Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

John Rebus: The Literary Character I Hate to Love

Rude, churlish, obnoxious ... John Rebus is the literary detective I hate to love.

In Exit Music John Rebus retired – but Rankin brought him back. I assume it was due to fan outrage!

The literary character I hate to love – or love to hate – is Inspector John Rebus. Rude, arrogant, churlish – his brilliance in solving Edinburgh murder mysteries is matched only by his self destructive love for booze, cigarettes, and conflict with authority.

I’m a bit like those few who are close to him in Rankin’s novels – loyal and able to see past his coarse exterior – but always wondering what he will do next to get himself in trouble with the bosses – and drag me along with him!

In Exit Music, author Ian Rankin finally put Rebus into retirement and introduced a new series character in The Complaints. I can only assume fan reaction won the day as Rebus made his typically messy but triumphant return in Resurrection Men.

Is Jack Reacher the Most Unique Character in Commercial Fiction?

a quick glance at jack reacher

Reacher has a major attachment issue – he can’t commit to living in one place.

In Jack Reacher, Lee Child has created one of the most unique and interesting male characters in commercial fiction today.

Army brat, West Point grad, and decorated military veteran, Reacher never lived in one place more than a year or two growing up or in his military career, so why start now? He doesn’t.

When Reacher leaves the Army – as a matter of honor, of course, he begins a new life as a drifter, traveling by bus or as a hitchhiker with the clothes on his back, a toothbrush, and an ATM card. He always finds trouble – and he is always ready to fight for the underdog.

Oh, and when his clothes get dirty, he throws them away and buys new ones. He’s not real particular on brands. So he’s done the math and it makes perfect sense to him.

Reacher is pretty lucky. None of the bad guys shoot as well as he does. And whatever mess he gets in the middle of, there is always an extremely attractive, independent, and unattached woman for him to consider the possibility of settling down with.

Reacher hit the big screen in 2013 with Tom Cruise in lead role, which created a storm of controversy with fans of the 6′ 5″ literary character. Cruise is always great in an action role. He’s not great at being taller than most everyone else in the room.

As of this writing Child has written 18 full novels … the series might finally be losing steam (at least for me), but Child has pulled off no small feat.

Adapted from my Pinterest board, Spies, Detectives, Hit Men, and Vigilantes.

We Need Daily Grace

A Year of Devotions to Draw You Near to the Heart of God

The new Fall River edition of Daybook of Grace

I wrote and compiled most of A Daybook of Grace a couple years ago and “packaged” it for Fall River Press (an imprint of Sterling Publishing, owned by Barnes & Noble) as part of their exclusive in-store value line. After three years in the market, the publishing team at Falls River recently updated and upgraded it with an exquisite new cover for the trade. (Thanks Stefan and Betsy.)

This project will always be near and dear to my heart for a couple of reasons. Of course I like (and really need) a daily devotional book to help me focus spiritually and emotionally each morning. I also like the title and the theme of daily grace. There are certainly some mad-dash sprints in life, but overall it is a marathon that takes daily endurance.

But what really makes the project special to me is how many problems I had during the process of preparing it for publication. I can’t go into details, but one of my vendors had a personal crisis that spilled over into the development and timeline, which meant unplanned late night and early morning writing sessions, and a couple rounds of re-budgeting. (What I dealt with paled in comparison to what my friend had to go through.)

My wife likes to remind me that when strange, idiopathic challenges arise, “something good is about to happen.” And as Daybook went to press that was indeed the case. The new release is another good thing to happen. It is even better that it happened a couple years later – that means the book has done well.

Daybook of Grace is my lovely reminder that grace really is a daily need and blessing.

Daybook of Grace is available at all Barnes and Noble stores and B&N.com, Amazon.com, and other fine booksellers.