{"id":584,"date":"2015-09-30T01:05:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T05:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/?p=584"},"modified":"2015-09-26T16:02:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T20:02:13","slug":"blog-tour-deadly-lullaby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/2015\/09\/30\/blog-tour-deadly-lullaby\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Tour: Deadly Lullaby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"deadlylullabybanner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Interview with Robert McClure<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tell us a bit about yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a trial lawyer turned crime fiction writer, a husband and a father, born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where I still live. I was born and raised in downtown Louisville directly across the street from the backside of Churchill Downs Racetrack, the site of the Kentucky Derby. My father Charles (who died young when I was 22) was a gunsmith who owned Charlie\u2019s Gun Shop, a small business on 7th Street Road, not far from our house right in the heart of a notorious block that was then known for its strip clubs and prostitutes.<\/p>\n

Growing up in the Churchill Downs neighborhood was a study in the characters that surround any race track–professional gamblers, bookies, bail bondsmen (one of the most notorious being the father of my then best friend), fences, pawnbrokers, loan sharks, prostitutes and pimps, hustlers of all stripes and nationalities, and cops. Lots of cops. All these people were my father\u2019s customers, especially the detectives and patrolman who purchased their service weapons from us and often asked Dad to modify shotguns and handguns to their specifications. I hung out at Charlie\u2019s often and worked the counter during summers when I hit 20 or so, and like my father grew to respect all these people, and I liked most of them.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, I majored in Criminology in college, and worked in jails a couple years before and after graduation. So, I\u2019ve come to know many cops, crooks and other shady characters over the years. Every single one informs my writing to some extent.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your most recent book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot going on in DEADLY LULLABY\u2014gangland politics, violence, murder mystery, romance, pure lust\u2014but at bottom it\u2019s a story about a man who loves his son, and about a son who isn\u2019t sure how to feel about his father. The protagonists are Babe Crucci, a career hit man just released from San Quentin, and his son Leo, an edgy LA police detective, who are estranged from each other due to Babe\u2019s extended stretch in prison. Babe wants to retire from the life of a mob assassin and live straight, but needs to pull off a few more hits to have the money to live comfortably; not surprisingly, this goal frustrates his supposedly higher one of reconnecting with his cop son. Babe and Leo\u2019s relationship becomes even more complicated when Leo is called upon to investigate the murder of a young prostitute and he deals with some very bad people, some to whom he becomes too close.<\/p>\n

Early reviewers are describing DEADLY LULLABY as a \u201crollicking\u201d crime thriller with a murder mystery component that still manages to be darkly humorous; the primary focus of the book remains on the family issue of whether Babe Crucci can achieve his goal of successfully reuniting with his son Leo. Crime fiction guru Otto Penzler, the editor of Best American Mystery Stories, said I write \u201cpulp fiction the way Chandler and Hammett did\u2014with depth and heart.\u201d Roger Hobbs, the bestselling author of GHOSTMAN and VANISHING GAMES, said my book \u201cwas too compelling to put down,\u201d and Peter Swanson, the author of THE KIND WORTH KILLING, and THE GIRL WITH A CLOCK FOR A HEART, said that I\u2019ve \u201cwritten a rousing debut, elevated by pitch-perfect dialogue and a whiplash pace.\u201d With all this advance praise for the book, hopefully it will draw a diverse base of crime fiction readers.<\/p>\n

Who is the villain or antagonist in your story and what is he\/she like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The villain(s) are difficult to identify without spoiling the plot. The unique feature about Deadly Lullaby<\/em> is that most people would probably have a hard time finding a character in it who\u2019s \u201cgood\u201d in the traditional sense, including the two protagonists, Babe and Leo Crucci. From the very start, though, my goal in writing crime fiction has always been to create characters that thieve, kill and create other forms of mayhem who readers can\u2019t help but love, and the guiltier the reader feels about it, the better. I feel like I accomplished that with Deadly Lullaby<\/em>. Stridently summarized, the list of \u201cbad\u201d guys who play significant roles are an LA mafia kingpin named Joe Sacci, who is Babe\u2019s ex-boss, Sacci\u2019s top henchmen Ricardo Donsky and Michael Fecarotta, a Russian gangster named Viktor Tarasov who spent time in San Quentin with Babe, a Cambodian drug lord named Khang Nhou who helped found The Oriental Lazy Boyz gang in LA, and Babe\u2019s sidekick Jack Barzi who goes by \u201cChief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who is one of your favorite fictional villains (can be from a book, movie or television)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are so many, but perhaps the one that had the most profound effect on me was the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. I first saw the movie when I was very young, four or five, and the Wicked Witch struck me as evil personified, pure greed and corruption, pure danger. The character gave me horrible nightmares that usually began with me riding my tricycle down the yellow brick road, in the dark woods, then POW, WHOOSH, here she comes . . . The Wizard of Oz aired annually on network TV back then, prime time Saturdays, and my nightmares were so bad my mother tried, in vain, to prevent me from watching it.<\/p>\n

When I was in the second grade, the actress who portrayed the Wicked Witch, Margaret Hamilton, made an assembly appearance at my elementary school (she was in town to attend the Kentucky Derby, I think). What a wonderful lady she was. Ms. Hamilton had the witch costume with her on display, and the broom, of course, but was dressed elegantly in a business suit and impeccably made up. She told us anecdotes about making the film, about how Judy Garland would sing and whistle between takes, that sort of thing, but the true purpose of her presentation was to make us understand that the Wicked Witch was make believe. Ms. Hamilton knew her character scared the living bejesus out of us\u2014she even mentioned the nightmares she knew she caused\u2014and was very concerned about it. When our applause died down after her speech she stood at the door as we filed out, and shook our hands and hugged us, asked us our names, did all she could to come across as a warm human being.<\/p>\n

The next time I watched the Wizard of Oz, I did so with different eyes\u2014at least for a while, then the movie swept me away again.<\/p>\n

Did I still have nightmares about the Wicked Witch? Damn straight I did. Just maybe they weren\u2019t as bad as before.<\/p>\n

To you, how important is a good antagonist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drama 101 dictates that a realistic antagonist\u2014or multiple ones in the case of DEADLY LULLABY\u2014is indispensable to any work of fiction. Someone, or something, has to frustrate the protagonist\u2019s quest. The conflict produced by the opposing forces complicates the plot and brings out the best in the protagonist, motivates the reader to cheer for him or her. Take away the antagonistic force and the hero achieves his goal easily and there\u2019s no story to tell. The reason the so-called \u201cAmerican Success Story\u201d is so popular is because it always involves someone who fights their way to the top. Success without struggle is boring.<\/p>\n

My fiction didn\u2019t start to take form until I learned to be hard on my protagonists, to frustrate their goal at every realistic opportunity. It was especially difficult to do in DEADLY LULLABY because, as strange as it sounds, I love Babe and Leo. I want to see them thrive, to see them live happily ever after. I finally learned that if I went easy on them, no one would see the kind of men they really were underneath their rough exteriors, that no one would want to get to know them. That would be a real shame. So, I roughed up Babe and Leo a lot. They both loved it.<\/p>\n

\"Deadly<\/a>Title:<\/strong> Deadly Lullaby<\/p>\n

Author<\/strong>: Robert McClure<\/p>\n

Genre<\/strong>: Thriller \/ Suspense<\/p>\n

For readers of Harlan Coben and Robert Crais, Robert McClure\u2019s rollicking crime novel of family and felony takes readers on a relentless thrill ride through the L.A. underworld.<\/strong>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nFresh off a nine-year stint in San Quentin, career hitman Babe Crucci plans to finally go straight and enjoy all life has to offer\u2014after he pulls one or two more jobs to shore up his retirement fund. More than anything, Babe is dead set on making up for lost time with his estranged son, Leo, who just so happens to be a rising star in the LAPD.<\/p>\n

The road to reconciliation starts with tickets to a Dodgers game. But first, Leo needs a little help settling a beef over some gambling debts owed to a local mobster. This kind of thing is child\u2019s play for Babe\u2013until a sudden twist in the negotiations leads to a string of corpses and a titanic power shift in gangland politics. With the sins of his father piling up and dragging him down, Leo throws himself into the investigation of a young prostitute\u2019s murder, a case that makes him some unlikely friends\u2014and some brutally unpredictable enemies.<\/p>\n

Caught up in a clash of crime lords, weaving past thugs with flamethrowers who expend lives like pocket change, Babe and Leo have one last chance to face the ghosts of their past\u2014if they want to live long enough to see their future.<\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief frisks us, then leads us inside. Through an area big enough to store the cargo off an ocean liner, which now contains nothing but hundreds of wooden pallets stacked against support beams and concrete walls. Into a maze consisting of two stairwells and three hallways, all of it dark and dusty and in need of pest extermination and paint, then into an elevator. We exit the elevator and are walloped with blasts of cleanliness and fluorescent light, walk down a blue-carpeted hallway.<\/p>\n

We stop before a metal door and Chief raises an eyebrow at me, no doubt a reminder of the friendly advice he rendered outside. \u201cSee ya later,\u201d he says. \u201cI hav\u2019ta go back downstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHold down the fort,\u201d I say, and give him a wink that I can tell makes him uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

I open the door.<\/p>\n

Three goons are in the reception area, Macky\u2019s A-Team. They are polluting the atmosphere with wiseguy talk until they see me, then silence grows so thick in the air you can hear the humidity rise.<\/p>\n

They sneer and shrug and straighten their jackets and ties.<\/p>\n

Before I can say\u00a0Where\u2019s Macky?\u00a0the fat hump appears at his office door.<\/p>\n

\u201cBabe Crucci!\u201d he says with outstretched arms,\u00a0\u201cPaisan!\u201d<\/p>\n

Paisan\u00a0,\u00a0shit. Macky is no more Italian than Sammy Davis Jr. was. He is a fucking mick with a\u00a0Godfather\u00a0complex, a punk paddy with Pacino pretensions. He has the kind of Irish face Mama always warned you about\u2014dirty-red hair, rheumy eyes, a bloated face, and a splotchy complexion that reminds me of a diseased lung.<\/p>\n

I do not usually allow men to hug me\u2014call me homophobic, go ahead; it is still behavior that sends confusing signals on the old cellblock\u2014but circumstances dictate I let Macky do so today.<\/p>\n

The hug is over with and Macky turns to my son. \u201cSo, you\u2019re Leo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d he says, \u201cyou figured that out all by yourself?\u201d and starts to light a smoke.<\/p>\n

At which point Macky slaps him in the mouth so hard the cigarette ricochets off the wall a good twenty feet away.<\/p>\n

My son lunges and I step between the two of them like a bolt of lightning just shot up my ass, grabbing his hands inches from Macky\u2019s throat. Pushing him back and motioning with my head at the bodyguards, who have all pulled their weapons by now, I pull my boy close to whisper in his ear. \u201cLook around you. You want to commit suicide, do it outside my presence.\u00a0Understand\u00a0?\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Bio<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert McClure read pulp fiction as a kid when he should have been studying, but ultimately cracked down enough to obtain a bachelor’s in criminology from Murray State University and a law degree from the University of Louisville. He is now an attorney and crime fiction writer who lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky. His story “My Son” appeared in The Best American Mystery Stories, and he has had other works published in MudRock: Stories & Tales, Hardboiled, Thug Lit, and Plots with Guns.<\/p>\n

Links<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00TNDOYL6?tag=randohouseinc7986-20<\/a><\/p>\n

B&N:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/deadly-lullaby-robert-mcclure\/1121229304?ean=9781101884980&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-VD9*lkiWNd8-_-10:1<\/a><\/p>\n

Books-a-Million:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.booksamillion.com\/search?query=9781101884980&AID=10876509&PID=2665379&SID=PRHEFFDF5A7F1–9781101884980&where=eBooks<\/a><\/p>\n

Google Play:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/search?q=9781101884980&c=books<\/a><\/p>\n

iBooks:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/book\/deadly-lullaby\/id993474454?mt=11<\/a><\/p>\n

Penguin Random House:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/251406\/deadly-lullaby-by-robert-mcclure\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Goodreads:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/25387184-deadly-lullaby?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr<\/a>
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