Rest of the review can be found here- Review.

How is everyone? I hope we’re all past the ‘oh no Christmas was only yesterday’ blues.

Arlene

As I said over at Elizabeth’s blog, research for The Chosen was more pleasure than pain, but also something I undertook quite seriously.  American Crime fiction has been my ideé fixe in some form or other for the last near 40 odd years, so I am very pleased indeed to think that people are enjoying this particular novel. Though my next novel is set here in Ireland, I would like very much to return to the States and do another in the very near future. I doubt you could keep me away at this stage.

Arlene

Bearing in mind the day that’s in it, I’d like to take the time to wish all of you a very Happy New Year, see you in 2012 and take care.
Arlene

Horrific Massacres of children have stunned the world in recent years – from that at Columbine High School in 1999 to the harrowing slighter of teenagers at the Norwegian summer camp this year. Irish crime writer Arlene Hunt uses similar sickening violence to provide the dramatic opening to The Chosen, which is set in Rockville, a small American town.
Jessie Conway is a teacher at the local high school. Her ordinary appearance – ” 38years old, tall but evenly proportioned, with shoulder-length hair” –mirrors her quiet marriage to Mike, the town’s mechanic. Her peaceful existence is shattered on a summer’s afternoon when two students embark on a killing frenzy in the school. Jessie single-handedly takes down the two armed boys, saving the lives of many of her students. Still traumatized, she is branded a hero and catapulted into the media spotlight. It is this frenzied attention that draws the predatory gaze of Caleb Switch, a serial killer.
Disciplined and meticulous, Switch views people as animals to be categorized and hunted. His job volunteering for a church provides an ideal opportunity to prey on the vulnerable, filtering out the weak ” category Bs” who he kills for a new identity or money. “The category As” – women like Jessie, wit an instinct for survival – are kidnapped and released into the wilderness of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. His game is always the same: his victims get a five-minute head start before he follows, armed with a longbow.
Hunt’s novel, the first she has set outside Dublin, is a gripping read with plenty of twists and turns. The chapters narrating Jessie’s desperate attempt to out-run Switch are spliced with Mike’s frantic searching, and Hunt gradually increases the pace, mimicking the stealth of a hunter stalking its prey.
Jessie’s determination to cling to life ultimately transforms The Chosen into an uplifting story about the power of love and hope.

A second review here.

Also the following week, don’t forget Wednesday 8th of December, the delightful Pen Ireland are holding an event on crime at United Arts Club, 3 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2. Detail can be found here. I’ll be flying in from London that day, so fingers crossed the weather does not cause any disruption.

For those of you who emailed, the new book is coming along nicely and yes I promise, it’s a QuicK Investigation novel. All going well it will be available in late Summer, 2012.

I’d like to say thank you so much to the wonderful people of the Malahide book club for their terrific response to The Chosen, I was incredibly chuffed for the recommendation and, as always, grateful for the feedback.

And, of course, do remember to visit Village Books in Malahide for your copy of The Chosen.

On a quick note; the lovely people at TV3 have picked The Chosen as book of the month and if you write a little review of the novel before the end of November you could be in a draw to win a rather lovely laptop. Details of the competition can be found here.

Best of luck with it!

Sorry to say tickets for the Scales of Justice on the 16th of November are all gone. Apologies to those who were unable to get a place.

Arlene

So long old friend.

Opus, Oct 13, 1996 – Oct 26th, 2011.

Special shout out to my oldest and dearest friend, the lovely Anna Kenny, for all her help, and a big thank you to Mark McGrath for being a most excellent photographer.