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Next up for the KC Reads book club: Serial Dater by K.T. Jayne. We’ll be flying over this Sunday to talk about this psychological thriller. A troubled man entering the dating field after the tragic loss of his wife. What could go wrong? See below for bio, cover art, summary and link for purchase. As an indie-award nominated filmmaker and lecturer in film, K.T. Jayne wrote and directed several short films that screened in art house cinemas and festivals across the UK and Europe. Exploring ideas of fractured identities and loss of self, her psychological thrillers laid the foundations for the themes that she comes back to in Serial Dater: a gripping original take on a serial killer thriller with a stunning twist. Born in Cheshire, K.T. Jayne now lives with her husband and son in Surrey. To find out more, or to contact K.T. Jayne, visit kt-jayne.com  "Gets you hooked from the start. Keeps you guessing to the end."
Who can you trust if you can’t trust yourself? When Scott McCabe’s wife dies tragically he almost loses his mind. And his son. Three years later he’s a struggling lone parent to six-year-old Jae, who longs for a new Mum. So reluctantly, Scott lets his best friend talk him into online dating. And from the minute he publishes his profile, Scott has made his Date with Fate. Underneath his casual exterior Scott is a man with a tormented conscience, a potholed memory and a vivid imagination. Is he plagued by guilt about Sally’s death, or is it something that runs much deeper? Scott doesn’t know, any more than he knows what he does when he loses time. And Scott loses a lot of time. When the girls he dates disappear one-by-one, he begins to doubt his sanity. And as police suspicion falls to him, he doesn’t know who he can trust. Least of all himself. A dark and totally gripping page-turner of a psychological thriller that delivers a killer twist. Click here to head to Amazon!
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We had a wonderful discussion with Janice Coy about her book, The Water’s Fine! The book club took a break from snowy weather and went scuba diving in the Sea Cortez. See below for bio, cover art, summary, and link for purchase. Janice Coy is the author of seven contemporary women's fiction books. She's inspired by her own experiences and writes about hiking, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, scuba diving, and exploring Balboa park, a favorite San Diego destination. Her books are fun, entertaining reads that you can share with your mother. She's a San Diego Book Awards Associate finalist, an IndieReader approved writer, and a winner of the San Diego Decameron Project. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and in 3Elements Review: A Literary Journal.  Come aboard the Calypso for a week-long scuba adventure in the Sea of Cortez, an ocean teeming with marine life. Your dive master is Catalina, who has spent the past few years traveling to exotic locations around the world, spending every moment possible in her beloved ocean. Your travel companions are fifteen others - not a full boat - but they include families, friends, and a married couple.
The diving is challenging, the sights include manta rays, octopus, and sea lions. A favorite site is El Lavadero, Las Animas. Las Animas is named after the church bells which ring to summon lost souls and El Lavadero means the washing machine. The dive site is often referred to as the washing machine of lost souls. All is well until an unexpected tragedy sends those aboard the dive boat into unchartered territory, leading Catalina to question her passion for the ocean and all that it holds. Will she ever trust the invitation again to "come on in, the water's fine?" Back on land, Catalina does her best to forget what happened on the Calypso. But someone else will never forget and vows to make Catalina pay. Janice Coy is certified as an advanced scuba diver. She brings her own experience on a scuba live-aboard to this novel. She is a bestselling and award winning author of seven fiction books also available on Amazon. Her books are stand-alone entertainment, easy to read and hard to put down, no brown paper cover required! Click here to head to Amazon! The KC Reads book club treated ourselves to a cozy mystery Christmas. We met Sharon Farrow to discuss Hollyberry Homicide, the fifth book in her Berry Basket Mystery series. We had fun discussing Marlee Jacob and the production of A Christmas Carol play. Lots of clues are adding up to mischief and mayhem on the set! Bio, cover art, summary, and link for purchase are below. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Sharon began submitting articles and short stories to magazines when she was just fourteen years old. Her award winning first novel was released in 1998. Published in mystery, fantasy, and romance, Sharon has written under various pen names. As Sharon Farrow, she writes the Berry Basket cozy mystery series, which was inspired by the beautiful village she lives in along Lake Michigan. With her college best friend and fellow writer, Sharon is also one half of the writing team D.E. Ireland, who co-author the two time Agatha nominated Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins mysteries.  Considering her name, Marlee Jacob is an obvious choice for the role of Jacob Marley in Oriole Point’s production of A Christmas Carol. It’s just sad that the role has opened up because of the death of the elderly actor who’d originally been cast.
But Marlee, the proprietor of The Berry Basket, will do her best to keep spirits high—that is, until clues start mounting that there’s danger behind the scenes. There are accidents on set, the tree in the village square topples over, and worst of all, a body is found with a sprig of holly draped over it. If Marlee can’t wrap up the case, she may not have a berry merry Christmas . . . Includes Berry Recipes! Click here to head to Amazon! We had a great time discussing Noelle’s first standalone crime thriller, 6 Ripley Avenue. This was Noelle’s second visit with the book club. We met her in December of 2021 to discuss the first novel in her Maggie Jamieson series, Dead Perfect. Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi agency setting. She has three Hons BA's - Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice - and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle's hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as she can afford and sharing the booklove via her blog. Dead Inside - her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK is an international kindle bestseller and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson. 6 Ripley Avenue is her first stand-alone crime thriller. See below for cover art, summary and link for purchase. Don’t miss this spectacular novel!! The cover art alone should draw you in!  Jeanette is the manager of a probation hostel that houses high risk offenders released on license.
At 3am one morning, she receives a call telling her a resident has been murdered. Her whole team, along with the eight convicted murderers, are now all suspects in a crime no one saw committed… Don’t miss the first nerve-shredding standalone thriller from Noelle Holten, author of the Maggie Jamieson series. Click here to head to Amazon! We will be discussing Jacob’s first book, Furlough. This book caught my eye about a year ago, and I’ve kept it on my radar for the book club. Plus, you know I have a soft spot for authors who have worked in the criminal justice system. Jacob published a second book, Dead Reckoning, in March of 2022. This book has creepy supernatural underpinnings in a town with dark secrets. Please see below for Jacob’s bio, link for purchase and cover art. Jacob Moon is an independent author born and raised in Minnesota, and currently lives in Clearwater, FL. A three-year army veteran, he has worked as a Correctional Officer at a large county jail for the past twenty-six years. He has two grown children. A lover of literature, he enjoys mysteries/suspense thrillers, horror/supernatural, historical fiction/non-fiction, and classics. Writing creatively since his early teens, Jacob has written over one hundred short stories, some of which appear in The Saturday Evening Post, The Chamber, and Morpheus Tales. His writing preferences carry across many genres--literary, horror/supernatural, comedy, suspense/thriller, and historical fiction, to name a few. His two published novels are Furlough, a crime thriller, and Dead Reckoning, a supernatural suspense thriller. In his spare time, Jacob enjoys sports, traveling, and great food. His passion for visiting different sports stadiums and exploring the cities they reside in has him happily combining all of those. Learn more at writerjake.com  Click here to head to Amazon!
During the months of July and August, I met with book club members without an author. In July, we featured One by One by Ruth Ware. The group loved the book, but only a few of us were able to meet because of hectic summer schedules.
In August, we watched the movie Book Club and met again to discuss everyone’s summer travels. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it! It is hilarious and was a much needed break from our dark reads! The KC Reads book club has been in existence since April, 2020. During those 2.5 years, we have me 21 authors (and several have returned for a second discussion for new releases), and we have read over 10,000 pages!! We are a small, but mighty, group of readers and friends! We dish about books and life, but we leave the world behind when we enter our Zoom sessions. I created this book club in 2020 because I wanted to provide a bookish environment that allowed us to escape the stress we were all experiencing. I primarily feature indie authors, but we have had some international bestselling authors too! They have all been so gracious, and inevitably, we end up laughing (or crying) and having a great time! We have learned about writing process, choosing names, character and story inspiration, and personal notes about books from the authors! HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL THE AUTHORS WHO HAVE JOINED US!!! I started with two simple rules, but I have an unwritten expectation: please leave a FABULOUS review for these authors who have taken the time to meet us and discuss their brilliant works!! Rules of the Game: 1. Absolutely NO harsh words or arguments. Zero cruelty toward others. Period. I will remove you from the group for breaking this rule. 2. Please be kind to authors. Find the positive in each book. It is such an honor that these authors are willing to participate in a book club. Show them some virtual love! Come up with questions and comments (if you're comfortable doing so). Cheers to 2.5 years for the KC Reads book club!! You are welcome to join us! Click on the small envelope at the end of my page, or contact me through Facebook or Instagram. On July 7th we met with Rayna York to discuss her latest release, The Right Kind of Unexpected.9/1/2022 Rayna lives in Canada, and she has written two other books: Everything I Knew to be True and When Life Gives You Lemons Instead of Lattes. She writes books about young and new adults. The Right Kind of Unexpected was the right kind of book! Please see below for Rayna’s bio, link for purchase and cover art. Rayna York grew up with hippie parents that moved a lot. Where change was the norm, books were her constant—a way to escape. As an adult, many careers came and went, but writing has always been her passion. Her books tend to be based on dreams, and since that’s the way inspiration strikes, she wakes up every morning and writes them in her notebook with barely an eye open. When she’s not tucked away in her writing shack, she’s pursuing other passions, like chocolate, reading, or movies/TV series.  Click here to head to Amazon!
On June 16th, we met with Sandra Nikolai to discuss her latest release,The Missing Slipper!9/1/2022 This was Sandra’s second visit to the book club, and she was the very first author ever featured by KC Reads on April 30, 2020. The Missing Slipper is a departure from Sandra’s Megan Scott and Michael Elliot series. We had a great time with this wonderful author who is a personal hero for me! Find her bio, cover art, and link for purchase below. Mystery author Sandra Nikolai weaves ordinary characters into extraordinary, life-threatening situations, using the premise that evil often lurks in familiar places. Her popular, fast-paced mystery series featuring ghostwriter Megan Scott and investigative reporter Michael Elliott has earned international reviews from fans who love the challenge of solving heart-pounding whodunits with realistic and tightly knit plots. Her Amber McNeil Mystery series features a psychic consultant working with police investigators on cold case files. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Sandra grew up in this cosmopolitan city and later moved to Ottawa, capping off a career path in sales, finance, and high tech. Sandra has published a string of short crime stories, winning awards along the way, including an Honourable Mention in the Canadian Writers Journal short fiction competition. Sandra has been nominated for Favourite Author of the Year at the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Ottawa Awards presented by Faces Magazine.  Click here
We will be meeting Ellen J. Green to discuss her important new book, Murder in the Neighborhood. It’s about the first recorded mass shooting in the United States, and she is the first person to write about it. Ellen is an Amazon Charts bestselling author for her Ava Saunders fiction series, and standalone, The Book of James. Now she is making a big splash with her first true story, Murder in the Neighborhood. Thank you for joining us, Ellen! Bio, cover art, summary, and link for purchase are below.  Ellen J. Green is the Amazon Charts bestselling author of the Ava Saunders novels (Absolution and Twist of Faith) and The Book of James. She attended Temple University in Philadelphia, where she earned her degrees in psychology, and has worked in the psychiatric ward of a maximum-security correctional facility for fifteen years. She also holds an MFA degree in creative writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Born and raised in Upstate New York, Ms. Green now lives in southern New Jersey with her two children.  On 6 September 1949, twenty-eight-year-old Howard Barton Unruh shot thirteen people in less than twelve minutes on his block in East Camden, New Jersey. The shocking true story of the first recorded mass shooting in America has never been told, until now.
The sky was cloudless that morning when twelve-year-old Raymond Havens left his home on River Road. His grandmother had sent him to get a haircut at the barbershop across the street—where he was about to witness his neighbor and friend Howard open fire on the customers inside. Told through the eyes of young Raymond, who had visited Howard regularly to listen to his war stories, and the mother trying to piece together the disturbing inner workings of her son’s mind, Murder in the Neighborhood uncovers the chilling true story of Howard Unruh, the quiet loner who meticulously plotted his revenge on the neighbors who shunned him and became one of America’s first mass killers. With Ellen’s access to Howard’s diaries, newly released police reports and psychiatric records alongside interviews with surviving family members, Murder in the Neighborhood is a compulsive page-turner that will have you asking—how well do we ever really know those around us? Are we ever really safe? Click here to head to Amazon! We are flying to South Manchester to meet the fun and fabulous Chris McDonald! A Wash of Black, Whispers in the Dark, and Roses for the Dead were his first crime thrillers. They are his DI Erika Piper series. She is a tough investigator with some demons that are haunting her. His prose is stunning, and you will find yourself reading passages over and over until his words intoxicate you! We will be discussing The Stonebridge Mysteries Series with Chris. There are six novellas in this cozy mystery series, with his latest release, All At Sea, having just been set free into the world! This is a series about two amateur sleuths, Adam and Colin. These are lighthearted mysteries with humor and fun while digging into murder and mayhem. As Chris describes Adam and Colin: “Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of detective shows, a misplaced sense of confidence and a keen desire to see justice done, these two are the closest thing the town has to saviors. Which isn’t that reassuring….” Find Chris’s bio, cover art and link to purchase the series below. Originally hailing from the north coast of Ireland and now residing in South Manchester, Chris McDonald has always been a reader. At primary school, The Hardy Boys inspired his love of adventure, before his reading world was opened up by Chuck Palahniuk and the gritty world of crime. He’s a fan of 5-a-side football, has an eclectic taste in music ranging from DamienRice to Slayer and loves dogs.  |
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