Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Death Is Overrated, Now In Paperback

Great Day!

The paperback version of Death Is Overrated, a mystery set in romantic Wales, is now available on Amazon.

(It's also available as a Kindle eBook, with other formats coming soon.)

Death Is Overrated, on Amazon
Professor Thomas Payne didn't intend to wind up dead on his caving vacation to Wales, and in truth he wasn't the victim. But proving his identity to the police becomes tricky after they pull his passport off the body and conclude the deceased is Dr. Payne, no doubt.

Things go from bogus to baffling when a mysterious phone call at the crime scene leads to the arrest of the young scientist. His fate seems sealed when the victim's fingerprints match the professor's work visa and his employment records disappear altogether.

A tart-tongued American with no identity looks like a pretty good patsy to the detectives eager to close the case. Being accused of killing himself presents the brooding inventor with an interesting puzzle, but taking time to solve it from jail will threaten his deadline to file a patent worth millions.

Intervention by the smitten police captain's sculptress daughter frees Thomas to search for clues to prove his innocence before his invention goes up for grabs. So, it's off around the UK with Terri, one jump ahead of the authorities — and his estranged sociopathic father, a lapsed Quaker who may be the real killer. One slip and claustrophobia will be the least of his problems.

Thomas' journey soon becomes as much about healing his troubled past as recovering his present self. Along the way, he'll battle betrayals by his envious staff, romance the rebellious artist, and suffer harrowing misadventures at historic sites in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Travel — even to find yourself — was never so perilous.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

New novel, "Death Is Overrated," Now on Amazon

My latest published work, Death Is Overrated (a mystery set in romantic Wales), is now available on Amazon in Kindle eBook format. (Paperback edition coming soon...)
Professor Thomas Payne didn't intend to wind up dead on his caving vacation to Wales, and in truth he wasn't the victim. But proving his identity to the police becomes tricky after they pull his passport off the body and conclude the deceased is Dr. Payne, no doubt.

Things go from bogus to baffling when a mysterious phone call at the crime scene leads to the arrest of the young scientist. His fate seems sealed when the victim's fingerprints match the professor's work visa and his employment records disappear altogether.

A tart-tongued American with no identity looks like a pretty good patsy to the detectives eager to close the case. Being accused of killing himself presents the brooding inventor with an interesting puzzle, but taking time to solve it from jail will threaten his deadline to file a patent worth millions.


Intervention by the smitten police captain's sculptress daughter frees Thomas to search for clues to prove his innocence before his invention goes up for grabs. So, it's off around the UK with Terri, one jump ahead of the authorities — and his estranged sociopathic father, a lapsed Quaker who may be the real killer. One slip and claustrophobia will be the least of his problems.



Thomas' journey soon becomes as much about healing his troubled past as recovering his present self. Along the way, he'll battle betrayals by his envious staff, romance the rebellious artist, and suffer harrowing misadventures at historic sites in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Travel — even to find yourself — was never so perilous.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

"Cossacks In Paris" Gets Rave Review

A recent review of Cossacks In Paris posted on Amazon says:
When reading Tolstoy's War and Peace, although stylistically brilliant in many respects, one gets an overwhelming sense of the lack of purpose. The lead characters drift aimlessly through the trials and tribulations of the Russian aristocracy, seemingly destined to a fate outside the control of their individual decisions.

Cossacks in Paris covers the same historical period, but adds a sense of purpose that breathes life into the drama. Breutier Armande, the protagonist intent on reshaping the future with his engineering perspicacity, finds his ambitions thwarted by Napoleon's grandiose - and ill-fated - designs to expand his power by conquering Russia.

But all is not lost for Breutier. During Napoleon's march to Moscow, Breutier meets a beautiful Finnish Countess, Kaarina, on a scouting trip to St. Petersburg. Timing proves once again a double-edged sword for Breutier, as his chance encounter with the woman of his dreams clashes with Alexander's plans for the young beauty - to marry her off to a brutal Cossack adept at war named Agripin.

Alexander discovers a ready accomplice in Agripin whose Rousseauian lust motivates him to have Kaarina - by any means necessary.

The struggle of Breutier and Kaarina to be together against the backdrop of war machinations and a barbarous foe provide a central purpose that is lacking in novels like War and Peace. As Metternich remarks after having seen a confrontation between Breutier and Agripin:

"Those rulers [Napoleon and Alexander] are merely fighting over a continent. The two young men over a woman. I daresay the latter will always be more passionately pursued than the former, much as it defies logic."

It may defy logic for somebody like Metternich who is embroiled in political deceptions and a cunning pursuit of power, but it does not defy logic for those who seek the rational goal of a fulfilling romance.

Indeed, the reader finds himself tightly gripping the pages as the union of Breutier and Kaarina is constantly undermined by the political calculations of rulers, the switching allegiances during the uncertainty of war, and a Cossack intent on winning the prize, even though the prize has no desire to be his bloodlust trophy.

Mr. Perren's economical style moves one quickly from page-to-page while leaving little for interpretation, and everything to purposeful conquest.

And the reader is driven by one overriding question: will a man's passionate pursuit of a woman prove more powerful than a ruler's quest for an empire?

If you enjoy that review, please click the Yes button on Amazon.