Red on the Menu Blurb:

I've been unexpectedly delayed completing The Red Menace #5, Red on the Menu, but I managed today to carve out a few minutes for the back cover blurb:

HOLD THE PICKLE, HOLD THE HOMICIDE!

Something fishy is going on at famous Franklin Morrow's Restaurants. Why is the most successful chain of eateries in the U.S. suddenly catering to the murder and mayhem crowd, and who exactly is the mysterious man in the ten gallon hat with an all-you-can eat appetite for death and destruction?

All signs point to something big and bad being served up soon, but the CIA, FBI and Pentagon are all out to lunch, leaving only one of America's intelligence agencies to chew around the edges of a vast and horrifying terror plot.

When one body too many surfaces, MIC Director Simon Kirk has finally had a bellyful of bad bistro news and decides that someone is in need of some just desserts. And, of course, who else but Podge Becket and the brilliant Dr. Thaddeus Wainwright would be dispatched to act as the ultimate antacid?

As always, how does America spell relief? R-E-D M-E-N-A-C-E!

Late Night TV Hosts

Everybody talks about all these late night TV hosts like they aren't awful. Well, they are. All of them for the past twenty-plus years were and are terrible, except one. The one exception gets very little notice and is laugh out loud funny, and if I were an insomniac or a maniac with a fetish for pantomime horses I would watch him every night. Craig Ferguson is easily the #1 guy in late night. He can make me laugh while the others can't even get me to smile.

More than halfway through writing the latest Red Menace, "Red on the Menu." Just read a line of dialogue I forgot I wrote while exhausted late last night that made me laugh out loud, which is always a nice surprise. If you aren't yet acquainted with the Red Menace, what's wrong with you? Any of the books will do for a start. Here's a good one: 

A Red Letter Day (The Red Menace #4)

New Review for Sea No Evil

Thanks, Julia Hopkinson, for your review of Sea No Evil at Readers' Favorites.

On Sale at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords

Importance of Reviews

I just wrote a great big February newsletter filling in subscribers on the importance of Amazon reviews. I figured The Red Menace and Crag Banyon pages would be the best place to find the biggest fans. I'll post this to both pages.

In a nutshell, Amazon reviews make or break a series. You might think that books from your favorite authors will keep going on without your help. They might not. This isn't the old days, with series books clogging the shelves of the corner bookstore. A couple of minutes of your time over on Amazon could mean the difference between life and death for The Red Menace and Crag Banyon. It really is that simple.

If you've read and enjoyed only the most recent books -- A Red Letter Day or Bum Luck -- or just the first books in each series -- Red and Buried or One Horse Open Slay -- it doesn't matter. Review one book, review them all. Obviously I'd prefer all, but, hey, I'll take what I can get. I need your help, folks, and so do Podge Becket & Dr. Wainwright and Banyon, Mannix, Doris and all the rest. If you wait, you'll forget, do it now. Thanks in advance.

Thanks to K.S. Brooks and the folks at Indies Unlimited for featuring my latest Banyon Mystery, Bum Luck, in their Fun Titles for February post.

Bum Luck Cover

The cover of Bum Luck (the Crag Banyon Mysteries #5) is finished.  Thanks for the great job, Micah Birchfield: