Media

The novel has continued to garner positive reviews in the blogosphere. Over the last few weeks, I’ve done interviews with several online book reviewers. Each brought out a different angle on my writing, Walker Holmes and me.

Blogespresso:

What books or authors have most influenced your own writing? 

I attended Ole Miss when John Grisham was in law school there and got to know his younger brother, Jimmy. “A Time to Kill” had a significant impact on me because I could picture the people and places in the book. Fellow Floridan Carl Hiaasen’s zany characters and storylines also impacted me. I wanted to do for Northwest Florida what he accomplished for Miami and the Keys. Another influential author is the late Dick Francis, whose books were brilliantly written in first person.

Read interview.

BookishWorld4:

In life, what is the source of your motivation to keep you going?

I hate bullies and injustice. My words can make a difference.

Read interview.

Passionduniya:

What inspired you to write the book “Blood in the Water”?

Pensacola experienced a 200-year rain event that flooded most of the area in April 2014. As the city was trying to coup with the disaster, the county jail exploded. I thought it would be the perfect dilemma for Walker Holmes to investigate.

Read interview.

From Susan Sewell: With corrupt villains and bold heroes, Blood in the Water by Rick Outzen is a fabulous thriller. Containing a suspenseful plot, fascinating characters, and a thrilling storyline, the story captivated me from the very first page.

I love Walker Holmes’ character despite all of his flaws; his human characteristics make him a likable and relatable protagonist. Caught up in the suspense and intrigue, I couldn’t put the book down until I came to the exciting conclusion. I liked that it ends in the perfect place for another episode.

Even though it is the second book containing the escapades of Walker Holmes, the plot from The City of Grudges eases into the storyline making Walker, his friends, enemies, and co-workers easy to know and to comprehend their motives. It is an outstanding series, and I recommend it to everyone who loves a cocky, impetuous hero.

From the fabulous Chris Brown(Instagram (cb2711): “Well, it’s a wrap; 277 pages of pure Pensacola DRAMA. You’ll love it. Thanks for all the words @routzen. I can’t believe I put it off so long.”

From Divine Zape: ” Rick Outzen’s characters are memorable, from the protagonist to his archenemy Sheriff Ron Frost, who is on the way to winning a third term. Supporting characters, like the despicable Lester Judson, are elaborately written as well. Blood in the Water is a fast-paced, hugely entertaining story with unforgettable characters and a plot that transforms it into a page-turning read. Readers will enjoy the crystalline prose, the drama, and the superb storytelling craft. “

From Deborah Lloyd: “The reader is engaged from the first page to the last, following the fascinating storyline. Author Rick Outzen has written a compelling read in Blood in the Water. Once started, it is a book that cannot be put down. A really good story!”

Reviewed By Lesley Jones for Readers’ Favorite

…a rollercoaster of excitement and tension as the troubled Holmes fearlessly hunts down the evil and corruption of Escambia County.

Blood in the Water by Rick Outzen is the sequel to City of Grudges. Owner and publisher of the Pensacola Insider, Walker Holmes’s life is still spiraling downward with an ex-wife, an ex-girlfriend, and haunting memories and demons that he is convinced only alcohol can remedy. Holmes finds himself the target of unnecessary attention once more when he exposes the rape of a young girl. When she is murdered shortly after the publication of Holmes’s article, her family turns to Holmes for help. Hoping to win a third term in office, Sheriff Frost, Holmes’ nemesis, comes under public pressure to re-open the murder case.

As Holmes fights to expose the corruption in the town, he soon realizes how influential and powerful the key players are. Holmes soon finds himself the target of Sheriff Frost but also the KKK and an organized criminal gang who are determined to preserve their lucrative prostitution and gambling empire. As Holmes battles to rid the town of corruption and violence, he also tries desperately to regain normality in his personal life. 

Blood in the Water by Rick Outzen is a rollercoaster of excitement and tension as the troubled Holmes fearlessly hunts down the evil and corruption of Escambia County. I admired how every character has been created with so much consideration, the layers to their personalities were detailed, and every character made for a great addition to the plot. The characters of Frost and Peck were evil to their core and their utter lack of empathy was astonishing. I found the storyline had many intriguing and compelling layers that were gradually exposed which dragged Holmes into a criminal world he was little prepared for.

The twist at the end was amazing and was totally unexpected. Blood in the Walter is such a brilliant and well-written story that has everything a high-quality crime novel should possess.

Holmes is a flawed soul who handles his personal nightmares with excessive drinking, sarcasm, and flippancy. I loved this quote by him: “I’m always afraid, but I refuse to give in to the fear.”

I also thought Pastor Bates was a fantastic character who possessed such courage and high morals as he fearlessly spoke out for those who afraid to do so.

There are so many moments filled with suspense, I was literally on the edge of my seat at times. The twist at the end was amazing and was totally unexpected. Blood in the Walter is such a brilliant and well-written story that has everything a high-quality crime novel should possess.

I received this note last month:

“We’re pleased to inform you that your book has been chosen for our monthly list of recommendations for Booklist Magazine.

“As you may know, Booklist Magazine is the premier review publication for libraries across the United States.  In an effort to help librarians find exceptional independently published titles for their collections, Booklist and BlueInk Review have collaborated in offering a monthly list of recommended titles to be published in the magazine.  Booklist Magazine is read by over 60,000 librarians for use in acquiring titles for their collections. – Patricia Moosbrugger, Managing Partner, BlueInk Review

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The review:

A sequel to Outzen’s debut, City of Grudges (2018), this novel continues the investigative adventures of Walker Holmes, publisher of a struggling alt-weekly based in Pensacola, Florida. Here, the hard-drinking Holmes has sunk into an impressively long bender while coping with myriad personal issues, including his girlfriend leaving him, a corrupt sheriff who has it out for him and his newspaper, and a murderer walking free and taunting him with texts.

After a flood ravages the city and the Booking and Detention Center inexplicably explodes, Holmes’ ex-wife becomes involved in the case, forcing him out of his drunken stupor. Matters grow more complicated when Holmes and his staff uncover decades of grand-scale government corruption and police ties to white supremacist groups. As knotty as the best-constructed mysteries, Outzen’s novel is unapologetically dark. 

The writing goes down like smooth bourbon; Holmes is a complex but endearing antihero; and Outzen brings the Florida Panhandle alive with a story that seamlessly blends Carl Hiaasen’s readability and Charles Willeford’s thematic impact. Readers will find the book impossible to put down.

Here’s the layout from March 15 edition:

Synopsis:

Hardboiled, hard-drinking newsman Walker Holmes is back to ferret out more systematic corruption in BLOOD IN THE WATER.

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Since Walker Holmes first began publishing the Pensacola Insider – the first and only progressive newspaper in this traditionally conservative part of the Sunshine State – he’s been butting heads with the government machine and the Good Ole Boy network that will go to any means to keep that machine humming along as it always has. 

His latest foil is Sherriff Ron Frost, an old-school lawman with whom Holmes has a long and contentious history, and who is currently pushing his establishment agenda in his and others’ political campaigns. Holmes hears of some evidence that shows Frost is also wielding that agenda in regards to some shady cost-cutting at the local prison facility. 

Further pursuit of that evidence will have to wait, however, for as is often the case in Florida during Hurricane Season the Gulf Coast is bracing for landfall of a pretty serious storm. As the storm engulfs the city, residents who haven’t evacuated – including the five-person staff of the Insider – scramble for higher ground which conveniently happens to be the headquarters of the paper and Walker’s current residence.

Via the convenience of forced proximity, and after some heated discussions regarding some past issues that had temporarily put the Insider on hold, the group decides to restart production of the journal with the new issue offering comprehensive coverage of the damage left by the storm. 

Once the weather passes they map out a plan for their coverage. But just as they begin to gather local information on what could be the biggest story of that year a horrible explosion rocks the local prison killing a guard and a number of inmates. Walker sees the explosion as confirmation of the problematic things he’s been hearing about the jail, and refocuses on Frost’s involvement with the issues.

As Walker gets closer to the truth the people who want to keep that truth from him raise the stakes higher and higher until even the threat to human life hangs in the balance.

Critics may slough this off as a rather conventional storyline, possibly even a simplistic one. But it is this simple and straightforward framework that provides the perfect complement to the raw southern gothic elements of the story. It is also through this classic plot structure that Outzen is able to build-out the lush three-dimensional characters that are the literary highlight of his writing. 

Enjoying the luxury of this being a sequel to his City of Grudges, and thereby not requiring basic character exposition, Outzen goes further than ever to fully flesh out his players while still supporting their basic premises. Even more crafty is the way he turns this characterization on some of the story’s non-human elements, allowing things like the storm and the city of Pensacola itself to take on lives of their own and subsequently to interact as “normal” characters with the rest of the cast. It is this craftsmanship, along with a dense and well-structured storyline that gives the fast-paced novel its unique voice.

BLOOD IN THE WATER itself gives a generous nod to the noir political thrillers of the past while peppering in the perfect amount of sunshine and sandy beaches to peg it as an apt representation of classic Florida fiction.

Fans of Rick Outzen’s newsman Walker Holmes won’t be disappointed with this second helping of his hard-hitting antics, while those new readers are guaranteed to be drawn in by Outzen’s unique take on the southern gothic universe.

~Johnny Masiulewicz for IndieReader

In the laugh-inducing Florida crime novel Blood in the Water, corrupt forces are pitted against a witty investigator.

Rick Outzen’s Blood in the Water is a sun-bleached mystery novel featuring a fun, funny, and cynical investigator in post-flood Florida.

Walker Holmes is a forty-something detective who works with his dog, Big Boy, by his side. Holmes also runs an alternative Pensacola newspaper, The Pensacola Insider, and uses it to deliver acerbic take downs of his favorite target, Sheriff Ron Frost, who has a new reason to dislike Holmes: Holmes and his newspaper have thrown their weight behind Alphonse Tyndall, Sheriff Frost’s electoral challenger.

But beyond the drama of the sheriff’s race, Pensacola enters into an unprecedented spiral of violence: a flood destroys the city, a bomb explodes at the newly renovated county jail, a car bomb goes off in Holmes’s Jeep, another private investigator is beaten into a coma, and Titus, one of Holmes’s best friends, is killed. Each event is the core of a chapter, helping the story move along. Conversations also help with this forward momentum: they take up considerable space, with Holmes always saying something that contributes.

Holmes narrates, his tone witty and sardonic as he pursues his investigations in an earnest way. He’s an antihero—a panhandle Floridian with a soft side that comes out most in scenes featuring an old college friend, who comes to Florida to help Holmes recover from the death of his fiancée. He drinks a lot, and his verbal shoot downs of cynical and self-serving Sheriff Frost and his cronies are frequent, particularly after Holmes and Big Boy discover that the crime wave is tied to municipal corruption, the Cornbread Mafia of the Southeast, and the Ku Klux Klan.

Though the book does not evade four letter words in establishing its toughness, it trends toward humor more than being hard-boiled. Florida is celebrated throughout, with focus on its people, politics, and how its cultural diversity leads to conflicts. Holmes, despite his jaundiced worldview, imparts his love of Pensacola and its imperfections.

Most of the book’s secondary characters work within the sheriff’s department; they are not as fleshed out as Holmes and Frost, and most occupy the roles of either working stiffs or flunkies. The book’s violence, death, and rampant crime are explained by its forward-looking end, which exposes the corrupt culprits while leaving other story lines, like the sheriff’s election, for subsequent volumes.

In the laugh-inducing Florida crime novel Blood in the Water, action is frequent, and enmity between a sheriff and an investigator remains for another day.

Reviewed by Benjamin Welton 
November 3, 2020

“Outzen’s writing is a seamless blend of the strengths of two legendary Floridian writers: the readability of Carl Hiaasen and the thematic impact of Charles Willeford. Powered by memorable characters, intricate plotlines, and deep themes, Blood in the Water is impossible to put down.”

-Blueink

Rick Outzen’s gripping, action-packed Blood in the Water, is a sequel to his 2018 debut novel City of Grudges. Itcontinues the investigative adventures of Walker Holmes, publisher of a struggling alt-weekly based in Pensacola, Florida, who endeavors to uncover the truth behind a deadly explosion that demolished a newly renovated detention facility.  

The novel begins with the hard-drinking Holmes, beset with inner demons, in the midst of an impressively long bender and trying to come to grips with myriad personal issues, including: his girlfriend leaving him, a corrupt sheriff who has it out for him and his newspaper, and a murderer walking free on the streets taunting him with texts. But after a flood shuts down the city and the Booking and Detention Center inexplicably explodes, killing prisoners and a police officer,

Holmes’s ex-wife becomes involved in the case and he’s forced out of his drunken stupor.  Matters become complicated—and deadly—when Holmes and his staff uncover decades of grand-scale government corruption and police ties to white supremacist groups. 

As knotty as the best-constructed mysteries, Outzen’s novel is unapologetically dark, and the writing style goes down like smooth bourbon, effortlessly consumable with a powerful narrative kick. Holmes is a complex but endearing antihero, not always doing the right thing but fueled by an, at times, twisted sense of morality and honor. 

Outzen’s descriptive focus on the Florida Panhandle setting—in terms of culture, businesses, people, etc.—is a noteworthy strength. Secondary characters come to life and the various locales—such as a strip club called Benny’s Backseat Lounge—are so meticulously described that readers will be able to smell the cheap perfume and existential desperation. 

Outzen’s writing is a seamless blend of the strengths of two legendary Floridian writers: the readability of Carl Hiaasen and the thematic impact of Charles Willeford. Powered by memorable characters, intricate plotlines, and deep themes, Blood in the Water is impossible to put down. 

Also available as an ebook.

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 STARRED REVIEW

Blood in the Water

Rick Outzen

Waterside Productions, 288 pages, (paperback) $16.95, 9781941768518  (Reviewed: October, 2020)

The official OnlineBookClub.org review of “Blood in the Water” by Rick Outzen

Blood in the Water, written by Rick Outzen, is an entertaining and eventful crime story. At the beginning of the book, a flood and an explosion in a newly renovated jail stir things up in Pensacola, Florida. The book’s protagonist, Walker Holmes, narrates the story using the first person. He is the publisher of a newspaper called the Pensacola Insider and owns a “spoiled seven-year-old chocolate Labrador mix” named Big Boy. 

There are several positives worth mentioning in the book, and what I enjoyed the most were the well-developed and textured characters. Firstly, Walker Holmes is a very interesting protagonist – an all-around good guy who wants to help people and bring criminals to justice. He’s a nonconformist who drinks a lot, and I thought that the author did a great job developing his multilayered personality.

I also liked Dare Evans, the protagonist’s closest friend, whom he met at the University of Mississippi. Dare supported Holmes when he tragically lost his fiancée Mari Gaudet. I also enjoyed the secondary characters, especially the Pensacola Insider’s staff – Jeremy, Mal, Ted, Summer, and Pantoni add color to the investigation.

The plot is also well-constructed; the antagonism between Holmes and Frost is gripping and results in various twists around which the novel orbits. Above all, the difference between their political ideas and moral values gets skillfully and delicately woven into the plot, and the author provides readers not only suspense but also food for thought, which I enjoyed.

Finally, the book seems professionally edited, and I found no negatives worth mentioning. Thus, I rate it 4 out of 4 stars. I believe it will appeal to readers who enjoy crime stories. Those who are put off by violence might not like it as much, though. It also has a fair share of profanity, so those who are bothered by strong language might want to skip it.

An appealing hero leads a spirited cast in this diverting crime tale.

-Kirkus Review

In this second novel to feature Walker Holmes, the series protagonist is flawed but sympathetic. It’s painful to watch him drink excessively while his habitual retorts provoke many of the punches that Walker endures.

The strongest among the cast are Walker’s allies, particularly his female friend Dare Evans, who refuses to give up on him, no matter how deep in the bottle he falls. Nevertheless, the most indelible character is Walker’s chocolate Lab mix, Big Boy, whose steadfast loyalty is a welcome contrast to the human characters’ underhandedness.

Less nuanced are the villains, consisting primarily of police officers who are aggressive, transparently racist, and amoral. Their crimes include arresting someone on unquestionably trumped-up charges. Still, they’re definitely a danger to Walker and all of his comrades.

Outzen excels at detailing the environment, especially the town in the aftermath of the destructive storm. The tale boasts a bit of mystery since the killers responsible for a murder or two later in the story aren’t immediately apparent. And though identifying the culprits isn’t difficult, watching a determined Walker search for solid evidence is certainly gratifying.