Hello all!

There are a couple of FANTASTIC books by Ru Pringle free on Kindle this week!

October Song

Pick up your copy January 25th-29th!!

Amazon U.S.

Amazon Canada

Synopsis

Coira Keir is a long-serving police officer. Abrasive, but respected by her peers, she has an enviable track record. When a bomb explodes outside the North British Council Building at Holyrood, Edinburgh, dozens of bystanders are left dead. Among the critically wounded is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, whose safety was Keir’s responsibility.

Now Keir is missing.

Army veteran Sebastian Blakeslee is an operational advisor for MI5, the domestic security agency of the United Kingdom. Lorna Ainsworth is the agency’s territorial chief. Together, they find themselves leading a joint police and MI5 taskforce. Its mission: track Keir down before more bombs go off. What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase towards the front of an intensifying war – along a wild coast where thousands of desperate boat-borne refugees are hiding. Meanwhile, as the taskforce will discover to its cost, someone seems prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to stop Keir being found.

With elements of police procedural, spy novel and political action thriller, October Song is both a darkly gripping roller-coaster ride and a blistering reflection on a world on the edge of collapse.

‘The little electric hatchback had vaulted cleanly over a drystone wall, mangling itself as it ploughed a furrow down a steep bank, flipping on to its side as it hit a half-buried boulder and slamming to a stop against a tree. As she sat suspended, watching airbags deflate, she could hear police sirens approaching. She didn’t dare move. Perhaps three minutes later, a police convoy screamed past. As if it would help her, she sat stock still as the sirens were killed. Flashing red and blue lights illuminated tree-tops where the vehicles had pulled up a few hundred metres further on.‘

‘As she drifts into the narrows there’s a noise from downwind, somewhere in front of her. She squints into the dark and raises her binoculars again. What the …? Some kind of battle is taking place on the bridge. Breathing very fast, she strains for details. Even in moonlight, it’s too dim for her night vision to make out much. There’s a scrum of movement, and a growing roar of voices. And clanging – lots of clanging. Also thumps, like haunches of meat being dropped on a floor. She sees a flash of something bright and metallic. There are screams. Something falls noisily off the bridge right in front of her, barely three kayak lengths away.‘

Readers are saying:

‘ * * * * * I’ve not spent seven straight hours reading a novel for a very long time, I was engrossed from the first chapter.‘ P Quigley, Amazon UK, Oct 2018

‘ * * * * * Best thriller I’ve read in years. You’ll be hooked, and surprised, right to the end.‘ Maggie Irvine, Kobo Oct 2018

‘ * * * * * A fabulous read, and one which keeps you “turning” the pages!‘ Mike B, Amazon UK, Oct 2018

‘ * * * * * I devoured this novel on holiday … gets you compulsively turning the pages to find out what happens but at the same time you don’t want to reach the end because then the experience will be over.‘ Angela Barron, Amazon UK, Oct 2018

‘ * * * * * This book held me captive from beginning to end. A great read. Well-written and thought provoking. Hope there’s a sequel!Anonymous customer, Amazon Ca, Nov 2018

A Time of Ashes

Pick up your copy for FREE January 26th-30th!

Amazon U.S.

Amazon Canada

Synopsis

Before the Corruption came, Murrin Kentle lived in a world where the largest island could be walked across in a day, and humans traded and fished in bladeships made from the bones of the gigantic and bizarre sea monsters patrolling its stormy, bottomless oceans. As a truthkeep of the Brotherhood of the First Mind, it’s been his duty to fight the decay of knowledge with religious fervour. A fervour he’s increasingly struggled to maintain.

Before the Corruption came, Sheehan hahe Seeheeli was a carefree countess of the Shi’iin. Amphibious and matriarchal, her people have maintained an uneasy coexistence with the human scholars dominating the islands. Then an emissary of the gods brings news of an impending catastrophe. Now, she and Murrin must embark on a desperate voyage in the hope of salvation, although both the subject of their search and the path they must take remain stubbornly obscure.

Before the Corruption came, a wild young man named Coll grew up in a desert town, consumed by rage over what was done to his mother. His thirst for retribution will set in motion a train of events not even the gods could fully have foretold.

Now the Corruption is here, and nothing in Murrin’s world, nor any of the worlds of the Sundered Realm, will ever be the same.

BY TURNS TOUCHING, humorous, tense and horrific, with elements of fantasy, SF and steampunk, A Time of Ashes is a thrilling and wildly imaginative tale of existential discovery: the first part of Fate and the Wheel, a beautifully written epic tale of friendship, loss, revenge, war, and survival against crushing odds.

‘The rumble of the approaching fire was like something physical. It made his bones vibrate, more insistent by the second until he thought his ears would rupture. Those left on deck not preoccupied with trying to keep the rigging from flying apart watched their nemesis with pop-eyed incantations or yells of terror.‘

‘Chet knew this rootless, prickling sensation in the pit of his gut. How could he forget? It had consumed him that day on the dais. His first meeting with Murrin – his first real view of the man, his cognast friend Gald’s old-man scrawniness making Murrin seem even more absurdly, enduringly massive. He had seemed like something built to last forever.‘

Readers are saying:

‘ * * * * * I loved this. It’s extremely well written in a very visual style – almost cinematographic – and the characterisation is fantastic. The individuals may be flawed but they’re all very relatable. I quickly got very invested in their story … It seems like a classic quest story but although it’s a page-turner there’s a depth to it which hints than there’s a lot more to the story than meets the eye.‘ Suzi Baker, GoodReads July 2018

‘ * * * * * A marvellously clever and inventive read. Can’t wait to read the next one. A total original.‘ Maggie Irvine, Kobo, August 2018