Hello! And thank you for joining the Back in Black Blog Tour! My name is Rhys Ford and I will be your guide through this serialized short story featuring Cole McGinnis and his trip to the altar. Hit each blog stop for the next bit of the story AND as a special bonus, Greg Tremblay has narrated each “slice of cake” on this wedding tour!
As some of you know, Cole McGinnis is a former LAPD detective who found love again in a romance suspense series called the Cole McGinnis Mysteries or as I call it, the Dirty Series. It is there he meets and falls in love with Kim Jae-Min, a Korean photographer with a few secrets of his own and a tiny black cat with an attitude. I left Cole and Jae in quite a happy place five years ago in Los Angeles with a promise to come back and “reboot” Cole’s life in a mystery series.
(You can find the first series here at Dreamspinner Press, including a special free bonus collection of shorts in both ebook and audiobook format)
https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/cole-mcginnis-mysteries-6335-s
If you’ve already met Cole, well then I am happy to announce he’s back and well, while things are a little bit different… and he’s a hair older… his life is still as insanely jam-packed with action and more than few mysteries to figure out. All of the old gang is back along with a few new faces and I hope you all enjoy Back in Black as much as I enjoyed writing it.
And as if Cole wasn’t fun enough to write, Greg Tremblay is back as Cole McGinnis in the upcoming audiobook which is supposed to be out on Feb 13th! If you aren’t a part of my Facebook group or follow me on social media, please be sure to find me to learn about any future stuff. Because 2020 is going to be a hell of a lot of fun.
***WINNER*** Annette P***
Giveaway!
As always, there is a giveaway! Please comment with your email and follow this blog to enter to win a $25 Gift Certificate to the online store of your choice!
Nothing Else Matters: Part Five
Audio Snippet Link: https://rhysford.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/pt5_bib_wedding.mp3
“That’s a lot of coin for a bit of mirrors and plastic.” Bobby’s grumbling hadn’t stopped since I’d begged the shop owner to open up for a few minutes so I could pick up the special order I’d placed nearly two months ago. “I mean, how many cameras does the guy need? And why didn’t he get it for himself? You’re swimming in money.”
There was no explaining the distinction between equipment to Dawson. He found things he liked and stuck with them, changing up only when something caught his eye and needs. It was something he and Ichi shared. Their love of loud, teeth-rattling motorcycles and hedonism drew them together. They loved to push themselves to the edge of things, thrilling in the free-fall of an uncontrolled roller coaster drop and laughing maniacally when they survived the experience to come out the other side. I hadn’t seen it in the beginning, blinded more by the confusion of two people I held in my heart as brothers hooking up and then marrying.
All told, it was a perplexing time until I took a really good hard look at who they were and what they meant to one another.
And damn it, the bastards fit.
“Because Jae won’t spend any money he didn’t earn on his photography equipment. It’s a thing for him and I don’t push.” Like comprehending how Bobby and Ichi worked, it’d taken me a bit to understand why Jae refused to splurge and buy anything he wanted, even as I encouraged him to do so. It wasn’t pride, per se but a dignity. He wanted to carve his own path into any mountain standing in his way and the best thing I could do for him was to respect that. “It’s his, dude. But special occasions mean I can sneak a few things into his kit bag and since our wedding happens to hit just as this stuff dropped into the market, I can excuse it as a present.”
“Yeah, maybe he’ll do the same and get you a Kevlar vest,” Bobby chortled, laughing harder when I flipped him off. “Or pajamas. That’s something you need. Bullet-proof jammies. The kind with the feet on them.”
“I can’t believe Ichi fell in love with you.” It was a common refrain, usually one I reserved for when I didn’t have a comeback. “Someone must have dropped him on his head or something. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“He married me because we…” Bobby trailed off, his knuckles going white as he gripped the truck’s steering wheel. His gaze softened, staring out over a sea of bumper-to-bumper cars wending their way through the freeway’s afternoon traffic. “First time I got married, I thought I was doing the right thing, you know? Marrying a woman would make a man out of me. I’d forget how much I wanted to bury myself into some twinkling eyed pretty boy and live the American dream, complete with the kid, a dog and that white picket fence. I made everyone around me miserable. Hell, I was a miserable asshole myself and that twinkling eyed pretty boy just became more alluring because I couldn’t have him. So I cheated… on my wife, on myself, hell on every bit of my life until I broke everything I had.
“This time around, I wasn’t looking for a happily ever after. You know me, Princess. Last thing I wanted was to wake up next to the same guy for the rest of my life and then, bam!” He smacked the dashboard, a hard solid thwack with his flattened hand. “There was Ichiro, daring me to be better. Daring me to be someone he’d take home and keep. All of a sudden, it seemed like life was too damned short and every minute I spent without him was like liquid gold slipping out from between my fingers. That’s how you know when you’re in love, kid. When in the middle of a freaking argument about a couch, you realize it doesn’t really matter if the damned thing is brown leather or black suede, you just want to have the damned couch so you can sit on it together and not waste any of those minutes you’ve been given.”
“Notice the couch is brown leather, though,” I remarked, pointedly ignoring the misty gleam in his eyes.
“Yeah well, he pointed out that it’s easier to wipe off after a long night,” Bobby said with a leer. “And if there’s one thing I really love about your baby brother, it’s that he’s practical as hell.”
Back in Black
There are eight million stories in the City of Angels but only one man can stumble upon the body of a former client while being chased by a pair of Dobermans and a deranged psycho dressed as a sheep.
That man is Cole McGinnis.
Since his last life-threatening case years ago, McGinnis has married the love of his life, Jae-Min Kim, consulted for the LAPD, and investigated cases as a private detective for hire. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the shocking discovery of a dead, grandmotherly woman at his feet and the cascade of murders that follows, even if he should have been used to it by now.
Now he’s back in the dark world of murder and intrigue where every bullet appears to have his name on it and every answer he digs up seems to only create more questions. Hired by the dead woman’s husband, McGinnis has to figure out who is behind the crime spree. As if the twisted case of a murdered grandmother isn’t complicated enough, Death is knocking on his door, and each time it opens, Death is wearing a new face, leaving McGinnis to wonder who he can actually trust.
Purchase Back in Black at Dreamspinner, Amazon (Globally) and other online book stores:
Dreamspinner Press (https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/back-in-black-by-rhys-ford-11514-b)
Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Back-Black-McGinnis-Investigations-Book-ebook/dp/B07YZLRMPG)
Back in Black Audiobook can be preordered here: https://www.amazon.com/Back-Black-McGinnis-Investigations-Book-ebook/dp/B07YZLRMPG
About Rhys Ford
She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Harley, a grey tuxedo with a flower on her face, Badger, a disgruntled alley cat who isn’t sure living inside is a step up the social ladder as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.
Rhys can be found at the following locations:
Blog: www.rhysford.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author
Facebook Group: Coffee, Cats, and Murder: https://www.facebook.com/groups/635660536617002/
Twitter: @Rhys_Ford
For more information and to keep track of his upcoming releases, visit Greg Tremblay at: https://gregtremblay.com/
