I’m excited to let you all know that the sequel to SHADOW PLAY, DOUBLE VISION, should be available for pre-order next week through reboundpress.com. It’s a direct sequel to SHADOW PLAY (the action starts two weeks later) and brings back the entire ensemble cast. Here’s the pitch:
“Damien Echo is a street-smart psychic scammer who takes advantage of vulnerable people. But when she meets an elderly client to help locate the woman’s missing dog, the Ouija board shoots out a plea for help along with an address, and this time Damien hasn’t done anything to manipulate the pointer. She checks it out and discovers what appears to be a suicide victim inside an unlocked apartment, as well as a carefully hidden cellphone that Damien steals.
“Detective Jamie Wallace is a Homicide detective with the Rideau Regional Police in Canada’s capital. Valerie Sanderson’s death looks like a suicide, given the lack of forensic evidence, but Jamie’s gut tells her the woman was murdered and so do her visions. All she knows for sure, though, is that either the victim actually killed herself or there’s a particularly sophisticated killer who’s hidden their tracks.
“As Jamie and Detective Michel Tremblay investigate the woman’s death, Jamie soon discovers that all the information she needs to solve the case is on a cellphone that she and Tremblay can’t find. And the only person who can help her reconstruct the missing data is a ruthless killer himself.”
I’ve decided to do a series of Youtube videos to help those of you who are considering self-publishing understand what’s involved in it. It’s a challenge, and I can likely save you some time and money by telling you what you need to know. I’m also hoping to do some workshops down the road in the Ottawa area! Here’s the first five in the series: I hope to have around ten in total, so do check back later this week!
Super happy that UMBRELLA MAN is going to be back in print again soon! It’s about a Russian citizen who is murdered on the Malecon in Cuba. Slava Kadun, a Russian FSB agent, is sent to Cuba to investigate, but Inspector Ramirez suspects he’s the killer.
UMBRELLA MAN hit the #7 spot on the Toronto Star national bestseller list the first week it was released and it introduced Slava Kadun, who is truly one of my favourite characters. (He reappears in SHADOW PLAY and a lot of my readers have a giant crush on him.)
Hoping to be ready to take pre-orders on the reboundpress.com site perhaps as early next week and have UMBRELLA MAN ready to ship by mid-March.
I’m working on a new Jamie Wallace novel — this one’s been years in the making. I had the idea before the pandemic of a fake psychic who scams people and then has what could be a genuine psychic experience that leads her to an address in Mechanicsville that turns out to have a dead woman’s body …. anyway, couldn’t make the story work, and “trunked” it.
But now that readers are telling me how much they like SHADOW PLAY and how they want a new Jamie Wallace story, I decided to start working on it again. I’m a visual person and I like to imagine what the cover on a book will look like, and I also like to engage my readers. I found a photo I really liked on iStock that fit my new character to a tee.
The original photograph had the woman lying on a bed with her head on a pillow with the cellphone light reflecting on top of it, but I didn’t like the way the white around her head looked — it was off. When we switched it to portrait, it just looked weird. Like the pillow was on top of her head.
So my pal Bill Murtagh, who has a software drawing program, tried to remove some of that white to make it look more like just the light from the cellphone so that we could work with it in landscape. He came up with this version. He didn’t just try to fix the pillow/hair issue but also extended the top and bottom of the landscape version so that it would work for a jacket cover.
I sent that off to the wonderful graphic artist I work with on covers, Terry Smith, who worked with that image but came up with a new similar background and did some other tweaks. She then sent me two mock up images which I shared on Twitter and other social media for reader feedback (we always want to know what readers think before finalizing a cover: this is the fourth one we’ve worked on together).
The feedback was pretty evenly split. Some people thought the one on the left was easier to read and brighter; some liked the deeper more intense colour on the left. I liked the way the image on the left popped, but I also liked the darker teal colour on the right. So we merged them!
We’ll do some final tweaks with the pull quotes (those are the front cover reviews): I’m thinking we should just use the Ottawa Citizen review rather than both, so it’s easier to read. But this cover is pretty much finished! Now all I have to do is the finish writing the book. I’m thinking by the time the book is completed to my satisfaction (which will mean multiple reviews, then professional editing and proofreading, then typesetting), it could be a June or July pub date. But this will give you an idea of what’s involved in coming up with a design!
The iStock photo, by the way, was created by Andrey Popov, who will get credit for that on the back cover jacket.
I’m still planning on creating an award for jacket cover art and my pal, Carol Nasvytis, who is a metal artist, is working on a design now, based on a prototype I sent her in the mail: I will keep you posted on that front!
Also, I have a new print run of SHADOW PLAY arriving tomorrow — if you still haven’t picked up a copy, you can order through reboundpress.com! I hope to have UMBRELLA MAN back in print sometime in March, but HUNGRY GHOSTS, which I’ve also reprinted, is available through reboundpress.com now as well.
Happy to say that the interior of my bestselling novel, UMBRELLA MAN, is off to the typesetter; hope to have it back in print in March! It was allowed to go out of print by my Big Five publisher and I’m super happy to see this one coming back: it was the first book to introduce Slava Kadun!
Gorgeous new cover thanks to Terry Smith! We did some crowd-sourcing on this one: we put the various mockups Terry had created on Twitter and Facebook and readers gave us feedback as to which colour font they liked and which way the mysterious man should face. We took into account all the feedback we received: this really is an interactive cover!
"Ramirez is an appealing character who uses his Canadian connections to augment his sleuthing..."
Ottawa Citizen
"Crisply written, the characters are real ... Blair enters the world of the thriller."
Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail
"Peggy Blair’s Inspector Ramirez series gets better with every book. An Ottawa lawyer, Blair has a real knack for using her Havana setting, with its eccentricities born of necessity, as both a charming backdrop and a real guide to plot lines.
"This time out, Ramirez begins with a confrontation with Mama Loa. The witch doctor says people in the sky are going to die. Ramirez isn’t convinced. There hasn’t been a murder in Havana in weeks and who cares about clouds in the sky?
"When the prophecy kicks in (expertly done) there’s not just one, but several connected killings and yes, the sky is there, too. But this is no local curse or a shot of voodoo. This is plain old-fashioned KGB-CIA hit man-style killing. That makes it political, not personal, and Ramirez knows he’s on borrowed time."
Jack Batten, Toronto Star
"Marvellously accomplished ... Cuba is a small triumph of evocation.
"Blair manipulates the new characters in the book with the finesse of a card dealer dealing a hand from the bottom of the deck."
The Indextrious Reader
"Blair's mastery of intricate plotlines means that I didn't even guess at the extent of the machinations until the very end.
"And yet it all seemed to make sense once it was explained -- the very different storylines all connected in a great ending -- which was very cinematic in scope, and again, quite spy thrillerish.
"All in all, you'll find warmth, friendship, terror, clandestine plots, violence, explosions, and true love in this story. The perfect summer read."
Hungry Ghosts!
PRAISE FOR HUNGRY GHOSTS!
National Post
"An exciting procedural."
Chronicle Herald
"Blair's thriller never disappoints ...This series, with its study of seemingly disparate cultures that actually have a lot in common, continues to be a delight."
The Chronicle Herald
"A charming and funny, but also poignant, series. "
A Bookworms World
"Blair's plotting is meticulous, inventive and oh so well played ... an excellent addition to a wonderful series. Absolutely recommended."
Globe and Mail
"Heavy on atmosphere and style, the two places Blair shines." Margaret Cannon
Ottawa Citizen
"Top-notch mystery ... A new level of sophistication. Hungry Ghosts is one of the best mysteries to come out of Ottawa this or any year. "
Winnipeg Free Press
"Terrific cop characters Ricardo Ramirez and Charlie Pike -- intrepid, quietly anti-authoritarian investigators relentlessly sleuthing in their isolated corners of the world--and locations in non-touristy Cuba and the impoverished Canadian Shield make for a cracking good read."
Toronto Star
"Blair grows more assured with each novel ... she shapes all the elements in each of the three plots into coherent and related whodunits.
"As a bonus, Blair rewards readers with enlightenment about the perils of ordinary life both in Cuba and on Canadian aboriginal reserves."
Mass paperback (Canada and the US)!
Mass paperback (Canada and US)!
REVIEWED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES!!!!
"The Beggar's Opera is a well-crafted procedural with a detective who is haunted by the victims in his homicide cases. Inspector Ricardo Ramirez of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police returns in The Poisoned Pawn.
Ramirez is a wonderful guide — hiding nothing but hoping we’ll look past the poverty, hardship and political corruption to see the beauty and humanity of his battered city."
Trade paperback (Canada)
UK release!
Second in the series!
Norwegian edition!
German release!
Dutch version!
Czech release!
REVIEWS OF MIDNIGHT IN HAVANA!
Neville Moir, Publisher, Polygon
"I am a bit of a sucker for the weird and unusual and a taste of the exotic, so when I saw this script I sat up and took notice.
"Set in contemporary Havana, we are introduced to the major crime unit of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police led by an inspector who sees the ghosts of unsolved murder victims who in turn is assisted by a dwarf pathologist who needs a stepladder to be able to conduct his autopsies.
"Although handicapped by a creaking bureaucracy, intermittent internet and a lack of pencils, the policemen’s resourcefulness, dark subversive wit and profound intelligence more than compensate for these shortcomings.
"A compelling mystery with brilliant characters and a fantastic setting this is a spellbinding whodunnit. But above all a book of immense humanity."
Scotland on Sunday
“All the ingredients of the best detective novels."
Bookbag (UK)
“A thrilling and engrossing mystery that uses the intrigue of a communist Cuba setting to add not only an interesting backdrop but real jeopardy to the investigation. A fantastic start to what I hope will be a long series.”
Book Noir
"A poignant yet pacy mystery. The major, and the minor characters, leave the reader wanting more - in the best possible way."
The Killing Time
"Canadian author Peggy Blair's debut novel (originally published in Canada under the title The Beggars Opera) is a treat. It's a fast-moving, original and atmospheric mystery."
REVIEWS OF THE BEGGAR’S OPERA!
Booklist (starred review)
“A fine novel and the launch of what looks to be a superb series.”
Publishers Weekly
“Decaying but beautiful Havana provides the atmospheric backdrop for Blair’s absorbing debut.”
New York Post
“For mystery fans who need a break from both our winter weather and the proliferation of Nordic crime tales, here’s a first-time novelist introducing Inspector Ricardo Ramirez of the Major Crimes Unit of the Cuban National Police. Havana is as much a character as the people in Canadian author Blair’s fast-paced story.”
Mystery Tribune
“We highly recommend this book to the readers who love mysteries in exotic locales.”
Fresh Fiction, Texas
“A compelling mystery with flawed, haunted characters that reach beyond stereotypes. Poignant, carefully crafted, and hopeful, Peggy Blair has created a new series that is worth reading.”
Richmond Times Dispatch
“Readers will find themselves gripped by this smart novel as Blair combines a surprise-filled plot with well-drawn characters and lush details of Cuban life. A heady mix of deprivation and depravity, The Beggar’s Opera marks a promising start to a projected series.”
The National Post
“Compelling and convincing, a genuinely mysterious mystery that manages to both surprise and maintain its internal integrity.”
Quill and Quire
“An impressive police procedural, one that is as much about a detective facing his own dementia-induced demons as a country in the midst of political turmoil. The Beggar’s Opera was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association’s Debut Dagger Award, and it’s easy to see why.”
Toronto Star
“Quirky leads, an exotic setting, and not one, not two, but at least three twists at the end (saving the best for last). It’s a great start for the series.”
Winnipeg Free Press
“There are enough strong characters, dazzling locations and subplots in Blair’s book to sustain more than one season of thrillers.”
Vancouver Sun
“A fast-paced, well-plotted mystery set in Havana... One can only hope Blair, a lawyer for 30 years and former member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, continues her career as a crime writer as well as she has begun.”
The Chronicle-Journal
“The Beggar’s Opera sets the tone for a style that includes rapid plot developments and unexpected twists, with a dollop of social conscience thrown in for good measure.”
The Ottawa Citizen
“The Beggar’s Opera does not disappoint. It’s fast-paced, atmospheric, has unusual characters and delivers surprises right to the final pages.”
The Sherbrooke Record
“Blair nicely strings the reader along, casting doubt on what’s real and what’s imaginary, while serving up a tale that combines a penetrating commentary on Cuban life with a whodunit full of twists and turns.”
The Hamilton Spectator
“Full of atmosphere. The Beggar’s Opera is a debut novel with a twisted climax, revealing dialogue and astute social observation on how far apart we are from Cuba and yet how close.”
The Chronicle Herald
“A splendid fictional debut with the first in the Ramirez series…. Blair’s riveting, gritty tale is so realistic, it may give readers nightmares about landing in legal trouble while in another country.”
REVIEWS OF THE POISONED PAWN!
The National Post
“The story treads dark and nasty territory, but Blair sidesteps the impulse to wallow in graphic violence by sticking to her characters’ actions and motivations… The Poisoned Pawn shows there is a way to hold onto decency and humanity in the face of the worst criminality.”
Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
“If you, like me, somehow managed to miss Peggy Blair’s debut novel, The Beggar’s Opera, then you should read this second book and then run to get the first. Let’s hope there’s a third in the works.”
Chronicle-Journal
“The plot comes together nicely in a Hollywood-style ending, which extends from ordinary people with murderous intent to international conspiracies at the highest level.”
The Ottawa Citizen
“Blair’s experience in First Nations law comes shining through in this novel. But it’s the Cuban story that really makes it sing.”
Vancouver Sun
“Two crime novels. Two resounding successes. Canadian writer and lawyer Peggy Blair proves her debut novel, The Beggar’s Opera, acclaimed by readers and critics alike, was much, much more than beginner’s luck. Blair’s prose is evocative, nary a word amiss.”
Jack Batten, Whodunit, Sunday Star
“An affecting series … Even if impoverished and politically oppressed Havana presents unique burdens, Ramirez is not without a sense of humour as he goes about his clever sleuthing.”
New Brunswick Telegraph Journal
“The plot is intricate, intriguing and surprising. There is plenty of death – innocent, inadvertent, coolly calculated, retributive – and there is plenty of subtle strategizing as the stakes mount for both countries. We haven’t seen the last of Ramirez.”
Owen Sound Sun Times
“Blair has found a winner in crumbling old Havana with Ramirez, a man haunted both by his country and unsolved crimes."
Peggy Blair - Getting Published 