Enter to win a $50 GC: Murder by Munchausen Trilogy by M.T. Bass

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What inspired you to write this story?

After reading the fourth or fifth zombie apocalypse story in my writers groups a few years ago, I started wondering what the next imminent threat to humanity was going to be. I stuck that thought in the back of my mind, then went about my usual business. One day I woke up and wrote the first chapter of Murder by Munchausen, where detectives Jake and EC track down an errant android that was reprogrammed into being a hit man. And that’s how most of my stories start, with a specific scene or a character all ready to go. Then I chase the rest of the story down. Anyway, Artificial Intelligence run a muck at the hands of cyberpunk hackers seemed like a pretty good setup—then guys like Elon Musk (”With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.") and Stephen Hawkings (”It could spell the end of the human race.”) weighed in with their doomsday scenerios and I was really off and running.

What was your favorite part to write?

I think I had the most fun with bringing Q to life. He’s a really different kind of character. Besides being a cyberpunk hacker college dropout and into BMX biking and parkour, he plays both sides of the fence—kind of bad-cop/almost good cop. A lot of times the secondary characters are the most interesting ones to work with—and I guess there’s a little bit of hacker buried down deep in all of us.

What was the hardest part to write?

It wasn’t necessarily hard, but the most challenging part of these stories was writing The Darknet from Maddie’s point-of-view. It is a different mindset capturing a female perspective. I had to put all my testosterone on hold.

How did you come up with your characters?

Most times they end up with their own personalities. I can’t help it, no matter what I do, that’s just the way it is. They all have minds of their own, you know? Sometimes I beg, borrow, and steal traits, interests, or attitudes, from folks I know and throw them into the mix, but none of those real people are actually in the book—well, except for Wally. He’s too much of a character to pass by.

Do you have anything coming up and can you tell us about it? I am just now finishing up the final draft of my next novel, Jungleland. It is the sequel to my very first book, My Brother’s Keeper. The main character, Hawk, who was a P-51 Mustang driver in World War II, goes to Congo in the 1960s to fly as a mercenary pilot against civil war rebels. I’ll be sending it off to my editor in the next couple of weeks, then I have to figure out a release date for this fall. Probably in October sometime.

A Cyber Crime Thriller Series: Notorious serial killers digitally resurrected to live & hunt again in hacked replicants, pursued by detectives of the Artificial Crimes Unit.

Enjoy an Excerpt from Murder by Munchausen

This particular Android Subject apparently went off the rails and killed a luckless pedestrian on his way to a bodega for some iced tea or bottled water to quench his thirst. A one-in-a-million occurrence, but every so often it still happens. Anyone who believes technology is infallible is a fool. The incident didn’t appear all that nefarious when first reported, but shortly thereafter the Atlas data stream went dark and patrol called our unit in. It quickly became obvious we were dealing with a malware hit, not a malfunction. The luckless pedestrian was actually not so luckless, being on what appeared to be the winning side of a particularly nasty termination suit with his ex, who we suspected had outsourced the final settlement to extra-judicial parties.

It might not make sense, but the beloved Media tags it “Murder by Munchausen.” For a price, there are hackers out there who will reprogram a synthoid to do your dirty work. The bad news: no fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scene. The good news—at least for us—is that they’re like missiles: once they hit their target, they’re usually as harmless as empty brass. The trick is to get them before they melt down their core OS data, so you can get the unit into forensics for analysis and, hopefully, an arrest.

EC’s scanner returned a hard ping. His quick double blink put his cross-hairs up on my lens and I followed his eye line to the northwest corner of the building…

About the Author:

M.T. Bass is a scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right reality. He lives, writes, flies and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.

Born in Athens, Ohio, M.T. Bass grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, majoring in English and Philosophy, then worked in the private sector (where they expect “results”) mainly in the Aerospace & Defense manufacturing market. During those years, Bass continued to write fiction. He is the author of eight novels: My Brother’s Keeper, Crossroads, In the Black, Somethin’ for Nothin’, Murder by Munchausen, The Darknet (Murder by Munchausen Mystery #2), The Invisible Mind (Murder by Munchausen Mystery #3) and Article 15. His writing spans various genres, including Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Black Comedy and TechnoThrillers. A Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, airplanes and pilots are featured in many of his stories. Bass currently lives on the shores of Lake Erie near Lorain, Ohio.


Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Amazon Author Page ~ Goodreads ~ Murder by Munchausen Trilogy Page

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Listen to a sample of the audio book of Murder by Munchausen at Soundcloud.

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