Tom Greer's Blog, page 2

New Crime Novel Available from Amazon in April

"Death Comes Calling" is the first in the Inspector Gore crime series.

More details to follow soon.

US & UK Amazon Countdown Promotion This Week Starting Today

Just to let you know "An Expendable Spy" is on a Countdown promotion deal in the UK and the US from 16th May until the 23rd May.

You can grab a discounted copy right now from US Amazon at;
An Expendable Spy US Amazon Countdown Promotion

You can grab a discounted copy right now from UK Amazon at;
An Expendable Spy UK Amazon Countdown Promotion

I hope you drop by, download and enjoy!

Tom

North by Southwest Anthology

North by Southwest is an anthology of stories written by members of the North Bristol Writing Group. We're looking for crowd funding to get it published so take a look and pledge...

https://www.fundsurfer.com/project/no...

Review of "The Geneva Trap" by Stella Rimmington

The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Stella Rimington has the actual advantage of having run a major Intelligence agency so she knows what she's talking about.

Unfortunately, just because someone is an expert in the field doesn't automatically make them a good or interesting author. For instance, a lot of ex-policemen who write detective fiction write rather dull books. Why? Because they get stuck in the minutia of procedure rather than actually telling a gripping story.

Good Crime and spy novels only have to appear authentic; they don't have to actually be authentic. John LeCarre, who was a serving MI6 officer at the time, once said that if "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" had actually been truely authentic his superiors would never have allowed him to publish it. The point is LeCarre was such a great writer he made it seem effortlessly authentic, and that's what matters.

Rimmington is not a great writer. She is a "ho-hum" writer. The plot is fine, if a tad pedestrian and and nothing about the novel really stands out. It's a spy novel by an ex-spy chief rather than a pro like LeCarre or Deighton.

That said, it's a reasonable enough, if forgettable, read and if you enjoy spy fiction you could do worse.



View all my reviews

My Interview on Bristol Book Blog

Read my recent interview with Bristol Book Blog here...

http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/...

The Gothic Time

I've published a short story for Halloween on Wattpad, called, The Gothic Time.

Please feel free to read it. It's a Five Minute Fiction piece, so you could read it during a coffee break.

Tom

http://www.wattpad.com/78619718-the-g...

@tomgreerwriter

www.facebook.com/tomgreerwriter

New Reviews Coming

I've been too busy to review recently. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading. So I'll be adding a whole load of reviews here very soon.

Meanwhile, "An Expendable Spy" is on an Amazon Countdown promo deal in the UK now for 99p instead of the usual price of £2.44.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Expendable-Sp...

"An Expendable Spy" on US Countdown

Just to let any people of an American disposition know that my Cold War Espionage novel, "An Expendable Spy" is on an Amazon Countdown promo deal in the US until the 25th August when it returns to the usual $3.99.

You can grab a copy right now though for 99 cents.

http://www.amazon.com/Expendable-Spy-...

Funeral in Berlin

Does anyone still read Len Deighton? I see Le Carre feted all over the place and now even authors such as Alan Furst but Deighton' spy novels seem to have gone out of fashion.

Maybe it's because he doesn't seem to be writing anymore and hasn't addressed the contemporary espionage issues away from the Cold War era.

I'm about to re-read "Funeral in Berlin" and can recommend it to any other lovers of Spy Fiction.

"The Ipress Files" can at times be hard going but people should also try his 80s based "Game, Set and Match", "Hook, Line and Sinker" and "London, Berlin, Moscow" trilogy of trilogies featuring the British spy, Bernard Samson.

C'mon, people, time to put Deighton back on the spy fiction map where he belongs... at the top!

My Facebook Page For Those Who Like That Sort of Thing

Readers, writers, dogs, cats, budgies, goldfish, please feel free to take a look at my Facebook page and Like (only if you do though) and leave comments, especially ones along the lines of "I think Tom Greer is the greatest writer since George Orwell / Raymond Chandler / Graham Greene / Ernest Hemmingway" - I'll let you choose.

https://www.facebook.com/tomgreerwrit...