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Who wants to be astrologically gifted?

**In reality, who doesn’t want to be astrologically gifted?**

Are you still trying to find an appropriate gift to please that astrologer in your life this season? Here are a few options, from fiction to non-fiction, in both western and Vedic traditions.

Even non-astrologers who enjoy crime fiction will love the New Age Noir mystery series. Some reviewers have said the books are as educational as they are entertaining. Make it a unique gift for that special friend.

NEW AGE NOIR: the Trilogy

Axel Crowe is a criminal analyst who applies esoteric principles taught by his enigmatic guru. A finder of wayward people and stolen possessions, Crowe profiles subjects in a distinctly unique manner, using astrology, palmistry and other unconventional techniques. Facts are gross, but the truth is subtle, his guru repeats like a mantra, and although motives for murder lie buried deep, a righteous and relentless man will inevitably unearth them.

This trilogy “box set” is available only in digital format, from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.

For those who prefer trade paperback, the three titles in this set (Scorpio Rising, Felonious Monk, Soma County) can be purchased individually at Amazon. See descriptions below.

SCORPIO RISING

Axel Crowe probes the killing of a New York City heiress, and discovers her death is linked to two other murders on the same day: a dot-com millionaire in San Francisco, and the team leader of a government counter-terrorist project in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

“Scorpio Rising is a gripping murder mystery with a Hitchcockian twist.” ~ The Mountain Astrologer

“Scorpio Rising does for astrology what The Da Vinci Code did for art history.” ~ Suite101 Book Reviews

“Annand weaves a working knowledge of a metaphysician’s world view into each page.” ~ Steven Forrest

“Axel Crowe is Agent 007 for the New Age.” ~ Midheaven

“An intelligent hero, multi-faceted in his approach to crime solving.” ~ North American Jyotish Newsletter

“Scorpio Rising is an engaging mystery with a momentum that sends you rushing to the end” ~ Horoscope Guide

“For those with a mystical blend and more than a touch of Scorpio darkness, you’re in for a treat.” ~ Dell Horoscope

FELONIOUS MONK

Axel Crowe investigates the murder of a reporter at a Vermont ashram. His esoteric sleuthing reveals a series of Manhattan rape-murders dating back 12 years, with connections to sex trafficking, drug smuggling and the theft of an ancient golden Buddha.

“Alan Annand tells a good, gritty tale of murder, pursuit, and finally justice. The coolest thing for me is that the detective is an astrologer and a mystic. The normal sort of clue-following fun is aided and abetted by the most practical use of various divinatory arts. There’s just enough technical astrology in the pages to make it plausible and real without ever lapsing into a tutorial. That’s a hard balancing act to get right and Annand nails it.” ~ Steven Forrest

“Incredible power as a poet in prose. A page turner and a seriously magnificent piece of work.” ~ Michael Lutin

SOMA COUNTY

Axel Crowe searches for a missing person in Napa Valley and discovers a black market in body parts. When his client’s friend is also murdered, Crowe’s investigation leads from California to India and a little man with large appetites, big dogs and grand ambitions.

“Unlike anything else you can find in crime fiction, this novel portrays an investigator using an esoteric toolkit – astrology, palmistry, numerology – in a serious way that shines new light on the so-called occult arts. All of this is written in language that’s economic and evocative, terse and tension-filled, with memorable descriptions of people and places. And when the action kicks in, as it inevitably does in all of Annand’s novels, the genre shifts from mystery to thriller to full-on action where, frankly, the pages can’t quite be turned fast enough.” ~ an Amazon reviewer

PARIVARTANA YOGA

(non-fiction)

Parivartana Yogas are said to be among the most powerful of planetary combinations, having the capacity to link the effects of two astrological houses in a chart. However, aside from what we find explicitly in Mantreswara’s Phala Deepika, there’s little in the literature – neither in the many classics of Jyotisha, nor in modern books – to help us understand these yogas.

Illustrated throughout with case studies, this comprehensive reference text describes the effects for each of the 66 combinations of house lord exchange, also known as mutual receptions.

Available in digital format at all online retailers, trade paperback at Amazon.

STELLAR ASTROLOGY

(non-fiction)

Applications in Vedic astrology: a varied collection of essays on time-tested techniques, in-depth celebrity profiles, and analysis of mundane events.

This is an educational and entertaining book for both seasoned practitioners and serious students of Jyotisha.

Available in digital format at all online retailers, trade paperback coming in 2017.

MUTUAL RECEPTION

(for western astrologers)

As a concept, mutual reception is almost 2,000 years old, yet very little has been written about it. Meanwhile, 43% of us have a mutual reception by sign in our birth chart, ie, when two planets simultaneously occupy each other’s sign.

It’s a powerful combination linking the effects of two houses in a chart, yet one of the least understood patterns in astrology. This book, an invaluable reference for any astrologer’s library, describes the effects for each of the 66 combinations of house lord exchange.

A number of techniques make it clear how to analyse the strength of each mutual reception, identify the control planet and the affected areas of life, and determine the outcome.

Available in digital format at all online retailers, trade paperback at Amazon.

~~~

Alan Annand, astrologer and palmist, is a graduate of the American College of Vedic Astrology and the British Faculty of Astrological Studies. He is the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction.

His NEW AGE NOIR crime novels feature astrologer and palmist Axel Crowe, whom one reviewer has dubbed “Sherlock Holmes with a horoscope.”

Websites: http://www.navamsa.com, http://www.sextile.com

You can find his books on Amazon, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.

Tags: axel crowe, crime fiction, felonious monk, mutual reception, mystery, new age noir, parivartana yoga, scorpio rising, soma county, stellar astrology

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Categories Astrology, Crime fiction, ebook, Literary marketplace, Writing

Mayhem in Montreal: the setting of crime novels

11 May

altitude-street-view I lived in Montreal for over 25 years. Between the biker wars, clashes between police and First Nations militants, and business-as-usual with the Mafia and their kind, local newspapers never lacked material for crime stories. Crime was so fascinating that for a period there were a number of tabloids, Allo Police and others, that provided details the major dailies wouldn’t divulge.

Montreal is a vibrant North American city with a European ambiance. The downtown area is thoroughly modern, and dense with restaurants, boutiques, dance clubs and strip clubs. Nearby is Vieux Montreal, the old port with its 17th century architecture and financial district. In the East End are the factories, docks, teamsters and bikers. Montreal North and the area around Jean-Talon market is Mafia turf. West of downtown lies English-speaking Westmount and Notre-Dame-de-Grace, where an Irish crew called The West End Gang imported billions worth of cocaine in the 80s.
prince-arthur

Aside from the West End Gang, NDG was a great place to live. But within a week of my moving into the ‘hood, someone entered a restaurant on the next block, shot a guy in a booth and exited through the kitchen, ditching his gun in a pot of stew. A settling of accounts, the papers said. But ever since then, when I thought of murder, I thought of that restaurant on my street. This wasn’t a crime once removed by newspaper account; this was a place I walked by every day. Proximity and familiarity gave its reality a greater weight.

Indeed, every novel must stand on at least three legs: plot, character and setting. Since people cannot act in a void, every writer must stake out his territory: this is where the action is. At the least, this gives him some firm ground to stand on. At best, the city itself becomes a character in the novel.

I’ve set two of my crime novels in Montreal, against the advice of well-meaning fellow writers who suggested I might enjoy a larger audience if I set my book in an American city. That might be true, but I was less interested in the audience than my heroes, and I knew they belonged in Montreal.

Harm’s Way is a hard-boiled mystery thriller. Lee Harms, a former homicide cop turned private eye, is divorced, a part-time dad to an adolescent daughter, and his on-and-off girlfriend is an astrologer. When he accepts a case to find a rich man’s wayward daughter, his search spans the city: Westmount mansions, downtown massage parlors, dance clubs on the Main, artists’ studios, gritty East End walkups. Following Harms’ quest, the reader gets a running tour of Montreal by day and night. Eventually he widens his search to Laval and a drug dealer’s mansion on the river, where he finds the object of his search…

When Harm’s Way was first published many years ago, a number of reviews at the time expressed disappointment that I hadn’t adequately captured the spirit of Montreal. Undertaking a total rewrite a few years back, I revisited several locales, absorbed their atmosphere, and fed it back into the re-released novel. Seems like it paid off. Many subsequent reviews remarked on how well I portrayed the various facets of the city.

Harm’s Way was set in summertime Montreal, when the sticky heat can ignite passions, road rage and homicide. But as musician Gilles Vigneault once said about Quebec, “L’hiver, c’est mon pays.” It’s as plain as the ice on your windshield six months of the year: My country is winter.

Al-Quebeca is a police procedural mystery thriller that takes place in the depths of a bitter Montreal winter. Like the country itself, Sophie Gillette suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder, except not just in winter. She’s a homicide detective, smart and tough and on the fast track to somewhere, but she’s been hurt along the way. Her alcoholic father died years ago in a car accident, her only brother recently killed in combat during the drawdown of Canadian forces from Afghanistan. Assigned to investigate a snowstorm hit-and-run, she has no idea it will lead to a terrorist cell in the final stages of a three-pronged attack on politicians, people and vital infrastructure.

thumb_AQ As with the new-and-improved Harm’s Way, I’ve also received some great reviews of Al-Quebeca, specifically regarding my portrayal of Montreal and how much it contributes to illuminating my character and her story. In my mind, the two were so inextricably woven, it was impossible to think of Gillette facing her demons anywhere else but Montreal.

And in the end, that’s a big part of what it’s all about. Whereas both plots and characters are usually completely fabricated, the setting is often the most realistic and down-to-earth element in a novel. Indeed, the more intimately we know our place, the better we can portray it, whether all dressed to up to hit the clubs on Saturday night, or nursing a hangover on Sunday morning.

Je t’aime, Montreal!