City Paper review of The Surest Poison

Here's a review of The Surest Poison from The Nashville City Paper by Staff Writer Ron Wynn:

Nashville author Chester D. Campbell’s newest creation is private investigator Sid Chance, both a former police chief and a National Parks ranger. In The Surest Poison, Chance’s love for the outdoors and his knowledge of procedure prove advantageous when he decides to investigate a chemical dump located in a small rural community just west of Nashville.

Surely this is merely another cause of official neglect, and Chance figures it won’t be hard to track down either the person or corporation responsible for this environmental blight.

But Chance discovers that there’s much more to this case than just some after hours dumping. He’s soon right in the middle of what looks like a string of unrelated murders.

Besides having no suspects, Chance is being threatened and followed. He enlists an ally in another former cop, Jaz LeMieux, and her involvement immediately makes her a target. The duo must pool their resources, experience and contacts and trace this all the way back to the case that ended Chance’s previous career as a police chief.

In addition to including plenty of places and characters that savvy Music City readers will recognize and enjoy, Campbell’s crafted a mystery that seems easy to solve, but instead has plenty of twists and turns. Chance and LeMieux are smart investigators, but they find themselves facing a more organized and tough conspiracy than they thought.

He also uses the story to inform readers about some of the dangers regarding landfills and waste sites, a perennial environmental problem that plagues many small towns and poor communities across the nation.

Campbell has already won plenty of praise among mystery fans for his series about senior detectives Greg and Jill McKenzie. His newest character Sid Chance seems destined to generate the same kind of excitement and anticipation for future adventures thanks to the quality of The Surest Poison.

End of review

You can order the book from your local bookstore, Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

Tale of a Launch Party

Stealing ideas is what writers do best. You’ve heard the old adage, there are no new plots under the sun, only variations of ones that have been around since some cave dweller learned to draw pictures on the wall. Well, I pilfered an idea from old friend Marilyn Meredith, who recently wrote about launching a book at her church.

A week ago Sunday, I did my formal launch party for The Surest Poison at City Road Chapel United Methodist Church in Madison, TN. Formal sounds a little too . . . formal. I wore no top hat and tails, but I did have a party cake with the book cover screen-printed in icing. This was my step-granddaughter’s idea. She and her mother handled the catering.

The only problem with a fancy cake like that is nobody wanted to cut the cover. So we ate off both ends and wound up taking the cover part home intact. We got even, though, and took it back to our Sunday School class last Sunday. It is now no more.

A launch party is something I’ve only tried with the last two books. Neither has been a big sales event. I haven’t had much luck in getting media notice. The Nashville City Paper ran a nice review but never mentioned the party. The major daily remained totally silent. I did manage to get notices in some of the online event calendars, but the only people besides church members who showed up were two fellow Sisters in Crime.

We had a nice group of friends on hand and chatted about my books and writing. One happy buyer sat to the side and made a good start at reading the book while his wife conversed with some of the others.

We sold a decent number of books, more than enough to pay for the cake and punch and cookies. I’m following up with three consecutive Saturdays of Barnes & Noble signings, so hopefully it will all wind up as a successful extended launch.

Maybe I’m not thinking big enough. The new book I’ve started working on, a fifth Greg McKenzie mystery, involves pro basketball and hockey, NBA and NHL. I could do a book launch on the ice at the Sommet Center, invite thousands of fans who normally cheer the Predators. I dunno. Somehow I think that might cost a bit more than the cake.

P.S. My blog tour for The Surest Poison ends Friday at Julia Buckley’s Mysterious Musings. All those who have left comments during the tour will be eligible for a drawing for (1) an autographed copy of The Surest Poison, and (2) the Grand Prize of all five of my books, including four Greg McKenzie mysteries.