Hi, lovelies!! It gives me great pleasure today to host Reed Stirling and his new book, “The Palimpsest Murders,” here on FAB!! For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $15 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Reed Stirling and to increase your chances of winning!!
Thanks for stopping by!! Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!
The Palimpsest Murders
A European Travel Mystery
by Reed Stirling
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GENRE: Historical Mystery
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BOOK BLURB:
Day one: check-in on the Iphigenia, a Boat & Bike home for thirty guests of diverse backgrounds on a one week excursion through Holland and Belgium. Personalities clash, conflicts arise.
Day seven: a body is found in canal waters at the stern of the boat. On the final morning a second body is discovered.
Who among the cyclists and crew is hateful and motivated enough to kill? Twice. How are the two murders related? Why two coins for the ferryman? Is the phoenix jug, both admired and derided, merely symbolic? How does the death mask of Agamemnon lead to resolution?
Determining truth entails travelling from Amsterdam to Bruges to Paris to the ancient site of Mycenae in Greece where what’s past is shown to be prologue.
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EXCERPT THREE:
I delved into all the detail, all the different personalities on the Iphigenia and how they clashed from time to time, all the conflicts, minor and major, Mitchell Monk versus Conrad Steele or Virgil Troyes, for instance, Boyd Alexander and his resistance to the pressure of being other than what he was, Alexsis versus the world Kat, her mother, dominated and from which her brother Forrest was banned. Unsettling for guests, I emphasized, the tension a single individual could introduce into a setting of shared expectancy, that individual being no other than Alexsis with whom I sympathized.
I stopped to take a breath. For a moment or two David and Margo registered little more than surprise, then their awe-filled expressions of incredulity filled the void that their silence had left.
Going on, I described Conrad Steele’s corpse lying in a heap on the quay in all its appalling insinuation, and my impression at the time of the absolute zero of being. Did I recognize then a reflection of my own reality? I definitely did and there was nothing I could do to edit out anything extraneous to the hard, cold fact a man I was acquainted with had been brutally murdered. Patricide. The next day revealed a case of matricide. I added what Lucy Hunter and I in Paris concluded after coming to a clearer understanding of the facts. If all the material we had to consider was accurate, then Forrest and Alexsis Troyes literally got away with murder.
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GUEST POST:
Overcoming Writing Obstacles
The plot of The Palimpsest Murders revolves around thirty or so characters who have embarked on a week-long Boat and Bike excursion through Holland and Belgium. The storyline begins in Amsterdam, continues in Paris, and ends in Greece. During this time, two murders happen in real time and other suspicious deaths are uncovered as part of the backstory. All are reflected in events that echo the classical past. Significantly the name of the boat is The Iphigenia.
I subtitled this novel, which is literary in tone, A European Travel Mystery. In some ways it fits the cosy mystery genre but in no way is it all that cosy because it necessitates travel, even in the imaginative sense, and a basic familiarity with characters in Homer’s The Iliad, especially with the royal murders involved in the aftermath to the Trojan War.
One obstacle in developing the plot of this novel was conjuring up so many characters and have them be in one place at one time; keeping them under control, from captain and crew to all the cycling guests, was going to be a challenge. Each character had to be plausible, realistic, grounded in recognizable attitudes and traits, be they likeable or not. Some would definitely be likeable and some definitely not. From the get-go, each one was to be both a potential victim and a potential murderer; who, when, why, and where would prove to be an essential part of the enduring mystery.
To deal with such diversity, I created a file for each character and relied on it for verisimilitude. As noted, each character had to be individual. So in that writer’s file: name, age, nationality, occupation, connection to others in the group, and what baggage in the metaphorical sense each brought along, that baggage in several cases being anger and resentment. Revenge had a hearing as well. Wit had a companion in cynicism. Curiosity had help from a character’s online research and from sustained dialogue. Without resorting to stereotypes, I also arranged to have different nationalities present on the boat — Dutch, English, Japanese, Canadian, Irish, American. That helped with establishing identifiable speech patterns, for example, British idiomatic expressions, which would allow the reader to quickly identify who was speaking.
Another obstacle was coming up with a narrator who in all likelihood would be trustworthy. Thus, Geoff Canter. I made him a sound editor for TV and cinema with a penchant for trying to get what happens on the boat and on the bike outings in line, and though affable and open to meeting new people, he's pulled in different directions. So he needs help and it presents itself in the guise of an investigative reporter who is well versed in the art of instant research. So problem partially solved: readers will get background info on the different individuals vying for attention and get insight into possible motivation. Moreover, Geoff Canter is a cycling enthusiast, a follower of the Tour De France, and an archaeologist son on a dig in Greece. These factors allow the plot to take Canter from Bruges, where the boat and bike excursion ends, to Paris and then to Greece to hook up with his son. Here the golden death mask of Agamemnon presents itself.
A further difficulty I had to overcome was juxtaposing the murders on the boat and the murders later learned about as part of the backstory with what purportedly happened in Greece centuries ago — and so, the notion of palimpsest operates here. To that end, Cantor’s son forwards an English translation of Electra, which father reads with determination to understand the nature of an eye for an eye; this allows for the superimposition of ancient family treachery on contemporary family treachery, which is the essence of the story. It’s all about revenge and how “blood will have blood.”
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AUTHOR BIO:
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Reed Stirling lives in Cowichan Bay, BC, and writes when not painting landscapes, travelling, or taking coffee at The Drumroaster, a local café where physics and metaphysics clash daily. Before retiring and taking up writing novels, he taught English Literature. Several talented students of his have gone on to become successful award-winning writers.
He and his wife built a log home in the hills of southern Vancouver Island, and survived totally off the grid for twenty-five years during which time the rooms in that house filled up with books, thousands of student essays were graded, and innumerable cords of firewood were split.
Literary
output:
Shades
Of Persephone, published in 2019, is a literary mystery set in Greece.
Lighting
The Lamp, a fictional memoir, was published in March 2020.
Set
in Montreal, Séjour Saint-Louis (2021), dramatizes family conflicts.
The
Palimpsest Murders, a European travel mystery, is forthcoming.
Shorter work has appeared over the years in a variety of publications including Dis(s)ent, Danforth Review, Fickle Muses, Fieldstone Review, and Humanist Perspectives.
Intrigue is of primary interest, with romantic entanglement an integral part of the action. Greek mythology plays a significant role in underpinning plots. Allusions to art, literature, philosophy, and religion serve a similar function. Reed sits down to write every day and tries to leave the desk having achieved at least a workable page. Frequently what comes of his effort amounts to no more than a serviceable paragraph, a single sentence, or a metaphor that might work in a context yet to be imagined.
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CONNECT WITH REED STIRLING:
Website:
https://reedstirlingwrites.com
Website:
Email:
reedstirling@gmail.com
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/ReedStirling
LinkedIn:
https.//ca.linkedin.com/reed-stirling
Smashwords Author Page:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bookswelove
Goodreads Author Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19629680.Reed_Stirling
Goodreads Book Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197265801-the-palimpsest-murders
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon US Kindle eBook:
Amazon US Paperback:
Amazon CA Kindle eBook:
https://www.amazon.ca/Palimpsest-Murders-Reed-Stirling-ebook/dp/B0CG2T35KG
Amazon CA Paperback:
https://www.amazon.ca/Palimpsest-Murders-Reed-Stirling/dp/0228626269
Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-palimpsest-murders-reed-stirling/1143970503?ean=2940167518582
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-palimpsest-murders-reed-stirling/1143970503?ean=9780228626275
Kobo US eBook:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-palimpsest-murders
Kobo CA eBook:
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-palimpsest-murders
Smashwords eBook:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1439049
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Reed Stirling will be awarding a $15 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.**This
post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may
receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome
giveaways on here**
This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Thank you for hosting today.
ReplyDeleteWhat literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for having me as as a guest today on your great blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat literary pilgrimages have I gone on is very interesting question. One, following characters from James Joyce's Ulysses around Dublin and having a Guinness in the James Joyce Pub in Zurich. Two, went to Yates' grave outside of Sligo, Ireland. Three, visited Thomas Hardy's cottage in Dorset. Four, sought the real Durrell family home on Corfu. Five, Stratford upon Avon.
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Rita. The excerpt comes from the last chapter of the story, when events are starting to make more sense to our protagonist-narrator. He's been on an interesting journey.
DeleteSounds like a good mystery. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI very much appreciate your continued interest in my latest release, Marcy.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a interesting book and I love the cover and excerpt.
ReplyDelete