FANTASTIC NEW COVERS

I have come across a brilliant cover artist from Venezuela named Juan Padron.  His work is extraordinary and he can produce covers in just hours instead of days. He is not cheap but his work is worth every penny.

Below are three new covers ... two for books already published, and Conduit to Murder, to be published in a couple of months.

NEWS

After almost a year and a half languishing  in a publisher's office, books 4 and 5 of The Inspector Sheehan Mysteries series are now available on Amazon with new titles and new covers.

Book 5: Murder of a Runaway

Cross The Shadow; become a Shade.

Lin Hui and Cheung Mingzhu from Shenzhen in China, win scholarships to study at Queen’s University in Belfast. Alina Balauru departs a poor farm in Romania for well paid work in Northern Ireland. Three lives harbouring long-cherished dreams. Three lives headed for tragedy.

Sheehan and his Serious Crimes Unit discover the body of one of the young  women in the garden of an upmarket residence. Confronted with violent Chinese racketeers, brutal human-traffickers and a fiendishly clever killer called The Shadow, they are baffled by a case that seems to lead in two entirely different directions. Can they find out who The Shadow is in time to save the other two victims?

 

The full five stars. This was truly one of the best books I've ever read. [Michelle Newman. Amazon (United States) Reviewer.]

An elaborate adrenaline maze to trap the reader. One of the best thrillers I have read in recent times. [Vadana Garg, Online Book Club.]

Thought-provoking, emotional and gut-wrenching. An exceptional crime-thriller and a must-read for any thriller lover. [Eric Praschan, Author of Blind Evil and The Burden of Silence]

Murder of a Runaway is a perfect thriller, written by an amazing story-teller. [Sushma Chowdary, Amazon (India) Reviewer.]

Brian O’Hare sheds a light on a grim reality with this perfectly executed thriller. The novel has unforgettable characters, heart-pounding pacing, and an unpredictable plot while keeping a balance between sensitivity and reality. [Lunastella, Online Book Club]

 

 

 

  

 Book 4: Murder on the Dark Web

 I am Nemein. I am not a murderer. I am emotionally detached from my killings. I am, therefore, an instrument of Nemesis, a punisher.

 This is a theme running through a number of blogs on the Dark Web, written by a serial killer. He is highly intelligent and employs philosophical argument to justify a series of gruesome murders. However, he describes the killings with such gloating relish that he  reveals himself to be a coldblooded, narcissistic psychopath.

Sheehan and his team rush headlong down a series of blind alleys in the pursuit of the psychopath. He is fiendishly clever, utterly ruthless, and tests Sheehan’s famed intuition to the limit. Indeed, Sheehan only learns the truth during a horrific climax when some members of his team experience a most harrowing ‘laceration of the soul’ that they will never be able to forget. It is unlikely that the reader will either.

 Murder on the Dark Web has received the Top Medal Honours Award from the New Apple Awards for Excellence.

“O’Hare has developed his characters very successfully as they have tackled their various cases. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting their next challenge in what is a crime series which undoubtedly deserves a much wider audience.” A.P. Martin, Author of Codename Lazarus and Spytrap.

“I’m not surprised by the accolades and the praise bestowed on this novel. There are weird murders, a clever and truly twisted murderer, bizarre clues and possible motives, plenty of red herrings, twists and turns galore and a fascinating background to the story. Another gripping book by Brian O’Hare. I am eagerly awaiting the next one.” Olga Núñez Miret, Writer. Ph.D. (American Literature). MSc (Criminology)

LITERARY TITAN AWARDS

Our highest award, The Literary Titan Gold Award, is bestowed on books

that we found to be perfect in their delivery of original content, utilizing

fresh themes to convey innovative ideas, and deftly uses elegant prose

to transform words into expertly written literature. The Doom Murders

by Brian O’Hare scores highly on all points. It also gains a well-deserved

five gold stars from one of our key reviewers.

 

See our interview with the author about his book on this link:

https://literarytitan.com/2020/08/30/the-last-judgement/

FALLEN MEN by Brian O’Hare

Reviewed by G.J. Griffiths

It was amazing: Five Stars

I will admit to feelings of dismay and reluctance when I first began to read this book. The acknowledgements and the prologue indicated that it was to be about a young Catholic priest in Ireland. While I always attempt to remain neutral and objective in my reviews of books, I find that also being honest will often lend itself to accumulate too much cynicism when I’m reading books about religion, particularly books containing too much religiosity. Thankfully, Brian O’Hare’s novel was gripping from the first few pages and so well written, with balance and tactful insight, that I was able to retain my respect for another person’s religious beliefs while entering the curious world of Irish Catholicism.

Fallen Men is an excellent novel about the fragility and emotions of real people. It is a story about a priest, Ray Canavan, who makes a serious mistake when he becomes involved with Maria, a young student from a local girls’ school. She reminds him strongly about Karen, the woman he could have married had he not become devoted to God and the Church. There is much in Ray’s past life to discover and explain about his intense feelings of guilt, his vulnerability as a sensitive human being, and his apparent human frailty at a deeply emotional time in his life.

The reader is easily swayed between condemning Ray one moment, as the responsible adult, and the next sympathising with his inner child, with heart-felt sadness. There are several serious issues discussed and considered in the novel, such as abuse, abortion, and faith, notwithstanding the intricacies of certain aspects of Irish Law. We are present during several court scenes and witness various conflicts between an individual’s duty to God, the Church and one’s humanity. Each of these concepts is handled so well by the author, within such beautiful dialogue and description that I was often left in awe, so full of admiration was I for the writing on the pages before me. Ray’s close friends, Dan and Tony, as well as Maria and Mrs Toner, the housekeeper are all characters well-drawn and easily identifiable.

I would never, ever, have thought beforehand that a book tackling the religious issues in this novel could make me stick with it so intensely. It is a page-turner in the highest sense of the word and for me rates alongside books by Orwell, Dickens, Angelou, Steinbeck and Harper Lee etc. Highly recommended

 

IS WOKERY STULTIFYING ART?

I am a writer. I write fiction and non-fiction. Very few people have ever heard of me.  I used to think that was a bad thing.  Now I’m not so sure. At least, because I am relatively unknown, I do not have to suffer the malignant intensity of the wokerati minutely examining my every dot and comma for transgression against their unforgiving ideology.

For the past year or so, I have found myself constantly chagrined by the extent to which the tyranny of political correctness is infiltrating every stratum of society -  universities, schools, the theatre, the cinema, journalism, sports, literature. Nothing and no one is safe from their fanatical scrutiny. The irony is that the woke brigade scream stridently their aim in life is to ensure equality of opportunity and freedom of expression for all groups in society, yet it has become increasingly clear that this equality is only for those who agree one hundred percent with their views. Those who disagree are castigated, hounded and ultimately cancelled. JK Rowling, after reading an article which was sprinkled with numerous repetitions of the awkward and inelegant phrase, ‘people who menstruate’, had the temerity to tweet that she recalled the use of a simpler, much more precise word to describe this societal grouping – women. Howls of outrage, even death threats, followed that perfectly sensible comment.  She was, of course ‘cancelled’, even by those three mindless ingrates, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who made millions on the back of Rowling’s talent.

I recently had my own, very minor, skirmish with a ‘woke’ reviewer. My most recent novel deals with human trafficking and a key character is an evil gang-lord who happens to have come from China. One of the detectives investigating this personage referred to him during a conversation as, ‘the Chinaman.’ This was in dialogue, I point out again, not part of my narration. I have always been of the opinion that the truth of dialogue in real life is that it is intrinsically careless. Should characters in a story operate by different rules? Apparently they should, says this reviewer. I was vociferously berated for my inherent racism and was awarded one star for my book. The reviewer went on to point out that I got ‘one star’ only because there was no facility to award ‘no stars’. (In the interest of balance, I should note that of the hundred plus reviews for this book from countries as far apart as the USA, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, almost 80% are five stars. Just sayin’.)

The rot is everywhere. Almost every aspect of art must now be seen through the prisms of gender diversity, white privilege, left-leaning ideology ... etc., etc., etc. One of Hollywood’s most cherished traditions is the knockabout think tank where a group of writers will sit in a room tossing out all sorts of wild and idiotic ideas. It is banter, it is fun, but it is also serious and invariably some great ideas come from it. Now I read of one writer who says, “I sit there now and am afraid to open my mouth. These brainstorms have become potential death-traps for the politically incorrect where loose talk can cost careers.” Shades of 1984! The thought police are everywhere and they are determined to reshape society into their own image and likeness.

Even the great classics of literature are under attack at schools and at universities. The most glaring example I have come across is the ‘cancelling’ of To Kill a Mockingbird because of its institutional racism. Good heavens! When we studied this wonderful book during my schooldays, my entire class were made fully aware that the book’s central message was about the evil injustices of racism. But logic seems to hold no sway with the wokerati.  Even university lecturers are writing ridiculous triggers about Shakespeare and other great classics. Students about to read Kidnapped, for example, are warned that the book may contain ‘episodes of abduction’.  I despair!

So, what now for writers? When we write, must we forever write with one eye on equality and diversity? Must our characters be fully representative of different races, the LGBTQIA spectrum, and the extreme views of the Left? Must our dialogues be whitewashed of all human foible and become bland vehicles for political correctness? Many movies and series on TV have become so woke-conscious, so inclusive, pushing so many agendas, that they have become unwatchable.  Are novels to head that way, too? 

 I think I'll just go on doing what I'm doing and risk the wrath of the woke.