VBT – THE WRONG KIND
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The Wrong Kind
by Austin S. Camacho
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GENRE: Mystery
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BLURB:
A distraught woman hires private investigator Hannibal Jones to track down her daughter who has run away, trying to escape the homeless shelter life her mother has come to accept. When Hannibal finds Connie Blanco she is entwined in a gang war and somehow connected to a murder. The corpse is barely cold before a second murder follows and Hannibal finds himself entangled in a complex plot revolving around stolen drugs…but who is the mastermind of this twisted scheme?
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EXCERPT
As Chico’s foot hit the first step he noticed Sophia for the first time. Just as his eyes met hers, Hannibal’s right foot thumped into Chico’s chest, slamming him back into the man whose jacket said he was Dave. Then Hannibal leaped from the porch, smashing his right fist across Billy’s jaw. A side stamp dislocated Jimmy’s right knee. Dave swung past Chico and clipped Hannibal’s cheek. Sophia gasped at the flesh-on-flesh sound of the blow.
Hannibal blocked the follow-up punch and snapped two crisp jabs into Dave’s face, staggering him into the tree growing up out of the sidewalk. Chico tried to slip past Hannibal, still driving for the door.
“Not tonight,” Hannibal said through clenched teeth. Sophia didn’t think Chico ever even saw the three punches, left-left-right that put him on his back, barely conscious.
With no standing attackers, Hannibal stepped back up onto the porch. “That was fun, but now I’m running out of patience with you boys.” Hannibal reached inside his suit coat, under his right arm, and pulled out a pistol. He pointed its muzzle down at Chico’s face.
“There is nothing lower than a man who beats his woman, although anybody helping him is mighty close. I’d beat your asses some more, just for fun, but I don’t feel like answering questions at a hospital. Now, all of y’all, drag your sorry asses out of here. And if I ever hear you came back here, or if you tell anybody where this shelter is, I will hunt you down and end you.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links
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Austin S. Camacho is the author of seven novels about Washington DC-based private eye Hannibal Jones, five in the Stark and O’Brien international adventure-thriller series, and the detective novel, Beyond Blue. His short stories have been featured in several anthologies including Dying in a Winter Wonderland – an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association Top Ten Bestseller for 2008. He is featured in the Edgar nominated African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey. Camacho is also editorial director for Intrigue Publishing, a Maryland small press.
https://www.facebook.com/austin.camacho.author/
https://www.amazon.com/Wrong-Kind-Hannibal-Jones-Mystery/dp/1940758971/
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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY
Austin S. Camacho will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Enter to win a $25 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Austin, thanks for being my guest today. Tell us about you as a person.
I was a cold war baby, an only child born in New York City, although we moved upstate to Saratoga Springs, NY when I was in 5th grade. First in my family to ever attend college, I ran out of money after my junior year. That led to a career in the Army as a broadcast journalist. I spent two weeks in Israel during Operation Desert Storm shooting video of incoming Scud missiles and watching Patriot Missiles shoot them out of the sky.
My second career was as a communications specialist for the Defense Department, but I was also writing mystery and thriller novels that whole time. Now I write full time but I don’t seem to be any more productive.
I believe that the best of us are honorable, and that character is the most important trait a person can have. I don’t meet enough people who meet that test, and fail as often as I succeed myself, but I can at least create those people in my novels.
If you could hang out with one famous person for one day, who would it be and why?
Stephen King. He is our greatest living writer and I’d treasure a day just talking with him about how we do this.
What’s the story behind your latest book?
There are actually two stories. I’ve written a previous novel that started with a missing person’s case (Blood and Bone) but I wanted to do something very different from that same starting point. While I was building that plot line I attended a conference at which I learned of a unique murder method that struck me as so cool I just had to use it in a book. The two ideas came together nicely!
What is your writing process?
I write best in the early morning, at my desk that has been handed down to me through the past two generations. Coffee is a requirement and yes, music. I change the mix in my iPod every day. It’s heavily slanted toward classic rock and old R&B, but just about every genre gets folded into the mix (except country.) As I type this Aerosmith just faded out, to be replaced by Bruce Springsteen.)
I always work to a fairly detailed outline, and I charge forward from the first chapter to the end without any kind of editing or re-thinking. All the rewriting happens after I have that first entire manuscript. I find it easier to fix a rough draft than to write a great book the first time.
Tell us about your main character.
Hannibal Jones in an African American private investigator in Washington DC. His card says he’s a Troubleshooter and he takes jobs to get people out of whatever kind of trouble they might be in. He has what might be called a Galahad complex – he wants to save anyone who needs help. He is also very stubborn – he never gives up – and obsessed with finding the truth, even when others think it doesn’t matter.
Also, Hannibal is mixed race, which makes him an outsider almost everywhere. And he is not a violent person, but he has a gift for violence when it’s needed.
If your book was to be turned into a movie, who would play the lead role and why.
Physically, the character was patterned after Shemar Moore and he’s still my first choice. He’s the right skin tone, height, weight, and handsome enough. Also, in Criminal Minds Shemar showed just the right attitude for Hannibal Jones. If you have a connected, please tell him to stop ignoring my calls and letters.
