Hello Friends and Fans: Please check out the official book trailer for my newest political suspense novel, The Coalition, and pick up a copy of the book today at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, or wherever books are sold. The book has been garnering Five-Star Reviews from book reviewers (see James Patterson and other reviews below). If you liked The Day of the Jackal or the thrillers of Silva, Baldacci, Follett, Stephen Hunter, Richard North Patterson, Lee Child, and/or Kyle Mills, then my publicist guarantees you will like The Coalition. Really? You betcha. Plus it’s my mom’s favorite and she has really good taste!

Book Trailer Link: http://ow.ly/WVN0R

For those that like political conspiracy and assassination thrillers in the vein of The Day of the Jackal and The Parallax View, here is a recent Fictionalzeal Spotlight article by the ever kind, generous, and savvy Diane Coto on my new suspense novel, The Coalition.  Her wonderful blog (http://www.fictionzeal.com/contact/) is dedicated to both authors and book lovers. Below is an excerpt from the article on Diane’s blog. For the full article and the first chapter of the novel, check out http://ow.ly/WQykT or click the link below.

The Coalition – Fictionzeal Spotlight Article and First Chapter

About The Coalition:

This political assassination thriller is a perfect storm for presidential election season–When a deadly assassin kills the U.S. president-elect in Denver, FBI special agent Kenneth Patton goes on the hunt—and his motives are personal. Patton becomes entangled in the shadowy web of a secret society whose plot threatens the highest levels of the U.S. government. Ken and his team must beat the odds and the clock to catch the assassin and expose the Coalition’s plot—before they claim another presidential victim.

Praise for The Coalition:

“The Coalition has a lot of good action and suspense, an unusual female assassin, and the potential to be another The Day After Tomorrow.” – James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Author of 2015’s The Slush Pile Brigade and Blind Thrust, novelist Samuel Marquis has accomplished something rather rare. In The Coalition, Marquis has injected fresh air into the often threadbare genre of political conspiracy and assassination thrillers.”–Dr. Wesley Britton, Bookpleasures.com (Crime & Mystery)

“Reminiscent of The Day of the Jackal…with a high level of authentic detail. Skyler is a convincing sniper, and also a nicely conflicted one. – Donald Maass, author of Writing 21st Century Fiction

Malissa Coy was nice enough to interview me about my new political thriller The Coalition for her great literary website ReadsAllTheBooks. See excerpt below and full interview on http://ow.ly/WDgKO or click link below.

The Coalition Interview with Samuel Marquis – ReadAllTheBooks

Tuesday, December 8, 2015
An Interview with Samuel Marquis author of The Coalition

Samuel Marquis – Colorado Suspense Author
#1 Denver Post Bestselling Author – USA Best Book Award-Winning Finalist

Some Indie and Traditional Legacy authors believe reviews from professional book reviewers like Foreword Reviews, Kirkus, IndieReader, Self-Publishing Review, Blueink, etc. are a good thing, and others don’t. I happen to fall in the former camp. I believe that professional book reviews are a useful tool for authors to gain independent and at least somewhat objective appraisals of their work. We all know what a bad B-movie looks like versus a brilliant Indie or big-budget Hollywood film that leaves you breathless. In a similar vein, professional book reviewers know a poorly conceived or edited book from a good one and certainly a great one, and they provide a detailed description of the pros and cons of the finished product.

Having said that, book reading is an intensely subjective experience, and some percentage of readers are not going to appreciate a truly great, creative, or unique work in the way that it should be appreciated. So there is an element of “luck-of-the-draw” risk involved in seeking a professional book review. As an example, in a book review for my #1 bestselling, award-winning earthquake thriller Blind Thrust that was endorsed by former Colorado Governor Romer, I had the misfortune of drawing a reviewer whose specialty was romance novels. In short, they didn’t seem to “get” the book (the reviewer admitted that it was too scientifically complex for them since the book has detailed seismological and paleontological themes and scientific jargon in the dialogue throughout); and, as a consequence, I did not receive a review comparable to the glowing reviews I had been getting from Goodreads, Amazon, and other professional book reviewers (4-5 star reviews). Blind Thrust was a #1 Denver Post bestseller for fiction and USA best book awards finalist in the fiction: thriller-adventure category, and so the review, while giving the book a fair amount of praise, was still more critical than what I had encountered at other review outlets. Which is fine by me because I still gained a valuable lesson from this experience. I learned that perhaps I should do a better job of explaining some of the science and technical jargon to assist those without an extensive geologic background.

So, even though there is some risk in drawing a professional book reviewer that might not appreciate a work as most others do and might not give a review that is reflective of the actual quality of a book, I still think professional reviews are worth it. Especially if you obtain multiple reviews, allowing you to compare and contrast the reviews and examine similar criticism. It is important to benchmark your work in some objective manner. Obtaining professional book reviews from groups like Foreword Reviews, Kirkus, etc. is one good way to do that.

BLIND THRUST – A JOE HIGHEAGLE NOVEL BOOK 1
#1 DENVER POST BESTSELLER (FICTION) AND AWARD-WINNING FINALIST USA BEST BOOK AWARDS (FICTION: THRILLER-ADVENTURE)

BY SAMUEL MARQUIS
#1 BESTSELLING AND AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR

Samuel Marquis’s second suspense novel, Blind Thrust, recently hit #1 on the Denver Post Bestseller List for Fiction and was an Award-Winning Finalist in the Fiction: Thriller/Adventure category of the 2015 USA Best Book Awards. The first book of the Joe Higheagle Environmental Sleuth Series is a fracking and earthquake tale that features the author’s Cheyenne hydrogeologist alter-ego Joe Higheagle and his curmudgeonly grandfather, Chief John Higheagle. The Colorado thriller has been getting 4- to 5-star reviews from professional book reviewers and readers across the country.

Here are summaries of some of the reviews, including one from former Colorado Governor Roy Romer:

“Blind Thrust kept me up until 1 a.m. two nights in a row. I could not put it down. An intriguing mystery that intertwined geology, fracking, and places in Colorado that I know well. Great fun.” Roy Romer, 39th Governor of Colorado

“Samuel Marquis’s earth-shattering thriller, Blind Thrust, excels at making a mystery story, with geology as background, an exciting yarn. With believable, intelligent characters, there is a fine thriller on these pages that could shake things up.” Foreword Reviews – Four Stars (****)

“Blind Thrust is a page-turning adventure that will hold its audience with the attention to detail only a really well-researched author can bring to the table. The science of earthquakes is fascinating, and Marquis has captured this science and packaged it into a really fine thriller ‘against the clock’ style for almost anyone to pick up and enjoy, and readers will no doubt want more from Higheagle and his intrepid grandfather once they have devoured this installment.” Self-Publishing Review – Four Stars (****)

“Blind Thrust makes good use of Marquis’ background as a professional geologist. It is the novel’s characters, however, that really stand out. Charles Quantrill is far from a cardboard villain, and as for the heroes, Joe and John Higheagle have a particularly endearing rapport. For suspense fans who enjoy science mixed with their thrills, the novel offers page-turning pleasures.” BlueInk Review

“Blind Thrust spins a thrilling tale of what can happen when humans mess with Mother Nature. For those interested in earthquakes or environmental issues, Marquis has created an action-packed novel filled with danger and conflict.” IndieReader Book Review

Pick up a copy today if you want to learn more about fracking, earthquakes, and an inside look into the environmental industry. The book is available at Amazon, Tattered Cover and other independent bookstores, Indiebound, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Books-a-Million, and other print and ebook outlets. Grab it while it’s hot!

 The Slush Pile Brigade – #1 Denver Post Bestseller Fiction

By Samuel Marquis – Colorado Bestselling and Award-Winning Suspense Author

Here is the book trailer for my debut thriller novel, The Slush Pile Brigade: The Slush Pile Brigade – #1 Bestseller by Samuel Marquis – Book Trailer (external link: http://ow.ly/UG9zr). I think book trailers are fun because they don’t necessarily have to be exactly like the book. The book trailer for The Slush Pile Brigade is very Daniel Silva-John le Carré-esque and, for me, conjures memories of movies like Enemy of the State and Spy Games. But the actual suspense novel has an element of humor that I think my reviewers and fans would agree is missing in the book trailer. Nonetheless, the trailer still conveys a sense of foreboding and menace that is common to the spy and espionage genre. It provides a definite taste for what is yet to come and I hope you like it.

I had mine done professionally, but you can do it yourself. A good article on the subject is Joanna Penn – Book Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own

Here is what the always helpful Joanna has to say:

“Book trailers are videos posted online and distributed via video networking sites like YouTube. These can be big budget blockbuster movie clips, or budget MovieMaker slides to music. You can make it an advert or a social media fun clip that people want to watch. It can be a human interest story made more like a documentary. It can be a cartoon. Essentially, it is anything you want it to be. Anything that catches people’s attention. You can get a professional to make you one or you can make your own for little or no money.

I made this one today with Windows Movie Maker (which is on most PCs). It took me several hours but was essentially free, and you don’t have to be too techy to make one too. Instructions after the movie! (comments and feedback welcome!)”

If you are interested in trying your hand at making your own book trailer, be sure check out Joanna’s full, excellent article.

Samuel Marquis’s debut thriller, The Slush Pile Brigade, recently hit #1 on the Denver Post Bestseller List for Fiction. The first book of the Nick Lassiter International Espionage Series has been getting 4.5- to 5-star reviews from professional book reviewers and readers across the country (see reviews from Kirkus, Foreword Reviews, Self-Publishing Review, IndieReader, and on Amazon and Goodreads). The book is available at Amazon, Tattered Cover and other independent bookstores, Indiebound, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Books-a-Million, and other print and ebook outlets. Get it while it’s hot!

Review for #1 Denver Post Bestselling Author Samuel Marquis: “There’s a lot going on in Marquis’ book, as the author smartly builds off a solid premise…A fresh concept and protagonist that breathe life into a conventional but exciting actioner.”–Kirkus Reviews

Click here for Full Review: #1 Bestseller Samuel Marquis – The Slush Pile Brigade Kirkus Reviews

Review for #1 Denver Post Bestselling Author Samuel Marquis: “Samuel Marquis’s earth-shattering thriller, Blind Thrust, excels at making a mystery story, with geology as background, an exciting yarn. With believable, intelligent characters, there is a fine thriller on these pages that could shake things up.”–Foreword Reviews – Four Stars (****)

Click here for Full Review: #1 Bestseller Samuel Marquis – Blind Thrust Foreword Reviews