COLDWATER REVENGE received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author James A. Ross.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
COLDWATER REVENGE, April 27, 2021
What’s the book’s first line?
“Billy Pearce was alive, though neither he nor his killer knew it.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Bad things happen when a bioresearch research company on the verge of bankruptcy agrees to act as a conduit for anonymous shipments of vials, powders and Petri-dishes in exchange for quick cash. Trouble begins when a poxed corpse floats to the top of a nearby lake and an autopsy reveals it to be riddled with deadly toxin.
COLDWATER REVENGE is an atmospheric mystery/thriller that takes place during a ten day period in the Fall of 2002. The setting is a small upstate New York town with a centuries-long tradition of live and let live smuggling across the lake it shares with French Quebec. Murder suspects in a place turned inward by history and geography are of necessity friends, lovers and even family. The brother detectives of COLDWATER REVENGE face difficult moral choices when it appears the killer may be someone close to them. Especially when one begins to suspect the other and the catalyst is an ex-girlfriend they have in common.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I have two sons, now grown. When they were both about to enter high school, their mother remarked that her worst nightmare was that they might fall for the same girl. Viola! That was the spark that led to COLDWATER REVENGE.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
I like to learn something new when I read. Few works of fiction explore financial skullduggery, popular science, politics and law together in coherent narrative. That’s what I tried to do in COLDWATER REVENGE; I hope I succeeded.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Tom Morgan is a modern samurai in a three piece suit, a James Bond with a briefcase. He uses brains before muscle, but is adept with both.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I wrote my first book in college and published my first one the same year I started collecting social security. It’s been a long, but rewarding road.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
No. My debut historical fiction novel (Hunting Teddy Roosevelt) launched in 2020, during the first world-wide bookstore closure since Gutenberg invented the printing press. Nevertheless, it won the Independent Press Distinguished Favorite award for historical fiction, was a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Award for historical fiction and was shortlisted for a Goethe Historical Fiction Award. COLDWATER REVENGE is my debut mystery novel. It launched in April of this year and recently won the Legal/Thriller Firebird Book Award.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’m fortunate to be able to write full time. But at various times I’ve been a Peace Corps Volunteer and CBS News Producer in the Congo, a Congressional Staffer and a Corporate Lawyer.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
About two hours a day, five days a week, with an equal amount of time devoted to sales and marketing.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
I did a story for the MOTH Radio Hour Jim Ross – “Between Two Worlds – MOTH Mainstage – YouTube which I hope to turn into my next book.