Monday, March 26, 2012

March Madness: March 25th Welcomes Bill Kirton author of "The Sparrow Conundrum" & "Unsafe Acts"




March Madness for March 25th Welcomes Author BILL KIRTON  with two books to win "The Sparrow Conundrum" and "Unsafe Acts."

Author Bio: 
I’m never sure whether or why readers want to know stuff about the writer. The main thing is to enjoy the books and, if that happens, it doesn’t matter whether I’m a 98 year old man with a penchant for growing cauliflowers or an evangelically-inclined teenage mother of twins.

 For the record though, I was born in Plymouth but have lived most of my life in Aberdeen, Scotland. I taught French at Aberdeen University but I’ve always been a writer. In the early days it was radio plays for the BBC, then skits and songs which I performed with my wife at the Edinburgh Festival fringe. I’ve always written short stories but started writing novels in the late 80s. Unsafe Acts is the fifth in my Jack Carston series so, technically, I’m a crime writer. In turn, that means when I write a historical novel such as The Figurehead or a spoof such as The Sparrow Conundrum, readers are taken by surprise. Some don’t like that; others, thankfully, are more forgiving. The thing is, I like to try different genres. If you want to know more about my books, there’s plenty on my website (www.bill-kirton.co.uk) and in my blog (http://livingwritingandotherstuff.blogspot.com/).


 Unsafe Acts
An offshore platform in the turbulent North Sea is a dangerous place…

…there’s the isolation, the machinery and the constant battle with the whims of nature. For Ally Baxter, a safety officer on Falcon Alpha, those whims take a deadly turn. When his workmates decide he’s gay, an evening ashore turns ugly as they indulge in some drunken queer-bashing. Later his body is found along the route the group followed.

For DCI Jack Carston, the case seems simple enough until a second murder is discovered. This time it’s the prostitute Ally always visited—a young mother with a baby son. Complications mount as Carston, in addition to his investigations, has to deal with an inexperienced officer under his command and a disciplinary charge brought against Carston himself by a vindictive superior officer.

The obstacles keep piling up, but more is to come when he finds evidence of a plot to wreck the platform itself.

Links:



 The Sparrow Conundrum
Winner of the Humor category in the 2011 Forward National Literature Awards.

Chris Machin isn’t his name, not to the bottom feeders in Aberdeen squabbling over North Sea oil and gas contracts. Chris has a code name, and when his garden explodes The Sparrow takes flight, plunging the power struggle into chaos and violence.

A sociopathic cop and an interfering ex-girlfriend don’t exactly make for clarity of thinking, not when the one fancies a bit of violence to add spice to an arrest. The ex adds other, more interesting dimensions to Chris’ already complicated life.

The bodies pile up—some whole, some in fragments—and two wrestlers join the fray. A road trip seems just the solution, but then so do Inverness, a fishing trawler and a Russian factory ship as the players face … The Sparrow Conundrum.

Review
... combines the elements of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe with The Biederbecke Affair and throws in Happer from Local Hero for good measure. It is killingly funny, and for those who love farce—from Scapin to Noises Off—this is utterly brilliant, divine, and classic, and couldn’t be bettered.
M.M. Bennetts, author of May 1812 and Of Honest Fame
Links



Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning these books!

PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host Soooz Burke under her pen name of Stacey Danson.."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

Please leave an email or link address where you can be notified if you should win the prize draw.

5 comments:

  1. Pick me, pick me. I've read a few of Bill's books, but not 'Unsafe Acts'. It looks a great read. Being on a drilling platform in the North Atlantic is almost as isolated as being on a moon base.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, pick me! Pick me! I haven't read any of Bill's books, but
    'Unsafe Acts' sounds great. Probably the humour book as well, but I'm afraid I have a strong tendency to yawn over humour books, and when tells me a joke, I quite often miss it. Thrillers for me, please.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I, unlike Marj, love funny books – and if, as the review says, this is anything like the Biederbecke Affair, which I remember with great affection, then I know I'd love it. Everything Bill Kirton writes is immensely readable.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Gerry. And thanks, Soooz, for the invitation. And no, I'm not leaving this comment in the hope I'll win one of the books.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you folks for participating.

    Names are in the hat....and...

    Congratulations Greta van Der Rol you have won both "Unsafe Acts" and "The Sparrow Conumdrum"
    They will be on their way to you soon.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a comment/review on any of the stories/poems contributed.