Greg Messel's Fog City Strangler Blog Tour! #giveaway #mystery #suspense

Today we have author Greg Messel  on his blog tour! He's in the hot seat with an insightful interview, some fun info about his latest release, Fog City Strangler, and a tour-wide giveaway of three books and a $25 Amazon gift card. Enjoy! 

~Mia 

~*~

Quick round for Greg Messel: 

Coffee, tea or…what’s your vice? Diet Coke

Favorite Movie: “Vertigo” or “Casablanca”

Favorite Color: blue

Favorite book/author: Hard question but this week I’ll choose Michael Connelly

How do you feel about bacon? It’s one of the best things in life 

The REAL questions… 

 “Fog City Strangler” is my seventh book and I’m working on number eight. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and now live in the ferry boat town of Edmonds, which is just north of downtown Seattle, with my longtime wife, Carol. I’ve worked in the newspaper business and worked in corporate world for many years before retiring and devoting myself full time to writing. 

What’s under your bed?

 Nothing I hope. When people are afraid they check under their beds. When’s the last time anyone found someone under their bed?

What comes first, plot or characters? 

It’s like the chicken or the egg. Generally it’s characters and the time in which they live that drive the plot. 

Pantser, plotter, or hybrid? Tell us about your writing process.

 Since I write mysteries, I have to figure out the mystery myself sometimes before i start writing. The outline is just a place to start and the book usually turns out very different from the original outline. 

Oddest thing on your desk? 

A psychedelic mouse pad from the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

What’s your most interesting writing quirk? 

I’m trying to eliminate as many quirkss as I can. I love chapter titles and for some reason I can’t stand to just put a number at the beginning of a chapter. 

What’s your favorite thing about the genre you write in?

I love my characters and the setting of 1950s San Francisco. It’s fun to write mysteries and try to build suspense before everyone gets it figured out.

What is the hardest thing about being an author?

It’s marketing the books and getting noticed in a very hectic world, with millions of books. 

What’s the easiest thing about being an author?

I do this because I love to write. I am serenely happy when I’m sitting at my desk undisturbed and writing.

What do you wish someone had asked you for an interview question?
I feel like I’ve been asked darn near everything. What kind of animal I’d like to be or even what kind of plant. I’d like to be asked about some of my childhood memories of San Francisco in the bygone era of my past.

Tell us about your latest release!

The Fog City Strangler is preying on young blonde women in 1958 San Francisco. It so happens that our female protagonist is a beautiful young blonde. The Fog City Strangler talks his way into women’s apartments, murders them and then disappears without a trace. I use elements of the famed Boston Strangler and the Zodiac killer in San Francisco, in imagining the strangler. My private eyes, Sam and Amelia Slater are also hired to try to find a woman who took her dog for a walk on the beach and disappeared. I think it’s my best book. I hope others agree.

About the Book:

As 1958 nears an end San Francisco is being terrorized by a man who calls himself the “Fog City Strangler,” who preys on pretty young blonde women.  The strangler announces each murder by sending a note and piece of cloth from the victim’s dresses to the local newspapers.

Private eye Sam Slater is worried that the Fog City Strangler may be eyeing his beautiful blonde wife, stewardess Amelia Ryan. Sam’s angst mounts as the strangler continues to claim more victims. His anxiety is further fueled when TWA launches an advertising campaign with Amelia’s picture on a series of billboards plastered all over the city. Sam fears the billboards may attract too much attention--the wrong kind of attention.

Meanwhile, Sam and Amelia are hired to try to find the missing daughter of a wealthy dowager who fears she has lost her only child. The missing woman went for a walk with her dog on Stinson Beach, near San Francisco, and seemingly vanished into thin air. The woman’s husband arrived at their beach house and found the dog running loose but there was no trace of his wife. The police are stumped in their investigation.

As Sam and Amelia look into the disappearance of the woman on the beach they discover that nothing is as it seems at first glance. On a stormy night a shadowy figure sets fire to the beach house where the couple is staying--hoping to stop their investigation.

Fog City Strangler is a stand-alone thriller but is part of the Sam Slater Mystery Series--Last of the Seals, Deadly Plunge and San Francisco Secrets.

Purchase your copy:

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

 

Discuss this book in our PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads by clicking HERE.

About the Author:

Greg Messel grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and now lives in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound with his wife, Carol.  Fog City Strangler is his seventh novel and is the fourth in a new series of Sam Slater mystery novels. Greg has lived in Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming and Utah and has always loved writing, including stints as a reporter, columnist and news editor for a daily newspaper.
Follow news about Messel’s writings and books at www.gregmessel.com.

Connect & Socialize with Greg!

TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Greg Messel is giving away a 3 book set of his Sam Slater Mystery Series (Last of the Seals, Deadly Plunge and San Francisco Secrets AND a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

• By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
• One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive the 3 book set and $25 Amazon Gift Card.
• This giveaway begins February 3 and ends on March 28.
• Winner will be contacted via email on Monday, March 31, 2014.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

Rafflecopter Code:

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Thanks for stopping by!