Sandy Nathan's YOUR SHELF LIFE

I had no idea what a forensic accountant was until reading this novel. (Such an accountant tracks down missing money in cases of financial wrong-doing.) I certainly had no idea that a story about a forensic accountant could be exciting, suspenseful, and scary.

Forensic accountant Katarina (Kat) Carter is called in when five billion dollars goes missing from a Canadian corporation mining diamonds. She can’t figure out why they called her. She’s the least important investigator of her kind in town, and everyone believes the missing CFO did it, anyway. But Kat needs the money, so she takes the job.

Q. Why do you think people would want to read the Bloodsong Series?

A. For the pervasive aura of sexuality, certainly. The for everything else––this is a high-energy textbook about psychology, business, Native American history and spirituality, and tantric yoga. All in one sweet, very readable package.

Q. How close are your characters to real life people?

A. I know people who are as messed up as my characters and who have achieved as much. Not too many, though. My characters have no counterparts in real life. Certainly, my dad, who was a very successful businessman, shows up in parts of Will, as do famous rich people, and people I’d read about in psychopathology books. But my characters are truly fictional. I made them up.

Talk to readers about self-published books or books produced by independent publishers and you’ll almost always hear the same thing: Their quality sucks. We’ve all bought them: abominable self-published books. We can complain about them forever. But how can we guard against them? I have two ideas that may separate the cream from the dreck: contest wins and star ratings on major review sites. It’s difficult to win book contests. I spell out how difficult. As a consumer, you should feel somewhat confident in buying prize winners. Reviews on major sites are a good guide. Believe it or not, not all good reviews come from friends and relatives. Here are a couple of sites where the requirement all books listed must have a minimum star rating of four stars on at least 10 reviews.