Tag Archives: Tequila Sunset

All I want for Christmas

The Dead Women of Juárez, by Sam HawkenI have written on this subject before, and fairly recently, but I thought it was time to revisit it for the benefit of those who either don’t come to the blog very often, or who have yet to do (for whatever reason) what I’m about to request. I hope you can excuse the repetition.

My Goodreads blog is not updated as often as this one and the content remains focused squarely on my writing habits and projects. If you haven’t gone by, please do. There’s something new there almost every Friday, with some exceptions, so now you have a reason to visit Goodreads that maybe you didn’t have before. As with everything else I do, I appreciate your time and your eyeballs.

Anyway, my second-to-last update concerned itself with reviews, or rather the lack of good ones that I’m currently seeing. This is especially a problem for The Dead Women of Juárez, which is currently at an average of 3.36 stars based on 105 ratings/reviews. While there’s no particular shame in being average, the truth is that people will rarely read or buy a book that doesn’t have at least a 4.0 or higher, and therein lies the issue. To whit: people who like the book aren’t making their opinions known. That really must change.

It’s early days yet for Tequila Sunset, so I can’t speak to the kinds of sales it’s having, but I know from my royalty statements that The Dead Women did quite well in the UK, where it was initially released. The only real trouble here is that all of those sales didn’t translate into a deluge of reviews on sites like Goodreads and Amazon. To say that this is a concern is understating things a bit.

To explain: when people go to get book recommendations at Goodreads, they are more likely to see highly rated books. And the more actual reviews those books have, more than simple ratings without a review attached, the better. Readers are more educated now than ever about their choices, thanks to the surfeit of information available on the web, and a book that lacks abundant coverage is a book that is not going to sell or be read.

Continue reading →

Reviews of Tequila Sunset

Tequila Sunset, by Sam HawkenI was wondering why the tag for Tequila Sunset wasn’t swelling in size the way The Dead Women of Juárez‘s did, and that’s when I realized I wasn’t making lots of individual posts about reviews the book’s getting. I’ve done a couple, and it’s true there haven’t been many up ’til now, but I made a decision fairly early on that I wasn’t going to spill as much virtual ink on reviews this time around. For one thing, I’m less obsessed about what people are saying about my work and, for another, if you really cared about the reviews you’d leave comments saying so.

Whatever the case, I got three reviews yesterday upon the release of Tequila Sunset and I thought I’d share excerpts from each so you can get an idea of what different outlets are saying.

First up: Crime Fiction Lover, which graciously used a review of my book to kick off their new feature, “New Talent November.” An interview with me will go up on Saturday, but in the meanwhile you can read their take, which includes this:

As things progress the level of violence, [the villain]’s menace, and the tension of the plotline just keep on ramping up. The author handles the bloody scenes very well, never allowing them to overshadow the themes of his story, which are all to do with self-control, doing the right thing and protecting those you love.

A very kind assessment to be sure, and one I’m honored to have. I think Tequila Sunset is pretty good, but I’m not the one who has to be convinced. It’s you, the reader, who gets the final say as to the book’s quality.

Latino Life was the next to get in on the act, and while their review is not wholly positive — they have a few niggling issues — it still calls the book “engrossing,” which I consider a good thing. They also say:

Continue reading →

It speaks!

Promotion for the US release of The Dead Women of Juárez has been going on for the last couple of months, most of which I’ve linked here or at my official Facebook page. You can dig through the archives here or scroll that awesome Timeline to find entertaining tidbits, whichever you prefer. Or you can start your Dead Women experience right here.

The minds behind this publicity push tried very hard to get me into some high-profile places, but unfortunately I don’t have the cachet necessary to get late-night talk shows or anything of the sort. A few best-sellers down the line, maybe, but not right now. To make up for it, I’ve been featured in places like Slate and various specialty blogs, answering questions about the book and generally trying to get Americans interested in taking a shot at it. Maybe it worked with you and now you’ve come seeking more, more, more!

The latest bit of promotion I did was for Suspense Radio just this past Saturday. If you have “liked” my official Facebook page, you got a heads up before the interview started, and that’s not the only exclusive people have gotten over there, so please click through and add your thumb to the ups.

Continue reading →

One of the best crime novels of the year?

Tequila Sunset, by Sam HawkenOrdinarily on Tuesdays and Thursdays I bring you a wide variety of reviews from the various corners of my collection of music, movies and books. I’m going to take a break from that today for a couple of reasons: 1) I overslept, so I don’t really have the time to knock out 2,000 words of reviews before it starts cutting into my writing time, and 2) because something pretty big has come up. That thing is a review of Tequila Sunset by Sam Millar, writing for the New York Journal of Books.

Now you may recall that over the last couple of years, The Dead Women of Juárez has attracted perhaps more than its fair share of critical praise. It was even nominated (and shortlisted) for an award for best debut novel by the Crime Writers Association in the UK. This is far more than I ever expected from my grim and gritty little novel about Ciudad Juárez’s infamous murder problem and I will forever be grateful. The question then became, what would people think of the next one?

Tequila Sunset is different than The Dead Women. Markedly so. I wrote The Dead Women during a particularly dark period in my life and that darkness pervades the text. By contrast, Tequila Sunset was written during a much better stretch and has a more hopeful, progressive tone. My work hasn’t lost its brutal edge, but I like to think readers won’t want to shoot themselves after finishing this book.

Continue reading →