Still awaiting the arrival of his injured wife, Ari Ciminon (The 56th Man) is already on a hair-trigger when a sniper wounds his close friend, insurance investigator Elmore Lawson, a disabled veteran who has been looking into a suspicious injury claim at Osprey Pointe, a gated community outside of Richmond, Virginia. Ari’s search for the would-be assassin begins at Lawson’s house, where he encounters Lawson’s autistic nephew, Freddie, a possible witness to the crime. Both Ari and Detective Yvonne Neumann, Lawson’s lover, are keen to take personal revenge on the shooter. As a result of Freddie’s profound terror at the prospect of sharing a public toilet at a Social Services shelter, the boy is put in Neumann’s care. Unable to watch over him during the day, she places him with Ari part-time. But he has no intention of staying put in his safe house and takes Freddie with him in his hunt for the killer—much to the dismay of Freddie, when he discovers Ari has no qualms about using him as a decoy.
Drawn by Elmore’s notes to posh Osprey Pointe, Ari learns that wealth has its drawbacks. For one, the residents are being blackmailed by their own security service. But those same guards have become vulnerable to an outside force they could never have anticipated: Assassins Without Borders. Confronted by multiple killers is bad enough. But Ari also has to deal with a lusty housewife, Invisible Fencing, scarecrows, hunting dogs, Dollar General, explosive beheadings, cholesterol-laden killer-burgers, overhead speakers, Brazilian banks, Belgian car-exporters, wannabe Nazis, Blu-ray pirates, a reunion between a cat and her kitten that proves less than heart-warming, and a boy who insists on wearing a biohazard suit as a disguise. Topping it all is the reason for the delay in his wife’s arrival: his only surviving son has married a woman named Rachel….
16 Comments
Tanya
3/12/2020 12:04:11 pm
Dear J. Clayton Rogers,
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3/12/2020 02:27:32 pm
Thanks for letting me know. This isn't the first time. You missed the free promotion period, it seems. I'm going to let Amazon know about the problem...again. Jim
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Tanya
9/1/2020 11:29:42 am
Hi,
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2/14/2021 09:10:13 am
I'm still a bit confused by these notifications/website bells and whistles. The Long Pigs is available for free today. Hope you get this in time for a copy. Jim
Tanya
2/14/2021 06:03:56 pm
Hi,
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3/2/2021 02:49:47 pm
Thanks for your input. I hope you weren't put off too much by what might seem to be the tawdriness of the last book. I was mostly concerned with the opening, Ari's brief affair with a university student. I thought long and hard about that. I was beginning to worry that Ari was beginning to seem...well, a bit neutered. There is none of that in the latest. I've remained with Ari for so long because I like the character, in spite of the fact that Amazon seems to have stuck me in some kind of algorithmic hell. I have noted that they even removed some reviews. It doesn't help that I do very little in the way of marketing, which is strictly my bad. In any event, I'm about 100 pages in my latest Ari book and it will probably be my last. I'm long overdue for a different genre! Thanks again. Jim
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Tanya
3/2/2021 05:07:32 pm
The beginning did catch me off guard, one of the things I liked about Ari was his faithfulness to his wife. It just seemed so out of character and, I suppose... beneath him, lol
Dolly Lee
9/10/2021 01:02:51 am
I just finished 56th man book 11. Ari is about to see his wife and is bleeding out in the hospital elevator. Please tell me you are going to write another book! Or are we supposed to infer he died??!!
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9/10/2021 04:07:41 pm
Thank you for your interest. I'm glad you're enjoying the Ari books. I haven't quite decided if I should bump off Ari or continue the series, but I thought I would try my hand at another non-Ari book. I've been with Ari for over 10 years and I needed a break. Also, the historical events portrayed in the books are no longer contemporary, and I'm not sure people are interested in Iraq now, especially with Afghanistan to preoccupy us. My readership is embarrassingly limited (I do very little in the way of promotion). I write more as a form of amusement than for any other reason. If I miss Ari too much, I'll bring him back. The ending to Judas Laughed is purposefully ambiguous. Time will tell! Thanks again. Jim
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Tanya Avines
9/11/2021 07:05:18 pm
Hi,
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9/13/2021 04:59:07 pm
I hope I haven't disappointed my biggest fan! I might indeed return to Ari. To tell you the truth, even I don't know if he's having a cerebral hemorrhage at the end or if he's faking out the deputy marshals. Remember the way his head jerked back? He might have hit himself in the nose to make himself bleed. After all, he does not want to leave for Iraq so soon after being reunited with Rana. I have played with a number of ideas, including a return to Iraq. But how long can he go on? By now, he's in his fifties, a bit old for roughhousing. Of course, Travis McGee stayed young and fit for how many decades? But many story ideas have piled up over the years. The book I'm working on now is about a group of children 12 and under abandoned in the woods. It's quite depressing, with an even more depressing denouement, but it expresses many of the ideas rattling around in my head these days. It should only take me a few more months to finish, so perhaps I'll switch back to Ari after that. By the way, I'm not allowed to smoke in the house, so I work in an environmentally-unfriendly shed. By the time I start my next book, I'll be freezing my butt off. Perhaps the heat of Iraq will be just what I need. Take care. Jim
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Tanya Avines
10/3/2021 09:03:01 pm
Hi, 10/2/2021 05:19:39 pm
Chi Lover, just out of curiosity, I'm wondering what kind of text to speech engine you use. I personally find CereProc very congenial. And pretty accurate. I use the Sarah (UK) voice, usually. It cost a few dollars but it's pretty good. Jim
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Tanya Avines
10/3/2021 09:11:38 pm
Hi, 10/4/2021 04:12:36 am
Thanks for getting back to me. I like to convert my manuscripts to epub and listen to them on the AI Reader app. This gives me an idea of how it sounds to readers/listeners and (sometimes) helps me catch mistakes. Of course, a few always squeak through! Jim
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Tanya Avines
10/5/2021 03:25:07 pm
Hi,
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AuthorI am the author of more than fifteen novels. I was born and raised in Virginia, where I currently reside. I was First-Place Winner of the Hollins Literary Festival a number of years ago. Among the judges were Thomas (Little Big Man) Berger and R.M.W. Dillard, poet and husband of the writer Annie Dillard. Along with my wife, I have rescued and maintained 22 stray cats, which should tell you something about me (good and bad). Permanently addicted to writing, I have just posted the 9th book in the Ari Ciminon (The 56th Man) Series. Archives
March 2023
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