I wrote Consecrated Ground in the 1990s. The book went through publishing hell. The acquiring editor was fired…after he had slapped a new name on the book and forgot to put it into production. A year later, the book came out under the new name, but the sales force at the NY publisher thought they had already published the book and the bookstores believed no one had read it, so they didn’t reorder.
The book did get me my second editor at the publishing house, a great woman who helped with my Kris Nelscott books. But we couldn’t do anything about the nightmare that the book had been trapped in.
Ten years later, one of the reviewers who saw the book, got hired by a British company as the head of a noir book line. His first purchase? My book. He treated it well, but refused to change anything about it, including the awful title. (Which I will not tell you. The title is listed on the copyright page. You can look later.)
The book sold well and got great reviews. Then the book line vanished, and the book went out of print.
We’ve finally brought it back in the author-preferred edition with the title the book had in the beginning. You crime readers will understand why Consecrated Ground is the right title for this story. The title goes directly to the story’s theme.
When this book initially appeared, it was historical fiction. Now it has a resonance with our current lives. Sadly. Anyway, you can get the ebook right away. The paper editions are still in production. I’ll let you know when they appear.
You can get the book at any ebook retailer or follow this link: https://wmgbooks.com/products/preorder-consecrated-ground-available-09-08-2026
Hmm…I wonder if this is the book you gave me with the inscription “This was the book from hell” (or something similar)! I remember seeing it on sale in the UK when I lived there.
Possible…