Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Hand Over Fist, a Thriller by Michael Ross (3 May 2016, Limitless Publishing LLC, 304 pages). This is the first book in the Out of Hand series.
Don't miss our interview with author Michael Ross.PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first six chapters with Amazon Look Inside.
Hand Over Fist is FREE on Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library.
Author Michael Ross will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀).
Synopsis | Teaser | Author Q&A | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops
Synopsis
When an old friend disappears, Martin learns nothing is what it seems…Martin Russell can barely face the future. With dismal life prospects and an estranged family, he is at the end of his rope. When an old friend, Hannah, elbows her way back into his life, Martin’s luck begins to turn around.
Hidden within the shadows of evil, there must be some good…
Ex-policeman Bobby Tanner lost everything one rage-filled night. Now he runs a reading group for alcoholics where he meets a young drug dealer, Zack, who disturbs him in a way that’s hard to define. Bobby soon discovers the teenager is in over his head and has been dealing with a despicable individual known as The Chemist.
The roots of evil run deeper than we imagine…
Martin’s lucky streak begins to unravel when Hannah suddenly goes missing, and he turns to a friend of a friend, Bobby, for help. Thrust into an underworld empire of corruption and half-truths, he learns his friend may not be who he thought she was.
In a shadowed world of deception, stalkers, and drug dealers, Bobby and Martin must uncover the truth, and fast…
Lives depend on it.
Teaser: Excerpt
A large part of The Chemist’s wealth came from something that started out as a petty sideline but now provided an ever increasing income—money lending, loan sharking, pawn broking. It served a double purpose. Obviously it created wealth, but it also increased the footfall of deprived humanity passing through the front door of Shortcross Drive. This meant that when the police did a stop-and-search on visitors leaving The Chemist’s house, all they found were small amounts of cash in new white envelopes. Positive feedback within the local police force went up the line, and it was duly noted that local drug related problems were on the decline. Statistics made fine reading at County Hall and everyone was happy. No matter how much Mario increased the interest rates to his borrowers, people paid their debts. It was an undisputed fact. No matter how much financial difficulty The Chemist’s borrowers were in, they always found a way to pay up. If anybody at County Hall had bothered to correlate the figures, they could surely not have missed the numbers showing that criminal break-ins and burglaries within a twenty mile radius had increased even more markedly.The largest amount Mario had ever lent to one person was £1,000. It went to a young local tearaway who was quite happy to agree to repay Mario the sum of £1,200 within three days. The young thug duly turned up on the Friday with the cash and a nice bottle of champagne to go with it. Next day, while Mario was sitting down with his copy of The Sun, he read that there had been a robbery at a Post Office in the Peak District, and that the Post Mistress was in a coma after being attacked with a sledge hammer. The paper stated that the thieves got away with over £6,000. Mario felt something akin to parental pride. Mario carried on lending monkeys and tons to his regulars until he received a phone call that came out of the blue. The request came as something of a shock, even to Mario’s fireproof ears.
“Hello, my name’s Jeremy. I’d rather not go into any more detail over the phone, but I was given your name by Eddie Parsons.”
Eddy Parsons, The Peak District thief.
The rather snooty voice continued, “I want to borrow ten-thousand pounds for ten days. I can pay you back the second of next month. Guaranteed.”
Hand Over Fist
Available NOW!
About the Author
It was a strange and twisting road that led to the publication of my first novel. From my humble beginnings, as an office clerk, to ownership of a multi-million dollar business I always maintained my love for literature.
Born and raised in Bristol, England. I spent most of my life in business, my companies turning over in the region of $500 million. The majority of that time marketing cars, eventually owning the largest Saab specialist in the world, before a bitter divorce forced me rethink my priorities. Particularly between 2003 and 2005 when I had to accept that I was no longer a millionaire but literally penniless. I avoided bankruptcy by the skin of my teeth and slowly rebuilt my life.
This led me to the life changing decision to leave the bustling city and move to live halfway up a mountain in the Welsh valleys. At the same time I started a part time six year English Literature course at Bristol University, and attended creative writing classes at Cardiff University. I left school at sixteen and this was my first taste of further education and an immense challenge.
I eventually adjusted my thinking to the academic life, and on 30 June 2015 had confirmation of my 2.1(Hons) degree from Bristol University. At the same time I also won the prestigious Hopkins Prize for my essay on Virginia Woolf and the unsaid within her text. Now the university courses are finished it will, with any luck, gives me plenty of extra time that I can devote to my fiction writing.
Thanks to the university experiences, my interest in English literature has flourished over recent years. Hopefully I have evolved as a writer from my earlier work in short stories (over ninety of them.) Although interestingly my first three novels have all been developed from a long forgotten short story.
Life is, once again, very good, and I live very happily halfway up a mountain, in the Welsh Valleys, with my wonderful partner Mari, and our rescue dog Wolfie.
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Giveaway and Tour Stops
Enter to win a $10 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveawayRemember to comment to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Enter to win a $10 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
Remember to comment to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Follow Hand Over Fist's tour at:
May 9: Christine Young
May 10: Welcome to My World of Dreams
May 11: FictionZeal
May 12: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
May 13: Liz Gavin's Blog
May 16: Writers and Authors
May 17: Full Moon Dreaming
May 18: Readeropolis
May 19: Booklover Sue
May 20: T's Stuff
May 23: Author C.A.Milson
May 24: Writer Wonderland
May 25: Two Ends of the Pen
May 26: Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
May 27: Stormy Vixen Book Reviews
May 30: Room With Books
May 31: BooksChatter
Jun 1: Wench's World
Jun 2: Edgar's Books
Jun 3: Long and Short Reviews
1: The Avid Reader
2: Cover2Cover
3: Where the Story Comes First
4: The Recipe Fairy
5: Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews
6: Celticlady's Reviews
7: This and That Book Blog
8: Independent Authors
9: Elaine Cantrell
10: Christine Young
11: Blog of author Jacey Holbrand
12: StarAngels Reviews
13: Living a Dream, One word at a time
14: Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin'
15: The Cerebral Writer
16: Nickie's Views and Interviews
17: Natural Bri
18: Book Bling
19: CBY Book Club
20: BooksChatter
21: Mythical Books
22: Fascinating Quest
23: Author C.A.Milson
24: Harlie's Books
25: Harps Romance Book Review
26: books are love
27: Dawn's Reading Nook
28: The Certifiable Wenches
29: Lynn Crandall
30: Book Bling
31: Readeropolis
Hi
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing some of your time with me on my Book Blast day for Hand Over Fist. It's a big day, being the day after the release of the first in the Out Of Hand series. The view from my bedroom window when I got up (5am !!) was gorgeous, with a thin wispy mist hanging over the hills.
Hand Over Fist, which is a crime thriller, evolved from a trip over the mountain to the next valley, to listen to the world famous Treorchy Male Voice Choir; which does not sound like a starting place for a story built around the underbelly of society, does it?
Have a good day
Michael Ross
Hello Michael
Deletethank you for visiting us on the 4th and telling us a bit about Hand Over Fist! Apologies for the late reply - things were very hectic around that time... we are still catching up!
I hope the launch went well :-)
Flora
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDelete