Rogue's Angels Present: Blind Chess by Cristelle Comby

Please welcome Christelle Comby author of Blind Chess.

Cristelle Comby will be awarding all four books of the series, signed by the author (International Giveaway) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Blind Chess

by Cristelle Comby

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GENRE: Mystery & Detectives

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BLURB:

It is supposed to be Neve and Egan. Two partners, a team. What happens when a member of this team of Private Investigators is shot, prognosis unknown?

As Alexandra Neve lays comatose and defenceless, Ashford Egan must take on their enemy alone, and find the cagiest criminal Scotland Yard has seen in decades. Determined to succeed, Egan will stop at nothing. He’ll hit on married women, plant bugs, hire hitmen. And he’ll do it all blind, which makes things ten times as difficult.

Double-crossed by friends, convinced there is corruption in those sworn to uphold the law, Egan is forced to form unlikely alliances as he moves forward in a game that requires skills, nerves of steel, and a willingness to play against all odds.

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INTERVIEW:

What elements are necessary components for this genre?

Likeable characters are a must if you want to keep your audience interested until the end. People need to care enough for your heroes to hold their breath when they walk down a dark alley.

The other thing you can’t screw up, when you’re doing a mystery novel, is the plot. It needs to be strong, with twists and cliffhangers. It must keep the readers on their toes throughout the story. You also need to be careful to resolve everything by the end of the book… no loose ends (unless you’re doing a series, and you have larger story-arcs that play out over several books).

Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I’m obsessive about outlining. It has become a pivotal part of my work method. This book’s my fourth, and if you were to ask me what the biggest difference is between how I approached book one and book four, the answer would be: outlining more. I’ve learned the hard way that it’s important to have everything figured out beforehand. Now, I spend weeks, months even, carefully planning out the story before I type down the first word.

How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

Blind Chess is the direct continuation of the previous book, Danse Macabre, and the conclusion of a grand story-arc that begun in book one. Technically, you can read it as a stand-alone, but it makes more sense to have read the other ones too (especially book three).

What are the biggest challenges of writing books which are part of a series?

Well, every book should be able to stand on its own, because you never know when new readers will be joining in. That means a beginning and an end to each story. Also, a modicum of back-story must be integrated in each book. Not too much (so it isn’t boring for the people who have read the other books) but enough so that new readers aren’t completely lost in your universe. It’s like the “previously on…” intros you get on TV.

You also need to reward the audience that has been there since the beginning… and that’s where story-arcs come in. I love story-arcs, I love reading stories with long arcs in them. Like when you’re reading book ten, and you remember something that happened in book three and that directly ties in with current events. These moments make me go, “Oh, yeah; that’s clever!”

From a writing perspective, it means you have to plan your stories well ahead. Before writing the first book, you have to decide if it’s part of a series or not. If you’re doing a series, then you need to do some basic outlining on the next books at the same time as you work on the detailed outline of book one.

Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?

After being shot at the end of book 3, Neve lays in the hospital, comatose — prognosis unknown. It’s up to Egan to pick up the torch and go after the man who ordered the hit on his partner, alone. That’s a big step up for a man who, just a year ago was nothing more than a blind middle-aged History professor with a the most mundane and boring of lives.

Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

Egan; he really shines in this book. He was a really hollowed man before Neve came along. He had is uncomplicated life, with a carefully planned routine. She broke the walls he had built around himself and shook his life up-side-down.

Neve gave Egan a chance of becoming someone better, something more. Everything led to this moment — his final trial. Blind Chess is the story I’ve been dying to tell since the beginning of the series.

As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I’m going to take a little break from the Neve & Egan cases series — it’s all I’ve been doing for the past four years and I need some time-off. I’ve started working on a new series, and I’m really exited about it… new characters, new genre…

EXCERPT:

A gentle wind is blowing, but it is too cold for the leaves to carry any scent. Seconds tick away, as I wait.

A few minutes before the half hour, I hear the whining of the Lantesks’ garage door and soon after the rumble of a car engine coming to life. Mrs Lantesk is on time to go to work.

Ten feet long the old woman had said of the gravel lane. It isn’t much and I count the seconds after I first hear the crunching of gravel under the car’s tyres. On three, I take a large step forward, bracing myself for the impact I know is coming.

An instant later, the front of Mrs Lantesk’s car hits me on my right side and I fly to the ground, instantly losing all sense of direction. Up is down, down is left and I am only certain of one thing.

I hurt.

Turns out, no matter how ready you are for it, no matter how much planning is involved, or how carefully you give in to the motion and roll to the floor to absorb as much of the momentum as possible... getting hit by a moving vehicle hurts.

The car comes to an abrupt halt an instant later, tyres screeching against the gravel. The engine dies and I hear the car door open. It is followed by a steady stream of feminine and high-pitched, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.’

Monica Lantesk must be wearing heels for I hear her feet tapping the pavement as she hurries towards where I lie sprawled.

‘Are you all right?’ she asks in between another chortle of oh-my-Gods.

I am, for the most part. I’m not seeing stars or anything and I take quick stock of the situation. Nothing seems broken; my glasses are missing, but I still have my cane in hand. I push myself up on one elbow and make a show of moving the cane about in what I hope is a dazed and confused manner. There is another wave of oh-my-Gods, as the woman realises I am blind and she starts to pat me awkwardly on the shoulder.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Cristelle Comby was born and raised in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, in Greater Geneva, where she still resides.

Thanks to her insatiable thirst for American and British action films and television dramas, her English is fluent.

She attributes to her origins her ever-peaceful nature and her undying love for chocolate. She has a passion for art, which also includes an interest in drawing and acting.

Blind Chess is her fourth new-adult novel in the Neve & Egan series.

Links :

Website: http://cristelle-comby.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Cristelle

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Cristelle%20Comby&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank   

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/CristelleComby

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

Cristelle Comby will be awarding all four books of the series, signed by the author (International Giveaway) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f1458