Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tuesday Teaser - Ricochet

In 2006, my third suspense was released. The name was Ricochet; it had been decided upon and registered two years prior to its release, but the book had been delayed because I was in the process of moving from Virginia to North Carolina. At the time of its release, Sandra Brown's book, Ricochet, was released. Soon after, Sue Grafton's R is for Ricochet was released.

Although the content of books is copyrighted, the name isn't - though I suppose if someone released a title such as To Kill a Mockingbird or Gone With the Wind, the copyright holders of the original books could claim those names are too closely associated with a specific author and plot.

In any event, it was a learning experience. Sometimes fans would tell me they had ordered my book only to have the book store order Sandra Brown's instead. And when anyone searched for it online, Sandra Brown's or Sue Grafton's would bump mine down the list of results.

But just last month, the book was released for the first time in eBook format. It received a new cover, which I was happy to see. It somehow seems more up-to-date. And since it's release, it has had a resurgence of sales.

In fact, this week it hit #2 on the Kindle bestseller list in the category of Immigration - and #14 on the printed book bestseller list, also in the category of Immigration.

The book features Sheila Carpenter, who I had originally introduced in Kickback, my debut suspense. On the evening before she is to begin the FBI Academy, she is shopping with her friend Margaret when a bomb explodes in the food court. Margaret winds up in the hospital fighting for her life while Sheila seems unscathed - though she continues to suffer from undiagnosed injuries. But what is even more significant is she saw the bomber before the bomb was detonated. And when she says as much to a reporter on the scene, she becomes a target.

Her adventure takes her from the FBI Academy at Quantico to her childhood home near Nashville, Tennessee to rural Robeson County, North Carolina as she pursues a plot that takes her into the dark underworld of terrorism, illegal immigration and stolen identities.

The Kindle version can be purchased for just $2.99 by following this link. The printed edition with the original cover can be purchased here.