Bruce DeSilva's Blog, page 54

My Review of Laura Lippman's Fine New Novel

My Associated Press review of Laura Lippman's fine new novel is overwhelmingly positive, despite the somewhat misleading headline that appears over it in many online and print publications.

Although her series character, private detective Tess Monaghan, makes a cameo appearance, the new book, "The Most Dangerous Thing," is another in a line of stand-alone novels that have marked Lippman as one of the best in the business.

You can find the full review here.

 

Look Who's Reading "Rogue Island" Now! It's Best-Selling Thriller Writer Phillip Margolin

Phillip Margolin is the author of FIFTEEN New York Times thrillers. His latest, Supreme Justice, like all the others, draws on his 25 years as a defense attorney, during which he handled 30 homicide cases. I met him in July at the Thrillerfest conference in Manhattan.

Rogue Island is the winner of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allen Poe Award for best first novel and has been shortlisted for the Shamus, Macavity, Barry and Anthony Awards. The hardcover is now is short supply but you can order the trade paperback or Kindle edition here.  It is also available as downloadable audio book from Audible that can be downloaded here.

Timothy Hallinan's New Crime Novel is a WINNER!

My friend Timothy Hallinan is one of the best crime novelists around, and his new one, "Little Elvises," is not to be missed. Instead of going on about it myself, I'm going to let him tell you a little about himself and his new novel:
ABOUT TIMOTHY HALLINAN
I'm a 2011 Edgar and Macavity Best Novel nominee for my fourth Poke Rafferty Bangkok thriller, THE QUEEN OF PATPONG.  The series has been translated into eight languages and is in development for television, although we all know what the odds are on that.  In the 1990s I wrote a critically praised series about an overeducated private eye — lots of college degrees — named Simeon Grist.  It was greeted with profound indifference by the reading public but got good reviews everywhere.
I started the new series, of which LITTLE ELVISES is the second, for fun.  I had a voice in my head, a burglar who works as a private eye for crooks, and I liked the tone and the potential that the books could be both hardboiled and funny.  I wrote the first one, CRASHED, and turned down a publishing contract and instead did it direct-to-ebook.  It did okay — sales are down now but it sold pretty briskly for the first 6 months.  And it's had great reader reviews – 24 so far, 23 of which are 5 stars.  My agent pitched LITTLE ELVISES to a different publisher and they also made an offer, but I decided to stay with ebooks, since the Poke books are still being published on paper.  LITTLE ELVISES is, I think, one of the two best things I've ever written, the other being QUEEN.
I divide my time between Los Angeles and Southeast Asia.  Earlier this year, I conceived and edited an ebook collection of short stories by 20 very good mystery writers to raise money for the 2011 Japan Relief Fund.  SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN is available for Kindle, and even Amazon is donating its usual cut, so every penny of the $3.99 price goes to the Fund.  We got it up on the 3-month anniversary of the disaster, and It's raised quite a bit of money already.
ABOUT LITTLE ELVISES
The link to the Amazon page is http://www.amazon.com/Little-Elvises-Junior-Bender-ebook/dp/B005HPL3F4/
Junior Bender is a San Fernando valley burglar, an unhappily divorced man who still cares for his former wife and adores his 12-year-old daughter, Rina.  Junior's a very, very good burglar.  Despite plying his trade for most of his late-teen and adult life, he's never been arrested.  He also runs a profitable, if dangerous, sideline: he works as a private eye for crooks.  When someone does something crooked to a crook, the police are often not an option.  The option is Junior.
This moonlighting has not made him popular with some members of the LA underworld, and with the cops also interested in him, Junior lives in a series of motels, in a region that's especially rich in awful motels. The motel of the month is part of each book, in one way or another.  (In LITTLE ELVISES , it's Marge 'n Ed's North Pole.)
In LITTLE ELVISES , Junior is forced by a corrupt cop to go to the rescue of an old record producer, a guy who, in the sixties, grabbed handsome boys off of Philadelphia stoops and turned them into little Elvises for six months or a year, until the fans got tired of them.  A supermarket-tabloid journalist has been murdered on Hollywood Boulevard and the cops think the music producer did it because — well, because he was planning to do it. He was even scouting for a hit man, which someone told the cops, but somebody else got to the journalist first.  So the story takes Junior into the arena of old-time rock-and-roll, missing persons, the world's oldest still-dangerous gangster, a murderer of young women, and a terrifying if somewhat hapless hit man named Fronts.

"Rogue Island" A Finalist for the Shamus Award!

My crime novel, Rogue Island, has been short-listed for the prestigious Shamus Award in the best first novel category. The award is presented by the Private Eye Writers of America. You can find the rest of the nominees listed here.

Rogue Island, which has already won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for the best first novel of 2010, has also been short-listed for:

–Deadly Pleasure Magazine's Barry Award

–The Mystery Readers International's Macavity Award.

– The Anthony Award which is decided by the attendees of the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention.

The Barry, Macavity and Anthony will all be presented at Bouchercon, which will be held in St Lous Sept. 15-18.

Rogue Island, originally published in hardcover, is now available in trade paperback and for the Kindle. You can find those editions here. It is also available in a downloadable audio version from Audible that you can find here.

Zoe Sharp's New Short Story Collection Now Available!

FOX FIVE, a short story collection by acclaimed crime thriller writer Zoë Sharp, is now available for Kindle. All feature her ex-Special Forces soldier turned self-defence expert and bodyguard, Charlotte 'Charlie' Fox.

In "A Bridge Too Far," we meet Charlie before she's become a professional in the world of close protection. When she agrees to hang out with the local Dangerous Sports Club, she has no idea it will soon live up to its name.

"Postcards From Another Country" has Charlie guarding the ultra-rich Dempsey family against attempted assassination – no matter where the danger lies.

A finalist for the CWA Short Story Dagger, "Served Cold" puts another tough woman centre stage – the mysterious Layla, with betrayal in her past and murder in her heart.

"Off Duty" finds Charlie taking time away from close protection after injury. She still finds trouble, even in an out-of-season health spa in the Catskill Mountains.

And finally, "Truth And Lies" puts all Charlie's skills and ingenuity to the test as she has to single-handedly extract a news team from a rapidly escalating war zone.

Also included: An excerpt from KILLER INSTINCT: Charlie Fox book one, Meet Charlie Fox, Meet Zoë Sharp, info on the other books in the Charlie Fox series.

You can buy it here.

Praise for Zoë Sharp and Charlie Fox:

'Ill-tempered, aggressive and borderline psychotic, Fox is also compassionate, introspective and highly principled: arguably one of the most enigmatic − and coolest − heroines in contemporary genre fiction.' Paul Goat Allen, Chicago Tribune

"If you don't like Zoë Sharp there's something wrong with you. Go and live in a cave and get the hell out of my gene pool! There are few writers who go right to the top of my TBR pile − Zoë Sharp is one of them."– Stuart MacBride

"Anyone with a brain wants Charlie Fox for the girl next door. Funny, compassionate, and with moves that can − and do − kill, Charlie is the indelible creation of the remarkable Zoë Sharp." — Gayle Lynds

Look Who's Reading "Rogue Island" Now! It's Parnell Hall, the "King of Kindle."

Parnell Hall is the author of the Stanley Hastings private eye novels, the Puzzle Lady crossword mysteries, and the Steve Winslow legal dramas. He's also the self-proclaimed "King of Kindle."

Check out his "King of Kindle" video here. You won't be sorry.

Rogue Island is currently available in trade paperback and Kindle editions that you can find here. It is also available here in a downloadable audio edition from Audible.

Look Who's Reading "Rogue Island" Now. It's the Great Ken Follett!

Ken Follett may well be the greatest thriller writer of them all.  His novels, including Eye of the Needle, Triple, The Man From St Petersburg, Hornets Flight, World Without End, and many more, have sold more than 100 million copies.

I met him last month at Thrillerfest, the big thriller writer conference in Manhattan, and discovered that in addition to being a fine writer, he's a really nice guy.

Rogue Island, my Edgar Award-winning crime novel, is currently available in trade paperback and Kindle editions that can be purchased here.  A downloadable audio edition from Audible can be purchased here.

Happy Birthday, Buddy Guy!

Buddy Guy, our greatest living bluesman, turned 75 on July 30. He's celebrating tomorrow (Aug. 7) at a party at his Chicago club, Legends. Wish I could be there.

Buddy is also a favorite of Mulligan, the main character in my Edgar Award-winning  novel, Rogue Island. In fact, in Cliff Walk, the second book in my crime novel series (to be published next spring), Mulligan takes a date to a Buddy Guy show in Boston. Give this a listen and you'll understand why. Click here.

A Great New Thriller from C.J. Box

C.J. Box's latest mountain-west thriller, Back of Beyond, is his best yet — a riveting plot, compelling characters, chilling bad guys, a beautifully rendered western setting, and fine prose. I highly recommend it.

You can read my full book review for The Associated Press here.

Look Who's Reading "Rogue Island" Now! It's thriller writer Jon Land.

Jon Land is the author of 30 books including a fine series of thrillers featuring a Texas Ranger named Caitlin Strong. He was also instrumental in getting my novel, Rogue Island, published, strongly recommending it to his publisher, Forge, which subsequently bought it.

Rogue Island won the coveted Edgar Award for best first novel and is a finalist for the Anthony, Macavity and Barry Awards that will be announced in September.  It is available in a new trade paperback edition and for the Kindle, but the hardcover is in rather short supply now.  You can buy those editions here.

A downloadable audio version is available from Audible and can be purchased here.