Bruce DeSilva's Blog, page 50

"Flat Spin" — A Superb Debut Thriller By David Freed

When you set out to write your first thriller, it's wise to stick with what you know.

Here's what David Freed knows:

Murder. He covered the O.J. Simpson trial for CBS News.

Cops. He covered them for The Los Angeles Times, where he was a solo finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and shared in the Pulitzer for coverage of the Rodney King riots.

Military affairs. He reported from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.

Computers. He scripted computerized training simulations for the Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Army's Battle Command Lab.

Aviation. He is a pilot and owns his own airplane.

Secrets. He holds an active security clearance from the Department of Defense.

And he uses all of this knowledge and then some in Flat Spin, his first novel, which will be published by The Permanent Press in May. It's already available for pre-order here.

Unlike some novelists with enormous technical expertise, Freed is superb writer. His prose is at once muscular and musical—and sometimes verges on poetry. And he skillfully mixes a hard-boiled sensibility with flashes of sardonic humor. His style reminds me a bit of two of my favorite literary crime novelists, Bill Loehfelm and T. Jefferson Parker.

The hero of Flat Spin, the first book in a planned series, is Cordell Logan, a former member of a top-secret military assassination squad. As the story opens, Logan is living in a converted garage in Rancho Bonita, California, and unsuccessfully trying to make a living by giving flying lessons to spoiled rich kids. He's haunted by his past, aching for his beautiful ex-wife Savannah, and failing miserably—and hilariously—to find peace through his recent conversion to Buddhism.

When Savannah's new husband, another former assassination squad member named Arlo Eschevarria, is gunned down at his front door, Logan has a very un-Buddhist reaction. He's elated. But his mood quickly evaporates when he finds himself the prime suspect.

With police detectives both overworked and looking in the wrong places, Logan gets sucked into investigating the case himself. He takes to the air in "The Ruptured Duck," his Cessna 172, following the killer's trail from the mean streets of Oakland to the Las Vegas Strip, from the Arizona desert to Russian Mafia haunts in West Los Angeles.

Eventually, he gets too close to the surprising truth and is targeted for murder himself.

The way Logan sees it, being in mortal danger and suspected of murder are the least of his problems. He is consumed by his longing for Savannah, the pain made so real that your own heart will ache.

The riveting plot, well-drawn characters, and magnificent prose are sure to make Flat Spin one of the finest debuts of 2012.

The Ten Best Crime Novels of 2011

This was a great year for crime fiction, so perhaps it would be better to call these my favorites, rather than the best. Or maybe I should just say that of the ones I've read, these are the ten I liked best–because, of course, I haven't read everything.

In any case, here's the list.

Feast Day of Fools  by James Lee Burke

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran

When the Thrill is Gone by Walter Mosley

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

The Cut by George Pelecanos

The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook

The Devil She Knows by Bill Loehfelm

The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman

Back of Beyond by CJ Box

Trespasser by Paul Doiron

That's my top ten, but I'd be remiss if I didn't also recommend:

Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton

A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

Ghost Heroes by S.J. Rozan

The New Joe Hunter Novel from Matt Hilton

Dead Men's Harvest is the sixth Joe Hunter novel from Matt Hilton. The series has deservedly been compared to Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels as well as to Robert Crais' books featuring Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If you haven't read Hilton, you ought to give him a try.

You can find the book here.

"Rogue Island" To Be Published In Nine Foreign Languages

Rogue Island, my Edgar Award and Macavity Award-winning debut crime novel, just sold to one of the leading publishers in Poland.

That now makes nine foreign publishers who have bought the book. The others are in France, Japan, Russia, Italy, Korea, Israel, Mexico and Brazil. A few of them gave me two-book deals that include the sequel, Cliff Walk, which will be published in the United States by Forge in May.

My agent, Susanna Einstein, and her foreign sales expert, Sandy Hodgman, continue to do a fantastic job for me.

Rogue Island is available in trade paperback, Kindle, and downloadable audio edition; and hard copes, though in short supply, remain available. You can purchase the book here.

Look Who's Reading "Rogue Island" Now! It's Crime Novelist Ridley Pearson.

Ridley Pearson

Ridley Pearson, a New York Times best-selling author, has written more than 25 crime novels and thrillers including his popular Lou Boldt series.  His next one, "The Risk Agent," will be published early next year. Remarkably, the research for one of his novels, "Undercurrents," helped solve a real murder case.

He is also the author of a half dozen books for young readers, including his latest, "The Bridge to Neverland," written with Dave Barry. And he is also a successful screenwriter and playwright.

I met Ridley a couple of months ago at Bouchercon, the international thriller writer's convention, in St. Louis.

"Rogue Island," winner of both the Edgar and the Macavity Awards, is available in trade paperback, Kindle, hardcover, and downloadable audio editions here. (Be aware, however, that the hardcover is in short supply.)

Best Acceptance Speech EVER: Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney's speech when she accepted the 2011 National Book Award for poetry is the best acceptance speech I have ever heard. The way it echoes down the generations, and the simple elegance of the language, both touched and inspired me.

You can listen to it here — and you should. It is not to be missed. Advance to the two-minute mark of the video to get directly to her.

The voice you will hear shouting "Yeah Nikky!" as the winner takes the stage belongs to another of our greatest poets, my wife Patricia Smith.

BTW, the second-best acceptance speech I ever heard was when John Larroquette got his Emmy. He pranced up to the microphone, raised the feminine statuette over his head, said "I've always loved short women," and left the stage.

Who's Reading "Rogue Island" Now? It's Actor John Lithgow!

John Lithgow

John Lithgow was an Academy Award nominee for best supporting actor for his roles in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment. He's also a familiar face on TV ("3rd Rock") and Broadway ("Sweet Smell of Success.")

What you might not know is that he is also a very good writer who has published both children's books and volumes of poetry.

My wife, the poet Patricia Smith, photographed him at The National Book Awards, which he hosted.

Rogue Island, winner of both the Edgar and Macavity awards, is available in trade paperback, Kindle, and downloadable audio editions. Hardcovers are also still on sale, but are in very short supply.  The various editions are available for purchase here.

Who's Reading "Rogue Island" Now? It's Filmmaker John Waters.

We caught up with John Waters last night in Manhattan, where he and my wife, the poet Patricia Smith, participated in the National Book Awards' Five over Thirty-Five program honoring young fiction writers.

Waters, of course, is most famous for the many cult movies he wrote and directed, including Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Cecil B. Demented, and the original Hairspray.  But he has also acted in a large number of movies and TV shows, produced photo-based art books and exhibitions, and written several books including Shock Value, Crackpot, and Role Models.

Rogue Island, winner of both the Edgar and Macavity Awards, is available in trade paperback, Kindle, and downloadable audio editions that can be found here.

"Felony Fists," the New Boxing Crime Novel from Paul Bishop

I've always found that professional boxing is a rich subject for crime novels, and such is certainly the case with Felony Fists, the latest from Paul Bishop.

L os Angeles 1954

Patrick "Felony" Flynn has been fighting all his life. Learning the "sweet science" from Father Tim the fighting priest at St. Vincent's, the Chicago orphanage where Pat and his older brother Mickey were raised, Pat has battled his way around the world – first with the Navy and now with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Legendary LAPD chief William Parker is on a rampage to clean up both the department and the city. His elite crew of detectives known as The Hat Squad is his blunt instrument – dedicated, honest, and fearless. Promotion from patrol to detective is Pat's goal, but he also yearns to be one of the elite.

And his fists are going to give him the chance.

Gangster Mickey Cohen runs LA's rackets, and murderous heavyweight Solomon King is Cohen's key to taking over the fight game. Chief Parker wants wants Patrick "Felony" Flynn to stop him – a tall order for middleweight ship's champion with no professional record.

Leading with his chin, and with his partner, LA's first black detective Tombstone Jones, covering his back, Patrick Flynn and his Felony Fists are about to fight for his future, the future of the department, and the future of Los Angeles.

You can buy the book here.  Learn more about the author here.

"Hope's Road," a Remarkable New Literary Crime Novel by William Wells

It has been two years since Hope—Jack and Jenna Tanner's bright and beautiful only child—walked out of her apartment door at the University of Wisconsin and vanished into the night.

Since then, Jenna's grief has led to madness. She is confined now in a psychiatric hospital. Jack has been unable to concentrate on business. He has lost his job as a tax attorney at the largest law firm in Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, Slater Babcock, Hope's college boyfriend and the only suspect in her disappearance, is enjoying the decadent life of a rich man's spoiled son in sunny Key West.

Jack has no illusions that Hope is going to walk through his door someday. He's quite sure she's dead. All he can hope for now is to learn her fate, and perhaps to bring her body home.

Jack has never been the adventurous type. He's led the most ordinary of lives. He's not much for confrontation. But he decides he must track down Slater Babcock and somehow get him to reveal what he did to Hope.

He recognizes, however, that he is not up to the task. To do what must be done, he has to become a different man; but if he gets on a plane to Key West, he will be the same man when he gets off.

So Jack buys himself a Harley-Davidson Road King and some leathers and rumbles down the highway, as lonely as cowboy riding into the sunset.

His first stop is Madison. There, he cruises the University of Wisconsin campus and stops in on the detective who is in charge of Hope's case—and who has no news.

From there, Jack sets off on the 1,700-mile journey to Key West, hoping he will be man enough to do what needs to be done by the time he reaches his destination. Although exactly what needs to be done, Jack cannot yet say.

The author of this extraordinary new novel is William Wells, a well-remembered figure from my distant past—although back then he was Bill Welt, the last name carrying a mildly disquieting connotation.

In the 1970s, Bill and I were privileged to be part of a group of extraordinary young journalists who peopled the newsroom of The Providence Journal, then perhaps the finest small-city newspaper in America. Eventually most of us moved on to the big-time, to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press.

But Bill, who we grudgingly admitted was the best writer among us, took a different path. He joined the enemy, becoming a speech writer for the governor of Michigan. Later he was a marketing agency executive, a custom publishing company owner, and the writer of an internationally syndicated comic strip.

Now, all these years later, I am startled to discover that our divergent paths have somehow led us to the same place.

My first crime novel, Rogue Island, was  published by Forge last year, the second, Cliff Walk, will be published in May, and I'm working on the third. Bill's first novel, Hope's Road, will be published in April, and he's hard at work on another.

Hope's Road is a remarkable tale of heartbreak, healing, and self-discovery written in a lyrical style that is by turns muscular and elegant. The story is romantic yet unwaveringly clear-eyed about life—and death.

The book reminds me a bit of Thomas H. Cook's best literary crime fiction—masterpieces like Red Leaves and The Fate of Katherine Carr—although Cook's plots tend to be more complex.

Hope's Road is certain to make my list of the best debut novels of the year.

On his long journey to Key West, Jack Tanner encounters a series of characters as memorable as any I've read in years. There's Hannah, the young street hustler who befuddles Jack with her charms; The Devil's Disciples, a group of weekend-warrior motorcyclists heading to Bike Week in Daytona Beach; a Hemingway impersonator who may, or may not, have deluded himself into thinking he is actually the great man himself; and, finally, Slater Babcock—Jack's personal white whale.

What Jack learns from them (mostly things about himself), and what he finally does in the end, will not be revealed here. That is something to be savored as you read this fine literary crime novel.

Hope's Road is available for pre-order here.