Kiwi author offers free ebook of upcoming novel

Trawling (or 'trolling', for you American readers) around the Internet today, looking for more hitherto-undiscovered-by-me New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller books and authors, historic and contemporary - it's a regular hobby of mine - I stumbled across another Kiwi-based author who has been published primarily online; Steve Malley.

Malley (pictured left) is an expatriate American now living in New Zealand. Describing himself as "Tattooed, pierced and dreadlocked", he is a writer, graphic novelist and professional artist. His debut thriller, CROSSROAD BLUES, was published in Amazon Kindle format last year. It is also available from the Smashwords website, in a variety of e-formats. Here's the blurb:

"An aging country star with a serial killer in his entourage.

A mysterious drifter with the Blues in his heart and the road for his home.

A beautiful Irish girl bent on revenge.

A modern Noir thriller...

Kane is a drifter, a musician with the Blues in his heart and the road for his home. Maeve is tattooed and dreadlocked, a beautiful Irish girl steeling herself for revenge. The night they meet, Kane takes a stand that pulls him into the orbit of wealthy and perverse has-been country star Boogie Jack Terrabonne, the band of thugs Terrabonne calls an entourage and their murderous and terrifying leader, Harlan Winters. Trying to save Maeve from herself may cost she and Kane both their lives...Crossroad Blues is a thriller, a suspense novel, a modern-day Western largely set in the Otago region of New Zealand. It's a story of sex and violence and revenge, a has-been country star with a serial killer in his entourage, backpackers and drifters and living the Blues.

Crossroad Blues is Noir with a dark heart, a story of men whose choices have damned them and a young woman determined to avenge her best friend, even at the cost of her own life. Even at the cost of her soul. It also has all the elements of a classic Western: a wicked landowner, brutal henchmen, a thoroughly modern saloon girl in trouble and a lone stranger every bit as decent as he is tough. Imagine Shane as written by James M. Cain or Joe R. Lansdale. Or one of the novels of Andrew Vachss written by James Lee Burke."

It would have to be pretty damned good to deserve the 'James Lee Burke' comparison, but given that that it's a very affordable US$2.99-US$3.99, depending on the format/website, I thought it was well worth giving CROSSROAD BLUES a go, to see what this young AmeriKiwi has going on, in terms of his thriller writing. So I bought a copy this afternoon - I'll let you know what I think in due course. It could fall very short of James Lee Burke and still be very good, after all.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

Malley's second thriller, POISON DOOR, will be released next month. And for the next few days, the author is offering free e-book copies to anyone who emails him. The only catch is that you need to agree to give the book a review - good, bad, or indifferent, he doesn't care (well, he probably does, but at least he's not being pretentious about it) - somewhere on the Internet. Even if you don't have a blog, you could review the book on sites like Amazon or Good Reads, etc. So that's a pretty good deal, I think. Here's the blurb:

"Sarah Crane is one tough cop. In a country where police don't carry guns but criminals do, she has to rely on the strength of her wits and the skill of her bare hands. Faced with a series of brutal murders and the disappearance of young women no one else seems to miss, she'll stop at nothing to get to the truth. In troubled young Michelle, Sarah sees a reflection of her own dark past.

Tommy Knowles is a vicious killer. From a London orphanage to the shores of New Zealand, he has risen from life on the streets to control this small country's heroin trade. Now his own success has led him to the edge of disaster. To secure the weapons he needs in the fight for his life, Tommy will trade as many innocent lives as necessary to secure his survival.

Michelle Swanston is fourteen and in danger. Safer on the Christchurch city streets than she is in her own home, Michelle's night wanderings take her into a hell worse than any she ever imagined. With no way of knowing who she can trust, no one else she can rely on, this terrified young girl is determined not to go down without a fight..."

You can visit Malley's website here, and his blog Full Throttle and F**k It! here.

So, do you think you might take him up on his offer? What do you think of the marketing tactic for a young up-and-coming author? Comments welcome.