The Reading Frenzy: **GIVEAWAY** Interview - Carla Neggers - Review

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

GIVEAWAY Interview - Carla Neggers - Review - Liar's Key

Carla Neggers is one of my very favorite authors and I'm so fortunate to be able to review her for RT Book Reviews. She has two very different, very good series going Liar's Key is Book 6 in her Donovan and Sharpe FBI series and it's just released today! Also Carla's publisher Mira is sponsoring a giveaway, details below.
Enjoy!

ISBN-13: 9780778319115
Publisher: Mira/Harlequin
Release Date: 08/30/2016
Length: 320pp
Buy It: B&N/Amazon/Kobo/IndieBound/Audible/Publisher

OVERVIEW:
An FBI legend, a mysterious antiquities specialist and a brazen art thief draw top FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan into a complex web of blackmail, greed and murder in the eagerly awaited new novel in the highly acclaimed Sharpe & Donovan series.

Emma Sharpe is suspicious when retired Special Agent Gordon Wheelock, a legend in FBI art crimes, drops by her Boston office for a visit. Gordy says he's heard rumors about stolen ancient mosaics. Emma, an art crimes specialist herself, won't discuss the rumors. Especially since they involve Oliver York, an unrepentant English art thief. Gordy and Emma's grandfather, a renowned private art detective, chased Oliver for a decade. Gordy knows Wendell Sharpe didn't give him everything he had on the thief. Even now, Oliver will never be prosecuted.

When a shocking death occurs, Emma is drawn into the investigation. The evidence points to a deadly conspiracy between Wendell and Oliver, and Emma's fiancé, deep cover agent Colin Donovan, knows he can't stay out of this one. He also knows there will be questions about Emma's role and where her loyalties lie.

From Boston to Maine to Ireland, Emma and Colin track a dangerous killer as the lives of their family and friends are at stake. With the help of their friend, Irish priest Finian Bracken, and Emma's brother, Lucas, the Sharpes and Donovans must band together to stop a killer.

No one creates exciting, action-packed romantic suspense and international intrigue like New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers.

Giveaway is for One Print Copy
of Liar's Key US & Canada Only
Please use Rafflecopter form below to enter
Thanks Mira!
Good Luck!

Carla, Hi! Welcome back to The Reading Frenzy!
Your sixth in the Sharpe and Donovan series, Liar’s Key, has just released.
Tell my readers a bit about it.

FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan are weeks from their wedding at Emma’s former convent, but he’s away on a deep-cover mission and she gets an unusual visit from an FBI legend, Gordy Wheelock, a retired art crimes expert interested in rumors about stolen ancient mosaics and the mysterious death of a mosaics expert in London. Emma, Colin, Gordy and assorted other characters—including English art thief Oliver York and Irish priest Finian Bracken’s youngest sister, Mary—converge in southern Maine for a Sharpe Fine Art Recovery gathering. The danger mounts and Emma and Colin need answers before they say “I do.”

When you wrote Saint’s Gate, Sharpe and Donovan book #1 did you know it would be a series?

I did, yes. I didn’t have future stories mapped out but I knew there would be more. Emma and Colin, their families and friends and the complexities of their lives and work offer so much to delve into. Finian Bracken, an Irish priest and whiskey man with a tragic past, could keep me in stories all by himself! Add Emma’s grandfather, a world-renowned art detective, Colin’s three brothers, an elusive art thief…you see? A series in the making!

I personally hope we have years and years of this series.
Did you begin the series with a certain number of novels or are you letting your characters determine their fate?

The Sharpe & Donovan series is open-ended, which I love. On the one hand, I have a world I can return to—Emma and Colin’s elite FBI team in Boston, their families and friends in Maine, the Sharpes and Brackens in Ireland, Oliver York in England. On the other hand, future stories aren’t set in stone and I can be spontaneous, following the characters where they take me.

Of Emma and Colin who is more fun to write and why?

I’ve had great fun writing both Emma and Colin. By now, they feel very real and independent to me. In fact, I started to describe them as “characters” but I deleted it because I decided they might quarrel with me!

Of the two who is the one who misbehaves most?

Intentionally, Colin. He’s an independent thinker and a fast mover, part of why he’s good at undercover work. Analytical Emma, however, quietly does her own thing. That’s how she meets Colin in the first place. She’s returned to her former convent at the request of Sister Joan but hasn’t notified anyone in the FBI.

Carla your Sharpe and Donovan novels stand well on their own yet when read in order gives readers a more in depth and chronological experience.
If a new fan picks up book six and asks you if they should go back and read the rest what would you say to them?

I’d say what you just said! LIAR’S KEY certainly can be read on its own, but I hope readers will want to go back and start at the beginning, with SAINT’S GATE. There’s also a prequel novella, “Rock Point,” that tells the story of how Irish priest Finian Bracken ends up serving a small church in Colin’s hometown on the Maine coast, but it’s not necessary to read first and might actually be best to read after DECLAN’S CROSS, the third book in the series. As a reader myself, I often dive into a series and then go back to the first book and read them in order.

Since our last interview in January about your latest Swift River novel The Spring at Moss Hill where have your travels taken you and was it for pleasure, work or a combination of both?

A combination but I have to say none of it felt like work. In June, we went to Scotland and Ireland for research, a writing retreat and pure fun. In July, we went to San Diego, where I attended the Romance Writers of America national conference and my husband and I both visited family. We had fantastic weather on both trips. Everyone said Scotland would be cold and wet and it was warm and sunny. We never even took out our raincoats.

Carla you’ve published more than 60 novels. Congratulations!!!
Take us back to the beginning, what or who fueled your muse?

Thanks! I love to write. I wrote my first books as a kid in rural New England. I did a ton of writing sitting up in a tree with a pad and pen. I was fortunate to have teachers who encouraged me, in particular my high school librarian and former English teacher. She would read through my stories with a stubby pencil—I swear she never bought new pencils!—and helped me learn how to stand back from my work and make it better. What a special, wonderful mentor she was.

Thank you so much for your time answering my nosey questions.
Will you be attending any fan/author events in the near future?

I have the 2017 RT Book Reviews conference on my “hope to be there” list. I’d love to see you there! In the meantime, thanks so much for having me back to Reading Frenzy and hi to all your fantastic readers.

My review courtesy of RT Book Reviews

The Sharpe & Donovan series

Connect with Carla - Website - Facebook - Twitter

MEET Carla:

Carla Neggers is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 60 novels, with translations in 24 languages. Born and raised on the western edge of the beautiful Quabbin Reservoir in rural Massachusetts, Carla grew up with tales of her father’s life as a Dutch sailor and her mother’s childhood in northwest Florida.
At a young age, Carla began penning her own stories on a branch high up in her favorite sugar maple. Now she enjoys spending time at the family homestead (now a tree farm) with her six brothers and sisters and their families.
When she’s not writing, Carla loves to travel, hike, kayak, garden, and, of course, dive into a good book. She lives with her family in Vermont, near Quechee Gorge.