Featured New Book: The Concert Killer by RJ McDonnell

I’ve been buds with the most excellent RJ McDonnell for … years now, I’d bet. He’s a great dude, very savvy, and his books reflect this. Plus, the’re Rock Fiction, and we all know about Susan’s weakness for Rock Fiction.

In fact, RJ’s third book in his Rock & Roll Mystery Series, the Concert Killer, has just been released. Which means I get to bring you a Featured New Book that’s Rock Fiction! I do NOT do this nearly enough (hint to all you who know Rock Fiction authors, be they writing a series or a stand-alone.).

Without further ado, here’s RJ:

The song that makes me think of my novel, The Concert Killer, is its trailer song by the same name. Since I write the Rock & Roll Mystery Series, I decided to write an original song to promote the book. The novel is about a serial killer who attempts to shut down the concert industry, and opens on his fourth kill. The song serves as a prequel, providing details on his first three murders. Here’s a link to the YouTube trailer and song.

Lead guitar was performed by Robbie Walsh, who played with Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Chubby Checker, Ginger Baker of Cream, and Tico Torres of Bon Jovi. Bass and drums were performed by Robbie’s current band mate, Larry Moss. I did the vocals and rhythm guitar.

I wrote the song almost immediately after finishing the edit on the book. This involved going through the text 20 times; immersing myself in the thoughts and feelings of a religious fanatic serial killer for months. Most of my friends and family told me they heard a distinct UK accent in my voice. They have all seen me perform at bookstores, parties, and library events in the past, and never picked up on this affectation on any of my other songs. I think the immersion process was so intense that I dug down to my Irish roots when delivering the vocals.

If you’re interested in finding out what the story is about, I posted the first 48 pages on fReado. It’s not your typical serial killer novel, which usually falls into the horror genre. This is a whodunit mystery. In
keeping with the first two novels in the series (Rock & Roll Homicide and Rock & Roll Rip-Off), I continued to use humor in between action scenes.

My detective is a 28-year-old who worked as a club musician for 10 years before starting his internship as a private investigator. During those 10 years he also attended college and worked as a counselor at an outpatient mental health center. Now that he runs his own detective agency he employs two former patients. They’re both very good at their jobs, but have quirks that
periodically lighten the mood.

If you enjoy rock fiction, all three are available in digital and paper formats. The digital versions are priced at $2.99 on Kindle:

Rock & Roll Homicide
Rock & Roll Rip-Off
The Concert Killer

There you go! RJ’s book makes him think of his own song! Just like Jeremy Wagner before him.

If RJ’s kind enough to send me a digital copy of The Concert Killer, I’ll post the review at all the usual suspects, starting with my own Rocks ‘n Reads blog.