Linden Chase – Grab This Book

Killer Impact – Linden Chase

As Tranquility comes to terms with the bloody repercussions of the events documented in Killer Intent, Zane King reluctantly sets off on a mission to finally find out the truth about the island.

Accompanied by self-acknowledged psychopath Travis and amoral mercenary Blaine, it’s fair to say Zane doesn’t rate his chances of success very highly.

And as expected, things don’t go smoothly, anything but.

Will Zane finally confront the shadowy forces behind the Tranquility Experiment?

Will he find the answers he needs?

Will anyone live to tell the tale?

In this thrilling conclusion nothing is as it seems, and nothing can be taken for granted as The Tranquility Trilogy stabs, shoots, strangles and gouges its’ way to a bloody and wholly satisfying conclusion.

My thanks to Fahrenheit Press for an early review copy.

All good things must come to an end and Killer Intent brings Linden Chase’s Tranquility Trilogy to its conclusion. But before the final curtain is drawn Zane King has one more adventure to survive (possibly).

I have been eagerly awaiting Killer Impact as I was a huge fan of the first two books in the trilogy (Killer Instincts and Killer Intent). The story began in Instincts with main protagonist, Zane, arriving on Tranquility Island to investigate what was taking place on the secretive island. It was a bloody, violent and captivating story – Lord of the Flies with added brutality.

Then came Intent, Zane out of the frying pan and into the fire with another desperate fight for survival. Tranquility island is perhaps the most inappropriately named location on the map!

Now Killer Impact will give the readers some answers. The battlegrounds of Tranquility are left behind as Zane and his psychotic companions Travis and Blaine will meet the people behind the Tranquility Project. There are answers to be found but it is clear there are also questions still to be asked and answered about the Project. Those behind Tranquility need to consider if their venture was successful, has the Project got scope to continue or should it be shut down?

The people behind Tranquility are not in agreement as to how to proceed. Unfortunately for Zane, Travis and Blaine this means they are pawns in a new game. Political powerplays using psychopaths as test subjects leaves all parties at risk of making fatal mistakes. Some will find this out the hard way and Zane cannot know who to trust – worse still is the prospect of trying to help the wrong side and being caught up in the fallout.

Linden Chase rounds off the Tranquility Trilogy in the only way I wanted. More blood gets shed. Alliances are shattered and the body count is high. Throw in lots of sex, cussing and destruction of property and all the ingredients are there for a roller-coaster of a read.

Killer Impact is published in paperback and digital format by Fahrenheit Press. You can order a copy on the link below – if you buy the paperback then you get a digital copy to own too.

http://www.fahrenheit-press.com/books_killer_impact.html

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February 20

Mystery Writers – Linden Chase

Some of the authors I enjoy reading are not real people. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate – some of the authors I enjoy reading are not published under their real name.

When I say I enjoyed a book by Robert Galbraith or by JD Robb or by John Sandford I also know that those authors are simply pen-names which the authors have decided to use on that particular novel.

Robert Galbraith may be the most famous of the three names listed above and the reasons for his creation are fairly well known. However JD Robb (with over 40 futuristic murder mysteries under her belt) is best known as romance novelist Nora Roberts. John Sandford (creator of over 20 Lucas Davenport “Prey” novels and the successful Virgil Flowers spin off series) is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist.

I wanted to ask some authors who have become a “mystery writer” why they have assumed a secret identity. My first guest, Linden Chase, has kindly slipped out of the shadows to answer some of my questions.

First I should clarify that I do not want to know your real identity. However, I would be keen to learn if your real name is a closely guarded secret or do you think it may be fairly common knowledge (but you are not making any efforts to confirm/deny/share)?

I don’t believe very many people at all know who Linden Chase actually is. A few fellow writers, who I meet every month to talk over each other’s works in progress know, but they are all sworn to secrecy. I am certainly not advertising who I am and it is fair to say I am trying to keep it secret.

What prompted you to write under a second name? Have you perhaps switched to a different genre?

Linden Chase writes particular kinds of stories. They are gritty, a little gory and decidedly sexy in places. I don’t write this kind of book under any other name. Linden has a very particular voice. My other writing incarnations – and there are at least three currently – also have a particular voice and a particular audience.

If you were previously published did you approach publishers you had already established a relationship with?

No. I am unusual in that my main occupation is writing. Of course there are mega best selling authors, who have homes in several countries, but the majority of writers are what is termed ‘mid-list’. To make a living as a mid-list author you need a number of books on the market at one time and no publisher wants a glut of one author. Spreading your eggs among several baskets or books among several publishers has become common for those of us who primarily make our living from writing.

Also, sadly, there is expectation in publishing that writers will write only in one genre and this is passed along to readers. There’s a famous phrase ‘give them more of the same but different’ which is all too true. Names become associated with not simply genres but with types of books – whether it’s the alcoholic detective with a failing personal life, the happy ever after romance or the rugged bounty hunter who always gets his man. You will even see that covers from similar types of stories (albeit by different authors) are becoming the same. Romance covers often include pastel colours, figures drawn in a particular way and the same type of font for the similarly places titles. Ghostly mysteries (at least recently) had greenish/grey covers often with ivy covered garden gates. The theory is the time-poor book buyer will gravitate towards books that look the same and have similar kinds of story. It’s all packaged neatly and allows little room from the truly innovative – in my opinion.

But then you have writers like me who have a great many stories to tell. I’d studied broadly and worked in a number of different areas. I choose the best voice to tell my story – but I don’t simply have one voice. Also what I write and what I want to write changes with my life experience. As I grow so do my stories.

Does keeping your identity a secret then create challenges in marketing a new novel? For example if you have a healthy Twitter following have you had to “reset” with a second account and start afresh?

I’ve tried that and honestly running more than one twitter account at the same time is hard! You also run the same risk as you do when you have several messenger windows open, of posting the wrong thing to the wrong place! Generally I chose a different form of publicity for each alias and focus on that.

Does the “real you” take a hiatus while the pseudonym is publishing/promoting their novel or do you have to adopt multiple roles and write two books in a very short space of time?

I am all of my different aliases – in a good way! Clarity in narrative is essential, so I confine my story to the voice it needs. I prefer to write different books at different times. However, when you have been using one alias for a long time, and featuring the same characters in a series, it is very easy to fall back into the right style. Rather like meeting old friends at the pub. Typically when you are doing publicity for any book you wrote it so long ago -publishing is slow – that you always struggle to remember the story!

Time to get in some plugs…will there be future titles we can look forward to from your pseudonym or have they been retired for the present time?

Linden Chase has written Killer Instincts and Killer Intent. The final Killer book – and last in the Tranquillity series – will be out shortly.

As Linden slips back to Tranquility Island I would like to thank her for breaking cover to join me today.

Killer Instincts and Killer Intent are published by Fahrenheit Press and can be purchased here:

Killer Intent: http://www.fahrenheit-press.com/books_killer_intent.html

Killer Instincts: http://www.fahrenheit-press.com/books_killer_instincts.html

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December 11

2016: My Top 5 Scottish Books

As a Scottish blogger I am always keen to read crime/thriller books set in my native land or tales written by fellow Scots. I love to read stories which are set in the towns and cities I know so well. I like when the characters talk like me and I enjoy knowing that I am being entertained by someone who knows what is meant by “getting the messages.”

Before I share my choices for my Top Ten Reads of 2016 I am taking this chance to highlight my Top 5 Scottish Books for 2016.

5. The Dead Don’t Boogie – Douglas Skelton

A missing teenage girl should be an easy job for Dominic Queste – after all, finding lost souls is what he does best. But sometimes it’s better if those souls stay lost. Jenny Deavers is trouble, especially for an ex-cokehead like Queste. Some truly nasty characters are very keen indeed to get to Jenny, and will stop at nothing…including murder. As the bodies pile up, Queste has to use all his street smarts both to protect Jenny and to find out just who wants her dead. The trail leads him to a vicious world of brutal gangsters, merciless hitmen, dark family secrets and an insatiable lust for power in the highest echelons of politics.

There are not many authors that can inject massive doses of humour into a thriller and get the balance of laughs and thrills right. Douglas Skelton manages to hit that combination perfectly as he introduces us to Dominic Queste in The Dead Don’t Boogie.

Order a copy here.

4. Willow Walk – SJI Holliday

When the past catches up, do you run and hide or stand and fight?

When a woman is brutally attacked on a lonely country road by an escaped inmate from a nearby psychiatric hospital, Sergeant Davie Gray must track him down before he strikes again. But Gray is already facing a series of deaths connected to legal highs and a local fairground, as well as dealing with his girlfriend Marie’s bizarre behaviour. As Gray investigates the crimes, he suspects a horrifying link between Marie and the man on the run but how can he confront her when she’s pushing him away?

SJI Holliday returns to Banktoun in the follow-up novel to 2015’s Black Wood. I loved this story as it was deliciously dark and creepy with some nasty twists thrown in for good measure. As an added bonus we get Susi Holliday’s fantastic characterisation – she creates the most believable people in her books, I swear that I have actually met half the people she writes about.

Order a copy here.

3. In Place of Death – Craig Robertson

A young man enters the culverted remains of an ancient Glasgow stream, looking for thrills. Deep below the city, it is decaying and claustrophobic and gets more so with every step. As the ceiling lowers to no more than a couple of feet above the ground, the man finds his path blocked by another person. Someone with his throat cut.

As DS Rachel Narey leads the official investigation, photographer Tony Winter follows a lead of his own, through the shadowy world of urbexers, people who pursue a dangerous and illegal hobby, a world that Winter knows more about than he lets on. And it soon becomes clear that the murderer has killed before, and has no qualms about doing so again.

A brilliant murder mystery which makes the most incredible use of Glasgow and its landscape. Craig Robertson brings back Narey and Winter and introduces us to urbexing. In Place of Death was a fabulous read but it also got me looking at Glasgow in a whole new light too. When a book educates as well as entertains then I am never going to be unhappy.

Order a copy here.

2. Killer Instincts – Linden Chase

There’s darkness in the heart of Tranquility. Society has developed reliable tests to detect psychopathy in individuals. Those with the disorder are re-classified as victims rather than monsters. The question remains though, how does a liberal society deal with the inherently violent impulses of human predators who live among us. In response a government think tank is launching an experiment, Tranquility; an island where psychopaths will be isolated and left to form their own community.

Zane King, an investigative journalist, has been given a tip-off by a high-level government source that something big is happening on a remote island. After a heart-stopping journey Zane manages to infiltrate Tranquility by persuading the citizens that he’s a psychopath just like them. It doesn’t take Zane long to realise that something has gone very wrong with the experiment but by the time he fully understands what the island is really all about the community is already imploding in a wave of monstrous violence. “Not for the faint hearted…

If Lord of the Flies were a slasher movie then you have Killer Instincts. Loved the idea of a sinister, shadowy agency that controlled Tranquility. Loved the idea of the Hunt. Loved the unpredictable characters. It is dark read. Very, very dark. But it’s really, really good.

Order a copy here.

1 A Suitable Lie – Michael J Malone

Andy Boyd thinks he is the luckiest man alive. Widowed with a young child, after his wife dies in childbirth, he is certain that he will never again experience true love. Then he meets Anna. Feisty, fun and beautiful, she’s his perfect match… And she loves his son, too. When Andy ends up in the hospital on his wedding night, he receives his first clue that Anna is not all that she seems. He ignores it; a dangerous mistake that could cost him everything.

A “wow” book. Michael J Malone tells a harrowing story of domestic violence in a book which is chilling, memorable and incredibly important. I don’t think I could claim to have “enjoyed” reading A Suitable Lie but I couldn’t put it down, I HAD to find out what was going to happen next.

This is a book which will stick with me for a long time to come. It was frequently too realistic for this reader and it tackled a significantly under-reported subject in a sensitive yet compelling voice.

One of the stand-out books of 2016.

Order a copy here.

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October 22

Killer Intent – Linden Chase

The last time undercover journalist Zane King was sent to Tranquility he barely escaped with his life.

Now 5 years later he finds himself back again, this time as a fully diagnosed psychopath just like every other resident on the island prison.

Zane is only just beginning to come to terms with the fact that he has ended up trapped in Tranquility 2.0 when a seemingly random plane crash introduces a squad of mysterious strangers into the already explosive mix of rival factions and rising tensions among the most dangerous community of town-folk on earth.

As always on the island, nothing is as it seems and Zane must battle relentlessly to finally uncover the truth about Tranquility.

My thanks to Chris at Fahrenheit Press for my review copy.

The second in the Tranquility Trilogy. In the first book, Killer Instincts, we met Zane King. He was an undercover journalist sent to Tranquility island to investigate a new experimental island prison where residents were left to fend for themselves with minimal supervision but were expected to form living colonies, work the land and only rely upon infrequent supply drops to get by. The experiment did not work and a bloodbath ensued. I loved Killer Instincts and likened it to Lord of the Files but for fans of slasher movies. You can read my review here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=1951

As you can see from the intro above, King survived the ordeals in Killer Instincts. However, despite his escape and a subsequent return to civilization where he rebuilt his life, he never managed to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding who controlled Tranquility. Five years after the events in Killer Instincts, Killer Intent opens with Zane waking from a drugged stupor to find himself back on Tranquility. The prison is back, new inmates, new factions and a new sheriff in town calling the shots. Zane has been diagnosed as a psychopath and sent back to the island for rehabilitation where he will be surrounded by like-minded killers

King is adjusting back into life on the island when the balance is rocked by the arrival of new residents. A plane comes down in the jungle and suddenly in the midst of all the psychopaths are innocent crash survivors. Can King, the sheriff and the island padre (King’s new ally on Tranquility 2.0) keep the incomers safe and find a way to get them off the island?

I am loving the Tranquility Trilogy. Throwing King back into the Hell that he thought he had escaped was an unexpected (and nasty) twist. There was a very political feel about Killer Intent, King is more wary about who he can trust and characters are much more devious in playing-off against each other. The shocks and twists that were in Instincts are very much present in Killer Intent and the story shines as a result. There is a genuine feel that nobody can be trusted, anyone could die at any point and that everyone is hiding something – what more could you ask for in a thriller?

Tranquility really is an incredibly misleading name as there is NOTHING tranquil about these stories but that’s exactly how we like them. I cannot wait to see how the trilogy wraps up. I know that Linden Chase is not going to make things easy for Zane King and I look forward to the conclusion with a huge amount of anticipation.

Killer Intent is published by Fahrenheit Press and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Killer-Intent-Tranquility-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B01MDNKQLB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1477173220&sr=8-2&keywords=Linden+Chase

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August 20

Holiday Reading: Volume 2

I am still in post holiday mode and doing some catch-up reviewing. My long break from my laptop means I have a good number of books to discuss and the only way that I will be able to cover them all is to do a number of shorter reviews…

The Time To Kill – Mason Cross

The 3rd Carter Blake novel from Mason Cross (but the first I have read – sorry Mason). But I can safely say that I will be catching up with The Samaritan and The Killing Season as The Time To Kill was brilliant!

I was actually at the launch of The Time To Kill and had a spoiler free sneak preview of the story – what I heard made me rush the book to the top of the reading pile. An action adventure (and a chase story) across the USA which kept me gripped as I read.

There are links to the previous stories so reading the first two books would probably have helped – but this in no way reduced my enjoyment. Everything that you need to know is explained but it was clear to a new reader that Carter Blake has a fascinating back-story and that he is not keen to have his past catch-up with him. Unfortunately he may not have much say in this matter.

A five star thrill-fest.

Devil Take The Hindmost – Martin Cathcart Froden

Cycling in the 1920’s was an unexpected backdrop to Martin Cathcart Froden’s Devil Take The Hindmost but this is an engaging and extremely entertaining story.

Devil Take The Hindmost follows the story of Paul MacAllister. Farmer’s son, cyclist and newly arrived in London having left the Scottish farm to come to the big city. He falls in with Silas Halkias, a Greek “businessman” who can see potential in Paul’s cycling to earn some money in the city velodromes.

Silas gives Paul a room, finds him a job and kits him out with a top of the range bike. There are conditions to be met as Silas is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart but Paul is a well meaning and trusting chap so he goes along with all the tasks he is presented.

I am reluctant to share too much of the detail of this book as I found the joy was in not knowing what was coming. The author has captured the feeling of 20’s London wonderfully well. The cycling element is detailed (not excessively) but I got a real feel Paul’s enthusiasm for racing and it was fun to see innovative ideas from 100 years ago being explained and explored.

Beautifully written and with excellent characters this was an absolute gem to read.

Killer Instincts – Linden Chase

Zane King is being shipped to an island to conduct an undercover investigation into what is happening on this remote isle and its very unique population. It is extremely hush-hush, he has been selected as he has no family ties and he can drop out of society for a few weeks with no-one to notice he is missing.

On arriving on the island the first thing King finds is the body of a woman. She has been brutally murdered and left abandoned in the woods. To avoid blame King tries to leave the scene of the murder but he is spotted.

The residents of the island are all prisoners/convicts. The worst of society shipped to an isolated location where they will be expected to form a community, work the land and utilise the natural resources available to them. Escaping from the island is not an option – death awaits at sea – and supplies will drop on a regular basis to ensure the residents have staple provisions.

Except things are not going smoothly. In fact things are going horribly wrong. King has to adapt quickly to survive, he cannot let his true mission for arriving on the island be known but who can he trust and how will he leave the island when his work is done?

Linden Chase has delivered a gritty, powerful thriller which left me demanding more. So many deaths, double crossing allies, attempts to seize power and all under the watchful eyes of the mysterious authority figures that are monitoring their experimental prison. Think Lord of the Flies for slasher movie fans and you are not too far from Killer Instincts.

Bloody and Brilliant. Or just Bloody Brilliant. Both work.

You can order all three books through these links.

The Time To Kill: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Kill-Mason-Cross/dp/1409159647/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471727715&sr=1-1&keywords=mason+cross

Devil Take The Hindmost: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Devil-Hindmost-Martin-Cathcart-Froden/dp/1910449911/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471727678&sr=1-1&keywords=devil+take+the+hindmost

Killer Instincts: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Killer-Instincts-Linden-Chase-ebook/dp/B01K0CYZT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471727626&sr=8-1&keywords=linden+chase

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