Another Shot of Modern Noir in the works...

I've been beavering away on a new noir novelette (a little alliteration is good for the soul) and I'm quite pleased with it. Should be finished in the next month or two... time permitting.

Here's the general gist of the story....

Working title 'The Club'

A wealthy couple join an exclusive club and are invited to participate in rather unusual activities at a party. Both man and wife and their teenage daughter are separated during these activities and they each go through a series of 'tests' that will define their position in the inner circle of members.
They discover, after the party, that their daughter has mysteriously disappeared. No one saw her leave the club grounds...
Finding little solace in the club's management or the local police department, the exasperated couple turn to hiring a private eye to find their daughter.... But can they reveal what went on at the party? And is that connected to their daughter's disappearance?

Coming soon!

Killing me softly....

Every now and then I run a book promotion to get a little notice out in the big bad world.


My mainstream literary novel, Killing a Friend, will be available for free on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in ebook format for the next several days, starting later today/early tomorrow. Here's the cover blurb. It's a mix of love and rage, set in exotic West Sweden...

Killing a Friend is a novel about people that love each other, about friends, acquaintances and life partners.

Lost souls clinging to the familiar, despite their better judgment - a story that takes normal life one step further.

Two friends, two artists, two men that love the same woman - a tragedy, an unforgivable able deception and a chance to begin again.

Killing a Friend is a book of love, longing and lust.

You can find the book here on Amazon.com

Or here on Amazon.co.uk

A Cracker of a Book.... a four star review of Death Call

4.0 out of 5 stars A Cracker of a book, 29 Feb 2012

By 

Mr. Stephen D. Wassell "sdwassell" (Norfolk, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death Call: The London Serial Killer Case (Carroll & Grant Mysteries) (Kindle Edition)

I hate it when I read " I couldn't put this book down" because I always find myself let down. However, in this case If I had read that sentence about "Death Call" I would have had to agree with it. I was hooked on it from the start. It has pace throughout and vivid descriptions of both the crimes and the two totally different people who, by virtue of their job, have to work together to solve them. it's a very readable crime novel and, personally, I found it almost a throwback to the likes of John Creasey. If you like a decent 'tec book get this one. One quibble, a couple of the(thankfully short) sex scenes could have been omitted without any detriment to the book. I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series.

Death Call at Amazon.co.uk

Death Call hits a high point!

I'm humbled and delighted.


Death Call, written in the heady days of 1996 and published for the first time in paperback in 1997, has just climbed mysteriously high in the UK in eBook format.


At the last count it was number 11 in Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > British Detectives

To quote our friend and crime novelist extraordinaire Declan Burke over on Crime Always Pays, here are the words of the wee blurb elves....

"It was all he could do to stop his hangover from spilling out onto the victim as he studied her neck and what he made out to be the initial puncture wound in her abdomen. From that point, he thought, she had been opened like an envelope with a paper knife, revealing a mess of entrails and blood.

With a deranged serial killer on the loose, Detective Sergeant Dan Carroll and his new partner Detective Constable Samuel Grant find themselves trawling the seedy side of London in search of a brutal killer who preys on prostitutes.

A Shot of Modern Noir.

T.S. O'Rourke's writing has been declared powerful, beautiful and hard-boiled by both readers and critics alike."

If you like hard-boiled London-based serial killer stories that come with a sense of humour, a smattering of steamy sex and a little social commentary on the state of the underbelly, then you might like this. And for those of you that do, you might also like Death Call's follow-up, Damned Nation (which has also spiked in terms of sales recently, I'm delighted to say).

Here's the UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003X978GO
And for the rest of the world, via Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003X978GO

Thank you all!

Review: "A Noir Streak as Deep as a Femme Fatale's Cleavage"

I just recently received a very gratifying review over on amazon.com for my novelette Candy Says Kill, which I've copied and pasted below, with another earlier review below it...

4.0 out of 5 stars Mick Says Cool: A Shot of Unruly Review, January 12, 2012

By 

M. Halpin (Dublin Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Candy Says Kill: A Shot of Modern Noir (Kindle Edition)

I read Candy Says Kill yesterday in two sittings- it's a jawbreaker. (That's a candy that lasts a good long while, for anyone not familiar.) Some of the layers: 
- New York hood, 
- backwoods beauty, 
- seedy bar, 
- cheap motel, 
- rednecks swinging axe handles, 
- roundhouse kicks, 
- stolen cars, 
- showercaps. 
- and blood. Lots and lots o' blood. 


T.S. O'Rourke has a Noir streak deep as any femme fatale's cleavage- and just as much fun. Reknowned Alabama Public Radio reviewer Don Noble would ask in wonder if the author has ever actually spent a night drinking with locals in an Alabama town, but Candy would just say Kill.

4.0 out of 5 stars Rusting quietly, March 29, 2011

By 

David H Fears - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Candy Says Kill: A Shot of Modern Noir (Kindle Edition)

This is a fast-paced, powerful short story that turns on a coincidence--a man who has killed before for money stops in a small Alabama town and the bartender's young and gorgeous wife takes him for the contract killer she ordered. His lust and experience lead him to take advantage of the situation, with some chilling and realistic dialog and action. They say every good short story could be a novel and every bad novel might be a short story. This is a good one, and God knows it's harder to write a good short story than a novel. I write hardboiled stuff and this one fits the bill nicely in a more modern setting. Well worth the price.

Candy Says Kill Free for just today!

Click here to avail of this promotional offer!

Ganglands update

I'm slowly but surely going through all the covers of my existing books and short stories trying apply a sense of order.
I'm not a great one for order or processes, so it will most likely take some time to get them all done....
Howsoever, to wit, herewith and without further ado, I present the updated Ganglands cover.

Hope y'all like it!

Sunset Strip: A Shot of Modern Noir

I've finally gotten around to finishing my latest novelette/novella Sunset Strip, set in L.A.

The story follows a man visiting L.A. on business as he picks up a beautiful Latina in a bar close to his hotel. The two hit it off after some initial foreplay and end up going to his room to get a little more 'comfortable'. What happens next is well.... unusual, to say the least.

Taking cues from the greats and adding a nice twist in the tail, this piece of Modern Noir will keep you guessing to the end.

You can find the book here!

Noir Shot Update... and Killing in print

http://www.lafterhall.com/filmnoir_001.html

I've finally gotten around to making Killing a Friend available in print via our good friends at Amazon's Createspace. So if eBooks ain't your thang you can now buy a paperback version. And very nice it is too.

You can find it here:
 http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Friend-T-S-ORourke/dp/1456515829

As far as my Hollywood Noir short shot of Noir is concerned I've been a busy wee hack and passed my usual finish line in terms of short story length. So it'll be a long short story or a short novella - maybe a shortella... I like that....

I'm hoping to have it finished, proofed and ready to rock into your Xmas stockings. But knowing me you'll not get it until January when you need something new to read on your Kindle Fire...

Killing a Friend - special winter warmer price for all my friends...

I've knocked down the price on my mainstream literary novel Killing a Friend just to give it a wee nudge forward.

I don't know why (maybe because I haven't used 'sex' or 'serial killer' in the any of the marketing blurb) but it hasn't really moved very well - despite getting a humdinger of a first review a few months back, where I was described as a 'Beautiful Literary Voice' (doesn't get much better for an old Noir Hack like me).

Anyway, I've updated the cover art and dropped the price and I can guarantee sex, death, betrayal, bisexuality, abortion and suicide in fairly ample doses.

Dip your toes in while it's on sale!

It's also a precursor to the second print edition which will be on sale shortly via Amazon and other select sales channels.

Killing a Friend on Amazon.com