And Next: THE NEW YORK TIMES!

[I. J. Parker]

Coming this weekend! Haven't seen it yet, so I'm holding my breath a little. It's Marilyn Stasio reviewing. Why, oh, why, has this taken five books? It illustrates that all success comes to me the hard way. Oh, well.

[I. J. Parker]

I was foolish enough (yes, the wildest day dreams take over), to check the ranking of one of the NYT bestsellers. It was below 10. And here I have a contract that pays me extra money if I make that list.
I expect my books will shortly return to previous standings. Fame, alas, is shortlived.

[I. J. Parker]

Oh, thanks, Jack. Yes, the other books are picking up, too. I just hope it lasts long enough for me to get a sense of security about the series.

[Jack Getze]

A biggie, I.J. Think of all the new readers you have now. Congratulations!

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, Jon. But I'm still trailing you. Amazon rankings are only in the low 700s so far. :) Still, bless the power of the reviewers.

[I. J. Parker]

Stately? I've already got some ribbing on that from a fellow writer.
Thanks, Barbara. And you, too, Daniel.
Actually, there's quite a bit of violence in this one.

[Daniel Hatadi]

Congratulations, that sounds brilliant.

[Barbara Fister]

Congrats! Here it is:

You couldn’t ask for a more gracious introduction to the exotic world of Imperial Japan than the stately historical novels of I. J. Parker. Designed around an 11th-century provincial detective named Sugawara Akitada, these mysteries are saturated with details about the social milieu in which each investigation is set. ISLAND OF EXILES (Penguin, paper, $14) finds Akitada undercover on Sado Island, known for the penal colony that supplies slave labor for the local silver mines. It takes him a dangerously long time to discover who poisoned the colony’s highest-ranking prisoner — the emperor’s treasonous half-brother — and then framed the governor’s son for the crime. But in disguise as a convicted murderer, Akitada is quick to learn the value of a man’s life in a place where “a human being is nothing but a candle in the wind.”