Riversong, the first interview

RIVERSONG has been released as a paperback and a hardcover on Amazon. And the e-books can be pre-ordered on Amazon, Kobo and Barnes & Noble for release on September 30. It's so exciting to see my dream turn into a reality!

Crime Writers of Canada's Erik D'Souza stepped into interview mode, we chatted about Riversong, writing, and the Mesdames of Mayhem, a literary collective that has nurtured the careers of 23 Canadian crime writers, myself included. Erik turned our chat into a podcast that aired on Wednesday.

The 100th CWC podcast, no less! You can listen to it here.

Pat Tierney is back!

I'VE BEEN FRIENDS with Pat Tierney for a long time. With the release of Riversong in September, there will be five books featuring Pat as the protagonist. Her character was an offshoot of my career as a financial journalist, writing about Canada’s financial services industry. A financial advisor, Pat is a champion of underdogs, especially the victims of financial fraud. She hates these fraudsters, believes the penalties levied against them are far too lenient. She’d like to see them locked up forever.

In her first four mysteries, Pat runs up against a variety of scoundrels including money launderers, real estate scamsters, a biker drug gang, a financial advisor who tries to put her out of business . . . and murderers.

The first novel in the series, Safe Harbor, was a finalist for Britain’s Debut Dagger Award in 2010. It was followed by Black Water, Raven Lake, Uncharted Waters, and Riversong next month.

Jack Batten, the Toronto Star’s former crime fiction reviewer, called Pat Tierney “a hugely attractive sleuth figure.”

In Riversong, Pat’s new client, Monika Lentz, appears to live a charmed life. Monika is beautiful, wealthy, and enjoying a hugely successful career as the star columnist at the Toronto World newspaper. When she confides that she is pregnant, Pat’s heart goes out to her, knowing that raising a child alone can be challenging. Soon after their meeting, Monika fails to meet her newspaper column’s deadline, and she’s found strangled in her home.

Like Riversong’s cover? It was designed by talented Toronto artist, Sara Carrick.

Riversong will be released as an ebook and a paperback on Amazon, Rakuten Kobo, and Barnes & Noble on Sept. 30. The ebook is now available for pre-orders.

Jaws at 50!

FIFTY YEARS after its release, the movie Jaws still has plenty of bite.

Based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg at the age of 27, Jaws has a great cast, starring Roy Scheider as small-town police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as the marine biologist, and Robert Shaw as the professional shark hunter. It has unforgettable music. Terrific suspense.

And it still has the power to shock, even though audiences know the shark on the screen is a mechanical monster that malfunctioned during the shoot. Some of the most terrifying scenes, such as the killing of the shark’s first victim, never show the shark at all. Not even a fin or a tail. We see a girl being swept back and forth in the water by an invisible predator, and our imagination fills in the rest.

That’s the power of great screen writing and a great director.