Mystery Thriller Week has turned out to be the most productive, collaborative event I’ve ever participated in! Many thanks to Vicki Goodwin, Benjamin Thomas and Sherrie Marshall Spitz for organizing such an amazing event!
I’m so glad you invited me to participate this year and can’t wait for 2018. If you are an author or blogger who is interested in participating next year, you can sign up on their website now.
Reviews of The Lover’s Portrait and Down and Out in Kathmandu
Many thanks to Joanne Van Leerdam for posting this incredible 5 star review of The Lover’s Portrait: An Art Mystery on her blog The Book Squirrel. I am honored, delighted and a bit teary-eyed.
“It may sound contrived or mundane to say that a book is a “page-turner” and that one “couldn’t put it down”, but it really is true of ‘The Lover’s Portrait’. Set in Amsterdam, it’s a well-designed, fabulous historical puzzle, solved decades later by someone who has no intention of becoming a detective; rather, it is through her dogged commitment to the truth that she uncovers the answers. The author has woven together a number of compelling plot lines to construct her own work of art.”
Read the full review here.
Many thanks to Robyn of The Blithering Bibliomaniacs for reviewing both of my novels: The Lover’s Portrait: An Art Mystery and Down and Out in Kathmandu: adventures in backpacking!
The Lover’s Portrait – 4 stars
I love the detail of her review and in particular the ending: “the actual story is just fantastic. It’s beautiful, and sad, and maddening and just… everything.”
Read the full review here.
Down and Out in Kathmandu – 3 stars
Robyn’s the first reviewer to remark on the (intended) humor in the story!
“While it could have been a little quicker in pace, I really enjoyed it. It shows just how easily one can succumb to temptation, and also that every dog does indeed get his day. Adventure, diamonds, travel and culture abound and while I may not have seen eye to eye with her, I look forward to meeting Zelda again on her next adventure.”
Read the full review here.
Fellow Mystery Thriller Week author Ritter Ames also reviewed The Lover’s Portrait! She gave it 5 stars, writing: ‘Such a treat to get immersed into not only a terrific art-themed mystery, but to be able to virtually look over the shoulders of characters charged with the responsibility of returning art to families who lost masterpieces in WWII. Great detail and engaging characters. Will be reading more by this author.”
Read the full review here.
Events
I’ve participated in two live Facebook events for Mystery Thriller Week so far.
The first was a fun and rather silly evening involving lots of travel stories. You can check the transcript here.
The second was an insightful and interesting Q&A on the wonderful Facebook group Books and Everything. It was a pleasure to answer all of these in-depth questions by interested readers. Read the full transcript here.
On the last day of MTW, February 22 from 3-4 p.m. EST I’ll be hosting a third live event! During this one I’ll be releasing a free ARC version of my new travelogue, Notes of a Naive Traveler, based on my real experiences in Nepal and Thailand, the same trip that served as the basis for Down and Out in Kathmandu.
I’ll also be revealing the winner of the Name a Character Mega Giveaway! I’ve gotten 29 wonderful entries so far and am going to have one heck of time choosing!
Bookmark the event link now so you don’t miss the fun!
Featured Articles and Interviews
I’m so pleased to see my article about the Restitution of Artwork Stolen by the Nazis on Mystery Thriller Week‘s website!
The restitution of looted artwork is an extraordinarily complex process, even when the rightful owner has the proper paperwork. This article is based on research I conducted when writing The Lover’s Portrait: An Art Mystery.
Suzanne Adair also shared my article about archival research I’d conducted while writing The Lover’s Portrait, as part of her Relevant History feature on her blog.
“Why shouldn’t authors of historicals settle for that first, superficial information they find during research? My blog guest this week, historical fiction author Jennifer S. Alderson, relates how digging deeper in her research about Nazi art theft revealed a unique plot gem for her novel.”
As Suzanne explains, ‘Relevant History: For many, high school history was boring and extraneous. In this feature on my blog, guests show just how non-boring, non-extraneous history is to people in the 21st century.’
I’m also honored to see The Lover’s Portrait featured on D.E. Haggerty‘s Spotlight on her wonderful blog! Read the post here.
I’m so grateful to Darcia Helle for interviewed me for her feature The Writing Life on her blog Quiet Fury Books. It turned out to be a fun and interesting interview! Read it here.
Catherine Dilts also invited me to participate in her Mystery Thriller Week feature ‘The Mysteries of Indy Publishing’. I’m thrilled with how it turned out; thank you, Catherine! Read it here.
Jackie Boyster of fallinlovewiththesoundofwords blog also invited me to participate in an author interview. It ended up being a fun, travel-related session, thanks Jackie! Read it here.
I also see she’s 40% through The Lover’s Portrait. I can’t wait to read her review!
Name a Character Mega Contest
And last but not least, my Name a Character Mega Contest ends February 21!
Don’t miss your chance to win this great prize package or 1 of 20 eBooks!
Enter now via my blog, Facebook, or Goodreads!
[Tip: you can also enter the eBook competition by commenting with the name of a country you’d like to visit.]
Super Sale!
For the first time ever, Books 1 and 2 of the Adventures of Zelda Richardson series are on sale for 99 cents!
Don’t miss your chance to pick up The Lover’s Portrait: An Art Mystery and Down and Out in Kathmandu: adventures in backpacking now for a ridiculously low price!
If you love art, history and mysteries, The Lover’s Portrait is right up your alley:
American art history student Zelda Richardson discovers clues to the whereabouts of a cache of missing masterpieces buried somewhere in Amsterdam, hidden away in 1942 by a homosexual art dealer who’d rather die than turn his collection over to his Nazi blackmailer.
Pick up your copy today on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other fine retailers.
If you love travel fiction, thrillers and a bit of mystery, you won’t want to miss Down and Out in Kathmandu: adventures in backpacking!
An idealistic backpacker volunteering as an English teacher in Nepal finds herself entangled with an international gang of smugglers whose Thai leader believes she’s stolen their diamonds.
Pick up your copy today on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Smashwords and other fine retailers.
Sale ends March 1!
Happy Reading (and Writing) everyone!
