Hard Exit! - A Bruce Leonard Gift-Away!

Guess what just released this week?

You all know my friend Bruce Leonard as the author of the Quilt City Hadley Carroll mysteries.  The ones with the cozy (if murders can be considered cozy!) mysteries happening around Paducah, Kentucky and all involve quilting as a theme.

You might not know that he also writes other genres - and since we all have a wide variety of things we like to read, I'm helping Bruce promote his newest release Hard Exit - which became available on Amazon a couple of days ago!

Bruce writes:

My latest novel, Hard Exit, will go live in ebook, paperback, and hardcover on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The good news is that I consider this mystery-wrapped-in-a-love-story that takes place in Malibu to be my best novel yet. It's my most personal novel and took me decades to write, rather than months, as the others did. 

The bad news is that it isn't a cozy mystery that involves quilting. Therefore, it contains mature themes and language. But unless readers live in a cocoon, they encounter similar content daily. None of it is excessive or gratuitous, and it all serves the plot, which one successful author summed up this way: "Stellar!" 

So for my other Bruce Leonard fans out there - TODAY IS THE DAY to show Bruce your support.

Synopsis:

Jack Drake shares a Malibu beach mansion with a gorgeous movie star but hates his life. The depressed private eye can't shake the death of his wife and can’t end his toxic relationship with Hollywood heartthrob Amanda Bigelow. 

 

But an at-risk sixteen-year-old who is injured in an inner-city shooting gets Jack unstuck. As a favor to a friend, Jack sequesters Game in the mansion, keeping him safe. 

 

Their worldviews differ, but they draw from their histories of loss and grief while investigating the shooting and three seemingly unrelated murders, tying Game’s world in downtrodden Oakville to Jack’s in idyllic Malibu. 

 

Fans of wisecracking investigators such as Spenser, Kinsey Milhone, and Stephanie Plum will cheer for Jack Drake, a man in love with two women—one of them dead.  

  

                                            Cover Blurb

 

“This is a smart, edgy, state-of-the-art L.A. noire with heart. Jack Drake is a private eye with grit, a few demons and a semi-glamorous life on the beach in Malibu. This series is a terrific addition to the modern hard-boiled genre.” 

                               —New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz

Hard Exit shows such promise as a hit that it is Bruce's first book being offered in hard cover as well as paperback and Kindle.

Other Bruce Leonard titles:

Quilt City Murders is available here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPPKP5B8

Quilt City: Panic in Paducah is available here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDXXLSYG

Quilt City: Measure Once, Cut Twice is available here:

https://www.amazon.com/Quilt-City-Measure-Carroll-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0CHN5QS5B

Quilt City: Proving a Negative is available here:

https://www.amazon.com/Quilt-City-Proving-Negative-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0CW1FS145

Quilt City Cookbook is available here:

https://www.amazon.com//dp/B0BMSRK823

And as soon as he finishes up what he is currently writing, he'll be back at continuing the Quilt City series with the fifth Hadley Carroll Mystery — Quilt City: Safety Second. I can hardly wait for more Hadley Carroll!

Book readers - please head over and grab a copy of Hard Exit for yourselves. If you happen to win our Hard Exit gift-away, I'm sure that Bruce would gladly send you an autographed copy of one of his other titles instead so you don't end up with a duplicate. (Unless that is what you want!)

Thank you for supporting my friend!

And to kick off this excitement even more - let's have a Hard Exit Gift-Away!

I'll be drawing for 3 winners who will each receive a signed paperback copy of Hard Exit directly from Bruce!

We'll draw for our winners on Wednesday, August 14th.  Good luck, everyone!

The TaDa quilters are busy making beautiful things!

Jill cut out the pieces for her Around the Twist quilt with dies by Accuquilt. It's making for quick assembly and great results. It's a wedding gift in progress.

More houses are being made here - and they are going on this:

So much fun!

Chickens are just getting started here -

And this project is growing leaps and bounds -

It went from this on the design wall -

To a completed top!

Just look at that winning smile!

Other projects are reaching top status too - this is Beth's Ruby Jubilee.  When I checked at lunch time she was putting on borders.

Last night this photo was texted over:

Fabulous Ruby Jubilee!

Cute star lap quilt -

The floral came from her mother's stash.  What a great remembrance!

Wow!!!  This is really cool!

Most of my day was spent at my desk editing photos and writing instructions - guess what releases next  Thursday, 8/15/24?

It's coming soon and I know you've been asking for it.

We are less than a week away from release day - Are you ready?

This is where I was last evening - I turned the corner and am starting up the 4th side of the border!

Give me a few evenings of indulgent hand quilting time and I'll have that border quilted and then can trim up the excess batting and backing and get the binding on so I can continue to hand quilt the center without all of that raggedy stuff in the way.

Yes- I am stitching my fans free hand.  I'm using YLI quilting thread in a light grey. And I am loving the texture, not to mention that the shirt fabrics are so soft that they quilt like butter.,.

My batting is Quilters Dream Request.

It rained continually yesterday thanks to the remnants of hurricane Debby. Things seem to have abated this morning - I'm headed over to see if I can coerce any of the TaDa quilters into a morning walk up some nearby winding dirt road,

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

This about says it all!

Happy Friday, everyone!