It’s always a delight to find new to me authors and I’m delighted to welcome Eliot Parker to the blog today to stay in with me as part of his blog tour and tell me about one of his books. I’d like to thank Isobel of Blackthorn Tours for putting us in touch with one another and inviting me to participate in this tour.

Staying in with Eliot Parker

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Eliot and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

The book I am sharing is called A Knife’s Edge. This is a sequel to the book Fragile Brilliance, featuring Charleston (West Virginia) police sergeant Ronan McCullough. I have chosen it because Ronan is my favorite character. I love getting to set a story in my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. A Knife’s Edge was an honorable mention in Thriller Writing from the London Book Festival in 2019 and received the Pinnacle Award for Thriller Writing from National Association of Book Editors (NABE).

How wonderful. You must be really pleased about that Eliot. Congratulations. Tell me, what can we expect from an evening in with A Knife’s Edge?

If readers spend an evening with this book, I think they will find that it is a classic thriller novel full of murder and intrigue. Readers that love a great mystery and believable subplots will also enjoy this book. One of the strongest traits of this book is the characters. As readers move through the novel, they will have a chance to get to know the characters quite well on an introspective, personal level. I think that allows readers a stronger understanding of why the characters do and say the things they do and say in the story. For example, the protagonist, Ronan, is a prickly sort. He can difficult with anyone from his bosses to his calm supportive partner Eric to his kind, good-hearted boyfriend Ty. Speaking of Ty, Ronan constantly lives in fear that his homosexuality will come to light. “A gay police sergeant working for the municipal police department in the state right in the heart of Appalachia was unfathomable.” Inexorably intense, Ronan presses forward with an investigation that links together numerous murders all connected in one way another to the mysterious and well-funded BTech Company.

I love a character driven narrative. I like the sound of A Knife’s Edge.

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it Eliot? 

I’ve brought some photos. The first picture is a picture of Mike and Chris, two Charleston Police Department officers who helped me get all of the details of police work right and helped me mold and shape Ronan into a character.

I hear a lot about the research that goes into writing but rarely do I see the people authors are in contact with.

This is the police badge of the Charleston Police Department, which is attached to the shoulders of each officer’s uniform.

The third picture is a sample blood testing machine that BTech uses in the book to manipulate blood samples. This machine is just a prototype and is not actually used by any law enforcement agency.

It looks as if it could be. Now, of course, Eliot, I want to know what happens with that blood testing machine! Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about A Knife’s Edge and good luck with the book!

A Knife’s Edge

Six months after a drug cartel infiltrated Charleston, Ronan McCullough continues to fight the drug war that plagues the city.

His investigations are halted when the body of a mutual acquaintance, Sarah Gilmore, is found in the trunk of a burning car.

In an investigation that takes him deep into the professional and personal life of the victim, McCullough discovers secrets lurking in her past, and a tangled web of personal and professional conflicts, suspicion, and betrayal.

Was Sarah killed for those reasons or something larger?

As Ronan seeks answers, his life and the lives of those closest to him are used as pawns in a deadly game that has no ending.

A Knife’s Edge is available for purchase here.

About Eliot Parker

Eliot Parker is the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. His novel Code for Murder was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. He is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing. He recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels.

Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and Blog Talk Radio. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches English at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.

You can find Eliot on Facebook and Instagram and follow him on Twitter @E4419 or visit his website for more information.

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