Monthly Post: April 2019 Now we are six!

The Scarab Heart (The Involuntary Medium, #2) by Michael Gallagher
Current average rating: 4.39 of 5 stars

Bring on the cake…crack open the bubbly…this month my website turns six! It’s interesting to reflect how much both Malane—who built it and who now maintains it for me—and I have learned over the intervening years. Everything, really. Neither of us knew diddly squat when we started down this road. I still wouldn’t, had I not been obliged to take over for a while a few years back. That was a steep learning curve I’m not anxious to repeat. Last month I decided it was high time I started advertising my books on Twitter. Up till then, while I may have run the occasional advert, I tried to limit them to a maximum of three per month. Why, I hear you ask? Read on…

This month’s special offer is a free download of The Scarab Heart. The Valley of the Kings, 1885. Lizzie Blaylock has sworn not to use her powers, but her powers have other things in mind. Offer ends on April 30th 2019.

“As much as I loved The Bridge of Dead Things ~ I adored The Scarab Heart! These books are marvelous, really and truly something special!”—Paula Fetty-King, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy investigating!
Michael

Find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes, on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow

Force of Nature

Force of Nature by Jane Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Five went out, four came back. In her follow-up to The Dry (which I haven’t read, but I really should), Harper’s detective, Aaron Falk, is called into a case when one of his informants goes missing on a corporate team-building retreat in the fictional Giralang Ranges outside of Melbourne. The prestigious accounting firm BaileyTennants is suspected of money laundering, so what has become of Alice, Falk’s whistle-blower?
This well-written, well-paced thriller flashes back and forth between the investigation at hand and what happened on each of the four days of hike from the perspectives of the five women. A lot can go wrong in the bush—and it does—as Harper builds the suspense. I was particularly impressed with her ability to write fight scenes. The action gets quite physical at times, and this was conveyed brilliantly by the writing.
I would be happy to revisit this series again.

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Monthly Post: March 2019 Taking back control over Twitter

The Bridge of Dead Things (The Involuntary Medium, #1) by Michael Gallagher
Current average rating: 4.15 of 5 stars

“I went out for beer and when I got back I found a hundred new notifications waiting for me,” as one account put it. If you’ve ever been tagged in a popular, ongoing conversation with 36 others taking part, you will know how overwhelming this can feel. The Friday follow (#FF) trains on which the writing community thrives are a prime example of this. There’s not much you can do once the notifications are there, but you can certainly nip it in the bud—by muting the conversation. Read on…

This month’s giveaway is a free download of The Bridge of Dead Things. Murky Victorian London. When 13-year-old Lizzie starts having fits, the people around her begin to realize that she may have unusual powers. Offer ends on March 31st 2019.

“I have got to say, these books are unlike any other I have read...almost impossible to put down.”—Helene Gårdsvold, Amazon.com Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy investigating!
Michael

Sirens

Sirens by Joseph Knox
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Full disclosure in the interests of fairness: I read this for my Crimes & Thrillers reading group, and I am not a fan of the Noir sub-genre.
We’re in present day Manchester. The name of the city is never once mentioned, but some of the locations are so specific, it can be nowhere else (see accompanying photo of Beetham Tower, a nightmarish skyscraper that provides one of the book’s main settings). Our hard-boiled, first-person narrator is Aiden Waits, a disgraced yet still active police constable in his late twenties. Aiden’s moral compass is both murky and complex. He’s happy to lie about the drugs he snorts, yet, like knights of old, he is the epitome of chivalry. (view spoiler)[For example, when he steals drugs from the evidence locker at the beginning of the book, while they may be for his personal use I am certain he does it so the woman his partner just framed will be allowed to walk free. (hide spoiler)] This gallant behaviour repeats itself with nearly every woman he comes into contact with. Aiden only wishes to save them, and thereby save himself.

As far as the writing style goes, there is some interesting and effective repetition of paragraphs that gives a nice sense of deja vu, though I personally could have done with a little less “the-city-at-night-is-a-sparkling-but-treacherous-mistress” type mise-en-scene. Then again, it is the mainstay of noir. Also the editor might have highlighted a couple of issues. There’s a character whom we are told speaks for the first time, when in fact he has already spoken on the previous page; the fight at the climax is described in only the sketchiest of terms, so it feels like a rather big let down.
Having said that, it’s not at all bad. Aiden is a great main character, and if I enjoyed this genre I’m sure I would devour the whole series. I can’t imagine Knox losing any sleep over my review. He’ll be too busy signing his option with ITV.


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Monthly Post: February 2019 Further thoughts about Twitter

Big Bona Ogles, Boy! (Send for Octavius Guy, #3) by Michael Gallagher
Current average rating: 4.67 of 5 stars

Hello February! Last month I talked about my resolutions regarding Twitter and how I use it. The sentiments seemed to resonate with a good number of my Twitter folks, who kindly tweeted back to me their concerns, and, around the same time, some rather serious issues started being raised within the #amwriting community, so this month I thought I’d take a look at some of these. Read on…

This month’s special offer is a free download of Big Bona Ogles, Boy!: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Mendacious Medium (#3). This time young Gooseberry investigates a shadowy Spiritualist medium, only to discover that somebody wants her dead. Offer ends on February 28th 2019.

“Thank you so much for writing these books, and for bringing these characters to life. I have a feeling they'll always be lurking around in my head. Excellent, excellent, excellent!”—Laura Brook LibraryThing Early Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy investigating!
Michael

Find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes, on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow

Murder at the Brightwell

Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s the early 1930s, and upper-class occasional socialite Amory Ames, trapped in a failing marriage, agrees to help an old flame to dissuade his sister from wedding the wrong kind of man. Together they decamp to the Brightwell Hotel on the south coast of England, where the sister is holidaying with her fiancé and numerous friends, and where eventually one of the party will die.

This is Weaver’s first novel and the beginning of a series of mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Amory Ames. It is as much a romance as a whodunnit, and at times my attention waned when it roamed into the romantic. The sound-bite review which the publishers have chosen for the cover (“An elegant Christie-esque romp”) may help with sales, but it does the author no favours. While it may be set in the 1930s, neither the plot, nor the characters, nor the style of writing mirror Agatha Christie’s in any sense. By setting up expectations in the reader’s mind, comparisons are inevitable—and that seems remarkably unfair to the author, whose writing style is quieter and more reflective.

There is a great red herring which Weaver develops extremely well, which any Crimes & Thrillers enthusiast will recognize and enjoy from the start, though for my money I would have welcomed a few more motives scattered about amongst the suspects, and a sight more insight from our sleuth. But who knows? That may come with Book II.

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Monthly Post: January 2019 My New Year’s resolutions regarding Twitter!

Octopus (Send for Octavius Guy, #2) by Michael Gallagher
Current average rating: 4.23 of 5 stars

In 2018 I managed to come to terms with Twitter, mainly because I finally got myself a smartphone. I started off with something like 11 followers in March. Thanks mainly to the huge and highly supportive writing community, I’m now on my way to 3,000. I’ve had some brilliant conversations with some brilliant people along the way; I feel as if I have made some friends. Would you believe I even hooked up with two of my favourite authors, Steven Saylor and M. R. C. Kasasian? And yet, as great as this undoubtedly is, not everything is peaches in the Twitterverse. Read on…

This month’s giveaway is a free download of Octopus: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Throttled Tragedienne (#2). When the leading actress dies in mysterious circumstances during a performance of The Duchess of Malfi, Gooseberry feels duty-bound to investigate. It is, after all, a great deal more exciting than the last case he was assigned to: the tracking down of a rich old lady’s errant cat! Offer ends on January 31st 2019, and no, there are no strings attached and no review is required. Phew!

“Historical fact is deftly combined with fiction that makes Octavius’s world a new form of old London that I am eager to visit again. Pour some tea or a wee dram, put your feet up, and enjoy cover to cover.”—Gladread LibraryThing Early Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy investigating!
Michael

Find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes, on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow