Nick Bryan

indie authoring

Trapped In The Bargain Basement – Hobson & Choi Case Three – OUT NOW

by

One of those blog posts that kinda writes itself – Trapped In The Bargain Basement, the third book in my mismatched-detective-duo London crime series Hobson & Choi comes out today! It should be out now!

In this third book, the team look into the dark heart of a massive towering shopping centre. But how is it evil? And why? And whose fault is it, and can it be proven? All these answers plus romantic subplot complications in this third volume!

I’ll be honest, it’s a very plot-heavy series, so I’d recommend starting from the first book (The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf) if you’ve not read any before. Helpfully, said debut book is currently free and you can get that from the dedicated page here.

However, I do think Case Three could be one of the best yet and you don’t have to just take my word for it. The first review went up yesterday on fellow indie author Virginia McClain’s blog, which you can see here accompanied by a nice guest post by me about how to turn your serial into a novel.

Here’s a nice pertinent quote from Virginia’s review: “This third installment of the Hobson & Choi mysteries delivers just as much fun and whimsy as the first two books, but with the delightful addition of more wolfhound. My favorite thing about all three books is the characters and their engagement with each other…. Whoever’s perspective we’re following, there’s a good chance that we are going to be forced to take a good look at our own privilege, even if we aren’t forced to stare at it too long, and can safely return to pinning things on the ‘bad guys’ a few pages later. It’s this odd but compelling mixture of dark humor and introspection that keeps me returning to Bryan’s books.”

(It’s weird being referred to by my surname again, by the way. Reminds me of being back at all-boys grammar school.)

So there we go. Trapped In The Bargain Basement is out now in both print and digital and on this page should be a rank of buttons to help you buy it. Enjoy!

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf – Hobson & Choi: Case One! Cover! Blurb! Release date!

by

So. In the not-too-distant future, the first case of Hobson & Choi, my mismatched detective duo London crime series with a darkly comic tone, will be self-publishing. I have a nice cover, a sales blurb-type-thing, a new title, a release date, and I am about to declare all of those things.

Exciting stuff. Probably best to just get on with it. First up, then, is the real meat: cover and blurb time.

The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf

“If we get 400 followers, John Hobson will solve that nasty wolf-murder case for free! Fight the thing himself if he has to! #HobsonVsWolf!”

Angelina Choi was only trying to drum up some Twitter followers and make a good impression on her first day interning at John Hobson’s one-man detective agency.

But the campaign went viral and now they have a murder to solve, no money coming in, and an unwilling Hobson faced with battling some enormous beast.

With both follower and body counts rising, can they crack the case without offending everyone or being eaten by a huge dog?The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf is the first case starring Hobson & Choi, a bickering, mismatched detective duo for 21st century London. This book collects the debut storyline of the hit darkly comic crime web serial, extensively rewritten and improved for this definitive edition.

Also included: book-exclusive bonus story The Left Hand Is Always Right, grim tale from a dark corner of Hobson & Choi’s London – The Left Hand, budget pub of crime.

The What-When-How

So, that’s the what. Next important bit of news, I suppose, is when: The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf will be out on Tuesday July 22nd 2014 in electronic formats. It might take a day or two to get through to all of them, but I’m aiming to be up on Amazon, Nook, Kobo, iBooks and whatever else Smashwords will punt me onto.

For print users, there is a standard paper edition coming in August just as soon as I’ve finished back-and-forthing with proofs. Rest assured, I’ll try my best to make a big deal out of that too.

“But what about me, Nick?”

If you want to get involved now, The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf is up on Goodreads so you can add it to your to-read list and such. Also, if you have a book-review blog or enjoy posting reviews on Amazon/Goodreads/anywhere else book reviews are posted (or both of the above), email me and I may be able to sort out a proof e-copy of the book for consideration in truthful review.

In a similar vein, if you have a blog/other outlet and want to get even more involved, I am well up for talking about the release anywhere that will have me. For discussion of guest posts etc, just email me. I’m sure we can work out some kind of fair arrangement.

And if you want some new H&C material right the hell now, you can still get a complete two-thousand word done-in-one (not part of this book, an entirely standalone new thing) by signing up to my mailing list here or via the form which should appear in the right sidebar of this blog. This will, as you may have guessed, guarantee you an email when I publish The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf.

That’s probably it for now – if I’ve missed any crucial details, let me know in whatever medium pleases you. For now, let’s just take another look at the cover in attractive 3D-rendered form. Thanks to Design For Writers for their lovely work on the actual design, by the way – do contact them if you need anything similar, they’re good.