5th Greg McKenzie Mystery FREE Tomorrow

A Sporting Murder, the fifth novel in my Greg McKenzie mystery series, will be free to download for the Kindle tomorrow (April 8) through Wednesday. If you enjoy a good, rousing whodunit, this one is for  you. The plot revolves around a reported plan by local businessmen to bring a National Basketball Association team to Nashville. This greatly upsets a group of dedicated Nashville Predators' hockey fans who feel it could be the death knell for their sport.

When rumors of shady dealings involving the NBA plan surface, the group's lawyer hires PI's Greg and Jill McKenzie to investigate. A potential informant is promptly murdered. The book has several good reviews, but one I particularly like is that of veteran reviewer Sylvia Cochran, who wrote:

"Campbell knows how to spin a good yarn, and it shows. There are the murderous plot involving the NHL team and the engaging sub-plot of the man with a grudge. There is some back-story and some lovin'. Keeping all the balls in the air at all times, the parallel investigation makes for an exciting read, especially since there is never a shortage of action.

"The protagonists are a charming couple of seasoned professionals (not the bumbling `chick lit' characters that mystery writers of late seem to favor). They are also not the brooding private eyes with the haunting past, which make up pretty much the other half of the genre.

"Just like the plot, they are straight forward in a most refreshing way, which leaves the darker twists and turns to the plot without allowing the main characters to get in the way. The story is a welcome departure from recent genre pieces, which automatically turns A Sporting Murder into a must-read."

You'll find the book for the Kindle at its Amazon page. It will go free at midnight PDT.

Making Characters Come Alive

I love comments like one from a reviewer for The Good, The Bad and The Murderous, second book in my Sid Chance mystery series. She wrote:

"The character development is superb. Hard decisions are made by realistic characters. Are these really just characters in a book? They seemed so real to me. In my mind's eye, each character has a face, a body, a voice."

One of the criticisms I see often about novels is that too many characters are "wooden," hardly more than stick figures. Everybody in my stories who is more than a walk-on with only a few lines of dialogue gets some background to make them real to the reader. Here was my introduction to two minor characters who appear in only a couple of scenes:

He introduced the tall lawyer, who reminded Sid of Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, as Brainerd Hersholt. The smaller man was Hardy Vandenberg. As Sid learned, Hersholt’s movie actor look wasn’t far off course. A Yale Law School graduate, he was a descendant of famed movie actor Jean Hersholt, who was honored annually by the Hersholt Humanitarian Award given at the Oscar ceremonies. A graduate of Duke Law School, Vandenberg was the son of an old friend of Arnie Bailey.

The Good, The Bad and The Murderous will be free in the Kindle Store today (Jan. 29), tomorrow and Thursday (Jan. 31) at amzn.to/14iOl1p
    
Secondary characters with important roles in the story get the full treatment, almost as much as lead characters. This can include family backgrounds, education, employment history, manner of speech, and various other characteristics. Sid Chance is well covered, of course, but I gave him a part-time helper who is as unique as any character I've created. Jasmine (Jaz) LeMieux is a wealthy businesswoman who enjoys assisting in particularly difficult investigations. Many readers say she's their favorite character.

Jaques LeMieux, a French Canadian, came to Nashville after the Korean War. Starting with a single truck stop, he built the business into a thriving nationwide chain of travel centers along the interstate highway system. He married an aristocratic Southern belle who disowned Jaz when the headstrong girl, a star basketball player, quit college in disgust and joined the Air Force. After completing a tour with the Security Police, she trained under a former Golden Gloves standout and became a champion woman boxer. Unable to make a living at the sport, she joined the Metro Nashville Police Department. After her mother died and her father was nearly killed in an accident, Jaz moved back home and helped get him healthy again. She became Jaques LeMieux' assistant and got an MBA degree. When he died, she took over as majority owner and chairman of the board.

Some authors paint detailed physical descriptions of their characters. I prefer to give enough for a general idea but leave it to the reader to create his or her own image. Sometimes it's done with a comparative comment like the detective who had a Clark Gable mustache. The main point is to provide enough background so the readers feel they know the character as a real person.

Last Day Secret of the Scroll Is Free

Secret of the Scroll was ranked #1 in the Thriller Suspense category on Amazon this morning among free Kindle books. It ranked #16 in the Top 100 books category. If you'd like a free ebook, today is the last of my giveaway days.

As of this morning there had been about 7500 downloads, which I'm happy with after the late start because Amazon didn't list it as free until Thursday. According to many of my colleagues who have gone this route, I should expect a pickup in sales of all of my books over the next week or so. Since Secret is the first book in the series, if they like it there are four more to read.

There has been a lot of haranguing on the lists lately about giving books away that we labored so long and hard to produce. It's all a part of marketing. "Loss leaders" they're called in the retail business. You sell something way below its value to attract customers to your other products. I'll know if it works in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, back at the keyboard, I'm getting the final edits on The Poksu Conspiracy, book two in the Post Cold War thriller trilogy. Got a great cover from Stephen Walker, which I'll post in a few days after it's finalized.

Secret of the Scroll Free for the Kindle

PLEASE NOTE: The promo I had set up to start August 29 disappeared and I re-set it to start August 30 for three days. Sorry about the confusion.

Secret of the Scroll is the book that started my publishing career. It first appeared in the fall of 2002. I wrote it following a trip to the Holy Land with my brother's Sunday School class. The idea for the plot came from reading an inflight magazine on the way back to the States from Amman, Jordan. The article told about archeological digs in the area of Bethany, Jordan, where John the Baptist had lived and preached. Some caves had been found with evidence that Christian monks had occupied them in the first century.

Using the old mystery writer's "what if" query, I thought what if a an ancient scroll were found in a cave there? I did a lot of reading and thinking about what the document could tell that would make it quite valuable. I came up with the ten golden lampstands from Solomon's Temple. According to the Book of Jeremiah, they were among the gold and silver objects carted off to Babylon when King Nebuchadnezzar ravaged Jerusalem in 587 B.C. The ancient parchment told where the candlesticks, now known as the menorah, sacred symbol of the current Jewish state, were buried back in Jerusalem about the time the Romans destroyed the city in 70 A.D.

Secret of the Scroll is still available in paperback, but it is also available as an ebook for the Kindle. From today, Wednesday, August 29, through Thursday, August 31, you can download the book FREE at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00124KDQY.