My best book?
When I used to do book events (Covid has temporarily ended them), people would often ask, “Where should I start? What’s your best book?” Because I have several in my oeuvre and write in several genres—let’s call them mysteries, thrillers, and sci-fi, or their combinations—these are difficult questions to answer. When I hand someone my business card (I always carry a few with me), I often receive similar questions. So what are my answers?
First, I feel a bit like proud parents with several children must feel. Each kid is different, we love them all, and we try to have no favorites. At any particular time, one child might require more attention than the others, or remind us of pleasant but different memories. But really, after nurturing a kid for some time, how can we choose?
Second, there are too many criteria. Is it the first book that produced so much personal euphoria when it was published? (For me, that was in 2006, quite a while ago!) Is it the most meaningful book? Is it the one that nearly wrote itself? Or the one I struggled with and gave a sigh of relief when the novel-wiring marathon ended?
Third, I have no breakout books, so my choice could hardly be the book that made me the most money! It also can’t be the one where I got the most critical acclaim—I don’t have one of those either. (Critics rarely consider anything but Big Five books!) Good reviews, sure, but no famous book critic has lauded one of my books. And frankly, neither a breakout book or a critically acclaimed one would influence how I determine my best book. And I’m the author, so my opinion counts most!
Maybe binge-readers out there would prefer I name my favorite series? That’s also hard to do. I have a few of those too, and they’re all so different. I’m fond of the “Clones and Mutants” series but maybe only because Full Medical, the first book in the series, was also my first published book. I’m also fond of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series with its novels a mix of emphasis between thriller and mystery stories and interesting characters, but maybe that’s because the first novel of that series, The Midas Bomb, seemed to write itself (as did most of the books in that series!).
Maybe my best book is the most serious one? That’s an easy choice. Not only is Son of Thunder a metaphysical tour de force, it’s The Da Vinci Code done right, i.e. without Dan Brown’s appeal to hoaxes and Catholic conspiracy theories (okay, in my book, there are a few theories—that’s why that mystery/thrilled can be called historical fiction) but they’re based on fact). Of course, the last book in the series (so far), The Klimt Connection, is politically meaningful, so maybe that’s a tossup (see the ad below).
So…my answer has to be: I don’t know which one of my books you’ll like best! Readers likes and dislikes are all over the board. All I can say is the Steven M. Moore who’s just finished one novel-writing marathon is a bit different than the one who ran the previous ones. And that’s a good thing too: One has to grow with their children!
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The Klimt Connection. This eighth novel in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series takes a close look at the war between democracy and autocracy at the local level as Esther, Bastiann, and friends battle far-right domestic terrorists out to kill migrants and refugees. The HQ for all the action is an MI5 safehouse where the crime-fighting duo must reside because the terrorist bombed their flat. And, of course, art is involved, as a parallel case recalls the horrors of World War II. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (just not on Amazon). Novels #6 and #7 are free PDF downloads (see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
