Wednesday 15 March 2017

No Ordinary Killing/Amazon


Thanks to everyone who’s responded so positively to my very first novel, No Ordinary Killing. The book is out on March 19th, published by Endeavour, available in Kindle version via Amazon. The paperback will follow in a couple of months.

Advance buzz and pre-orders got it to No12 last week on AmazonUS/Kindle historical thriller bestsellers. There have been some very flattering reader previews on Goodreads. It’s currently available for a few more days at the super-duper discounted rate of 99p!

In the digital age, the single most important marketing tool/means of promotion is to have reader reviews posted on Amazon. So please, if you buy the book, I’m honoured. But if you also happen to like it, then please please please post a short review on Amazon (English language editions). I’ll be eternally grateful. Thank you!

3 comments:

  1. Hello Jeff. I'm reading your book at the moment. I should explain that I'm a South African and my great grandfather fought in this war.

    As far as the plot and your drawing of the characters is concerned, this is a terrific read.
    However, I must take you to task over a matter of flora. The baobab tree does not occur in South Africa except north of the Tropic of Capricorn. You have them growing in the Karoo. Secondly, the name is spelled bAObab, and not bOAbab.

    I hope you can correct these relatively small matters in future editions.
    Thanks for a great read!

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  2. I just finished the book, a little after midnight. I hope the fact that it kept me enthralled well after bedtime is an indication of the story's strength. Brilliant reading, thank you!

    Will you pursue the story? As I'm sure you know, this was only the beginning. My neighbour's grandmother would never speak to me, because I'm "engels" and she was a child in Kitchener's concentration camps. The boer war isn't over yet.
    I hope you've read Commando by Deneys Reitz, for a view from the other side?
    And now I'm off to give this a 5 star review on Amazon.
    Thanks again.

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  3. Hi Colin,

    Thanks for your very kind words and excellent Amazon review. Much appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed. I note the typo on baobab and will correct it, if I can, in future editions. You're right about their geographic location, though I did read that 100 years ago they were distributed further south. That said, they are such magnificent specimens I couldn't help but squeeze them in. I did see their sister tree, the boab, growing in the desert of Western Australia and I guess it's an image that stuck. I took liberties with the Nama people too. Today they are confined to a region further north, but back then they were more widespread. Plus there was a refugee crisis going on at the time so people were scattered to the four winds.

    As you say, the Boer War impacts South Africa to this very day -- much in the same way that the Civil War does in the US (a conflict with which it shares many characteristics). By contrast, in Britain, it has almost been airbrushed from history -- one, because of the shameful scorched earth/concentration camp aspect; two, because it was utterly eclipsed within a few years by the Great War. Nevertheless, it was an absolutely massive undertaking in its day, half a million Empire troops packed off to the Cape. It was, in many ways a dress rehearsal for what was to come in Europe. I haven't read the Reitz book but will check it out. I am fully understanding of the view from the other side.

    Here in St Albans, England, a few years back, I lived on Ladysmith Road. It ran into Kimberley Road. There are Ladysmith and Kimberley and Mafeking Roads all over the UK, all built in the early 1900s to commemorate the war but, like I say, since edited from history. At the time I had made a couple of trips to your wonderful and fascinating country to research my previous book, Dead Reckoning, and it got the cogs whirring. I'm actually working on the next book as we speak. Ingo Finch will be returning and some of the things laid down in No Ordinary Killing will be followed up!

    Thanks again. Very best wishes. Jeff

    PS If for some reason this message comes through twice, my apologies. I typed it out once and it seemingly vanished into the ether!

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