Monday, July 12, 2010

CFBA: Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand

Song Stuck on the Brain: Figaro and Cleo from Disney. Sang it to my great nephew this morning.




This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing:



Back On Murder
Bethany House (July 1, 2010)



by
J. Mark Bertrand





MY TAKE:

Back on Murder takes me back to old school murder mysteries. The gruff detective battling his way back into the saddle while healing old wounds. The case that can either save his career or ruin it permanantly. The new partner he's not sure he wants. It's great. And looking at those story bones you might think, "ho hum, been there read that". But Bertrand has done a great job in creating the cast and the plot. The story quickly begins to feel like a long lost friend. Familiar in goodways, but with so many new layers to uncover. The mystery is well done, with mulitple cases woven together seemlessly. I closed the book and felt a little sad that I was done. I look forward to his next release.



ABOUT THE BOOK:

Det. Roland March is a homicide cop on his way out.

A missing girl. A corrupt investigation. They thought they could get away with it, but they forgot one thing:

Roland March is BACK ON MURDER...

Houston homicide detective Roland March was once one of the best. Now he's disillusioned, cynical, and on his way out. His superiors farm him out on a variety of punishment details. But when he's the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he's given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he's transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlight--the disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist's teen daughter.

All he has to do? Find the missing teenage daughter of a Houston evangelist that every cop in town is already looking for. But March has an inside track, a multiple murder nobody else thinks is connected. With the help of a youth pastor with a guilty conscience who navigates the world of church and faith, March is determined to find the missing girls while proving he's still one of Houston's best detectives.

Battling a new partner, an old nemesis, and the demons of his past, getting to the truth could cost March everything. Even his life.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Back On Murder, go HERE.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

J. Mark Bertrand has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. After one hurricane too many, he left Houston and relocated with his wife Laurie to the plains of South Dakota.

Mark has been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, was the foreman of a hung jury in Houston, and after relocating served on the jury that acquitted Vinnie Jones of assault. In 1972, he won an honorable mention in a child modeling contest, but pursued writing instead. Besides his personal website, visit his Crime Genre website at http://www.crimegenre.com/.

The next book in this series, Pattern Of Wounds will come out in the summer of 2011.

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