Book 6 of the Huntress Thrillers out today!

Shadow Moon, Book 6 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers, is out today!

This book is ONLY for readers who have already read the first five books. The series unfolds over six months, one book per month, each culminating in the full moon. Along the way they delve into multiple timelines in the past. Please don't try to start at the end!

Order here for $2.99.

For those new to the series, Book 1 is Huntress Moon. 

Shop for all five previous books here

The series turns tropes of violence against women inside out: this haunted FBI agent  and his team is on the hunt for a female serial killer. Who kills men. Lots of them. All over the country. For years.

If you love a fictional series based on real life horrors, like The Handmaid's Tale or Mindhunter, or if you're just in the mood to see the predators LOSE, read on.

Special Agent Matthew Roarke thought he knew what evil was. He was wrong.

 
Start with Book One - Huntress Moon, and the Award-winning audiobook!

Huntress Moon  - Audiobook

Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook Narration

Add the audiobook narration to any Huntress ebook for $3.99 or less.

Huntress Moon and my amazing narrator, RC Bray, won a Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook Narration, Crime & Thriller.

Bob is also the multi-award-winning narrator of the blockbuster audiobook of The Martian, and you can hear his stellar narration in all six Huntress books. (Shadow Moon audiobook out in May, with Bob producing, AND with alternate male/female narration, co-performing with Rinelle Harkin!)

------------------------------------------- SPOILERS ahead! -----------------------------------------------

Does Fate connect us?

Mass killer Cara Lindstrom is in the wind, after a deadly encounter which has left FBI Special Agent Antara Singh questioning her own sanity and fitness to serve. ASAC Matthew Roarke exiles Singh to Portland to work as an assistant to his old mentor, retiring profiler Chuck Snyder—but a series of mysterious break-ins alerts Singh and Snyder to an active threat revolving around an old case: a string of brutal murders of homeless teenagers on the streets of Portland and Seattle.

Singh and Snyder must go on the road and deep into Roarke’s and Cara’s pasts to discover a pattern of destiny and interconnection that holds the key to unsolved child murders, past and present.

 Pre-order for $2.99



If you thought Bitter Moon was complex (I did!) Shadow Moon takes it a couple of notches higher, which may be why I'm a little late on it. :) The book takes place over multiple timelines,
encompassing many episodes from Roarke's and Cara's lives within the framework of a heartbreaking, excruciating, present-day case.

You'll be going on a road trip that includes stops at some of my - I mean Cara's - favorite national parks.

You'll learn things you never knew about all the characters—details and backstories that I've been incorporating into the TV episodes.

On the procedural side, as always, I'm writing about real-life failures in the criminal justice system that could so very easily be fixed with obvious and implementable real-life solutions- IF this country decided to make the elimination of sexual violence and sexual homicide a priority.

And I hope the story will also inspire you to think about the role of destiny and synchronicity in your own life. For me, that's part of the mysterious magic of this world - the signs and convergences that let me know I'm on my path.

As always, I'm looking forward to talking to you about any and all of the books in the series, your synchronicities, your fears, your triumphs, your love lives...

       -- Alex 

Book 6 of the Huntress Thrillers - April 19!

YES - Shadow Moon, Book 6 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers, is now available for pre-order, for
delivery on April 19!

Pre-order here for $2.99.

Before I talk about the new book below, with spoilers - I want to remind everyone that this series is written to be read in order, starting with Huntress Moon. 

Shop for all five here
The series turns tropes of violence against women inside out: this haunted FBI agent  and his team is on the hunt for a female serial killer. Who kills men. Lots of them. All over the country. For years.

If you love a fictional series based on real life horrors, like The Handmaid's Tale or Mindhunter, or if you're just in the mood to see the predators LOSE, read on.

Special Agent Matthew Roarke thought he knew what evil was. He was wrong.

  

Shop for all five here

Start with Book One - Huntress Moon, and the Award-winning audiobook!

Huntress Moon  - Audiobook

Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook Narration

Audiobook junkies might want to take the sale opportunity to pick up the ebooks - and add the audiobook narration for $3.99 or less.

Huntress Moon and my amazing narrator, RC Bray, won a Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook Narration, Crime & Thriller.

Bob is also the multi-award-winning narrator of the blockbuster audiobook of The Martian, and you can hear his stellar narration in all six Huntress books.

------------------------------------------- SPOILERS ahead! -----------------------------------------------

Does Fate connect us?

Mass killer Cara Lindstrom is in the wind, after a deadly encounter which has left FBI Special Agent Antara Singh questioning her own sanity and fitness to serve. ASAC Matthew Roarke exiles Singh to Portland to work as an assistant to his old mentor, retiring profiler Chuck Snyder—but a series of mysterious break-ins alerts Singh and Snyder to an active threat revolving around an old case: a string of brutal murders of homeless teenagers on the streets of Portland and Seattle.

Singh and Snyder must go on the road and deep into Roarke’s and Cara’s pasts to discover a pattern of destiny and interconnection that holds the key to unsolved child murders, past and present.

 Pre-order for $2.99



If you thought Bitter Moon was complex (I did!) Shadow Moon takes it a couple of notches higher, which may be why I'm a little late on it. :) The book takes place over multiple timelines,
encompassing many episodes from Roarke's and Cara's lives within the framework of a heartbreaking, excruciating, present-day case.

You'll learn things you never knew about all the characters—details and backstories that I've been incorporating into the TV episodes.

On the procedural side, as always, I'm writing about real-life failures in the criminal justice system that could so very easily be fixed with obvious and implementable real-life solutions- IF this country decided to make the elimination of sexual violence and sexual homicide a priority.

And I hope the story will also inspire you to think about the role of destiny and synchronicity in your own life. For me, that's part of the mysterious magic of this world - the signs and convergences that let me know I'm on my path.

As always, I'm looking forward to talking to you about any and all of the books in the series, your synchronicities, your fears, your triumphs, your love lives...

       -- Alex 

Huntress series sale, all 5 books 99c!

Book 6 of my Thriller Award-nominated Huntress Moon series releases in March, and Thomas & Mercer has put the first five books of the series on sale,  so you can catch up - just 99 c each on Amazon US. (Huntress Moon may be 1.99 for some people...)

The series turns tropes of violence against women inside out: my haunted FBI agent is on the hunt for a female serial killer. Who kills men. All over the country. For years.

So if you're in the mood to see the predators LOSE, here’s your chance to get a great deal.

         Special Agent Matthew Roarke thought he knew what evil was. He was wrong.

Shop for all five here

  

Huntress Moon  - Audiobook

Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook Narration

Audiobook junkies might want to take the sale opportunity to pick up the ebook - then add the narration for as low as $1.99.

Huntress Moon and my amazing narrator, RC Bray, won a Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook Narration, Crime & Thriller.

Bob is also the multi-award-winning narrator of the blockbuster audiobook of The Martian, and you can hear his stellar narration in all five Huntress books.

I wrote the Huntress Moon series because I am sick to death of women and children being raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered for entertainment in novels, movies, TV shows...

 
And oh yeah - real life. 

The Huntress series turns the tables. The books follow a haunted FBI agent on the hunt for a female serial killer who kills men. A lot of them.

The fact is, one reason novels and film and TV so often depict women as victims is that it’s the stark reality. Since the beginning of time, women haven’t been the predators — we’re the prey. But after all those millennia of women being victims of the most heinous crimes out there wouldn’t you think that someone would finally say: “Enough”? And maybe even strike back?

Well, that’s a story, isn’t it? And it’s a story that needs to be told now, more than ever, given this political nightmare we’re living. The premise is a way to explore the third rail of crime: the inherent, entrenched, misogyny of the system.   

And this series is a way for me to explore SOLUTIONS. I am not writing fantasies about clever serial killers. I’m writing from real-life psychology and pathology, using real-life examples and profiling, to counter some of the absolutely ridiculous and false portrayals of this pathology that we see in film and television and books.

Serial killers are NOT criminal masterminds. They do NOT have artistic or poetic bents. They are serial rapists who have graduated to murder. It’s a facet of the male pattern violence that we are seeing revealed in the #MeToo stories and lists from millions of women and teenagers in the past few weeks. Mass shooters – that’s also male pattern violence, with domestic abuse being a key indicator of the type of man who commits this particular atrocity. 

You read the #MeToo stories - much less LIVE them! - and the totality of it seems overwhelming. The fact that we have a serial sexual predator and blatant misogynist (and racist, white supremacist, xenophobe, looter, plutocrat…) in the most powerful office in the world, determining national and international policy, appointing judges, reversing laws that protect women and children – all that is part of the totality and even more overwhelming.   

However, there ARE solutions. There are practical and actually very obvious ways to CHANGE this horrific culture of rape and predation. I've spent years now, researching and interviewing experts about real psychology, real systemic failures, and real solutions. I've written ALL of that into the Huntress series, enacted by characters who reader really care about.

One of the keys to understanding male violence is that it is NOT universal. It is a percentage of repeat offenders who commit these crimes (whether identified or not) over and over and over again. We need to be very clear on this point. The problem is not all men. The problem is a percentage of repeat offenders. 

To underscore this point, in the Huntress series, my FBI investigators are mostly men, gay and straight, different races - with one key woman on the team and lots of female leads from various social and legal and religious services. I wanted to depict the kind of men I know, that I have always known, that I personally have always been easily able to identify and not randomly lump in with criminals. I wanted to depict their struggle with the overwhelming force of entrenched rape culture, and their difficult fight to work within the system to change it. I wanted the situation of their hunt for this unusual, very female killer to force them to grapple with extremely real life, practical, workable solutions to changing the system.

I cover different facets of different legal and societal systems in each of the books. And in book 5, Hunger Moon, Special Agent Roarke and his team are working toward a very explicit, law-enforcement based, multi-pronged approach to identifying and convicting serial sexual predators. 

If we all, male and female, binary and non-binary, LGBTQ, people of every race and variation thereof, could come to understand that we need to deal with this segment of repeat offenders, we COULD change this. We could.

It isn't overwhelming, when we take a breath and break it down. And commit to doing better for everyone. Women, men - and especially, especially children.


But we need to know the facts. We need to know where the systemic failures have been. And we need to keep speaking out against EVERY predator. Always. 


       -- Alex 

Book Week Scotland event: Writing Gender Violence

It's Book Week Scotland, and I'm speaking on writing gender-based violence at the University of Stirling today. How can we use crime fiction to address social evils? Event is free - ticket information here.


https://www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-gender-violence-tickets-39654980113

Take action against sexual assault and sex trafficking

Our current political situation has aimed a harsh spotlight on the rampant sexual abuse of women and children, both girls and boys, in this country. The Huntress Moon series is my ongoing attempt to confront the evils of rape culture and misogyny and the damage sexual abuse inflicts on ALL of us – and asks the question: “What can good people do about evil in the world?”

Many of my readers write to me asking what they can do to fight rape, child abuse and sex trafficking. I’ve compiled a list of organizations I support and other resources here.

Every month I donate a portion of my royalties to organizations that rescue and work with homeless, trafficked and sexually exploited teens, that work to prevent sexual violence and abuse, and to Planned Parenthood, which works tirelessly to ensure that every child is planned, wanted, and cared for. If you’d like to learn more about organizations in your country, state and community, here are some links to places you can start:

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT   

Children of the Night is a privately funded non-profit organization established in 1979 and dedicated to rescuing America’s children from the ravages of prostitution.  

COVENANT HOUSE 

Covenant House is a nonprofit charity serving homeless youth with a network of shelters across the Americas. Each year in the U.S. alone, as many as 2 million youth experience a period of homelessness, and every year more than 5,000 of these young people lose their lives to the streets. Survivors of sexual assault and LGBTQ youth are particularly vulnerable to homelessness, and services to these populations will likely decrease radically in the coming years.

EROC:  End Rape On Campus  

End Rape on Campus (EROC) works to end campus sexual violence through direct support for survivors and their communities; prevention through education; and policy reform at the campus, local, state, and federal levels.

I strongly urge everyone to watch the excellent, harrowing documentary The Hunting Ground to fully understand the preponderance of rape on college campuses and the appallingly inadequate response by campus boards, local law enforcement and the US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

MISSSEY 

Since 2007, MISSSEY has devoted its energy to the heartbreaking epidemic of commercial sexual exploitation by supporting and advocating for youth who are victims of child sex trafficking. We are a survivor-centered, trauma-informed organization confronting the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in Oakland, in Alameda County, and throughout California.


SAVING INNOCENCE

Working to rescue and restore child victims of sex trafficking through strategic partnerships with local law enforcement, social service providers, and schools, while mobilizing communities to prevent abuse and increase neighborhood safety.

THORN

Thorn partners across the tech industry, government and NGOs and leverages technology to combat predatory behavior, rescue victims, and protect vulnerable children from sexual exploitation.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD  

For nearly 100 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning. Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide.

POLARIS 

Polaris is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization committed to combatting and preventing modern-day slavery and human trafficking. The organization works directly with victims, hosts tip and crisis hotlines, and offers solutions to those victimized by human trafficking. The organization is one of the largest anti-trafficking organizations in the US, with programs operating at local and national levels through their offices in Washington, DC and Newark, New Jersey. They operate the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC),  which serves as a central national hotline on human trafficking.

National Sexual Assault Hotline       Call 1-800-656-4673  (800-656-HOPE)

Be aware that different local charities have different ratings as to effectiveness – you can check the rating of any charitable organization here: CHARITY NAVIGATOR

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that 

good men should look on and do nothing.”

                                                                – John Stuart Mill

Book 3 in the Huntress/FBI Thrillers: COLD MOON out now!

Cold Moon, book 3 in the Huntress/FBI series, is now available worldwide (ebook out now, print and audio coming July 7).

Anyone who's read the first two books in this series knows that I'm very passionate about it. More than passionate.

I'm writing these books because I've had enough.

Last summer I was at Harrogate, the international crime writing festival, and prominently displayed in the book tent was a new crime fiction release that featured a crucified woman on the cover. 

A crucified woman. On the cover.

It’s not like I’ve never come across a crucified woman in a crime novel before. In fact, I’ve had to stop reading three or four novels in the past two years when variations of this scene came up. But on the cover, now? The selling image of the novel?

2014 was also the year of the highly praised TV miniseries True Detective, which featured two complex male detectives and a female cast made up entirely of hookers, dead hookers, little dead girls, a mentally challenged incest victim, and the female lead: a wife who cheats on her husband with his partner because she’s too weak to just freaking leave him. Oh right, there was a female love interest who was a doctor – but she had, I believe, one line in the entire show. Maybe two.

Defenders of the show argue, “But the detectives weren’t sympathetic, either.” No, they weren’t, always – but unlike the entire female cast, they were actual, developed characters, not fuck toys for the male characters or – well, corpses.

Then there’s Game of Thrones – a great series that became unwatchable for me a while ago because of the overwhelming frequency of rapes. Defenders of that show say: “But in that world, in those warring countries, there would be a lot of rape. It’s reality.” Yeah, but if you’re arguing realism – the boys and male hostages would be being raped along with the women – just look at the US statistics of male-on-male rape in our own military. But on Game of Thrones, somehow it’s just the women. Over and over and over again.

And difficult as it is to confront the videogame images dissected in Anita Sarkeesian’s sobering series, “Tropes vs.Women”  - I think we can’t afford not to watch and learn. We’re going to have to wake up to the messages teenage boys are growing up with.

Those are just some high-profile examples. Believe me, I could go on all day and not scratch the surface.

So what do we do? How do we counteract the brutalization of women in crime fiction and media?

I suppose as an author you can avoid the issue by writing cozies, or another genre entirely. But I don’t read cozies, and I wouldn’t know how to write one. I used to teach in the L.A. County prison system. I want to explore the roots of crime, not soft-pedal it. For better or worse, my core theme as a writer is “What can good people do about the evil in the world?”

So my choice is to confront the issue head on.

The fact is, one reason crime novels and film and TV so often depict women as victims is because it’s reality. Since the beginning of time, women haven’t been the predators – we’re the prey. Personally, I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

But after all those years (centuries, millennia) of women being victims of the most heinous crimes out there… wouldn’t you think that someone would finally say – “Enough”? 

And maybe even strike back?

Well, that’s a story, isn’t it?

So my Huntress Moon series is about just that.

The books are intense psychological suspense, and take the reader on an interstate manhunt with a haunted FBI agent on the track of what he thinks may be that most rare of killers – a female serial.

Now, I’ve been studying serial killers for years. Years ago, when I was a screenwriter writing crime thrillers, I tracked down the FBI’s textbook on sexual homicide before it was ever available to the public. I attend Citizens Police Academies and other law enforcement and forensics workshops whenever I get the chance. If I know there’s a behavioral profiler at a writing convention, I stalk that person so I can pick his or her brain about serial killers. And I attend Lee Lofland’s fantastic Writers Police Academy (a yearly three-day conference that’s a law enforcement and forensics immersion course).

And here’s what’s really interesting. Arguably there’s never been any such thing as a female serial killer in real life. The women that the media holds up as serial killers actually operate from a completely different psychology from the men who commit what the FBI calls “sexual homicide”. 

Even Aileen Wuornos, infamous in the media as “America’s First Female Serial Killer” wasn’t a serial killer in the sense that male killers like Bundy, Gacy and Kemper were serial killers. The profilers I’ve interviewed call Wuornos a spree killer with a vigilante motivation. (I write about her case, and the psychology of other real life mass killers, in Huntress Moon.)

So what’s that about? Why do men do it and women don’t? Women rarely kill, compared to men — but when it happens, what does make a woman kill?

Within the context of my Huntress series I can explore those psychological and sociological questions, and invite my readers to ask – Why? I can realistically bring light on crimes that I consider pretty much the essence of evil – and turn the tables on the perpetrators.

I do not depict rape or torture on the page. I can assure you, no one gets crucified. I think real life crime is horrific enough without rubbing a reader’s face in it or adding absurd embellishments (my personal literary pet peeve is the serial killer with an artistic streak or poetic bent).

In this series I can pose questions about human evil, as it actually presents in real life, without exploiting it. And I’ve created a female character who breaks the mold – but in a way that makes psychological sense for the overwhelming majority of people who read the books.

Whoever she is, whatever she is, the Huntress is like no killer Agent Roarke – or the reader – has ever seen before. And you may find yourself as conflicted about her as Roarke is.

Because as one of the profilers says in the book: “I’ve always wondered why we don’t see more women acting out this way. God knows enough of them have reason.”

So I’d like to know: do the authors among you grapple with the issue of how to counteract the brutalization of women in crime fiction?  And what about readers? Do you ever feel that violence against women in crime fiction, TV and film has gone over the top?

     -- Alex

http://AlexandraSokoloff.com

________________________________________________________________________

   

Books 1, 2 and 3 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers, Huntress Moon, Blood Moon, and Cold Moon are available now from Thomas & Mercer.

I very strongly recommend that you read the series in order, starting with Huntress Moon.   

                                                                                                     

    

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