Ékleipsis: The Abyss is the second short story collection by the award-winning author.
Tales of depravation and insanity are woven together with unrelenting style and depth, scrutinizing human nature’s degeneration when compromised by tragic, vicious circumstances.
These complex, wretched individuals and the irremediable conditions they are desperate to claw out of—or into—invoke the unfathomable question: What devastation are we truly capable of when left with no way out but down . . . into the obscurity of the abyss?
” It is at times appalling, strange and outright frightening, but Wino’s way with character development is outstanding. The display of artistic creativity and character creation really sets “Èkleipsis: The Abyss” apart in the field of short story collections.” ― Reader Views
“The stories are well-packaged and generally have the feel of watching a syndicated crime drama. Fans of this form of entertainment will likely enjoy these well-crafted stories about everyday people whose lives are shattered by lunatics.” ― The US Review of Books
“Wino’s writing is vivid, unsettling and filled with brilliant hints that contribute to the exhilaration of its pacing. Ékleipsis: The Abyss is a clever and creative horror offering worth checking out.”
―Independent Book Review
” Tamel really captured that essence of society and the dark side of people. Readers will appreciate the dark undertones of this horror anthology. Ekleipsis: the Abyss will surprise you more that you can imagine.”
Tamel Wino is a Canadian fiction writer from the resplendent British Columbia whose works focus largely on degeneration of sanity and morality. He studied Health Sciences and Psychology, which only furthered his interest in human nature.
With inspirations including Alice Munro, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Edgar Allan Poe; Tamel’s expositions are strongly grounded in traditions of dark fiction. Yet, with his bold narrative voice and incisive plot construction, Wino is paving a new movement within the space.
When he’s not reading or scribbling away on his laptop, Tamel loves listening to jazz, rewatching good ol’ classic shows and traveling. Ekleipsis | Facebook | Instagram
My thoughts: this collection of short stories explores the horror of humanity – ordinary horror, not monsters from beyond, but the ways in which human beings inflict terror and trauma on one another. From kidnapped wives and hitchhikers, lovers who kill and domestic psychopaths. Every terrible thing here is caused and created by a person not a creature of nightmare. Which makes them all the more sinister and insidious. Some of the victims are easier to empathise with than others, particularly the sadistic prison guards dished out some ice cold revenge. A clever and chilling collection examining the worst of human behaviour.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
’It was a rainy day that the magic came, and once magic has entered your life, you stay in its glittering clutch forever’
Nottingham, 1906
Marietta Stelle longs to be a ballerina but as Christmas draws nearer, her dancing days are numbered. At the wishes of her family, she will be obligated to marry and take up her place in society in the New Year. But when a mysterious toymaker, Dr Drosselmeier, purchases a neighbouring townhouse, it heralds the arrival of magic and wonder in her life. Although Drosselmeier’s magic is darker than Marietta could have imagined…
When he constructs an elaborate theatrical set for her final ballet performance, Marietta discovers it carries a magic all of its own. As the clock chimes midnight, Marietta finds herself walking through a land of snow-topped fir trees leading to a frozen sugar palace silent with secrets and must find a way to return home.
In the darkness of night, magic awaits and you will never forget what you find here…
My thoughts: inspired by The Nutcracker, this is a magical fairy tale fantasy for adults. Perfect for a winter’s evening reading, we follow aspiring ballet dancer Marietta through a magic clock into another world, one fraught with dangers but also where she’ll find friendship and love.
Rejecting the strictures of early 20th century society, refusing marriage to the frightening Drosselmieir (named for Clara’s godfather in the ballet, and the book that inspired it) and his magical creations, Marietta wants to choose her own path and not the one of marriage and obedience her father expects of her. She’s an inspiring and brave character, fighting back against Everwood’s evil king, gaining freedom for herself and her friends, then exerting that strength of will to set out on her own road, not wanting or needing her family’s money.
Lyrical and beautifully written, this is a Gothic delight with its fairy tale land of sugar hiding the bitterness beneath.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
His old life in the rearview, Del Castigliano has left Wisconsin to work homicide for the Seattle PD. Breaking him in is veteran detective Moss Gunderson, and he’s handing Del a big catch: the bodies of two unidentified men fished from Lake Union. It’s a major opportunity for the new detective, and Del runs with it, chasing every lead—to every dead end. Despite the help of another section rookie, Vic Fazzio, Del is going nowhere fast. Until one shotgun theory looks to be dead right: the victims are casualties of a drug smuggling operation. But critical information is missing—or purposely hidden. It’s forcing Del into a crisis of character and duty that not even the people he trusts can help him resolve.
The Last Line Excerpt
Del drove from the parking garage into a blustery and cold November morning—cold being relative. In Madison, anything above freezing was balmy for November, though Del was starting to understand what Seattleites meant when they said it wasn’t the temperature that chills you; it’s the dampness. He could feel the cold in his bones. A stiff wind rocked his metallic-blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.The wind had started blowing late the prior evening; branches of a tree scraping against Del’s bedroom window had kept him awake half the night.
He drove from Capitol Hill with the defroster on high and worked his way around the southern edge of Lake Union, noting marinas and water-based businesses. He pulled into a parking lot where Moss stood beside a black Buick LeSabre, sipping coffee and towering over a patrol officer. Moss was almost as big as Del, who stood six foot five and weighed 250 pounds.
Del pulled up the collar of his coat against the howling wind as he approached the two men. He recognized the green logo on Moss’s Starbucks coffee cup, the company name taken from Captain Ahab’s first mate on the Pequod, the whaling ship Moby Dick sent to the bottom of the ocean. The logo, a green siren, tempted sailors to jump overboard and drown. Neither was a good omen.
“Look what the cat dragged out. Did we wake you, Elmo?”
“Funny.” Del had heard iterations of Elmo since his teens, when the beloved puppet first appeared on Sesame Street. Moss introduced Del to Mike Nuccitelli, the patrol sergeant. “How’d you get here so quick?” Del asked Moss. He understood Moss lived in West Seattle, twenty minutes farther from the marina than Del’s apartment.
“I didn’t take time to do my hair.” Moss rubbed the bristles of a crew cut. “I’m like my name. You know. A rolling stone.”
Del knew. More than once, Moss had told him his parents bequeathed him the moniker because as a child he never remained still. Vic Fazzio had said it was more likely Moss gave himself the nickname. His Norwegian first name was Asbjorn.
“Halloway here?” Del asked.
“At this hour of the morning?” Moss scoffed. “Stayaway doesn’t come out this early on a cold morning unless he thinks the brass might show up and he can shine their badges with his nose.”
“What do we got?” Del asked.
“Two grown men. Looks like they drowned,” Nuccitelli said. “We’re waiting for the ME.”
“What more do we know about the victims; anything?” Del asked.
Nuccitelli raised the fur collar of his duty jacket against the wind. “Hispanic is my guess, though the bodies are pretty bloated and their skin the color of soot. I’m guessing roughly late twenties to early thirties, but again . . .”
“They didn’t have any ID?” Del asked.
“Not on them,” Nuccitelli said.
“That strike you as odd—they didn’t have ID?”
Nuccitelli smiled.“Not my job.That’s your job.”
“How far out is the ME?” Moss looked and sounded disinterested.
Nuccitelli checked his watch.“Should be here in ten.”
Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite series, which has sold more than seven million books worldwide. He is also the author of the bestselling Charles Jenkins series; the bestselling David Sloane series; the stand-alone novels The 7th Canon, Damage Control, The World Played Chess, and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni won an AudioFile Earphones Award for narration; and the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post best book of the year. He is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He is a two-time finalist for the Thriller Awards and the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, as well as a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for mystery and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards. His books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than two dozen languages.
From books to movies to television, police procedurals are incredibly popular with audiences. What do you think is the appeal of these stories?
I think the appeal is readers and viewers have good guys to root for and bad guys to root against. Readers also like a good mystery. They like to see if they can solve the crime, determine the bad guy and figure out what he did and how he did it, just like the detectives. It keeps them engaged in and part of the story.
Do you recall the first detective story you ever read or perhaps you have a favorite? What was it about this type of story that made you want to write in the genre?
Years ago, I remember reading Michael Connelly’s The Poet. I don’t know if it was the first detective story I read, probably not, but it was visceral and stuck with me. I do recall reading All The President’s Men when I was in high school, and though Woodward and Bernstein were not detectives, per se, they very much functioned like detectives in that story—finding clues, trying to piece together those clues, and then solve the puzzle. In many ways, that’s what a good detective story is all about: solving a puzzle. I think that is one of the appeals to writers, as well as readers and viewers.
Del Castigliano, the police detective in your newest release The Last Line, has worked in narcotics, arson, sexual assaults, robbery, and now homicide. He has definitely seen the worst that humans have to offer. What keeps him sane and on the job?
For most police officers I’ve spoken with, they do the job knowing that they are keeping people safe—maybe people they know or even love. It’s a tough job and burnout can be a problem. Most detectives have to be mentally tough and can be frequently rotated to help minimize burn out. It’s one of the reasons detectives and uniformed officers, I believe, are underappreciated. It’s a tough job.
Throughout The Last Line, readers get to see Del at his worst—he faces loss, failure, insecurity, loneliness…yet we also respect him. He is honest, hardworking, and clever. How do you see him? If you were to sit down to have a beer with him, what would you talk about?
In The Last Line, I see Del as a guy trying to find his way after life has thrown him a curveball. If we sat down for a beer, I’d ask him if, looking back, he has any regrets, or if time has helped him put life in perspective and he realizes that what he went through as a young man actually helped him to get to a better place in his life.
The Last Line ends in a way that will have readers wanting more. Do you have any future plans for Del and the larger cast?
Very much so. Del is a central character in the Tracy Crosswhite series, and in Tracy #9, What She Found, the story of Del’s first case from The Last Line comes back to Tracy, who is now working a cold case and trying to figure out what happened 24 years ago.
For fans of your bestselling Tracy Crosswhite series, will they feel at home with Del as the lead protagonist? For readers who haven’t discovered Tracy yet, will they be able to dip right in?
Absolutely. The Last Line is a standalone story that predates Tracy arriving at Seattle PD. I’ve had so many readers ask me for more of Del and Faz! Writing The Last Line was an opportunity to dig into how they got started and what shaped them. I have a thought now about Tracy #10 being a cold case that Del and Faz investigated 25 years earlier and telling the story from both time periods leading up to Tracy solving the crime in the present.
What do you have coming up next?
The third book in the Charles Jenkins espionage series, The Silent Sisters, will be published, February 22, 2022, followed by Tracy #9, What She Found, which will be out August 23, 2022. Beyond that, readers can look for a new standalone legal thriller introducing criminal defense attorney Keera Duggan. I’m excited about that novel and working hard to get it finished soon.
My thoughts: this was a nice little police procedural that introduces Del Castigliano and provides some reference to his case as mentioned above. It definitely made me want to read the Tracy Crosswhite series, and find out more. Especially that ending! Whether you’re a fan already or, like me, new to the author, it’s well worth a read and won’t take long at all.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Wynter’s Trees is the home of Christmas. For the people of Wynmouth it’s where they get their family Christmas tree, and where Christmas truly comes to life.
But for Liza Wynter, it’s a millstone around her neck. It was her father’s pride and joy but now he’s gone, she can’t have anything to do with it. Until her father’s business partner decides to retire and she must go back to handle the transition to his son Ned.
When Liza arrives, she discovers a much-loved business that’s flourishing under Ned’s stewardship. And she’s happy to stay and help for the Christmas season, but then she has other plans. But will the place where she grew up make her change her mind? And can it weave its Christmas cheer around her heart…?
Underneath the Christmas Tree is the perfect festive read, promising snowfall, warm fires and breath-taking seasonal romance. Perfect for fans of Milly Johnson, Carole Matthews and Cathy Bramley.
My thoughts: the first Christmas novel of 2021! Set in the fictional North Norfolk town of Wynmouth, home of several of the author’s previous novels, this is a delightful festive tale of Christmas trees and elves and beach huts! There’s a lovely husky, a hunky woodsman and a confused and somewhat in need of a fresh start heroine in Liza.
I really enjoyed this, a perfect accompaniment to a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows. Funny, heartwarming, sweet and festive. Just a lovely hug of a book. I only wish I could dislodge Kelly Clarkson’s Underneath the Tree earworm now!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Having survived the horrors of Savage Island, Grady is now stuck working for Gold, the psychopath who masterminded the gruesome competition. Sent on a “team-building exercise” in a remote castle, he starts to plot his escape. Ben and Lizzie are in hiding, presumed dead after escaping the island. If they’re ever to return to their families, they need to bring Gold down. So they secretly join Grady in the castle. But as the doors slam shut and the series of deadly challenges between them and freedom are revealed, it looks like history is going to repeat itself…
About Savage Island When reclusive millionaire Marcus Gold announces that he’s staging an “Iron Teen” competition on his private island in the Outer Hebrides, Ben, Lizzie, Will, Grady and Carmen sign up. They’d be mad not to when the prize is one million pounds … each. But when the competition commences, the group begin to regret their decision –this is no ordinary contest. Other teams are hunting their competitors and attacking them. As the pressure intensifies and their survival instincts kick in, the friends struggle to stick together. Who can they really trust?
Bryony was a winner of the 2008 Undiscovered Voices competition and is the author of ANGEL’S FURY and THE WEIGHT OF SOULS,winner of the Wirral Grammar School Award –Best Science Fiction. She has written PHOENIX RISING, PHOENIX BURNING and SAVAGE ISLAND for Stripes. Bryony lives with her husband and two children in a village in Gloucestershire. Visit bryonypearce.co.uk | Twitter
My thoughts: I hadn’t read Savage Island, but I am definitely going back and rectifying that ASAP, this was so good and I need to know all the details about what happened to Ben, Lizzie and Grady on the island. However, it’s not essential to know as there’s plenty of information given in Cruel Castle to give you the back story to their relationship and trauma.
A sort of Battle Royale/Hunger Games but British, and darkly funny, Cruel Castle pits a group of young psychopaths against each other in the ultimate escape room challenge – solve the puzzles and get out of the castle alive. Ben, Lizzie and Aaday aren’t psychopathic but are still dealing with their traumatic experiences. They want to live but not to the cost of anyone’s life, this makes them vulnerable but also very brave. They were definitely likeable, unlike the rest of the group – I don’t think I’d have been so willing to work with them.
Grady is playing his own long game and I couldn’t quite work out his motives, I think book three might have the answers…
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
The perfect daughter… Jess Harper has spent her whole life trying to make her mum, Abigail happy and proud. And everything Jess does, from the clothes she wears, the job she has, the men she dates, are all approved by Abigail first. The perfect boyfriend… So when Jess announces that she has a new man in her life – plumber Adam – Abigail is less than impressed. ‘A plumber? Really, Jessica….’ Adam encourages Jess to break free from her mum’s manipulation, can’t she see what’s happening? The perfect mother…. But Abigail is only doing these things to keep Jess safe, to protect her from getting hurt again…isn’t she? Or the perfect liar? Jess, caught in the middle, doesn’t know who to believe or trust. And then Adam vanishes without trace. Now Jess is the police’s prime suspect and they want to know if Jess really is as perfect as she seems…. A gripping new psychological thriller for fans of Sue Watson, Shalini Boland and S.E.Lynes. Amazon
About the Author Alex Stone, originally an accountant from the West Midlands, is now a psychological suspense writer based in Dorset. This beautiful and dramatic coastline is the inspiration and setting for her novels. She was awarded the Katie Fforde Bursary in 2019 and her debut thriller The Perfect Daughter will be published by Boldwood in October 2021.
My thoughts: Jess has a monster for a mother, controlling, manipulative and cruel. Isolated from friends, with no one else to turn to. She meets Adam, who she starts to realise is very similar to her mum.
Then Adam disappears and Jess starts to question things that have happened in her past, her dad leaving, her only friend turning against her, the way her relationships fell apart. Her mother always telling her things were her fault. But what if they weren’t?
A dark, twisted psychological thriller about manipulation, gaslighting and finally seeing the truth. Gripping and clever, this was a highly enjoyable read and I rooted for Jess to find her way out of the lies and finally live for herself.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
The Reacher Guy is a life of bestselling superstar Lee Child, a portrait of the artist as a young man, refracted through the life of his fictional avatar, Jack Reacher. It tells the story of how the boy from Birmingham reinvented himself to become the strongest brand in publishing, selling over one hundred million books in more than forty different languages across the globe. Heather Martin interviews friends, teachers, colleagues and neighbours, including agents and editors. Based primarily on her conversations with the author over a period of years, together with readings of his books and research in his literary archive, this authorised biography reveals the man behind the myth, tracing his origins back through the generations to Northern Ireland and County Durham, and following the trajectory of his extraordinary career via New York and Hollywood until the climactic moment when, in 2020, having written a continuous series of twenty-four books, he finally floats free of his fictional creation. Lee Child comments: “I met Heather Martin some years ago, and we started talking about why people love telling and hearing stories. To get more depth and detail we started talking about why I do. Eventually I said, ‘If you want to really get to the bottom of it, you’re going to have to write my biography.’ So she did. It was a fun and illuminating process. I had forgotten a lot, and it was fascinating to be reminded. Now it all makes sense.”
Heather Martin was born in West Australia. She grew up in Aix-en-Provence, Paris, and Perth, where she would fall asleep to the sound of the Indian Ocean. She left Australia for England to become a classical guitarist but found herself singing with a Venezuelan folk group and learning to speak Spanish instead. She read Languages at Cambridge, where she also did a PhD in comparative literature, and has held teaching and research positions at Cambridge, Hull, King’s College London, and most recently, the Graduate Center, City University New York. Heather is a long-time Reacher fan. While waiting to get her hands on the next in the series, she once read a Lee Child book in Spanish and wound up writing to the author about the fate of his character in translation. The Reacher Guy is her first biography.
My thoughts: I haven’t read many Reacher books, I think maybe 2 of them, but my dad and Grandad are fans and I’m always interested in how and why a writer started writing. A very slow start, honestly I would skip the first few chapters, that then got really interesting as Jim Grant became Lee Child and started writing his incredibly successful books. He seems very matter of fact about why he started writing and how he goes about creating each of them. I’m very interested to see how his younger brother handles taking over the mantle of Jack Reacher writer in chief.
There were some very funny moments, especially when talking about publishing and funny things that happen when a famous but not necessarily recognisable writer starts travelling around the world and meeting fans. I liked the story about when Lee was at an airport and said to someone reading a Reacher book “I’ve heard the rest are really good too”, if that person recognises themselves, they’re going to be very puzzled, I know I would be.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
From the outside, anyone would think that Lucy Palmer has it all: loving children, a dashing husband and a gorgeous home.
But when her marriage to Michael comes to an abrupt and unexpected end, her life is turned upside down in a flash.
As the truth of her marriage threatens to surface, Lucy seizes the opportunity to swap her house in London – and the stories it hides – for a rural escape to her parents’ farmhouse in the Chilterns.
But Lucy gets more than she bargained for when she moves back to her childhood home, especially when it throws her into the path of an old flame.
Coming face-to-face with her mistakes, Lucy is forced to confront the secrets she’s been keeping from herself and those she loves.
Is she ready to let someone in? Or will she leave the door to her past firmly closed . . .
Catherine has sold over 3 million bestselling novels worldwide and is translated into eighteen languages.
The first of these novels Catherine started under the desk when she worked as an advertising copywriter. She was duly fired. With time on her hands, she persevered with the novels, which happily flourished.
In the early days she produced a baby with each book – but after three – stuck to the writing as it was less painful.
She writes with her favorite pen in notebooks, either in the garden or on a sofa.
Home is a rural spot on the Hertfordshire border, which she shares with her family and a menagerie of horses, cows, chickens, and dogs, which at the last count totaled eighty-seven beating hearts, including her husband. Some of her household have walk-on parts in her novels, but only the chickens would probably recognize themselves.
All her novels are published by Penguin Random House internationally, and by No Shooz Publishing in America. Catherine Alliot | Instagram | Facebook
My thoughts: this is quite a dark and sad book, Lucy’s husband gaslit her and bullied her for years and she finally has the chance to be free and happy. But she’s gnawed on by guilt and plagued with worry. She’s also trying to organise and care for her parents, who drink too much and forget to go to the doctors. But her sister, friends and children want her to start finding happiness and living for herself, not someone else.
As Lucy begins to dig her way out, and I was rooting for her all the way, chinks of light start to appear in the darkness of her sad life, and she begins to really live again, putting the guilt and pain behind her. She also finds she has allies she didn’t know about, and that she doesn’t have to support people who don’t support her.
In the end, there is hope and light and happiness for Lucy, the book is ultimate redemptive and I cheered for her. Her parents got a bit more sorted, her children and extended family were always there for her and she finally found proper love.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
It would be wonderful – revolutionary! – to live in a world where all women naturally and easily felt empowered to be who they truly are, without fear of rejection, embarrassment or failure; where women felt free to express themselves openly and embrace their diverse talents in a joyful, peaceful way.
Heidi Hauer guides women to realise that they have choices available to them to fulfil their own dreams. In her book, Heidi shows us that true happiness is not the result of a picture-perfect life but instead an experience that starts from within – from nurturing our very own Queendom.
Heidi writes: ‘At some point I realised that, prince aside, my life was massively off track from my dreams. The Kingdom had fallen apart while I was waiting to be kissed awake. I needed a Plan B. I had to take matters into my own hands. It was time to become my own prince, wake myself up and create the solo edition of the Kingdom I had dreamed of building together with him. In short, I had to build my own Queendom.’
We all have moments in life that feel like a crossroads. You may have that sinking feeling that you’re in the wrong life – whether you feel trapped in a bad relationship, friendship or in a dead-end job – and secretly you hope for Mr Right to come along and sort everything out for you. This book will help you find your way back to yourself, and it will give you the confidence you need to make your own happiness, whether Mr Right is there or not.
Through a set of 28 exercises complemented by beautiful illustrations, Heidi guides the reader into building a strong foundation for their own inner peace and happiness. The stories and activities are designed to help readers become crystal clear on their hopes and dreams.
Practical, reassuring and truly inspiring, Heidi’s book encourages readers to invest their time and energy back into themselves, and relax into the journey of life.
Heidi Hauer is a holistic health & life coach for women who want to bring wellbeing and happiness on the journey to professional and personal success. Qualifications in nutrition and coaching complement her background in corporate leadership positions. Heidi guides her clients to step into their power, find that highly sought-after work/life balance and reach deeper levels of fulfilment -in and outside of work. The Queendom Within is her first book.
In The Heidi Hauer Podcast Heidi shows listeners how to use intuitive tools and access life-changing mindset shifts that support in leading an abundant, meaningful and successful life. Listeners learn from female entrepreneurs, spiritual leaders, and creative powerhouses how to live on purpose, nurture personal wellbeing and have a positive impact on the world.
My thoughts: I’m always a bit dubious about self-help books that pledge to help you fix your life, but a lot of what Heidi has to say is common sense – and based on her own experience. She realised at the end of a relationship that she needed to make some changes to make herself happier and more confident. To write her own story instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
A lot of the exercises in the book are straightforward and don’t require lots of money or time, things like putting together a playlist of songs that boost your mood or getting out into nature to refresh your mind. Simple things that make a difference to how you think and feel, she’s not suggesting expensive nonsense, which is refreshing and means you can actually do these exercises. She’s also very honest that this takes time – it’s not a change your whole life in 30 days situation, it’s a work in progress that helps you refocus on what you really want from life. I found some of it really interesting, and while I’m happily married, and not looking for love, a lot of it could be applied to my life – we all need a boost every now and then.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
In the cosmic realm of Eternity, there’s only one private eye to hire when your world gets turned inside out—Angela Hardwicke.
Darla Fyne, a college freshman and galaxy design savant, is suffering from a nervous breakdown—or is she the victim of an urban legend known as the Scarlet Raj?
As Hardwicke follows the intersecting worlds of art galleries, college dorms, and a semi-secret clan that patches up tears in the Universe, her investigation will either uncover a hoax gone wrong or a plot that could shift the balance of power across the entire realm. If only she can fight through her own paranoia to tell the difference.
In Russ Colchamiro’s new Sci-Fi mystery Fractured Lives, Angela Hardwicke is confronted by a PI’s worst nightmare—dark secrets from her past that will irrevocably change her future.
Excerpt I reach inside my jacket, hand on the grip of my weapon. I don’t want to use it. I don’t want to need it. I want this to be nothing more than another awkward, misconstrued moment in an awkward, misconstrued career taking on awkward, misconstrued cases. I want to be free of danger. I want to stop putting myself in danger. I want to come home every night and hug my son. I want him to hug me back. I want to let go of the demons that haunt me, the past that defines me, and a future that frightens me. I want to sleep at night. I want to wake up in the morning believing my life doesn’t have to be one mystery after another, one dark path leading down a darker alley of a bitter, lonely labyrinth that inevitably reveals someone’s pain. Their ugly secrets. But most of all, I want to be Angela Hardwicke. Not Angela Hardwicke, Private Investigator. Just Angela Hardwicke. Me. Whoever that is, and whatever that means. Which is all well and good, but if I don’t get myself out of this particularly awkward, misconstrued moment, I might not have the chance to find out.
Russ Colchamiro is the author of the rollicking space adventure, Crossline, the zany SF/F backpacking comedy series Finders Keepers: The Definitive Edition, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza, and is editor of the SF anthology Love, Murder & Mayhem, all with Crazy 8 Press.
Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife, two ninjas, and crazy dog Simon, who may in fact be an alien himself. Russ has also contributed to several other anthologies, including Tales of the Crimson Keep, Pangaea, Altered States of the Union, Camelot 13, TV Gods 2, They Keep Killing Glenn, Thrilling Adventure Yarns, Camelot 13, and Brave New Girls.
He is now working on the first novel in a new series featuring his hardboiled private eye Angela Hardwicke, and the first of three collaborative novella projects.
My thoughts: this is the second Angela Hardwicke book I’ve read and while some of the concepts take a little while to wrap my brain round – I like science-y things but I don’t always get them, I really enjoyed this. I think the characters are great, not just Angela but all her PI contacts, her eccentric cabbie friend, her tech guru, her sidekick, the whole team. Plus her adorable son who’s still getting his words together and has a sweet lisp (I have one too). We get a lot more of Angela’s past too, and it’s really sad. It explains her tough exterior and refusal to get too close to people.
I’m starting to understand the concept of the city a lot more too – they literally live in the building blocks of the universe – at least I think that’s right. The case has Angela delving into the designs for new universes – and a really messed up system that treats the designers as a conveyor belt – they don’t even get credit for their work. I’m intrigued to see where this series goes next as there’s some clever concepts at play here and a PI can go almost anywhere.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 