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Allen Shadow

Goodreads Author

Born

New York, The United States

Website

http://allenshadow.me

Twitter

AllenShadow

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Literature & Fiction, Fiction

Influences

Besides classic authors like Hemingway, my influences include the lite ...more

Member Since

May 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/allenshadow

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Brussels, Paris, Boston. ISIS, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. As Europe turns into a war zone and jitters spike in the U.S., my literary thriller, Hell City appears evermore prescient. Jack, the counterterrorism protagonist of HC fights resistance in the U.S. as he warns of more 9/11-style attacks from a metastasizing jihadi movement.

In the novel, counter-terrorism task-force commander Jack Oldham tracks a new generation of American-born jihadis through a post-bin-Laden world. New York is ground zero once again as he and his crack but colorful crew pursue a maddening world of clues that takes them through the grittiest precincts of the city, the back roads of America, the lawless regions of Pakistan, the faceless chat rooms of the Inte Brussels, Paris, Boston. ISIS, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. As Europe turns into a war zone and jitters spike in the U.S., my literary thriller, Hell City appears evermore prescient. Jack, the counterterrorism protagonist of HC fights resistance in the U.S. as he warns of more 9/11-style attacks from a metastasizing jihadi movement.

In the novel, counter-terrorism task-force commander Jack Oldham tracks a new generation of American-born jihadis through a post-bin-Laden world. New York is ground zero once again as he and his crack but colorful crew pursue a maddening world of clues that takes them through the grittiest precincts of the city, the back roads of America, the lawless regions of Pakistan, the faceless chat rooms of the Internet and the dark corridors of the military-intelligence complex -- not to mention the whiskey-tinged environs of The Christmas, a raunchy dive bar in Hell’s Kitchen frequented by Jack and other oft-recovering alcoholic cops.

Along the way, Jack strikes up an unlikely romance with the last lovechild of Beat-generation guru Neal Cassady as they share a lust for the city’s dark side and a yearning for a “lost” America. Through powerful, hard-boiled prose -- according to the publisher, Blue City Media -- the darkly comic, streetwise novel twists the mind, the language and the senses as it heads for a crash course with disaster.

My artistic career has ventured from urban poet to Nashville songwriter to recording artist to novelist.

A decade ago, my career had reached another milestone, with release of my debut album, King Kong Serenade. At the time, my songwriting had finally become married to my poetic voice. The work, which received significant critical acclaim, is a rock-poet’s paean to New York City. The lyrics are raw and hard-hitting.

It’s no surprise that Gotham is once again at front and center, in my literary thriller, Hell City. In a sense, the city is a character in both works. A second novel, a sequel, is currently being edited, and a TV Pilot based on the novels was a finalist in the 2015 World Series of Screenwriting.

For the record, I have a bachelor’s in English from Lehman College, where I studied with the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Wright and novelist Jerome Charyn. My writing has been published by The New York Times, including a piece in their “Best of 2015” feature. Besides classic authors like Hemingway, my influences include the literary novelists Richard Price, Don DeLillo and William Kennedy.

Mostly, I’ve made my living in journalism and public relations, but I’ve also been a cook and a New York City cab driver. Born and raised in the Bronx, I currently live with my family in upstate New York.

More about my career as an author can be found at http://allenshadow.me, while my career as a rock poet can be found at http://allenshadow.com.

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Average rating: 4.0 · 8 ratings · 2 reviews · 1 distinct work

Hell City

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2012

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Allen Shadow's Blog

Award-Winning Poem Featured in ‘Boomerlitmag’

My poem Dream and Dream and Dream, which was long-listed for the 2023 Fish Publishing Poetry Prize, has been published in the highly-rated Boomerlitmag. The journal is #58 on a highly-regarded list of the top literary magazines. The ratings are based on the number of their contributors from the previous year who are selected as winners of the coveted Pushcart Prize. As an example, Paris Review is

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Cathedral

by Raymond Carver

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Feb 11, 2021 12:05PM

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Allen Shadow wrote a new blog post Award-Winning Poem Featured in ‘Boomerlitmag’ My poem Dream and Dream and Dream, which was long-listed for the 2023 Fish Publishing Poetry Prize, has been published in the highly-rated Boomerlitma Read more of this blog post »
Nov 19, 2024 01:21AM · like