PLAYING THE GAME - $0.99 James Patterson style thriller

[Sigould316]

Hi everyone, I am a UK author who has just had debut novel published - "Playing The Game" - a contemporary thriller set in Los Angeles ...

'Detective Michael Patton of the LAPD has been targeted by a serial killer named 'The Chemist' as the starting point for each game the killer is playing. He does not know why. Two girls are already dead and a third has just 24 hours to live. For detective Patton, this is a game he must win'.

It is available on amazon.com for $0.99 and would appeal to any fans of James Patterson's Alex Cross novels! The first chapter is also posted on amazon.com for anyone interested!

Thanks

Simon Gould

http://www.amazon.com/Playing-The-Ga...0346989&sr=8-2

[jhempel24]

Sounds pretty cool to me!!

You know, ever since I've got tan e-Reader, I've found myself buying more from authors like yourself that post here about there work than anything else on the net!! And I've been really happy with the quality of writing that everyone is putting out!

[Sigould316]

Good to hear .... well if you check out Playing The Game, I'd love your opinion!

[jhempel24]

I bought it, it's next on the list to read. I'post some thoughts in the next couple weeks.
Look foward to it.

[Bev M]

Sounds intriguing! Too bad it's for Kindle only, I'd love to read it on my JetBook Lite.

[Sigould316]

For those considering - chapter one:

Looking blearily across the room, desperately trying to focus on the digital read out of my alarm clock I figured it must be around three in the morning, but that was my best guess. The phone was ringing out for maybe the sixth ring but for all I knew it could have been ringing for hours. I let it ring for another couple of seconds, trying desperately to get myself together. I'd been in bed for around two hours and asleep for less than half of that, despite sinking several beers over a couple of games of pool with a few friends last night. It had been a rare night completely switched off from work. When those nights come around you have to make the most of them. I'd been around long enough to realise that good news seldom arrives at this time of night and I suspected that the call I was about to receive contained no good news at all.
`Yeah, this is Patton', I mumbled, picking up the telephone. As my eyes became more focussed, growing accustomed to the darkness, the familiar outline of my bedroom furniture gave me little comfort. My heart sank as my worst fears were confirmed.

`Hey there, Detective,' I sat upright, trying to shake off the tiredness. `It's time to play. You want her back, you have to play!'

I recognised the eerie digitised voice straight away, despite only having heard it a couple of times before. For the last four and half weeks, my partner and I had been working a high-profile case that had been driving us insane. In my fifteen or so years working homicide in the LAPD, I had seen all kinds of crazy but nothing like this. I knew that Los Angeles had its fair share of sick bastards but this one must be close to the top of the pile.

So far the individual that the papers had nicknamed `The Chemist' had struck, and been successful, twice. Up until tonight, The Chemist had kidnapped two girls, injected them with an extremely high dose of a drug called Clozapone and then mailed us the antidote. All we had to do then was to `play the game' and find the girl. This was girl number three, and we hadn't found the first two in time. We hadn't even been close.

Clozapone, in its prescribed dosage is pretty harmless. It is commonly used to combat schizophrenia or as an anti-depressant. Sure, there are side effects but nothing major. In the dosages that this bastard was prescribing it would gradually decrease the number of white blood cells in the victim's bloodstream then systematically shut down their vital organs. It's not quick and it's not painless. A hell of a way to go - and trust me when I say - you don't want to be the one who finds the body. Not if you want to sleep anytime this century, anyway.

The phone went dead, but it didn't matter. I'd had two of these calls before and I knew the drill by now. Wearily I got out of bed, shivering as the cold night air cascaded over me. I walked to the bathroom and stood for a moment as I filled a glass with water; the alcohol I'd consumed last night had made my mouth dry. My head was pounding although I thought that this was as much to do with the beer last night as the phone call I'd just received. If we stood any chance of getting the girl back, we'd have to be on top of our game today, and would need more than a little luck alongside that. I looked in the mirror as I drank the water, and thought I looked older than my forty-five years. Maybe years of chasing psychopaths like The Chemist had aged me slightly, or just maybe I could no longer sink several beers then be ready to go again after little or no sleep.

For some reason, I was the one getting the initial call and that meant that The Chemist wanted me close to the case. I hadn't figured out why The Chemist wanted me specifically yet, but I knew it was crucial. Most of my first week on this case was spent searching through my past cases histories to see if any of my past `wins', had been released recently - seeing if it was personal. Nothing so far, but one thing was for certain, I was determined to make this one another win. I had no choice. For me, each case was either win or lose. In my experience no-one ever drew, and I wasn't about to start now.

Wearily, I went through the now all too familiar motions for the third time in just over a month. A call to my partner who sounded a lot worse than I felt, a call to my station captain, who sounded like he never slept whenever I'd had the misfortune to have to call him in the early hours of a morning and, finally, a call to the PD getting them to check for the fax I knew would have arrived seconds after I'd had the telephone call from The Chemist.

After I hung up the final call, I took a moment to savour the sound of absolute quiet. I knew in just about forty-five minutes, at one of the major incident rooms of the PD, I would be once again surrounded in chaos.

[jhempel24]

Originally Posted by Bev M

Sounds intriguing! Too bad it's for Kindle only, I'd love to read it on my JetBook Lite.

I think it's drm free, so you could use calibre to convert. I've got a nook so Ihave to concert as well.

[laughingdragons]

Originally Posted by Bev M

Sounds intriguing! Too bad it's for Kindle only, I'd love to read it on my JetBook Lite.

Same here I have a Sony.

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I think it's drm free, so you could use calibre to convert. I've got a nook so Ihave to concert as well.

Sony readers can't read kindle books.

Post it again if you ever put it into epub. I live in L.A. so it would be interesting for me to read.

[jhempel24]

Neither can the nook, but calibre can convert it to epub

[laughingdragons]

Calibre couldn't convert it. It must have drm on it.

Maybe one day I'll get around to readining it. I just don't like to read on my pc.

[jhempel24]

Well, that stinks. I can strip the drm so for me it's not a problem. I just assumed it was drm free because it was .99

[laughingdragons]

It does stink. Maybe one day I can figure out how to strip the drm. I've tried to figure it out and it's confusing

[Sigould316]

Managed to convert the file to epub - how do I go about making it available for download?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Sigould316

Managed to convert the file to epub - how do I go about making it available for download?

Do you mean making it available for free here on MobileRead? (We don't sell ebooks.)


Don
(Moderator)

[Sigould316]

Playing The Game is now available in various formats, including epub, on smashwords for $0.99!


Smash words:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/sear...aying+the+game

Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AM5EMS/