Binary Witness by Rosie Claverton Giveaway & Excerpt & Interview

Witness

by Rosie Claverton

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BLURB:

Police detectives rely on Amy Lane to track the digital debris of their most elusive criminals--when she's not in the throes of a panic attack. After two students disappear in Cardiff, Amy uncovers photographic evidence that they've been murdered. From the safety of her computer, she looks through the city's digital eyes to trace the steps of a killer.

Amy's investigation requires footwork, however, and the agoraphobic genius can't hack it alone. She turns to her newly-hired cleaner, ex-con Jason Carr. Jason is fascinated by both Amy and the work, and can't refuse even when she sends him into situations that risk returning him to prison.

The killer strikes again and again, and Amy and Jason are the only investigators closing in on him. But Amy's psyche is cracking under the strain, and Jason's past is catching up with him. To stop the next murder, they must hold their unconventional partnership together at any cost.

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Excerpt

#1: Jason meets Amy

The air was stale, like the old attic at his nan’s house. Beneath his feet, the carpet was dusty and covered in what looked like wood chippings. The hallway opened out to the left to reveal the living room, with decent furniture gone bad, dirty and worn.

“Hello?” Jason ventured farther into the flat and tried to get his heart rate down. And then he saw her.

The first impression he had was of metal—three flatscreen monitors, surrounded by computer towers and metal boxes, two keyboards, and wires taped haphazardly to the marked grey walls. Before this shrine to technology, a young woman sat in a high-backed office chair, typing on one of the keyboards. She was slight, drowning in loose casual clothes that had seen better days. Her hair was long, thick with grease and tied in a rough ponytail, and her skin was sallow, as if she hadn’t seen the sun or a steak for several weeks. She was also steadfastly ignoring him.

“So…um…where do you want me to start?” Jason said with as much cheer as he could muster. Her fingers never slowed on the keys, typing faster than he could keep up with, adding to the random words strung together with symbols on her computer screen. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

“Do what you like.” The voice was barely audible, a cracked whisper that only just reached him over the clacking keys. She sounded rusty, as if she only spoke twice a week, and he decided he was unlikely to get any further conversation out of her. No wonder her sister was in Australia.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Bio

Rosie Claverton grew up in Devon, daughter to a Sri Lankan father and a Norfolk mother, surrounded by folk mythology and surly sheep. She moved to Cardiff to study Medicine and adopted Wales as her home. Her short film "Dragon Chasers" aired on BBC Wales in Autumn 2012. Her debut novel Binary Witness is due for publication by Carina Press in 2014. Currently exiled to London, she lives with her journalist husband and their pet hedgehog.

Interview:

1.       Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?

Binary Witness is the first book I've put out for publication – I was lucky to find my perfect publisher match for it! I have a couple of other finished manuscripts, which I set aside some years ago, and a couple more works-in-progress. Of the WIPs, there is an alternate history novel that I would really love to finish one day. For that story, I invented a new island with a unique religion, culture and language, which has subsequently integrated into the UK. I describe it in my head and on my blog as "Overambitious Island" and I think that explains why it's still in-progress!

2.       Can you tell us about your upcoming book?

Binary Witness is about Amy Lane, an agoraphobic hacker, and her assistant/cleaner/skivvy Jason Carr, a streetwise ex-con and trouble magnet. Their first case together is hunting down a serial killer in Cardiff. Binary Witness is the first book in The Amy Lane Mysteries and the second book Code Runner is out in September 2014.

3.       Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?

The opening chapter is particularly personal. I lived in the house described and the terror of taking out the rubbish was a weekly ordeal. When I told my former housemate about the book's opening, she told me that she always listened out for me just in case something terrible happened! There are a number of other locations that I or my friends lived in during our time in Cardiff, and I worked at University Hospital of Wales for a while, so I picked up a lot of details. I chose to set the series in Cardiff because it's my spiritual home and I know the city's nooks and crannies.

4.       What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

In Chapter 39, Jason goes hunting for one of their suspects in a dodgy part of town. However, the suspect's gang gets tipped off and Jason is whacked about the head. Before the boys can come back to interrogate him, Jason manages to call Amy. And all she can do is call the police – and wait. And panic. Hearing Jason down the end of the phone line – until the phone is destroyed. It's a really tense sequence from both perspectives and I really loved writing it. I'm a sucker for hurting my characters and making them suffer. It makes the resolution much more satisfying.

5.       How did you come up with the title?

The title was a team effort at Carina Press! The working title for the manuscript was Ctrl+Alt+Del, combining the stalker and computer themes, but my editor Deb Nemeth rightly pointed out that it wasn't very search engine-friendly. I therefore went through a Title Worksheet process, which is a grand way of saying I listed lots of themes and conflicts and settings for the books and then generated a list of titles. I've always fancied myself quite good with titles, but I had to do this twice, so maybe I'm not so hot! Binary Witness was the undisputed winner and I've completely fallen in love with it.

Links

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/binarywitness

Series website: http://amylanemysteries.com

Blog: http://rosieclaverton.com

Twitter: @rosieclaverton

Buy links

Carina Press: http://ebooks.carinapress.com/C201085F-A673-4637-9FE4-92797F810A16/10/134/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=56A8976A-6D11-4D4A-9091-5842C3F50A92

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I66AA3W

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/binary-witness-rosie-claverton/1118476689?ean=9781426898334

Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Rosie_Claverton_Binary_Witness?id=uAjGAgAAQBAJ

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/binary-witness/id827450508?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Rosie will be awarding to randomly drawn winners during the tour one of the following items: a "@" pendant, an engraved Floppy Disk Keyring, a Cardiff City Typographic Mug,a £10 Amazon voucher, 3 Binary Witness ebooks.

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: 

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-book-tour-binary-witness-by.html

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