Double Strike by Gretchen Archer

Posted on July 8, 2014March 30, 2016 by CMPR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

“Double Strike is special—funny, unique, and I love Davis.” – Janet Evanovich

One year after the crazy events at Biloxi, Mississippi’s grand Bellissimo Resort and Casino involving a missing personal assistant, an ex-ex husband sleeping with the boss’s spoiled wife, and MIA elderly casino patrons, Davis Way is finally ready to marry the man of her dreams: Bradley Cole.

Davis should know by now that things never go smoothly as a Super Secret Spy at the Bellissimo. In DOUBLE STRIKE: A Davis Way Crime Caper (Henery Press, ISBN: 978-1-94097-633-4, Original Trade Paperback, October 2014) by USA Today Bestseller Gretchen Archer, our favorite redhead returns with her energetic security associates No Hair and Fantasy, plus the addition of brainless ladies’ man Baylor, to face her most dangerous case yet. Casino owner Richard Sanders has hired a new manager who looks like David Hasselhoff. He decides to renovate part of the casino for the Strike it Rich Sweepstakes—an operation so secret that the security team isn’t even allowed in. No Hair enlists Davis to go undercover as an assistant to Hasselhoff’s social media manager, Elspie, who uses hashtags for #everything and drives Davis #crazy.

Balancing her home and work life is harder than ever, and Davis discovers that she may still be married to her ex-ex husband, which further complicates her wedding plans with Bradley Cole. To make matters worse, Richard and Bianca Sanders’ son returns home from school for fall break after getting into trouble with his friend Quinn Jennings. They appoint Davis as his babysitter. The plot thickens when it looks like Quinn Jennings’ parents may be involved in a monetary scheme with Hasselhoff and the Strike it Rich (#StrikeItRich) Sweepstakes…

With a trail that leads back to her hometown of Pine Apple, Alabama, Davis finds herself involved in a Christmas tree farm shoot-out, a sleazy lawyer who is after her for stealing his car, and a $40,000 milk-soaked fur coat that starts some hair-singeing alarm bells. Will Davis ever regain her footing in her relationship with Bradley Cole and marry someone who isn’t her shady ex-ex husband?

DOUBLE STRIKE: A VIP invitation to an extraordinary high-stakes gaming event, as thieves, feds, dance instructors, shady bankers, kidnappers, and gold waiters go all in. #DontMissIt

About Gretchen Archer:
Gretchen Archer is a Tennessee housewife who began writing when her daughters, seeking higher educations, left her. She lives on Lookout Mountain with her husband, son, and a Yorkie named Bently. DOUBLE STRIKE is the third book in the Davis Way Crime Caper series.

About Henery Press:
Henery Press an independent publisher in the mystery and suspense genre focused on engaging stories with sharp twists and lively characters. To learn more about Henery Press, please visit www.henerypress.com.

Weirdo by Cathi Unsworth

Posted on June 25, 2014March 30, 2016 by CMPR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

“An absorbing mystery, an extraordinarily powerful evocation of time and place and a cast of characters whose every breath feels real — Unsworth gets better with every book.”

— Guardian

“A writer of rare talent . . . Demonstrating once again a fine sense of place and period, Unsworth creates a gripping tale of adolescent angst and genuine evil.”
— Sunday Telegraph

“A worthy showcase for the author’s undeniable skill.” — Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

Named one of the Best Crime Books of the Year by the Guardian, Weirdo is an atmospheric thriller about a teenage girl convicted of murder in a 1980s seaside town and the private investigator who reopens the case to discover that she may not have acted alone . . .

WEIRDO

By: Cathi Unsworth

Corinne Woodrow was fifteen when she was convicted of murdering one of her classmates on a summer’s evening in 1984, a year when the teenagers of Ernemouth ran wild, dressing in black and staying out all night, listening to music that terrified their parents.

Twenty years later, new forensic evidence suggests that Corinne didn’t act alone. Private investigator Sean Ward — whose promising career as a detective with the Metropolitan Police was cut short by a teenage gangster with a gun — reopens the case, and discovers a town full of secrets, and a community that has always looked after its own.

Building on themes laid out in Stieg Larson’s acclaimed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Weirdo examines the role of the female transgressors, and how — worldwide — these women are frequently more vilified than men. Unsworth offers a fresh exploration on a subject that Stieg Larson brought to the forefront of crime fiction. Additionally, Unsworth’s portrayal of teenage life, “being different,” and Goth culture will resonant with anyone who felt like an outsider in high school while her detailed pop culture and music references will teleport readers back to the 1980s.

About the Author:
Cathi Unsworth began a career in journalism at nineteen and has since worked for many music, arts, film, and alternative lifestyle journals. She has been called “the Queen of Noir” in the United Kingdom and is the author of four novels, including The Singer and Bad Penny Blues,and the editor of the award-winning crime compendium London Noir. She lives in London, England. Find more information on Cathi and her work here: http://www.cathiunsworth.co.uk/

Praise for Weirdo:

The Guardian Best Crime Books of the Year

“She has brilliantly and vividly captured the desperate sense of teenage boredom, isolation, danger, and mayhem . . . An unusually gifted writer of heartfelt noir”
— Mirror

“An outstanding addition to the British crime-writing scene . . . Unsworth’s ability to render the period so vividly makes for an immersive reading experience, and there can scarcely be a better writer of this sort of stuff in the land . . . The psychology of that hormone-hammered adolescence that girls go through can rarely have been so well evoked.”
— Independent on Sunday

“To her brilliant evocation of time and place, Unsworth adds astonishing and disturbing insight into the minds of disaffected youth who cannot find love and acceptance. Terrific.”
— Times

“Unsworth’s plotting is superb but it is her ability to convey a sense of time and place that stands out, and she writes wonderfully about music, too.”
— Daily Telegraph

“Excellent fourth novel from the queen of British punk noir about febrile youth culture.”
— Metro

“Unsworth’s best yet, as sharp as vinegar on chips.”
— Financial Times

“Unsworth’s new novel is a sad, elegiac look at youth, innocence and the things we do to sunder us from our communities. A superb read.”
— Catholic Herald

“Hers is a savage indictment of the depravity of all power and self-interest unrestrained by considerations of morality of empathy . . . An author in full control of her form.”
— Eastern Daily Press

In Doubt by Drusilla Campbell

Posted on June 8, 2014March 30, 2016 by CMPR

In Doubt by Drusilla Campbell

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

IN DOUBT

By: Drusilla Campbell

The author of Little Girl Gone and When She Came Home is back with another emotionally evocative tale in the vein of Jodi Picoult that is sure to play “devil’s advocate” and make readers see the shades of gray between the perceived black and white of right versus wrong.

In Drusilla Campbell’s new novel IN DOUBT (Grand Central Publishing; 9781455510337; August 26, 2014) Defense Attorney Sophie Giraudo is about to open a new legal practice in her hometown of San Sebastian, California, when the beloved governor is shot and seriously wounded during a celebration in the town park. Shockingly, the would-be assassin is a seemingly gentle teenager named Donny. Driven by her desire to understand what could make a person with no history of violence suddenly commit such a terrible act, Sophie agrees to take him on as a client. But soon she realizes that her professional interest is rooted in personal motivations: a desire to prove to her overbearing mother that she is not the reckless teenager she used to be, to prove to her ex-husband—the prosecuting attorney—that she can win her case, and to prove to herself that the traumatic events of her adolescence no longer define her.

As she digs deeper into Donny’s life, Sophie begins to suspect that he might not be the cold-blooded killer everyone thinks he is. Does Donny’s narcissistic mother really have her son’s best interest in mind? Is Donny’s mentor who runs Boys into Men, a program for disadvantaged youths, the altruistic man he claims to be? Is Donny a deranged murderer, or a victim of his circumstances acting out of desperation? As Sophie begins to uncover the truth, she is forced to come to terms with her past and to fight for what she knows is right…even if it means risking her reputation and possibly her life.

Hitting shelves just in time for Labor Day weekend, IN DOUBT is the perfect story to take along on your long weekend road trip, have on hand during your last pool side soirée, or enjoy during your backyard BBQ.

About the Author:
Drusilla Campbell lives in San Diego, California with her husband, two rescued dogs, and three horses. Find out more information at http://drusillacampbell.com/

There is No End to This Slope by Richard Fulco

Posted on February 24, 2014April 6, 2015 by CMPR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

“Richard Fulco’s THERE IS NO END TO THIS SLOPE is a brave novel. Fulco’s first-person protagonist, John Lenza, born Gianni, is an exposed nerve, a raw reminder of the fears, frustrations, and neuroses from which we all suffer at times when confronting our deepest truths. Truths, it must be said, that Fulco accesses with brutal honesty. With a deft touch, he explores themes of love, loss, self-recrimination, high theatre, rock & roll, mental exhaustion, and finally, personal détente. Any writer willing to avail his characters to such scrutiny, for all their strengths and weaknesses, is deserving of praise.”
—Peter Melman, author of Landsman

“Groucho Marx is famous for saying he wouldn’t belong to a club that would have him for a member. John Lenza, the hero of Fulco’s exhilarating novel, ups the ante and wouldn’t belong to any club no matter who they accept. With dialogue as crisp as a caramel apple, imagery of an-ever evolving Brooklyn, and terrific references to theatre, literature, and rock ‘n’ roll, THERE IS NO END TO THIS SLOPE craftily whips together elements of romantic comedy with the parts of life that aren’t so easily fixed. THERE IS NO END TO THIS SLOPE goes to show that not all endings bring a new beginning.”
—Richard Melo, author of Happy Talk and Jokerman 8

____________________________________________

He writes letters to a dead girl—John Lenza, an aspiring writer from Brooklyn, New York, hasn’t written a novel, a play, or any other potentially publishable project. His obsession with his part in the death of his best friend Stephanie in high school, is a metaphorical brick wall—blocking him from a fulfilling life. Lenza’s struggles to reconcile his guilt from the past and to enjoy the present sets the tone for Brooklyn native and playwright Richard Fulco’s emotionally charged debut THERE IS NO END TO THIS SLOPE (Wampus Multimedia; March 18, 2014; $XX).

By day, John Lenza sells textbooks to New York City schools. Like a 21st century Willy Loman, Lenza drifts, letting things happen to him rather than figuring out what he really wants from his work-life and his relationships. At Cobble Hill High School he meets his future wife Emma Rue, an impulsive alcoholic. At a “writerly” coffee shop near his new digs in Park Slope he meets Teeny, an overweight gay man, who mines Lenza’s life for his own material. Richard, a homeless man becomes a voice of reason and a roommate, while Pete the landlord worries mostly about whether Lenza is truly taking special care of those beautiful wood floors in the apartment and, when Lenza loses his job, if the rent will be paid.

At one point in THERE IS NO END TO THIS SLOPE John Lenza describes himself as intelligent, perhaps too intelligent to do anything. For him and many of the characters in Fulco’s novel it is hard to find a way to navigate the day-to-day while nurturing a sensitive and creative spirit. Does John Lenza deserve to be tortured by something that happened so many years ago? Or is the event really a safety net that he allows to prevent him from finding out what his true creative potential might be?

Through deeply wrought characters and scenes that mirror the angst everyone faces as life happens and years pass, Fulco touches on a fundamental issue that drives great artists to self-destruct. Ironically when Lenza has wrung all he can out of his pained self, it may be the mundane day-to-day that ultimately saves him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Richard Fulco received an MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College. His plays have either been presented or developed at The New York International Fringe Festival, The Playwrights’ Center, The Flea, Here Arts Center, Chicago Dramatists and the Dramatists Guild. His stories and reviews have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Failbetter, Front Porch, Bound Off, The Rusty Toque, Full of Crow, Nth Position, and the Daily Vault. He is the founder of the online music magazine Riffraf. There Is No End to This Slope is his first novel.

Double Dip: A Davis Way Crime Caper by Gretchen Archer

Posted on September 12, 2013May 15, 2015 by CMPR

RDOUBLEDIPfront

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

“A smart, snappy writer who hits your funny bone!”
—Janet Evanovich

Having solved the mystery of how a progressive slot-machine game was won at will, skirted several humiliating run-ins with her ex-ex-husband, and somehow survived a case of mistaken identity that landed her in the pokey, Davis Way is back. Our favorite undercover casino security redhead returns in DOUBLE DIP: A Davis Way Crime Caper (Henery Press, ISBN: 978-1-938383-94-6, Original Trade Paperback, January 2014), by Gretchen Archer. Months after the wild events at Biloxi, Mississippi’s fabulous Bellissimo Resort and Casino, Davis Way returns for a second case with her colorful security team members No Hair and Fantasy to explore the latest unrest at the casino. Elderly slot-tournament players are disappearing, and the trail leads to Beehive, Alabama, where the So Help Me God Pentecostal Church seems to be swallowing them whole.

The plot thickens when the boss’s spoiled rotten princess of a wife, Bianca Sanders, shoots herself in the foot, her personal assistant goes missing, and a Bellissimo executive decides Davis is the bee’s knees.

In DOUBLE DIP, Davis needs a little help from her hometown of Pine Apple, Alabama, including her spunky Granny, her rotten ex-ex Eddie and his impossible mother, plus her own dysfunctional and loving family, to solve the mystery of the missing elderly casino players. None of which sits too well with Bradley Cole, the love of Davis’s life. She may find the answers, but what will she have to sacrifice to get the job done?

Declared “funny and wonderful and human” by Janet Evanovich, and with a “satisfyingly complex plot” by Library Journal, the newest chapter of the Davis Way Crime Caper Series promises as much humor, Southern charm, and excitement as the first. DOUBLE DIP is a fast-paced ride of casino secrets, holy scandals, uninvited guests, pregnancy tests, and loaded dice.

About the Author:
Gretchen Archer is a Tennessee housewife who began writing when her daughters, seeking higher educations, ran off and left her. She lives on Lookout Mountain with her husband, son, and a Yorkie named Bently. You can visit her at www.gretchenarcher.com.