Welcome to Hank Phillippi Ryan!

Award-winning investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan is currently on the air at Boston's NBC affiliate, where she's broken big stories for the past 24 years. Her stories have resulted in new laws, people sent to prison, homes removed from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in refunds and restitution for consumers.

From Blogger Pictures

Along with her 26 EMMYs, Hank’s won also won dozens of other journalism honors.

Her first mysteries, PRIME TIME (which won the prestigious Agatha Award for Best First Novel, was a double RITA nominee for Best First Book and Best Romantic Suspense Novel, and a Reviewers' Choice Award Winner) and FACE TIME ( a Book Sense Notable Book), were best sellers. They were both re-issued this summer from MIRA Books. Her newest book is AIR TIME (MIRA Sept. 2009) which is already an IMBA bestseller.Drive Time will be published in February 2010. Her website is http://www.hankphillippiryan.com


And now, here's HANK:


Why is there never hidden camera when you need one? Oh sure, I use one at my day job all the time. As an investigative reporter for a Boston televison staion, going undercover and wiring myself with a hidden camera is standard orating procedure. Do it all the time.

(And in my newest book, AIR TIME, my reporter alter-ego Charlotte McNally goes in disguise and carrying a hidden camera into the closed to the public parts of the Boston and Hartford airports--—and deep into the not-so-pretty world of counterfeit fashion and knock-off purses. And when you read it—feel free to imagine me doing the same thing. Been there—done that. Except of course, for that big life-or-death choice near the end. That’s all fiction. But I wonder if I would have made the right decision…)

Anyway! In my other life as a mystery author, I wish I could do the same when my books some out. I wish I could just park myself in the mystery (or sometimes romance) section, in disguise, and see who picks up my book. See who doesn’t. See what they do choose. And somehow, somehow, try to figure out why.

Every time I have a book signing at a store, I try to (surreptitiously, of course) discern what it is that makes readers turn into buyers. I watch them stroll down the aisles, past the rows and rows of covers—what do they look for? What stops them? Are they on a mission for a certain title? Are they drawn by a beautiful cover? Do they recognize a book they’ve seen advertised? Or gravitate to a certain author—and buy anything that person wrote?

Always, always, when they pick up a book, they then flip it over and look at the back cover copy.

I kind of cringe. In my books, I didn’t write the jacket copy. (And although most of them are great, there are parts of them I would , I admit, tweak a bit. Can I say to a shopper-—hey, that’s the only part of the book I didn’t write?) I wonder how other authors feel.
And you know how annoying it is when the back cover copy doesn’t match the book.

Say you’ve got an indecisive hero, surrounded by people he can’t decide whether to trust, feeling alone, missing his father, struggling to understand his role in a world he can’t escape. You got Hamlet. You also got Gilligan’s Island.

The jacket copy has to be the true essence—it’s what gets people in the front door of your world. Will readers grasp the fast-paced, high-stakes, suspenseful and romantic world of the Charlotte McNally mysteries when they read the back? Sometimes I wish I could chat with every reader in person!

When I’m in book-buyer mode,it different. I love that introductory moment, that audition moment at my local bookstore. The cover creaks a little, that nice ‘new book’ feel. The cover’s what attracts me first, of course.

Then I read the back, and I love to see a picture of the author. You all? Picture, yes? Or no? Do you look? Do you care?

Blurbs—I do look to see what other authors have said! Do
you?

Reviews? Definitely.

But it’s the inside jacket copy that gets me. Are there key words that mean probably yes? Many of them--Literate. Clever. Innovative. Mystery. It’s easier to think of the ‘no’ words: Cowboy. Bodice. Titillating. But hey, not always.

So. It would be fascinating to watch on surveillance camera, don’t you think? Watch what people pick up, what they read, what they discard and what they take home?

What makes you turn from shopper—to buyer?


In honor of my very first guest blogger, I am giving away one copy each of Hank's first two books, Prime Time and Face Time, and Hank has graciously offered three limited editon Prime Time tote bags.

All you have to do is leave a comment, and I'll pick 5 winners at random.

Coming Wednesday -- A Guest Blogger and Prizes!!

Hank Phillippi Ryan, author of the Charlotte McNally mysteries, will be guest-blogging here on Wednesday.

To celebrate my very first guest blogger, I'll be giving away one copy each of the first two books in the series, Prime Time and Face Time.

Hank has graciously added some limited edition Prime Time tote bags.

See you Wednesday!!

Just listened to...

Missing Mark by Julie Kramer.

Julie Kramer was kind enough to send me this audiobook to donate to my local library, which I'm happy to do now that I've listened to it.

The sequel to 2008's Stalking Susan has investigative reporter Riley Spartz trying desperately to find the right story for sweeps season. A newspaper ad for a never-worn wedding dress leads Riley to a search for a Mark Lefevre, who vanished just before his wedding. Did he get cold feet and run away, or has something more sinister happened?

When Mark's mother is found dead, an apparent suicide,a few days after Riley interviews her, Riley becomes more and more intrigued.

Getting in the way of her investigation is her producer's request that she search for a record-sized fish known as Big-Mouth Billy Bass, who has been kidnapped from an aquarium in the Mall of America. This second storyline is far-fetched, but does add some humour to the story.

I enjoyed listening to this, once I got used to Bernadette Dunne's tone of voice, which I found a little coy.

Just finished reading...

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny.

This is the fourth in the Inspector Armand Gamache/Three Pines mystery series. Inspector Gamache and his wife Reine Marie to a country inn not far from Three Pines to celebrate their anniversary, which falls on Canada Day.

They are sharing the Manoir Bellechasse with Irene Morrow Finney and her family of adult children, who are having their annual reunion. This year is very special, as Irene is honoring her late husband by erecting a huge statue of him. When the statue falls on Irene's daughter Julia, killing her, Inspector Gamache is ideally placed to investigate.

One of Mrs. Finney's children is our old friend Peter Morrow from Three Pines, unwillingly in attendance. He and his siblings, equally unhappy, all come under suspicion for killing Julia.

In this wonderful example of the classic country house mystery, we not only learn more about some of the residents of Three Pines, we discover some of M. Gamache's history.

Louise Penny is an amazing writer, and her books just beg to be read in one sitting, which is extremely difficult to do when one must get up and go to work in the morning.