Huntress series sale, new release, and news!

Happy almost Halloween/Dia de los Muertos!

This post about my new release in the Huntress series is just a bit late because, well - I got married this week. To my partner in crime and in life, bestselling Scottish Noir author Craig Robertson.

The ceremony was in Los Angeles, a gorgeous and magical production put together at pretty much the speed of light by my closest actor, writer, director, production designer – and Buddhist scholar/minister! - friends whom I’ve known since we performed together in the theater department at Berkeley. We danced down the aisle to Dean Martin, nearly got a reason that we should not be joined that turned into a fantastic performance of my favorite Shakespeare sonnet, murdered a wedding cake - and promised to love till death us do part. 

So there’s the happily ever after I know some of you want! On to more bloody business.

                                          OUT NOW!

Join haunted Special Agent Matthew Roarke and his FBI team on the hunt for that most rare of killers... a female serial.  

Reminder: this series is chronological and is meant to be read in order, starting with Huntress Moon. 

So my publisher has made Huntress Moon free to read for Amazon Prime members. 

And all four previous books are also on sale for $1.99 US, 99p UK, and 1.49 AU on Kindle - so all of you can catch up!

If you buy the Kindle versions, you can also add RC Bray’s fantastic, award-winning narration for just $3.99, a great Audible bargain.

And in case you hadn’t heard, I’m very excited to report that this Thriller Award-nominated series is now in active development for television. I'm attached as executive producer and have written the pilot. But that’s going to be a whole other newsletter. One thing at a time.

 

                                                            ---- SPOILERS ----

In the new book, Roarke and his FBI team are forced to confront the new political reality when they are pressured to investigate a series of mysterious threats vowing death to college rapists... while deep in the Arizona wilderness, mass killer Cara Lindstrom is fighting a life-and-death battle of her own.

For thousands of years, women have been prey.

No more. 

CONTENT WARNING:

So let me be very clear about this aspect of the book.

Let's look at the Hunger Moon early reviews so far: 

-       Netgalley and Goodreads: almost entirely 4-5 star except for one 1-star

-       UK Amazon reviews: 100% 5-star. 

-       US Amazon reviews: split exactly down the middle: fifty percent 5-star, and fifty percent 1-star

It’s pretty safe to say from this sampling that if you're somehow still a Trump supporter, you will NOT like this book. It’s very strange for me to have to say that, because the series is and very clearly has been from the outset, about a woman who kills sexual predators.

What is truly surprising is that these readers claim they didn't find any of the previous books political.

This just floors me.

OF COURSE the Huntress books are political. They’re an exploration and indictment of what are to me the greatest atrocities in the world, specifically rape culture and child abuse. The books couldn't be more political. It really makes me wonder what these people thought they were reading.

I'm also not surprised, but always shocked, when people say they read the Huntress series as "an escape." Reading about sexual predators, child abusers, human traffickers, and serial killers is an escape? Really? I don’t know - personally I prefer the beach. Or dancing. Or yoga. Or spending time with friends. Or if escape is all I want from a book, I tend to choose one that is not about sexual predators. There is way too much of that around me in real life.

But that’s exactly why I write this series. To change that.

I have always honestly expected ALL the books to be disturbing and provocative, not "an escape."

I've always intended this series to spark a dialogue about the atrocity of rape culture, how it affects women, children, and men - and to ask readers to think about real life solutions to this horrific social, legal and spiritual problem.

I base all the crimes, predators, social and legal failings I depict in the books on real-life crimes, real-life predators, and real-life laws and failings of the legal and social services system. There is nothing about any of the books that is NOT political. 

In Hunger Moon I deal squarely with the repercussions on my characters – and on the world - of having a self-admitted sexual predator in the White House. (You remember the video. Who could ever forget it?). The characters are dealing with the new reality that this predator is appointing cabinet members and judges and determining policy. 

How could anyone who has read the other books have expected me NOT to write from that political reality? 

But if that “Bush and Trump on the bus” tape doesn’t horrify and anger you, then I strongly suspect my new book will. 

So you’ve been warned.

But you know what? We have to talk about it. Because if we don’t, then rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, child abuse, and all the other atrocities of rape culture will just go on, and on, and on.

Enough.

-       Alex