David Abrams's Blog, page 37

Montana Noir hits the highway

     DezAray stared out the windshield: "There's a whole lot of out there out there."
     The western third of the state was the Rocky Mountains marching down from Canada, pine tree crags soaring more than a mile above sea level. East of the mountains meant scrub-grass prairies and chessboard-brown-and-gold fields of rotated crops, which if you weren't born there looked like one terrifying, big empty.
        &nb...

Front Porch Books: September 2017 edition

The Disappeared
by Adam Braver
(Outpost19)

You have only to say four words —“Adam Braver” and “new book” — and I’m already halfway to my nearest independent bookstore in search of a copy. Lucky me, as a reviewer and blogger, I already received an advance copy of the new novel The Disappeared (though, a future trip to the aforementioned bookstore will be in order because, damn, I love that cover design!). I have been a die-hard fan of Adam’s work ever since I read Mr. Lincoln’s W...

My First Time: Jason Tougaw

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands. Today’s guest is Jason Tougaw, author of The One You Get , now out from Dzanc Books . In The One You Get, Jason marries neuroscience and family lore to tell his story of growing up gay in 1970s Southern California, raised by hippies who had “dropped out” in the late sixtie...

Sunday Sentence: The Girl of the Lake by Bill Roorbach

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


She wouldn’t make any more direct reference to Grandpa’s death, Chick knew, and so Chick would say nothing, either. All that could be said about the old man’s death, sadness and grief and abiding love and anger, had been in the hug.

The Girl of the Lake by Bill Roorbach

Friday Freebie: Montana Noir

Congratulations to Jane Rainey, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie of three new thrillers: Close to Home by Robert Dugoni, Leona: The Die is Cast by Jenny Rogneby, and The Savior’s Game by Sean Chercover.

This week’s contest is for the new anthology of crime stories set in Big Sky Country: Montana Noir , edited by James Grady and Kier Graff. As many of you already know, one of my own stories is included in these pages. You can read more about “Red, White, and Butte” here . Keep scrolling for...

The Marriage of Shelves: Jay Baron Nicorvo’s Library

Reader:  Jay Baron Nicorvo
Location:  Battle Creek, Michigan
Collection Size:  About 2,000
The one book I’d run back into a burning building to rescue:  My MacBook Pro. On it is everything! I’d suffer burns on 38 percent of my lower body to save the early starts I have on a new novel and a memoir.
Favorite book from childhood:   My Storybook Dictionary
Guilty pleasure book:   My own . I’m sorry, but here we are a few months post-publication and I still have a hard time b...

My First Time: Jarret Middleton

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands. Today’s guest is Jarret Middleton , author of the new novel Darkansas (now out from Dzanc Books !) and the novella, An Dantomine Eerly . He was the founding editor of Dark Coast Press and the classics library Pharos Editions , an imprint of Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press. His...

Sunday Sentence: “A Catch of Shy Fish” by Gwendolyn Brooks

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


                    The winter trees
                    Are musical.

“A Catch of Shy Fish” by Gwendolyn Brooks

Friday Freebie: Close to Home by Robert Dugoni, Leona: The Die is Cast by Jenny Rogneby, and The Savior’s Game by Sean Chercover

Congratulations to John Smith, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie: The People at Number 9 by Felicity Everett.

This week’s contest is a thrilling one, in a manner of speaking. One lucky reader will win a copy of three new thrillers: Close to Home by Robert Dugoni, Leona: The Die is Cast by Jenny Rogneby, and The Savior’s Game by Sean Chercover. The latter is a hardcover, the other two are trade paperbacks. Read on for more information about the books...

In Close to Home, New York Times best...

Things Are About to Get Dark: Montana Noir spills blood on the prairie

Sometimes I write with blood on the keyboard. The dark, thick, oozing kind, just released from the prison of vein, that greases my imagination as I turn down a series of midnight-black streets.

In other words, noir mystery. Not the cozy kind from Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen, not the police procedurals of Ed McBain or Patricia Cornwell, but the hardboiled prose rolling off the knuckles of writers like Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald and Raymond Chandler. Tough stuff full of hard liquo...