GIVEAWAY!!! "Fatal Induction" by Bernadette Pajer~A Professor Bradshaw Mystery with Punch!

 In a mystery fraught with mayhem, presidential pot shots and scientific inventions of the early 1900's, you'll absolutely love getting to know the handsome and confirmed bachelor, Professor Bradshaw. "Fatal Induction" is a close runner along with the new Sherlock Holmes spin offs, only it's better--and more original! It has a twist of Edison and  Ford-like discoveries to it for added attractions. And, there are other simply wonderful things for the curious mind. For instance, I, for one, didn't realize the English had a gadget to hear theatre, musicals and opera in their homes before we had.  I always assume America is first at all those  gadgetry things!  And, do you know what the gypsy and/or "snake oil" pushers of the 1800's had in their elixirs?  I just found out!  This is a great little book... Wonder if we'll be seeing Professor Bradshaw in the movies before long!?  This series would make a great one.

Watch this new Trailer!

     http://player.vimeo.com/video/41161283

I was delighted to catch up with Bernadette Pajer once again, after having met her, read and reviewed her first Professor Bradshaw book last year called, "A Spark of Death." 

 (*Note:  You can find my review of that book by searching in 2011 mysteries & suspense...)

First of all, you have to see how daunting she is in this photo. 

 Isn't she awesome? 

Please visit her on her website:  http://www.bernadettepajer.com

So much fascinating information here about inventions and such...

Secondly, let's find out a bit about Ms Pajer, herself:

Bernadette loves the Pacific Northwest. She spent her childhood in Seattle, surrounded by beautiful mountains, listening to KJR (which played top 40 hits back then), and daydreaming (the first stage of writing). After high school, she studied pre-engineering at the University of Washington for two years before love—and a growing awareness that she was indifferent to Differential Equations—intervened. Newly wed, she and her husband moved to Orcas Island where the idea of being a writer took hold. She was working at the local bank when she met one of the island’s most famous residents, Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. She’s sure he doesn’t remember the occasion, but she recalls clearly how very kind he was. She told him she was thinking of writing, and he smiled gently and told her not to think, do. Writers write.
She began to write. And write. And submit, and wait, and write. Fast forward a decade, past dozens of rejections and a growing pile of manuscripts, and she returned to the UW to take a Creative Writing Certificate course, where she met fellow writers who are very dear to her today. In 2001, she decided to complete her degree at the UW at the Bothell campus. Her focus was on Culture, Literature and the Arts. It was during spring break of her final quarter that her son, at last, was born.
When she returned to writing fiction, she discovered that her heart and her passions were encapsulated in characters she’d created years earlier. Professor Bradshaw, his son Justin, Mrs. Prouty, Henry Pratt, and Missouri Fremont. She knew, after her long writing journey, that her writing home belonged with them, at 1204 Gallagher in Seattle. Now she is immersed in writing the Professor Bradshaw Mystery Series, happily exploring with her favorite characters the early days of the turn of the last century, a wondrous time when the race was on to discover and invent—everything—including the very same radio that some 70 years later carried music to a daydreaming teen.
The Professor Bradshaw Mysteries are published by:

Bernadette Pajer is a Friend of:

And a member of:

     

See, I knew you'd love her, but wait....there's more.

Here's a note from Bernadette:

For Deborah, The Bookish Dame   (and for my Readers!!!)

In FATAL INDUCTION, I enjoyed getting more deeply into the characters introduced in A SPARK OF DEATH. At the beginning of this story, Professor Bradshaw's life is fragmented. He's about to enter an electrical competition and must curb his obsession for invention. A peddler's wagon has been abandoned behind his house, and the father and child who called the wagon home are missing. Bradshaw fears the child may have witnessed a murder. While he deals with all this, he and the entire country are on tenterhooks waiting to hear news of President McKinley, who was shot in Buffalo, NY by an anarchist.

But even in chaos, Bradshaw is a dedicated father. When after a week of uncertainty, McKinley succumbs to infection, Bradshaw must break the news to his son. I have a son Justin's age (a case of synchronicity—I first created these characters long before I became a mom), and so Bradshaw's relationship with his son is very close to my heart. I'd like to share an excerpt that reflects the overlapping emotion shared by me as the author and Bradshaw as a character. I'd love to hear comments from readers who've experienced this emotion.

That night, for the first time in perhaps two years, Justin

asked to sleep in Bradshaw’s bed. The boy slept well, but his

limbs were active, as if in his dreams he ran and played as he

had been prevented from doing during the day. Bradshaw slept

very little. He lay watching his son, memorizing the lines of

his face, the curve of his cheek, the shape of his nose that was

beginning to hint at what he would look like as an adult. This

was a moment in time that would never happen again.

He recalled other such moments when he’d taken time to

focus exclusively on the most important person in his life. Justin

as an infant, as a plump toddler. Those versions of his son were

gone. On this somber night of the president’s passing, it felt to

Bradshaw like those versions of his son had vanished completely,

as if death had stolen them.

The Dame's Comment:   A wonderful section of the book.  I hope you'll take time to ponder this, and write a note for Bernadette on it.  I thought of my grandson, Kellan, when I read it and also of his mother (my only daughter, Jessica) when she was a little girl.  He looks almost identical to her.  How quickly the time goes by!  In Jessica's case, her childhood may be gone forever, but it has become captured in the face and actions of her son.  This is God's miracle for us.  It's something that boggles my mind sometimes when I see a grandchild's expressions or actions mimic a parent, grandparent, or even great-grandparent without their even knowing it...each generation coming up holding the stuff of their mothers and fathers from generations past within their tiny minds.

I love it, and I'm grateful to be able to see it.

I also consider that my 3 year old grandson has been using an Ipad since Christmas 2011, and his mother's most complicated "toy" was a cassette player when she was his age.



This is just some of the depth and difference you'll experience in the reading of "Fatal Induction."

Here is another aspect to consider:

THE PROFESSOR’S WORLD

In the great span of human history, there is no other era as revolutionary as the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In that time, mankind went from smoky oil lamps to clean electric bulbs, from clopping horses to roaring automobiles, from tap-tapping telegrams to long-distance telephones, from muddy daguerreotypes to clear moving pictures, from earthbound transport to powered flight.

Sometimes the attempts at ingenuity brought ridicule. In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1901, a contributor wrote a lengthy article explaining why human flight was so ridiculous and why attempts had failed, concluding, “There is as much likelihood that the granite bowlders (sic) of a dozen states will some day get up and fly back to their original strata, as there is that the Langley and Kress, or any other purely mechanical flying machines will become practical many-carrying realities.” Two years later, the Wright Brothers flew, and a mere 63 years after that, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

All of these marvels were built upon the hard work and far-sighted vision of countless folks over many hundreds of years, but it was at this time that a million “aha” moments occurred around the world, and all that discovery became things we could feel, see, touch, and use. It was a marvelous, mad time.

*This site will bring you to some fascinating information about early radio and television history!

Radio and Television Museum





The Dame's Final Note In Summary : 
I simply want you to know how extraordinary I have found the Professor Bradshaw books to be.  It's always fun to me to find a series of books with a great mystery and a protagonist to enjoy coming back to every year, but it's even more fun when the book holds several dear characters.  Especially in an adult book format.

In addition to the obvious you've read above I found the underbelly of the book gripping; forensics--early investigation in that area of death and discovery; electronic means of criminal investigations; and even early telltale signs of psychology in criminology.  Ms Pajer uses these elements with skill and with a delicacy that flavors her book just enough without overwhelming her story. 

 "Fatal Induction" also carries with it the characters I fell in love with in "A Spark of Death:"

Mrs. Prouty,  the whole "Up-stairs-down-stairs, Downton Abbey staff" in and of herself;  (she's bossy and necessary!)

Justin, Bradshaw's adorable son; (he's only in trouble because of that Paul next door)

Missouri, the lovely "non-niece" of the professor's whom he finds himself "not" thinking of sometimes while she "doesn't" think of him, either;  :]

and Detective James O'Brien, the Professor's friend--the other investigative man on the "team" who helps solve the mysterious happenings Bradshaw encounters.

These are unforgettable and lovable characters, richly developed and singularly interesting.  I can't wait to find chapters or paragraphs involving Missouri, for instance.  Obviously, she's a favorite of mine. Why can't I have more of her, Bernadette!!???(I wail... So dramatic..)

Generally, I'm not a "gagety" person when it comes to electronics and such.  I do love my pink, girly hammer and screwdriver things for fix-it projects, and my tiny tools for needlework frames and fixing my unfixable eyeglasses.  But, I've not been very involved in large pieces of electrical equipment and inventions, per se.

However, Bernadette Pajer and Professor Bradshaw have dragged me in on them! The antique ones, I mean. I even visited the Edison Museum and enjoyed myself very much last year.  I'm interested now in several antique inventions. The historical aspects of Pajer's books are an additional bonus I've enjoyed very much.  My  husband was particularly interested in this book's inclusion of the early police detection invention.

This is a good book with lovable characters.  It's an oddity amongst mystery novels because of its subjects and inventions.  That makes it the sort of book and series that may develop a cult following.  I'm on that bandwagon.

I would urge you to try the books.  Start with "A Spark of Death," then read "Fatal Induction."  And give yourself a chapter before you decide...  Ms Pajer's next book in the series is soon to be released:

I'm rating this book in the series 4.5 stars.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

PS:  Bernadette, If it weren't for that Paul I'd have had your other links to museums worked out better!!!  :P


Here's a link to read my review of "A Spark of Death," Ms Pajer's first Professor Bradshaw book.  http://abookishlibraria.blogspot.com/2011/07/spark-of-death-great-read-for-summer.html

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

The other part you've been waiting for???

Here's how to enter:

1)Just join my blog by following via GFC

2)Like me on Facebook

3) and leave a comment for Bernadette

4) along with your email addy!!!

Giveaway ends  May 15th