It’s Canadian authors this week and I guess Sandra Ruttan qualifies. A transplanted Canadian, yet she a citizen and proud of it I would assume. SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES was her first novel and I bought it on May 11, 2007 from Amazon. Good thing, judging by the prices today, Only a handful are available on the used book sites and command almost as much, and up, that I paid for my copy way back then. And only one new copy that someone is asking a ridiculous price for(I dare say that even Sandra would be amazed at the price). Fortunately, it’s available on Kindle for a reasonable price.
And worth the price I might add.
A reporter named Lara Kelly gets her hands on a tape that shows a woman falling to her death from a cliff. She’s suspicious when the man delivering the tape says the police had refused to look into it. She starts to investigate and build her story. In short order, the tape is stolen and Lara attacked and it starts to look like maybe more than just a suicide.
Police detective Tyman Faraday is assigned to discredit her story of police incompetence. He soon joins her in hunting down a killer before he can get her.
A complexly plotted novel that does demand attention, it seems to be some reviewers’ main complaints. I like a book that makes one think and when I read this one years ago, it made me a Sandra Ruttan fan. A sequel seems headed our way, that’s good, and I have another novel and collection of short stories in my Kindle I really need to get to. She’s also the editor-in-chief of Spinetingler Magazine.
This week Forgotten books will be gathered by Todd Mason, over at SWEET FREEDOM, I would imagine.
Not familiar at all with her work, but I do know the name from Spinetingler.
Hi Randy,
I didn’t want to interfere with any discussion of your post, so I waited a few days before posting this.
Thanks for thinking of me, and this book and sharing your thoughts about it.
I had seen the price of the SC hardcover, and I think can explain the reason for it. Quite some time ago, the original publisher stopped sending me royalties. Eventually, I was able to get the rights to my book back, but as part of that arrangement I would not get paid the outstanding money due. They weren’t to print more copies, but allowed to sell the handful already in stock. When the stock fell to the last book, the price was (at one point) over $2000.
Your post prompted me to go back and double-check. I see that somehow, miraculously, there are now three new copies available again, although for months we were down to only one new copy available. I’ve been keeping a close eye on this, and since the book was a 2007 release that made it into only a few bookstores, this is a probably a case of new stock being printed.
Whatever the ridiculous prices they’re charging, the author won’t get a cent. I have been planning to make SC available in paperback form as well as Kindle, but until that happens, the Kindle version is the only one that I get royalties for.
The whole thing is really rather crazy. I guess I get to follow up with Amazon again…
Cheers,
Sandra
I hope you can get the rights for a trade. It’s a good book that deserves a larger audience. While I have embraced the Kindle, I still prefer paper. I just know things are out there to read that aren’t available in a paper format. But there are still readers that decry ebooks, and that is their right, and a trade would be perfect.