Bruce DeSilva's Blog, page 27

April Book Tour Schedule for “A Scourge of Vipers,” the New Mulligan Crime Novel

I���ll be on tour for most of the month of April, signing copies of my new hardboiled Mulligan crime novel, A Scourge of Vipers, and talking to readers. Please come by to see me if I���m I a city near you.

Here���s the schedule:

��� April 9, 6:30 p.m., Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, Manhattan, New York City.

��� April 11, 12 noon, Readmore Books, 330 Winthrop Street, Taunton, MA

��� April 12, 2 p.m., Providence Public Library, 150 Empire Street, Providence, RI

��� April 16, 7 p.m., Book Carnival, 348 South Tustin Street, Orange, CA

��� April 18, 1 p.m., Murder by the Book, 2342 Bissonet Street, Houston, TX

��� April 21, 7 p.m., The Poisoned Pen, 4014 N Goldwater Blvd. Suite 101, Scottsdale, AZ

��� April 23, 7 p.m., Once Upon a Crime, 604 West 26th Street, Minneapolis, MN

A Scourge of Vipers, the fourth novel in the Edgar Award-winning Mulligan series, has already received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. It will officially go on sale April 7, but you can place advance orders here.

Audio Edition Of “Providence Rag” Named Finalist For Audie Award

The audio edition of Providence Rag, the third book in my series of hardboiled crime novels, has been named a finalist for the Audie Award. Given by the Audio Publishers Association, it is the Oscar of the audio book industry.

I���m incredibly lucky that Jeff Woodman has narrated each of my novels so far. He will do the deed again for the audio edition of my fourth, A Scourge of Vipers, which will be published on April 7.

How good is Jeff? His narration of my first novel, Rogue Island, was an Audi finalist, and this year he narrated two of the six finalists in the mystery category. My crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter at a dying newspaper, are set in Providence, Rhode Island; and Jeff has got the regional accent down pat. The series has won the Edgar Award and the Macavity Award and been listed as a finalist for the Shamus, Barry, and Anthony awards.

Audible Studios publishes my�� audio books and does a fine job; you can listen to a sample of Jeff���s Providence Rag narration and/or purchase the unabridged downloadable edition of the book on their website here.

And you can purchase print, digital and audio editions of all of my books here.

The full list of this year���s Audie nominees in the mystery category are:

The Dead Will Tell by Linda Castillo; narrated by Kathleen McInerney; Macmillan Audio

Hounded by David Rosenfelt; narrated by Grover Gardner; Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

Malice by Keigo Higashino; narrated by Jeff Woodman; Macmillan Audio

Missing You by Harlan Coben; narrated by January LaVoy; Brilliance Publishing

Providence Rag by Bruce DeSilva; narrated by Jeff Woodman; Audible, Inc.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith; narrated by Robert Glenister; Hachette Audio

The winner will be announced at the Audies Gala at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City on May 28.

A Starred Review From “Publisher’s Weekly” for “A Scourge of Vipers.”

Publishers Weekly, the bible of the publishing industry, has given a starred review to my latest crime novel, A Scourge of Vipers.�� It’s the second starred review for the book, which previously scored one from the Library Journal.

The review says: ���Edgar-winner DeSilva���s excellent fourth Liam Mulligan novel (after 2014���s Providence Rag) finds the Providence, R.I., investigative journalist on hard times professionally. His newspaper, The Dispatch, has been reduced to a shell of its former self, publishing fluff rather than substance and largely staffed by wet-behind-the-ears newcomers. His jerk of an editor, Charles Twisdale, is more concerned with the bottom line than reporting the news, leaving Mulligan feeling like a dinosaur on the verge of extinction. But if that���s to be his fate, the reporter is determined to go down swinging, pursuing the truth behind a series of murders that appear linked to the governor, colorfully known as ‘Attila the Nun,’ who hopes to solve the state���s public-pension crisis by legalizing sports gambling. The lean prose and clever plotting will remind hard-boiled fans of Loren Estleman���s Amos Walker novels.”

“A Scourge of Vipers” will be published on April 9, and can be ordered in advance here.

“A Scourge of Vipers” Scores a Starred Review from “Library Journal”

The prestigious Library Journal has published a starred review of A Scourge of Vipers, the latest in my series of crime novels featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter for a dying Providence, R.I,. newspaper.

The review says:�� “Rhode Island Governor Fiona McNerney proposes the legalization of sports betting to reduce the state’s budget deficit. The mob opposes the idea because it would eat into its bookmaking business, and sports oversight groups claim it would open up games to dishonesty. After Atlantic City mobsters show up in Providence with bags of cash, presumably to influence legislators, veteran newspaper reporter Liam Mulligan investigates. When a state legislator and several other people turn up dead, Mulligan soon becomes a prime suspect in several murders. VERDICT DeSilva’s Edgar and Macavity Award-winning books (most recently Providence Rag) are a consistently well-written hard-boiled series. Few of the regular characters have roles here. Still, this excellent addition features a bit of romance, a lot of action, plenty of snappy repartee, and social commentary on the fate of newspaper journalism and the corrupting role of money in the political process. QUALITY ALL THE WAY.”

The book will be published on April 7, but can be ordered in advance here.

New Mulligan Crime Novel To Be Published April 7

A Scourge of Vipers, the fourth hardboiled crime novel in my series featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter at a dying Providence, RI, newspaper, will be published in hardcover and e-book editions by Forge on April 7.

I love the look of the cover.

Here’s synopsis of the plot, with no spoilers:

To solve Rhode Island���s budget crisis, the governor wants to legalize sports gambling, but her plan has unexpected consequences. Organized crime, professional sports leagues, and others who have a lot to lose���or gain���if gambling is made legal flood the state with money to buy the votes of state legislators. Liam Mulligan, investigative reporter for The Providence Dispatch, wants to investigate, but the bottom-feeding corporate bosses at the dying newspaper have no interest in serious reporting. So Mulligan goes rogue to dig into the story. But when a state legislator turns up dead, an out-of-state bagman gets shot, and his cash-stuffed briefcase goes missing, Mulligan finds himself the target of shadowy forces who seek to derail his investigation by destroying his career, his reputation, and even his life. A Scourge of Vipers is at once a suspenseful crime thriller and a serious exploration of the hypocrisy surrounding sports gambling and the corrupting influence of big money in politics.

You can order the book in advance here.

And you can read a sample chapter on my website.

 

 

Another Major Literary Award For My Wife Patricia Smith

Congratulations to my brilliant wife Patricia Smith for still another major literary award. The Library of Congress is naming her the winner of the 2014 Rebeka Johnson Bobbitt Prize for Poetry for her most recent collection, Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah.

The awarded is given in recognition of the most distinguished book of poetry published in the preceding two years. Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah had already won the Academy of American Poets’ Leonore Marshall Prize and was a finalist for both the Balcones Prize and the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award.

Patricia will give a public reading from the book at the awards presentation at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17, in the Montpelier Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building in Washington, D.C.

You can read details about the award here.

And you can learn more about Patricia and her work here.

“you suddenly knew you had the right

to be explosive, to sling syllables through back doors,

to make up your own damned words just when you needed them”

— Patricia Smith

This Rondo is NOT Getting Traded To Dallas

After the Boston Celtics traded Rajon Rondo to the Mavericks earlier this week, our own Rondo, a big mutt named after the all-star point guard, was worried that he was getting shipped off to Dallas, where he would have loathed the hot summers..

Don’ worry, buddy. You and your big brother Brady (named after Tom, of course) aren’t going anywhere.

Brady and Rondo

Goofy Selfies From The Bouchercon World Mystery Convention

The best part of the Bouchercon World Mystery Convetion is the chance to hobnob with crime fiction royalty including Lee Child, David Morrell, and Sara Paretsky; to catch up with old friends including Gar Anthony Haywood, D.P. Lyle, and S.J. Rozan; to have long talks about storytelling, the publishing biz, and the writing life with the likes of Timothy Hallinan, Tim O’Mara, and Thomas Perry; and to chat with hundreds of readers. Here are a few selfies from the event, which was held in Long Beach last weekend.

“Cliff Walk” Brazillian Edition

“Cliff Walk,” the second crime novel in my Edgar Award-wining Mulligan series, is about to be published in Brazil. I thought you might like to see the cover.

The title, in Portuguese, translates roughly to “Dangerous Trek.”

The Mulligan novels (there are three in print and another coming in April) have been translated into ten foreign languages.

Killer Nashville Founder Clay Stafford’s Thoughts About “Providence Rag”

Clay Stafford, author, filmmaker, and founder of the Killer Nashville conference, wrote this commentary on Providence Rag, the latest novel in my hardboiled Liam Mulligan series, to accompany a guest blog I wrote for the conference website:

“Madness and Media: An Ethical Exploration:

“Author Bruce DeSilva goes, not only into the mind of a serial killer, but into the court system designed to hold him in Killer Nashville’s 52 Weeks, 52 Guest Bloggers series.

“Never say never. That’s one of those things we all probably learn with age. Edgar-winning author Bruce DeSilva swore he would never write a story about a serial killer. But he did. Sort of.

“What he has written is a story that haunts you. What kind of person is safe for release and, if everyone knows a prisoner is a time bomb, is it right to release him? Or is the court system allowed to invent charges to keep certain people behind bars after they have served their time for the public good? Doesn’t happen? Yes, it does.

“This is one of the most intriguing and informative studies I’ve read in a long time and we couldn’t find a better author than Bruce DeSilva to fictionalize it. This story will make you think.

“I can see why Bruce DeSilva wanted to write Providence Rag, even if it is something he said he would never do. This is not a story about where do you get your ideas, but how do you exorcise them for your mind. Some stories such as this- haunting and ethical- need to find a voice.”

You can read all of the guest blogs, including mine, here.

Providence Rag is the third novel in my Edgar Award-winning series featuring Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter at a dying Providence, R.I., newspaper. I hope you will purchase a copy from an independent bookstore; you can locate one in your area here.   If that’s not convenient for you, the novel, as well as the first two books in the series, are available in print, e-book, and audio editions here.