Hannah HoweNew Covers – Book One – Sam’s Song
My books are no longer available as eBooks from Amazon. This is because Amazon claim that the margins are a fraction too big, even though the books met their specifications when initially submitted. Amazon like narrow margins because it means more words per page and subsequently less money for the author when books are read through KDP Select. Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Gardners, Smashwords and iBooks have no problem with my books and they are available through them. This is yet another example of Amazon’s unfriendly approach to authors as they attempt to squeeze every penny from them. I will not reformat my books for the sake of a couple of millimetres to suit Amazon on a matter of principle and because I have better things to do with my time. The eBooks are available from the outlets mentioned above and the print versions are available from all major retailers.
Mansel Jones, a fellow author, wrote the following in response to Amazon’s stance. I think his words are rather poetic and I place them here with his permission.
Amazon is like one of those infuriating answering machines…press one for this, press two for that, press twenty for the other. And by the time you get to twenty you discover that you have to go back to one again and a conversation that should have taken ten seconds has lasted fifteen minutes and you still haven’t said what you wanted to say. With books their computer says…you must have ten words a line (for example). Instead you have nine. But the computer insists that you must have ten. So it withdraws your book, overlooking the fact that those nine words are of quality and help to tell an enthralling story. The computer says you must have ten. The computer must be obeyed. Amazon must be obeyed. And then they send out a garbled automated message that contradicts itself every other line. Meanwhile, a chimpanzee is bashing away ten words a line on a keyboard, producing garbled English and a plot full of holes. But never mind, the story is full of distasteful people doing distasteful things to people who are vulnerable through disability, so that’s entertaining, isn’t it. And the chimpanzee has friends in the publishing industry who are incestuously cosy with Amazon so the book is bound to become a bestseller. And it contains the magic ingredient, ten words a line. What would George Orwell make of all this? What would any sensible person make of all this? Sensible people read books for the words, not for the margins, unless they have bought a modern bestseller by mistake and discover that the margins are the most entertaining part. Publish and be damned, they say. Publish nine words a line and be damned, I say. And be proud that those nine words a line say more than any bestseller could ever say.
Meanwhile, I have received this wonderful five-star review for Ripper.
Highly recommended to fans of the mystery/crime thriller genre and especially the sub genre of Private Investigators.
This is Sam Smith’s 4th case of the series and my firm favourite (to date!). With all the main characters introduced in previous books this book jumps straight into the action as Sam tackles the case of Cardiff Jack. In solving the case she uncovers some truths that will have a deep and lasting impact on her future.
The book maintains the high standard of the previous books. I have mentioned the strengths of this series in previous reviews so I’ll just give a quick re-cap. The central character is an intriguing, complex and very likeable character. The setting of Cardiff is very well described and comes to life as a distinctive character in its own right. The deceptively simple writing style has a natural flow and is a pleasure to read.
The author has achieved something rather special in this series and completely avoids an increasingly popular technique of cliff hangers which I personally hate. Each book relates to a central case that Sam Smith is investigating. At the end of each book not only is the case solved but as each case impacts on Sam Smith’s life and/or perceptions in some way there is the additional resolution of side issues which gives a satisfying and rounded ending. At the same time each book reveals a new layer to the main characters and their relationships with one another which gives a sense of a different level of character development across the whole series.
Great read. Looking forward to the next one.
Happy Easter,
Hannah xxx
Mr Bazalgette’s Agent is the first British detective novel to feature a professional female detective. Written by Leonard Merrick and published in July 1888, Mr Bazalgette’s Agent slipped into obscurity partly because the author disliked the book and set about buying and destroying all the copies he could lay his hands on. However, despite the occasional use of words that we now find offensive, history has been kinder to the story and the book is now regarded as a novel of some worth.
Mr Bazalgette’s Agent chronicles the adventures of twenty-eight-year-old Miriam Lea. Unemployed, Miss Lea responds to an advertisement placed by Mr Alfred Bazalgette’s private detective agency. She secures a position with the agency and her first task is to find Mr Jasper Vining, a banker’s clerk, who has absconded with a large sum of money. The trail leads to Europe and the diamond mines of South Africa, familiar territories to the author, Leonard Merrick.
Leonard Merrick was born in London in February 1864 as Leonard Miller. His family were prosperous and young Leonard enjoyed a privileged education. In his late teens Leonard Miller changed his name to Merrick when he embarked on a career as an actor. The profession did not satisfy him so he turned to writing. His first novel, Mr Bazalgette’s Agent, was not a critical or commercial success. Even so, he persevered eventually achieving success and the accolade ‘the novelist’s novelist’, offered by J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan. Despite receiving rewards and accolades, Leonard Merrick was admired more by his fellow writers than by the public, which is something many authors of today can identify with.
Van der Valk
Van der Valk first appeared on British television in 1972. The series was based on the novels written by Nicolas Freeling, although individual episodes were created by other authors. In the books Nicolas Freeling allows Van der Valk to talk and think in untranslated French, which can be a challenge for non-French speakers, and his views can come across as bombastic and opinionated at times. Sceptical and cynical about bureaucracy and officialdom, Van der Valk also has compassion, especially for the young who find themselves in trouble.
In the television series Barry Foster took the lead role as Commissaris “Piet” van der Valk and he was supported by Michael Latimer, who played Inspecteur Johnny Kroon. Regular characters also appeared in the series; however, these characters were played by a variety of actors because Van der Valk had three incarnations: the first series, of six episodes, was aired in the autumn of 1972 and a second series of seven episodes followed in 1973. The second incarnation was produced four years later when twelve episodes were broadcast in the autumn of 1977. A break of nearly fourteen years then ensued before Van der Valk was revived once more, this time in the form of four two-hour episodes, broadcast in January and February 1991, and three two-hour episodes, aired in February 1992. Personally, I think the first series and the last two films are the highpoints of Van der Valk’s run.
Van der Valk highlights a perennial problem for authors – what do you do with the detective’s spouse. Quite often the detective is male and the spouse is female and she is left with the role of cooking dinners for the detective that he has no time to eat because he is too busy crime-busting. A solution to this problem is to ensure that the detective-spouse relationship develops over the series and that the non-detective character has a strong part to play in the emotional and/ or criminal aspect of the story. This engages the character in the series and the readers with the character. To its credit at least Van der Valk gave its detective a family background, which is after all closer to reality than many of the detectives portrayed in film and literature.
Available now at the special pre-order price of £0.99/$0.99, Family Honour, the latest Sam Smith Mystery, an intense psychological tale wrapped in a moral dilemma.
When the biggest villain in the country makes you an offer you can’t refuse, what should you do? In my case, I decided to accept that offer, made by Mr Vincent Vanzetti. Vanzetti hired me to find his missing daughter, Vittoria, while threatening reprisals should I fail in my task. While searching for Vittoria, I had to deal with the other members of the Vanzetti clan: Sherri, Vanzetti’s second wife, at twenty-two the same age as Vittoria. Sherri was an ‘actress’, a porn star with ambitions to appear on Reality TV; Catrin, Vanzetti’s granite-hard ex-wife, the power behind his criminal empire; and V.J. Parks, Vittoria’s boyfriend, a boxer, a young man in his prime, in training for a shot at the world title.
Meanwhile, closer to home, it was decision time for yours truly and my lover, Dr Alan Storey. Alan was keen on marriage while I was still coming to terms with my past and years of physical abuse. Could I find the courage to finally lay the ghosts of my past and pledge my future to Alan?
Family Honour, the story of a villain and his family, the story of a moral dilemma. Should I kill in the name of justice, or should I allow a villain to walk free? In answering that question I discovered a lot about myself and the person I longed to be.
Hannah Howe