Please
welcome author J. J. Hensley to the blog today. He has a new book out, Record
Scratch, which is the second book in his Trevor Galloway Series. The new book
picks up a few months after Bolt Action
Remedy ended. I have been reading a lot of positive reviews for the new
book and that includes this recent review
by David Nemeth over at his site, Unlawful Acts.
Reading, Promoting, And More with J. J. Hensley
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| Trevor Galloway Series #2 |
Like most writers, I read. Actually,
I read a lot. To be more accurate, I read and listen a lot. I always have one
book waiting for me on my bed stand and an audiobook loaded on my cell phone.
So, at night I might be reading an old Jonathan Kellerman paperback and during
my commute I could be listening to Jennifer Hillier’s Jar of Hearts. I’m pretty
much hooked on mysteries and thrillers, so the odds are a soft romance isn’t
playing through my headphones when I’m in the gym and I usually don’t have anything
dealing with killer robots on my Kindle. Well… I do have a seven-year-old, so
there is a Transformers game on there and I hear a lot of explosions coming
from the ol’ e-reader. So, I suppose there are actually killer robots on my
Kindle.
Thus far, 2018 has been a great year
for mysteries and thrillers. Admittedly, I’m not awesome at keeping up with the
latest and greatest and I’ll often ignore the hype surrounding new books,
especially those published by one of the Big Five publishers. But several books,
both big and small press, hyped and non-hyped, have stuck with me in a positive
way over the past few months. I’m just as excited about what’s on my “to be
read” list for the remainder of this year and the first part of 2019!
To recap some of my
recent adventures in fiction:
“Oh,
you just have to read The Force, by
Don Winslow. It’s so good.”
“Don
Winslow’s latest book is the bomb!”
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.
I put this one off for a quite a while.
It’s a big press book that gets lots of media attention which means marketing
money gets tossed into the ring. If you’re like me and you go through a book
every week or two, you learn marking buzz doesn’t always equate to quality. I
also wasn’t excited about this book because I’m typically not blown away by
police procedurals and I end up picking them apart because of my background in
law enforcement. Then, a writer friend of mine whose opinion I trust told me I
really need to check it out. Reluctantly, I did. Of course, then I was mad at
myself for not reading it sooner. It’s gripping. And I’m completely aware when
any author uses the word “gripping” it sounds like a lame attempt at a cool
blurb, but that’s the word that comes to mind. The Force was certainly one of
the better books I read this year.
Earlier, I hinted I’m not much of a
science fiction guy. Well, if anyone could convert me it’s Tom Sweterlitsch. I
liked his first novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow. But, I LOVED The
Gone World when I read it a few months ago. It’s got everything I don’t
want in a novel. Time travel, futuristic inventions, other worlds—but, THIS…
BOOK…IS… AWESOME. I thought about this book long after I turned the last page.
In the interest of full disclosure, I know Tom. In fact, Tom helped drive the
direction of my novel Record Scratch and I named a
character in the book after him. However, if his book was mediocre then I would
have plugged something else into this post and that would have been the end of
it. Believe me. You’ll want to check out this book.
An author whose work I’d wanted to
read, and finally did, is Joe Clifford. I picked up his novel Lamentation and it didn’t disappoint. I’m already
anxious to read more of Joe’s work because I can tell it’s going to have a lot
of the elements I like in mysteries.
Lamentation had an imperfect protagonist, a slew of shady characters, and
there is something authentic about Joe’s work. If you’re a reader who needs a
knight in shining armor as the main character, then this book may not be for
you. However, if you want something that lends itself more toward gritty
reality than fantasy, then give this one a shot.
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| Trevor Galloway Series #1 |
My To-Do List:
My list of books to be read is
extensive, but I have some highlights. I’m crazy excited for E.A. Aymar’s The
Unrepentant. This book isn’t out until March 2019, but promises to have
a dark side and work in a little comedy. I know Aymar, so I would expect
nothing less.
A while back, I read Shannon Kirk’s
book Method
15/33 and was blown away. She has a sequel coming out and the English
edition doesn’t have a title yet so I’ll just call it Shannon’s Psychotic Sequel. I had gone into Method 15/33 thinking the book was going to be the typical girl gets abducted and either struggles to
escape or waits to be rescued type thriller. It was something much, much
more devious and it was wonderful. The sequel promises to be unpredictable in
all the right ways.
I’m so far behind on my list and I’m
kicking myself because I still haven’t read Silent Hearts by Gwen
Florio. I absolutely loved Florio’s Lola Wick’s series, and I know this
deviation into a tale of two women caught up in the Afghan War. Florio is a
journalist and has spent time in that region and she brings realism to all of
her novels. Silent Hearts will be no different.
In between reading these great
books, I’m out promoting my new novel Record Scratch and working feverishly on my next Trevor Galloway mystery, Forgiveness
Dies on the Vine. The best part of having a great reading list is it
sets the bar high for what an author wants to achieve in one’s own work. With
this list, the bar is set pretty damn high.
J. J. Hensley ©2018
J.J. Hensley is a former police officer and
former Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service. Hensley is the author of the
crime novels RESOLVE, MEASURE TWICE, CHALK'S OUTLINE, BOLT
ACTION REMEDY, RECORD SCRATCH, and several short
stories. He is originally from Huntington, WV and currently resides near
Savannah, Georgia. You can learn more about the author and his books by
visiting his website http://www.hensley-books.com/
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