Lazy Sunday Service

The publisher of Stumped is running a special promo this weekend for kindle readers.  It's £1.99 or $3 on Amazon (co.uk or .com).  So if you're bored of TV and are looking for a fun, light read, clickety-click on the links above.  Here's what some nice folk have said about it.

 "Skip the manicure before reading. Stumped is a head-scratching nail-biter that'll leave your fingers chewed down to the nub."  Gerard Brennan

"Rob Kitchin joins the ranks of top-notch Irish crime writers: Hughes, Glynn, Bruen, French, and Burke."  Patti Abbott

"Trainspotting meets Desperately Seeking Susan..." CrimeFictionLover

"Prose as tight as a corkscrew and a gripping plot full of sharp twists and turns..." Paul D. Brazill

"Funny, engaging, fast-paced and hugely enjoyable."  Michael Russell

"If Seinfeld were updated as a murder mystery novel cast in Ireland, it could spontaneously combust into Rob Kitchin's Stumped."  Elaine Ash (Anonymous-9)

My posts this week:
January reviews
Review of The General Danced at Dawn by George Macdonald Fraser
So much for resolutions...
Review of The Korean War by Max Hastings
This has to stop

Lazy Sunday Service

As regular readers of the blog will be aware, my new novel Stumped was published ten days ago.  I've spotted two reviews, one on Eurocrime by Rich Westwood (of Past Offences) and one on Col's Criminal Library.  I also answered twenty questions on Dana King's blog, One Bite at a Time.  Many thanks to all three.  I also said I would parse out some of the back cover blurbs.  Here's one from Michael Russell, author of the excellent Stefan Gillespie series (for reviews click here and here):

“...a unique combination of comedy, both gentle and black, and Grand Guignol murder and mayhem. The story is full of clever and convincing twists at every turn and is packed with characters, especially villains, drawn with an almost Dickensian colour and intensity. Funny, engaging, fast-paced and hugely enjoyable. And the style is all Rob Kitchin’s. Thoroughly recommended.”

If those have whetted your apetite then 280Steps have an introductory sales price of $2.99 for e-copies to attract early readers via Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon CA, iBooks.  You can also purchase as a paperback via usual outlets.  If you are a book blogger and you are interested in a review copy then leave a comment or email me and I'll arrange for a copy to be sent to you.

Other posts this week

Review of Potsdam Station by David Downing
Review of The Midnight Swimmer by Edward Wilson
Opening up smart cities: A report on the Smart City Expo World Congress
Dying for a dare

Stumped published

Today marks the officially publication date of Stumped, my new screwball noir novel published by 280Steps. Here's the back cover blurb.

It is election time in Ireland and a lot more is about to change for Grant, a new arrival from England, and his wheelchair-bound friend Mary, than their political representatives.

Their friend, Sinead, has been kidnapped, and her brother, Pat, has disappeared. Charged with tracking them down, Grant and Mary are soon caught between a vicious Dublin gangster seeking the return of a valuable package and an ambitious politician determined to protect a secret that might harm his re-election prospects. To make matters worse, when someone they confront is found floating face down in the River Liffey, Inspector McGerrity Black, Dublin’s finest rockabilly cop, is soon hot on their trail. 

With election day looming and Sinead’s fingers turning up on a regular basis they race through County Kildare suburbia, Dublin’s saunas, Manchester’s gay village and rural Mayo, crossing paths with drag queen farmers, corrupt property developers, and sadistic criminal gang members, as they desperately seek a way to save themselves and their friends while all the time staying ahead of the law. 


I'm really delighted with the cover design and thankful to 280Steps, especially Kjetil Hestvedt, for all their work on the book.  I'm also very grateful to those that read beta-copies and those that provided advance reader quotes.  I'll share some of those over the coming days, but here's one from Gerard Brennan:

"This novel is frantic, fierce and fabulous. Skip the manicure before reading. Stumped is a head-scratching nail-biter that'll leave your fingers chewed down to the nub."

You can read a short extract at 280Steps.

You can pick up a copy at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com or other retailers.

Stumped - publisher announcement

My new novel 'Stumped' is to be published by 280Steps in November 2014.  I signed off on the cover yesterday and this morning the details are up on their website, along with some very nice advance review snippets.  I'm really pleased with the cover, which has a nod to the work of Saul Bass and is inspired by the old screwball noir comedies.  The publisher has done a great job on the editing the book and I'm looking forward to it hitting the shelves latter this year.  To my mind, Stumped is by far my best work to date, so it'll be interesting to see how its received.  Regular readers of the blog will know that the book was nameless for a while and I asked for suggestions.  Cian O'Callaghan supplied the title, so many thanks to him.  Roll on November!