Bruce DeSilva's Blog, page 21

Offering Scarce, Signed First Printing, First Edition Copies of My Mulligan Crime Novels

First edition, first printing copies of the four books in my Edgar Award-winning series of crime novels are quite scarce. Why?  Because my cautious publisher, Forge, printed only 5,000 each (before each of the books went into subsequent editions and printings.) And few of the first printings survive in pristine condition.

This Christmas, I am offering signed copies of each of these novel in very limited quantities.

— 10 copies of the fourth novel, A Scourge of Vipers at $26 each.

— 9 copies of the third novel, Providence Rag, at $40 each.

— 10 copies of the second, Cliff Walk at $40 each.

— And just 4 copies of the first novel, Rogue Island, which won both the Edgar Award and the Macavity Award — is VERY hard to come by — at $99 each.

Each will arrive signed by me or, if you prefer, with an inscription of your choice.

The books are listed for a fixed price on eBay. Below are the links for making a purchase.

For A Scourge of Vipers  click

For Providence Rag, click

For Cliff Walk, click

For Rogue Island, click

Author Walter Mosley reading “Rogue Island”

 

Who’s Reading “A Scourge of Vipers” Now? Crime Fiction Legend James W. Hall

James W. Hall  is both a poet and the author of the best-selling Thorn thrillers.  You can learn more about him and his work 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 new novel has received rave reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and a host of other publications. You can order any of the

Getting the Blues — And Loving It

With my wife Patricia on the blues cruise

Why the blues?

Why are my wife Patricia and I drawn to music found at the bottom of a shot glass, the music of the scorned and shattered? Why do we end so many of our nights sipping something bitter while we listen to John Lee Hooker’s soulful riffs, Koko Taylor’s growl, or B.B. King’s singing guitar?

It’s because blues musicians turn misery into music. They warn us what the world can do and steel us against us. They preach that even in the darkest of days, light exists — and that the purpose of life is to live it. As B.B. King once put it, “the blues is pain, but it’s pain that brings joy.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Patricia and I always knew a blues cruise — the sun, the sea, and the live music we love playing nearly 24 hours a day — would be our ideal vacation. But in the 17 years we’ve been together, the cruise dates always conflicted with our work schedules and child-rearing  responsibilities. Until now.

Our ship, the Westerdam, dwarfed by the Oasis, a cruise ship on its maiden voyage.

On October 24, we boarded the Westerdam in Fort Lauderdale for 7 glorious days as part of the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise. Allow me to share a few of the highlights with you.

One of the greatest joys a music lover can have is discovering brilliant young musicians you never knew existed. Aboard the Westerdam, that happened several times.

Magic Dick and Shun Ng

We were astonished by Shun Ng, a 25-year-old Singapore-born, Boston-bred singer and guitar prodigy who’s been touring with Magic Dick, the blues harmonica player who first gained fame in the 1960s with the J. Geiles Band. Shun is a brilliant, remarkably original guitarist. And his voice, as Magic Dick aptly puts it, is half-way between Michel Jackson and James Brown.

Yeah, I know. It’s hard to believe that. So check it out here for yourself.

It was also the first time we got to hear Jonathon Boogie Long, a young Louisiana bluesman who knocked us out with both his singing and his virtuosity on the electric guitar. Check out an example of his work here.

It was great to see the great Buddy Guy live again, although we’d seen him this summer at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ.  We never miss a chance to see Buddy, our greatest living bluesman.  If for some reason you aren’t familiar with Buddy, check him out here.

Allen Toussaint performing aboard ship

And we were honored to hear the elegant Allen Toussaint sing and play the piano just ten days before he died suddenly while on tour in Spain. Check him out here as he sings one of his finest compositions, “Southern Nights,” just as he did for us aboard ship.

One of the perks of a blues cruise is that you get to rub elbows with the musicians, who hang out by the pool and in the ship’s bars and restaurants between performances.

Tommy Castro playing on the ship with his long-time base player, Randy McDonald

We had the chance to renew our acquaintance with Tommy Castro, who remembered us from the days when we brought our child, Mikaila, to see his live performances in small blues clubs in New York and Chicago starting when she was just six years old. Tommy asked how she was doing, so I showed him a photo of the beautiful woman she has become. Some Tommy for you right here.

I had a great 90 minute conversation about music, books, and growing up in Massachusetts (which we both did) with Magic Dick. We also talked about the brilliance of his new collaborator, Shun Ng.

Rick Estrin performing on the pool deck

I also discussed both music and books with Rick Estrin, the singer and harmonic player who fronts The Nightcats. When Estrin learned that I write crime novels, he raved about how much he loves Elmore Leonard’s writing, asked for my card, and promised to pick up my books. Here’s a bit of Rick Estrin for you.

The first time Patricia and I saw Quinn Sullivan perform, he took the stage with Buddy Guy at B.B. King’s club in Manhattan when he was just eight years old. Turns out, he first picked up a guitar when he was three. He was still a little boy when he showed up with his guitar at a Buddy Guy concert, and Buddy invited him onto the stage to show what he could do. Impressed, Buddy took the boy under his wing.

Quinn Sullivan and Ronnie Baker Brooks live on the cruise ship

Now, at age 16, his singing voice has matured and his guitar playing is so good that he, along with Ng, Boogie Long and Ronnie Baker Brooks, make Patricia and I feel good about what the future holds for the blues. On shipboard, Quinn performed solo and also took the stage with both Buddy and Brooks. Here’s Quinn performing with Buddy a couple of years ago. And you can get a taste of Ronnie Baker Brooks here.

I could go on and on about the other fine musicians on board: about Tab Benoit, Mitch Woods, Irma Thomas, Terrence Simien, Darrell Nulisch, Theodis Ealey, Keith Crossan, Vasti Jackson, Kenny Neal (when we stopped off for a few hours in New Orleans), and many more.

But for me, the highlight of the trip was watching my wife Patricia Smith, one of our greatest living poets, perform a sexy piece about

Patricia performing with Keith Crossan

a sax player with Crossan as her accompanist. At first, Crossan, who had just met Patricia and had never heard the piece, was hesitant, blowing just a few notes. But soon, he caught her rhythm, turning the moment into a conversation between poet and sax player.

Did they bring the house down?  Do you really have to ask?

Will we go on a blues cruise again? You bet. We’ve already booked one for next fall.

Meanwhile, we can enjoy the memories with the many photos we took on the trip.  Here are a few more.

Irma Thomas

Patricia at the Ernest Hemingway house during a stop in Key West

Me with the Westerdam in the background

Patricia in the hot tub

Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

Buddy Guy’s keyboard player, Marty Sammon

Keith Crossan and Nancy Wright

Buddy Guy

Tab Benoit

Gotta Go Gotta Flow

“It was a living self-contained theater.”

That’s how Michael Abramson described his

years photographing Peppers Hideout, Perv’s

House, the High Chaparral, the Patio Lounge,

and the Showcase Lounge on Chicago’s South

Side in the 1970s.

Bump contests and blues. Love goddesses and

shake dancers. The Sexy Mamas and Their

Mack. Funky. Sexy. Music and voodoo. Every

night like New Year’s Eve.

This was the scene that Abramson recorded.

Wrote British novelist Nick Hornby, an

admirer of Abramson’s work: “One tiny corner

of the world over a handful of evenings a long

time ago; but that tiny corner of the world has,

for decades now, meant a great deal to an awful

lot of people scattered all over the world.”

Enter Patricia Smith, a poet who grew up not far

from these South Side clubs. She took a look at

Abramson’s photos nearly four decades later

and brought his night world back to life. “These

fiercely breathing visuals are a last link,” she

says, “to the unpredictable, blade-edged and

relentlessly funky city I once knew.”

Her words and his pictures open the doors

and give us a front-row (or a back-row . . . even

better) seat to a time and place long gone.

So: Watch. Listen.

That’s how the publisher describes this breathtaking new collaboration between a great photographer and my brilliant poet-wife, Patricia Smith.

A small sample: 

Chicago men got a swagger that says they

know alleyways and a hundred ways to tame

salt pork. They know how to cut loose, how

to double a negative and clear a room,

Chi-town men mean every explosive thing they

mutter to a woman. The shock in their words

is real. They smoke a sweet particular poison.

Afraid that the eyes might really be windows

to the soul, they wear shades smudged dim.

Behind the glasses, their wants are wide open.

Chicago women got a swagger that says they

know the ways of Chicago men. They come up

in the shadows of lumbering boys, the women

built themselves up on doubledutch and swigs

of cooking grease from sinkside jars. When they

dance, their unbridled hips bellow like fists,

overwhelming whatever the music thought it was.

What did the music think it was? In charge.

But no Chicago woman has ever met a dance

floor, or a man, she couldn’t buckle and break.

She smiles because she knows that

You can order the book here.

Who’s Reading “A Scourge of Vipers” Now? Thriller Writer James Scott Bell

James Scott Bell, a former trial lawyer, is the best-selling author of thrillers including Don’t Leave Me, Blind Justice, Deceived, and One More Lie.  You can learn more about him and his work 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 new 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.

Bouchercon 2015 Is Over, And I’m Already Nostalgic About It

S. J. Rozan reading my latest Mulligan novel at Bouchercon

This year’s edition of Bouchercon, the huge annual gathering of crime novelists and fans, ended Sunday, and already I’m feeling nostalgic.

For a writer like me, who spends months working in isolation, the four-day conference was a rare chance to be surrounded by 1,400 like-minded people, all of whom either do what I do or read the kind of books that I write. It offered a chance to renew old acquaintances, make new friends, celebrate best-sellers, commiserate about poor sales, praise or complain about agents and editors, share ideas about writing, meet and thank readers, and recharge the batteries.

My favorite things about this year’s conference in Raleigh:

— The wisest—and funniest—remark of the event was uttered by Tim O’Mara, a Manhattan math and special ed teacher who writes the fine Raymond Donne mysteries. Asked what TV crime shows he admires, Tim said that Breaking Bad was the best ever but that everyone missed the moral of the series: “We don’t pay school teachers enough.” The second funniest also belonged to Tim. During a discussion about whether mayhem in books encourages people to be more violent, Tim said he doubted it. After all, the math books he hands out to kids don’t have much affect.

— The best personal moment for me was when best-selling crime novelist Steve Hamilton, a two-time Edgar Award winner, singled out my work during his panel appearance, calling me “a really great writer.” Gee, thanks, Steve. And thanks also to Deadly Pleasures Magazine for making my third Liam Mulligan novel, Providence Rag, one of five nominees for its Barry Award. Congratulations to Greg Iles for walking off with the prize.

— I also must thank the members of the panel I moderated on “lone wolf and loose cannon” protagonists. Andrew Grant, Jerry Ackerman, Mick Herron, and Ben McPherson provided a lively and thoughtful discussion.

— As always, the best part of the event was the bar conversations that allowed me to catch up with old friends including Alafair Burke, Reed Farrel Coleman, Lee Goldberg, Craig Faustus Buck, Jamie Mason, S.J. Rozan, James W. Hall (in photo at left), Cat Warren, James O. Born, Parnell Hall, Laurie King, Chris Knopf, Con Lehane, Larry Light, Otto Penzler, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and many more. Together, you and the rest of those who attended once again created an incredibly welcoming and supportive community. I was honored to be part of it.

— Writer friends who didn’t make it this year, including Bill Loehfelm, Ace Atkins, David Freed, and my good buddy Tim Hallinan, were very much missed. Hope to see you all next fall when we reconvene—this time in New Orleans.

Land’s “Strong Light of Day” Wildly Entertaining

Strong Light of Day, the new Caitlin Strong thriller by Jon Land, is a suspenseful, fast-paced tale apparently constructed by a writer so obsessed with James Bond movies, Stephen King novels, Clint Eastwood westerns, Marvel Comics and The Matrix that he tried to combine all of them into a single book. Logic suggests there’s no way this should work, but somehow it does, making the novel at once preposterous and wildly entertaining.

Check out my full Associated Press review here.

Greg Iles Wins Barry Award, Besting “A Scourge of Vipers.”

Greg Iles reading my latest crime novel, “A Scourge of Vipers.”

Congratulations to best-selling author Greg Iles, who’s  thriller Natchez Burning won the Barry award for best novel of 2014 at the Bouchercon crime fiction conference in Raleigh last week. My third Mulligan novel, Providence Rag, was one of the finalists.

Congratulations also to the other finalists for the award, which is sponsored by Deadly Pleasures Magazine:  Reed Farrell Coleman for Hollow Girl, Jussi Adler-Olsen for The Marco Effect, James R. Benn for The Rest is Silence, and Arnaldur Indridason for Strange Shores.

My hardboiled Mulligan crime novels previously won the prestigious Macavity and Edgar Awards and have been finalists for the Shamus Award, the Anthony Award, and (twice) for the Barry Award.

You can order any of the books in the series from independent or chain online bookstores by following this link.

“Providence Rag” Nominated for the Barry Award!

Best-selling crime novelist Lee Child reading “Providence Rag”

I’m honored that Providence Rag, the third book in my hardboiled crime series, is one of six finalists for this year’s Barry Award in the “best novel” category.

The novel is the only book in the series inspired by a real crime, a serial killer case I covered when I was a journalist. On most days, it’s my favorite, although my editor thinks A Scourge of Vipers, is the best one in the series.

The Mulligan novels have already won the prestigious Edgar and Macavity Awards and been finalists for the Shamus and Anthony Awards. And my first novel, Rogue Island, has also been a finalist for the Barry.

Sponsored by Deadly Pleasures Magazine, the Barry ward will be presented next week at the big Bouchercon crime conference in Raleigh.

The list of the finalists:

THE MARCO EFFECT, Jussi Adler-Olsen

THE REST IS SILENCE, James R. James Benn

HOLLOW GIRL, Reed Farrel Coleman

PROVIDENCE RAG, Bruce DeSilva

NATCHEZ BURNING, Greg Iles

STRANGE SHORES, Arnaldur Indridason

The Mulligan novels have received rave reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, 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.

“Rogue Island” To Be Published in China

Rogue Island, the first hardboiled crime novel in my series featuring Liam Mulligan, has been purchased by Yilin Press, a major Chinese publisher. The book will be translated and sold in both print and e-book editions in China. This makes the eleventh foreign deal for the Mulligan series.

There are four Mulligan novels in print in the U.S., and the fifth, The Dread Line, will be published in hard cover and e-book editions next September.  I’m both amazed and thrilled that Mulligan has fans all over the world.

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 new 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.