this is still a science fiction story, the lodgekeeper is an AI I named Toni after the popular German pulp novel series Toni, der Hüttenwirt (Toni, the Lodgekeeper). So I guess you call Hunter and Hunted a science fictional Heimatroman – because the In Love and War series clearly doesn’t mix genres enough already (after all, a cabin in the snow is not science fictional enough for certain people, at least according to a rather infamous review of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice).

As always with the In Love and War stories, there’s also action, fights, desperate last stands, romance, food (though no recipes this time), vid dramas and even opera, because on occasion space opera should include some actual opera.

The cover art is once again by the talented Thai artist Tithi Luadthong a.k.a. Grandfailure, whose stunning artwork graces all In Love and War covers so far. And this piece of art is really pitch perfect for this story, because we have the frozen landscape, a lone figure and a cozy cabin in the distance.

So what are you waiting for? Get Hunter and Hunted today!

Hunter and Hunted

[image error]Once, Anjali Patel and Mikhail Grikov were soldiers on opposing sides of an intergalactic war. They met, fell in love and decided to go on the run together.

Now Anjali and Mikhail are trying to eke out a living on the independent worlds of the galactic rim, while attempting to stay under the radar of those pursuing them.

On their way back from a mission, Anjali and Mikhail are ambushed by a squad of bounty hunters. Wounded and hunted through a frozen landscape, they find shelter in a mountain lodge.

But their pursuers are still out there, tracking them. And with Anjali too injured to fight, Mikhail must face down seven bounty hunters on his own…

More information.

Length: 21000 words

List price: 2.99 USD, EUR or 1.99 GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Inktera, Playster, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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The Return of Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd in “Bloody Bananas”

I have two new releases to announce in the next few days.

As the post title indicates, the first of these new releases is a new Helen Shepherd Mystery. This is already the twelfth story featuring Helen and her team, making it my longest series to date.

The inspiration for this mystery was a news story about how cocaine packages were found inside banana crates at several Aldi discount supermarkets. The case made headlines, because the amount of cocaine seized was one of the largest in postwar Germany. And the police didn’t even have to do anything, they only needed to pick up the cocaine packages at Aldi, after the supermarket employees called them in. I even blogged about it at the time.

The news story about the cocaine packages found in banana crates at Aldi not only sparked a lot of jokes – “This week’s special at Aldi – Cocaine, fresh from Columbia” – but it also sparked an idea for a crime story. For what if the supermarket employees did not call the police, when faced with an unexpected delivery of cocaine? What if they decided to keep the drugs for themselves to sell them? And what if someone disagreed?

The ingredients were ideal for a murder mystery and so I turned them into a story and let Helen Shepherd and her team, including new additions Detective Sergeant Terrence Quincy of the drug squad and his detection dog Rex (“a highly qualified police officer who just happens to be a dog”), loose upon the case. There’s even time for a bit romance for Police Constable Martin Jackson who acquires a girlfriend in this story.

So what are you waiting for? Read…

Bloody Bananas

[image error]When supermarket employee Nelson Grant is found bludgeoned to death next to a half empty crate of bananas, the case seems a complete mystery. For Nelson Grant was well liked by his colleagues, so who could possibly want him dead?

But then Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd and her team discover that the crate contained more than just bananas and the case suddenly acquires a whole new dimension.

 

 

More information.

Length: 12300 words

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Inktera, Playster, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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Some Comments on the 2017 Nebula Awards Winners

So the 2017 Nebula Awards were awarded last night, as was the Palme d’Or (winner: Shoplifters by Hirokazu Kone-eda), the DFB cup (winner: Eintracht Frankfurt), the FA cup (winner: Chelsea). Oh yes, and there was a wedding in Britain, too.

I actually watched the Nebulas via the livestream this time (and for the record, I did not watch the royal wedding live – the snippets in the news were completely sufficient for me). I often have a podcast running in the background when I’m writing and last night, I simply left the Nebula ceremony running instead. Though when I tuned in, while the livestream was already in progress, I initially was confused, because instead of an awards ceremony, there was a bar diagram on the screen, breaking down genre fiction sales, while a voice detailed the market share of indie writers in the various SFF subgenres. For a second, I thought that I’d accidentally clicked on some indie publishing podcast, but no, I really had tuned into the Nebula ceremony, which apparently began with a presentation by Data Guy of Author Earnings Report fame.

After Data Guy had finished his report – which wasn’t all that surprising to those of us who’ve been hanging around indie publishing blogs and fora – a gentleman appeared on stage who turned out to be a puppeteer for the Jim Henson Company and one of the two people who play Mr. Snuffleuppagus. He briefly morphed into Snuffleuppagus mode – and I immediately recognised his voice and mannerisms, even though I haven’t actually watched US Sesame Street in ages and didn’t even know that Snuffleuppagus isn’t imaginary anymore – and also brought along two other Muppets. He was a great host BTW. All the awards should be presented by Muppets. At one point, a Muppet even cuddled with Patrick Rothfuss.

But now let’s get on to the winners. The full list is here, though they missed the Service to SFWA Award and this File 770 post also has some pictures of the ceremony. For my comments on the finalists, see this post.

The winner in the best novel category is The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin, who now has a Nebula to keep her two Hugos company. Now I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the Broken Earth trilogy, though it is a highly deserved win for the concluding novel in a trilogy that will be remembered for a long time. It’s also interesting that The Stone Sky and Six Wakes were the only two Nebula finalists this year that are also on the Hugo shortlist. Normally, there is a lot more overlap.

The winner in the best novella category is – unsurprisingly – All Systems Red by Martha Wells. It’s a great choice, because it’s a lovely story and Murderbot’s voice is a delight. BTW, the sequel Artificial Condition just came out. Currently, All Systems Red is duking it out for the number one spot on my Hugo ballot with River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey, which just happens to hit a lot of my sweet spots.

The winner in the best novella category is “A Human Stain” by Kelly Robson. I’ve all enjoyed all of Kelly Robson’s stories I’ve read so far, though I have to admit that I preferred Kelly Robson’t other 2017 story “We Who Live in the Heart” to “A Human Stain”. Though I find it interesting that what is basically a horror novelette won, since horror doesn’t normally do all that well at the Hugos and Nebulas.

The winner in the best short story category is “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience(TM)” by Rebecca Roanhorse, a story that’s also on this year’s Hugo shortlist. It’s a fine story (and also one that borders on horror, interestingly) and a highly deserving winner. Coincidentally, I also think that this is the first time a Native American writer has won the Nebula, at least to my knowledge.

The Andre Norton Award for Best YA Novel went to Sam J. Miller for The Art of Starving. Now I like Sam J. Miller’s writing a whole lot and have been nominating stories of his for the Hugos several times now. However, I have to admit that I don’t love The Art of Starving, which is also on the ballot for the new YA not-a-Hugo, as much as the rest of his work. The central gay love story between two teens, one Muslim and one Jewish, is lovely, but I didn’t much care for the anorexia angle. It’s not a trigger for me – thankfully, I don’t have any eating disorders – it’s just a subject I don’t like reading about. The Art of Starving is also fairly light on the SFF content. Much of it reads like an updated and much better written version of the problem novels that were all the rage when I was the YA reading age and I never much cared about those.

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, finally, went to Jordan Peele for Get Out! Now Get Out! is clearly one of the big surprise hits of 2017 and the first horror film to be nominated for the Best Motion Picture Oscar in more than forty years. Jordan Peele also took home a highly deserved Best Original Screenplay Oscar and might well win a Hugo, too. However, I find that I don’t love the film as much as many others obviously do. I think it’s partly because suburban horror is a very American subgenre – and many Non-Americans have been puzzled by the fact that many Americans obviously enjoy living in places that look like horror film settings for a long time now. And yes, we have suburbs, too, but ours are not quite as freakily homogenous as the American ones tend to be.

Rounding out the evening were a highly deserved SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master Award for Peter S. Beagle, a Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award each for Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams and the Kevin O’Donnell Jr. Service to SFWA Award for Bud Sparhawk.

So let’s take a look at the winner demographics. Once again, the four adult fiction categories all went to women, two of them women of colour, for what I think is the third year in a row. However, lest the usual suspect worry that men are somehow being shut out of science fiction and fantasy, the winners of the Andre Norton Award and the Ray Bradbury Award this year were both men, Sam J. Miller and Jordan Peele respectively. However, Jordan Peele is not white and Sam J. Miller is not straight, so I fear the usual suspects won’t be placated either. Diversity count (leaving the special awards out for now): Three men, three women, three writers of colour, two LGBT writers.

All in all, this is a strong selection of Nebula winners, even if not every winner would have been my first choice. And with two blatant horror works, Get Out! and “A Human Stain”, as well as the borderline horror story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience (TM)” winning, this is also a surprisingly strong year for horror at the Nebulas. Meanwhile, Murderbot and “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience (TM)” are holding up the flag for science fiction – everything else is fantasy to varying degrees.

Comments are off – I seem to have attracted some unwelcome attention in the past few days.

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“Baptism of Fire” is a nominee for the 2018 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Award

[image error]The nominations for the 2018 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards, which are run by the small press Bards & Sages, were announced today.

I was going to put the link to the announcement into the weekly link round-ups at the Speculative Fiction Showcase and the Indie Crime Scene respectively, but first I took a gander at the list of nominees and all but fell from my chair, because there, a bit down the page, was my name. For it turns out that “Baptism of Fire”, my contribution to the science fiction anthology The Guardian, edited by Alasdair Shaw, has been nominated in the “Best short story” category. I had absolutely no idea about this, until I saw the nominee list.

“Baptism of Fire” is a prequel story to my In Love and War series and features Anjali on her first very mission with the Shakyri Corps. The story was originally written during the 2017 July short story challenge. You can either get it as part of The Guardian, together with ten other great science fiction stories, or as a standalone edition for series completists.

I’m really happy about this nomination and thrilled to be in the company of so many other great books and stories by indie and small press authors, so many congratulations to my fellow nominees and thank you to everybody who nominated me.

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