GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
Dead Is Dead
(Jack Bertolino Book 3)
(Jack Bertolino Book 3)
by John Lansing
Dead Is Dead, the third book in the Jack Bertolino series by John Lansing, is due for release 30 May but is currently available for pre-order. Also available: The Devil's Necktie (read my blog post) and Blond Cargo.
Dead Is Dead is currently on tour with Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
From the "pulse pounding" (Kirkus Reviews) writer of TV hit Walker, Texas Ranger comes a riveting Hollywood thriller that will keep you captivated until the shocking conclusion.
Retired Inspector Jack Bertolino gets his first taste of the erratic nature of Hollywood when A-list producer, George Litton, options one of Jack’s recent cases for a film.
Jack is engaged as the film’s technical advisor, which stars It Girl Susan Blake. But more importantly, he’s on hand to keep a protective eye on Susan, who’s being harassed by a disturbing cyber-stalker.
But that’s not all that starts to turn Jack’s world upside-down. When a six-year-old girl is shot dead in the living room of her family home, just blocks from where the movie is being filmed, Jack realizes there are threads connecting the movie, the murder, a brutal gang of brothers, and a terrifying body count.
Will Jack be able to find justice for the young girl and keep Susan safe? Or will this be his last and fatal trip to Hollywood?
Guest Post by the Author
My Inspiration for This Book
I’m often asked how I come up with my stories. The process usually starts with the germ of an idea, or an event. I keep a thick file of stories I cull from newspapers, magazines, and post-its filled with scribbled conversations and personal experiences.
I look for cases that are filled with conflict. Stories that will force Jack Bertolino out of his comfort zone if he gets involved. If I can hook myself into this new notion, bang out a chapter that excites me, I’ll sign on. And it better engage me, because once committed, the work is going to dominate the next year of my life.
One of the newspaper articles I held onto, and kept re-reading, involved a drive-by gang shooting. One of the bangers bullets flew wide and killed a six-year-old girl, in the front yard of her parent’s home in Compton. An errant bullet, an innocent life cut short, and many lives destroyed.
In my new book, Dead Is Dead, I wanted life to imitate art, and be able to use my personal history in show business to inform the story. And so here’s what I came up with.
George Litton, an A list Hollywood producer, optioned one of Jack’s recent cases for a major motion picture, and retired inspector, Jack Bertolino, gets his first taste of Hollywood politics. The studio agrees to green light the film if Litton can sign New York actress Susan Blake, the new “It Girl,” to play the lead role.
Jack agrees to be hired on as the technical advisor on Litton’s noir police thriller currently filming on location in Venice, California and also starring Susan Blake. But more importantly, he’s there to keep a protective eye on Susan, who’s being harassed by an intense cyber stalker. If Jack makes her feel safe, she’ll stay in LA and star in Litton’s next movie.
And this is where I folded in the newspaper article – a real event – with Hollywood fiction, and decided to write the book.
Susan Blake, heading up a squad of LAPD narcotic detectives, was shooting a violent action sequence. Knocking down the door of a loaded drug cell, with guns blazing.
Just a few blocks away from where Litton’s cop movie was filming, a six-year-old girl was shot to death in the living room of her parents’ home in what appeared to be a drive-by shooting.
And like the other books in my Jack Bertolino series, this one, inciting incident, pulls Jack into a case, which creates a ripple effect, and ties the murder, with the movie, and a deadly gang of brothers.
About the Author
John Lansing, started his career as an actor in New York City. He spent a year at the Royale Theatre performing the lead in the Broadway production of Grease, before putting together a rock ‘n’ roll band and playing the iconic club CBGB.
John closed up his Tribeca loft and headed for the West coast where he landed a co-starring role in George Lucas' More American Graffiti and guest-starred on numerous television shows.
During his fifteen-year writing career, Lansing wrote and produced Walker Texas Ranger, co-wrote two CBS Movies of the Week, and co-executive produced the ABC series Scoundrels.
John's first book was Good Cop, Bad Money, a true crime tome he co-wrote with former NYPD Inspector Glen Morisano.
The Devil's Necktie, his first Jack Bertolino novel, became a best seller on Barnes & Noble and hit #1 in Amazon’s Kindle store in the Crime Fiction genre. Jack Bertolino returns in John’s latest novel, Dead Is Dead, the third book in his detective series.
A native of Long Island, John now resides in Los Angeles.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $15 Amazon gift card OR a paperback (US only) or ebook (international) copy of Dead Is Dead by John Lansing.
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