Excerpt // Lethal Voyage by Kevin G. Chapman

What are Author Kevin Chapman’s literary inspirations? Read below.

Michael Connelly — the master of my genre — the middle-aged crusty police detective who’s not really as hard-nosed as he wants people to think he is.

Sara Paretsky — Her characters are so vivid. She wraps her mysteries and conspiracies around them so well that you overlook the deficiencies in the plots because you love the characters.

Robert Heinlein — Stranger in a Strange Land is perhaps the best book ever, and in an odd way made me want to be a lawyer.

Edgar Rice Burroughs — so many nights spent looking up at Barsoom as a kid (Mars).  My brother and I built a Martian chess set.  His stories are so bad in many ways, but so wonderful in the ways that really matter.

Ayn Rand — the ability to build philosophical construct within an entertaining story is just brilliant.  Tell me a great story, and make me think at the same time.

Isaac Azimov — yes, a lot of sci fi on the list, but that’s what I grew up reading.  Azimov could tell a hundred different types of stories and do them all well.

Wallace Stevens — you probably don’t know him, but he was a poet from the early 20th Century.  He was also an insurance company executive who wrote his poems in the car while commuting to and from work.  Reminds me of me sometimes.  I studied him in college and his words are simply perfect.

Linda Barnes — Another great mystery/suspense author with a long series of wonderful stories with wonderful characters and a very personal setting.  Read her stuff!

JRR Tolkien — well, it’s true.  I read the Hobbit when I was 10 and never looked back.  Fantasy is sometimes overlooked, but the complexity of the story arc and the richness of the characters makes him special.

Greg Prince — you probably don’t know him either because he writes sports, but his writing and his book publishing has inspired me and he always makes me remember why it matters to write well.

Tell us… what are your literary inspirations?

Kevin G. Chapman is the author of five novels. His current series of crime thrillers — the Mike Stoneman series — has garnered wonderful reviews and critical acclaim. Book #3 is set to launch Nov. 22, 2020.

 Book #1 — “Righteous Assassin” is currently rated at 4.5-stars through more than 70 reviews on Goodreads and Amazon and is wowing readers around the world.  It was named one of the top 20 Mystery/Thrillers of 2019 by the Kindle Book Review and was a semi-finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Awards CLUE Award for books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving!”

 Book #2 — “Deadly Enterprise,” picks up the action immediately after the events of Book #1 and already has more than 40 5-star reviews on amazon and Goodreads!

 Book #3 in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series, Lethal Voyage, will be published on Nov. 22, 2020.  Look for Goodreads giveaways and information about the upcoming launch party!

 Kevin is a labor lawyer by day and is a graduate of Columbia College (‘83) and Boston University School of Law (‘86).  When not working or writing, Kevin can be found on the golf course, playing in a local poker tournament, or at Citi Field rooting on his beloved New York Mets.