Hi peeps! We have Amy Lane stopping by today on the first stop on the tour for her upcoming release Red Fish, Dead Fish, we have a fantastic guest post/interview where Amy gives her own answers to the questions she’ll be asking other authors during the tour, we also have a great excerpt so you can check out Red Fish, Dead Fish. So peeps check out the post and enjoy! <3 ~Pixie~

Red Fish, Dead Fish

Amy Lane

They must work together to stop a psychopath—and save each other. 

Two months ago Jackson Rivers got shot while trying to save Ellery Cramer’s life. Not only is Jackson still suffering from his wounds, the triggerman remains at large—and the body count is mounting. 

Jackson and Ellery have been trying to track down Tim Owens since Jackson got out of the hospital, but Owens’s time as a member of the department makes the DA reluctant to turn over any stones. When Owens starts going after people Jackson knows, Ellery’s instincts hit red alert. Hurt in a scuffle with drug-dealing squatters and trying damned hard not to grieve for a childhood spent in hell, Jackson is weak and vulnerable when Owens strikes. 

Jackson gets away, but the fallout from the encounter might kill him. It’s not doing Ellery any favors either. When a police detective is abducted—and Jackson and Ellery hold the key to finding her—Ellery finds out exactly what he’s made of. He’s not the corporate shark who believes in winning at all costs; he’s the frightened lover trying to keep the man he cares for from self-destructing in his own valor.

Release date: 4th August 2017
Pre-order: Dreamspinner Press ebook | Dreamspinner Press paperback | Amazon

Good Friends!

By Amy Lane

So, I’ll be honest. I’m done talking about myself at this point. I can give it a good go, but Amy is essentially the most boring human on the planet, and I don’t want to bore you by talking about me, when what I really want to be talking about is BOOKS!

And lucky me, I have a lot of good friends who write that very thing!

Last year, when I published Fish Out of Water, I was pretty excited to be publishing romantic suspense—it’s been one of my favorite subgenres for years. From the cozy to the thriller, having dash of mystery and a soupcon of danger in my romance usually makes the smexy times just that more exciting. Of course, I lean a little heavy on the smex for hardcore mystery fans, and a little heavy on the suspense for the hardcore romance fans, but one thing I’ve learned in this business is that you can’t please everybody—you can just write the kind of book you’d like to read.

And lucky me, I’ve had a chance to read a whole lot of good books—and have gotten to know some of the people who write them.

To that end, when I realized I absolutely could not, in any way shape or form, talk about myself anymore, I thought, “Hey! I have a whole lot people I can talk about instead!” So that’s what I decided to do for this book tour! I rang up my friends, gave them a completely voluntary interview, and told them I’d totally pimp out their work as examples of other fun action/suspense romance that a reader could enjoy when they had read the heck out of Jackson and Ellery in the Fish books and perchance craved more.

Now, I’m not left completely out of the action—I asked my friends a bunch of questions, it’s only fair I answer them myself.  So I’ll talk a little about those questions here, and tomorrow?  I’ll let my peeps speak for me.

Here we go!

*  For the genre specialists: Genre expectations are fairly important–in YOUR words, what are the differences between romantic suspense, mystery suspense, cozy, noir, and thrillers?  Which do you feel you write–and why?  (This question is an interview in itself. No shame in just taking this one and walking away.)

I have tried my hand at cozies—a mystery that is solved by a non-law-enforcement, average everyday type— in Left on St. Truth-be-Well, and romance with a dash of mystery/suspense in Clear Water and Bonfires. In those stories, the heroes have a full- time job (falling in love), and a part time job (solving the mystery).  Full-on romantic suspense or romantic thriller usually involve someone in law enforcement—or at least embroiled in the killer’s life. The main characters in romantic suspense have the same jobs but in a different priority. Stopping the bad guy comes first, but falling in love is a close second.   Fish Out of Water and Red Fish, Dead Fish are romantic suspense—our heroes are involved in law enforcement, and they continue, book after book, to stop the bad guy, while exploring their own relationship.  In the tradition of the old Hart to Hart or Moonlighting television series, or J.D. Robb’s iconic In Death novels, we’re rooting for our heroes not just to save the day, but save each other as well.

*  Which romantic suspense or mystery author would you recommend and why? 

I’m going to take the easy way out and recommend all of the authors who will show up on my blog tour—Rayna Vause, Tere Michaels, Ava Drake, Andrew Grey, Karen Rose, Charlie Cochet, Kim Fielding, and Melinda Leigh. (That way I can keep the list under two pages long 😉

*  What do you think is the most delicious part of a suspense novel or a mystery?

The end, when you don’t know if they’re going to make it and they finally know what they mean to each other and oh my God they can’t lose each other now and the bad guy has a gun or a knife and GAAAAHHH!!!

*  Tell me about body counts–seriously. How many corpses make a good suspense novel, and why? 

Well, sometimes, none. Sometimes, it can just be a mystery, and that’s fine. Sometimes one body and a few disturbing instances will do. It all depends on the excitement factor—and how intense a story you’re telling, how high you want the stakes to be.

*  What’s your most creative way to kill someone?  

As an paranormal/fantasy/Alternative Universe writer, I’ve had a character self-immolate, a couple of them explode, and one guy got his throat ripped out by another character’s teeth. I like that last one best.

*  If you’re more about the noir or the cozy, why DON’T you like a body count? 

I do like to keep the body count low, so that each death matters. Too many deaths, and you lose the poignancy of each one.

*  Dish about TV shows–which ones do you love and which ones do you hate from a suspense POV?

Which TV show/movie do you most want your books to resemble?  Well, I loved Castle for its predictability and its quirkiness.  The Gift, a movie staring Cate Blanchett is one of my comfort-creepy movies, and I will watch Mission Impossible movies about a thousand times.

*  When you read outside your genre, what’s your candy? (I ask everybody this–I think it’s fascinating!)  

At this point, it’s all candy. Mystery, suspense, Alternative Universe, cozies—it’s all wonderful.

*  Have you ever freaked yourself right out by writing a suspense scene?  Which scene, and do you think it made the book better? 

When I was writing an Alternative Universe ghost story, I would be in the middle of creepy stuff and my dog would be snoring in the corner by my computer. The walls would amplify his snores and I couldn’t figure out where the noise was coming from.  Freaked me out completely!

*  And for MY interview, I’m going to ask you guys to ask me questions in the comments if you like—I’ll answer if I can!

So tune in for the rest of the blog tour—I’ve got some great authors, some of whom you might not have read, and a whole lot of different opinions about mystery, romance, and suspense!

Excerpt!

Prologue—Belly Up

“ELLERY, HAND me my phone,” Jackson mumbled. “It’s ringing.”

“You’re not back at work yet,” Ellery slurred. “You have two more weeks.”

Jackson rolled over on top of him and then yelped as he reached unwisely for the phone Ellery had strategically put on his own end table. For a moment, Ellery was covered with tense, warm man, and then he shoved Jackson off.

“I’ll get it!” he snapped, officially awake. “Jesus, what in the—”

“It’s Mack’s ringtone,” Jackson defended. “I told him what we were looking for.”

Ellery tried not to roll his eyes. Mack. This was the same Mack who had helped Jackson out when Jackson had wrecked the car unofficially helping Ellery with an investigation.

At the time, Ellery had been so happy to get Jackson back in one bruised piece—and on a plane to somewhere he could rest without incident—that he hadn’t questioned this Mack’s existence. Once he found out that Mack Flanders had been Jackson’s bedmate a few years ago, he’d been irritated but unsurprised.

Now that Mack was calling them in the whore of dawn’s sweaty crack, Ellery wanted to kick him in the balls.

Except….

“Cottage Park, near the outbuilding. Yeah, I got it. There’s a way to get in there, right? I’m not climbing the fucking fence. Of course there’s cops and crime scene tape. That’s not what I’m asking.” The voice on the other end spoke patiently, and some of Jackson’s defensiveness seeped away. “Okay. Thanks, Mack. Owe you another one. No, sorry—told you. Not paying favors that way anymore, but it’s nice of you to ask.”

“God in heaven,” Ellery muttered.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“We’ll be there.” Ellery rolled out of bed and headed for the shower. Thirty seconds to run some soap under his pits and pack a suit for court later that day. He could do it.

“Crap,” he could hear Jackson say as he closed the shower door. “We’ll be there. Thanks.”

Five seconds later, Jackson stepped into the shower with him and grabbed his own shower gel from the corner of the tub. They’d had some nice times in there together—particularly when Jackson was still healing from his gunshot wound and his shattered scapula and needed Ellery’s help.

They’d had a few after that too, but not today.

“Body?” Ellery asked, not really needing confirmation.

“Yeah.” Jackson scrubbed his pits with care but not vigor—moving was still painful and probably would be for a little while. He’d gotten out of the hospital less than six weeks earlier. By all rights he should still be chilling in the fall sunshine, maybe swimming in the pool at the gym—but not Jackson.

Ellery had needed to haul him to San Diego to give himself time to recover.

It was even more infuriating that he was right today. There really was no time to rest.

“Our kind?”

Jackson shook the water from his dark blond hair and squinted at Ellery through eyes as green as bottle glass. “We have a kind of dead body? Most couples just go with favorite song.”

Ellery soaped his hair efficiently. “You know what I mean.”

Jackson grabbed the shampoo. “Yeah.”

Jackson, the private investigator at Ellery’s defense firm, had gotten shot helping Ellery bring down a ring of corrupt cops. They’d put the ringleaders in prison—but one of the underlings had gotten away.

Turned out he was the one the police should have been chasing all along.

“Young,” Jackson said, ticking off items on the list. “This one’s Hispanic. Male, but slender. Recent involvement with drugs. Maybe a week of turning tricks.”

“Dirty pretty,” Ellery confirmed grimly. They had been Scott Bridger’s words, actually, one of the men they’d brought down, to describe the kind of person who had disappeared on his partner’s watch. Gender hadn’t mattered, nor race. Just a little bit of street dirt and some physical beauty.

Tim Owens liked to take the “dirty pretty” ones and make them not so pretty anymore.

“Mack says there’s something new about this one,” Jackson said, stepping in front of him to rinse his hair.

Ellery wasn’t sure why he did it, except it was not yet four in the morning and he and Jackson were naked together, and that wasn’t something he’d learned to take for granted yet.

He wrapped his arms around Jackson’s shoulders and kissed his neck, softly, gently, with just enough tongue and teeth to make Jackson regret they weren’t making love this morning but going to work instead.

Jackson tensed for a moment, probably caught off guard, but then he relaxed into Ellery’s arms and leaned his head back.

“What?” he asked suspiciously.

Well, Ellery had been known to be an autocratic bastard—that was probably warranted.

“Just….” Ellery couldn’t find words. Or he could find words, but neither of them had said the words yet, and you just didn’t spring those words on a guy whose entire life had been an act of insufficient self-protection.

With a sinuous movement, Jackson turned his head and caught Ellery’s mouth, something he couldn’t have done a month ago, something that felt huge and necessary now.

“Don’t worry about me, Counselor,” Jackson said cheekily, pulling away. “But the cuddle was downright friendly.”

Well, sure. Friendly. Just two friendly lovers getting out of bed extra early to go catch a serial killer. Nothing strange about that at all.

“Just be careful,” Ellery said, trying not to sound bitchy or officious and failing. “He’s got your cell phone. You know that, right?”

“Well, he had it for a couple of hours before it got deactivated,” Jackson said. “And yeah—fuck me for owning an Android with the shitty security. Thank you so much for the iPhone, Ellery. Now I am safe from serial killers everywhere.”

The snark in his voice was the only thing that kept Ellery from conking him over the head and tying him to the bed in a completely nonkinky way.

Fish Out of Water series!

Fish Out of Water

PI Jackson Rivers grew up on the mean streets of Del Paso Heights—and he doesn’t trust cops, even though he was one. When the man he thinks of as his brother is accused of killing a police officer in an obviously doctored crime, Jackson will move heaven and earth to keep Kaden and his family safe. 

Defense attorney Ellery Cramer grew up with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, but that hasn’t stopped him from crushing on street-smart, swaggering Jackson Rivers for the past six years. But when Jackson asks for his help defending Kaden Cameron, Ellery is out of his depth—and not just with guarded, prickly Jackson. Kaden wasn’t just framed, he was framed by crooked cops, and the conspiracy goes higher than Ellery dares reach—and deep into Jackson’s troubled past.

Both men are soon enmeshed in the mystery of who killed the cop in the minimart, and engaged in a race against time to clear Kaden’s name. But when the mystery is solved and the bullets stop flying, they’ll have to deal with their personal complications… and an attraction that’s spiraled out of control.

Dreamspinner Press ebook | Dreamspinner Press paperback | Audible US | Audible UK | Amazon

About Amy!

Amy Lane exists happily with her noisy family in a crumbling suburban crapmansion, and equally happily with the surprisingly demanding voices who live in her head.

She loves cats, movies, yarn, pretty colors, pretty men, shiny things, and Twu Wuv, and despises house cleaning, low fat granola bars, and vainglorious prickweenies.

She can be found at her computer, dodging housework, or simultaneously reading, watching television, and knitting, because she likes to freak people out by proving it can be done.

Connect with Amy:

 Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook Group | Goodreads

Check out the other blogs on the tour!