ALL THAT GLISTERS is a Kirkus Indie Worth Discovering
This just in! ALL THAT GLISTERS, the first volume in the Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery Series from The Wild Rose Press, was listed as one of 40 “Indies Worth Discovering” in the latest issue of Kirkus Reviews. I’m honored to be selected for inclusion.
Kirkus describes their quarterly focus feature as a way to spotlight:
“an array of fiction and nonfiction works from the Indie section. Here readers can find a useful sampler that shows the excellence and breadth of Indie titles. Searching for something new and exciting? Read on.”
For those interested in reading more than the snappy last line of the Kirkus review, here’s the complete editorial evaluation:
ALL THAT GLISTERS
A Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery
Topper Jones
Wild Rose Press (412 pp.)
ISBN: 9781509251681
September 20, 2023
In this detective series opener, a 27-year-old accountant becomes the target of a murderous cadre when he accepts a new assignment that takes him from Los Angeles to the East Coast center of power.
Thaddeus Hanlon, a former professional surfer who is a forensic accountant with a top CPA firm, Dodge Whitney; his wife, Marissa; and close friend Abril “Bri” de la Guerra are enjoying a luxe annual corporate celebration. They are awaiting the return of Rafael “Rafi” Silva, Bri’s fiancé and Thad’s best buddy, from Washington, D.C., where he has been working on a special project for Dodge Whitney. Instead, they receive a devastating phone call from Jenny Yu, Rafi’s Washington audit associate. It turns out that Rafi is dead. The police declare his death a suicide but Bri insists he has been murdered (“I know he didn’t kill himself…Rafi would never do that to me”). The next day, Thad is offered Rafi’s job, running an undercover audit of the country’s gold bullion reserve for the Treasury Department’s “Second Gold Commission” at a time when there is political interest in returning to the Gold Standard. The job requires him and six-months-pregnant Marissa to move to the nation’s capital. It is a career-changing opportunity and a chance to investigate Rafi’s death with Bri. With Thad and Marissa comfortably settled in a luxurious Georgetown brownstone, the accountant heads to the special project’s base of operations, the multilayered, secure Treasury Liberty Central building. Thad is ready to complete Rafi’s assignment—if he can decipher his buddy’s encrypted notes. Jones’ action-packed murder mystery—complete with two engaging amateur detectives, violent assaults, high-speed car chases through Washington, and an occasionally confusing plethora of bad guys—also serves as a primer on the history of America’s Gold Standard backing of the nation’s currency. Thad’s audit visit to the gold vault, 80 feet below ground at the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan, raises the intriguing possibility of fake bricks mingled in with the legitimate bullion and takes readers through the metal-testing process. Woven into the gripping plot are sensual, detailed descriptions of Thad’s adventures riding the waves, which should please the surfer crowd and afford others a visceral sense of the experience.
A tension-fueled mystery with plenty of twists and two appealing sleuths.
Link: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/topper-jones/all-that-glisters-1/
In Other News...
With the contract for OCEANO BEACH BEDLAM signed and the cover art now approved, I’m happy to report moving to the next step in the publishing process—Editing. This week I received the First Round Edits for the second volume in the Thad Hanlon & Bri de la Guerra Mystery Series. The good news? According to my editor, “There really aren’t that many edits.”
I have thirty days to review the comments and the suggestions and respond. Microsoft Word® Track Changes here I come...
Along the way, I need to write a Dedication, draft the Acknowledgments, and update the section A Word About the Author, then get these to the editor, too. Which starts the next round of edits. Back and forth. Iteration after iteration until the publisher feels the manuscript is ready for formatting. If you aren’t familiar with the editing/galley proof process, check out these blogs from my experience with ALL THAT GLISTERS—
Adventures in Editing Part 1: Manuscript Under Contract, Now What?
Adventures in Editing Part 2: Lessons from a Manuscript Makeover
Adventures in Editing Part 3: But Wait, There’s More!
Galley Proof Nightmares - Part 1: Macro-level Bloopers
Galley Proof Nightmares - Part 2: Micro-level Foul-ups
I’m hoping to get the final galley approved for Oceano Beach Bedlam in the next couple of months. Once that’s done, it’s just a matter of waiting for the publisher to assign a Release Date. I’ll keep you posted.
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