Waking Up

Holy Crow, how time flies. I'm going to start blogging again, but just short blurbs and not bothering with much marketing. Here I come.

I've written a new crime novel featuring Johnny Havelock, a PI based in Kingston, Ontario. I'm running it by ECW because I'm wired to wish for a contract, but I'm already writing the second one and really like the characters. More to come.

Soft Launch of IN THESE DISCONSOLATE WOODS

                              

 

We're pleased to announce the soft launch of the sixth March and Walker crime novel, IN THESE DISCONSOLATE WOODS. Paperback copies are available now via Amazon or may be ordered through your local independent bookstore. E-book copies may be purchased online now from Amazon and soon from Kobo as well.

 

Synopsis:

Someone murdered former professional hockey player Grant Burnham on his private woodlot north of Perth, Ontario. In a violent fit of rage, they beat him to death with a baseball bat made by his own woodworking company.

 

Ontario Provincial Police Detective Inspector Ellie March must cope with an acute shortage of detectives as the Lanark County Crime Unit investigates, and while the loan of Detective Constable Kevin Walker from the Leeds County detachment helps, the unit struggles to work the case effectively. With no shortage of suspects, including a scornful ex-wife, a surly former business partner, and a next-door neighbor drawn to the athletic Burnham like a bee to honey, can the team prevent a vicious killer from getting away with murder?

Once again we've released a video teaser to promote the novel. We hope you like it!

 

Credits:

 

Design and development: Michael J. McCann

 

Video credits: Matthias Groeneveld/Pexels (forest 1); Peter Fowler/Pexels (forest 2); Ravendra Singh/Pixabay (crows); Kelly Lacy/Pexels (walking; crime scene tape); Christian Bodhi/Pixabay (forest 3).

 

Sound track: Alena Smirnova/Free Music Archive ("Modern Minimalism").

 

Thanks to these talented people for sharing their work under Creative Commons By Attribution licenses. Enjoy!

 

And never fear, March and Walker #7, Forgotten Loyalties, is now under construction and will be coming your way soon.

TWILIGHT ROAD KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN NOW LIVE!

The Kickstarter campaign for Twilight Road: A Maddie Hubbard Novel of Supernatural Suspense is now live.

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, Kickstarter is a fundraising platform for artists, musicians, video game developers and authors to help offset rising production costs.

Backers of Twilight Road may choose among several levels of pledges, beginning at $1. Kickstarter asks that you create an account with them in order to complete the transaction when the campaign concludes on October 11, 2022.

Because Kickstarter campaigns are all-or-nothing, it will be necessary to reach our stated goal of $600 CDN by the end of the campaign. If we fall short, you won't be asked to complete the payment transaction for your pledge.

Interested in how I spent much of the pandemic while sheltering in place? Visit our Kickstarter page for Twilight Road. Watch the video, read the synopsis and character sketches, and check out the rewards for each pledge level. You'll find it here.

Thanks for your interest, and Happy Reading!

 

USING VIDEO TO MARKET BOOKS ON TWITTER

 

Twitter analytics show that tweets including images, graphic image files (GIFs) or video tend to receive more interactions than tweets without. In fact, those with embedded video sequences see 10% more engagement and are six times more likely to be retweeted.

With that in mind, we've launched a short (32 sec.) video teaser for THE LONG ROAD INTO DARKNESS, the Tom Faust crime novel released last year, for inclusion in our regular Twitter promotional tweets.

Credits for the teaser are as follows, in order of appearance:

• video: Yaroslav Shuraev (Pexels); Ingo Joseph (Pexels);
• photography: Michael J. McCann (church); Burlingham (Thinkstock; knife);
• music: Alan Piljak "Empty Days" (FMA).

For those of you who like trivia, I photographed the church in Front of Yonge Township while researching SORROW LAKE, and it was the basis for Tom's church in THE LONG ROAD.

Here's the teaser, for anyone who doesn't have a Twitter account or is curious to see it right now. (You can follow me on Twitter at @MichaelJMcCann1.) Hope you find this interesting!

A DEATH IN WINTER - MARCH & WALKER #5

 

We're excited to announce the launch of A DEATH IN WINTER, the fifth March and Walker Crime Novel.

As the worst storm of the winter settles in, a funeral takes place in the village of Westport for an elderly Toronto crime lord who retired several years ago to the quiet beauty of Rideau Lakes.

Shortly afterward, a man is found beaten to death behind the local hardware store, and OPP Detective Inspector Ellie March discovers that the victim was an important employee of Dante Tassone, heir to the crime lord's vast empire.

Stuck in a snowed-in village with dangerous organized crime figures, Ellie and OPP Detective Constable Kevin Walker search for answers that will connect Tassone and his rebellious son to a violent family struggle threatening the safety of villagers and police as the bodies begin to pile up and a deadly pandemic looms on the horizon.

Fans of the series will be pleased to encounter several new characters who are being added to the lineup, including Detective Sergeant Prez Raintree and intelligence analyst Charlotte McKinley. The narrative style is also slightly different this time out, with parts of the story being told from the points of view of Dante Tassone and his son, Rick.

Interested? You can order the paperback (autographed) from The Plaid Raccoon webstore or from Amazon (not autographed!). If you're in the UK and you shop at Waterstones, you can order it here. Or, order it from your local bookstore!

Prefer an eBook? Purchase it from Kobo or Amazon (US), (Canada), or (UK).

Thank you, all, for your ongoing support of this series. It's greatly appreciated. Stay safe, and stay well.

A DEATH IN WINTER - SOFT LAUNCH

 

It goes without saying that 2020 has been a weird and upsetting year. My previous blog post was in February, when I talked about writing the next March and Walker Crime Novel during winter, with a winter setting.

Well, that winter ended, the summer passed, and now we find ourselves moving into autumn with another winter on the horizon.

The absence of blog posts can be explained--although not excused--by the fact that I've spent the summer in my newly organized basement office at home, having given up my retreat in Burritt's Rapids in order to limit the number of excursions away from home to, well, almost none.

What have I been doing down there? Writing, of course. A DEATH IN WINTER, the fifth March and Walker Crime Novel, has been completed, edited, and produced.

We (by which I mean The Plaid Raccoon Press) are now ready for a soft launch of this latest title. It will take a few more days to get all the point-of-sale details sorted out but watch this space over the next few days and we'll announce all the exciting details!

Stay safe, and stay well.

FINALLY--WRITING ABOUT A SEASON, IN-SEASON!

Winter Solstice, 2019 (c) Michael J. McCann

It generally takes about a year for me to produce a new book, from original idea to printed page. As a result, I often find myself working away during the winter months on a manuscript set in the summer, or vice versa. 

Not a problem for an experienced writer who spends the vast majority of his time exploring the inner landscapes of his own mind, of course. Warm sunshine on a bare forearm or a cold wind that whips away one's breath are never far away.

This year, however, I'm fortunate that fiction and fact are working in harmony as I write the first draft of my next manuscript, aptly titled A DEATH IN WINTER. The fifth March and Walker Crime Novel, which will hopefully be released in September, it follows Detective Inspector Ellie March and Detective Constable Kevin Walker as they investigate a murder in the village of Westport while snowbound in the middle of a mid-winter blizzard.

While I was outlining the story last October, I envisioned a three-day snowfall that would hamper driving, make streets and sidewalks almost impossible, and close rural roads at the most inopportune times.

How delightful that while I was working on the story last month, we actually did experience a 30+ cm blizzard that inflicted all those nasty things on us in Leeds-Grenville. All I had to do was step outside for inspiration and a reminder of what winter REALLY feels like.

Will this immediate, frost-laden experience translate into better storytelling? We shall see!

Best Books Reviewed in 2019

Now that 2020 has arrived, a new year and a new decade, we have a chance to look back and contemplate the books we read (and reviewed) in 2019.

As a book critic for the New York Journal of Books, I reviewed a grand total of 40 titles last year, exactly the same number as in 2018. Consistency is a good thing, apparently.

While books are always selected in the hope that they will be good enough to earn a positive review, they occasionally disappoint. 

There were several titles that fell into that category in 2019. James Ellroy's This Storm was unreadable, Jon Land's Strong As Steel was ludicrously bad, and John Lescroart's The Rule of Law did nothing to bolster his status as an A-list bestseller. As well, Helene Tursten's Hunting Game proved that Scandinavian noir gets much better distribution than it deserves.

On the other hand, there were other titles that really rang the bell. So what were the five best books I had the pleasure of reviewing in 2019?

5. Black Sun, by Owen Matthews (July 22; Doubleday)
A debut thriller by a former Moscow bureau chief for Newsweek, this novel takes us back to the intrigue surrounding an attempt in 1961 by the Soviet Union to build a doomsday device that could destroy the world. Well plotted, with engaging characters.
(Read the review.)

4. The Satapur Moonstone, by Sujata Massey (May 13; Soho Crime) 
Massey's series featuring Perveen Mistry, Bombay's only female lawyer in the 1920s, continues to entertain, and this one is a gem. 
(Read the review.)

3. Like Lions, by Brian Panowich (April 30; Minotaur Books)
Panowich's sequel to his acclaimed debut Bull Mountain is terrific. Call it rural noir if you must, but his writing is just plain outstanding.
(Read the review.)

2. The Book of Dreams, by Nina George (April 9; Crown) 
Originally published in Germany in 2012, this novel is a sensitive, insightful exploration of the emotional landscapes of George's characters. Not to be missed. No excuses, now. Read it!
(Read the review.)

1. The Tale Teller, by Anne Hillerman (April 9; Harper)
Hillerman reaches a new level of storytelling in her latest title featuring Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, and Bernadette Manuelito. Not just an outstanding crime novel set in the Southwest, it's a reading experience not to be missed.
(Read the review.)

Best wishes to all avid readers out there, and high hopes for a rich crop of books to enjoy in 2020!

DOWN THE LONG ROAD AND THROUGH THE GATE!

I'm very pleased to announce that after having traveled its own very long road, THE LONG ROAD INTO DARKNESS has now arrived at publication.

At the moment this is a standalone novel, but two other stories have been sketched out and could be written if the demand for them is there.

THE LONG ROAD tells the story  of Tom Faust, who retires after a successful career as an Ontario Provincial Police homicide investigator. He soon finds himself at loose ends. To give himself something to do and to head off an increased reliance on alcohol, he buys a decommissioned country church in Peterborough County, Ontario, to renovate as a home--his final stop, the place where he'll make his last stand.  However, when he finds a body hanging from the rafters, he realizes his homicide investigation days are far from over.

THE LONG ROAD is available in paperback from Amazon here. Remember, if you participate in Amazon Prime you could get it with free shipping.

You may also order it through any independent bookstore. In Canada, they must be willing to order from an American distributor, which some will not. In Ottawa, however, Perfect Books on Elgin St. and Books on Beechwood will cheerfully get a copy into the store for you.

In the USA, find your nearest independent bookstore through IndieBound and order it there. Here's the link.

In the UK, find the paperback at your local Waterstones.

THE LONG ROAD is also available in eBook format from Amazon here. This time out we've decided to go with Kindle Unlimited, which means if you're a subscriber you may download the book for free. It's also included in Kindle Match, which means if you order the paperback (as a Christmas gift, for example) you may also grab the e-Book version (for yourself, say) at a reduced price.

I hope you'll take a look at this one, and my fingers are crossed that you'll like it.

THE LONG ROAD INTO DARKNESS

So I've got this manuscript, THE LONG ROAD INTO DARKNESS, that I completed in 2015. I sent out to St. Martin's Press, at their request, in the wake of SORROW LAKE's Hammett Prize nomination.

It sat for a year without a response. I finally discovered the acquiring editor who requested it had disappeared into the ether, so I began shopping it around to agents and editors. It sat for nine months in someone else's Inbox and then received the usual three-to-six months' wait for a rejection, when they bothered to respond.

In 2018 I put it through a vigorous rewrite and editing process and sent it out to Flame Tree Press, who acknowledged it with thanks and promised, as per their website, to reply with a judgment within two months. Seven months later I dared to query, and was told it was still under consideration.

Last Tuesday, Sept. 17, one year to the day after submitting it, I gave up and told them I was obtaining an ISBN for it and publishing it myself. I said a bunch of other stuff in the e-mail, but that's a story for another day.

The point of all this, and yes, there is a point, is that I'm putting it through another revision and editing process because, as many of you know, when a manuscript sits for that long, dates and ages and whatnot grow stale and need to be scaled up to the present. Next week it should be ready to put through the usual publication process.

Thing is, as I go through it once more I realize that this story represents some of the best writing I've ever done. It contains material I've wanted to get out there for a long time. I'm very proud of this thing, and if anyone had ever bothered to actually read it, I'm sure one of them would have made an offer on it.

You folks, the readers, will now be the judge of it. With mixed feelings, I'm giving up on any further attempt to work with a "traditional" publisher.

As I said in my e-mail to Flame Tree, appropriately named, authors are not commodities, like hog jowls or palm oil. We're thoughtful, hard-working people trying to communicate to the world through our work.

This is how it has to be done, I guess.

THE ROLE OF THE FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST IN NO SADNESS OF FAREWELL

As you can tell from the back cover blurb of NO SADNESS OF FAREWELL, the fourth March and Walker Crime Novel, a forensic anthropologist is called in by the coroner to assist OPP detectives when human remains are found on a property near Rideau Ferry.

While Dr. Ash Latimer is an eccentric personality who ends up becoming friends with Detective Constable Kevin Walker in the novel, real-life forensic anthropologists in Ontario are a very interesting breed in their own right.

A recent Ontario Forensic Pathology Service (OFPS) annual report explains that "Forensic anthropologists make an important contribution to death investigations where the remains are skeletonized, burned, decomposed, mutilated or otherwise unrecognizable. [They] act as part of the death investigation team, and as consultants to forensic pathologists."

In Ontario, the OFPS has one full-time forensic anthropologist, Dr. Kathy Gruspier. An associate professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, she has performed extensive field work in Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, East Timor, Cambodia, and Poland. Read more about Dr. Gruspier here.

In addition to Dr. Gruspier, there are also a number of consulting forensic anthropologists who work on a part-time fee-for-service basis for the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, the OFPS, and police services. Like Ash Latimer, they are generally found on the faculties of Ontario universities where they are key members of departments of Forensic Science.

Ash was a fun character to work with, but my research showed that what forensic anthropologists do for a living is serious, highly specialized, and very important to the successful completion of many difficult death investigations. 

An important source of information for me was Introduction to Forensic Anthropology: A Textbook by Steven N. Byers (Pearson Education, Inc., 2005). I would encourage you to do your own research on this fascinating line of work.

Hats off to the real-life specialists who give us a chance as writers of crime fiction to explore new and engaging territory!

NO SADNESS OF FAREWELL IS NOW AVAILABLE

Yes, the wait is over.

NO SADNESS OF FAREWELL, the fourth installment of the March and Walker Crime Novel series, has been published and is now available for purchase.

When human remains are found behind a barn on a property along the historic Rideau Waterway, OPP Detective Constable Kevin Walker finds himself riding herd on a forensic anthropologist brought in by the coroner to supervise the removal of the bones.

But as the wildly eccentric Dr. Ash Latimer excavates the unmarked grave, the bodies begin to multiply and Detective Inspector Ellie March is abruptly forced to recuse herself from the case. Her next-door neighbour, Ridge Ballantyne, may have known the victims, and General Headquarters decides that the possibility of a conflict of interest necessitates her removal from the investigation.

As Ridge struggles to recover from a stroke, he must deal with the possibility that an old friend from Scotland and his young son may have been murdered five years ago and buried in an unmarked grave thousands of miles from home, while Ellie March fights an uphill battle against internal politics to return to the case.

NO SADNESS OF FAREWELL is available in paperback from your local independent bookstore. In Ottawa (Canada) for example, Perfect Books and Books on Beechwood carry the series and will order the new one for you. It's also available online through Amazon. More links will follow soon.

The novel may also be purchased in eBook version from Amazon for Kindle and from Kobo for those of you who use an epub format.

This is a really good one, folks. It may also be the last, depending on how things go, so if you enjoy the series, please give it a read and let me know what you think.

Thanks for your ongoing interest in my work. -- Mike

TOP 5 BOOKS REVIEWED IN 2018

With a new year upon us and a new crop of books waiting to be enjoyed, it behooves us as readers and critics to pause for a moment to consider the pleasures bestowed upon us by the big dog publishers in 2018.

As a book critic for the New York Journal of Books, I reviewed a grand total of 40 titles last year; a nice round number. Some were bestselling duds (Chicago, City of Endless Night, Pandemic) but some were very good. And some were terrific. So ... what were the five best books I had the pleasure of reviewing in 2018?

5. Cave of Bones, by Anne Hillerman (April 3; Harper Collins)
Navaho Tribal Police officer Bernadette Manuelito discovers a lava cave with human bones while searching for a missing girl in the El Malpais badlands. Anne Hillerman's tight, clean writing style does justice to the characters and setting we know and love so much.
(Read the review.)

4. In a House of Lies, by Ian Rankin (Dec. 29; Little, Brown)
Rankin brings us another high-quality police procedural set in Scotland, as an old missing person case becomes a homicide investigation that threatens to expose possible past wrongdoing by retired detective John Rebus.
(Read the review.)

3. The Sandman, by Lars Kepler (March 6; Knopf)
When a young man is found wandering across a train bridge on a cold night, police discover that he and his sister have been missing for 13 years. By far, the best Joona Linna crime novel to date by the Swedish husband-and-wife team writing as Lars Kepler. An absolute page turner.
(Read the review.)

2. Dark Sacred Night, by Michael Connelly (Oct. 29; Little, Brown) The heavyweight champion of police procedurals delivers another knockout as Det. Renee Ballard teams up with Harry Bosch on a cold case in which a teenage girl was brutally murdered and left in a dumpster. Well written, as always, and an effective pairing.
(Read the review.)

1. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara (Feb. 26; Harper Collins) Heartfelt, gripping true crime by the late blogger and journalist who devoted so much of her adult life to the pursuit of the notorious Golden State Killer, aka East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker, who was (allegedly) finally captured this year. An incredible tribute to a remarkable woman who passed away too soon.
(Read the review.)

Honorable mentions:

• The Boy, by Tami Hoag (Dec. 31; Dutton) (read the review);
• The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey (Jan. 8; Soho Crime) (read the review).

Best wishes to all avid readers out there, and high hopes for a rich crop of books to enjoy in 2019!

WHAT'S WAITING FOR US DOWN THE ROAD?

Image (c) Thinkstock. Used under licence.

Every year at this time I like to take stock of where I'm at and set a few objectives for the coming 12 months. What did I manage to achieve this year, and what would I like to accomplish next year?

There's not much doubt that 2018 has been rough. On a macro-macro level, we've endured an unreasonable amount of social and political turmoil, and my American friends must remember that their chaos is the world's chaos. In Canada, we must hang on for dear life and hope you folks clean house soon (i.e., drain the new swamp) and get back on track.

On a micro, or personal level, 2018 was no improvement on 2017. Enough said about that for now.

Readers of this blog are more interested in what I'm doing professionally, since that's the point of the whole thing, so let's talk about that instead.

This year saw the publication of PERSISTENT GUILT, the third March and Walker Crime Novel. I'm very proud of this title. I'm pleased with the design of the book, cover and interior, and I feel that I was able to accomplish a few things in the story, particularly with Kevin and his family situation, that move the series forward in a direction I like.

The upcoming year should see the publication of two new titles. The fourth March and Walker crime novel, NO SADNESS OF FAREWELL, is in draft right now and hopefully will appear in the summer of 2019. This novel will focus on a case requiring the services of a forensic anthropologist, and I think you'll find the character of Dr. Ash Latimer to be, well, interesting. It also brings Ellie March's octogenarian neighbour, Ridge Ballantyne, into the foreground.

As well, the long-anticipated first novel in my new Tom Faust series, THE LONG ROAD INTO DARKNESS, will appear in print in 2019 come hell or high water. I've been shopping this manuscript around for nearly three years, and after a major rewrite, I'm down to the last submission for it. If/when I hear back in the usual manner, I'll prepare this one for publication through the Plaid Raccoon Press. Watch for a tentative release date of February 19 -- 2/19/19.

I hope everyone celebrating Christmas this year had a great time, and here's wishing you all Happy Holidays!

ONE STORY OUT OF A MILLION

The other day I was doing research on the Internet when I came across the obituary of a man named William Witherspoon of Dayton, Ohio, who passed away in Holiday, Florida on July 6, 2009 at the age of 61.

A funeral home in Dayton posted condolence messages on their website, and I was particularly struck by one posted by a man who wrote about having worked with "Spoon" for ten years at a warehouse where his co-worker unloaded trucks, stocked shelves, and made deliveries.

"You always knew when Spoon was working," he wrote, "you could hear his singing ringing through the rafters."

Last weekend I attended the semiannual vinyl record show in Ottawa, and as usual I kept an eye out for records I've never seen before. I took a flyer on Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble by a band called Melting Pot. It had a small scuff on it and I almost put it back in the bin, but at $2.50 I changed my mind and added it to my little pile.

Part of the fun after bringing them home is to hit the Internet to see what I can find out about these relatively unknown bands. I learned that Fire Burn was recorded in 1971 at Capricorn Studios in Macon Georgia, which was at the time a hotbed of southern rock. It looks like the only one ever cut by this group, who were more along the lines of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago than the Allman Brothers.

Trying to trace the individual band members was a little difficult. Keyboard player Dick Gentile was one of the primary songwriters for the album, but he didn't come up in any searches. The same results for Howie McGurty (sax & trumpet), Steve Nichols (trombone - later a bandleader?), Mickey Smith (guitar), and Joe Rudd (guitar).

Bass player Kenny Tibbetts, however, was a fixture for several years as a studio musician. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 73 in Indianapolis. According to his obituary, he recorded and toured with Greg Allman, Dickie Betts, and Roy Buchanan, among others, drawing on southern rock connections no doubt made through Capricorn. After leaving the music business in the late 1970s, he worked in printing. Whoever wrote his obit proudly pointed out that he was known for being able to chord on his bass while simultaneously playing keyboards, which he apparently did while Melting Pot was recording the track "Feeling Alright."

Finally, there was sax player and vocalist Bill Witherspoon.

As the Reverend Curtis Lynn of Clearwater, FL wrote in his condolence message on William Witherspoon's death notice back in Dayton, "Little did I know that the Sax player at Countryside Church 3 miles from my house here in Clearwater was the same Bill Witherspoon (spoon we called him) ..."

Life, my friends, is a very strange and wonderful trip. Sing on, Spoon, and may your voice always ring loud and clear in the rafters.

Q & A: THE GHOST MAN

It's October and Hallowe'en is approaching, so our attention is inevitably turning to the supernatural. We thought it might be fun to do a short question-and-answer session with our mascot here at the Plaid Raccoon Press regarding The Ghost Man.

The Raccoon: The Ghost Man was your first novel. Where did you get the idea for it?

A: After leaving the public service to write full time, I spent almost a year researching my family history. The McCanns emigrated from Ireland in the early 1840s and settled in North Crosby Township, near Westport, Ontario. After a year I'd accumulated quite a bit of information not only about my family but the township in general, and I wanted to do something with it. I considered writing a local history, but my son, who was into the paranormal at the time, suggested I write a ghost story. So I did.

The Raccoon: Where was it published?

A: The novel was originally published by a small press in Alberta in May, 2009. I though my dreams of being a published author had come true, and didn't realize that the responsibility for marketing the book lay entirely on my own shoulders. Thankfully it was a short-term contract, and when it expired I re-acquired the rights and published it through our Plaid Raccoon imprint on February 13, 2013 -- 2/13/13. The significance of the date didn't strike me until later. Serendipity!

The Raccoon: Tell us about the main characters, Simon Guthrie and Dr. Doris Fowler.

A: Neither character is based on anyone in particular, which I suppose is a bit of an accomplishment for a first novel. I was an avid foodie at the time, and the idea of working with a protagonist who is a former celebrity chef really appealed. Simon's sudden descent from fame, his long recovery from injury, the near-death experience, and his subsequent encounters with earthbound ghosts of the dead all struck me as a fascinating combination.

As for Doris, I wanted a character opposite Simon who is equally accomplished in her own field--Canadian history--but lacks Simon's natural affability and self-confidence. As an academic she's naturally predisposed to look for rational, material answers to the phenomena Simon claims to be experiencing, and when she begins to experience them as well the shift from rationalization to fear and profound sadness brings out a side of her character previously hidden, particularly from herself.

The Raccoon: Why the cover change?

A: The cover of the original 2009 edition used a photograph taken by my son. Unfortunately he hated it, so after repatriating the novel I designed a new one. It's now five years old, and I've never been completely satisfied with it, so I thought it was time for a fresh look.

The Raccoon: How do you feel about the novel now, nine years later?

A: I'm a writer, so of course there's stuff I'd like to go back and change. But I won't, because on the whole I really like the story and the characters. The best part is that people still come up to me and talk about how much they enjoyed reading it. If they liked it that much, then that's good enough for me.

The Ghost Man is available from Amazon here. It's also available from Kobo, Barnes and Noble for Nook, and iTunes. 

IT'S OCTOBER -- TIME FOR A GHOST MAN MAKEOVER!

It's October, which means that Hallowe'en is right around the corner. Time for tricks, treats and scary stories.

With that in mind, we've given The Ghost Man, my first novel, a little face lift in the spirit of the season.

As you can see, we've changed the cover to a new image, courtesy of LoweStock/Thinkstock. The revamped design brings the look and feel of the novel somewhat more in line with my other publications.

The story itself remains entirely unchanged, with only front and back matter adjusted to reflect the new image credit and an updated list of my other novels. (The paperback edition will migrate to the new cover in the near future.)

It's still scary, still thrilling, and still a real good Hallowe'en read!

The Ghost Man is available for Amazon Kindle HERE.
Also available from Kobo, Barnes and Noble for Nook, and iTunes.

GOODREADS GIVEAWAY FOR PERSISTENT GUILT

For the next month, PERSISTENT GUILT, the third March and Walker Crime Novel, is being featured as a special giveaway through Goodreads, the world's largest online site for readers and book recommendations.

An unbelievable 100 Kindle copies of the novel are available to residents of the USA who follow the link below to enter the giveaway.

Don't miss your chance to read outstanding Canadian crime fiction for free! And remember, if you're one of the lucky recipients and you enjoy reading PERSISTENT GUILT, please leave a review to encourage others to try the March and Walker series as well.

Best of luck to everyone who enters!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Persistent Guilt

by Michael J. McCann

Giveaway ends September 19, 2018.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

LAUNCH DAY FOR PERSISTENT GUILT!

On behalf of the Plaid Raccoon Press I'm very pleased to announce that PERSISTENT GUILT, the third March and Walker Crime Novel, is now available for purchase.

As Detective Constable Kevin Walker and the Leeds County Crime Unit investigate the murder of a young woman whose body was found on the picturesque Thousand Islands Parkway, Detective Inspector Ellie March takes up the investigation of the mayor of a nearby city who's accused of criminal wrongdoing. When the cases threaten to intersect, March and Walker must decide which path will ultimately lead them to the truth.

PERSISTENT GUILT follows the Ontario Provincial Police homicide investigators first featured in SORROW LAKE, a finalist for the 2015 Hammett Prize for best crime novel in North America, and BURN COUNTRY, the second novel in the series.

PERSISTENT GUILT may be ordered in paperback through your local independent bookstore from the worldwide Ingram Book catalog. We encourage you to support your local bookstore.

It may also be ordered in paperback online from Amazon:

US: https://www.amazon.com/Persistent-Guilt-March-Walker-Crime/dp/1927884136/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Persistent-Guilt-March-Walker-Crime/dp/1927884136/
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Persistent-Guilt-March-Walker-Crime/dp/1927884136/

In eBook format, it's available from:

Amazon for Kindle:   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G8L623Z/
or from Kobo for ePub devices*: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/persistent-guilt

Please remember, if you enjoy PERSISTENT GUILT, leave a review where you bought the novel so that other readers may be encouraged to give it a try as well. Thanks for your support!


Here's a helpful post on buying ePub books for your Apple device, including the iPad, iPhone, etc.: https://www.kobo.com/help/en-US/article/1962/buying-kobo-ebooks-and-magazines-on-your-apple-device?products=apple. Note that ePub book files may also be read on the Nook, the Sony reader, and Android devices.

PERSISTENT GUILT NOW IN PRODUCTION

I'm very pleased to be able to announce that PERSISTENT GUILT, the third installment in the March and Walker Crime Novel series, is now in production. The scheduled release date is August 3, 2018.

PERSISTENT GUILT is a police procedural featuring homicide investigators of the Ontario Provincial Police. The series is set in Leeds County, Ontario, which is located on the St. Lawrence Seaway corridor between Toronto and Montreal.

On a cold morning in late April, a man and his dog discover the nude body of a young woman in the ditch alongside the picturesque Thousand Islands Parkway in Leeds County. The woman was stabbed repeatedly before being dumped.

Detective Constable Kevin Walker of the Ontario Provincial Police discovers that the victim worked for a high school acquaintance of his. Kyle Baldwin now runs a charity that raises funds for mobile medical clinics in Kenya, but he had a brief affair with the victim several years ago that ended badly.

At the same time, Detective Inspector Ellie March is investigating the mayor of the nearby city of Brockville for alleged criminal wrongdoing. With two cases to manage, she and Kevin Walker must determine if the mayor is somehow connected to a wider circle of crime or if Kevin's acquaintance murdered his ex-lover in a fit of jealous rage.

Write it down in your notebook, folks. Ellie March and Kevin Walker are back!