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Bruce DeSilva's Blog, page 17
July 24, 2016
Our European Tour, Part I: A Rainy Day in London
Over the next week, I’ll be posting some photos my poet-wife Patricia Smith and I took on our recent four-city European tour in July. Today’s installment: It wouldn’t have been London without a rainy day.
Patricia braves the storm
Trafalgar Square
Officials outside the Foreign Office as Britain formed a new government in the wake of Brexit.
Rhode Island Public Radio Raves About “The Dread Line”
This is what Scott MacKay of Rhode Island Public Radio says about The Dread Line, the fifth book in my Edgar Award-winning series of crime novels:
“Bruce DeSilva is to Rhode Island what James Lee Burke is to Louisiana. . . . A rollicking read.”
Being compared to James Lee Burke is truly an honor. I’ve admired his work for years.
For the full text of the Rhode Island Public Radio review, please click here.
The Dread Line will be published by Forge on Sept. 6, but it can be ordered in advance from amazon.com or other booksellers including independents here.
Meanwhile, here’s a brief plot summary:
Since he got fired from his newspaper job last year, former investigative reporter Liam Mulligan has been piecing together a new life for himself—one that straddles both sides of the law. He’s getting some part-time work with his friend McCracken’s detective agency. He’s picking up beer money by freelancing for a local news website. And he’s looking after his semi-retired mobster-friend’s bookmaking business. But Mulligan still manages to find trouble—when it isn’t finding him. He’s feuding with a serial-killer cat that leaves its kills on his porch. He’s so obsessed with a baffling jewelry robbery that he can’t let it go. And he’s enraged that someone in town is torturing animals. All of this distracts him from a big case that needs his full attention. The New England Patriots, shaken by murder charges against one of their players, have hired Mulligan and McCracken to investigate the background of a college star they’re thinking of drafting. At first, the job seems routine, but when they begin asking questions, they get push-back. The player has something to hide—and someone is willing to kill to make sure it remains secret.
July 9, 2016
Best-Selling Mystery Writer Reed Farrel Coleman Raves About “THE DREAD LINE”
Reed Farrel Coleman, reading one of my previous novels, “A Scourge of Vipers.”
Reed Farrel Coleman, the best-selling mystery author who is now writing the Jesse Stone series originated by the late Robert B. Parker, says this about the latest book in my Edgar Award-winning series of hard-boiled crime novels:
“From the great first line, through the smart twisty plot, to the final word, Bruce DeSilva’s The Dread Line is pure magic. Mulligan is a Hall of Fame PI who’d fit comfortably between Marlowe, Spade, and Easy Rawlins.”
The novel will be published on Sept. 6, but it can be ordered in advance from amazon.com or other booksellers including independents here.
The plot summary:
Since he got fired from his newspaper job last year, former investigative reporter Liam Mulligan has been piecing together a new life for himself—one that straddles both sides of the law. He’s getting some part-time work with his friend McCracken’s detective agency. He’s picking up beer money by freelancing for a local news website. And he’s looking after his semi-retired mobster-friend’s bookmaking business. But Mulligan still manages to find trouble—when it isn’t finding him. He’s feuding with a serial-killer cat that leaves its kills on his porch. He’s so obsessed with a baffling jewelry robbery that he can’t let it go. And he’s enraged that someone in town is torturing animals. All of this distracts him from a big case that needs his full attention. The New England Patriots, shaken by murder charges against one of their players, have hired Mulligan and McCracken to investigate the background of a college star they’re thinking of drafting. At first, the job seems routine, but when they begin asking questions, they get push-back. The player has something to hide—and someone is willing to kill to make sure it remains secret.
You can learn more about Reed Farrel Coleman and his fine books here.
June 21, 2016
CB McKenzie’s “Burn What Will Burn” — My Review
Burn What Will Burn, Edgar Award win CB McKenzie’s second novel, is a suspenseful, hard-boiled crime yarn filled with well-drawn, quirky characters and written in a tight, literary prose style.
You can read my full Associated Press review of the book here.
The Dread Line by Bruce DeSilva is the fifth in my Edgar Award-winning series of hardboiled crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter and part-time private eye in Rhode Island. It will be published in September, but you can order it in advance, or order any of the books in the series, from independent or chain online bookstores by following this link.
June 20, 2016
Who’s Reading “A Scourge of Vipers Now?” It’s Bob the Drag Queen!
Bob the Drag Queen is the season 8 winner of the wildly popular TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. Bob and my wife, the critically acclaimed poet Patricia Smith, have a mutual friend who introduced them backstage at the Gramercy Theater in Manhattan Saturday night.
A Scourge of Vipers by Bruce DeSilva is the fourth in my Edgar Award-winning series of hardboiled crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter for a dying newspaper in Providence, R.I. The novel has received rave reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and a host of other publications. The fifth novel in the series, The Dread Line, will be published in September. You can order that one in advance, or order any of the books in the series, from independent or chain online bookstores by following this link.
June 13, 2016
“Widowmaker” by Paul Doiron: My Review
Widowmaker, book seven in Paul Doiron’s fine series of crime novels, sends game warden Mike Bowditch deep into the snowbound mountains of northern Maine, where future Olympians train at an exclusive ski academy, military interrogators train at a top-secret installation, and convicted sexual predators work as virtual slaves in a last-chance work camp.
The result is a violent, suspenseful, fast-paced tale written in Doiron’s customary tight, vivid prose. You can read my Associated Press review of the novel here. And you can order the book here.
The Dread Line by Bruce DeSilva is the fifth in my Edgar Award-winning series of hardboiled crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter and part-time private eye in Rhode Island. It will be published in September, but you can order it in advance, or order any of the books in the series, from independent or chain online bookstores by following this link.
“The Dread Line” by Paul Doiron: My Review
Widowmaker, book seven in Paul Doiron’s fine series of crime novels, sends game warden Mike Bowditch deep into the snowbound mountains of northern Maine, where future Olympians train at an exclusive ski academy, military interrogators train at a top-secret installation, and convicted sexual predators work as virtual slaves in a last-chance work camp.
The result is a violent, suspenseful, fast-paced tale written in Doiron’s customary tight, vivid prose. You can read my Associated Press review of the novel here. And you can order the book here.
The Dread Line by Bruce DeSilva is the fifth in my Edgar Award-winning series of hardboiled crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter and part-time private eye in Rhode Island. It will be published in September, but you can order it in advance, or order any of the books in the series, from independent or chain online bookstores by following this link.
June 11, 2016
The Master of Journalistic Mystery Novels Is . . .
Neely Tucker
I happened across a book review on the “Two Heads Together” website the other day and got quite a surprise. It began this way:
“It’s tough when your competition are masters of the trade. Ed McBain and Michael Connelly are the masters of police procedurals. Kathy Reichs is the master of forensic anthropology. The crown goes to Arnaldur Indridason for Icelandic mysteries and Thomas H. Cook for literary mysteries. And the head honcho for journalistic mysteries is Bruce DeSilva. So, while Neely Tucker’s journalistic mysteries, which take place in Washington, D. C., are readable, they don’t live up to the bar set by Mr. DeSilva.”
Gee, thanks. But this got me curious about Neely Tucker. I’d never read any of his books, but the name seemed familiar. I Googled him and found out why. He’s a staff writer at the Washington Post Sunday magazine, a journalist with an illustrious career as a foreign correspondent who is now covering the 2016 Presidential election.
Turns out, I’d tossed a review copy of his third novel, Only the Hunted Run, scheduled to be published in August, in my discard pile. So I fished it out and read it this weekend. And guess what? It’s damned good. He’s got a great character, a literally battle-scared former foreign correspondent now working out of the home office in Washington. The story rocks, fast moving and suspenseful. And Tucker is an exceptional wordsmith, excelling at dialogue and at painting vivid word-pictures that immerse the reader in the middle of the action.
I’m a better crime novelist than he is? I appreciate the compliment, but I must respectfully disagree. I can recognize a peer when I read one.
June 2, 2016
Who’s Reading “A Scourge of Vipers” Now? The Star of HBO’s “The Wire” — Benjamin Busch
Benjamin Busch reading “A Scourge of Vipers.”
Benjamin Busch is best known as the actor who played Officer Colicchio in the final three seasons of HBO’s brilliant series, The Wire. and as the author of the acclaimed Iraq War memoir, Dust to Dust. My wife Patricia and I know him as a friend –and as her colleague on the MFA faculty at Sierra Nevada College.
But that only touches on the accomplishments of one of the most creative and versatile people I’ve ever met.
As a U.S. Marine, he served in the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and the 5th Civil Affairs Group during the worst years of the war in Iraq.
He is a great photographer whose tours of duty formed the basis of his photography exhibits, ‘The Art of War,” “Occupation,” and “Abstract Matter.”
Benjamin Bush (center) as Officer Colicchio in HBO’s “The Wire.”
As an actor, he has appeared in Party of Five, Homicide: Life on the Streets, and The West Wing and played the role of Major Todd Eckloff on the HBO mini-series Generation Kill. And he was the writer/director of the film Bright, which was featured at the 2011 Traverse City Film Festival.
As a writer, he has contributed to Harpers, The New York Times Magazine, All Things Considered, and The Daily Beast. And he recently completed his first volume of poetry.
He’s also a talented artist, a stone mason, and a Vassar College graduate with a degree in studio arts.
He is the son of the late Frederick Busch, an acclaimed author of both fine novels and non-fiction works including the novels Girls, and North, which Ben was kind enough to give me. I recently finished Girls, a beautifully written, absorbing story of suspense, loss, and redemption, and I’m reading North now.
Benjamin Busch and I chatting in my wife Patricia’s home office
Patricia and I are fortunate to call this amazing man our friend.
A Scourge of Vipers by Bruce DeSilva is the fourth in my Edgar Award-winning series of hardboiled crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter for a dying newspaper in Providence, R.I. The novel has received rave reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and a host of other publications. The fifth novel in the series, “The Dread Line,” will be published in September. You can order that one in advance, or order any of the books in the series, from independent or chain online bookstores by following this link.
April 20, 2016
Bruce DeSilva Interviewed By NECN
Sue O’Connell of the New England Cable News Network interviewed me about my early brush with the pedophile priest scandal — and also about my latest crime novels. You can watch it here.
A Scourge of Vipers by Bruce DeSilva is the fourth in my Edgar Award-winning series of hardboiled crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter for a dying newspaper in Providence, R.I. The novel has received rave reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and a host of other publications. You can order any of the books in the series from independent or chain online bookstores by following this link.
