P.D. Workman's Blog, page 91
November 7, 2018
Books for youth in custody
How do the administrators of libraries in the youth corrections systems in North America choose new books to carry for their residents?
In a recent article in Voya Magazine, Jessica Snow talks about some of the resources that are available for the staff of these programs to help them to choose the books that will have the greatest impact on their young people. One of those resources is Library Services for Youth in Custody (http://youthlibraries.org/). They provide helpful suggestions and book lists for those who are trying to stock their libraries with the best books for their youth.
All across America, youth are incarcerated or detained with little or no access to high-interest, culturally relevant library materials or engaging programming. The site provides a directory of facilities, booklist suggestions, collection development policies, collection development resources, and more.
One of the resources Library Services for Youth in Custody publishes is the In the Margins award. Jessica Snow interviewed ITM librarian Kerry Sutherland, who kindly gave a shout-out to yours truly.
We place a high priority on bringing attention to stories that reflect teens in poverty, on the streets, or in custody, either in foster care or the juvenile justice system. The need for books with protagonists managing transgender identities and LGBTQ orientations, as well as those dealing with human trafficking, have also come to our attention. The biggest challenge is finding books …
One of the authors is P. D. Workman, a prolific Canadian writer who produces gritty and realistic teen stories about life on the streets, in gangs, under the influence of drugs, suffering abuse, pregnant, in foster care, victims of incest, and more. Making the top of the lists in the past few years, Workman continues her Between the Cracks and Tamara’s Teardrops series, both of which have been popular with teen readers.
This is one way we differ from many other book selection committees and lists … we give the titles under consideration to teen readers for their input. The committee may like a story, but if the teens don’t, it won’t make the list. The teens are in poverty, sometimes homeless or in shelters, incarcerated, living with abuse … their experiences give them an entirely different perspective, and they need to see themselves reflected accurately in novels …
I am grateful for a program that is invested in finding appropriate books for this segment of society that needs it so badly, and am honored to have been selected by the committee more than once and to have my books in these facilities. When I hear from a librarian of a girl who wouldn’t read anything, and then picked up one of my books, and then the next, or from a reader who says that my books gave her hope through a very low period in her life, I am so glad that I have chosen this path.
I hope that my books can continue to inspire youth in custody and out, and adults and other readers who need to hear the perspectives of Ruby, Tamara, and the other characters in my books.
Thank you, Library Services, for all that you do.
November 6, 2018
Excerpt from Running Blind
[image error]Nanowrimo is in full swing now! I am roughly 30,000 words into a book that will be between 100,000-125,000 words long. It is coming along well and I am quite enjoying myself.
A shout-out to Kristin, my Uber driver yesterday who was going to pop in and check my website. Hope to see you at the reader event on Thursday!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I am just finishing up another of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. This one, Running Blind, is number four in the series. There are definitely differences in Jack Reacher much further into the series and these earlier iterations. He is still finding himself in book four. Still sorting out who he is and what it is that he’s doing. He has “settled down” and doesn’t like it, but isn’t sure what he wants to do about it. The Reacher in later stories has a lot of reasons for his nomadic lifestyle, this one isn’t yet that sure.
It’s a good mystery. I thought I had the solution early on, but it turns out I was only half right. I missed at least one clue that would have led me to the killer. Good suspense. Lee Child is always a good read.
It’s not about what happened an hour and seventeen minutes ago, he said to himself. No way was this all organized in an hour and seventeen minutes. He kept quiet and absolutely still. He was worried about the whiteness int he woman’s knuckle where it wrapped around the SIG-Sauer’s trigger. Accidents can happen.
Lee Child, Running Blind
Across the country, women are being murdered, victims of a disciplined and clever killer who leaves no trace evidence, no fatal wounds, no signs of struggle, and no clues to an apparent motive. They are, truly, perfect crimes. In fact, there’s only one thing that links the victims. Each one of the women knew Jack Reacher—and it’s got him running blind.
November 1, 2018
Kicking off Nanowrimo
If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you probably know that I have been doing Nanowrimo for a number of years (according to my account, this is my seventh year.)
[image error]What is Nanowrimo? Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) is a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. Writers all over the world participate in Nanowrimo. Some writers thrive on the challenge and others get discouraged. I have enjoyed Nano from the first year I did it. My novels are more than 50,000 words, generally 70,000-125,000, and I prefer to finish the full book in a month rather than writing only 50,000 words and ending the month with only a partial novel.
This year I am working on a new book in the Between the Cracks series. Yes, I said the series was finished with Ronnie, but readers have asked for more, so…
October 30, 2018
Toxo
Toxo by P. D. Workman Coming Soon!
Series: Medical Kidnap Files #4
Genres: YA suspense
Store links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Booksamillion, Audible
Goodreads
Gabriel and Renata are back with a new case!
About Toxo
Raising Caleb had never been easy, but things got exponentially worse when DFS made an unexpected appearance and decided he was in danger, something Riley would never have predicted in a million years.
Now Caleb really is in danger.
Gabriel and Renata are working together once more to determine whether an injustice has been done and to get Caleb into a safe situation. But Social Worker is on the case, and it’s his job to see that they don’t succeed.
More details on the way!
+ Praise for Medical Kidnap Files
—A phenomenal read! The story line is both exasperating and inspiring. Is it a conspiracy or crazy thoughts? You have to read to the end to know for sure.
—I thoroughly enjoyed Mito. I didn’t want to put any it down.
—The incipient relationship between Gabriel and Renata, both in awful situations, was fascinating and I was intrigued by the very original theme of the book. I hope it really is a work of fiction!
—The plot was FANTASTIC. I’ve read a lot of stories about foster children, but never anything quite like what happens in Mito. I never even realized that medical kidnap could very well be a thing happening “behind the scenes” in foster care, but after reading this book my mind is blown.
+ Book Club Resources
Pinterest Board: Mental Illness
Pinterest Board: Disabilities
Pinterest Board: Medical Kidnap
Pinterest Board: Foster Care
+ Praise for P.D. Workman
“Every single one of [P.D. Workman’s] books has spoken to me in ways no one or almost anything else has. And I have found strength in the books I’ve read.”
“The way that P.D. Workman writes just flows amazingly and allows the reader to get really invested in a book.”
“This is one author I certainly will be looking out for, I can’t recommend her enough.”
+ Toxo on my Blog
Release of Toxo
What’s coming up
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About P. D. Workman
P.D. Workman was born and raised in Alberta, Canada. She writes riveting young adult and mystery/suspense books dealing with mental illness, addiction, abuse, and other social issues. For as long as she can remember, the blank page has held an incredible allure, leading her to write her first complete novel at the age of twelve. She has won several literary awards from Library Services for Youth in Custody for her young adult fiction. She currently has over 30 published titles. She has been married for 25 years and has one son.
Excerpt from Sue Grafton’s X
Nanowrimo is coming up! I’ll be starting on a new book in the Between the Cracks series on November 1.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I am reading Sue Grafton’s X, book 24 of the Kinsey Millhone series. I was sorry to hear of Sue Grafton’s passing last year and that she wasn’t able to finish the series. Kinsey Millhone is a fun PI and I have always enjoyed reading the series.
As for the banker’s box, I’d put a big black X not he lid and shoved it under the desk in my studio apartment, so the task would have to wait unit I got home.
Sue Grafton, X
X: The number ten. An unknown quantity. A mistake. A cross. A kiss…
Perhaps Sue Grafton’s darkest and most chilling novel, X features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this deadly sociopath. The test is whether private investigator Kinsey Millhone can prove her case against him—before she becomes his next victim.
October 25, 2018
She was Dying Anyway and October freebies
It’s your favourite time of the month again; it’s freebie weekend!
She was Dying Anyway is free in the Kindle store Friday through Sunday. And keep scrolling down for more freebie offers.
About She was Dying Anyway
[image error]Private Investigator Zachary Goldman took on the case as a favor to his ex-wife, Bridget. It should have been cut and dried. But the deeper he looks into the death of cancer patient Robin Salter, the more convinced Zachary becomes that Bridget’s suspicions were correct. Bridget is determined to discover what happened to her friend… and what was thought to be death by natural causes becomes an active police investigation.
No one else wants Zachary involved in the investigation, not the police, Robin Salter’s family, or her boyfriend. No one but Bridget. What does it really matter, when Robin was dying anyway? Facing a wall of silence, Zachary digs into Robin’s past, determined to find the truth.
Read sample
Kindle
$4.99
Other freebies!
I’ve rounded up some other freebies for you to download. Check them out!
To Serve the Goddess
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To Serve the Goddess, by T.C. & M.M. Glenn
Free on subscription to newsletter
If he dies, the truth dies with him…
In the demon-infested hellscape, humanity fights a battle for survival. Mykel fights on the front lines of this conflict, serving the goddess of love and war, Afodisia.
After one such battle, an interaction with a survivor reopens old wounds and tests Mykel’s faith. Guilt over the daughter he left behind resurfaces, just as a larger threat looms on the horizon.
His only hope lies in a woman who sacrificed her past and name to serve as Afodisia’s Oracle. With nothing left to lose, she looks to the future for meaning. Mykel seeks to reconnect with his faith through her, but with an impossible battle before them, will it matter? And if he dies, will his daughter know who he was?
Ghost Detective
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Ghost Detective, by Scott William Carter
After narrowly surviving a near-fatal shooting, Portland detective Myron Vale wakes with a bullet still lodged in his brain, a headache to end all headaches, and a terrible side effect that radically transforms his world for the worse: He sees ghosts. Lots of them.
By some estimates, a hundred billion people have lived and died before anyone alive today was even born. For Myron, they’re all still here. That’s not even his biggest problem. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t tell the living from the dead.
Despite this, Myron manages to piece together something of a life as a private investigator specializing in helping people on both sides of the great divide—until a stunning blonde beauty walks into his office needing help finding her husband. Myron wants no part of the case until he sees the man’s picture … and instantly his carefully reconstructed life begins to unravel.
The Detective
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The Detective, by D.I. Hills
Not all accidents are murder…
When a private detective is asked to review a fatality at a remote facility he expected nothing but an accident. That’s what the report said. The report got it wrong.
The facility was above the snow line and buried in a mountain so reaching it wasn’t easy. It was designed that way. Its isolation ensured the research within remained hidden from governments and corporate spies and it also stopped the research escaping. Human clones. They hadn’t told the detective about them. But then he hadn’t told them he wasn’t really a private detective.
The Sigma Surrogate
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The Sigma Surrogate, by J.T. Lawrence
Joni is a state surrogate: young, bright, and most importantly: fertile.
… and someone wants her dead.
Keke is a smart, sexy biker; a renegade with a hunger for justice.
She won’t stop until she exposes the truth, even it means putting her life in danger.
Will Keke’s reckless ambition help the state surrogates, or harm them?
Touching Death
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Touching Death, by Becky Johnson
Rachel Angeletti knows things. She always has. With one touch she sees secrets, emotions, lies. Her gift helps her to be the best museum curator in Chicago. It also makes her personal relationships difficult.
Her life is complicated enough when a run in with her ex and an unanticipated vision sends her reeling. One touch and she sees death. One touch and she is thrown into the midst of killer’s dark fantasy. Now Rachel is in a fight for her life against a killer she knows too little about.
With danger stalking her around every turn Rachel is in a thrilling race against the clock.
True Life Adventure
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True-Life Adventure, by J. Paul Drew
Things were going lousy for ex-reporter Paul Mcdonald: No money, no girl friend, no bright new career as a mystery novelist … and then along came private investigator Jack Birnbaum with an offer: he’d detect, and Paul would write the client reports. It wasn’t much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits.
But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paul’s own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paul’s got a feeling that’s just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn’t want him to know in one of those client reports. But what?
The wise-cracking, funny, but slightly depressed ex-journalist better become an ace private investigator in about two seconds—or end up like his detective mentor.
Deader Homes and Gardens
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Deader Homes and Gardens, by Angie Fox
Southern belle Verity Long is back in business—as a ghost hunter. Now all she has to do is visit the town’s creepiest mansion and exorcise a family of vengeful spirits. Piece of cake. After all, ghosts love her and need her…that is until she meets the ghosts of Rock Fall mansion. They’ll do anything to keep their murderous secrets hidden within the cliff-side fortress—even if that means getting rid of one meddling ghost hunter.
With the entire town skeptical and scrutinizing her every move, Verity struggles to uncover the century-old mystery behind the house. And when she stumbles upon a very fresh, very dead body, she realizes there’s more to it than she ever imagined. With the help of her sexy cop boyfriend, Ellis, and her ghostly gangster sidekick, Frankie, she braves the overgrown gardens, the desolate family cemetery, and the haunted mansion that have been locked away for generations.
The Hunting Ground
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The Hunting Ground, by Jean Heller
The grisly discovery of a human bone while Deuce is out for a hike with handsome arson investigator Mark Hearst, leads to the unearthing of a vast burial field, a human trafficking ring, and international intrigue. The pulls-no-punches columnist– and meticulous detective– keeps turning up information, bit by bit, only to find some Fed in her face, at her door, emerging from the shadows, always guarding the edges of the story, insisting it will not be told. Yes, the Feds are aware of the trafficking ring; yes, they have a plan to move on it; no, Deuce can’t be told about the plan; and under no circumstances can she write about its existence.
This is the story of a lifetime– bigger than the Vinnie Colangelo story, which earned Deuce and the Journal a Pulitzer, and, for once, she has the support of her editor, but the Journal’s lawyer appears daily bringing warnings about “national security.” What, Deuce seethes, could be a greater matter of national security than the safety of the city’s children who are being kidnapped and murdered?
Small Town Corruption
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Small Town Corruption, by Liz Turner
Dana Potter can’t believe her eyes when she witnesses a well-to-do woman stealing from a homeless man in broad daylight! Her town of Pippin, Georgia, is tiny and full of southern charm and hospitality. Why, they’ve hardly had someone litter there since Dana can remember, let alone steal in such a depraved way!
Her curiosity, and her indignation, are piqued as she becomes determined to bring the perpetrator to justice.
Her little investigation quickly turns into something far more sinister. The closer she gets to the mystery woman, the more she begins to suspect that the woman might not be as evil as she once believed. Over the next few days, Ms. Potter leverages her natural busybody spirit to get to the bottom of the real evil out there.
Buried
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Buried, C.J. Carmichael
In the coastal town of Twisted Cedars, Oregon an ugly secret from the past has been festering for over thirty years when five librarians were targeted by a serial killer. Now an anonymous emailer wants true crime writer Dougal Lachlan to tell the story. To uncover the truth Dougal enlists the help of local Twisted Cedar librarian Charlotte Hammond.
Since the disappearance of her older sister, Daisy, eight years ago, Charlotte has led a quiet, sheltered life. But as Dougal’s investigation proceeds she realizes there is no safe zone. Not even in libraries. And especially not in Twisted Cedars.
Honeymoon Cottage
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Honeymoon Cottage, by Barbara Cool Lee
Camilla Stewart’s ex-fiancé ripped her off and disappeared, leaving her to care for his eight-year-old son alone. But when she arrives in Pajaro Bay, she finds a village full of cute cottages, quirky characters… and a killer on the loose who is somehow linked to her, the young boy, and the darling little house known as the Honeymoon Cottage.
Snapped
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Snapped, by C.M. Sutter
Murder happens in Houston, but when the most recent murders take on disturbing similarities, local law enforcement officers fear a serial killer is roaming their streets.
Former sheriff’s department sergeant Jade Monroe has just graduated from the FBI’s serial crimes unit in homicide and is called to Houston with her partner, J.T. Harper, to take on her first assignment—apprehending the person responsible for these gruesome crimes.
With victims piling up and the clock ticking, Jade and J.T. need to intensify their search because there’s no sign the killer is slowing down.
After a late-night epiphany while she’s alone, Jade suddenly comes face to face with the killer, and now Jade is missing. The clock continues to tick—but this time it’s for her.
Split
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Split, by Tara Moss
Makedde Vanderwall is a woman with a past. She is beautiful, street-smart and single, a model paying her way through a degree in forensic psychology. But behind the wit and winning smile is a woman haunted by violent nightmares and plagued by thoughts of Detective Andy Flynn, the ex-lover who saved her from a serial killer in Sydney.
Mak has returned to Vancouver, her hometown in Canada, eager to finish her studies, move on from the ordeal, and find some peace of mind. But instead she walks straight into a city gripped by fear, and a campus where the students are fair game. As winter closes in and the days grow shorter, Mak is drawn into a shifting world of unstable minds and untrustworthy men, where motives are unclear and desires are unchecked.
Her past cannot be so easily forgotten, and she must face her greatest challenge yet.
The Watchmaker’s Daughter
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The Watchmaker’s Daughter, by C.J. Archer
India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who’ll accept her – an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he’s ill.
Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won’t tell India why any old one won’t do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London’s best streets. So when she reads about an American outlaw known as the Dark Rider arriving in England, she suspects Mr. Glass is the fugitive. When danger comes to their door, she’s certain of it. But if she notifies the authorities, she’ll find herself unemployed and homeless again – and she will have betrayed the man who saved her life.
October 23, 2018
Excerpt from As Time Goes By
[image error]If you didn’t see my new release post, have a look now! And stay tuned this weekend for this month’s freebie roundup.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I am just finishing up As Time Goes By, by Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Mystery. I was enthralled with Mary Higgins Clark from the time I read The Cradle will Fall as a teenager. As Time Goes By doesn’t disappoint. Lots of intertwining stories, appearances by the beloved Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy, courtroom drama, and last-minute revelations.
But as she put down the phone, she had a sudden disquieting moment. Her former nanny, Bridget O’Keefe, had an expression, “When things seem too good, there’s trouble on the way.”
Mary Higgins Clark, As Time Goes By
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Television journalist Delaney Wright is on the brink of stardom when she begins covering a sensational murder trial. She should be thrilled with the story of her career, but her growing desire to locate her birth mother consumes her thoughts. When Delaney’s friends Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy offer to look into the mystery surrounding her birth, they uncover a shocking secret they do not want to reveal.
On trial for murder is Betsy Grant, widow of a wealthy doctor who has suffered from Alzheimer’s for eight years. When her once-upon-a-time celebrity lawyer urges her to accept a plea bargain, Betsy refuses: she will go to trial to prove her innocence.
Betsy’s stepson, Alan Grant, bides his time nervously as the trial begins. His substantial inheritance hangs in the balance—his only means of making good on payments he owes his ex-wife, his children, and increasingly angry creditors.
As the trial unfolds and the damning evidence against Betsy piles up, Delaney is convinced that Betsy is not guilty and frantically tries to prove her innocence.
The post Excerpt from As Time Goes By appeared first on pdworkman.com.
October 18, 2018
She was Dying Anyway and a round-up of new releases
Are you ready for some fresh reads? After walking through the crispy fallen leaves, curl up by the fireplace and grab one of these new releases! She was Dying Anyway, Book #3 in the Zachary Goldman Series is now available for purchase, and I have gathered together a shelf-ful of other new releases for your consideration.
She was Dying Anyway
[image error]Private Investigator Zachary Goldman took on the case as a favor to his ex-wife, Bridget. It should have been cut and dried. But the deeper he looks into the death of cancer patient Robin Salter, the more convinced Zachary becomes that Bridget’s suspicions were correct. Bridget is determined to discover what happened to her friend… and what was thought to be death by natural causes becomes an active police investigation.
No one else wants Zachary involved in the investigation, not the police, Robin Salter’s family, or her boyfriend. No one but Bridget. What does it really matter, when Robin was dying anyway? Facing a wall of silence, Zachary digs into Robin’s past, determined to find the truth.
Read sample
Buy on Kindle
$4.99
Other new releases
There are a lot of great new mystery releases out right now. Have a look!
The Reckoning
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The Reckoning, by John Grisham
Pete Banning was Clanton, Mississippi’s favorite son—a decorated World War II hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed his pastor and friend, the Reverend Dexter Bell.
As if the murder weren’t shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete’s only statement about it—to the sheriff, to his lawyers, to the judge, to the jury, and to his family—was: “I have nothing to say.” He was not afraid of death and was willing to take his motive to the grave.
There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed
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There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed, by Edgar Cantero
The thrill of a sleepover becomes sheer terror as kids voice their greatest fears into existence in this cheeky, vividly cinematic tale by New York Times bestselling author Edgar Cantero. Lights out.
It’s bad enough that its venom-dripping chelicerae can slice through flesh like warm butter. Worse? It’s right there under the bunk. It’s a fact now. To make it through the night, the children must obey the rules: don’t get out of bed, stay out of the shadows, and don’t wake the beast. But as the threats multiply, so do the rules of survival. And with the safety of dawn still hours away, the fun is just beginning.
Edgar Cantero’s There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider under Your Bed is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.
The Sleep Tight Motel
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The Sleep Tight Motel, by Lisa Unger
A woman on the run finds refuge in a motel at the edge of the woods, with plenty of vacancies. Check in for the night with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.
Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and a violent lover receding in the rearview mirror. He’ll never find her at the isolated motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears. But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve won’t get a good night’s rest until she finds out.
Vengeance
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Vengeance, by Mark David Abbott
John Hayes’ life is perfect. He has a dream job in an exotic land, his career path is on an upward trajectory and at home he has a beautiful wife whom he loves with all his heart.
But one horrible day a brutal incident tears this all away from him and his life is destroyed.
He doesn’t know who is to blame, he doesn’t know what to do, and the police fail to help.
The Christmas Scorpion
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The Christmas Scorpion, by Lee Child
On Christmas Eve, Jack Reacher stumbles into a no-name bar in the California desert, desperate to take refuge from an unexpected snowstorm.
Reacher came to Barstow for a little R&R. Instead, he’s sequestered in a dark little roadhouse with a bartender, a bewildered elderly couple—and two members of Britain’s Royal Military Police. They tell Reacher they were escorting a VIP to a top-secret meeting at a U.S. military base when they became separated from their charge.
That’s when the threat came in from a notorious assassin: the Christmas Scorpion. Now they need a miracle to save the day. Or maybe all they need is Jack Reacher.
Our Little Lies
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Our Little Lies, by Sue Watson
Marianne has a life others dream of. A beautiful townhouse on the best street in the neighbourhood. Three bright children who are her pride and joy.
Sometimes her past still hurts: losing her mother, growing up in foster care. But her husband Simon is always there. A successful surgeon, he’s the envy of every woman they’ve ever met. Flowers, gifts, trips to France – nothing is too good for his family.
Then Simon says another woman’s name. The way he lingers on it, Caroline, gives Marianne a shudder of suspicion, but she knows she can’t entertain this flash of paranoia.
In the old days, she’d have distracted herself at work, but Marianne left her glamorous career behind when she got married. She’d speak to a friend, but she’s too busy with her children and besides, Simon doesn’t approve of the few she has left.
Swamp Spook
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Swamp Spook, by Jana DeLeon
Sinful, Louisiana, really knows how to throw a party, and it goes all out for Halloween. The weeklong celebration kicks off with a maze of horror in the park built of hay bales. And Fortune has the perfect assignment—the executioner. Her scene comes complete with a head block, a hatchet, and a fake body with removable head. It’s the perfect setup…for a crime.
When Fortune returns from break and realizes the body in her scene is a real one and not the prop, she knows trouble is coming. Before she can shake a broomstick, Celia Arceneaux has raised the alarm and the state police show up to take over the investigation. With Carter on the sidelines and Fortune the prime suspect, Swamp Team 3 sets out to catch a real monster.
What Have You Done
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What Have You Done, Matthew Farrell
When a mutilated body is found hanging in a seedy motel in Philadelphia, forensics specialist Liam Dwyer assumes the crime scene will be business as usual. Instead, the victim turns out to be a woman he’d had an affair with before breaking it off to save his marriage. But there’s a bigger problem: Liam has no memory of where he was or what he did on the night of the murder.
Panicked, Liam turns to his brother, Sean, a homicide detective. Sean has his back, but incriminating evidence keeps piling up. From fingerprints to DNA, everything points to Liam, who must race against time and his department to uncover the truth—even if that truth is his own guilt. Yet as he digs deeper, dark secrets come to light, and Liam begins to suspect the killer might actually be Sean…
Dr. Kingston
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Dr. Kingston, by J.E. Lindsay
Dr Kingston is the perfect citizen to the outside world. He has a good job, a loving wife and no criminal record… but all is not as it seems. For over a decade, Sebastian Kingston has been harbouring a very sinister hobby – murdering women that remind him of his abusive mother.
He has it down to a fine art, until an infatuation with one of his students causes him to become reckless. Valerie Woods, lead detective on the case, is closing in on him.
Holy Ghost
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Holy Ghost, by John Sandford
Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of seven hundred souls, for which the word “moribund” might have been invented. Nothing ever happened there and nothing ever would–until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: “I’ll Do What I Can”) and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. They’d heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They’d all get rich! What could go wrong?
When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that’s only the beginning of their troubles–and Virgil Flowers’–as they are all about to discover all too soon.
The Spotted Parasol
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The Spotted Parasol, by Abbey Pen Baker
Set against the steamy backdrop of Prohibition and the criminal minds in New England, this series launches the career of Myrl Adler Norton, the daughter of Sherlock Holmes, a professor of logic at Smith College in the 1920s. With her teaching assistant, Faye Martin Tullis, the two come up against the Mafia, drugs, blackmail and murder and an array of crimes so bizarre they echo the cases from the canon itself. A father would be proud.
Iraq. Sand dunes. A missing woman. Myrl and Faye, sent by a cryptic note to protect Gertrude Bell, the “Queen of the Desert,” arrive in Baghdad to find her missing. T. E. Lawrence is convinced she’s been abducted. When a clutch of children’s teeth and a few marbles of glass and gold arrive in the pocket of a runner, the two women set off across the desert.
What I’ve Done
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What I’ve Done, by Melinda Leigh
Haley Powell wakes up covered in blood, with no memory of the night before. When she sees a man lying in the backyard, stabbed to death, she has only one terrified thought: What have I done?
Agreeing to take the case as a favor to her PI friend Lincoln Sharp, Morgan must scale a mountain of damning circumstantial and forensic evidence to prove her client innocent. Haley couldn’t appear more guilty: her bloodstained fingerprints are on the murder weapon, and she has no alibi. But Morgan can’t shake the feeling that this shocked young woman has been framed.
Someone out there is hell-bent on sabotaging her defense, targeting Morgan, her partner, and especially Haley. Someone who will stop at nothing—and whose next move will be deadly.
Target: Alex Cross
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Target: Alex Cross, by James Patterson
A killer elite–six assassins–are on the loose. So is Alex Cross.
A leader has fallen, and Alex Cross joins the procession of mourners from Capitol Hill to the White House. Then a sniper’s bullet strikes a target in the heart of DC. Alex Cross’s wife, Bree Stone, newly elevated chief of DC detectives must solve the case or lose her position.
The Secret Service and the FBI deploy as well in the race to find the shooter. Alex is tasked by the new President to lead an investigation unprecedented in scale and scope. But is the sniper’s strike only the beginning of a larger attack on the nation?
Dark Sacred Night
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Dark Sacred Night, by Michael Connelly
Detective Renée Ballard is working the night beat — known in LAPD slang as “the late show” — and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours to find a stranger rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin.
Ballard can’t let him go through department records, but when he leaves, she looks into the case herself and feels a deep tug of empathy and anger. She has never been the kind of cop who leaves the job behind at the end of her shift — and she wants in.
The murder, unsolved, was of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway on the streets of Hollywood who was brutally killed, her body left in a dumpster like so much trash. Now Ballard joins forces with Bosch to find out what happened to Daisy, and to finally bring her killer to justice. Along the way, the two detectives forge a fragile trust, but this new partnership is put to the test when the case takes an unexpected and dangerous turn.
October 16, 2018
Excerpt from The Hollow City
This weekend was my bookiversary! Have a look at my blog post. Be sure to check back later this week for my release of She was Dying Anyway and a round-up of other new releases.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
[image error] [image error]Have a look at the book covers of my last two reads! This was not at all planned; I was reading City of Ghosts and I have been wait-listed for Hollow City for a couple of months.
I did enjoy City of Ghosts. I’m not sure why she’s walking with a cat on the cover, since her cat does not go adventuring with her in the story.
My teaser is from Hollow City, book 2 of the series Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I just started it, but it has been interesting so far, picking up where book one finished and continuing Jacob’s trip away from the island and into his journey of self-discovery.
…thirty yards away—the hull of an overturned boat.
“That’s Bronwyn’s and Olive’s boat!” Emma said.
It was upside down, its rusty bottom to they sky. There was no sign of either girl around it.
Ransom Riggs, Hollow City
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September 3, 1940. Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters. And only one person can help them—but she’s trapped in the body of a bird. The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.
The post Excerpt from The Hollow City appeared first on pdworkman.com.
October 13, 2018
Happy Fifth Bookiversary!
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Did you know that Oct 14 is my fifth bookiversary?
[image error]Five years ago, I published Looking Over Your Shoulder. Not the first book I had written by any means, but the first one I published. I’ve learned a lot about publishing since then, have learned more about the writing craft, as well as learning new tools and crafts such as Photoshop, book cover design, web design and coding, and marketing.
Marketing is probably my biggest challenge right now. Learning to write better sales copy, finding selling keywords, get better ROI on advertising, etc. Not my forte, but something I need to keep improving at in order to be able to sell more books, reach more readers, and get you all hooked on even more books!
[image error]Next week I will be releasing my 38th title, She was Dying Anyway, book #3 in the Zachary Goldman Mysteries series. Don’t worry, there are still plenty more coming. The well has not run dry!
I am looking forward to exploring many more great plots and characters and I love to hear from happy readers. It is a thrill whenever I open my in box and find letters from people who enjoyed reading one (or more) of my books. Thank you so much for being there for me!
There are always good deals going on around my website, whether you are reading this blog when it first goes up, when you can still grab She Wore Mourning (the first book in the Zachary Goldman Mysteries series) for $0.99, or whether you’re reading it a couple of years down the line. Take a look around and you’re bound to find a great new release or promo price.
