I have a BRAND NEW RELEASE today in my QUENTIN BLACK MYSTERY series this week!
I hope everyone enjoys it... it ended up being a very strange book to write in a lot of ways, and pretty different from any other Quentin Black book I've written up until now. I guess I'll have to hear from all of you as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing (ha!). For more on this and the series in general, be sure and read my note at the end.
But first the new shiny…
~ Book Synopsis for BLACK CURTAIN ~
They thought the war finally ended.
They believed the last battle finally won.
They thought the curtain finally fell.
Black and Miri host the seer wedding they dreamed of, the one they planned before that mess in California ended with one of Black’s best friends dead.
Officiated by “oldest soul” Dalejem, with his individually prepared seer hallucino-cakes, the seer wedding promises a night of crazed debauchery and mystical visions, wanders in the desert, prescient glimpses of the future. Black promises Miri no one will get hurt, that it’s all in good fun. Everyone will have sex, drink until they pass out, bake in the resort’s jacuzzi, have deep discussions, and laugh like loons while they celebrate the final ritual before Miri and Black ride off into the sunset.
But things don’t go that way.
Minutes after Black and Miri ingest the final cake, unwanted visitors crash the party.
Black and Miri find themselves inside a grim, centuries-old puzzle, a mystery filled with death and black magic, murder and tragedies from the past.
Locked inside with no way out, they have no choice but to solve it if they ever want to see their friends alive again.
THE QUENTIN BLACK SERIES encompasses a number of gritty urban fantasy and paranormal mystery arcs with science fiction elements, starring brilliant but dangerous psychic detective, Quentin Black, and his partner, forensic psychologist Miriam Fox. Follow Black as he solves crimes, takes on other races and tries to keep his and Miri’s true identities secret to keep them both alive.
~ Author's Note on BLACK CURTAIN ~
I'll try to keep my note fairly short, since it's a new release week, but there are a few things I wanted to mention on here related to the new book that I thought might interest people…
First off, I did want to acknowledge this is likely the last book in the Quentin Black Mystery Series, at least in terms of the original version of that series. I wasn't entirely sure whether it would be, to be honest, until I got into writing it, which is why I didn't say anything. And honestly, it's a sort of strange way to wrap up a series, so I wasn't sure how it would feel at the end.
It did like the end to me when I finished, however, which is why I didn't do a bonus epilogue for this one, although I'm considering maybe doing one later for fun to share with my Patreon group. I'll have to wait and hear from others to see what they think. :)
It also should be noted that there will of course be glimpses into this world and these characters in other places, most notably in the Vampire Detective Midnight series, which stars Nick Tanaka, a major character in Quentin Black. Part of the reason it felt important to wrap this series up is that the two are at a point where they would potentially start to cross over more, and potentially make that too confusing or make the two series too interdependent.
That said, if, later on down the line, if it makes sense to write more Quentin Black books, or I feel inspired to write a standalone, etc., I'm definitely not averse to doing so! But to me, it felt like the end of THIS particular story arc. I think I pretty much knew that, even down to the title, BLACK CURTAIN, which was a bit of a homage to Agatha Christie and her last Poirot book, which was also titled “Curtain.”
I admit, it makes me a little sad to be wrapping up this world, which is is perhaps why I put off telling people, or even admitting it to myself. It's always strange as a writer to open and close new chapters like this, but I'm excited about the stories coming next, and those characters are starting to yammer at me louder, so I'm thinking it's time to start attending to them. :)
In the meantime, happy reading, happy week, happy end of summer! I hope everyone is in good health, a comfortable home, and enjoying time with their families (and not baking their brains out in this crazy heatwave in the United States… yeesh).
Best wishes to all, and more from me soon… :)
