Noir fiction for the modern reader.

Dana King has done a review of Setup On Front Street in the “monthly best reads” edition of his blog, One Bite At A Time. He said some very nice things, which I truly appreciate. I would further appreciate it if all readers of this post would go to his blog right now and check it out, then leave a brief comment. Dana’s one of the good guys.

Hey, how can he not be? He’s a former musician.

The folks over at LoveThyAuthor.com have reviewed Setup On Front Street, and have seen fit to give it 4.7 stars (out of a possible 5). You can check out the review here. When you go there, please check out the rest of the site. It’s pretty impressive. And if you have a moment, please leave a brief comment. Thanks.

For a very limited time only, Setup On Front Street, my noir novel set in Key West, will be on sale in ebook form for only 99¢. Normally, it’s $2.99, but starting tomorrow (or the day after, depending on when Amazon approves the price change), it drops to 99 big ones. The print version remains at $12.95.

Now that I have several books out, they’re starting to get some reviews. So far, most of them have been pretty good, if I do say so myself. And to those reviewers on the various websites that looked at my books, as well as to those readers who wrote their own reviews and put them up on Amazon, I offer my heartfelt thanks. I truly appreciate the kind words, but more than that, I appreciate that you took the time from your own schedules to write those reviews, no matter how brief.

It’s to the readers that I now speak. You bought my book(s), whether in ebook or paperback form, with your hard-earned money, and I hope you felt it was well-spent. Some of you are in the group I mentioned above, that is, you put your thoughts and impressions of the book into a review and put it up on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or LibraryThing or whatever.

Some of you, however, have elected not to write a review. I know your time is valuable and perhaps you just don’t care to do it. I get it. But I want to ask you to reconsider for the following reasons.

I don’t seek reviews for ego purposes. Yes, it’s uplifting when someone I don’t know writes something nice about my novel. That, however, is not the purpose of a review. The more reviews any of my books get, especially if they’re good reviews, it will show potential readers that other folks just like them have tried my books and (I would hope) liked them. The greater the number of reviews a book can display on its Amazon page, the greater the chance that someone will buy that book. It’s really that simple. That’s one of the best ways to create buzz.

So I would humbly ask, if you liked any of my books, please go to Amazon and write a brief review of it. It can be as long or as short as you want, and it doesn’t matter that you’re not really a book reviewer. Neither are 99% of the people who write Amazon reviews.

Here are the pages you can go to. Find the page for the book you read and go there. On Amazon, you just scroll down and you’ll see “Create Your Own Review” on the right side. On Barnes & Noble, scroll down and you’ll see “Write a Review”. If you can spare a couple of minutes to do this, it would mean a lot to me. I thank you in advance.

Setup On Front Street / Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Bloodstains On The Wall / Amazon, Barnes & Noble

The Take / Amazon, Barnes & Noble

UK author / literary agent Allan Guthrie has posted a probing interview with yours truly on his top-notch crime fiction website Criminal-E. I’ve done many interviews over the last year or so, but this one was exceptionally intelligent. The initial focus was on Setup On Front Street, but it swiftly moved into other areas. The questions were not ones I would have come up with, yet they did force me to think a great deal before I answered. I believe you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Check it out here, and please leave a brief comment. It will definitely help me and help Al, too. I might add, he’s far more deserving than I, and his site is one of the best.

The print version of Setup On Front Street went live today. It’s available on CreateSpace and Amazon now. Price: $12.95 (cheap).

Setup On Front Street is now out. It’s my latest novel, a noir tale from the shadows of Key West. But before you rush to buy a copy…

Here’s the deal with this book. It’s the first in a trio of novels set in Key West. What I want to do is lift the veil off this town and reveal it as a true noir city, on a par with Los Angeles, New Orleans, or Miami. You won’t find any margarita-guzzling goofballs in these pages, no clichéd characters.

People have told me not to do this, that readers actually want all that quirky stuff. They tell me readers want to open a book about Key West and feel like they’ve stepped into a Jimmy Buffett song. Word is, readers won’t accept Key West as having a dark center. Well, maybe they’re right, but I’m hoping they’re wrong. I’ve lived here for the better part of 20 years and I can easily say it’s a noir city. Rest assured you will find no Margaritaville stereotypes between these covers. Just noir, baby!

This is not a trilogy in that there’s no continuing story arc. Each novel is a standalone. But there are recurring secondary characters and locales, and of course, Key West itself is a great character in each book.

Now here’s a brief description:

Key West, 1991. Don Roy Doyle is back in town. Tough and quick-witted, he’s fresh out of prison, where he served three years for a diamond swindle. Now he’s back to collect his share of the proceeds, about $200,000, but the money has vanished.

A local family dynasty which has controlled the island’s politics for generations, a cop with a grudge, the FBI, and the Russian mob all have a stake in the action. They’re convinced Cuba is on the verge of “opening up”, and they all want Doyle gone.

In this tightly-knit town, who can be trusted? And how long can Doyle stay alive?

SETUP ON FRONT STREET takes you inside the world of Key West noir, a world tucked way back in the shadows, where the tourists never go.

The print version is $12.95, the ebook is $2.99. Print will be up in a few days. The ebook is available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Also, if you would be so kind, please go to the CreateSpace Preview Gallery, where there is a gripping excerpt from this novel, and leave a rating. It just takes a second.

A kind of last-minute thing happened whereby I’ll be appearing on KONK-AM this morning at 10:30 EDT. I’m going to be discussing my books, especially the just-about-to-be-released Key West noir novel, Setup On Front Street. I know, I know, it’s only 20 minutes from now, but you can check out a live video feed of it by going here. If you don’t read this in time, no problem. The shows are archived, so you can watch it later, then have friends over to analyze the show, then post about it on Facebook, then write an essay on it, then see which other kids on your block watched it, then prepare for next April 27 to throw an anniversary party.