Are YOU This Week's Winner? + How the Book Club Came To Be

AS YOU KNOW to celebrate the launch of my latest cozy mystery, I've been selecting a subscriber each week to win an earlier book in the series (or any of my eBooks if you've read them all). And this week I'll get straight to it. Drum roll please…

THE WINNER IS:

Elaine Hall

Woohoo! Congratulations Elaine. I'll be in touch with you shortly to claim your prize.

Everyone else, you can download the Agatha Christie Book Club series here, or pre-order the new instalment at the links below. Until then, here's a preview…

AND THEN THERE WERE 9

REMOTE LYLE'S LODGE: Deep in isolated rainforest, the Agatha Christie Book Club gathers to meet four new members, each one hiding a secret from the group…

ONE IS AN IMPOSTER.
ONE HAS BEEN HERE BEFORE.
ONE IS HUNTING FOR SOMETHING.
AND ONE WANTS REVENGE.

With membership now at nine, the club settles in to discuss Christie’s best-selling mystery—the one about the madman bumping off his isolated guests.

VERY SOON, LIFE BEGINS TO IMITATE THE BOOK.

First one person is murdered, then another, and then a mighty bushfire ignites in the forest below, cutting them off with their own "madman" on the loose. Employing the wisdom of Poirot and a trusty bushfire survival plan, they must unravel each new member's secret to unmask the real killer and survive the book club from hell.

But this time not all of them will get out alive.

@AMAZON       kobo  

Apple iBooks   B+N nook     

How & Why I Started this Series

(an excerpt from Book 3)

"IT WILL COME AS no surprise to hear that I have been an Agatha Christie fan since I can remember (no, really), and yet I feel the need to mention it as I am often asked how I came up with the idea of the Agatha Christie Book Club series. Did a marketing dynamo whisper it in my ear? Am I just riding on Dame Agatha’s tails? Who do I think I am?

So let me answer the question once and for all.

Yes, I adore Agatha Christie, but it goes deeper and farther than that—all the way, in fact, to a secluded island in remotest Papua New Guinea. 

I was holidaying with my family. I was not yet ten. There was no television, no radio, nothing to tempt a bored tweenie at night but a termite-infested bookshelf bursting with pulp fiction and Agatha Christie novels.

I scooped one out. I dusted it off. I opened the pages… You know the rest.

It was that first book—Evil Under the Sun, as it turns out—that planted the seed that eventually grew into a love of mysteries and a flourishing writing career.

This series is my homage to the greatest mystery writer of them all.

Each and every book is in honour of Ms Christie, and yet I’m not trying to write an Agatha Christie novel—I wouldn’t dare. Nor am I trying to recreate her extraordinary characters in my own. Instead, I’m simply extending the joy to a new group of fans, my book club friends, and exploring what happens when you take a bunch of amateur sleuths, plonk a complex puzzle in their laps, and let the words of Miss Marple and Monsieur Poirot guide them home.

I hope you enjoy these modern adventures as much as I have enjoyed writing them, and I hope they renew your love for all things Agatha Christie. "

Happy reading, everyone.

xo Christina

Pre-order My New Cozy + Another eBook winner, below

At last! Here's a sneak-peek at my new Agatha Christie Book Club mystery, which is now available as a PRE-ORDER at Amazon. (Hurrah.)

To lock in your copy, just click HERE. And don't hesitate to get in touch and let me know your thoughts on the new cover (above).

ABOUT THE BOOK

And Then There Were 9

(The Agatha Christie Book Club 4)

By C.A. LARMER

REMOTE LYLE'S LODGE: Deep in isolated rainforest, the Agatha Christie Book Club gather to meet four new members, each one hiding a secret from the group…

ONE IS AN IMPOSTER. 
ONE HAS BEEN HERE BEFORE.
ONE IS HUNTING FOR SOMETHING.
AND ONE WANTS REVENGE.

Now with nine members and blissfully unaware, ACBC Mark 2 settle in to discuss Christie’s best-selling mystery—the one about the madman bumping off his isolated guests. 

Very soon, life begins to imitate art…

First one person is murdered, then another, and then they find themselves cut off by a giant bushfire that's roaring up the mountain towards them.

With their own "madman" on the loose and the flames getting closer, they must employ the wisdom of Poirot, to unravel each new member's secret and unmask the killer.

But this time not all of them will get out alive.

Once there were nine… Soon there will be six. But which six will survive the Book Club from hell?

ARE YOU THIS WEEK'S WINNER?

AS YOU KNOW… I've been celebrating the upcoming release of my latest Agatha Christie Book Club adventure and am handing out an eBook prize every single week until it hits the stands.

TO WIN: Just keep reading these newsletters! I'll pick a subscriber randomly from the list and announce the name each week until it's published. If that's you, I'll contact you directly to find out which book you'd like.

*Don't panic if you've already read ALL THREE in the series. You're my favourite kind of subscriber and will get a chance to choose from any of my other cozy mysteries (see here).

THIS WEEK'S WINNER IS...

Jane Starcher

Congratulations Jane! I will be in touch with you shortly to discuss your eBook prize.

Everyone else, please don't despair, there's at least one more free eBook to be given out. Check the next newsletter to see if your name comes up. And catch up on the Book Club's back story via the links, below.

xo Christina 

@AMAZON online

Apple iBooks

B+N nook

kobo

All 6 Ghostwriter Mysteries Up For Grabs + News On The 7th!

A young girl wakes up to find her entire family has vanished. Many years later Phoebe decides to tell her life story, and enlists the help of a ghostwriter.

Enter Roxy Parker…

The last time we met Ghostwriter Roxy, in A Note Before Dying, she'd fallen in love and settled into a quiet country life. 

Or had she? 

In Book 7 of the best-selling series, Roxy returns to Sydney, minus the love interest but with an adorable pooch by her side. She's home to write the life story of the aforementioned 'Forgotten Phoebe'—and, knowing our Roxy, uncover what really happened to Phoebe's missing family. 

But it's not the only reason she's back. Roxy has a very important announcement to make, and it's going to put a few noses—and at least one mother—out of joint!

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

As you can see, I've been busy concocting the next fun, fast-paced adventure for my Ghostwriter Roxy Parker, and to celebrate—and you know how much I love to celebrate—I'm giving YOU a chance to win ALL SIX!

For more on how to win, see below. It's very easy to enter, and writing book seven is coming easily, too. 

As many of you know, it's been a few years between Ghostwriter books and I know some of you have missed Roxy and her fab, fast-talking friends. I've missed them all, too, and have been having a blast reuniting with the cast, getting under Roxy's mother's nose (it's like a blood sport!), and throwing them all into the middle of my most perplexing mystery yet.

I'll be giving more info on the mystery in later emails, as well as a title and cover reveal, so be sure to stay in touch. And keep reading to be in the running.

HOW TO WIN THE WHOLE SERIES

To score a full set of Ghostwriter Mystery eBooks, all you have to do is tell me what you miss most about Roxy Parker. Is it her witty one-liners? Her motley mates? Or her uncanny knack for sniffing out crime?

Or maybe it's something else entirely?

I'd love to hear from you! Just jot me a quick email reply—just a few words is fine—and you'll be in the running!* Entries close in just one week and I'll announce the lucky winner in my very next email, so be sure to look out for it. 

Best of luck everybody and happy reading!

xo Christina

x

*Ts&Cs: You have one week to enter the competition. The best entries may be quoted in a future email. The winning entry and their name will be decided by the author and will be quoted in a future email. Ebook prizes only. You have four weeks to claim your prize. No further correspondence will be entered into. Thx :-)

Agatha Christie Book Club 3 - 99c Sale

A dead body lying on a blanket… Sound familiar? (This one's for true Agatha aficionados)

In what will likely be my last Agatha Christie Book Club sale this year, I've discounted my third and newest book club adventure, Evil Under The Stars, down from $3.99 to just 99c for the eBook.

The biggest of all three adventures, that's a lot of bang for your buck, folks—although in this case, it's more a quiet suffocation in a park full of people, including our book club friends, who never heard a thing.

Find out what happens, how they managed to miss the murder, and what they do to redeem themselves and solve an impossible crime. This one's for TRUE Agatha Christie fans. While my book is a very modern mystery, there are some sneaky little clues from the original book that true Christie aficionados just might spot. Test your own prowess against mine!

For more info and retailer links, read on…

Evil Under The Stars: Agatha Christie Book Club 3

The champagne is flowing, the movie is showing, and a killer is lurking just blankets away… When the Agatha Christie Book Club reunite to watch Evil Under The Sun at a moonlight cinema, they quickly find themselves face-to-face with evil under a star-lit sky.

A woman has been strangled in a public park, with hundreds of witnesses and not a suspect in sight. How did no one see the killer lurking? How did no one hear the victim scream? And how could the gang have been lounging just metres away and missed the whole event?

When local detectives hit a brick wall, the book club do what they do best, channelling their inner-Miss Marple to help out. What eventuates is a true a battle of wits between our amateur sleuths and the Homicide Squad, with newcomer Detective Inspector Liam Jackson caught firmly in the middle.

From the author of the #1 best-selling Agatha Christie Book Club, this one’s for true Christie aficionados looking for a contemporary twist on the classic whodunit.

NB: This book follows British English spelling and usage, and contains some Australian slang. Clean read: no graphic violence, sex, or strong language. Genre: humorous, cozy mystery series, amateur sleuths, international mystery, police procedural

Purchase: @Amazon @Apple

@Nook @kobo

Get in quick: sale ends next week!

Happy (book club) reading, everyone.

xo Christina

Read the 1st Chapter of My New Book Here

For a free excerpt of my new mystery, just click on the link below (and happy reading, everyone!) 

Do Not Go Alone

It's Launch Day And 3 Subscribers Get My Book For Free (woohoo)

"There's a bullet in my head and it's really messing with my hairstyle…" 

So begins the second in my Posthumous Mystery series. This time the victim is 20-something party girl Maisie May who really shouldn't be dead. There's a pool party going on and she's missing all the fun.

As Maisie hovers overhead watching her loved ones splash about, she begins to wonder: who hated her just enough to shoot her then return to the pool as if nothing has happened?

Can you help Maisie uncover a killer before the creepy dead people lurking by the tunnel convince her to cross?

This is a fun, light-hearted whodunnit with lots of dark humour and a heart-wrenching twist. It's a stand-alone mystery, the follow-up to my first Amazon best-selling Posthumous Mystery Do Not Go Gentle and is now available (see more links below).

But First—Did YOU Win a Free Copy?

Last newsletter I casually mentioned that I'd love to hear your feedback on the cover and there might even be a prize in it for you. A few of you emailed me back with some lovely thoughts—"awesome", "cute" and "DEathLICIOUS" were my favourite responses—so I'd like to thank the following subscribers with a free e-copy of my new book: Linda M, Jackie T and Vicki & Q. I'll be in touch soon.

In the meantime, here's how ALL my beloved subscribers can get their own copy of the book. Just click on a retailer below:
@Amazon
@iBooks
@nook
@kobo
@smashwords and elsewhere

Thanks, once again, for all your support. I do hope you love it, I hope you find time to review it, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me back or subscribe to my newsletter for news, views, discounts and prizes: calarmer.com

Happy reading everyone.
xo Christina

Win 70+ Beach Reads (No Need For Sunblock, You Won't Be Looking Up!)

This summer relax on the beach with more than just a good book, relax with 70 of them safely stashed in your ereader. Sound like your kind of thing? Read on...

I've teamed up with 69 fellow authors to bring you a whopping ebook giveaway that covers a HUGE range of genres, including my first posthumous mystery DO NOT GO GENTLE (the second comes out in August—stay tuned on that).

By entering, you'll also gain access to the AXP BOOK FAIR where you'll find more books from a range of genres on sale or free. Woof!

(2) Grand Prize "Gift Baskets" of ALL eBooks!

(100+) Winners of Summer Snoops Cozy Mystery Boxed Set!
70+ Winners of Individual eBooks (randomly choosen)

Just log into AuthorsXP or click here (and good luck!)

xo Christina

Survey Results + E-book Winner + Discount Mystery Sale

So, last newsletter I posed the proverbial question: are you a 'glass-half-full' kind of person or, like me, is your glass not even half-empty, it's well on the way to running dry?

As a crime writer, it seems only natural that I look at the dark side of life, but as a human I know I do this to shine a torch in the shadows and restore order to the world (or at least, that's the excuse I'm sticking to!)

How about you?

Well, thanks to your overwhelming input, now I know! What an intriguing bunch you are. I received hundreds of responses from right around the world and so many of you had such thoughtful insight into why you love crime books and what your outlook is like. And — here's the bit that surprised me — so many of you (about 60%) admitted to being empty glassers, like me. And you're fiercely unapologetic about it!

I also got some interesting reasons why you love and devour crime novels, including this from an Irish reader who told me the Irish are naturally both light and dark: "I read crime because I want to know why we are dark and why crime happens."

Another reader said she believes us half-empty types are there to "give some color, dimension, and depth to our glass is half full pollyanna people!"

One half-full respondent told me she reads crime for "the thrill of the chase" and another because she likes the "happily ever after" that comes with the final denouement.

Many of you read both 'cozy' and "hard core blood and guts mysteries", as one reader described it, while another said she can't read anything too dark or she's up all night (and by the sound of it, she's in good company). 

And I particularly liked this comment from a 'glass is three-quarters full person': "I read crime because I enjoy a puzzle, I enjoy the intrigue and it's good to see the bad guy get caught. I do enjoy humour in my reading so some levity is appreciated."

I hearily agree, which is why I always add a few laughs to every mystery I write. 

Now For the Winner! (Drum roll please…)

This is the fun part (and the hard part for me, because there were lots of names to pop in the hat this time!) This fortnight's winning respondent is: Renee*! If you're the winnng Renee, I'll be in touch via email shortly.

As for the rest of you? A giant THANK YOU for taking the time to share your thoughts, however dark or light. I do read each email that comes in, and I value each and every comment. They inform me as a person and they most definitely inform my writing!

Thanks again, everyone, for taking part and happy (dark or light) reading.

xo Christina

* Full name has been reserved for privacy reasons

Discount E-Book Deal (99c Now!)

This week I'm putting my latest e-book, Do Not Go Gentle, on sale for just 99c, starting from today. It'll be discounted at all good e-stores for two weeks, or just click on the links, below.

DO NOT GO GENTLE is a fun, fast-paced DIY mystery that implores the reader to help solve the crime before the victim is dragged, kicking and screaming, to the light. (She has a dreadful, sinking feeling her beloved 13-year-old son is the culprit and wants to know for sure before she heads off to eternity thinking she spawned a killer!)

This lightly written yet deeply moving whodunnit/coming of age story will be on sale for just two weeks, with the follow-up—Do Not Go Alone— on the stands in August.

COST: 99c  FROM: June 16—June 30

LINKS: @Amazon

@iBooks

@kobo

@nook

@smashwords etc

The Heart of Darkness (It's in My Head)

It's scary what goes through my mind at 30,000 feet:

'If someone just wrenched open that door handle we'd all go flying out, ripped from our seatbelts, and sucked through the cabin, starting with that smug bloke spreading his legs out in the exit row.'

and…

'Gee that suction in the toilet cubicle is strong. Wonder if it could vacuum out a small child?'

and… Well, you get the picture.

Don't be alarmed or worried for my mental health. I think these thoughts quite calmly, while sipping my G&T on a Qantas fiight to Singapore (where I'm headed for work). I am not perturbed by the dark images that flitter through my imagination, I just accept them—like you might a distracting throught during meditation—and let them go, as I happily glance around.

This is the way my mind works. Always has. I'm a glass-half-empty, every-cloud-has-a-storm-behind-it kind of person, and that's what drives my writing. It's why I became a crime writer in the first place. Makes sense right?

But it's not all doom and gloom. My (wise-beyond-her-years) niece said to me just before I left, in fact, "Maybe you love mysteries, Aunty Christina, because they get solved, so you're actually being really, like, positive and stuff."

She's right. I might revel in the dark, but it's the fact that I'm shining light on those shadowy corners that really inspires me. It's not the crime that I like. It's the justice that comes for the victim, the answers that come for the family, the order that is restored to the world. And, in the case of the exit door, it's also about the most positive aspect of all—survival. Because after each such thought, I usually go to solutions, like:

'Okay, if that happened, I'd scream out to the bloke to grab hold of his seatbelt, wrap it around his wrist and hold on for dear life.'

And how positive is that?

What about you? As a crime reader, do you also have a dark imagination? Or are you fiercely positive and just happen to stray into dark territory from time to time? If you particularly love cozy crime like me, I tend to believe the answer is the latter, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Are you a naturally dark soul and if so, why? Or is light and positivity your preference? And if so, why do you read crime?

Pop a comment here or jot me an email and let me know.

Until then, happy (sinister) reading everyone.

xo Christina

A Fishy Tale From a Fellow Cozy Writer + My New Book Title Revealed!

Regular subscribers know I don't wax lyrical very often about other authors — this is MY newsletter after all, folks ;-) — but today I'm giving a big shout out to a fellow cozy mystery writer who has a deep love of animals, natural sense of humour and more twists than a leaping whale.

Ruby Loren is an English writer who pens cozies, paranormal mysteries and, of particular interest to me, stories about rockstars (I'm married to a musician in case you were wondering!)

If you haven't tasted any of Ruby's work before, try her latest, Whales and a Watery Grave, which is already an Amazon #1 New Release and will be discounted to just 99c until the end of April - so get in quick!

Featuring popular protagonist Madigan Amos, a zookeeper with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble, this one sees Madi and her fiancée attempt to take a well-earned holiday to Mallorca (aka Majorca) in Spain. Instead they find themselves dragged into a wildlife documentary that turns deadly.

Dubbed 'Murder at the marine park!', it's a fun, action-packed read and you can grab your 99c copy via Amazon here. 

At the very least check out her stunning covers, amongst the most beautiful I've seen.

As for me?

I'm happy to announce that I'm midway through my second posthumous paranormal mystery, the follow-up to Do Not Go Gentle.

I'm calling it ... drum roll please ... Do Not Go Alone and it promises to be a tear-jerker with plenty of laughs in-between! I'll also have a book sale coming up in May, so look out for that.

Until then, happy (fishy) reading everyone!

xo Christina

Celebrate the Hollywood Film with a 99c Mystery

A Hollywood Flick, A Floppy Moustache, a Discount Mystery…

By now most of you will have had the chance to watch Kenneth Branagh's version of the great Agatha Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express. Released at the end of last year, it stars Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Branagh himself in the lead role.

That was his first mistake.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the flick (hell, I'll take Brad Pitt in the lead role if it means more Agatha Christie stories brought to life on the big screen) but I kept thinking Kenneth had forgotten who he was playing and morphed into Sherlock Holmes. 

It all came down to that moustache. What was that about?! Perhaps Branagh's hair and make-up people hadn't read any of the books, or perhaps he was bringing his own interpretation to the part, but that was no Poirot mo!

Everybody knows Poirot's mo is… well… slick and neat! As Captain Hastings says, himself, in his very first description of his friend: "His moustache was very stiff and military." 

As Agatha Christie writes in the original Murder on the Orient Express: "…a small man muffled up to the ears of whom nothing was visible but a pink-tipped nose and the two points of an upward-curled moustache."

In contrast, Branagh's was wild and bushy and left him looking more like an Austrian beer maker than everybody's favourite, finicky Belgian detective.

But I forgive him. Really I do. While the mo is a pivotal part of the original character (and David Suchet pulls it off best, IMHO), I honestly don't mind that someone is bringing a fresh interpretation to an old character because, er, that's kinda what I do, isn't it?

My own special twist…

My Agatha Christie Book Club series is all about adding a fresh and modern perspective to an old classic. While I'm not actually rewriting any of Dame Agatha's stories (blimey, I wouldn't dare!), I do look at them afresh and celebrate the (sleuthing) wisdom within. And in my second Agatha Christie Book Club, Murder on the Orient (SS), I do just that, adding whispers of the original mystery in this very modern account of a series of murders that take place on a replica steamship called the SS Orient (a real-life ship, by the way).

With that in mind, I want to stop my griping and celebrate the movie by offering you a discount ebook! Yep, that's right, I'm dropping the price of my second Agatha Christie Book Club cozy mystery to just 99c! You can grab your copy here:
* Amazon kindle
* Apple iBooks
* Barnes & Noble nook
* kobo
* Smashwords and elsewhere

And if you haven't seen the movie, please don't let me put you off. Suspect styling aside, it really is a cinematic delight. How can it not be? It's based on an Agatha Christie plot.

Happy (discount) reading everyone.
xo Christina