Tour Stop, Guest Post & Giveaway: The Two Gentleman of Altona by Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock

Hi! We’re Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock, the authors of THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF ALTONA. We’re touring the web taking about our influences, our processes, anything we can think about actually, and even giving you guys a sneak peak or two! And what would a blog tour be without a contest? Check out the details at the bottom of the post to see what you can win!

 In our PLAYING THE FOOL series, one of our main characters, Henry Page, is a con man. So it seemed like this might be a good time to talk about some of the classic cons of all time. And this one has surely got to be one of the greatest: the Trojan Horse.

Seriously?

 Every con needs one thing to succeed: it needs the person being conned to be greedy enough for the promised payoff to silence that little voice inside them that tells them to beware. The payoff isn’t always monetary. Sometimes it’s the promise of love or, in the case of the Trojans, the promise of peace.

 But seriously?

 Okay. You’re a Trojan. You’ve been at war with the Greek for ten long years. And it’s been brutal. Then, suddenly, one morning they’ve just vanished, leaving nothing behind but this large wooden horse that, coincidentally, is just the right size to fit a bunch of guys inside. But hey, why check that? You should just wheel the thing inside, lock the gates behind you, and have an early night.

 Come on. Does anyone really believe this happened? If the Trojan military command was so incredibly stupid, how did they manage to withstand a siege for ten entire years? I doubt they’d even be able to lace their own sandals.

 So while the Trojan Horse might be one of the earliest, and most famous cons, we’ve got more sympathy for the people who give their bank account details to the widows of Nigerian princes than to the Trojans.

 Because seriously?

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Title: The Two Gentleman of Altona by Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock
Playing the Fool Series Book One
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, M/M, Romance, Suspense/Thriller, Comedy
Length: 228 pages/Word Count: 56,500

Summary:

Mischief, thou art afoot.

Special Agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness is having a rough week. Not only is he on a new diet, but he’s also been tasked with keeping Henry Page—the world’s most irritating witness—alive. Which is tough when Mac’s a breath away from killing the Shakespeare-quoting, ethically-challenged, egg-obsessed Henry himself. Unless killing isn’t really what Mac wants to do to him.

Con man Henry Page prefers to keep his distance from the law . . . though he wouldn’t mind getting a little closer to uptight, handsome Agent McGuinness. As the sole witness to a mob hit, Henry’s a valuable asset to the FBI. But he’s got his own agenda, and it doesn’t involve testifying.

When evidence surfaces of a mole in the FBI office, Mac and Henry are forced to go into hiding. Holed up in a fishing cabin, they’re surprised to discover that their feelings run more than skin deep. But as the mob closes in, Henry has to make his escape. And Mac has to decide how far he’s willing to go to keep Henry by his side.

THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF ALTONA is the first in our PLAYING THE FOOL trilogy. Book 2, THE MERCHANT OF DEATH, will be available on February 2. Book 3, TEMPEST, will be released March 9.

You can preorder the series, and check out excerpts, at Riptide Publishing

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Authors’ Bios

Lisa Henry lives in tropical North Queensland, Australia. She doesn’t know why, because she hates the heat, but suspects she’s too lazy to move. She spends half her time slaving away as a government minion, and the other half plotting her escape.

She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix-up between international school systems early in life. She studied History and English, neither of them very thoroughly.

She shares her house with too many cats, a dog, a green tree frog that swims in the toilet, and as many possums as can break in every night. This is not how she imagined life as a grown-up.

You can visit Lisa her website, at Goodreads, or on Facebook or Twitter.

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J.A. Rock has worked as a dog groomer, knife seller, haunted house zombie, standardized patient, cashier, census taker, state fair quilt hanger, and, for one less-than-magical evening, a server—and would much rather be writing about those jobs than doing them. J.A. lives mostly in West Virginia, and always with a beloved dog, Professor Anne.

You can visit J.A. at her website, her blog, or on Twitter or Facebook.

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Giveaway

Thanks for following our tour! To celebrate our release, we’re giving away an awesome prize – an ebook copy of a novel of your choice from either of our back catalogs. We’re also giving away a $20 Riptide gift voucher, and the contents of Henry Page’s bag during his arrest in THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF ALTONA: that’s some Shakespeare and a bunch of Henry’s favorite candy!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with a way for us to contact you, be it your email, your twitter, or a link to your facebook or goodreads account. Please put your email in the body of the comment, not just in email section of the comment form, because we won’t be able to see it otherwise! On January 9, we’ll draw a winner from all eligible comments! Be sure to follow the whole tour, because the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win the prize!

Follow the rest of the tour HERE.