Ed Gorman's Blog, page 73

Supernatural Suspense Storybundle – Clive Barker & 9 More!

Supernatural Suspense Storybundle – Clive Barker & 9 More!
Shared from the Storybundle site – so you don’t think I’ve gone all Queen of England talking about myself in third person – DNW THE SUPERNATURAL SUSPENSE BUNDLECurated by David Naill WilsonSuspense comes in all flavors and stripes. Though they are often sloughed off onto the horror genre, Supernatural Suspense novels have become a staple of the genre-bending best-sellers. Authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz have entrenched themselves in this sub-genre, and over the years an impressive group of talented authors have added their words, and their visions to the mix.This Supernatural Suspense bundle is curated by Award-winning author, poet, and now publisher David Niall Wilson, who has been writing since the late 1980s and has well over thirty books of his own.Of this bundle, Wilson says:“I was very pleased to be afforded the opportunity to choose some of my favorite novels and authors and present their work in such an affordable and unique manner. In a suspense novel, the reader basically knows what’s going on – most of the mystery is pushed aside in lieu of eventful moments, fast action, harrowing escapes, and the imminent threat of something very bad happening. What I love best is that sort of a plot with either full-blown dark fantasy, or at least the hint – the question – of something supernatural behind the threat. It heightens the suspense, and though – like most thrillers – the reader is mostly aware of the threat from an early point in the story, there is always the chance that something evil and beyond the control of the protagonist, hero, or whatever character experiences it that will change the outcome completely.Rather than choose books with a common theme, or style, what I strove for in this grouping is variety. These novels range from those where the supernatural is more in the minds of the characters, as in Elizabeth Massie’s Bram Stoker Award-Winning Sineaterto – in the case of Clive Barker’s Weaveworld – a complete divergence into another realm.My own novel, On the Third Day, concerns religion and miracles, and I’ll admit, that’s not too far from Thomas Monteleone’s Night of Broken Souls, but the take on the subject matter – the style of the suspense – is entirely unique in each. Pulitzer nominated author Thomas Sullivan’s novel Second Soul is a dark tale of spirits and guilt, while Aaron Rosenberg’s Incursion is the beginning of a series, the novels of the O.C.L.T. – and deals with ecological issues and Native American magic.Brian Hodge takes readers from the dark visions of the rain forests to the darker streets of the big city in Nightlife, literary master Chet Williamson brings the darkness and his own deep knowledge of theater and stage to play in Reign , and Mike Baron draws on the seemingly endless secrets of the ancient world in his novel Skorpio. A wonderfully literate grouping of truly fascinating works…” – David Niall WilsonThe initial titles in the bundle (minimum $3 to purchase) are:▪   Reign by Chet Williamson▪   Second Soul by Thomas Sullivan▪   On the Third Day by David Niall Wilson▪   Incursion by Aaron Rosenberg▪   Moonbane by Al SarrantonioIf you pay more than the bonus price of just $12, you’ll get another five books:▪   Weaveworld by Clive Barker▪   Nightlife by Brian Hodge▪   Sineater by Elizabeth Massie▪   Skorpio by Mike Baron▪   Night of Broken Souls by Thomas F. MonteleoneThe bundle is available for a very limited time only, via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub and .mobi) for all books, but after the three weeks are over, the bundle is gone forever!It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.▪   Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.▪   Pay what you want (minimum $3): Youdecide how much these fantastic books are worth to you. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of thrilling titles.▪   Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.▪   Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to charity. We’re currently featuring Mighty Writers and Girls Write Now.▪   Receive extra books: If you beat our bonus price, you’re not just getting seven books, you’re getting thirteen!StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, Tweet us at @storybundle, Like us on Facebook, and Plus us on Google Plus. For press inquiries, please email press@storybundle.com.Share this:                        Google Facebook 22 Pinterest

Strangers by Bill Pronzini Gravetapping: Ben Boulden

Gravetapping by Ben Boulden
His past comes back in the form of Cheryl Rosmond. Cheryl is a former lover. The relationship crumbled twenty year earlier, and Cheryl now lives in the dusty mining boom town of Mineral Springs, Nevada. She is a widow, and her son, Cody, is accused of three rapes. The evidence is circumstantial, but strong. A witness—a desert hermit named Max Stendreyer—saw Cody leaving the area of the final rape, and the ski mask and knife the rapist used were found in his Jeep.
Cheryl, in desperation, calls Nameless. She has hired an attorney—the only lawyer in town who will take the case and criminal law isn’t his specialty—and she needs someone who will dig around to prove Cody’s innocence. Nameless is reluctant, but his sense of duty pulls him into the case—
“It was the kind of distraught plea I’d heard in one form or another a dozen times before, and invariably my response had been the same: yes. Wise or foolish, right or wrong, always the same.”
Mineral Springs is a dirty, dusty, and cramped town. Its residents are small minded, petty, and mean. It is stark contrast to Nameless’ memory of Cheryl, and he has difficulty making her fit the town. She is harassed with telephone threats, and malicious property destruction—her shed is set on fire and a brick is thrown through a window of her home. Nameless isn’t welcomed with open arms either. The County Sheriff doesn’t quite warn him off, but comes close. The victims are less than cordial, and one of the townspeople takes a long distance and anonymous rifle shot at him.      
Strangersis a special novel. It is atmospheric, weighty, and entertaining. It is plot driven, but the procedural mystery runs a distant second to its raw emotional impact. The setting—desolate, stark, empty—fits the thematic structure of the story. The emptiness defines the nature of Nameless’ quest. A quest to discover the facts of the crimes Cody is accused of, and the truth of his shared past with Cheryl. A past that, when he discovers its truth, he would have preferred left alone—
“When I reached the highway and turned west, I didn’t look back.”
Strangersis one of the more powerful Nameless novels. Its emotional impact is on par with Mr Pronzini’s standalone work; particularly his masterful Blue Lonesome—which shares a similar setting, but very different leading woman—and The Crimes of Jordan Wise.You are subscribed to email updates from Gravetapping
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.Email delivery powered by GoogleGoogle Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Headlines that shouldn't be true buta re

Mississippi Coroner Tells Residents To Shoot Intruders

MI county sells injured mom’s home over one tax bill, and will keep
extra $80,000 profit

Sean Hannity worries parents won’t be able to teach kids ‘gays are not
normal’

Doc Took Selfie While Rivers Was Under
(i guess this was her doc too-a good time was had by everybody but Joan)

New Miss America’s talent is baby-killing and handing out whore pills …
some say
(she had the audacity to intern at Planned Parenthood while she was in
college--slut!)


Florida man kills his sister at her 40th birthday party while
attempting ‘Tombstone’ gun stunt

Fox News: Real ‘poor’ people don’t have air conditioners and computers
(this is the douche of douches on fox--which is saying something)

Los Angeles Law Enforcement Officers Kill About One Person A Week

New York pastor's wild 'rectum' rant: NASA Voyager probe proved 'homos'
are perverts

D'Souza To Write About Prison Experience If Sent To Slammer...
(maybe he'll tell the truth for once)

Teen Girl Fatally Shoots Gamer For His PS4 While Her Baby Looks On: Cops

Jon Stewart mocks Joe Scarborough’s hypocritical rant about Hillary
Clinton

Teens charged after Ohio woman guns down intruder wearing Insane Clown
Posse mask

NYC Cop Kicks Street Vendor (VIDEO)
Heart transplant patient alleges nurse forced sex...

Tennessee cheerleaders defy ban on school prayer, lead fans in pre-game
Lord’s Prayer

Fox News: Real ‘poor’ people don’t have air conditioners and computers

If you quit, you can't complain about sexual harassment, financial firm
allegedly told woman

Maddow reveals big lie at heart of Kansas Republican’s campaign ‘reboot’

Judge blocks release of probe into shooting of unarmed CA teen by cops
after phony 911 call

NYC man puts obscene photos in window to taunt immigrant family next
door

Irate banker, tired of barking dog, shoots wrong corgi in front of
horrified neighbors

We have a winner! Elisabeth Hasselbeck is first Fox host to link NFL
scandals to Benghazi

‘Sovereign citizen’ battles cops during ‘full-frontal assault’ on GA
courthouse

Funny or Die: Bill Maher’s just using this whole atheist thing to raise
money for Jesus

Bobby Jindal, former biology scholar, won’t say whether he believes in
evolution

Code Pink heckles John McCain’s war talk: ‘You have no authority on
this issue!’

St. Louis grand jury has four months to decide to charge Ferguson
officer Darren Wilson
(killer copl'll walk & probably be governor someday)

Televangelist claims apocalyptic ‘expertise’ to hawk ‘End of the World’
survivalist gear on website

‘Tea Party Satanist’ says new Detroit temple is too liberal and full of
atheists

Rescue Dog Ruins Fun Time By Saving Kid Who Doesn't Need Saving

Japanese Porn Star Featured On Math Book By Mistake

In NYC, It Takes 10 Cops To Arrest One Elmo

Florida Man Accused Of Pleasuring Himself At Yoga Class

CLAIM: Half Iraq's army cannot fight...

'SIEG HEIL': Supermarket prints Nazi slogan on receipts...

STUDY: Artificial Sweeteners May Promote Diabetes...

Bible-pushing Christians open the door for Satanic activity books in
Florida schools
’
Boehner: I’m Saddled With ‘Knuckleheads’

Dr. Fauci: Ebola Can Be Weaponized

Catholic church prepares for conflict on allowing holy communion for
divorcees
(wow-how modern of you)

Kentucky man shoots wife, then himself after she wrecks SUV while
fleeing from him

A Cincinnati man who tried to break up a fight between two women on a
bus was brutally attacked and robbed by a group of young people who
were enjoying the altercation, WTOV reports. Shahid Sylla was recording
an argument between two women on...

More than 200 wedding guests brawled Saturday night in a Buffalo
country club fracas that required police from seven different agencies
to break it up. A manager at the Orchard Park Country Club denied any
incident had occurred, but witnesses,...

The head of a Texas volunteer border militia has said that he does not
want two members of the group to return when they are released from
jail. According to KRGV TV, K.C. Massey, the leader of the border
patrol militia based at Camp Lonestar in...

‘No, daddy, no!’: Philly dad catches daughter’s boyfriend in bedroom,
shoots him in head

Oklahoma state Sen. Bennett: American Muslims are a ‘cancer in our
nation that needs cutting out’

from Patricia Abbott-CONCRETE ANGEL

When Eve Moran murders a man she picks up in shoe repair shop, she persuades her twelve-year old daughter, Christine, to confess to the crime. Eve has always wanted things and had proven inventive and tenacious in getting and keeping them. She steals, lies, swindles and finally commits murder, giving little heed to the cost of her actions on those who love her. Christine, dependent on her and compelled by love is caught up in her mother's deceptions. Eve's powers of seduction are hard to resist for those who come in contact with her toxic allure. It's only when Christine's three-year old stepbrother, Ryan, begins to prove useful to his mother, a pattern repeating itself that Christine finds the courage and means to bring an end to Eve's tyranny.
Polis Books will publish this book in Summer 2015, followed by SHOT IN DEROIT, the next winter.

On writing FRENZY by John Lutz

            

On writing FRENZY                        John Lutz
            “Frenzy” Now there’s a title that promises a lot. I’d like to think it delivers.             Five young women are murdered in a hotel suite. This might at first seem like overkill (sorry), if it were not for Richard Speck, who was found guilty of killing eight student nurses in a rented townhouse in Chicago.             The disturbing knowledge that there must be more Specks walking around free to kill provides what is most needed to make a fictional serial killer thriller come alive – plausibility. Fiction rooted in fact. People can tell you, and you can tell yourself, that it’s absurd to become afraid of something in a book, even if you’re reading that book while all alone in the soft light of a dim library, on a rainy night, in a house full of ineffable sounds.            But there is more here. Speck has widened plausibility. How can one reject as implausible something that happened. Speck’s grotesque crime has increased what is plausible in this kind of thriller. Five victims slain in the same time frame in the same room. Echoes of Speck. And somewhere in the reader’s mind is a train of logic something like, “God! This is so horrible that it defies belief. Yet didn’t it happen?”  Yes, there are echoes of Speck bouncing off actual crimes that occurred not all that long ago.             So, acceptance can follow disbelief, all in a matter of minutes, and if the rest of the novel works, plausibility will have been established by fact.            A massacre for openers can provoke something else in a thriller—curiosity. Why would someone murder five young women in the same place, in the same way, at the same time?            The idea in FRENZY, as in most thrillers, is to pose intriguing questions, and then answer them.            But not too soon.
John Lutz

Headlines that shouldn't be true but are

Missouri Teen In Critical Condition After Cops Use Taser On Him

REPORT: KFC Supplier Fed Birds Antibiotics At Unsafe Levels

Convicted killer accused of fatally stabbing ex-girlfriend, then eating
her brains

Limbaugh on consent for sex: ‘No means yes if you know how to spot it’
(what a stud. He didn't get laid until he had enough to pay for
it and that includes his bought and paid for wives)

Florida Bus Driver Man Arrested For Soliciting Prostitute While Driving
Bus

New Zealand Hostel Owner Filmed Sexual Assault Of At Least 16
Backpackers: Police

Kevin Sorbo explains why more Christian movies aren’t made: Jews run
Hollywood
(right--and not because they're boring)

STUDY: Liberals and conservatives smell different...

Lindsey Graham on abortion ban: If pregnant mom sings to her fetus then
it must be a person
(by gum that sounds like scientific proof to me--what a tool this guy
is)

NFL Tells RGIII Not To Wear 'Jesus' Shirt For Press Conference...

School bans student's 'Virginity Rocks' t-shirt...

Teen busted for rubbing genitals on customer's takeout pizza...

Man Jumps to Death from Rooftop Lounge of LA's Standard Hotel...

DOCTOR: Keep Cellphones On 'Airplane Mode' While In Pockets To Lower
Cancer Risk...

Police Kill Woman, Charge Man They Were Trying To Shoot With Murder

Why Some College Cops Have Grenade Launchers

Black High School Football Team Taunted With Bananas Before Game...

Swedish Surprise: Anti-Immigration Party Surges...

40% of European Jews hide their religion...

SNAP: Ohio man walks into traffic, sets himself on fire...

'Boobie Squeezing Simulator' Takes Virtual Reality To New Lows

Gravedigger Suspended After Taking Photo With Dead Man

Here's Why Your Poop Is Green--It's Just Science
(in case you were interested)

In Berlin, It's Pretty Much Okay To Have Sex In The Subway

Death Is Forever by Maxine O'Callaghan Brash Books

09.15.14 CREATING DELILAH WEST: CAN’T SWIM? DIVE IN ANYWAYWritten byMaxine O'CallaghanShare on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on pinterest_share









When I began writing my first novel, I was blissfully ignorant of that sage piece of advice: Write what you know. I wasn’t a cop, or a pathologist, or a special agent for the FBI. Besides a stint in the Marine Corp Reserve, I was, first, a secretary, then a stay-at-home housewife and mother who read. A lot. Mostly mysteries and suspense with an emphasis on private eye fiction. So it seemed perfectly natural to me that when one of my first short stories,  A Change of Clients , appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in 1974, it featured a private detective. My only concession to the write-what-you-know maxim was to make my detective a woman, because, well, I was one.It really didn’t occur to me at the time that a woman PI was rather ground-breaking. Actually, it didn’t even occur to me later on that, because of my short story, Delilah West was in print before Kinsey Millhone or Sharon McCone. After I published several books in the series, a critic pointed this out in a magazine article, causing me one of those light-bulbs-over-the-head moments.I wrote short stories for a few years before I tackled a novel. I hadn’t forgotten about Delilah. I had written in just enough of her back story to be intriguing. She was a young widow. She and her husband, Jack, ran a detective agency. I wanted to know more about her. I started a book, got about half-way through and realized the first book had to be about Delilah solving Jack’s murder, so I started over. Brash Books re-introduced the series with the first two books– Death is Forever  and  Run From Nightmare  this month, along with a collection of all the Delilah West short stories in the anthology, Bad Luck and Trouble.Now, for some nuts and bolts. I do research, although not as much as you might imagine. My technique is to write the book the way I think it should be, then go through and research the stuff that I obviously need to know more about. One thing I’m a stickler for is being accurate about how police departments are set up. Ranks, command structure, cop talk—can all be very different. A writer, who shall remain nameless and should know better, once portrayed the Orange County, CA Sheriff riding around in a jeep and solving crimes. Hello? It’s a political office. He sits in his office and does political stuff. Well, administrative stuff, too, if you want to be technical. I have a Southerner’s knack of talking easily to total strangers, so I’ve cold-called the Boston PD as well as Phoenix PD, and, once I convinced them I wasn’t interested in any current investigation, they were happy to give me the info I needed. I’ve talked to the Orange County Coroner who told me why my murder wouldn’t work and suggested something that would. I’ve been lucky enough to be in a writer’s workshop with a cop and a PI, who have helped immensely. A bomb squad detective brainstormed with me to figure out how Delilah could disarm a bomb with nothing but a pair of nail clippers. One thing I realized early on: Fictional private detectives are the glamorized version of the real thing, evolved from Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and brethern. Real PI work, for the most part, is rarely dangerous and often boring.I’m also particular about the settings in my books. Here’s where writing what you know is a must for me. I want to know what places look like, smell like, feel like. What grows there? Who lives there? I eavesdrop in coffee shop, start conversations with clerks and waitresses and bus boys. I’ve been to all the locations in the LA area that I write about, including the Orange County Jail—no, not a visit that required a mug shot and a bail hearing. Even I wouldn’t go that far.All that said, my characters drive the narrative. Naturally, I want thrills and chills, and I try for a really good opening, but the arc of the books is Delilah’s story. I confess I don’t always know where that will lead. But the trip sure has been fun.Tags: Alfred Hitchock, crime writing, Delilah West, female crime writers, female mystery writers, female private eye,female thriller authors, Kinsey Millhone, Marcia Muller, Maxine O'Callaghan, Mystery Writing, Phillip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Sue Grafton

Headlines that shouldn't be true but are

'VETTED' REBELS STRIKE DEAL WITH ISIS
(we're off to a great start)

Witnesses: Cops Kept Arresting Dying Cyclist After Running Him Over

‘F*ck off, you fat *ss!’: Enraged minivan mom caught on camera berating
motorist

Police Allegedly Mistake Black Actress Kissing White Partner For A
Prostitute

West Virginia cop caught threatening woman filming rough arrest of
terminally ill man

Kanye Stops Concert Because Fan In Wheelchair Won't Stand Up
(heal him kanye--just keep screaming at him ns he'll walk again!)

Man Armed With Machete Holds Up Restaurant In NYC's Chelsea
neighborhood...

An Off-Duty Cop Got Drunk and Shot Some People on the Upper West Side

Bill Maher levels GOP Rep. Kline: He embodies D.C’s ‘easily-swayed
whores and sellouts’

Tucker Carlson suspects school indoctrination plot because children are
‘just learning too much’
(Fucker Tarlson is the mosr obnoxious trust fund baby of all time)

Satanists Sell Out 'Black Mass' Event...Will Stage Exorcism...

Deepak Chopra: Richard Dawkins is a bad scientist and his arrogance
pisses me off

Illinois man arrested for murder of ex-girlfriend, body found in
backseat of car

Bill Maher levels GOP Rep. Kline: He embodies D.C’s ‘easily-swayed
whores and sellouts’

West Virginia cop caught threatening woman filming rough arrest of
terminally ill man

The fight isn’t over: Voting rights may be headed back to the Supreme
Court

NFL running back Adrian Peterson indicted for allegedly abusing
4-year-old boy

‘F*ck off, you fat *ss!’: Enraged minivan mom caught on camera berating
motorist

US denies threatening Foley family over raising ransom

No evidence whistleblower Edward Snowden raised concerns internally: NSA

Police in three states hunt for gunman after trooper shot dead at
Pennsylvania barracks

Federal judge rules that Arizona gay widower is entitled to federal
spousal benefits

Details emerge in Adrian Peterson child abuse case: ‘I’m all tearing
that butt up when needed’

‘Django Unchained’ actress detained by cops because they assumed she
was a hooker

Deepak Chopra: Richard Dawkins is a bad scientist and his arrogance
pisses me off
(I agree; man is Dawkins full of himself)

The story of a civilization can be found in the materials used to build
it

Texas high school chemistry teacher arrested with date rape drug
‘recipes’ in her backpack

Golfing great Greg Norman almost severs hand with chainsaw

Details emerge in Adrian Peterson child abuse case: ‘I’m all tearing
that butt up when needed’

ISIS's latest strategy: Recruit female jihadis from America's heartland

Tucker Carlson suspects school indoctrination plot because children are
‘just learning too much’

‘Django Unchained’ actress detained by cops because they assumed she
was a hooker

Deepak Chopra: Richard Dawkins is a bad scientist and his arrogance
pisses me off

The story of a civilization can be found in the materials used to build
it

Texas high school chemistry teacher arrested with date rape drug
‘recipes’ in her backpack

Golfing great Greg Norman almost severs hand with chainsaw


John Oliver: Scotland seeks divorce because England has been ‘a little
bit of a dick’

Bernie Sanders in Iowa: Soldiers didn’t die ‘so billionaires could buy
elections’

Witnesses: ‘Django Unchained’ actress and boyfriend having sex in car
before police arrived'

Palin pushback: Family friend says other side started drunken Wasilla
birthday melee

California man killed ex-girlfriend's dog, then fed it to her, police
say

Arizona GOP official resigns after saying poor women should be
sterilized

Florida cops often drop rape cases unless victims tell them to
investigate: NYT

Milwaukee cop won’t be charged despite video proving she lied about
seeing illegal strip searches

Lindsey Graham unhinged: We will ‘all get killed back here’ if Obama
lets ISIS open ‘the gates of hell’

California man arrested following nine-hour standoff after firing on
ice cream truck, police

Newly discovered squirrel-like creatures suggest mammals first appeared
208 million years ago

Police conduct multi-state manhunt for gunman who ambushed two PA state
troopers

Luke Russert lands Meet the Press gig cuz everyone else is doin’
friggin’ drugs all weekend

RAW STORY EXTRA FOR SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
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Texas sheriff boasts on Fox & Friends he’ll send ISIS to hell after
finding Koran on the border

Alabama pastor drives girl to city park to rape and sodomize her,
police say

Bible-pushing Christians open the door for Satanic activity books in
Florida schools

Hobby Lobby president Steve Green urges Christians to stand up to the
government

Georgia police: 16-year-old mom with baby guns down man selling PS4 on
Craigslist

LSU frat fight captured by man with most self-satisfied grin ever

92-year-old Colorado man died after homemade bomb exploded, police
believe

Wisc. GOP candidate now regrets tweeting ‘fags need 2 leave my favorite
state alone’

Six Florida prison officers jailed and fired for setting up inmate
beating, lying about it

Divers return to shipwreck where the ancient 'Antikythera Mechanism'
was found

Fox’s Steve Doocy: Schools should stop ‘brainwashing’ kids with
‘meatless Mondays’ plot

J. Kingston Pierce reviews Man Eater by Gar Anthony Haywood

J. Kingston Pierce,  the editor of The Rap Sheet and the senior editor ofJanuary Magazine, reviews Gar Anthony Haywood’s thriller Man Eater. Cutthroat film development executive Ronnie Deal (“smart, single, and beautiful — ‘heartbreak in a tall, dark hourglass,’ somebody had once called her”) is sitting in an L.A. bar one day, nursing her anger at a rival for fouling up her “breakout film,” when a “physically intimidating” black guy suddenly commences to wail on a “young, frail blonde woman” nearby. Reacting viscerally, her adrenaline poisoned by rage at her own manifest misfortunes, Ronnie shocks even herself by battering the thug unconscious with a beer bottle. Only later, when that same goon — freelance enforcer Neon Polk — subdues and rapes her in her own townhouse, then demands that she pay him $50,000 to leave her alone, does Ronnie realize the horror she’s invited into her life. And all because she’d impulsively defended a “career streetwalker” named Denise “Antsy” Carruth, from whom Polk was trying to retrieve $25,000 that had been stolen from drug dealer Bobby Funderburk. ( Man Eater  is nothing if not a gold mine of memorable appellations.) Now, determined to feel safe again from attack, and protect her reputation in the bargain, Ronnie decides that Neon’s lights have to be put out. Permanently.To advance this plan, she decides to enlist the aforementioned Langford, an ex-con who did time for manslaughter and is now out on parole, trying to peddle an action-filled film script titled Street Iron. Ronnie figures to make “the most twisted screenplay-option ever conceived”: offer to purchase Langford’s work in exchange for him telling her how to whack Neon. But nothing goes smoothly in this tightly framed, sardonically humorous thriller. Langford initially resists Ronnie’s double-edged deal (he doesn’t want to go back to prison and lose contact again with his young daughter), though he ultimately agrees to help. Meanwhile, the gorgeous Ms. Deal’s weaselish colleague, Andy Gleason, is prowling for information he can use to destroy her, once and for all; a couple of deranged, drug-peddling brothers, Jaime and Jorge Ayala, have escaped their hospital beds and are gunning for Langford, who’d beaten them up during a dispute involving cold pizza; and Ronnie’s ex-husband is wheeling west from Colorado with a special passenger, intending to check up on her recent success. As these plots and subplots intertwine, often in unlikely ways that owe debts to Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, Gar Anthony Haywood delivers a standalone yarn that is as fast-paced as it is frothing with satirical commentary about the shark-infested suites of Tinseltown.Man Eater shares its lightheartedness with Haywood’s Loudermilk novels (Bad News Travels Fast, 1995) and its more hard-boiled edge with his stories about L.A. private eye Aaron Gunner (All the Lucky Ones Are Dead, 1999), yet it’s unlike either series. The gorgeous, white Ronnie “Raw” Deal is a sharp-elbowed survivor with a determinedly concealed past and a wit that could flay layers from stone. (“I’ll tell you what’s ridiculous,” she says to Andy Gleason early in this story. “The fact that you were born without a tail, and can pass by a cheese tray at parties without eating everything on it.”) Her relationship with African-American Langford is slow to ignite, but there’s satisfaction in seeing these two find common cause. And a late scene in which the Ayala brothers — one more comically infirm than the other — threaten the two main characters is a guaranteed curative to anyone’s foul mood. Regrettably, several of this story’s actors never achieve much depth, and the subplot about Ronnie’s ex provides little more than a banal opportunity for 11th-hour poignancy. Such faults can be forgiven, though, in a novel as vital and entertainingly vicious as this one.J. Kingston Pierce is a longtime Seattle journalist and editor of the crime-fiction blog The Rap Sheet, which has won the Spinetingler Award and been nominated for an Anthony Award. He also writes the book-design blog Killer Coversand serves as the senior editor of January Magazine. Pierce is the author of more than half a dozen non-fiction books, including San Francisco: Yesterday & Today (2009), Eccentric Seattle (2003) and America’s Historic Trails with Tom Bodett (1997).Tags: Aaron Gunner, All the Lucky Ones are Dead, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Gar Anthony Haywood, J. Kingston Pierce, Man Eater, The Rap Sheet, thriller

Mike Lupica's tremendous article on Elmore Leonard

POLITICSENTERTAINMENTWORLD NEWSU.S. NEWSTECH + HEALTHBEASTSTYLEWOMENBOOKS                        
           
Dan Borris/The New York Times, via Redux
Elmore Leonard’s Rocky Road to Fame and FortuneIt took him 30 years of writing to make it big. Maybe his drinking slowed him up. Or publishers didn’t know how to sell him. But no one ever said Leonard didn’t know how to write.Before he hit the best-seller list for the first time with Glitz in 1985, Elmore Leonard spent more than 30 years writing pulp crime novels and westerns that sold in paperback racks in drug stores and bus stations. After Glitz, he’d keep writing for 28 more years, until he died last summerat 87. He became a mainstay on the best-seller list, praised by critics for his lean prose and colorful, propulsive stories, and above all for his mastery of the rhythm and melody of American speech. But well before he became our most famous crime novelist, Leonard was doing all the things for which he would later be celebrated. It just took people a while to catch on to how good he really was.Now Leonard is being canonized by The Library of America, which is collecting his novels in what will eventually be a 3-volume set. The just released Volume One features Leonard’s early Detroit crime novels (Fifty-Two Pick Up, Swag, Unknown Man No. 89, and The Switch). Volume II appears next year, Volume III in 2016. If you haven’t read Leonard’s work from the ’70s, you have no idea how much fun you’re going to have.For more on the “overnight success” of a working writer, let’s turn to this fine profile of Leonard by Mike Lupica. “St. Elmore’s Fire” originally appeared in the April 1987 issue of Esquire and is featured here with the author’s permission.There he is at Tigers Stadium in Detroit on a September baseball night hanging on to summer. He is getting ready to watch Jack Morris, the Tigers ace, go for win number nineteen against the Toronto Blue Jays. Elmore Leonard looks just like what a drunk mistakenly called him once in his drinking days, back at this joint called Stan’s in Fort Lauderdale: little Princeton s.o.b. Tweed jacket, highforeheaded, soft voice, round tortoiseshell glasses, corduroy slacks. Not anything like a tough-guy novelist who works the street the way Updike works the suburbs.“You know who you look like?” says an usher.He’s stopped next to Leonard’s seat on the aisle. The usher is from the Bismarck Food Service, wearing a blue Bismarck jersey, carrying a Bismarck bucket filled with soft drinks. Name tag says MARK, IRVING. He is fifty maybe.Leonard says, “Who?” Then he does what he does about every ten minutes, which is light up a True green and smoke it down to his wrist.“Elmore Leonard the writer.” It is one though to Irving Mark of Bismarck, no commas.“Well, I am.”“No kidding?” Mark puts down the bucket.“No kidding.”“I just bought your book, Glitz.The one in Atlantic City with the cop and the hooker and the crazy guy and so forth. Five bucks.”“Well, thank you.”for the rest go here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...