New Audio Short Story + News
Hello everyone. Hope this finds you all the dirt-wiser.
Instead of an actual post, what I have here is some news plus a new audio book of my short story, “The Bonsai Bandit.”
Link below. Have a listen in the car or when on a stroll, it’s fun…
You’ll notice the link is not from Dirt Wise. It’s from my new fiction newsletter on Substack: DeGrandpre F&N. There you can find “The Bonsai Bandit,” and some other compelling audio short stories to listen to.
But you gotta subscribe ✏️
All free, of course. And subscribing is free as well. So is unsubscribing!
I hope you will have a look… Two of my novels are out this week and available, and several more books are in the works (see below).
About the fiction…
The first two books in my BONE HUNTER crime series are now complete: “The Slayer Rule” and “The Knackerman” (blurbs below).
To get you reading, the first in the series is either free or $1 on Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble. From any of these links you can find the second in the series, “The Knackerman.”
A techno-thriller series is also in the works. The first, “State of Matter,” is complete. We wll publish that series when the second is finished, “Loss Function.”
As always, you can reach me at richard@degrandpre.org
I’m looking for Beta Readers too, if you’re into good yarns and reader participation.
Thank you again for subscribing to DirtWise. Happy planting.
RIchard
Blurbs
THE SLAYER RULE (book one)
Set against the backdrop of the American West, "The Slayer Rule" is a sweeping crime drama that delves into themes of friendship, love, loss, and the silent tragedies that haunt the rural landscape.
The story begins with a dinosaur hunter being found dead at the base of a cliff, just days after our protagonist, Nick Yearsley, arrives in Jordan, Montana. Unfortunately for Nick, the local sheriff doesn’t believe in coincidences.
Nick isn’t looking for trouble—he’s looking for dinosaurs. It shouldn’t matter what happened in Jordan thirty years ago when a twelve-year-old boy deliberately killed his drunken father in a hunting "accident." Nor should it matter that the area has a history of disappearances and deaths dating back decades. And it certainly shouldn’t matter that the young sheriff was promoted from chief deputy because of the recent death of her husband, the previous sheriff.
What does any of this have to do with the present-day life of Nick Yearsley? On the day he arrives in Jordan, absolutely nothing. By the end of that day, with what he accidentally sets into motion, everything.
Richard DeGrandpre's stunning crime novel employs great depth of characterization to harness the age-old power of storytelling. If you're expecting a straightforward whodunnit or a formulaic crime thriller, prepare yourself for a page-turner that is, well, just the beginning.
THE KNACKERMAN (book two)
In a classic whodunnit, the crime leaves behind its own clues. But what if those clues lead to something entirely different? Not just to a deeper and darker crime, but to a whole bloodstained landscape, and the evil it harbors?
While driving through dinosaur country, young paleontologist Nick Yearsley is detained by the local sheriff’s department and subsequently released. Ordered not to leave town, Nick finds himself approached by a retired geologist. The geologist shares an incredible theory and hands Nick a thirty-year-old “murder book” to prove his claims. The file documents numerous disappearances and murders that, according to the geologist, are all connected.
Nick is skeptical. He has had enough trouble and feels his luck is finally turning: he and the young Montana sheriff have come to see more than eye to eye. All he wants to do is to get back to her, and his dinosaurs. But no sooner does he resume his excavation work in the area than the unexpected strikes again: Sheriff Sally’s chief deputy disappears after a violent assault while driving on a county road. One deputy down and confronted with a devastating loss, Sally has little choice but to turn to Nick for help.
Thus begins book two in “The Bone Hunter” series by Richard DeGrandpre. On the hunt for a mysterious killer, Nick begins a perilous journey into Jordan’s dark and layered past. With the twists and turns of an old ponderosa pine, “The Knackerman” begins as mystery but explodes into epic thriller.
