WHATEVER IT TAKES
January 17, 2022
You wait years for a new novel from me and then two come along together.
Whatever It Takes was published on January 6th and is now available as a paperback from all online sellers and by order from bookstores. It's also available on all electronic platforms.
I'm the teenager in the cover picture, with my beloved pooch, Pansy Valiant, who makes an important appearance in the book. But the story is not set in the past, or even the present.
The focus in Whatever It Takes is on a family's attempts to survive in an unnamed American city that has been decimated by disease. A grandfather and his daughter had full lives before the disease and they still have their memories. But what can this life be like for the daughter's teenaged son who has no school and no friends and whose days always include warnings about his safety, and not just from infection? Enter Pansy Valiant: if Men Like Us may be a dick-lit novel, is this story pooch-lick?
Events in Whatever It Takes include guns and crimes (the first chapter, "The Favor", appears as a story in the Jan/Feb '22 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) but the mystery is how the family can escape their current danger and find somewhere better.
"The Favor" is the first of three short stories that will appear in EQMM, although I don't have dates yet for the other two. "Her Upstairs" is a murder plot involving a unique form of cribbage and Greek gods. "Two, Four, Six, Eight" deals with the revenge of a cheerleader. Intrigued? Look out for notice about publication details on my website.
Intrigued or not, please keep safe.
Mike