Larry A. Winters's Blog, page 5

New Release: Web of Lies

I am excited to announce that my new thriller, Web of Lies, is now available!

Losing the trial is just the beginning…

When criminal defense attorney Dylan Wood returns from a defeat in the courtroom, he thinks the worst is over. His client will go to prison, and Dylan will move on. But he learns the hard way that not every client is willing to accept the judgment of his peers. Suddenly Dylan has twenty-four hours to overturn the guilty verdict. If he fails, a ruthless, sexy woman who gives new meaning to the term femme fatale will go public with the dark secret of Dylan’s own past, destroying his life and those of everyone he loves.

This time Dylan is defending himself, and he’ll do whatever it takes to survive—even if it means breaking the laws he’s sworn to uphold.

Web of Lies is a standalone thriller, set in the same Philadelphia legal world as the Jessie Black Legal Thriller series. (Although prosecutor Jessie Black appears in the story, she is not the main character.) If you like gritty crime stories, vividly-drawn characters, and surprising twists and turns, you’ll love Larry A. Winters’s page-turning story of justice gone crazy.

Read Web of Lies to experience this nail-biting legal thriller today!

Read it now! Kindle| Paperback (coming soon)

Burnout reviewed at Life’s Good Journey—5 Stars!

A wonderful blog called Life’s Good Journey just posted a review of Burnout, giving the book a 5 star rating on Amazon.  The reviewer, Renee, calls the first Jessie Black Legal Thriller “a book that kept me hooked throughout!” Here’s an excerpt from the review:

There were many twists in this story that I didn’t see coming. The authors writing style was full of great description, and each page held my attention. This is a long book, and I never got bored. During the court proceedings, the author came across as a true lawyer. The characters were well developed which also helped the plot move along.

Read the full review here!  And if you liked the book, please consider leaving your own review at Amazon or spreading the word with social media.

Thanks, Renee!

Informant — The Second Jessie Black Legal Thriller is Here!

I am excited to announce that the second Jessie Black Legal Thriller, INFORMANT, is now available!

Informant (A Jessie Black Legal Thriller)

Prosecutor Jessie Black has an airtight case against Tyrone Nash, a gang thug who shot a man in the head behind a bar in West Philly. But what should be an easy trial turns complicated when Nash somehow intimidates her eyewitness, and he recants his testimony on the eve of the trial. Now Jessie’s only move to stop the killer from walking is to call a witness she had hoped to avoid—Reggie Tuck, a smooth-talking jailhouse snitch who claims Nash confessed to him during a short time they shared a cell.

Worse, there are other people with an interest in the trial—people intent on silencing Reggie’s big mouth, permanently. Soon Jessie and Reggie find themselves trapped in a courthouse under siege, and she must find a way to keep both Reggie and herself alive long enough to learn who they are, and how to stop them. But is Reggie Tuck’s life worth protecting at the risk of her own?

Read it now! Kindle| Kobo | iBooks | Nook | Paperback (coming soon)

Monk’s Cafe – A Real Location in a Fictional Philadelphia

Most of the restaurants, bars, and stores featured in my books are fictional locations. I’d claim that this is due to my irrepressible creativity, but the truth is that making places up requires less research, and runs a lower risk of pissing off a real-world owner. (As cool as it would be to set a brutal torture scene inside a Chuck E. Cheese, I’d prefer to avoid the attorneys’ fees.) There are exceptions to this practice, however, and one is Monk’s Café, a very real Philadelphia restaurant and bar which appears in Burnout. Spoiler: There is no brutal torture.

Monk’s is the setting for a pivotal scene in the novel—the location of Jessie Black’s first “date” with Jack Ackerman. Jack is a former defense attorney, and Jessie’s one-time nemesis, whose nervous breakdown has changed his personality for the better, but may also result in a serial killer going free. In the real world, Monk’s Café, is famous for its amazing selection of beers from around the world, with a special emphasis on Belgian brews. There is even a “Beer Bible” available to assist patrons hoping to find the perfect choice within the vast array of options. The beer selection is referenced in Burnout, although when Jessie and Jack order bottles of Lucifer (a Belgian strong ale), it’s mostly so I could make a bad lawyer joke.

Monk’s Cafe, as seen in the novel Burnout

There are two bars—a Front Bar and a Back Bar—as well as cozy eating areas with an atmosphere I described in the book as having “an old-world ambiance.” Monk’s also features an award-winning menu, the hamburgers being a personal favorite of mine. The eating area is crowded and dark, with small, candle-lit tables jammed side to side. As Jessie realizes, Monk’s manages to be simultaneously loud and casual and intimate and romantic at the same time, a paradox which helped make it such a good setting for their meeting.

Monk’s has a place in my heart as one of the restaurants that my then-girlfriend, now-wife and I used to frequent back when we lived in Philly. Ever since first seeing the neon sign in its window, and tasting those awesome burgers, I’ve wanted to pay tribute to the place in my writing. I hope I did a decent job conjuring those sights, smells, and tastes. It was great fun to revisit Monk’s Café vicariously through Jessie and Jack, and, come to think of it, I may need to make an actual trip to experience the real thing again sometime soon.

Been to Monk’s? Got a story to share (or a beer to recommend)? Please leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.

Burnout reviewed at Pam’s Book Reviews

Exciting news!  Book blog Pam’s Book Reviews recently posted a review of Burnout, calling the book “a legal thriller at its best with twist and turns in the plot.” Here is an excerpt:

All the characters are believable and Jessie herself is very likable and capable. A series of stories based on her could attract a popular following with readers of this genre.

Read the full review here!  And if you liked the book, please consider leaving your own review at Amazon or spreading the word with social media.  Thanks!

Burnout (A Jessie Black Legal Thriller)

I am thrilled to announce that Burnout is now available for Kindle.  Burnout is the first book in a new series about a Philadelphia district attorney named Jessie Black.  I’m really proud of this one and excited to write more Jessie Black stories in the coming year.

Burnout (A Jessie Black Legal Thriller)

Jessie Black is a rising star at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.  But all of her abilities will be put to the test when Frank Ramsey, a brutal serial murderer and rapist she successfully prosecuted over a year ago, petitions the court for a new trial.

Public defender Jack Ackerman represented Ramsey at his first trial.  Beating him had not been easy.  That was before his spectacular public breakdown, which saw him singing and dancing in open court and resulted in his commitment to a mental institution mere weeks after Ramsey’s guilty verdict.

Now, Ramsey may have a chance at a new trial based on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.  To stop Ramsey, Jessie will need to defend a defense attorney she never liked, and prove that he’s not crazy–a fact she’s far from sure of.  A new trial would devastate Kristen Dillard, the teenage girl whose life Ramsey shattered and the only witness to his horrific crimes.  And to make matters worse, powerful forces are hellbent on putting Ramsey back on the street for their own mysterious purposes, and won’t let anyone–including a prosecutor–stand in their way.

Will one lawyer’s nervous breakdown set a killer free?  For Jessie, this fight will be the toughest of her career, and one she’s not willing to lose.

Note:  You don’t need a Kindle device to read this ebook.  You can also use Amazon’s Kindle app, which is available on most tablets and smartphones.  The ebook is also DRM free, so you can convert it to the format of your choice.  Additional purchase options, such as paperback and ePub formats, are coming soon.

Buy your copy here!

The Importance of Being Villainous

So I’ve been thinking about bad guys in fiction.  When I was a kid, I always rooted for them.  I wanted Wile E. Coyote to catch the Roadrunner, Gargamel to transmute the Smurfs, and if I had been Luke Skywalker, it’s pretty likely I would have taken Darth up on his offer to rule the galaxy as father and son.  The bad guys just seemed, well, cooler.  Maybe this attitude is typical of children, or maybe I was just a morally impaired little monster.  Who knows?

As I got older, my sense of conscience matured.  These days, I find that when I read novels and watch movies and TV shows, I’m yearning for the heroes to prevail more often than not.  I’m not sure why, but I have a theory—the older you get, the more precious life starts to feel.  Suddenly, that Bond villain’s cavalier destruction of innocent lives doesn’t seem so cool.  That dude driving to work when the super-bomb erupts a volcano in the middle of the freeway could be you, after all.  And once you have your first kid, forget about ever again empathizing with a villain who endangers children!

In adulthood, I have become a decent, conscientious, kind-hearted person.  And I’m fighting it tooth and nail.

Why?  For you, dear reader.  Because your entertainment depends on my ability to think like a villain, to put myself in the bad guy’s head, to be evil, at least within my own skull and on the page.  As a writer, this maturation of conscience I’ve experienced sucks, because great stories are built on great villains.  And I’m not just talking about modern thrillers.  Hannibal Lecter is a classic villain example and should be studied by all storytellers, but Shakespeare knew the importance of great villains, too (Richard III, Macbeth), as did Milton (Satan), and numerous Neanderthals (saber-tooth tigers painted on cave walls).

What makes bad guys so compelling?  My hunch is that good villains tap into our longing for empowerment and freedom.  Maybe the villain shoots lightning from his fingers.  Maybe she’s got a lot of money, or a private army, or a nuclear warhead.  In any case, a villain worth his or her salt is powerful enough to be a threat to the hero—and in a good story, that means a lot of power.  And with power comes freedom.  The freedom to do the things that we would never, or could never, do, but that we might like to imagine ourselves doing.  Like, say, robbing a bank, or seeking vengeance on a hated nemesis.  For good reasons, of course!  After all, some of the best villains don’t even know they’re bad.  In their own minds, they are the heroes in their stories.

Readers love bad guys.  Even bad guys who do the most heinous, horrible, evil deeds.  Especially them.  And because entertaining readers is the single most important part of any storyteller’s job, I hereby pledge to you that no matter how upstanding a person I may become, I will never lose touch with my inner evildoer.  If you want great villains, you can count on me.

Have a favorite bad guy?  Tell us in the comments!

Hardcore reviewed on Storeybook Reviews

I’m thrilled with readers’ enthusiasm for Hardcore!  Book blog Storeybook Reviews recently posted their review, awarding the novel five paws and calling it “a must read for all mystery lovers!”

Here’s an excerpt:

WOW! is about all I can think of to say about this book.  A mystery set in the porn industry with its bad rap and seamy individuals.  I’m not sure what I was expecting but this book had everything that a reader could want – shady characters, murder, lies, sex and even some romance.

You can read the whole review here.

Thanks, Storeybook Reviews!

X-Rated Research

I am thrilled to have a guest post today on Joe Konrath’s blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.  Joe has been blogging about writing and publishing for years.  He is also the author of the bestselling Jack Daniels series of thrillers.  My guest post, titled X-Rated Research, is about the importance of research and the role it played in my novel HARDCORE.

Here is an excerpt:

I know, it’s like a bad joke:  You wrote a book about porn?  I bet you did a lot of research!  Well, in my case, that’s true.  I knew I wanted the story to feel authentic, to expose the reader to an unfamiliar milieu, and, like the novels mentioned above, to make the reader feel like the book expanded his or her knowledge.  I spent months consuming nonfiction books, industry newsletters, insider blogs, interviews, documentaries, behind the scenes footage, and other resources.  Was some of this research fun?  Of course.  If you’re writing about a subject that interests you, the research should not be a chore.

And in my experience, the research was critical.  Knowing the real life problems and concerns of people in the industry enabled me to craft believable characters and realistic settings.  It opened my mind to plot twists that otherwise would not have occurred to me.  It helped me to avoid stupid mistakes that might have broken a knowledgeable reader’s suspension of disbelief.  Research impacted just about every aspect of the book, and made it better.

Read the whole blog post here.

Storeybook Reviews features Hardcore as this week’s Mystery Monday book

Storeybook Reviews is showcasing HARDCORE in its Mystery Monday feature this week!  If you’re unfamiliar with the website, you should check it out.  It’s a great resource for reviews and information about a wide range of books.  Thanks, Leslie!