Free Bad Karma

The Kindle version of BAD KARMA is going to be free for the next 5 days. The reaction to this book has been interesting. When the book was released in 2009 readers unfamiliar with me tended to like it quite a bit, while fans of my harder core noir books that had already come out (Fast Lane, Small Crimes and Pariah) were just pissed off and disappointed that I wrote a hardboiled PI novel instead of another pitch black noir journey. In a way, this book opened up my readers to accepting Julius Katz and The Caretaker of Lorne Field, which they mught not have otherwise. Even though Bad Karma is a hardboiled PI novel, it's still very different from the norm, and at it's core it is very dark in its own right. It's also connected to three of my other books: BAD THOUGHTS, FAST LANE and OUTSOURCED.

I never really did much to promote this book in the past for several reasons: the timing of when this book came out couldn't have been worse, which was the same time PARIAH was released, the publisher never was able to fix the Amazon page which showed an early and rejected book cover, and finally, the goal for this book was significantly more modest than Caretaker and my 'man out of prison' noir trilogy books--namely to be a fun, hardboiled PI read.

Here are a few of the reviews from when the book came out:

"Detective Bill Shannon, introduced in Bad Thoughts (2007), is back, and a welcome return it is. Relocated from Boston to Boulder, Shannon has fled the Boston PD for a low-stress lifestyle, picking up a little work on the side as a private eye. But despite his efforts to find psychic and psychological peace of mind after his horrific encounter with Herbert Winters, the demonic serial killer from the earlier novel, Shannon discovers that putting distance between himself and the old evils doesn’t help him escape the new evils. Zeltserman weaves together elements of both mystery and horror genres, as Shannon again finds himself confronting the darkness that roams the boundary beyond one’s physical senses. It’s as though Zeltserman has aimed a 12-gauge sawed-off at smarmy New Age sensitivities and fired off both barrels. Irony abounds, as Shannon unmasks deviant gurus, evil yoga sudios, Russian gangsters, and guys who use their baseball implements in socially unacceptable ways. If you liked the first novel in this series, you’ll love this one." — Elliott Swanson, Booklist

"The violence in this book is more subdued than that in Bad Thoughts, but it's certainly there. The story is also a pretty straightforward p.i. tale, though not without some horror and New Age elements, which once again proves Zeltserman's versatility (he's doing noir novels and Nero Wolfe pastiches in EQMM, among other things). If you haven't read Zeltserman's work, it's time to start." Bill Crider, read the entire review here.

"Even though this is not SMALL CRIMES part two, don’t let that dissuade you from checking out the Shannon series. It might have its flights into the metaphysical world, but it’s still top-notch P.I. reading. Even for Yankee fans." —Bruce Grossman, Bookgam, read the entire review here.

"Loads of fun here"-- Drowning Machine, read entire review here.

"The novel works on three levels. It’s part clever murder mystery and part personal spiritual journey as Shannon tries to heal his psychological scars and achieve inner peace; it’s also an informed and impartial commentary on the New Age Movement, presenting both the positive and negative aspects the subculture. This might be a standard PI tale in structure, but it shares the ingenuity which has brought a distinctive touch to so much of Zeltserman’s fiction." The Tangled Web, read the entire review here.

If you like hardboiled PI fiction and are willing to try something a little different from me, I think you'll like this one. And you can grab it free now!