Aisling Mancy, author: #Giveaway! Welcome to the blog tour for Comes a Horseman by Anne Barwell! Anne talks A Matter of Perspective!

Join me in welcoming Anne Barwell to my blog today with her newest novel, Comes a Horseman, the sequel to Shadowboxing, Book Three in the Echoes Rising Series! She also gives us a terrific commentary! Don't forget to scroll down and enter the giveaway!

Comes a Horseman is now available at
DSP Publications, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo,
and Google Books!
Book 1: Shadowboxing
Book 2: Winter Duet

A Matter of Perspective

Thanks for hosting me today as part of my blog tour for Comes a Horseman, the 3^rd and final book in my WWII Echoes Rising series from DSP Publications.

I have a Rafflecopter running as part of the tour so be sure to enter.

I prefer to read and write flawed characters, rather than protagonists who are always right, and antagonists who are two-dimensional virtual moustache whirlers. I think they’re more interesting, and I like a bit of emotional angst in my stories.

Good people make mistakes, and especially during war, find themselves in a position where they need to follow a course of action they wouldn’t usually. In Echoes Rising the team have so far been focused on getting Kristopher and the information he carries to the Allies. But now, they’re having doubts about whether this is the best course of action, and whether their mission should succeed. Add in the complication of having feelings for someone else in their team. What sacrifices will they need to make in order to ensure that person’s survival? A person who in usual circumstances wouldn’t kill anyone reacts differently when someone they love is threatened.

Or do they?

War is harsh, and survival comes with a cost.

On the flip side, Standartenführer Holm is very sure that he is doing the right thing in hunting the men who have eluded him for months. In his mind, he is the hero of this story, and he justifies all of his actions with that narrative firmly in place. Kristopher is a traitor to his country, and the men with him the enemy, so should be dealt with accordingly. And then there’s the issue of one of those men being the son of the man who killed Holm’s father...

His second in command, Reiniger, is a little less complicated. Although he too, believes in what he is doing, he enjoys his job perhaps a bit too much. In Shadowboxing, Kristopher and Michel made a fool of him, and in Winter Duet, the team cost him an eye. He’s out for revenge and determined to achieve it.

Rounding out this group of people is Margarete Huber. She’s an interesting character to write, and very layered. Her motivations are very much her own, and even Holm prefers to have nothing to do with her. She’s a woman who spins her own webs in order to trap her prey, and likes to be in control. She didn’t expect Kristopher to defect, and it annoys her that she didn’t see it coming. Holm might be a strategist but she takes planning and manipulation to a whole new level.

With Comes a Horseman being the final book in the series these characters—from both sides—will finally meet again face to face with one final encounter. Who do you think will win?

Comes a Horseman is now available at

DSP Publications, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo,

and Google Books!

Book 1: Shadowboxing

Book 2: Winter Duet

About Comes a Horseman, Echoes Rising book 3

Echoes Rising Book 3, sequel to Winter Duet

France

, 1944

Sometimes the most desperate struggles take place far from the battlefield, and what happens in secret can change the course of history.

Victory is close at hand, but freedom remains frustratingly just beyond the grasp of German physicist Dr. Kristopher Lehrer, Resistance fighter Michel, and the remaining members of the team sent by the Allies—Captain Matt Bryant, Sergeant Ken Lowe, and Dr. Zhou Liang—as they fight to keep the atomic plans from the Nazis. The team reaches France and connects with members of Michel’s French Resistance cell in Normandy. Allied troops are poised to liberate France, and rescue is supposedly at hand. However, Kristopher is no longer sure the information he carries in his memory is safe with either side.

When Standartenführer Holm and his men finally catch up with their prey, the team is left with few options as they fight to keep atomic plans from the Nazis. With a traitor in their midst, who can they trust? Kristopher realizes he must become something he is not in order to save the man he loves. Death is biding his time, and sacrifices must be made for any of them to have the futures they want.

Comes a Horseman is now available at

DSP Publications, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo,

and Google Books!

Book 1: Shadowboxing

Book 2: Winter Duet

Excerpt

“He’s late.” Matt glanced toward the door again. Although he was trying to appear nonchalant, hiding his nervousness was growing more difficult.

Their journey to Gernsbach had gone too smoothly, and that made him edgy as hell. After one night there, he’d suggested they keep moving for a couple more hours until they reached Bischweier. He’d been to Bischweier years ago when he’d lived in

Germany

before the war. The local priest was an old friend of Father Joseph’s, the man who had run the orphanage where Matt had grown up in Pennsylvania after he’d lost his family in a fire.

“Not that late.” Michel shrugged. “If we’re not back by two, Ken knows not to stay in Bischweier.”

Michel and Matt had gone ahead to Rastatt to meet their contact in the back room of a local Kaffeehaus. The owner—a member of the local Resistance—had been kind enough to leave them some coffee to drink while they waited.

“They should be safe if they stay in the chapel,” Matt said. He hadn’t been surprised to learn that Father Markus was working with the Resistance. He was a good man, and Father Joseph had spoken highly of him.

“You didn’t trust our contact in Gernsbach,” Michel said. “Why?”

“Just a feeling.”

Now they were finally heading toward home, he kept expecting Holm or one of his men to turn up. Standartenführer Holm wouldn’t give up easily, and Matt doubted he would have spent all this time looking in the wrong direction. The last few weeks had gone too smoothly, reminding Matt of the way a cat played with a mouse, waiting until the right time to finally pounce.

“Holm is not going to give up until he’s captured his prey,” Michel said. “It’s better that both Kristopher and Ken stay away until we are sure it is safe here.” He offered Matt a cigarette, but Matt declined.

“Kristopher is the one Holm is after,” he said cautiously.

“Officially, yes.” Michel lit his cigarette and took a long puff of it. He wasn’t usually very forthcoming with information, and this was the first time he’d implied he knew about Ken’s history with Holm.

At least to Matt.

“What has Ken told you?” Matt asked. Until they’d met up again in Freiburg, he’d only met Michel briefly in Berlin. He still knew Kristopher better, as he was not as reticent. Matt had gotten the impression Michel didn’t have much time for social niceties. He was pleasant enough, though, and it was obvious as hell he cared a great deal for Kristopher.

“We spoke briefly in Stuttgart.” Michel shrugged. “Holm is a dangerous man, and once he has made up his mind to achieve something, he doesn’t let anyone or anything get in his way.

Do not be fooled by his manner. He’s the type who would shake your hand while putting a knife in your back.”

“I’m well aware of Holm’s less than charming nature, thanks all the same,” Matt said. His meeting with Holm was not one Matt would forget in a hurry, if ever. Nor would he forgive him for killing Elise. “He’s a cold-blooded murderer.”

“That’s a polite way of putting it.” Michel narrowed his eyes and swore under his breath.

Although Matt’s French wasn’t that good, he knew enough to appreciate the sentiment.

“I believe Ken was foolish enough to promise not to harm him,” Michel continued in German. “I take it you have no problem in doing whatever needs to be done?”

“No problem at all,” Matt said grimly.

Comes a Horseman is now available at

DSP Publications, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo,

and Google Books!

Book 1: Shadowboxing

Book 2: Winter Duet

About Anne Barwell

Anne Barwell lives in Wellington, New Zealand. She shares her home with two cats who are convinced that the house is run to suit them; this is an ongoing "discussion," and to date it appears as though the cats may be winning.

In 2008 she completed her conjoint BA in English Literature and Music/Bachelor of Teaching. She has worked as a music teacher, a primary school teacher, and now works in a library. She is a member of the Upper Hutt Science Fiction Club and plays violin for Hutt Valley Orchestra.

She is an avid reader across a wide range of genres and a watcher of far too many TV series and movies, although it can be argued that there is no such thing as "too many." These, of course, are best enjoyed with a decent cup of tea and further the continuing argument that the concept of "spare time" is really just a myth.

Anne’s books have received honorable mentions four times and reached the finals three times in the Rainbow Awards. She has also been nominated twice in the Goodreads M/M Romance Reader’s Choice Awards—once for Best Fantasy and once for Best Historical.