Dear All,
I’m hoping you can help by putting the word out to friends and fellow book bloggers, DREADNOUGHT PRESS—who will start publishing SFF and Crime Fiction this year—is currently looking for book bloggers to sign up with them, for reviews and blog tours.
If you know of anyone who might be interested please, let them know, thanks!
Interested parties can sign up, HERE!
Sanjay Gupta, a slight man of medium height, had Bollywood good-looks that could turn a girl’s head and coax a coy smile. He had soft, liquid brown eyes with uncommonly long eyelashes, sadly, Kalinda Dharma noted, he was also stone cold, and very much dead. She looked down at the man as he lay in repose in the rich loamy earth beneath her booted feet. He looked to all as if he hadn’t a care in the world, eyes wide open, staring up at the vaulted canopy above them.
In the harsh glare of the sim-lites, however, it was clear Gupta’s once sallow brown skin was now an unhealthy shade, as stilled blood—having pooled—gave the skin a mottled purple-red discolouration. Ignoring the group that surrounded her, Kalinda squatted down on her haunches and reached out to touch the body. One, because she wanted to see if the skin, when pressed, turned white. And two, to feel how cool it was. In the absence of a either a pathologist, coroner, or medical examiner, she was it. Not only was she the de facto Chief of Police and—as a trained doctor—the only one qualified at the Colony to do autopsies.
Gupta was her first body.
Not only was he her first body, he know had the distinction of being the first person murdered on Mars. A distinction, she was sure, he would far rather have offered someone else, given the choice.
“Do you think you should be doing that?” Came the soft nasal sound of Ramaa Banerjee one of the seven who stood in a loose semi-circle contaminating the crime scene.
Kalinda didn’t look up but did a 180 at eye-level taking in the white-booted feet and the state of their surrounds. This whole section, she noticed with dismay, was trampled beyond all recognition. Footprints criss-crossed one another in a mess neither she, nor, she was sure, Raj Kapoor, her assistant, would be able to unravel and make sense of given several lifetimes let alone one.
“Of course she’s allowed to touch the body,” Geeta Mehra, a rotund woman in her late forties snapped, “she is the Cops after all.”
“Geeta—” The single word of censure came from Amit Rao, head bobbing like a dashboard toy, “We don’t say Cops, this isn’t American TV you know.” The young man wrung his hands, clearly distressed.
With a soft, audible sigh, Kalinda stood. This was going to be the longest day of her life as it was certainly Gupta’s shortest.
Oh boy, I didn’t expect at the end of last year, even with the long holidays we enjoyed here, to be watching so much TV or, I should say, TV drama series, as we have. And, let me tell you, the binge watching has continued apace without so much as us missing a step.
The latest series to capture our attention was THE TUNNEL, centred on (yes, you guessed it) the Euro tunnel. The series features both Brit and French actors and gripping storylines that had us hooked from the first episode—one where a severed body is found in an access tunnel of the Tunnel, right on the demarkation line (that delineates English soil, and French.) However, the top part of the body, on the French side, is that of a French diplomat, while the lower extremity, on the English side, is that of a well-known prostitute.
Do I have your attention?
It certainly had ours. And, as a result, we’ve whizzed, and I mean, absolutely whizzed our way through both season 1 and 2 these last few weeks! And while season 1 focused in on the bizarre murder in the access tunnel, season 2, featuring the same cast, centred on a whole new premise with a terrorist team downing a commuter jet in the channel. Heart pounding stuff, believe me!
We also discovered there’s already a season 3 out and available. So if you’re wondering why I haven’t posted any book reviews lately, know you know why.
I’m so incredibly humbled to have been asked, and interviewed, by the fabulous and talented Lorna Suzuki about my life and how I got into writing. The interview went live today, over on her website, here: ALL KINDS OF WRITING.
Lorna works tirelessly helping, supporting and boosting writers, never mind working diligently on her own projects. Her energy is as amazing as the woman herself who, through her own physical hardships, is still able to write, find time for her family and friends, and also support the writing community at large. She is a true inspiration.
So please, show Lorna your support and—hopefully—find out a little bit more about me in the process, visit her blog, coffee in hand, and have a read.
More great cover artwork to share with you, because, let’s face it, who doesn’t judge a book by its cover. I think we all do.
I think this one is a little less aggressive than the apocalyptic seer, with burning eyes, of the cover from a couple of days ago. What do you think? Does this one suggest going places, seeing things? And the title, do you like it, or does it feel a little confusing to those of you who don’t read a lot of SciFi novels?
So, once again, all comments and observations about this one will be very appreciated. Thanks!