Richard Whitten Barnes

With us today is Richard Whitten Barnes. Welcome Richard. Tell us about your current project.
I’m about ten thousand words into a thriller about a terrorist attempt to sabotage the Great Lakes shipping locks between Lakes Superior and Huron. I’m toying with the idea of a series for my heroine and the area of Northern Ontario.

What will I as a reader like best about your hero?

My heroine is a 47 year old divorced cop, recuperating from being wounded on the job. She returns to her childhood home on St. Joseph Island, Ontario, where her old beau still resides. I like her and I hope you as a reader will for the same reasons.

How will women identify with your heroine?

Like all of us, she has doubts about herself, her relationships, even her motive for returning home. Her need to live on her own terms clashes with her feelings for a very independent man.

Is your muse currently sitting on your shoulder or is she illusive?

She’s off somewhere now, waiting for me to be done with promoting two books, both published since November of last year.

Who is your favorite author?

Don’t really have one. I like the sparse writing of Stephen King and Elmore Leonard. Recently read two books by Markus Zusak, an Australian writer with a bit of a flair.

What books of yours are currently for sale and where can a reader buy them?
THE FAIRCLOTH REACTION – on most book seller websites; www.iuniverse..
THE CORYDON SNOW – www.wings-press, Amazon, etc.
BRINK – (Feb. 2011) – www.wings-press.com
All of the above are linked to my website www.richardwhittenbarnes.com



BRINK
By Richard Whitten Barnes

BACK COVER BLURB:
Ben Posner is at the top of his scientific career when a change in CEOs drastically affects his lifestyle. Before anyone realizes, Ben is using alcohol to cope with his problems. This downward spiral finds him homeless and eventually rescued by the woman he has secretly loved. Together they begin to patch his life back together, only to face a charge of murder.

Warning-Explicit Language
EXERPT
The blow came as he was crossing a narrow alley that bisected the block. He never saw the clenched fist with the tattooed fingers emerge from the darkened alley to hit him on the back of the neck.
“Dropped him like a stone, the long haired one complemented the bearded one, as he dragged Ben back into the alley.
Ben groaned, rolled over onto his hands and knees in an effort to get up. A vicious kick to the ribs dissuaded him of that.
“Get his wallet,” Longhair said.
A tattooed hand with I-R-O-N spelled out on the fingers was already extracting the wallet.
“Get his keys.” Fingers instructed. “Mother fuck!” he hissed. “The shit ass’s got fourteen bucks!” he expertly removed the Wells Fargo debit card, ignoring the Visa card. “Get him up!”
Longhair grabbed Ben, who was throwing up, under the arms, and stood him up, face pressed against the bricks of the building.
“Okay, Honolulu, can you hear me?” Fingers asked Ben, who nodded.
Ben’s debit card was pushed in front of his eyes, the tattooed fingers now in view. Ben hesitated. Fingers nodded to Longhair who brutally bashed Ben’s face into the bricks. Blood spurted from his nose. Pain shot through his left cheek bone.
“I ain’t gonna ask you again, Honolulu,” Fingers instructed.
Ben believed him. Uh … three, three, two … uh, four, one.”
Fingers nodded to Longhair an Ben was released. He fell into a rain puddle, rolling over on his side.
“Three, three, two, four, one,” Fingers repeated. “Better be right, ‘cause we come back, and whack you if it ain’t.”
Long hair kicked hard at Ben’s exposed stomach, then at his kidneys when Ben doubled over.
Benjamin Posner, PhD. in physical chemistry, esteemed scientist and lecturer lost consciousness in a filthy puddle of water in an Oakland alley. He did not hear the engine turn over or his Toyota Camry speed away. It began to rain again.

~*~

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