Author Guest Post with Dana King: Off the Books

Nick Forte has lost his detective agency and makes ends meet doing background checks and other paperwork.

Welcome to the March 27th stop on the blog tour for Off the Books by Dana King with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Author Guest Post

Research can be risky business. Not only is there the threat of disappearing down the proverbial rabbit hole when you should be writing, there’s also the chance you’ll learn something you really didn’t want to know. Sometimes that helps your story. Sometimes not.

Three of my books have focused on groups that do not inspire sympathy outside their circle, such as men’s rights activists (Bad Samaritan) and white supremacists (White Out); the newest, Off the Books, deals with human trafficking. All were areas where I knew enough to come up with a viable story, but I needed to go deeper if I wanted to do them justice.

When I say “do them justice,” I mean I didn’t want their positions or the characters portrayed to be caricatures. These groups and their members had to seem real if readers were to take them seriously. Besides, no one is fully described by their worst, or best, attributes. I wanted to be as fair as I could, and the best way to do that was not to put words into anyone’s mouth. Much of the research for those books was spent finding what people actually said and did so I would have a frame of reference.

They were worse than I imagined. Nothing I came up with even scratched the surface of how foul these organizations’ beliefs and actions were. Many nights I stopped looking into what might have been promising leads because I just couldn’t bring myself to read any more.

They’re better books than they would have been otherwise, but I learned things I was far happier not knowing.

About the Book

Off the Books
Nick Forte Detective Novels Book Six
by Dana King

Published 15 March 2024

Genre: Hard-boiled Private Investigator
Page Count: 205
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Nick Forte has lost his detective agency and makes ends meet doing background checks and other paperwork. He pays for everything else through jobs he takes for cash and without any written contract. What starts out as a simple investigation into a traffic accident exposes Forte to people who have truly lost everything and have no viable hope of reclaiming their lives. That doesn’t sit well with Forte, leading him and his friend Goose Satterwhite to take action that ends more violently than anyone expected.

“The return of Chicago private detective Nick Forte, the tough protagonist of two Shamus Award nominated novels, is well worth the wait. Nick’s latest escapade Off The Books—the first in nearly six years—will surely earn additional praise for the acclaimed series.”

-J.L .Abramo, Shamus Award-winning author of Chasing Charlie Chan.

“Nick Forte reminds me of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser: a PI with a finely tuned sense of justice who doesn’t take anyone’s s***. Any fan of hardboiled detective fiction is in for a helluva ride.”

–Chris Rhatigan, former publisher of All Due Respect Books

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Excerpt

I’m a professional snoop. People’s privacy went only as far as the task at hand in my profession. I executed search warrants as a cop and opened more drawers than an Ethan Allen quality control inspector since I went private. Tonight I felt as if I was violating something sacred as I looked through what passed for personal effects in that trailer. Beside each bunk were two banker’s boxes that held what appeared to be all the earthly possessions of the men (and women?) who lived here. Most were family photos. Children’s drawings. Bibles and small statues of saints. A T-shirt or two. The random pair of jeans. I had no idea how often supplies were replenished. Must have been like Red Cross day in the POW camp this place kept reminding me of.

Bare bulbs suspended from the ceiling with reflectors above them were the only light sources. No clocks. A small shrine to the Virgin Mary occupied a corner of the kitchen.

What little fresh air I felt came through screened vents in the ceiling. I pulled a bunk over so I could peek through and found vent covers six inches above the opening. Air could pass through, but nothing else. Acrylic shields swung up to cover the vent in cold weather.

I photographed it all. After saving about fifty images I returned everything to where it had been and let myself out. Made sure the lock was in the same position I found it. Walked back to my car with my head on a swivel, alert to anything that might be a threat, or possibly useful when I came back.

About the Author

Off the Books is Dana King’s sixth Nick Forte private investigator novel. Two of the earlier books (A Small Sacrifice and The Man in the Window) received Shamus Award nominations from the Private Eye Writers of America. Dana also writes the Penns River series of police procedurals set in a small Western Pennsylvania town, as well as one standalone novel, Wild Bill, which is not a Western. His short fiction appears in numerous anthologies and web sites. He is a frequent panelist at conferences and reads at Noirs at Bars from New York to North Carolina.

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Giveaway Alert!

Dana King will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner.

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