Title: Cobra Pose
Authors: Susan Rogers and John Roosen
Voice Actor/Narrator: Rupert Degas
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Romance, Humour
Book Blurb:
Australia is a surfers’ paradise … but this nefarious surfing on the ‘net’ … will destroy the global financial system.
It’s not just a rippling ‘scam’ job. Has Australia been infiltrated at levels they’ve never known?
Elaina Williams uses a Cobra Pose in her Yoga studio to boost her energy – she will need it! Elaina’s father, Edward, is in trouble. He’s disappeared.
As a solicitor and now yoga instructor, Elaina drags Ric, a man she’s fallen for, into the bursting web of techno-thrilling intrigue.
Ric Peters has just returned from a disastrous trip to Indonesia. Ric bills himself as a photojournalist. Elaina suspects he shoots more than just photographs. Ric has insight into the journey he and Elaina must take. He knows Elaina isn’t ready for what’s going to happen. There are too many moving parts for him to control.
Time is running out before The Cobra and The Wolf strike with their heist. They are extending their fangs towards Australia’s ‘golden coastline’ to bite into and destabilise financial institutions worldwide.
The sparkling sub-tropical city of Brisbane, Queensland, is the epicentre of this hacking tsunami of the century! But these hackers are good at hiding. They make a living out of it. They are submerged Phantoms leaving no tracks.
Can the burgeoning amateur sleuth Elaina piece this puzzle together before her father’s fate is sealed? How far is Ric willing to go in deciding to save Elaina … or Australia?
Cobra Pose is the suspense-thriller and second novel in the series. This atmospheric whodunit is filled with a snappy plot, dynamic prose, witty dialogue … and a magnetic chemistry. A relentlessly entertaining instalment of the Yoga Mat Mysteries series.
Audiobook Clip:
Just click on the link to Audible.com and select the sample.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Do you listen to audiobooks? Do you have a favorite? If you don’t listen to audiobooks, is there a particular reason why not?
We love listening to audiobooks. Especially when we’re traveling. Whether we are flying, traveling by train, car or sailing, listening to audiobooks expands your imagination of the story.
While, raising our children we selected adventure-suspense audiobooks, and listened in the car on long drives. One our favorites was Where Eagles Dare by Alistair Maclean. The children would continually ask us “Couldn’t you go around the block one more time so we can hear the end?” And of course we did
We also love period audiobooks involving history and great events that have occurred. An Audiobook can transport a listener to another place, another time or another adventure.
What makes this [SERIES] a must-listen audiobook?
All the books in the Yoga Mat Mysteries series were specifically written to be listened to. We always thought we were writing for audiobooks. We can hear the voices in our heads as we are writing. And we read the book over and over to each other to get it sounding just right.
We think each of the audiobooks have just the right mix between the storyline and the performance that we are always aiming to achieve. We want the listener to be there in Sydney, or Brisbane or Tasmania with Ric and Elaina. We’ve travelled to each local to ground-truth everything. We are keen to make the list sound as real as possible.
While the books are one form of the story and engages the reader on a certain level, audiobooks provide a different perspective when read out loud. We have combined a specialized style with our word selection and placement and sound is essential to telling the story whether it is read or listened to.
We spent a year searching for our narrator. And in a great irony, we found him in Sydney … the setting of our first book. Our narrator is a world renowned award winning voice actor. He breathes life into our stories in a different way. We combine his talent with our specialised genre of crime noir incorporating thrills, suspense, and romance liberally sprinkled with humour, irony and history and we stoke the fire of your imagination.
We ask that you “lose yourself in our stories, get to know our characters, prepare to be entertained, travel to another place for a while. Come to the world of make-believe, to believe in afternoons of delight and evenings of being enchanted.”
What makes [COBRA POSE] a must-listen audiobook?
We were very excited to win the International Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Silver Winner award for Cobra Pose – Best Audiobook - Fiction 2024.
Cobra Pose was awarded a 2024 Silver medal by the Independent Book Publishers Association, an organisation in existence for 36 years and is one of the most influential associations in independent publishing. Cobra Pose was described as:
A relentlessly entertaining installment of Yoga Mat Mysteries. Using cutting-edge spy tech and a repertoire of specialist skills, the captivating lead characters are quite an addictive pair. With their razor-sharp wit, the front this mystery series. The fast-paced story weaves international intrigue at the center of this wholly original thriller.
In addition Cobra Pose was selected as the Best Thriller, International Crime (for 2023) by Audiobook Reviewer.
As a storyline which does indeed feature international crime, we have been fascinated with hacking for several years and wanted to weave that topic in as one of the issues in our plotlines of Cobra Pose. We wanted to get in the minds of the hackers and did considerable research on hacking as a business, hacking as a hobby and hacking as a destructive force.
One day when researching at our local library, we opened our computer and yelled out loud. “We’ve been hacked!”. We were one of the 12.5 million people in Australia (half the population) that had been hacked within a communications programme. We were excited because the method they had used bore some similarity to the method we had creatively described in Cobra Pose. We told all the librarians and attendees that we were thrilled at being hacked as this vindicated what we had done. Many came and congratulated our research efforts and the verified result. Fixing the computer was another issue.
And in ground-truthing this book and the storyline, we even travelled to North Stradbroke Island (off the coast of Brisbane). We took the ferry and spent days plotting out the exciting climax, though the residents wondered why we were taking measurements on the small airport runway. We had to tell them “We are just a couple of mystery writers ensuring that our helicopter could land there.” They looked around and didn’t see any helicopters…but we could see them. At least in our imagination!
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $50 Amazon gift card.
Open internationally.
Runs June 1 – 30, 2024
Drawing will be held on July 2, 2024.
Authors Biographies:
About the Author – John
John Roosen started his career as a biologist, served as a commissioned naval officer, designated federal law enforcement officer, and environmental emergency specialist in the United States, and has lived and worked in Australasia, Antarctica and the Middle East. At a moment’s notice, he would respond to chemical and refinery plant explosions, deal with rocket fuel plant meltdowns and dismantle illegal drug labs. John worked in the Middle East on a number of projects in Iraq, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and several conflict zones and other locations. As a change-up, John switched careers to chasing pirates and dueling with a con artist extraordinaire on a remote South Pacific island as the Commissioner of Maritime Affairs. In between, he organised jungle expeditions and deep-sea scuba diving. However, John’s experience extends beyond responding to cataclysmic disasters and includes mastering the intricacies of making soufflé omelettes without burning the edges.
About the Author- Susan
Susan Rogers already knew she was a writer at age six, but as an adult she took a major detour in becoming a commissioned naval officer and a designated federal law enforcement officer. She has conducted sting operations, run extensive weapons training programs and directed the restoration of a Presidential yacht. In between, she has written a number of books. Susan’s work has taken her into government operations in the United States, Australasia, the South Pacific and the Middle East. She has run health and safety operations for multi-billion-dollar projects in Abu Dhabi and worked for engineering and environmental firms in the Middle East on projects across the region. She also revamped a South Pacific maritime service with responsibilities for local trade vessels and an international fleet servicing the maritime industry. Susan continues to write: whether braced against the hull of a sailing vessel on a hard tack, during a crossing of the Middle East’s empty quarter in a Mini, or bouncing around in a troop carrier in Australia’s outback.
After writing Surviving Paradise about their life in the South Pacific, John and Susan created the concept of their mystery series. Dead Man’s Pose is first in the Yoga Mat Mysteries’ line-up, with Cobra Pose as the second in the YMM series (on line now) and Tree Pose third in the series is online.
Narrator Biography
Rupert Degas is an award-winning voice actor with more than 25 years’ experience spanning advertising, animation, audiobooks, commercials, promos, cartoons, film, TV, and corporate content. He is a sought-after voice actor who combines his acting talent with his unique ability for character voices, mimicry and celebrity impressions.
Rupert began his career in the UK dubbing films as apprentice to ‘the man of a thousand voices’. As an actor, Rupert has appeared on stage and screen, most notably in the West End productions of Stones in his Pockets and The 39 Steps, for which he and his fellow cast members won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy.
Author Social Media Links:
Website: https://www.yogamatmysteries.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dead-Mans-Pose- 108473148446536
Twitter: https://twitter.com/YMysteries