Mike Knowles – The Buffalo Job

Way back in the dawn of time Mike Knowles used to blog here at DSD. I’m happy to report that while he’s no longer blogging he’s still writing the terrific Wilson books and a new one was published yesterday, The Buffalo Job.

Here’s the description:

Wilson should have just walked away when three men came looking for a way to boost a valuable piece of art. But the heist was more than just a job for Wilson; it was a chance to get off the sidelines and back in the game.

The art came off the wall, the alarm screamed thief, and Wilson walked away clean. But it turned out that job was an interview for an even bigger heist. A dangerous man wants Wilson to get him something more valuable than a painting. Problem is Wilson only has a week.

Wilson and his crew cross the border to Buffalo to steal a 200-year-old violin. Four men cross, but four don’t come back. A lot of people are interested in getting their hands on the instrument and none of them are shy about killing to get it.

The job starts like a bad joke — a thief, a con man, a wheel man, and a gangster get in line to cross the border — but the Buffalo job doesn’t end with a punch-line. It ends with blood.

Well, no wonder Knowles gets the Stark comparisons.

"Wilson can take his place alongside Richard Stark’s Parker as a ruthlessly efficient bad guy with an ingenious ability to escape tricky situations." — Publishers Weekly.

And Mystery Scene says, “… reminiscent of Lee Childs' unstoppable Jack Reacher.”

Peter Rozovsky said, “He's a bit like Mike Hammer but without the hyperventilating political rants. He's darker than Richard Stark's Parker, as if Parker had descended a circle or two into the world where Andrew Vachss' Burke lives.”

What all this adds up to is something completely new and original.

You can read an excerpt from The Buffalo Job here. 

A Walk Among The Tombstones - trailer

Apologies for the late post. Still no internet at the new house so please accept this short post.

Based on Lawrence Block's bestselling series of mystery novels, "A Walk Among the Tombstones" stars Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder, an ex-NYPD cop who now works as an unlicensed private investigator operating just outside the law. When Scudder reluctantly agrees to help a heroin trafficker (Dan Stevens) hunt down the men who kidnapped and then brutally murdered his wife, the PI learns that this is not the first time these men have committed this sort of twisted crime...nor will it be the last. Blurring the lines between right and wrong, Scudder races to track the deviants through the backstreets of New York City before they kill again.

Release Date: September 19, 2014 

Nervacited about Blast Off

By Kristi Belcamino

In less than 10 days my very first novel, Blessed are the Dead, will pop up on iPads and computers and phones across the country.

People will read my words over coffee, in bed, on the subway.

It is a day I’ve dreamed about since I was eight years old.

This past year, I’ve seen a whirlwind of changes in my life. I have deadlines set by other people.

I not only have an agent, I work with an entire team at HarperCollins: an editor, a publicist, and a digital marketing expert.

A digital marketing expert because I signed a deal with a HarperCollins imprint, Witness, that focuses all its marketing efforts on digital sales.

There will be a print book, but unless my e-book sales blow up, it will be a very limited print run.

At first, this was a difficult part of my dream to let go.

Part of taking this two-book deal involved some soul searching.

Mainly, it involved me setting my ego aside. Let’s face it, having a physical print book is, in many ways, all about ego. About how it makes me feel—successful. About how others perceive me—successful.

And when I realized this, I saw that I was being an old stick in the mud.

When it came down to it, I could care less HOW people read my book, as long as they read it. That is what counts.

Once I realized this, I embraced my book deal. And I’ve never looked back. I could not have found a better team of people to work with than the crew at HarperCollins.

They are power hitters and their efforts show that. One day, I clinked on a link at the bottom of my publicist’s email. The link shows which books she is promoting. I was beside myself to see that along with my book, she is also promoting Patricia Cornwell’s latest.

Now, how on God’s green earth, did I ever get in a position where the five-star publicist promoting my book is also promoting Patricia Cornwell’s book?

But, of course, I am not Cornwell. And the publicity efforts will not be the same for each of us.

For me, it seems that efforts are focused heavily online, where, after all, the people who read digital books can be found. So far, I see my name and my book popping up all over the place thanks to the stellar efforts of the HarperCollins crew.

But with only a little over a week remaining until pub day, I can't help but wonder, once again, if I've done everything I can to make the book a success. I wrote the best book I could. I manage to blab about it every once in a while to my friends. I'm sure at this point it's too late to do anything to help the book succeed, and that makes me nervous. Excited, but nervous.

My kids call this state "nervacited."

I’m thrilled to finally be a published author. Finally. At the same time, I’m worried that my book won’t sell as well as I hope.

My hopes are realistic, I think.

I want to sell enough books that my publisher believes all my books should come out both in print and digitally. I want to sell enough books that there are actually people out there waiting to read my next one. In summary, I want to be able to keep writing books that people want to read.

I think this is realistic. I’m not asking to become famous. I’m not asking to make a million bucks. I just want to be read and to keep writing. That is MY dream.