The Wrong Kind

The Wrong Kind

by Austin S. Camacho

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GENRE: Mystery

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BLURB:

A distraught woman hires private investigator Hannibal Jones to track down her daughter who has run away, trying to escape the homeless shelter life her mother has come to accept. When Hannibal finds Connie Blanco she is entwined in a gang war and somehow connected to a murder. The corpse is barely cold before a second murder follows and Hannibal finds himself entangled in a complex plot revolving around stolen drugs…but who is the mastermind of this twisted scheme?

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EXCERPT:

As Chico’s foot hit the first step he noticed Sophia for the first time. Just as his eyes met hers, Hannibal’s right foot thumped into Chico’s chest, slamming him back into the man whose jacket said he was Dave. Then Hannibal leaped from the porch, smashing his right fist across Billy’s jaw. A side stamp dislocated Jimmy’s right knee. Dave swung past Chico and clipped Hannibal’s cheek. Sophia gasped at the flesh-on-flesh sound of the blow.

Hannibal blocked the follow-up punch and snapped two crisp jabs into Dave’s face, staggering him into the tree growing up out of the sidewalk. Chico tried to slip past Hannibal, still driving for the door.

“Not tonight,” Hannibal said through clenched teeth. Sophia didn’t think Chico ever even saw the three punches, left-left-right that put him on his back, barely conscious. 

With no standing attackers, Hannibal stepped back up onto the porch. “That was fun, but now I’m running out of patience with you boys.” Hannibal reached inside his suit coat, under his right arm, and pulled out a pistol. He pointed its muzzle down at Chico’s face.

“There is nothing lower than a man who beats his woman, although anybody helping him is mighty close. I’d beat your asses some more, just for fun, but I don’t feel like answering questions at a hospital. Now, all of y’all, drag your sorry asses out of here. And if I ever hear you came back here, or if you tell anybody where this shelter is, I will hunt you down and end you.

A Word With the Author:

1.Did you always want to be an author?

I think I always wanted to be a storyteller. I love stories, and grew up surrounded by people who related even common events in a way that built suspense, sorted the characters into hero and villain roles, and had a strong payoff at the end. So I always wanted to do THAT, but I was in college before I realized that I wanted thousands of people to hear my stories – which meant becoming an author and being published.

2.Tell us about the publication of your first book.

After submitting manuscripts to just about every publisher I could find I decided to try it myself, to see if anyone wanted to read my work. In 1999 a company called Infinity was publishing through a brand new idea called Print on Demand so I put my first book out through this inexpensive self-publishing option.  Two years (and a published novel) later I met the publisher of Echelon Press at Book Expo America. She was impressed by my efforts to market my books and liked the books themselves, so Echelon became my publisher.

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

That’s a challenging question. My all time favorite mystery author is Raymond Chandler. His spectacular yet understated prose is just about as good as writing gets. I believe the best contemporary mystery writer is Dennis Lehane. Gone Baby Gone was the book that blew me away, but he has 9 or 10 other great novels out there. However, the “best” writer isn’t necessarily my favorite. The mystery writer whose work I most enjoy reading is Reed Farrel Coleman. With prose that’s almost poetry, no one has ever come so close to the flavor of Chandler’s work. It is a sheer joy to read him.

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

The best part of being an author is creating good prose. Nothing beats the joy I feel when it all works, the story comes together, the characters fit perfectly, and the story flows perfectly to a powerhouse finish. That’s why we do it – to tell a good story, and to tell it well. The worst part is surely the marketing aspect. Writing a novel is hard work, but writing a synopsis is just painful. Begging booksellers to carry your work, or let you sit in their store for a couple hours is degrading, mostly because the quality of your work doesn’t enter into that conversation at all. All that sells your books takes you away from the creative process you love.

5.What are you working on now?

My next novel of course.  There will certainly be more Hannibal Jones novels but, I’m taking a break from my private eye. My current work in progress is a novel about a character I created for a short story – Skye, an African American female professional assassin in Washington DC. She lives in the same universe as Hannibal Jones and in the still-forming manuscript she meets some of the minor characters In Hannibal’s  books. In the book she gets hired to kill a crime boss who is trying to pull the gangs in DC together into one cartel. It will be more thriller than mystery, but my readers will still like it.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Austin S. Camacho is the author of seven novels about Washington DC-based private eye Hannibal Jones, five in the Stark and O’Brien international adventure-thriller series, and the detective novel, Beyond Blue. His short stories have been featured in several anthologies including Dying in a Winter Wonderland – an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association Top Ten Bestseller for 2008. He is featured in the Edgar nominated African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey. Camacho is also editorial director for Intrigue Publishing, a Maryland small press.

https://www.facebook.com/austin.camacho.author/

https://www.amazon.com/Wrong-Kind-Hannibal-Jones-Mystery/dp/1940758971/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

Austin S. Camacho will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway