BUY or PASS? The Dead Key #FridayFiveChallenge @rosieamber1 @TheDeadKey

My Friday Five Challenge  IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES choose a book to read, or not!

1- Go to any online book supplier
2- Randomly choose a category

I went to amazon.com, where I buy almost all my books. I was looking for a historical romance and was led to a book set in Elizabethan England. I don’t know why, but in a manner of seconds, I decided I didn’t like the cover or the title. I knew I had to move on at once. Does that count? It was barely a few seconds!

3- Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye.

It took me five more seconds to see the add just below the book which read:

Customers who viewed this item also bought
The Dead Key by D. M. Pulley with 6,228 reviews and Kindle Edition at $1.09
I was drawn in by the title and the cover, the number of reviews and the price, almost simultaneously.

 

4- Read the book Bio/ Description for this book, and any other details.

I popped into the book’s page and read the blurb and realized it has a very impressive prize:

2014 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Grand Prize and Mystery & Thriller Fiction Winner. 

I hadn’t seen that when I became interested, but that certainly made my interest grow.

So I moved on to read the blurb:

It’s 1998, and for years the old First Bank of Cleveland has sat abandoned, perfectly preserved, its secrets only speculated on by the outside world.
Twenty years before, amid strange staff disappearances and allegations of fraud, panicked investors sold Cleveland’s largest bank in the middle of the night, locking out customers and employees, and thwarting a looming federal investigation. In the confusion that followed, the keys to the vault’s safe-deposit boxes were lost.
In the years since, Cleveland’s wealthy businessmen kept the truth buried in the abandoned high-rise. The ransacked offices and forgotten safe-deposit boxes remain locked in time, until young engineer Iris Latch stumbles upon them during a renovation survey. What begins as a welcome break from her cubicle becomes an obsession as Iris unravels the bank’s sordid past. With each haunting revelation, Iris follows the looming shadow of the past deeper into the vault—and soon realizes that the key to the mystery comes at an astonishing price.
Sounds great and the price is fantastic, just a dollar. I wonder if it’s on offer?

5- If there are reviews, check out a couple.

Then I moved down and saw the impressive number of reviews (6,253 on .com although there are only 10 on.co.uk!) I skimmed over the headlines: Mystery, treasure hunt, gothic horror, suspense, gripping…

Next, I popped over to visit the author’s page and saw that D. M. Pulley, is a woman writer and that it is her debut novel.

D.M. Pulley works as a Professional Engineer specializing in the rehabilitation of historic structures and forensic investigations of building failures. The Dead Key is a mystery novel based on the author’s structural survey of an abandoned building in Cleveland. She lives in Northeast Ohio, with her husband and two children, and is currently at work on her second novel.

So, I was even more convinced to buy it because I’m supporting a new author. Now I just have to make the time to read it!

DEFINITELY A BUY!

The Dead Key Book link US:
The Dead Key Book Link UK:

What did I do next?
Then I followed the author on Amazon (the big yellow follow button below her name on amazon.com only, at the moment), and on twitter @TheDeadKey, and I liked her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DMPulleyAuthor?fref=ts which led me to her blog, http://www.dmpulley.com/

Wouldn’t it be great if all our readers did that? It only took me a few more minutes.

Final Reflections

When you think about it, it’s daunting. You can sit at home, tea or coffee in hand, find a great book, read the blurb, reviews, and first pages, find out about the author, follow him or her on twitter, like on Facebook, and start reading the book in just a few minutes, coffee still in hand! Obviously, the author hasn’t become my ‘friend’, but I feel connected with this person on an intellectual / literary level. I can read and talk to her, and/or other readers, about her book. I can also tell other readers about my reading experience.

I have bought more than a book; I have bought hours of enjoyment, mental stimulation, and social interaction, all within the comfort of my own home. Who said reading or writing was a solitary endeavor?

I’ve lived over half a century, so I remember a time when this was unimaginable. Ebooks and social media are definitely changing the way we read, what we read, and how authors and readers interact.

I love it! I just wish the day had more hours…

Want to join in the challenge?

Here are the rules:

My Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….
Go to any online book supplier,
Randomly choose a category,
Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,
Read the book Bio/ Description for this book, and any other details.
If there are reviews, check out a couple,
Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?
Check out this Friday’s ‘Buy or Pass’ here

Happy reading! Be sure to check out the full ‘blue’ moon tonight and make a wish. I hope it comes true 🙂