Book Details:
Genre: Mystery & Detective; Women Sleuths Published by: Witness Impulse Publication Date: 1/28/2014 Number of Pages: 384 ISBN: 9780062325631 Series: DI Geraldine Steel #3, Stand Alone Purchase Links:
Synopsis:
When headmistress Abigail Kirby’s corpse is discovered in the woods, police are shocked to learn that her tongue was cut out while she lay dying. Then, shortly after a witness comes forward, he is blinded and murdered. With mangled dead bodies appearing at an alarmingly increasing rate, Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel is in a race against time to find the killer before he claims his next victim....Read an excerpt:
Abigail Kirby lay on the table like a waxwork model, her face cleaned-up to reveal her square chin. Geraldine approached and forced herself to look at the victim's open mouth: between even teeth the stump of her tongue looked surprisingly neat. Abigail Kirby stared back as though in silent protest at this scrutiny. The pathologist looked up and Geraldine recognized the tall dark-haired medical examiner who had examined the body in the wood. 'Hello again Inspector. You'll forgive me if I don't shake hands.' Geraldine glanced down at his bloody gloves.Author Bio:
Leigh Russell studied at the University of Kent, gaining a Masters degree in English. For many years a secondary school English teacher, she is a creative writing tutor for adults. She is married, has two daughters, and lives in North West London. Her first novel, Cut Short, was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award in 2010. This was followed by Road Closed, Dead End, Death Bed, Stop Dead and Fatal Act, in the Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel series. Cold Sacrifice is the first title in a spin off series featuring Geraldine Steel's sergeant, Ian Peterson.
Interview
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1. What Geraldine Steel book do you think is the best?
Authors
sometimes compare being asked to pick favourites among their books as like
choosing one of their children over another - it's impossible! There is always
something exciting happening with one or other of my books. I heard this week
that the fifth title in the Geraldine Steel series has been nominated for the
People's Book Prize. This is an award where members of the public select the
winners, so it's a huge honour to be on the long list. Voting for Stop Dead
opens on 1st March and I'm hoping my fans will all rally round and vote!
2. Out of all the
other characters, why did you pick Ian?
There are a
number of reasons for writing a spin off series for Ian Peterson, the main ones
being that I like him as a character,
and he has become very popular with readers in his own right. The two series
are running in parallel, so I am now delivering two books a year which keeps me
busy!
3. Why do all your
titles have a synonym for dead except for Road Closed?
It's very
difficult thinking of titles. I'm not sure that my debut, Cut Short, has a
synonym for dead in the title, but all the other titles certainly do: Dead End,
Death Bed, Stop Dead, Fatal Act, Cold Sacrifice, and the next Ian Peterson,
Race to Death, which is out this year. I avoid titles that have been used
before by other authors, which restricts the options. To begin with, my
publisher thought it would be helpful to use words like dead in my titles, to
make it clear that the books are murder stories. Now that my name is better
known, in the UK at least, this isn't necessary. You know you have succeeded as
an author, when your publisher puts your name in huge letters on the front of
your books!
4. Who is your
favorite crime author?
This is another
impossible question, because there are so many excellent authors to choose
from. I have to mention the brilliant Jeffery Deaver who is a fan of my books,
"Leigh Russell is a brilliant talent in the thriller field", and
another first rate author in the US, Lee Child, "Leigh Russell is one to watch".Apart
from a few American favourites, including the inimitable Raymond Chandler, I
tend to read UK crime writers to avoid becoming confused about procedures... I
am easily confused and so spend a lot of time planning and revising my plots to
make sure all the details work out.
5. What would you
like my readers to know?
I would love to
introduce your readers to my detectives. Geraldine Steel is a female inspector
who is single and dedicated to her work. Although her main focus is always her
murder investigations, she would like to be in a relationship with a man. In
the first three books, she works with her sergeant Ian Peterson. When Geraldine
relocates to London in Death Bed, Ian starts on his own series independent of
Geraldine. He moves to the historic English city of York where some of the
buildings date back to the thirteenth century. Readers can find out more about
both of them by reading the books, which are all page turning murder mysteries.
They can also meet Geraldine Steel on her facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Geraldine-Steel-British-detective/713349595357054?ref=ts&fref=ts
A terrific interview with this author! Thanks so much for introducing her to us here.
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