Michael P. King

It’s the dog days of summer. Vacation is long over. Had a great time in California with our kids—Muir Woods, wine country, hanging out playing board games. Here in the college town where we live, the students are filtering back into town. Two more weeks and the population will be almost double what it is now. The stores will be jammed with students furnishing their rooms and buying groceries. Going to make sure I don’t need to go to Walmart until after Labor Day.

The Casino Switcheroo: The Travelers Book 7 is on track to be released this fall. But due of circumstance beyond my control, it will probably be released in the beginning of October instead of in September as I had originally hoped. (sad emoji goes here)

The first week of its release, the eBook will be priced at $0.99. After that it will go up to $4.99, but don’t worry, I’ll be keeping you in the loop so at you’ll be able to download at the special release week price.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to hold you over until the release of The Casino Switcheroo, I’ve found another free eBook promo. Midsummer Murders & Mysteries is live now. https://books.bookfunnel.com/midsommer-murder-mystery/cotiaq4ba5

As usual, you get a free eBook for an email list signup. Hope you find a book you enjoy.

Happy reading!

The Traveling Man (book 1) has a new cover. So now its cover matches the other covers in the series. Back when The Computer Heist (book 2) came out, I didn’t know its cover would become the pattern for the rest of the covers. Hindsight, eh? You can take a close up look at the new cover here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019DGN21A

(The content of book 1 has not changed, only the cover.)

The Casino Switcheroo, book 7 of the Travelers series, is off at the copy editor. But to get to The Casino Switcheroo, we have to come through The Murder Run.

The Freeport Robbery (book 4), The Kidnap Victim (book 5), and The Murder Run (book 6) all feature James Denison, first as a mark of sorts, and then later as Mrs. Traveling Man’s love interest. (You remember, don’t you? It’s complicated.)

So when The Murder Run opens, she’s in San Francisco getting up to mischief with a new gal pal, while the Traveling Man’s out east trying to outrun and outgun the killers who tailed him from a safecracking.

It’s one wild ride to the finish line, and when it’s over, they’ll be ready for The Casino Switcheroo. 

Do you need to catch up? You can check out the description to The Murder Run here:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M7F95G8

Happy reading!

 

Howdy, Michael here,

Hope you’re enjoying your summer. Some Travelers Group list members have asked how the Travelers series came to be. Well, part of it was planning and part was serendipity.

Initially, I wanted to create a crime fiction series that was fun to read and fun to write. I especially liked old school crime thrillers, like those by Hammet or Chandler, and I liked super realistic crime TV shows and movies, like The Wire or True Detective. And, as I’ve mentioned in lots of places, I’m fascinated by people’s tendency to want something for nothing. But how could these interests be combined?

So I read, or reread, a lot of crime thrillers, focusing on the types of characters other writers were creating. I read John Sanford, Lawrence Block, Patricia Cornwall, Robert B. Parker, Richard Stark, Patricia Highsmith, Jo Nesbo, Kate Atkinson, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Sue Grafton, just to name a few.

There seemed to be plenty of alcoholic, ne’er-do-well private eyes and cross-the-line cops. I didn’t think I could add anything new there. And the idealistic do-gooder—well, that really wasn’t my thing. A con man, on the other hand, I thought maybe I could do something interesting with that. And so the Traveling Man was born, a seasoned con man, a manipulator who lives by a code to only rob crooks, as he defines them, a grifter with only one weakness—his wife.

But as I began to write the story of the Seanboro land grab and explore the possibilities of the various criminals and criminal wannabes who were hoping to get rich, the wife became a more and more important character, until I was writing not just about the Traveling Man, but about the two of them, and how the nature of their relationship affected their choices. The two of them pitted against a crime boss, a gang of thugs, and the cops. And so the Travelers were born.

If you haven’t yet read The Traveling Man: The Travelers Book 1, the eBook is free on Amazon today through Thursday July 12 so that new readers can find out about the series. Here’s the link: http://amzn.to/1Nnd373

Have a read and then drop a review to tell me what you think. A few words will do. Here’s the review link: http://amzn.to/2eS8rdW

Thanks for reading,

Michael

travelers@michaelpking.org

https://michaelpking.org

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