Fiction readers are generally divided into three separate groups—hardback readers, e-book readers, and paperback readers.  This is a call out to that very special third group, my devoted paperback readers.

Downfall, Joanna Brady # 17, goes on sale in paperback March 28.  Back in the old days—thirty or so years ago—the paperback edition of a previous book came out about the same time as the new hardback.  Now though, with two publishing houses involved and hard at work, those lines are blurring a bit.  I’ll be out doing events for the newest Ali Reynolds, Man Overboard, at the same time Joanna’s Downfall is showing up on shelves in bookstores.  

I believe my mother, the imitable Evie Busk, would have called this “killing two birds with one stone.”  Boy, do I ever miss my mother sometimes, although her words are always alive and well and floating around in my head.

A word of warning, however.  In the back of the paperback edition of Downfall, readers will find a print copy of my novella—Random Acts.  Please read Random Acts BEFORE you read the novel itself.  Even though the novella is printed at the back of the book, the action inside predates the action in Downfall by a couple of days.  I know reading the afterword first is counter-intuitive—sort of like eating dessert without having first cleaned your plate.  (Eating everything on your plate before having dessert was something else that was very high on Evie’s list of priorities.)  

Maybe, in this instance, we’ll go for J. A. Jance’s take on the matter instead. I say, “Life is uncertain; eat dessert first!”

Whatever you do and however you do it, enjoy.

JAJ