Rock, Roll and Ruin edited by Karen Pullen
Available on Kindle for $3.99 and soon as a paperback on Amazon.
In Rock, Roll, and Ruin, twenty-seven mystery writers serve up musically-themed crime stories around situations as unique as your inky fingerprints. There’s the bad-boy rock star, dumber than dirt, evading all attempts to keep him out of jail. Casino robbers undone by tribal flutes. A 1950’s jukebox that summons the dead and disappears the living. Jealousy drives girl band shenanigans, while a victim of botched plastic surgery seeks vengeance. Untimely deaths abound: at the prom, on a soap opera set, on a mountain-side hike. Several domestic “disagreements” are far from cliche: one wife is impatient and greedy; another wants her Stevie Nicks albums back; a third is desperate to get her husband to turn down the volume. Elvis fans will be tickled by the many mentions of the King himself, including an over-the-top fan club and a side-kick named after his dog. Whether trudging through snow in an Alaska forest, humming country music at a boatyard in Florida, playing sleuth at an assisted living facility, or stumbling backstage at the opera, irate, despairing, and deceived characters step into crime with barely a second thought.
Rock, Roll, and Ruin is a music-themed anthology of the Triangle, North Carolina chapter of Sisters in Crime. Some stories are cackling-out-loud funny, others are wickedly dark, but all are entertaining, original, un-putdownable. As Hank Phillippi Ryan writes in the Introduction, “Dip into this concert of mystery, open to any story, and you’ll sing a chorus of approval.”
My contribution: The M & M Mystery. Two octogenarians living in a retirement home become amateur sleuths to discover who murdered a resident former maestro by stabbing him with a violin bow.
Wonderful reviews from other crime and mystery novelists – do check it out!
The noise from the crowd singing and dancing along was loud, but the sound system was great so we could hear everything. Sequins and boas and red and blue flashing glasses worn by the attendees were the most interesting part of the night. Elton, as has become his current tradition, wore a very fancy (but conservative for him) tux-like jacket with lots of beading. He changed into another one midway through the concert.
What kind of book do you get when two writers, both known for their award-winng literary excursions into evil and paranormal mysteries, combine their talent in a seamless fashion? A humdinger of a book!
A member of the Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers, Mae Clair is also a founding member and contributor to the award-winning writing blog, Story Empire. She has achieved bestseller status on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with several of her novels chosen as book club selections.
Staci Troilo grew up in Western Pennsylvania writing stories and poetry in her free time, so it was no surprise that she studied writing in college. After receiving creative and professional writing degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, she went on to get her Master’s Degree in Professional Writing, and she worked in corporate communications until she had her children. When they had grown, she went on to become a writing professor, and now she is a freelance writer and editor.
I am pleased to announce the release of a high adventure-romance-historical novel by R.M. Byrd. I’ve known the author for more than twelve years and was privileged to read his new book, Watersong as an ARC. The author is a great storyteller, with a wonderful ability to encapsulate a character in an evolving description and to create colorful and authentic backgrounds.
R.M. Byrd lives in North Carolina with his wife and two cats, as well as wild deer, hummingbirds and, appropriately, the odd nuthatch. He worked for more years than he’d like to remember in a shipyard building character (so they say) and spent 6 years in Europe unable to believe he actually lived there. He has been writing since before he can reliably recall. Though he has great trouble writing short, his short fiction has appeared in the literary journals The Iconoclast, Litsnack, Full of Crow, the literary collection of Main Street Rag and Offshoots, and the literary collection of the Geneva Writer’s Group of Geneva Switzerland.
Sunflowers Beneath the Snow recounts the lives of three generations of women in Ukraine: grandmother, mother, daughter. This is the author’s first book, and she has created a deeply emotional portrayal of each of these women. ‘Sunflowers beneath the Snow’ is a phrase spoken by the grandmother, but to me, these three women are the sunflowers.
Born in Athens, Greece as an Air Force brat, Teri M Brown developed an imagination full of stories to tell. She now calls the North Carolina coast home, and the peaceful nature of the sea has been a great source of inspiration for her creativity.
Wasteland is the second book in the Operation Galton series. The author has written in a variety of genres, but she has a special talent for creating dystopian worlds that are so close to everyday reality that the readers is left thinking What if? While this book is part of a series, it is possible to read the books out of order.
Terry Tyler is the productive author of twenty-two books available from Amazon, the latest being Megacity. Also published recently is ‘The Visitor’, a post-apocalyptic murder mystery set in the same world as her popular Project Renova series. She is currently at work on a psychological thriller that centers around an internet dating con but has not yet finished with devastated societies, catastrophe, and destruction, generally. Proud to be independently published, Terry is an avid reader and book reviewer, and a member of Rosie Amber’s Book Review Team. She is also a Walking Dead addict, and has a great interest in history (particularly the 12th-17th century), along with books and documentaries on sociological/cultural/anthropological subject matter. She loves South Park, the sea, and going for long walks in quiet places where there are lots of trees. She lives in the northeast of England with her husband.
I participated in the book tour for Shelley Wilson’s The Last Princess, and I thought I’d follow up with a review.
Shelley Wilson is an English author of motivational self-help titles and young adult fantasy fiction. Her sensible side writes non-fiction books to inspire you to be the best you can be, and her playful side writes young adult fiction to remind you that magic exists.
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