Hiya peeps, we now have Ethan Stone stopping by on the tour for his newest release Closing Ranks, the fourth novel in his Flesh series, we have a great guest post about serial killers, we have a tasty excerpt, brilliant giveaway and my review, so enjoy the post and remember to leave a comment to enter the giveaway <3 ~Pixie~
Closing Ranks
(A Flesh Novel 04)
by
Ethan Stone
Internal Affairs investigator Jeremy Ranklin is looking into corruption within the Reno Police Department when he’s ordered to examine the suspicious death of the Chief of Police. The assignment partners Jeremy with Detective Cristian Flesh. Though they spar at first, Jeremy earns Cristian’s trust, and they work well together.
Deeply closeted, Jeremy fights an attraction to fellow cop Kipp Mosely. The investigation brings Jeremy and Kipp together, but lies and secrets prevent things from going any further. Jeremy will need both Kipp’s and Cristian’s help to discover how deep the corruption runs—and to stay alive when the danger hits close to home.
DSP Publications | Amazon | OmniLit/ARe
Ethan Stone & Serial Killers
As a writer of mysteries, I do a lot of research on various subjects. One of those subjects is serial killers, who fascinate me for some reason. It actually makes my boyfriend worry when I spend hours online reading about murderers. But that isn’t going to stop me of course. Here are five serial killers who were gay or targeted gay men that I’ve read about and found interesting.
The Doodler. He killed more than a dozen gay men in San Francisco in 1974 and 1975. He got his nickname due to his habit of sketching a picture of his victims before having sex with them and stabbing them. The killer was never identified even though there were two survivors. According to what I’ve read the survivors were prominent members of the community and afraid that if they identified the killer they would be outed. This case is intriguing because the killer though the police probably knew who he was, was never caught. One day I will write a story based on this guy.
Donald Harvey worked in the medical profession all of his life and used his knowledge of medicine to kill people. He used various methods including poison injected or put in food, suffocation, turning off ventilators and even once inserted a coat hanger into a catheter. Harvey often claimed he only killed out of empathy or to put people out of their misery. However, he also once poisoned his lover to prevent the lover from leaving the house.
Herb Baumeister is suspected of killing around a dozen gay men in the early to mid-1990’s. Police suspected Baumeister after a man called and said Baumeister, using a different name, killed a friend and tried to kill him. The anonymous caller later provided a license plate. Originally Baumeister and his wife did not allow police to search their property but the wife later gave consent. The bodies of eleven men were found in the backyard. However, Baumeister escaped into Canada and killed himself. He never confessed to the murders.
William Bonin, aka The Freeway Killer, raped, tortured, and killed at least twenty-one boys and young men between 1979 and 1980. He usually selected hitchhikers or school boys as his victims who were as young as twelve and as old as nineteen. Bonin killed and tortured his victims in various ways I don’t want to mention here. He had several accomplices but was arrested in 1980 and executed in 1996.
Randy Kraft, also known as the Scorecard Killer and the Freeway Killer, killed between sixteen and seventy young men and boys. He started killing in the early seventies, but the murders slowed down in 1976 when he began a relationship with a man named Jeff Seelig. Seelig admitted he and Kraft picked up hitchhikers and propositioned them and brought them to their apartment for threesomes. However, Seelig never saw any of Kraft’s violent tendencies. The murders started again in 1979. Kraft was arrested in 1986 and is still on death row in California.
Excerpt
I PULLED the hood of the gray jacket over my head to shield myself from the rain and scurried into the alley.
Glancing around, I didn’t see anybody. They were supposed to be there. It was the time we had agreed on.
“Hello?” I called out, my voice an octave lower than normal. That was partially due to the wet weather and partially because I wanted to disguise my voice a little. It didn’t really matter, since the man I was there to meet had never met me before.
“Hello?” I shouted again, this time a little louder.
The headlights of a car in front of me came on, blinding me. I covered my eyes and stepped back. The driver and passenger side doors opened, and I could make out the forms of two people. One, somewhat short and stocky, made me relax. Things were going as planned. The second person, the man I was really there for, stepped forward.
“Are you Ruskin?” His voice was very deep and animalistic.
I nodded. “You’re Nicky Pointer, right?”
He didn’t answer my question but came closer. He towered over me by at least five inches. “Mosely says you have information that could bring down Anthony Zion.”
The other man left the shadows. I looked his way and nodded a greeting.
“I’m glad you came, Ruskin,” Kipp Mosely replied.
I hugged myself and stared at the ground. “I just want to be done with this. You have to protect me. Zion will kill me if he finds out what I know.”
Anthony Zion, Reno’s resident mob boss, was responsible for most of the drugs in the area as well as several other criminal enterprises.
“What exactly do you know?” Pointer asked.
I peered up at him. “You’ll take care of me, right?”
“I told you we would,” Mosely replied.
About Ethan
Ethan Stone is an out and proud gay man. Which is fairly new in his life, the out part, not the gay part. He’s been queer his whole life, though he tried to deny it for years with a wonderful woman. The years in denial weren’t all bad, he has two amazing kids out of it. His son is a teenager and his daughter has made him a grandfather, three times over. A way too young grandfather.
Ethan has returned to Oregon after almost a decade in Nevada. He no longer has a day job and is doing his best to make a living at this writing thing. If he can’t make a living, he at least wants to support his Mt. Dew and beef jerky addictions.
Readers can find Ethan online.
AUTHOR LINKS:
Facebook | @ethanjstone | Google + | Ello | Website
Email: ethanstone.nv@gmail.com
Giveaway!
Ethan will be giving away a $25 Amazon giftcard to one lucky commenter on the tour
(Just leave a comment on this post)
Be sure to leave a thoughtful comment on each stop on the tour for additional chances to win
(The tour organizer will select a winner from entires received as of close of business 1st November 2015)
Review
Title: Closing Ranks
Series: A Flesh Novel 04
Author: Ethan Stone
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Length: Novel (244pgs)
ISBN: 978-1-63476-164-2
Publisher: DSP Publications (20th October 2015)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 4 ½ – 5 Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Internal Affairs investigator Jeremy Ranklin is looking into corruption within the Reno Police Department when he’s ordered to examine the suspicious death of the Chief of Police. The assignment partners Jeremy with Detective Cristian Flesh. Though they spar at first, Jeremy earns Cristian’s trust, and they work well together.
Deeply closeted, Jeremy fights an attraction to fellow cop Kipp Mosely. The investigation brings Jeremy and Kipp together, but lies and secrets prevent things from going any further. Jeremy will need both Kipp’s and Cristian’s help to discover how deep the corruption runs—and to stay alive when the danger hits close to home.
Purchase Link: https://www.dsppublications.com/books/closing-ranks-by-ethan-stone-160-b
Review: This story is part of a series and is best read in order. Jeremy Rankin is an IA investigator who has been tasked with hunting out dirty cops on Anthony Zion’s payrole when he’s ordered to an apparent suicide: the suicide of the Chief of Police. Jeremy’s gut is telling him it’s something different and he teams up with Cristian Flesh to investigate and unearth the truth, an unauthorised investigation that could see them both losing their jobs. Jeremy is also fighting his attraction to fellow officer Kipp Mosely, Jeremy won’t come out of the closet and Kipp is keeping secrets their tentative relationship seems doomed to fail.
This is an excellent addition to the Flesh series where we can keep an eye on Cristian while enjoying the addition of fresh new characters, difficult relationships and intriguing mysteries with that added dash of suspense.
We meet Jeremy as he is undercover luring out a dirty cop, Kipp is the cop who is his back-up, after they catch the dirty cop they go for drinks and hit it off but Jeremy is deeply closeted and refuses to act on his attraction and backs off. The story then turns to the mystery plot and we are lead on a merry dance as Jeremy and Flesh try to prove that the Chief’s death wasn’t a suicide, especially as the corruption might go right to the top and as far as they are concerned everyone’s a suspect.
As the investigate continues Jeremy and Kipp have their own merry dance as they seem to get close then be pushed apart again, Jeremy can’t risk his family discovering he is gay and Kipp has his own secrets that drive them apart. They are one hot couple though and their attraction sizzles on the pages, well, that is when Jeremy allows it to anyway, and they fit together really well.
The main storyline is amazing, it has twists and turns and misdirection that leaves you guessing until near the end of the story. A truly masterful piece of writing that will satisfy any mystery or suspense fan. I’m sorry, but like hell I’m gonna tell you anything about the actual investigation, it’s just too good to share and ruin the fun for you :-) But I will give a big pleading for Ethan Stone to have his next Flesh novel be about Leif because he was just amazing in his secondary role and I’d love to see him get his happy ever after.
So I’ve given you just enough for you to curse me out for not letting any juicy details in this review *bats eyelashes* ah well you’ll just have to dig them out for yourself by reading the book. I will tell you that it is well worth the wait and that this is one of my favourite series, the characters may not always be loveable but they certainly are bloody interesting!
I recommend this to those who love twisty mysteries, a healthy dose of suspense, great characters that have true character, brilliant investigations that lead you on a merry dance and a developing relationship that has more ups and downs that a roller-coaster! Highly recommended!
Check out the other blogs on the blog tour
20 Oct – Prism Book Alliance
21 Oct – Love Bytes
22 Oct – Joyfully Jay
23 Oct – Novel Approach
24 Oct – Sinfully
25 Oct – GGR
26 Oct – Boys in Our Books
27 Oct – MM Good book Reviews
28 Oct – JP Barnaby
29 Oct – Ethan Stone
30 Oct – Hearts on Fire Reviews
31 Oct – Rainbow Gold Reviews
Filed under: Author Giveaway, Blog Tour, Book Review, DSP Publications, Excerpt, Guest Post, MM Book Review, MM Romance Book Review, New Releases Tagged: A Flesh Novel, DSP Publications, Ethan Stone, Flesh series, GLBT Mystery Romance, GLBT Suspense, Pixie's Reviews