A Leap of Faith
By E.A. Aymar (also E.A. Barres)
The Next Thing
You've got to indulge me, because I'm kind of excited.
I've written my next book and sent it to my agent.
And I really like it.
As I told her, It feels very much like a "me" story, in a way my other books haven't. And that's a statement I've been thinking a lot about lately.
When I write a new book, it always feels truer and more representative of me than anything else I've written, and there's a natural urge, with that realization, to devalue my other work. Like those other books didn't measure up, weren't as good as this one.
But that's not the intention, or even what us writers want to feel - we want our past books to measure up. But that scrutinizing rear glance comes from good places. Most of us write nearly every day, and it would be a terrible shame if, given that amount of work, our writing didn't improve. Any growth necessarily involves an understanding of the mistakes we've made (not just in writing).
I don't reread much of my work, but occasionally I have to, particularly since all my books share an interconnected world. And there are these random moments where what you wrote surprises you. We forget a lot of our own writing and, while I don't trust any writer utterly enamored with their own work, it's nice to come across something you admire that you wrote years ago.
All that to say that this new book feels different. It's not an epic historical or any type of abrupt departure, it's just...different. With The Unrepentant, I wanted to write a small good book that proved I belonged in this world of professional writers. With They're Gone, I wanted to write something that was very much my tone, but had a commercial, book club appeal. With this new book, I just wanted to write something I love, and I love it, and I really have no idea if it'll work...and, in some ways, that feels more true than anything else.
Speaking of books...
They're Gone is Still an Amazon Kindle Deal! But the deal is ending SOON.
Click HERE (or the graphic below) to order!
Lies We Bury
Elle Marr
As a child, Marissa Mo survived the unimaginable and still found a way to keep going. Now, twenty years later, the media circus has finally died down, and she’s moved on with her life working as a freelance photographer. But there are still moments she looks over her shoulder, fearing the worst.
Living paycheck to paycheck in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, Marissa is desperate. When an opportunity to photograph crime scenes for a local news outlet arises, Marissa gives a false name to the editor. She has to keep her history a secret, certain that the scrutiny she left behind will resume if she doesn’t. But after an assignment, Marissa spots a stuffed animal outside a crime scene—just like one she had in captivity. And when a cryptic note turns up in her car, Marissa knows her past has officially come back to haunt her.
The Inheritance
R. Franklin James
Genealogist Johanna Hudson discovers that the intersection of unintended consequences and murder is unavoidable, and her determination to find an heir puts her in the path of a killer who is just as determined to stop her.
Gone Missing in Harlem
Karla FC Holloway
The Mosby family, like other thousands, migrate from the loblolly-scented Carolinas north to the Harlem of their aspirations—with its promise of freedom and opportunities, sunlit boulevards, and elegant societies. The family arrives as Harlem staggers under the flu pandemic that follows the First World War. DeLilah Mosby and her daughter, Selma, meet difficulties with backbone and resolve to make a home for themselves in the city, and Selma has a baby, Chloe. As the Great Depression creeps across the world at the close of the twenties, however, the farsighted see hard times coming.
The panic of the early thirties is embodied in the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of the nation’s dashing young aviator, Charles Lindbergh. A transfixed public follows the manhunt in the press and on the radio. Then Chloe goes missing—but her disappearance does not draw the same attention. Wry and perceptive Weldon Haynie Thomas, the city’s first “colored” policeman, takes the case. The urgent investigation tests Thomas’s abilities to draw out the secrets Harlem harbors, untangling the color-coded connections and relationships that keep company with greed, ghosts, and grief.
Angels in the Wind
Manuel Ramos
Felon turned private eye Gus Corral isn't doing too well after getting whacked in the head with a baseball bat following his last big case. He was unconscious for a couple of days and still can't see right. Plagued by headaches, there are days he can't think straight. Tired, sore and disoriented, he takes his sister's advice to get out of Denver and help their cousins in Eastern Colorado.
George Montoya's son, Matías or Mat, has run off again. The seventeen-year-old has run away before, but he always came back. This time, his dad and Aunt Essie know there s something wrong. As Gus begins to talk to the boy's family and friends, a picture emerges of a smart kid with strong opinions who fought a lot with his dad. Did he run away because of his father? Or did he leave because his girlfriend broke up with him? Her father, the town doctor, definitely didn't want his daughter dating a Mexican American.
But when Gus tracks the missing boy to a shelter for runaways in Pueblo, the ailing investigator discovers something much more sinister. The boy was helping victims of human trafficking. Could the criminals have caught on to him? All too soon, men with guns are threatening Gus, warning him to get out of town, or else.
The Day She Died
S.M. Freedman
For Eve Gold, almost dying isn’t the real shock — it’s what comes after. Brain damage leaves her tortured by repressed memories of a childhood where her innocence was stolen one lie — and one suspicious death — at a time. In order to survive, she must unearth old secrets.
My Dreadful Darling
Shannon Kirk
A book of poems about love and ghosts by noted crime fiction writer Shannon Kirk. Shannon has made a name for herself with wonderfully gripping, gothic thrillers, and her first collection of poems promises to be similarly engrossing.
Lady Joker
Kaoru Takamura
Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his race; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died suspiciously after the revelation of a family connection with the segregated buraku community, historically subjected to severe discrimination.
Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company’s corrupt financiers.
Open Up Your Heart
Carmen Jaramillo
Genevieve Davidson is a budding con artist. She’s a mostly-broke server at a roadside restaurant just over the Wisconsin border, but the young and wealthy of Chicago know her as Kendra, a carefree and world-traveling trust fund baby. In a rush to impress a friend—and pick up some extra cash to pay down her own debt—she let Sam and Rachel con her into a deal. But, “Kendra’s” friend is a younger cousin of Little Vincent. In return for her silence, Genevieve demands Sam and Rachel return the stolen cash, and asks for their help on a job. A local entrepreneur is willing to bribe an alderman for a lucrative plot of land tainted by a scandal-plagued murder investigation. With insider details from Genevieve’s old friend Marina—an assistant to the alderman who knows nothing of Genevieve’s double life—Sam and Rachel must slide into the deal themselves.
I met M.E. Browning...somehow? I have no idea when we first met, honestly, but we've been friends on social media forever. And that's fortunate because, after reading her short fiction and the latest in her Jo Wyatt series, I definitely would have sought her out. M.E.'s writing is often informed from her long career in law enforcement, and she manages to keep the plots nimble, detailed, and always tense.
And a writer M.E. Browning recommends? Jennifer Hillier (who has been in this space before but, APPARENTLY, everything's about Jenny):
After devouring LITTLE SECRETS, I immediately grabbed a copy of Jennifer Hillier’s earlier novel, JAR OF HEARTS. Hillier twists reader expectations, draws out suspense, and takes you deep inside her characters—and it is within the dark recesses of their passions and fears that her stories emerge. As an author, I learn something new every time I revisit her words.
To learn more about each writer, click the photos above.
In Conversation with S.A. Cosby
I'll be yapping with my friend Shawn (S.A.) Cosby as part of this year's Gaithersburg Book Festival. GBF is one of the best festivals the country has to offer, and the fact that I've had the chance to take part in it for years is a huge honor. AND, this year I get to chat with my friend Shawn, whose Blacktop Wasteland was one of crime fiction's biggest hits last year. We were also introduced by jazz singer extraordinaire Sara Jones! You can watch it on GBF's Youtube channel on Tuesday, May 4th, at noon ET.
Book Launch for City of the Edge
My friend David Swinson's newest book, City on the Edge, is coming out this month, and I have the honor of interviewing him about it at One More Page Books. It's a fantastic read, written with sharp, crisp prose, and mixing a coming-of-age story with an unsettling crime in Beirut. I read it in two days and can't wait to ask Dave tons of questions. Tuesday night, May 25th, at 7 PM (virtual).
It's contest time! The monthly contest winner wins copies of the books listed in my "Two Writers You Should Read" segment. So, for this month, the winner of Shadow Ridge and Little Secrets is:
patricia@p____bon.com
Congrats, and keep your eye out for a separate e-mail from me!
My essay for the Washington Independent Review of Books came out of my frustration with the spate of hate crimes in this country since 2020, and the reluctance in crime fiction - on a number of levels - to address the issue. You can read it HERE.
And I did a podcast with the Baltimore-based bookclub, "Dark and Stormy Book Club," which was a lot of fun! You can check it out HERE.
Until next time, stay safe. Much love to all of you, and Happy Reading!