Book One in the Bobby Greco thriller series is FREE right now on Amazon (from May 9th through 13th, 2022).
In One is Evil, Bobby takes on Armand Cortez, a ruthless international arms dealer. And if you think Cortez is rotten to the core, his partner and her daughter are equally as despicable. This one has some twists that I bet you won’t see coming.
FREE for a few days only (May 6th – May 11th, 2022), on Amazon – the winner of the International Thriller Writers 2021 Best Ebook award. A Killing Game is a crime thriller set in Boston and Book One in the Curtis Westcott series. Westcott is pushed to the edge as he hunts a killer who has abducted Renee Charlesbois and is intent on killing her – when and how his game allows. The clues are there, but Westcott needs to decipher them quickly in order to save Renee. A race – right to the last page.
Just thought I’d put together a quick blog to let everyone know that A Killing Game will be free on Amazon for the next couple of days. This is a good one – a week ago it won the International Thriller Writers 2021 Best Original Ebook award.
So, back to the free book thing, here’s how it works. When a book is exclusive to Amazon, they allow the author to give it away for 5 days during each 90 day period. Which begs the question – Why would I give away a book that took me a year to write (and rewrite)?
Simple – A Killing Game is the first installment of the Curtis Westcott series, set in Boston. Mystery, thriller, and suspense readers love getting to know the characters in a series (think Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch character), and if they enjoy the first book they will likely head back to Amazon and pick up the rest of the books in the series. This is timely for me right now as the second Westcott book, The Wrong Side of Murder, is being released on Amazon next week.
The giveaways really work – on Friday the 16th A Killing Game reached #2 on Amazon in the US for both Police Procedurals and Suspense, two very competitive categories. It’s doing well in Canada, UK, and Australia as well.
So, why this blog?
Maybe you’re ready for an edge-of-your-seat ride, and you likely have friends who enjoy thrillers as well. So, with that in mind, I’ve included a link that you can share however you like (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or by forwarding this email), to anyone you think might like a free book.
Here’s the link, and happy reading. I hope you enjoy meeting Curtis, Aislinn, and Stan.
Jeff
We are THRILLED to announce that “A Killing Game” written by Jeff Buick has been chosen as the International Thriller Writers Best Original Ebook for 2021!
I’m excited to announce that A Killing Game has made the short list for one of the most prestigious awards given to thriller writers, the 2021 Thriller Awards (International Thriller Writers).
My readers are the reason I keep writing. A big thank you to all of you.
What a thrill to be included with such an incredible group of writers.
BEST E-BOOK ORIGINAL NOVEL TOP 5
Sean Black – AVENUE OF THIEVES (Sean Black)
Jeff Buick – A KILLING GAME (Novel Words)
Diane Capri – FULL METAL JACK (AugustBooks)
Jake Needham – MONGKOK STATION (Half Penny)
Kirk Russell – NO HESITATION (Strawberry Creek)
Wishing everyone luck this July when the winner will be chosen!
Coming soon! Book 2 in the Curtis Westcott series is set to be released soon, stay tuned for more details on the fast-paced procedural that shines the spotlight on Detective Aislinn Byrne.
The opening scene from the movie Saving Private Ryan is horrific. Spielberg meant it to be. It shows the awful truth of war.
The viewer is in a small landing craft packed with men approaching the Normandy coast on D-Day. One man leans over and vomits. All of them look serious, worried, scared. Someone yells out to get ready and the heavy steel door drops into the water.
Freeze the frame.
One of the young men in the front row of the boat was eighteen. It wasn’t so long ago he was a tiny baby, the absolute joy of his parents’ lives. He learned to crawl, then to walk, then to talk. He got sick and his mom sat up with him at night and nursed him back to health. He showed up for his first day of school, scared and unsure. School was fun and he worked hard on his studies. He was good at math and one of the teachers sat down with him and suggested he may go on to university some day.
A girl caught his eye and they went on a date. He got up the courage to ask her to prom and she said yes. The picture of him in his suit, with his date on his arm, is on the family mantle. He’s smiling, happy, with his whole life ahead of him.
Then the war happened. He enlisted the moment he was of age and started basic training. It was hell. The drill sergeant ran the new guys ragged. They crawled through mud with live fire inches over their helmets. They dug into foxholes and slept in wet clothes. They learned to strip down their rifle, clean it and be ready to fire in minutes. They spent months getting ready to kill.
The word came down that they were shipping out. He was lucky and got a quick visit with his parents before he left. His mother stood on the platform, tears in her eyes as he assured her he would remember to duck. Then the train left and he was gone.
Play the movie.
The steel door dropped into the surf and a machine gun in a pillbox on the French coastline opened fire. The high-caliber slugs tore into the men in the front row and they were dead on their feet. Their bodies fell forward into the churning water and the men behind them took the next round of bullets. They fell and so did the men behind them. Then a few soldiers managed to clamor over the pile of bodies and jump into the water. Most of them were hit and sunk into the ocean. A few made it to the beach, where artillery and bullets continued slamming down.
That…is the truth of war. Spielberg gave it to us, frame by frame.
But it’s what is behind that moment that’s so shocking. Every one of the men who died on that beach that day had a family who loved him, maybe even a girl to go home to. They had a life to live, and that got torn from them.
This is what goes through my head when I have to kill someone in my books. I write thrillers, and homicide is a big part of what all three of my series deal with. Murder, to me, is the ultimate crime. The bad guys deserve to get caught.
I write thrillers, but I don’t like killing people.
It was an absolute thrill to be interviewed by Clancy Tucker. Find out the 43 questions he asked me about, everything from what pisses me off to the last sentence I would write. Read the full interview on his blog here:
Jeff Buick – Guest Author Interview
A bit about Clancy Tucker:
Clancy Tucker writes young adult fiction for reluctant readers but has also achieved success as a poet and photographer. Clancy has lived in four countries, speaks three languages, has photography accepted and published in books in the USA (Innocent Dreams, Endless Journeys & A Trip Down Memory Lane), used as covers for magazines (‘The Australian Writer’ – 2008 & ‘Victorian Writer – 2008), has work registered with the International Library of Photography, published in literary magazines and he’s written more than 90 short stories.
Clancy’s Website: http://clancytucker.com.au/
Clancy’s Blog: http://clancytucker.blogspot.com/
I write three series and all of them involve murder and cops. It happened naturally enough, like osmosis, and wasn’t something I intentionally set out to do. So I sat down one day and asked myself why this was.
One thing came to mind – murder.
Murder is the ultimate crime. There’s nothing more valuable you can steal from a person than their life. The thought of being brutally murdered is terrifying and there’s an immediate demand that the person responsible be caught and punished.
What if they get away with it?
That line crashes around in my head from time to time and the images roll. Some bad guy pulls a gun and squeezes the trigger and I go down in a heap. He rolls me over, grabs my wallet and rifles through it, takes the cash and leaves me on the pavement. I’m dying and he’s getting away. No witnesses, no clues, just a body in a back alley and a thin file on a homicide cop’s desk.
I had a life. I learned to walk, went to school, had my first kiss, graduated and went to the prom. I fell in love and got hurt, got back up and took another hit. I had kids and tried to be the best dad I could. I worked hard, provided for my family and obeyed the law. I had a life, and this guy took it.
I want justice. I want this guy to get caught and pay the price. Maybe that’s why I created these three guys.
AJ Costa – retired (but in his late forties and still damn good looking) from Phoenix Homicide. Written in the first person, you get inside AJ’s chirpy brain. AJ’s debut is coming soon, Size Four, late in 2020 or early 2021.
Curtis Westcott – Chief of Homicide in Boston. Westcott has a degree in law, is brilliant and methodical, and is haunted by his work. Westcott will be on Amazon in January 2020 in A Killing Game.
Bobby Greco – Orlando Homicide until some dirty cops set him up and he got kicked off the force. Bobby notices things no one else does. It’s what sets him apart. Bobby’s already on the shelves in No End of Bad Guys and One is Evil.
And wait until you meet Aislinn Byrne (Westcott) and Annette Carter (Costa). Trust me, you don’t want to mess with either of them.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few homicide cops and talk about what they do. It’s fascinating – these guys are relentless in their search for the truth and they have some very cool methods for getting there. The evidence drives the case forward, step by tiny step, until all reasonable doubt falls to the side. This process, where emotion and speculation are superfluous, is part of what makes writing about murder so exciting.
So, why murder? It’s the ultimate crime. That’s why.
![Tommy’s Christmas [FREE Christmas Short Story]](https://www.jeffbuick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tommys-Christmas-Cover-small.jpeg)
It’s the day before Christmas and eight-year old Tommy is up to nothing but mischief – find out why in this delightful Christmas story by Jeff Buick.
We promise that nobody gets kidnapped or murdered in this Christmas story!
Download it now (no sign up required):
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/k511lxq05g
Reading Time: 10-15 Minutes
Category: Cozy Christmas mystery
Merry Christmas
~Jeff
People want to know what entertains a thriller writer. One question I get asked all the time is What do you watch on TV?
What sort of content feeds a creative mind? I can’t speak for all thriller and mystery writers, but what I watch is all over the map and so are my reasons. Sometimes it’s simply for the entertainment value, other times it’s about learning what makes a good mystery tick.
And yes, I watch shows where poor souls get murdered. Midsomer Murders is a favorite. This crazy bit of British telly has been around for almost two decades and I’m surprised there are any people left in Midsomer. Every week so many get poisoned, shot, drowned, and strangled that overpopulation is never going to be a problem. One thing is for certain – I am not taking a holiday in Midsomer.
Why do I like that one? Well, the settings are cool – backroads England at its finest. Tiny villages with ages old cottages and pubs that have foot ceilings and thick Tudor-style beams. Then there are the ever-entertaining stream of wonky characters. Nobody is really normal (whatever that is these days) and just like an Agatha Christie mystery, all of them have a motive for killing the poor sot(s) who die with a regularity that puts a bus schedule to shame. Red herrings flop around like minnows in shallow water and false accusations fly – Midsomer has it all, including the strangest music ever.
What else?
I tried Luther, but it was a bit too violent for me. I did, however, love the Alice Morgan character that Ruth Wilson played. OMG – so over-the-top-creepy that I can’t get her psycho-gaze out of my head. That’s the sort of thing that inspires me to create really believable bad guys (and gals).
Doc Martin, with Martin Clunes as the acerbic county doctor is a hoot and always good for a laugh. Love the Portwenn setting (Port Isaac in Cornwall) as well.
Netflix has some great series, Castles of England, Secrets of the Tower of London, and other documentaries of the same sort where they duck into creepy old places with lots of skeletons in the closets. The one they did on Highclere Castle (the set for Downton Abbey, of which I watched every episode) and it was a cool look into the backrooms of the famous castle. These are fodder for interesting, often macabre settings.
I binge-watched Poldark, and still can’t believe people can be as good looking as Aidan Turner (Ross Poldark) and Eleanor Tomlinson (Demelza). What kept me riveted to the TV on this series was Poldark’s character – he never lost his way despite some pretty awful stuff happening to him and his family.
Then there’s Inspector George Gently, a retro series that’s set in Britain in the 1960s. Gently is old-school and he struggles with how quickly things are changing. Cops aren’t a squeaky clean anymore and it’s getting harder to recognize the bad guys. I like this because there’s a lot of inner turmoil trapped in a really good man. Gently suffers and it’s tough to watch at times.
But it’s not all thrillers and cops. Queer Eye is right at the top of the list. This is a Netflix production where five gay guys parachute into someone’s life on each episode and install some sort of order. These five men are beyond cool – they tackle food, culture, grooming, fashion and renovations – with each one having their area of expertise. One client said something like, The world is upside down, and you guys make it right. Even the toughest drill sergeant – the guy who eats rusty nails for breakfast – is going to have a tear on his cheek as these vignettes roll out. I love this series for its honesty and compassion, which is sadly lacking in our world today. Go “Fab Five”!
There’s more, but what the heck, you get the idea. If you have a minute, let me know what shows inspire and entertain you.
