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Your Emotions Will Soar With T.J. Newman’s Worst Case Scenario
I should have known I’d cry. When I listened to T.J. Newman’s first book, FALLING, last year, the story evoked an emotional response. The same thing happened when I devoured her second, DROWNING, but this second time, it was doubled. Now, with WORST CASE SCENARIO, she has tripled the emotional impact that a story can bring. And I’m so happy for it. Pitch-Perfect Elevator Pitches A former flight attendant, Newman’s first two thrillers take place on planes. The elevator pitches are short enough that you could speak them even if you’re going up a single floor. FALLING: A pilot is given a choice: crash the plane or we kill your…
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Let Clive Cussler’s The Heist Steal Your Mind and Attention
Clive Cussler knew his readers. The prolific author wrote over sixty books in his lifetime (he died in 2020 at age 88) spread across five main series: Dirk Pitt, Sam and Remi Fargo, the Oregon files, and Kurt Austin. But it is the Isaac Bell series that captured my attention from the jump. The Isaac Bell series features the titular character, the lead detective of the Van Dorn detective agency. As ruggedly handsome as you can imagine, dogged in his determination to find the culprit, and devoted to justice, Bell is the kind of man you want on your side. All of the stories are set in the early 20th…
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Duane Swierczynski Talks Moving Backstory of New Novel in Return to Houston’s Murder by the Book
It’s been nine years since Philadelphia native Duane Swierczynski had a book signing at Houston’s Murder by the Book. In fact, as he told the folks who turned out last Friday night, this store was the site of his first book signing. What he appreciated, he told us, was how much the store had not changed. He, on the other hand, has. Swierczynski is the author of over a dozen novels, numerous short stories, and quite a few comics. He is married and is the father of two children. One, however, his daughter, Evelyn, was diagnosed with leukemia back in 2018. Swierczynski and his wife took turns spending the night…
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Drowning by T.J. Newman is the Best Movie You’ll Read This Summer
From the opening, harrowing moments of the first three chapters to the last 30 minutes of the audiobook, this book did not let up. A few weeks ago, I finished T. J. Newman’s debut, FALLING and eagerly jumped into her brand-new book, DROWNING. In the book, a plane suffers mechanical failure two minutes after takeoff from Honolulu and crashes into the ocean. Unlike those famous airplane disaster movies from the 1970s that takes a quarter of the movie to introduce the characters and get the plane in the air, Newman puts you on the plane just after takeoff from the first sentence. By Chapter 3, the plane is down. And…
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It’s an Easy Choice: Don’t Wait a Year to Read Falling by T.J. Newman
Look at that cover. How cool is that? For me, it stopped me in my tracks last year when I saw it for the first time. Isn’t that what a cover’s supposed to do? Well, mission accomplished. I promptly put that book on my To Be Read list. And a year later, finally got to it. When I finished the debut novel by former flight attendant T. J. Newman, I chastised myself. Why did it take so long to pick up the book because it was a good one. The premise is a great example of an elevator pitch: on a transcontinental flight from LA to New York, veteran pilot…