BLOG TOUR - The Face Transplant, By R. Arundel

Book Title: The Face Transplant
Author: R. Arundel
Genre: Medical Suspense Thriller

BLURB:

The Face Transplant

An epic journey of suspense, murder, and sacrifice

Dr. Matthew MacAulay is a facial transplant surgeon at a prestigious New York hospital. When his friend and mentor, Tom Grabowski, dies under mysterious circumstances, Matthew uncovers his friend’s secret: a new technique that allows perfect facial transplants. No incisions, no scars. Tom was able to accomplish this monumental feat with the help of Alice, a supercomputer robot with almost human abilities. While trying to find the people responsible for murdering Tom, Matthew realizes he is the prime suspect. He must flee for his life with the help of Dr. Sarah Larsson, a colleague and reluctant helper, who has a secret of her own, and Alice, who helps them make sense of a baffling series of seemingly unrelated events. The clues carry Matthew and Sarah around the world. They stumble onto a sinister plot of monumental proportions that leads Matthew all the way to the White House.

The Face Transplant is a powerful medical suspense thriller of the first order. The novel was written by a surgeon who weaves politics, medicine, and espionage into a tightly paced, intelligent thriller.

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Excerpt:

Guaarrr. It sounds like water draining from a very large bathtub, through a very large hole. I just  killed myself. I just killed the patient. Dr. Matthew MacAulay looks down on the operating room table at the gaunt, graying man. Matthew quickly scans the operating theater. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the short wide man in he observation area.

I just killed myself, Sarah, and Amanda.

They have been hijacked into performing a face transplant. The patient is unknown. Mr. Glock, the short wide man, hovers in the far end of the operating room. He made it clear that if the patient did not survive, the three of them would be following him in short order. The 9 mm Glock with a silencer on the end gave credence to his profanity-laced words of warning.

Matthew looks across the operating room table at Amanda Soto, forty-two, an American of Spanish ancestry. She has been his scrub nurse, assisting him in the operating room for the last three years. Divorced, one child.

It will take a few more seconds for the monitors to tell everybody what Matthew already knows. Amanda already knows. She is right across the table. She saw him use the robotic arm to dissect the vessel and mistakenly cut the large artery in the neck. An operating room nurse of Amanda’s experience has seen it all. When Matthew looks into her eyes, they flash ever so quickly an acknowledgement that it is all over. Instead of any words, she quietly unclamps the suction. Now a dull hiss fills the air. To the casual observer, or the short wide man holding a 9 mm Glock pistol in his fat stubby hands, nothing really has changed. Amanda, anesthetist Dr. Sarah Larsson, and Dr. Matthew MacAulay act as if all is going well.

Matthew cannot help but glance over to the man with the 9 mm Glock. In his mind he names him Mr. Glock. Adrenaline surges through Matthew’s body and time slows. The short wide man, Mr. Glock, has gray eyes. Pale, gray eyes. Very pale, almost tired. Matthew remembers reading somewhere that people with gray eyes have the best visual acuity. They make the best marksmen, the best assassins. He wonders if this was true.

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Author Bio and Links:

R. Arundel is a practising surgeon. This experience brings realism to the story. The novel asks what would happen if a surgeon were to develop the perfect face transplant.  This would allow people to have a new face, in essence create a new identity. You can create the perfect double, the perfect Doppelganger.

Contact link: http://www.amazon.com/R-Arundel/e/B00EBCQVEC

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE BOOK, go here: http://www.thefacetransplant.com/contact.html FILL OUT THE FEEDBACK AND MARK SUBSCRIBE.

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BOOK TOUR - Ocean Park, By Michael Walsh

Book Title: Ocean Park
Author: Michael Park
Genre: Mystery with Minor Romance

BLURB:

All Detective Matt Conley ever wanted was to raise a family in Ocean Park with his stunning and ambitious wife Lisa. When a corpse is found in his church, Matt begins a journey that reveals corruption and decay in his city and deceit in his marriage. As he searches for the murderer of a local businessman, a gang war erupts for control of the city’s drug trade, and the body count rises. With his reluctant new partner, Detective Lloyd Kendricks, Matt weaves his way through the puzzling connections between street gangs, politicians, bikers, and a private kink club.

Will their unlikely alliance be enough to return Matt's beloved hometown to its halcyon days? And will he find the faith he needs to rebuild his crumbling marriage?

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EXCERPTS (Exclusive excerpt):

The whore opened the motel room door, the light snapped on, and Vithu clutched her collar, his fist full of red pleather and fake fur. Samay saw that the tattooed letters on the back of his mentor’s fingers spelled LOVE. The irony wasn’t lost on him—the whore suddenly sported a human-hand necklace that advertised her trade.

She almost escaped before Vithu slammed the door. In fact her hand was flat on the guest instructions—CHECKOUT AT 11:00. ICE MACHINE DOWN THE HALL. Samay and the eleven others, ethereal in a cloud of hash smoke, stood around a bed with a nappy ivory spread and watched Vithu trap the girl for bauk.

Bauk—the Cambodian practice of gang raping a prostitute, was the first initiation rite for the Ocean Park Asian Boyz. Samay found her surprise exciting, delicious, as if she’d stumbled onto her own party. But tonight the party was for him, and they were guaranteed privacy. Two Ocean Park policemen, paid off by Vithu, stood sentry outside the door, easy duty on a slow Monday night.

Seconds later the girl nodded, knowing her choices were rape or a beating—and then rape. Samay was glad. They’d already spent too much time waiting. Smoked a lot of hashish and drank sweet wine. Talked too much about gang fights and Pon, the legendary Asian Boyz gang leader traveling to Ocean Park from Long Beach.

Laughter rippled, surrounding the girl as she stripped with the resignation of a prisoner walking to the gallows. She lay on the sagging mattress. Pale skin peppered with freckles and moles. Samay was first, and though he was a stranger to white women and the company of others to so intimate an act, he had no trouble performing. His friends cheered, congratulated him when he was done, then jockeyed for their place in line. The girl’s musk and sweat mixed with the sweet smoke.

There was trouble once—a question of place in line, booze-fueled threats, shoving. Vithu stepped forward and surprised everyone with a vicious chop to an ear that knocked the troublemaker down and drew blood from a gash on his scalp. The Boyz candidates quieted.

The sex was exciting, but not the way he thought it would be. Camaraderie was the high, the laughter and joy of his new friends, the ones he was pledging his life to.

When Vithu helped himself to the girl and spread his other hand next to her head, Samay saw HATE tattooed on those fingers. Vithu was a strange man.

No matter. This was the greatest night of Samay’s young life.

Bauk was good.

Brotherhood was good.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Michael Walsh attended Boston University, where he became a staffer for the Daily Free Press and earned a degree in journalism. His first professional job was at a public relations and advertising firm, writing press releases that appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and New England Journal of Engineering. He later became a technical writer, writing and editing jet engine manuals for General Electric Aircraft Engines. GE relocated him to Cincinnati and Florida, where he currently resides. He’s written and studied fiction for years at BU, the University of Cincinnati, and now Jacksonville, where he won the First Coast Writers Festival short story contest and had work published in the UK’s Twisted Tongue and Askew Reviews. He’s an active member of the Bard Society, Florida’s longest-running writers’ workshop.

His five novels and dozens of short stories, most of them richly-layered mysteries, take place in New England. Mike and his wife Jean live in Florida with their three sons.


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BOOK TOUR - The Children of the Blessing, By Perry Morris

This was supposed to go up yesterday, but a glitch caused some issue so I am making sure it is up now.

About the Book
Title: The Children of the Blessing
Author: Perry Morris
Genre: Fantasy

When key events prophesied thousands of years ago finally take place, those who lust for power will do anything they must to take control—even if that means killing the children of the blessing. The children of the blessing have never met. Renn wanted to be a farmer and Avaris a warrior, but their birth and blessing set an ancient prophecy in motion that promises to shift the balance of power on he continent of Lemuria. The two boy’s dreams and innocence are shattered by those determined to influence the events to come and seize power for themselves. When loved ones are killed and homes destroyed, both boys must flee from horrifying creatures and powerful magic users. Renn has to cross the continent to reach the safety of Elder Island where he can receive training from the Lore Masters; Avaris decides to follow the evil creatures that have ruined his life to caves beneath the Cragg Mountains where the surviving members of his tribe have been forced into slave labor. The Grand Warlock, Kahn Devin, has determined that both boys will either join with him or die.

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Author Bio

I was born and raised in the greater Salt Lake City, Utah area. I am very happily married and have seven wonderful children and one grand-daughter. I work for a large, publically traded, international company in Provo, Utah, where I manage supplier management, procurement and packaging engineering functions.My first exposure to the great world of fantasy literature was, of course, J.R.R Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, when I was fourteen. After that I read the books of Patricia McKillap, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Stephen R. Donaldson, etc...Currently my favorite author (besides myself--ha ha) is Brandon Sanderson. I love the unique and interesting magic systems he creates, the memorable characters and interesting stories. I amazed at how prolific a writer he is.I am an author every day for an hour during lunch. I actually began writing the Lemurian Chronicles in 1993, and after more than two decades of rewrites, editing, re-editing, etc... I finally decided my epic fantasy was ready for publishing. Don't worry; each additional installment will be released no more than eighteen months apart. I expect book II: Chaos Rising, to be available summer of 2016.

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Book Excerpt:

Tellio let out a low whistle and rubbed his hand absently over his bald head. “Well, well,” he said. “Where do you suppose they’re from, Kivas?” Kivas, and everybody else in the company, looked in the direction of the big man’s gaze to see a group of tall, beautiful women. They wore far less clothing than other women Renn had seen—a loose skirt, reaching mid-thigh, a cropped, sleeveless top that left their stomachs bare, covered by a sheer, light weight gown that fell just below their knees; their bodies were young, strong, and well proportioned. Their skin was tan, their hair long and full, and their eyes were big—that was noticeable even at a distance. Renn felt himself blush slightly and quickly averted his eyes. He noticed, as he looked away, that Genea was practically glowering at the beautiful foreigners.

“I think I’ll go ask them myself.” Tellio announced, twisting his waxed mustache to a tighter curl. “Care to join me, Kivas?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it.” Everyone looked with surprise at Raven. Renn had almost forgotten the dark haired scout was still with them; he almost never spoke. Tellio hesitated for a moment then asked, “Why not?”

“Watch,” Raven replied as he pointed to a group of Nortian men who obviously had the same idea as Tellio, headed in the direction of the tall, captivating women. Like most Nortians, they were big men with unkempt, dark hair, and full black beards and no mustache. Four of them approached the scantily clad women, and although Renn couldn’t hear them for the crowd, he could tell that whatever the first man said to the women was not received very well. The three women didn’t even acknowledge the foul mouthed man. The big man who spoke grew red in the face, grabbed the nearest girl by the shoulder and swung her around. Tellio—and, oddly, Durham—started visibly at the aggression, and were about to shout across the throng of buyers at the overzealous Nortian, but their mouths dropped open in amazement before either could make a sound. As the Nortian swung the woman around, she let her arm arc with the momentum and hit him across the cheekbone with a knife hand strike. The man, shocked at the sudden attack, stumbled backward, then dropped to the ground as her bare foot came down on his knee.

“Great gods of light!” Kivas exclaimed, “If I didn’t see it I’d never believe it.” Tellio got a grin on his face, however, before he could tease Kivas about a Nortian being bested by a woman the man on the ground pulled himself up and drew his sword. Quick as a flash, the object of his attentions produced a small knife from underneath her light gown, and let it fly. The next thing Renn saw was the big Nortian grasping wildly at his neck as he fell, once again, to the ground. 

The companions of the unfortunate man recovered quickly from their initial shock, and warily drew their own weapons. Before anything more happened, however, a small dispatch of city guards surrounded the foreigners and took them into custody. 

“I see what you mean, Raven.” Tellio admitted.

Kivas asked, “Who were they?”

“You’re fellow countrymen, of course.” Sela Nadgit said, as he stopped his horse next to the front of the wagon that still carried Danu, Artio and Genea. Genea, Renn noticed, was now beaming with pride, whereas, a moment before she seemed upset at the strange women.

“I know who the men were, Sela, I want to know where those girls came from.”

It was Artio who answered, “Domeria. Probably from the jungle city of Tanith.”

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Links

Official Website:  www.perrymorris.net

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YZP85T4

COVER REVEAL - The Killer Contract Agency, By Jessica Samuels