Let's talk about being brave . . . 

When the pandemic hit, corruption and cartels were tough subjects to contemplate. 

I put the Detective Emilia Cruz series (CLIFF DIVER, NARCO NOIR, etc) on hold, jumped into research mode, and built a literary universe around the Galliano Club and a small city in upstate New York in 1926. My hometown of Rome, New York, and my grandfather’s stories of being a deputy sheriff during Prohibition, served as inspiration.

The Galliano Club series became my new comfort zone.

Or so I thought.

The series unfolds from multiple characters’ points of view versus Detective Emilia Cruz’s single point of view.

More points of view = harder. 

Harder to write, harder to edit, harder to feel brave.

Luca Lombardo, Benny Rotolo, and other characters each have to have a recognizable and unique voice/personality. Basically, they have to sound different enough to make the reader distinguish them, AND

With so much action going on, each character only knows a portion of the story, yet the sequence of events has to roll out smoothly.

The 4-book series wraps up at the end of this month with the release of REVENGE AT THE GALLIANO CLUB on 30 March. 

Secretly, I’m looking forward to a return to cartels and corruption via Emilia Cruz’s single point of view . . . the next comfort zone.

~

In the same way that comfort zones change, so can our notions of being brave, which I recently wrote about for booksbywomen.org:

Scorpions loved our house in Central America. Tails curled with spiky malice and clad in brown armor, they made soft rustling sounds as they scuttled along the tile floor in search of shoes and draperies and other unexpected hiding places.

Our housekeeper, whom I’ll call Doris, called my attention to the first one by screaming long and loud. 

I raced into the living room to see Doris empty a can of Raid at the thing. The scorpion slogged through a noxious puddle of bug spray and continued purposefully toward the sofa.

Now, I was not unprepared for what lay ahead. I’d researched the best way to kill scorpions. Google cheerfully advised that the exoskeleton must be pierced in order to cause death. Pictures showed the tip of a knife inserted with pinpoint accuracy behind the creature’s eyes.

Such a surgical strike called for both time and skill. I had neither, only the prospect of a deadly sting the next time someone sat down to watch television.

Keep reading here: https://booksbywomen.org/dont-forget-to-be-brave/

#excerpt

THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT by Jim Nesbitt

THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT is a noir gem, peppered with American muscle cars, a hard-drinking hero, and universal life lessons.

Ed Earl Burch is a Dallas private eye of a certain age. With an angel on one shoulder and the devil everywhere else, he’s too young to retire, yet too old to keep hanging on to so many bad memories. 

To paraphrase the Toby Keith song, he ain’t as good as he once was, but he’s as good once as he ever was.

Having triumphed over an opioid addiction, Ed Earl is making some amends. In THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT, guilt over an abandoned friendship puts him on the proverbial road to hell paved with good intentions. 

Written in author Nesbitt’s powerfully lyrical and staccato prose, the hunt for a troubled young woman who is involved with a Mexican drug cartel woman puts Ed Earl—and the reader—through the wringer. The pace is swift, the action is raw, and the characters are intense and visual. This is not for cozy readers.

The compelling power of remorse drives the page-turning pace even as the glorious phrasing makes you want to stop and savor the work of a master wordsmith.

Just the description of the main character grips you:

Dallas private eye Ed Earl Burch is an emotional wreck, living on the edge of madness, hosing down the nightmares of his last case with bourbon and Percodan, dreading the next onslaught of demons that haunt his days and nights.

Nesbitt’s prose, characters, and gritty authenticity make him one of today’s most talented and stylish noir writers. 

THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT is the fourth Ed Earl Burch book, each one a standalone gem.

That's all for this edition of Mystery Ahead.

Thank you for sharing your time with me. Now go read.😎 

 All the best, 

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