Vicki Tyley-- Thin Blood

Based in rural Victoria, Australia, Vicki Tyley writes fast-paced mystery and suspense novels in contemporary Australian settings.

Vicki has traveled extensively, spending a year touring the world before terrorism was an influencing factor. She has lived in the central business districts of large cities, suburbia, idyllic seaside locations, rural areas, bushland, and remote desert mining camps.

In the lead up to her writing career, she worked in a multitude of different industries including banking, stockbroking, importing and wholesaling, human resources, mining, hospitality, civil engineering, and toys, in predominantly accounting, IT and management roles. All these life experiences are brought to bear in her writing.

Thin Blood: Craig Edmonds, a successful stockbroker, reports the disappearance of his wife, Kirsty. What starts as a typical missing person's case soon evolves into a full-blown homicide investigation when forensics uncover blood traces and dark-blond hairs in the boot of the missing woman's car. Added to this, is Craig's adulterous affair with the victim's younger sister, Narelle Croswell, compounded further by a recently acquired $1,000,000 insurance policy on his wife's life. He is charged with murder but, with no body and only circumstantial evidence, he walks free when two trials resulting in hung juries fail to convict him.

Ten years later, Jacinta Deller, a newspaper journalist is retrenched. Working on a freelance story about missing persons, she comes across the all but forgotten Edmonds case. When she discovers her boyfriend, Brett Rhodes, works with Narelle Croswell, who is not only the victim's sister but is now married to the prime suspect, her sister's husband, she thinks she has found the perfect angle for her article. Instead, her life is turned upside down, as befriending the woman, she becomes embroiled in a warped game of delusion and murder.

What about your book might appeal to readers?

Thin Blood is a fast-paced Australian murder mystery with red herrings, twists and turns galore. It’s written in an easy-reading style. In one reviewer’s words: “The story flows so easily that before you know what's happened, fifty pages are gone. It practically reads itself.”

Why did you go indie?

It was an experiment. I’m an Australian writer with an American agent: Robert Fleck. After a lot of effort, he’d been unable to sell Thin Blood, in large part because most of the publishers refused to even look at the book. “Americans don’t want to read Australian mysteries,” he was told.

Last October, with nothing to lose, we decided to release Thin Blood electronically on Smashwords. That received such a good response that Suspense Magazine selected me as their featured New Author for April. At the end of April, we made the novel available in Amazon’s Kindle store.

It’s an experiment that’s paid off. As of today, with sales in excess of 20,000, it's the #1 Mystery title among all non-free titles available on Kindle, and reached #6 among all paid titles on Kindle, regardless of genre.

Who are your favorite writers?
In no particular order: Harlan Coben, Michael Robotham, Tess Gerritsen, Mark Billingham, James Patterson, Lynda La Plante, Patricia Cornwell, Erica Spindler, Lisa Gardner, Carol Smith, Kathy Reichs, Michael Palmer and many, many others.

From Vicki:
“To celebrate Thin Blood’s release on Kindle, I’m offering it for the introductory price of US$0.99 (normally US$3.99): Thin Blood at Amazon
For Kindle readers outside the US who get slugged with hefty surcharges when they buy from Amazon, use coupon code KP64D at Smashwords: Thin Blood at Smashwords. Limited time offer. Expires 30 June 2010.

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