Iris Thorne Mystery #5 Now On Sale

I’m continuing my blog series at Elizabeth White’s Book Reviews about revisiting my first series, the Iris Thorne Mysteries, originally published in the 1990s and now available as e-books and trade paperbacks.  This is my final post in the series as I’m discussing Pushover, the fifth and final Iris Thorne. I reflect about ending a mystery series. It’s like saying goodbye to beloved family members. Stop by and comment.

Also, Saturday, April 20, come and see me at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on the USC campus in Los Angeles. Here’s my schedule:

Prospect Park Books – Booth 63
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Signing Literary Pasadena — a new anthology in which I have a story

Sisters in Crime – Booth 367
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Signing the Nan Vining Thrillers and the Iris Thorne Mysteries

See you there!

My next book is Pushover.  It’s the fifth in my series featuring sexy, savvy investment counselor and amateur sleuth Iris Thorne who prowls the streets of L.A. in her vintage Triumph sports car in the “greed is good” 1990s.  Pushover will be out in late February 2013.

1. Where did the idea for the book come from?  Mercy. Who knows where book ideas come from?  When asked about where his songs come from, Willie Nelson said: “The air. The air is full of music.”

2. What genre does your book fall under? Mystery/Suspense/Romance

3. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
For Iris Thorne, I’d like someone smart, sexy, and witty yet down-to-earth — a Tea Leoni type.  For her boyfriend, Garland Hughes, a younger Harrison Ford. For Iris’s ex-fiance, Todd Fillinger, I see Matt Damon.

4. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?  Iris’s ex-fiance Todd lures her to post-Soviet Moscow on a business venture and to settle personal issues, but after Todd is gunned down in front of her, Iris returns to L.A. and learns the City of Angels can be more dangerous than Moscow when Todd’s dangerous legacy threatens to destroy her.

5. Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?
I am represented by my longtime agent, Robin Rue at Writers House.

6. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
About six months. But I do many rewrites.

7. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
There are influences from movies and books. It’s sort of Vertigo meets The Maltese Falcon meets Bullitt.

8. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
In the late 1990s, I read a story about an American businessman who’d traveled to Moscow to pursue business ventures in the emerging Russian market.  He was machine-gunned to death on a street in front of a hotel.  The incident stuck with me.

9. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?  I believe of my five Iris Thorne mysteries,Pushover has the most adrenaline-fueled plot. It’s lean and mean.

I’ve tagged Petrea Burchard to talk about her Next Big Thing which she’ll do on Wednesday, January 16, 2013.  Petrea’s acting career morphed into writing with Act As If, her online humor column about the acting life. Camelot & Vine is her first novel. January 16, check out Petrea’s Next Big Thing here.

Me and a friend on the pier in Bandon, Oregon

I’m continuing my series of guest posts at Elizabeth A. White’s Book Reviews about revisiting after 15 years my newly re-published Iris Thorne Mysteries. This time, I’m talking about my journey to Foolproof, Iris Thorne #4. Check it out to see what the computer game Doom, O.J. Simpson, and an L.A. taxi driver have in common.

Foolproof, the fourth in the Iris Thorne Mysteries series, is now available as an e-book at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com. A trade paperback edition is coming soon.  Originally published in 1998, this new edition has been gently edited by the author.

In a starred review, Kirkus raved that Foolproof is “another winner.”

Publisher’s Weekly described it as “A frothy confection of sex, murder, and deceit.”

The first three in the Iris Thorne series are also available for the first time as e-books and trade paperbacks: Cold Call, Slow Squeeze, and Fast Friends.  The fifth Iris Thorne, Pushover, never before published in the U.S., will be out later this year.

The photo at left was taken in Lahaina, Maui. No wonder I look so content.

Double Delight -- Last Rose of 2011

Happy New Year everyone! With this new year, I’m delighted to introduce my completely redesigned Website. I think it looks fabulous and I’m sure you’ll agree.  It was designed and developed by the very creative Stef Serafin. If you need help with your Website, do contact Stef. We’re still fine-tuning the site and polishing some of the pages.

What’s going on with my books? Lots! I’ve been busy with several book projects. I’ve been having fun lightly editing and re-releasing my first series, the Iris Thorne Mysteries, which were originally out during the nineties. The first two, Cold Call and Slow Squeeze, are out now as e-books (for the first time ever) and trade paperbacks (also for the first time ever). There are three more in the series and they’ll be out in 2012.

It was interesting for me to revisit my first books and the debut author I was then. I blogged about it here.

As far as brand-new books?  I don’t like talking about my works in progress. Just superstitious that way. Just know that I’m always writing… always writing.

Happy new year.

Iris Thorne survived the purge following McKinney Alitzer’s chain of scandals. The murders, money-laundering, and million-dollar embezzlement were front-page dirt—and rumor has it that Iris knows where the bucks are buried. Now she’s the firm’s highest-paid and most senior investment counselor. But happiness is a rare commodity in Iris’s private life—she and her LAPD lover are approaching a dead end.

Enter, on purple three-inch heels, the hottest prospect in town. Barbie Stringfellow’s a ripe, buxom, and very rich Atlanta widow ready to invest. She’s brash, tacky, and smart; like Iris, she’s a self-made woman. Despite the alarm bells ringing in her head, Iris heads for Sunset Boulevard and margaritas with Barbie and sexy office colleague Art Silva. As the evening heats up with tequila-fueled flirtations, the squeeze is on—but it’s anybody’s guess who’s zooming whom. Then Barbie’s found dead in bed, with evidence that implicates Iris. But there are things the cops don’t need to know, so Iris is taking this case solo. In a city that thrives on scandal, a murdered client takes its toll on even the most ironclad reputation….

Brightly written and fleetly paced . . . Great fun.”  —Kirkus Reviews

Horrified, Iris manages to return at least physically unscathed to the comforting familiarity of her L.A. beachfront bungalow and Garland’s arms. She’s brought with her Todd’s ashes which she’s agreed to deliver to his devastated sister. Only then does she learn that L.A. can be even more terrifying than Moscow and that the guilt-laden legacy of Todd Fillinger could destroy her.