Paul Stretton-Stephens - Crime Fiction & Thriller Author

Create compelling stories to entertain you.

You are here: Home / Blog

Blog

TCFL Podcast Episode #5 with AA Abbott, Author of The Revenge Trail

By

Welcome to my podcast, The Crime Fiction Lounge.
AA Abbott, author of The Revenge Trail

AA Abbott mentions that a couple of friends sportingly agreed to pop up in her crime thrillers. Librarian Jackie Molloy saves a life in The Bride’s Trail. Intellectual property lawyer Katherine Evans advises fictional businessman Marty Bridges how to protect his vodka brand in The Revenge Trail. And more surprisingly, the street in Birmingham which she chose as the location for Marty’s vodka warehouse, ended up being the centre of a bomb scare when West Midlands Police and M15 used it for a terrorist sting. This gets a brief mention in The Revenge Trail, as Marty panics about all his vodka stocks going up in flames.

Interestingly, AA Abbott also makes her paperback books dyslexic friendly. Learn how she does this and more in the podcast interview.

The Revenge Trail

VODKA TO DIE FOR…

Kat’s craft vodka brand makes it big, but a crazed murderer’s on her trail.

Glamorous blonde Kat White makes the best vodka in the world. At last, her craft vodka from Birmingham is going places, while the mother who abandoned her faces financial ruin.

So does vodka salesman Marty Bridges. Kat doesn’t trust him, but she has to save his business or hers will go under too.

That’s not her biggest problem. Crazed murderer Shaun Halloran wants to kill her, even if it means breaking out of jail to take his revenge.

Kat dreams of love, riches and success in her life – but shouldn’t she just focus on staying alive?

With twists, tension, secrets and suspense – “The Revenge Trail” is a gripping crime thriller that will draw you into Kat’s exciting world.

Get Your Copy of The Revenge Trail here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

The Bride’s Trail (The Trail Series Book 1)

A fake bride in BIG trouble…

Twenty grand vanished from gangster Shaun Halloran’scasino, and so did gorgeous blonde croupier Kat White. Once he’s tracked her down, he’ll shoot first and ask questions later.

Amy Satterthwaite’s just learned Kat stole her ID for a sham marriage. Desperate to clear her name and save her friend from Shaun, she swallows her pride and turns to arrogant Ross Pritchard for help. But can they find Kat in time?

Twists and tension keep the pages turning in A.A. Abbott’s stunning crime thriller. As Kat’s trail leads from London’s smart Fitzrovia to secret tunnels below central Birmingham, the stakes can’t get higher…

 

 

Get Your Copy of The Bride’s Trail here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

The Vodka Trail (The Trail Series Book 2)

Is this vodka to die for?

Glamorous blonde Kat White ended up a penniless teenager marooned in London when her parents died in a foreign prison. She blames Marty Bridges, her father’s business partner, for their deaths. Now Kat wants to recover the family vodka business and stop Marty’s gravy train. But when she’s taken hostage by terrorists, Marty holds her life in his hands… A compelling crime thriller, each page sizzling with suspense, seduction, tension and twists.

Get Your Copy of the Vodka Trail here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

The Grass Trail (The Trail Series Book 3)

Shaun knows who put him inside – and he wants to make her pay…

Shaun Halloran wouldn’t be in prison if glamorous Kat White hadn’t taken his gun. Pictures of the stunning blonde are plastered all over his cell. As soon as he can escape, she’s dead. But with his criminal empire crumbling, he can’t trust anyone.

Kat, panicked by poison pen letters, has nowhere to turn. Her parents are dead and her brother’s ill. Even her sexy new business partner may not be what he seems. When she receives life-changing news, vodka is the only answer…

A tense crime thriller with plenty of twists, “The Grass Trail” races through Birmingham, London and the former Soviet Union – tempting you to turn each page.

Get Your Copy of the Grass Trail here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

AA Abbott’s Contact:

Website: aaabbott.co.uk

Twitter:  @AAAbbottStories

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AAAbbottStories/

Thank you so much to everyone who’s left a review for the show, it goes a long way toward helping convince someone who hasn’t heard the show whether it’s worth their time or not. If this podcast is something you’ve enjoyed, please leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher and subscribe if you haven’t done so already

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

To help out the show:

  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
  • Subscribe on iTunes.

Special thanks to Helen for joining me this week.

Bye, until next time!

If you liked this episode…

Then You’ll Love these too!

The TCFL Interview with Sam Blake

TCFL Podcast Episode #3 with Sam Blake, Author of No Turning Back

Bishop's War Author, Rafael Amadeus Hines

TCFL Podcast Episode #1 with Rafael Amadeus Hines, Author of Bishop’s War

TCFL Podcast Episode #4 with David Tallerman, author of The Bad Neighbor

By

Welcome to my podcast, The Crime Fiction Lounge.
David Tallerman, Author of the Bad neighbor

David’s short fiction has appeared in around eighty markets, including Clarkesworld, Nightmare, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. A number of his best dark fantasy and horror stories were gathered together in his debut collection TheSign in the Moonlight and Other Stories.

The Bad Neighbor

When part-time teacher Ollie Clay panic-buys a rundown house in the outskirts of Leeds, he soon recognises his mistake. His new neighbour, Chas Walker, is an antisocial thug, and Ollie’s suspicions raise links to a local hate group. With Ollie’s life unravelling rapidly, he feels his choices dwindling: his situation is intolerable and only standing up to Chas can change it. But Ollie has his own history of violence, and increasingly, his own secrets to hide; and Chas may be more than the mindless yob he appears to be. As their conflict spills over into the wider world, Ollie will come to learn that there are worse problems in life than one bad neighbour.

FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

Get Your Copy of The Bad Neighbor here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

David’s Contact:

Website: http://www.davidtallerman.co.uk 

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/davidtallerman

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.tallerman

Thank you so much to everyone who’s left a review for the show, it goes a long way toward helping convince someone who hasn’t heard the show whether it’s worth their time or not. If this podcast is something you’ve enjoyed, please leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher and subscribe if you haven’t done so already

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

To help out the show:

  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
  • Subscribe on iTunes.

Special thanks to David for joining me this week.

Bye, until next time!

If you liked this episode…

Then You’ll Love these too!

The TCFL Interview with Sam Blake

TCFL Podcast Episode #3 with Sam Blake, Author of No Turning Back

TCFL Episode #2 – Jenny Milchman, author of Wicked River

TCFL Podcast Episode #3 with Sam Blake, Author of No Turning Back

By

Welcome to my podcast, The Crime Fiction Lounge.
Sam Blake, Author of No Turning Back

No Turning Back

FOR FANS OF PERSONS UNKNOWN AND ANGELA MARSONS, NO TURNING BACK IS A GRIPPING READ THAT HAS ENOUGH TWISTS AND TURNS TO KEEP READERS GUESSING UNTIL THE VERY END. 

Even perfect families have secrets . . .

Orla and Conor Quinn are the perfect power couple: smart, successful and glamorous. But then the unthinkable happens. Their only son, Tom, is the victim of a deliberate hit-and-run.

Detective Garda Cathy Connolly has just left Tom’s parents when she is called to the discovery of another body, this time in Dillon’s Park, not far from where Tom Quinn was found. What led shy student Lauren O’Reilly to apparently take her own life? She was a friend of Tom’s and they both died on the same night – are their deaths connected and if so, how?

As Cathy delves deeper, she uncovers links to the Dark Web and a catalogue of cold cases, realising that those involved each has their own reasons for hiding things from the police. But events are about to get a lot more frightening . . .

Get Your Copy of No Turning Back here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Sam’s other titles

For fans of TENNISON and MISSING PRESUMED, comes the gripping follow-up to the number 1 bestseller, LITTLE BONES.

Good intentions can be deadly . . . 

Cat Connolly is back at work after the explosion that left her on life support. Struggling to adjust to the physical and mental scars, her work once again becomes personal when her best friend Sarah Jane Hansen, daughter of a Pulitzer-winning American war correspondent, goes missing.

Sarah Jane is a journalism student who was allegedly working on a story that even her father thought was too dangerous.

With Sarah Jane’s father uncontactable, Cat struggles to find a connection between Sarah Jane’s work and her disappearance. But Sarah Jane is not the only one in deep water when Cat comes face to face with a professional killer . . .

In the world of missing persons every second counts, but with the clock ticking, can Cathy find Sarah Jane before it’s too late?

Get Your Copy of In Deep Water here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

For fans of Alex Barclay and Niamh O’Connor, Little Bones introduces Cathy Connolly, a bright young heroine set to take the world of crime fiction by storm.

Attending what seems to be a routine break-in, troubled Detective Garda Cathy Connolly makes a grisly discovery: an old wedding dress – and, concealed in its hem, a baby’s bones.

And then the dress’s original owner, Lavinia Grant, is found dead in a Dublin suburb.

Searching for answers, Cathy is drawn deep into a complex web of secrets and lies spun by three generations of women.

Meanwhile, a fugitive killer has already left two dead in execution style killings across the Atlantic – and now he’s in Dublin with old scores to settle. Will the team track him down before he kills again?

Struggling with her own secrets, Cathy doesn’t know dangerous – and personal – this case is about to become…

Get Your Copy of Little Bones here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Sam’s Contact:

Website: http://www.samblakebooks.com/

Twitter: @samblakebooks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamBlakeBooks/

Vanessa’s Contact Details at the Inkwell Group

Twitter: @inkwellhq

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheInkwellGroup/

Writing.ie

Twitter: @writing_ie

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writing.ie/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb8aV40lQR4B00Xyjf7M6WA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writing.ie/

Thank you so much to everyone who’s left a review for the show, it goes a long way toward helping convince someone who hasn’t heard the show whether it’s worth their time or not. If this podcast is something you’ve enjoyed, please leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher and subscribe if you haven’t done so already

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

To help out the show:

  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
  • Subscribe on iTunes.

Special thanks to Vanessa (Sam Blake) for joining me this week.

Bye, until next time!

If you liked this episode…

Then You’ll Love these too!

TCFL Episode #1 – Rafael Amadeus Hines, author of Military Thriller, Bishop’s War

TCFL Episode #2 – Jenny Milchman, author of Wicked River

TCFL Podcast Episode #2 with Jenny Milchman, Author of Wicked River

By

Welcome to my podcast, The Crime Fiction Lounge.
Jenny Milchman, author of Wicked River  

Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from New York State, who lived for eleven months on the road with her family on what Shelf Awareness called “the world’s longest book tour.”

After a thirteen-year journey/trek/slog toward publication, Jenny’s debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, was acquired by Random House. It won the Mary Higgins Clark award, was praised by the New York Times, and chosen as an Indie Next and Target Pick. RUIN FALLS, was published the next year, and chosen as an Indie Next Pick and a Top Ten of 2014 by Suspense Magazine. Jenny’s third novel, AS NIGHT FALLS, was published in June, 2015. Her latest novel, Wicked River, was published by Sourcebooks in May 2018.

Jenny speaks nationwide about the publishing industry and the importance of sticking to a dream. She is Vice President of Author Programming for International Thriller Writers, and the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. Jenny is a member of the Sisters in Crime speakers bureau.

Wicked River

Author Jenny Milchman

Six million acres of Adirondack forest separate Natalie and Doug Larson from civilization. For the newlyweds, an isolated, backcountry honeymoon seems ideal: a chance to start their lives together with an adventure, on their own. But just as Natalie and Doug begin to explore the dark interiors of their own hearts, as well as the depths of their love for each other, it becomes clear that they are not alone in the woods.

Because six million acres makes it easy for the wicked to hide. And even easier for someone to go missing for good.

As they struggle with the worst the wilderness has to offer, a man watches them, wielding the forest like a weapon. He wants something from them more terrifying than death. And once they are near his domain, he will do everything in his power to make sure they never walk out again.

Get Your Copy of Wicked River here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Jenny’s other titles

Author Jenny Milchman

Jenny Milchman

Author Jenny Milchman

 

Jenny’s Contact:

Website: http://www.jennymilchman.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennymilchman

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jennymilchman

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennymilchman

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4810211.Jenny_Milchman

Thank you so much to everyone who’s left a review for the show, it goes a long way toward helping convince someone who hasn’t heard the show whether it’s worth their time or not. If this podcast is something you’ve enjoyed, please leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher and subscribe if you haven’t done so already

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

To help out the show:

  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
  • Subscribe on iTunes.

Special thanks to Jenny Milchman for joining me this week.

Bye, until next time!

If you liked this episode…

Then You’ll Love these too!

TCFL Episode #1 – Rafael Amadeus Hines, author of Military Thriller, Bishop’s War

TCFL Podcast Episode #1 with Rafael Amadeus Hines, Author of Bishop’s War

By

Welcome to my podcast, The Crime Fiction Lounge.
Author of Bishop's War

Rafael Amadeus Hines comes from a diverse family background with Panamanian, Jamaican, and Irish roots, and is a native New Yorker, born and raised on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Dipping into his early Alphabet City memories, he loosely based many of the characters in his first novel, Bishop’s War, on the people he grew up with, and adapted many of his own experiences into the book as well.

A former Jazz club owner and restaurateur, Rafael has worked in the financial and energy markets for over 20 years. On 9/11 he watched his office along with all the others in The Twin Towers come crashing down and, like many New Yorkers on that tragic day, he anticipated follow up attacks to take place throughout the city. Years later he envisioned a lone citizen soldier preventing these attacks and the hero Sgt. John Bishop appeared on paper.

A voracious reader of suspense thrillers, Rafael’s writing career was inspired by legendary artist-authors Elmore Leonard, John Sandford, Stephen Hunter, James Lee Burke, and Tom Clancy. He is currently working on the second novel in the Bishop series, Bishop’s Law.

Awards

Rafael has recently been added to the list of the World’s Top 200 Most Influential Authors (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-200-authors) and in addition to becoming an Amazon International Bestseller, Bishop’s War is an IPPY (Independent Publisher) 2017 Suspense-Thriller Award Winner, New Apple Literary 2017 Award Winner for Best New Fiction, the New Apple Literary 2017 Suspense-Thriller Solo Medalist, a 2017 Global Ebook Suspense Award Winner, Book Excellence Gold Medal Winner, IAN 2017 Book of the Year, and was the Book Viral 2016 Millennium Book of the Year.

Bishop’s War

Author Raphael Amadeus Hines

 

This fast-paced and action-packed suspense thriller introduces us to Special Forces Sergeant John Bishop, decorated war hero, and nephew of crime boss, Gonzalo Valdez. After returning home from Afghanistan John’s hopes for a peaceful future are quickly shattered when he is catapulted back into the global war on terror through a succession of life-threatening events and corrupt intrigue. He battles against terrorist operatives in New York, a powerful Afghan warlord, and a psychopathic billionaire with powerful White House connections. When John’s uncle gets involved, he proceeds to treat John’s enemies to a bitter taste of mob vengeance. From that point on the ride speeds up and the reader will have to hold on for dear life. This is a thriller not to be matched for intensity and breathless excitement—not for the faint-hearted.

Get Your Copy of Bishop’s War here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Apple, Nook, Kobo

Rafael’s Contact:

Website: http://www.rafaelhines.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RafaelWrites

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RafaelHines.Author/

Thank you so much to everyone who’s left a review for the show, it goes a long way toward helping convince someone who hasn’t heard the show whether it’s worth their time or not. If this podcast is something you’ve enjoyed, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe if you haven’t done so already

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

To help out the show:

  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
  • Subscribe on iTunes.

Special thanks to Rafael Amadeus Hines for joining me this week.

Until next time!

If you liked this episode…

Then You’ll Love these too!

TCFL Episode #2 with Jenny Milchman, author of Psychological Thriller, Wicked River

Traditional Publishing Versus Self-Publishing – The Debate Continues

By


Traditional Publishing Versus Self-Publishing – The Debate Continues

I think that all authors/writers should research the market constantly, whether they be traditionally published or Indie authors. And I’ve been doing just that. If you haven’t, you might find some of the links contained in this post of interest to you.

I have just been reading a marvellous Forbes -based article, ‘50 Writing Tips From My 15 Years As An Author’ by Kevin Kruse. It’s a very enlightening and encouraging article for writers of all genres.

Then I came upon an article in the books section of the Guardian online by Ros Barber, entitled, ‘For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way.’

Ros, talks of the pitiful advance that he has recently received from a traditional publishing deal and appears to be dead against self-publishing, citing some issues that she has with the indie industry.

Now both authors here are providing their valuable opinions, based on their beliefs and experiences to date, and as ever we can take from those what we wish.

However, when I was reading Teleread, I came across ‘An open letter to Ros Barber on self-publishing’ By Paul St John Mackintosh. Paul politely addresses the words or Ros on a point by point basis and does so very well indeed. I wonder if there will be a response?

You see, everyone has their points of view, and can substantiate those beliefs, views, opinions in many ways. At the end of the day, it is up to the individual which route they take, traditional publishing or self-publishing, or depending on genre(s), maybe a combination of the two.

Here are just some of the considerations discussed:

– dedicating time to writing

– marketing activities, book design, etc

– writing with the intention of being recognised in literature prizes such as Booker

at the moment

– for indie authors foregoing attendance at many literature festivals

– higher royalties versus lower royalties

– more control versus less control

I’ve decided to take the self-publishing route and keep my mind open to all possibilities.

Take a look for yourself and form your opinion. And feel free to share your comments.

Cheers

Paul