As part of of the Blog Tour for No Mercy, we had two copies of the book to give away thanks to John and Avon.
Well done to Carol Peace and Tracey Walsh who have both won a copy.
About the book:
The peaceful town of Wintersville is a place safe from the crime and congestion of city life, where neighbours feel like family. It’s the perfect place to live.
But when a teenager is discovered brutally murdered in the woods, it becomes clear that a psychopath is roaming the streets. Dr Ben Stevenson, the town’s medical examiner, and father of two young boys, becomes entangled in the hunt for the murderer, determined to keep his family safe.
But as Ben uncovers the dark secrets of his seemingly quiet community, he confronts a truth that will haunt him forever and puts those he loves in serious danger.
(No Mercy was released by Avon on 3rd July 2014 and is availalbe in paperback and e-book.)
byWe are pleased to welcome John Burley to Novel Kicks. As part of his blog tour for his debut novel, No Mercy, John talks to us about how his job experience and knowledge contributed to his plot.
My experience as an Emergency Department physician came in handy during the writing of NO MERCY. The novel merges the genres of medical thriller, crime, murder mystery, and psychological suspense. It’s fueled by adrenalin, the drug that got me hooked on emergency medicine in the first place. I tried to bring a level of realism to the medical scenes, to convey the intensity of these environments and how they affect the people working there. NO MERCY is a story about bearing witness to the struggles of others, and the E.R. is a place for that, as well.
My wife is a forensic psychiatrist, and I also incorporated her experience into novel. The story involves a serial killer who terrorizes a small town. We tend to think of such individuals as extremely rare. But many serial killers are sociopaths, and what I learned through discussion with my wife is that sociopaths are present in almost all communities. About 4% of men and 1% of women fit the diagnostic criteria. They frequently blend in to the community, and are harder to identify than one might imagine. Not all sociopaths become serial killers, of course, but for many of them the potential is there. If that doesn’t make you lock your doors at night, I don’t know what will.
byThanks to John and Avon we have two copies of No Mercy to give away to celebrate it’s release on 3rd July.
To enter:
Comment on this post before the closing date of Wednesday 9th July 2014 at 23.59. The two winners will then be chosen at random from the entrants and announced on the Novel Kicks blog on Thursday 10th July 2014. The two winners will also be contacted via the e-mail they provide when they enter the competition. UK and Ireland only.
About the book:
The peaceful town of Wintersville is a place safe from the crime and congestion of city life, where neighbours feel like family. It’s the perfect place to live.
But when a teenager is discovered brutally murdered in the woods, it becomes clear that a psychopath is roaming the streets. Dr Ben Stevenson, the town’s medical examiner, and father of two young boys, becomes entangled in the hunt for the murderer, determined to keep his family safe.
byThe peaceful town of Wintersville is a place safe from the crime and congestion of city life, where neighbours feel like family. It’s the perfect place to live.
But when a teenager is discovered brutally murdered in the woods, it becomes clear that a psychopath is roaming the streets. Dr Ben Stevenson, the town’s medical examiner, and father of two young boys, becomes entangled in the hunt for the murderer, determined to keep his family safe.
But as Ben uncovers the dark secrets of his seemingly quiet community, he confronts a truth that will haunt him forever and puts those he loves in serious danger.
I do love a good mystery so I was intrigued to read this book once I had read the book blurb. The first few pages are a little graphic but at the same time, you’re immediately plunged into the story, the action and the lives of these people portrayed in the book.
Ben works in the local CO in the small town of Wintersville – a safe place that sees very little in the way of violent crime until the body of a teenager is found mutilated near the local high school which marks the beginning of a spree of murders.
byNovel Kicks is a blog for story tellers and book lovers.