Sunday, November 4, 2018

Friday, August 24, 2018

Creature Comforts - Coming This Fall!

"Creature Comforts" is an epilogue to Necessary Ends, the sixth book in the Tai Randolph/ Trey Seaver series. It's also a prologue of sorts, with Tai sorting out her feelings about a decision that she's barely spoken into reality. As such, it sets the stage for the next book in their adventures, which I am hard at work upon.

In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy an idyll at Cumberland Island's Greyfield Inn, where wild horses freely roam, salt scents the air, and a devious criminal plot is underway. And, as always, thank you for being a reader. Tai and Trey thank you too—they told me to tell you that.

Available October 23rd!

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Guess Who's a Derringer Finalist?

It's me! My novella “Trouble Like A Freight Train Coming” is a finalist for a Derringer Award for Best Novelette (which the Short Mystery Fiction Society describes as a work between 8001 and 20,000 words). 

“Trouble” is one of four stories in the anthology Lowcountry Crime: Four Novellas published by Wolf’s Echo Press. "Trouble" is a prequel to my Tai Randolph Mysteries (the sixth of which, Necessary Ends, is out now from Poisoned Pen Press). 

Tai is accustomed to murder and mayhem . . . of the fictional variety. As a tour guide in Savannah, Georgia, she’s learned the tips are better when she seasons her stories with a little blood here, a little depravity there. She’s less experienced in real life criminality, however, preferring to spend her days sleeping late and her nights hitting the bars. But when she gets the news that her trouble-making cousin has keeled over while running a marathon, Tai finds herself in a hot mess of treachery and dirty dealings. Worst of all, the clues lead her straight into the moonshine-soaked territory of the most infamous smuggler in Chatham County—her Uncle Boone. 

The novella is set in Savannah several years prior to the inheritance of her Atlanta gun shop and her first encounter with security agent Trey Seaver, who ultimately becomes her partner in both romance and crime solving. For readers familiar with the rest of Tai’s adventures, this story is a chance to watch her develop her sleuthing chops. For those meeting Tai for the first time...welcome to her slightly reckless, somewhat hungover, not-quite-respectable world. 

"Trouble Like a Freight Train Coming" is available on all the usual platforms, including Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, Kobo, iBooks, and Scribd; you can find all the links at the Wolf's Echo Press website.

Friday, April 6, 2018

Talking Mayhem and Mystery at The Book Lady

Please join me at The Book Lady Bookstore for a mystery Q&A with crime fiction writer J.J. Hensley on Friday, April 27th at 7:00 PM.

There will be wine and noshes and good conversation as we discuss writing and publishing and mystery fiction. Bring your curiosity and your questions - there's sure to be some marvelous mayhem.

J.J. will be signing copies of Bolt Action Remedy, the first in his Trevor Galloway series published by Down & Out Books. A fast-paced, action-packed, hauntingly atmospheric thriller, this novel and its author have earned high praise from James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor: "J.J. Hensley is a crime writer who deserves readers’ attention and trust, because beyond his ever-stronger prose, he brings his ex-badge carrier’s street smart eyes to this hard world we live in. Hensley goes beyond clichés to the heart of his fictions and his characters, and delivers stories worth your time. Put him on your READ list.”

To learn more about Bolt Action Remedy, visit the Books section of J.J.'s website.

I'll be signing copies of Necessary Ends, the sixth in my Tai Randolph/Trey Seaver series from Poisoned Pen Press. Described as "skillfully plotted" by Publisher's Weekly, Necessary Ends has also earned praise from reviewer Cynthia Chow: "This continues to be an extraordinarily original, witty, and exceptionally written mystery series, and hopefully it will continue for years to come."

To learn more about Necessary Ends, visit the Books section of my website.

And for more information about the event, please contact Joni or Chris at The Book Lady Bookstore, located at 6 E. Liberty Street in lovely Downtown Savannah.

Hope to see you there!





Sunday, April 1, 2018

A Southern Gothic Love Story & NECESSARY ENDS


Thank you, Cora Lockheart, for the fantastic review (and for interviewing me too - it was a pleasure to spend time on your virtual porch -- I rarely get to talk about Tai & Trey, "A Rose for Emily," #2 pencils, and cemeteries in one discussion).

Raising a glass of bourbon to you, lady!

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

A Little Liquor, a Lot of Larceny

It's release day for the Tai & Trey short story, "Liquor, Larceny, and the Ordinal Classification of Courtship Rituals." You can get it now on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents!

It's the story of Tai's first date with Trey, although exactly what constitutes a first date is a point of contention. It takes place right after The Dangerous Edge of Things, the first book in the Tai Randolph series from Poisoned Pen Press.

After a week of murder and mayhem, Tai is eager to enjoy an actual, honest-to-goodness, sit-down dinner date with the new man in her life, ex-SWAT cop Trey. Their very first date, in her estimation. Trey disagrees—surely by this point in their relationship they've already had a date—but before Tai can summon a rebuttal, she realizes that something's going down in their quietly upscale surroundings, something nefarious, and she and Trey are right in the thick of it. Can they discover the bad guys before the bad guys discover them? And most importantly, can they manage to have a romantic evening that doesn't involve bloodshed or gunplay?

I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Look for more liquor-themed promotions coming up as we count down to release day for Necessary Ends (including a giveaway of How To Be A Bourbon Badass by Linda Ruffenach).





Coming in April!

Necessary Ends, the sixth in the Tai Randolph/Trey Seaver series from Poisoned Pen Press, hits a bookstore near you on April 3rd! I really enjoyed writing this one, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

I'll have all the details in the spring newsletter, as well as info on pre-release giveaways, debut day parties, and other fun stuff.

In Necessary Ends, Tai must put her personal troubles on the back burner to help Trey solve a brutal crime from his past. Four years previous, when Trey was still an Atlanta patrol officer, movie producer Nick Talbot was charged with the murder of his actress wife, only to be set free after a dirty cop tainted the evidence. Now someone wants Nick dead, and he's convinced it's Trey. Tai must use every trick in her not-quite-aboveboard playbook to unravel the mystery before a vigilante killer strikes again.

This is a pivotal book in the series, one that takes Tai into a brand new chapter of her life, and I hope you'll join me—and her—for the ride. Also...
I'm looking forward to sharing this next installment of Tai and Trey's adventures with you. Thanks so much for being a part of their world, and mine.


Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Wanna be a Bourbon Badass?

It's no secret—my girl Tai loves herself a drink. And while her tastes run from PBR to scuppernong wine to mojitos, her drink of choice is bourbon, straight or on the rocks.

Tai is also a badass, so it was my distinct pleasure to meet Linda Ruffenach at the American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute. Her book How to Be a Bourbon Badass was smart and funny and chockful of good bourbon information (and recipes!) designed to make anyone an expert in the art of good brown liquor.

You can pre-order Linda's book HERE. You can also visit her website, Whiskey Chicks (if you're 21 or over) and the Whiskey Chick's Facebook page. And to celebrate both her book and my short story "Liquor, Larceny, and the Ordinal Classification of Courtship Rituals" (which you can get HERE), I'm giving away one copy of How to Be a Bourbon Badass on April 3rd, the release day for Necessary Ends.

Enter below! And good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mysteries on Sale for February!

I know what kind of reader you arevoracious. Luckily, my writer friends all have sales this February. Check out one of their fine mysteries.

TERRY ODELL
Deadly Secrets - 2/1-2/28 - FREE

KARLA BRANDENBURG
Epitaph - 2/19-2/28 ~ 99¢

LARISSA REINHART
A View to a Chill - 2/1-2/28 ~ 99¢

CHRISTA NARDI
Murder in the Theater - 2/1-2/28 ~ 99¢

TONYA KAPPES
A Charming Fatality - 2/6-2/12 ~ 99¢
Checkered Thief - 2/13-2/19 ~ 99¢
Color Me A Crime - 2/20-2/26 ~ 99¢
A Charming Secret - 2/27-3/5~ 99¢

KATHY DALEY
Cupids Curse - 1/31 - 2/6 - $.99 
Fifth Night: A Writers Retreat Mystery - 2/21-2/2 

SUSAN BOLES
Death at the Midnight Dragonfly - 2/1-2/14 ~ 99¢ 

AMY READE
House of the Hanging Jade - 2/1-3/4 ~ 99¢