October is here, with winter weather in the forecast for Colorado, so I’ve been busy this past week getting our home, the yard and our motorhome ready for the cold, wet air. On the last weekend of September, Kim and I went to visit our daughter Dakota up in Laramie on Parents Weekend. It was wonderful to see her, as she is enjoying college life, doing great in her classes and making new friends. Laramie is very much a college town, with more than half the population of the city either students or faculty, but still with a warm small-town atmosphere. It is a marvelous place for Dakota to expand her mind and get her degree.
As I continue down memory lane, after The Case of the Invisible Souls, I knew the next book was going to deal with a serial killer. It wasn’t long before I had the title and a basic outline in my head, though the book evolved, as they often do, into a much more complex plot. Besides the serial killer story, there are two other major plots in this book. to keep you guessing with each turn of the page. It was an ambitious dark turn for me, as I stretched my writing skills, putting Jarvis into a situation to test him in ways he’d never been tested before.
One of the sad aspects of life is these monsters do exist. As part of my research, I found some detailed horrifying information on serial killers; the FBI categorizing them into 4 different types, with some killers crossing into more than one category. I looked at some of the well documented serial killers; The Zodiac Killer, Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper and so on. Trying to understand what made them tick. How they evolved into these horrible people. Research that was hard to fathom and at times invaded my dreams, making it hard to sleep. But I wanted to create a realistic and multi-dimensional killer for Jarvis to go eye to eye with, in a psychological battle of wills. A killer who returns after 22 years of retirement, tracking down new victims, the gruesome murders starting again, front page headlines scaring the public. The novel, The Front Range Butcher, was my longest, most complex and best book yet in the Jarvis Mann PI series. At over 400 pages it is an “edge of your seat thriller that will keep you engrossed” if I may borrow a line from one of my 5-star reviews. You can purchase The Front Range Butcher on Amazon, in ebook, paperback, and via Kindle Unlimited subscription. Check it out today, especially if you are a fan of hardboiled private eye action against a smart, coy and devious serial killer. It’s a spooky story that will get you in the mood for Halloween!
Here are some recent snippets from 5-star reviews of The Front Range Butcher:
The Front Range Butcher: A Jarvis Mann Private Detective Novel by R. Weir was fantastic! It was interesting and intriguing to read through the Butchers eyes, even if only every so often. I thought the author did a wonderful job with painting the pictures, even so gruesome – Kristan Anderson
What I didn’t expect was to sit on the edge of my seat the entire time while reading this book. Oh, my goodness – this author’s writing style had me all over the place. The suspense and thrill that I felt while trying to figure out what Private Detective Jarvis Mann will find out, and if it will be on time had me pulling my hair out. This is exactly what I like to experience while I read. – Roxana
Jarvis had me at the beginning and by the end it was definitely love and my fav PI. Weir has developed a likable PI that has it all. He’s smart with a high success rate for cases solved, witty (all though that’s not well received), popular mainly with the ladies that cannot resist his magnetic smile and charm – Betty
Most months I have books available via Instafreebie Giveaway, but they have recently rebranded their name to Prolific Works. How their system works and what they offer hasn’t changed. If you’ve received books in the past, all your book history is still available. Hopefully, with the new moniker, they will fix the download issues some have mentioned to me. If you’ve had any problems with receiving any of the two books I offer, The Case of the Missing Bubble Gum Card and Tracking A Shadow, be sure to let me know and I can email the book file to you directly. Both books are always available via either of these two links, Bubble Gum and Tracking A Shadow through Prolific Works.
***Contest Time***
I’ve been thinking over what type of contest I want to run, as we get closer to the holiday season, to giveaway a few of my books. Since my genre is Mystery/Detective, I’m curious what readers out there look for in a book in that genre. What are the key elements in that type of book that catches your eye, grabs and holds you to the story? Book cover, plot, characters, settings, suspense, action; whatever keeps you engrossed in a story, I’d like to hear about. Please email me your thoughts with as much detail as you’d like. From those emails, I will announce in a future newsletter a winner of a free signed paperback copy of any one of my books. I will have to limit this to US-based readers only when it comes to the paperback. But I will give away a free ebook or two, for responses from anyone outside the US that I like. Send to my email address linked here. I always enjoy hearing what readers love in a good book.
The holiday craft fair season is around the corner, and I currently have four events planned I will be selling my books, the first starting November 3rd at Smoky Hill High School in Aurora. This event runs from 9AM-4PM, with over 200 vendors selling their handcrafted wares. If you live in the Denver Metro area be sure to stop by. Then the following Saturday, November 10th, I will be at Cherokee Trails High School in East Aurora, again with over 200 vendors. This event runs from 9AM-3PM. Look for my table and stop by to say hello. I generally have some treats and other giveaways.
That is all for this month. Next month I will have news on the next Jarvis Mann book, as it gets closer to completion. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all my books on Amazon or via my website. Have a safe and wonderful Halloween.
R Weir