The Best Things In Life Are Free … Books

Pepper Smith has been kind enough to offer CAP two copies of her new novel, BLOOD MONEY, for the purposes of a competition giveaway. First, the blurb elves:

When Patty O’Donnell married her Irish sweetheart and moved from America to her husband’s small home town on the Irish seacoast, the most dangerous things she had to deal with were the half-ton racehorses in her father-in-law’s stables. But when she and her husband return from a late night out to find their house being searched, she discovers there are far worse things lurking in her bucolic surroundings than temperamental Thoroughbreds. The teenage son of a late family friend brings proof of a long forgotten debt owed by the O’Donnells, part of a cargo lost in a shipwreck over a century and a half ago. He wants the cargo salvaged, and quickly, so he can help his mother free herself from her abusive second husband. The O’Donnells are willing, but the search and salvage mission puts them square in the sights of modern-day pirates, who want the salvage for themselves. Suddenly, Patty finds herself hunted and in a fight for her life, where yielding to panic means a swift and ugly death.

  For Chapter One, clickety-click here. Meanwhile, to be in with a chance of winning a free copy of BLOOD MONEY, just answer the following question:

Which Irish author recently released a book entitled BLOOD MONEY? Was it:
  (a) Arlene Hunt;
  (b) Bertie Ahern;
  (c) The Board of Directors at Anglo-Irish Bank?

  Answers in the comment box, please, along with a contact email address (using (at) instead of @ to confound the spam monkeys), before noon on Monday, April 26th. Et bon chance, mes amis …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Pepper Smith

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
I really don’t know. I like too many things to pick just one.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
I wouldn’t, not even my own. I really liked Phil Rickman’s answer to this question, especially considering what crime writers tend to do to their characters.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
I should feel guilty for reading? But ... but ...

Most satisfying writing moment?
Going back over difficult-to-write scenes and realizing you nailed them. Or the moment when that plot twist pops fully formed into your head and you know it’s going to change your story from something ordinary into something several notches above. "The End" carries only limited satisfaction for me, because it means I have to leave the world I’ve spent so much time in.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
Since my entire exposure to any Irish crime fiction has been the Sister Fidelma series, I’m probably not best qualified to answer this question.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
See above.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst--those days when you have to force yourself behind the keyboard. Best--Knowing that someone else gets what you’re written.

The pitch for your next book is …?
Patty O’Donnell becomes an unwilling pawn in a game of revenge between an Argentine ex-military officer and a man whose wife was among the disappeared in the Dirty War.

Who are you reading right now?
Currently reading COUNCIL OF THE CURSED by Peter Tremayne.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Ah, but how can you write without reading? God is not that unreasonable...

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Tight, visual, fast.

BLOOD MONEY by Pepper Smith is available now.