Authors Helping Authors: Thierry Sagnier's Thirst

I have a local writing critique group that I don't go to very often. It occurs on the same night that I head out to the pub, and sometimes authors I'm friends with come meet me at the bar before or after. When someone I know has a piece up for critique, I do go and help them out with my feedback (most of which I share privately because I'm a very picky reader). My goal in critiquing is to help the author be better, not to stroke their ego and I'm a harsh critical reader.

At a few meetings I've come across some submissions by Thierry Sagnier.  I don't really know him, but his work was always well received by the group. One thing led to another and we (my wife and I) ended up meeting him for lunch to talk about various things.

Robin has a way of volunteering me for things, and I knew after a short while she was going to ask me to "whip up a cover." Luckily, I had already read the book and really enjoyed it, providing a bit of help on restructuring of the start.

For her part, Robin volunteered to do the book's layout and create a new ebook file (formatting in the old version was jacked up for reasons none of us understood).  She also was willing to help him get the book posted on various sites and making the paperback available for sale.

Thierry hired a copy editor to go through the book from top to bottom and it has now been released and is live on goodreads and Amazon.

As I said, I really enjoyed the book, and Thierry is an accomplished author. He was a Pushcart Prize Nominee and has been writing since the 1970's including works for The Washington Post. Thirst is a hard-boiled suspense thriller set in Washington DC.  Here's a bit about the book:

A fortune in drugs is missing. Finding them starts with finding her.  Colin isn’t a cop. Joe is, but isn’t up for this. Mamadou was an excellent police officer back in Senegal, but in Washington DC he drives a limo. Josie’s just a girl—a recovering crack addict fed up with her parents and with Herbie, her boyfriend. She’s planning on giving him a piece of her mind. Trouble is, Herbie stole a shipment of drugs, and now he’s dead.  And let’s not forget Mollie Catfish… Now the Zulu wants his drugs, Mamadou wants revenge, Joe just wants to do his job for once, and Colin wants to save his girlfriend’s daughter. All Josie wants is to remember what Herbie might have told her, what the Zulu insists she knows. If she doesn’t—she’s dead too. Mollie? She wants it all. Behind the polished marble of Washington DC, lies dark alleys where everyone thirsts for something.

I should note that I rarely give blurbs for books, although I'm asked to all the time. Remember how I started this post about being a "picky reader"? Well I have no reservation about providing one for Thierry's book so here goes:

"Sagnier builds characters as solid, gritty, and as broken as a DC street, with prose that

lights up like monuments on a starry night." — Michael J. Sullivan,

best-selling author of The Riyria Revelations

So if you happen to read suspense thrillers, please take a look at the sample of Thirst or check out Theirry's goodreads page and it to your "to be read pile."  If you do give the book a try, please let me know what you think.