Gum In Her Hair: A Tom Lingquist Mystery

He's back! Tom Lingquist - part-time movie theater employee, full-time Private Investigator, with a new mystery, currently available in paperback and ebook format, with the hardcover volume coming soon. It's currently available anywhere books are sold online, like Amazon or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer to check it out from your local library, you may, but if they don't have it in stock or on order, you'll simply have to request it - most public libraries like carrying books they know people want to read, unless it's a book not offered by the distributor; all of my books are available for them to order via Ingram, Hoopla and Overdrive.

So, what's it about?

What's not in the description that I left for the readers to discover is that I devote some time to unveil elements of Tom's personal life. Characters introduced in the first book, Baroness Sells Books, - Alex, Mike, Grimmer, Bailey, Vanessa, L.T. - return in this one. You'll also be introduced to new characters, like Grace, Pia, Tara, Lisa,  Vivian, Tony, Christine and Elizabeth. Characters who played key roles in Baroness Sells Books - Melody, Esther, Rob - get mentioned in a coda of sorts. The events in this new book take place during the same year as the first one, roughly 8 months later, in time for Halloween, available to own on Summerween. 

Also available is a re-release of my Urban Fantasy novella, As She Wishes . Frequent visitors to the blog might recall this title, when it premiered as an ebook in 2014. 

        Cover to the hardcover edition.

        Cover to the paperback edition.

I've given it a new cover for its debut in paperback and hardcover. It is also available to purchase at Barnes and Noble online. Purchasing any of my books in hardcover or paperback at Barnes and Noble's website allows you the option of picking up your copy at any of their brick-and-mortar locations. And yes, if you prefer to check it out at your local library, it is available for them to put on order upon request, if they have not done so.

So click on the links and give either or both books a try. Happy reading!

Make A Promise, Keep A Promise/Promises Made, Promises Kept

#MakeAPromiseKeepAPromise

#PromisesMadePromisesKept

Tom Lingquist...is returning.

"TO THE LIBRARY!"

    Technically, it would be at the library

    across from this location; kinda ironic

    that the most iconic location for a 

    library is more like a museum..

I've achieved 2 new goals in getting my first mystery novel published: the hardcover edition is now available as a traditional, clothbound hardcover with dust jacket.

                    The Back Cover.

This edition is not just available to order at Amazon..it's also available for libraries to stock on their shelves. If you haven't given my book a try because it's not available at the public library to borrow, that's not a problem; simply ask your librarian to order a copy - it is available through Ingram, the main distribution company that libraries order books from to fill and update their shelves with new books; most libraries have a "Suggest a book"/"Recommend a book"/"Request a book" form on the homepage of their website; requesting this book will also help other readers of mystery and detective fiction find the debut of a new series to read:

The ISBN for Baroness Sells Books (ISBN-13: 9798295816307) helps the library sort through thousands of entries in the catalog. Once they order it, you'll only need your library card..

I'll end this with an excerpt from the new hardcover edition of Baroness Sells Books: A Tom Lingquist Mystery by Joseph Adorno :

"Baroness Sells Books" UPDATE

New year, new and improved cover for Baroness Sells Books: A Tom Lingquist Mystery, available only at Amazon:

   

              The cover to the 

   Hardcover & Paperback editions.    

    Cover to the Ebook on Kindle.

You may recall, my first attempt was to have the cover be the cover of Baroness Holly, the novel written by the unfortunate first-time author, part-time movie theater employee, Adrian Hernandez: 

The Ebook cover used a simple black-and-red design, a riff on having a character named Baroness:

    This one's for the G.I. Joe fans.

The next attempt is what I call the grainy photograph cover. It's supposed to be an image of Melody Valle, one of the characters in the book. My issue with it was that I could never get it to look sharp enough without making it more grainy. Another problem, similar to the Barones Holly gimmick cover, is that it could be confused with being erotica, rather than a private eye novel.

                 Melody Valle.

One thing that stuck around after that iteration was the design and colors I used for the titles.

         Almost there. Nice try.

And here we are. For the first time, the movie theater setting at the heart of the book gets it's turn on the cover, while the initial illustrated Baroness Holly novel-as-the-cover concept gets to stay in there. The debut of part-time movie theater employee, full-time private eye Tom Lingquist now has a cover that's a keeper. I'm sticking with this one. Once again, it's only available at Amazon

Baroness Sells Books - UPDATE

My mystery novel, Baroness Sells Books: A Tom Lingquist Mystery is only available  at Amazon.com. I'm halfway through the next book featuring Tom Lingquist. I'll say one thing about it: if your favorite parts of Baroness Sells Books was all the little details about Tom's job at the Persephone29 multiplex, there's more of that in this next one. If your favorite part of that book was the twists and turns that connected a silly romance novel to the deaths of three people, there's more of that in the next book, too. If your favorite part of Baroness Sells Books were my descriptions of the various attractive women Tom Lingquist encounters in the book, there's more of that, too. If your favorite part of Baroness Sells Books is Tom Lingquist as a detective, well, there's more of him, too. If your favorite part of Baroness Sells Books is that it was about the same length as a Goosebumps book, well...this next one might be a little longer. If your favorite part of Baroness Sells Books were my covers, I've got something in mind for this next one, too.

And if your favorite part of Baroness Sells Books is that it was available only at Amazon and the ebook is FREE if you're a Kindle Unlimited subscriber? The next book will be there, too.

Baroness Sells Books: A Tom Lingquist Mystery by Joseph Adorno

My private eye novel, Baroness Sells Books: A Tom Lingquist Mystery is available to purchase at Amazon in 3 formats: Hardcover, Paperback and Ebook on Kindle. Kindle subscribers can read the Ebook for free.

The Plot:

Baroness Holly is a self-described wallflower who decides to throw caution to the wind and sow her wild oats with some of her co-workers at a movie theater. She is a fictional character in a novel written by the late first-time author Adrian Hernandez, who may have taken inspiration from one of his co-workers, and whose sudden death from a Fentanyl overdose has put a halt on chronicling Baroness Holly's further misadventures.

When Adrian's heartbroken mother refuses to believe her son was a drug addict, her lawyer enlists private eye Tom Lingquist to investigate. Lingquist has some surprises of his own, as he's one of Adrian's co-workers at his job - a movie theater!

Lingquist didn't expect a mystery to be included with taking a part-time job, but he'll accept the challenge and solve the puzzle: who would murder an unknown author, all because a character like Baroness sells books?

 Those among you who have read my blog posts over the years, particularly the posts in the past that dabbled with short fiction, will enjoy getting a larger dose of my writing ability, as I juggle a cast of characters, twists and turns. There's a clever detective, attractive women, sleazy men, workplace humor, drugs, deductive reasoning, clues, a cat, a Fiat, cartoon character references, some "What was he thinking when he wrote this?" moments..and more.

 As for that cover with the attractive girl, that's the cover image to Baroness Holly, the book that poor Adrian Hernandez thought would be a good idea to write up.

  Baroness Sells Books: A Tom Lingquist Mystery (aka, Book 1 of The Tom Lingquist Mysteries) is available only at Amazon  (type "Joseph Adorno" in the search and the ebook cover comes up first, with links to the hardcover and paperback in the "available in other formats" section; when I tried typing a direct link, it didn't work when I tested it, so I didn't want to roll the dice on that).

Happy reading!