Dave Zeltserman's Blog, page 17

Chapter One: Murder Club

Murder Club is a crime noir novel that will be published in Germany with the title Everything Ends Here. I thought I'd give people a taste of this one and I've put the first chapter up on my website here.

CRAZED Excerpt

He brought the steak knife and fork he had used to the bathroom so he could wash them—again, he didn’t want to leave any DNA or fingerprints behind. When he was done he brought them over to Claire, and sat down on the bed next to her. Her face had become wet with tears, and she pleaded with him with her eyes. He knew what she’d be begging him to do if he hadn’t gagged her. Take my money, but please don’t hurt me. Pathetic in a way, because of course he was also going to be taking her money afterwards.“The coin came up heads,” he explained to her. “If it had been tails, you’d be alive tomorrow.”She tried once more to scream, but only a low muffled noise escaped her gag, certainly nothing anyone in the hallway or a neighboring room would’ve been able to hear. As he watched her, he could see the terror within her becoming something palpable. It wasn’t just because she was afraid of what he was going to do to her, but because she could see that the beast that had been dormant for so many months had finally arisen within him.For a long moment Griffin sat still and admired the long, willowy canvas that he had to work with. When her terror made her try screaming again, he didn’t bother to hush her, and instead went to work, using the fork and steak knife on her. The beast could be patient and meticulous, though, and as he had promised, he took his time. After all, even though the beast had been let loose, keeping his promise was still the gentlemanly thing to do.

Cover reveal: German edition of Murder Club

 The brilliant cover for the German edition of Murder Club, with the title 'Everything Ends Here'. This is easily my best crime noir novel, and hopefully if/after Outsourced gets made (which is looking highly likely--more later on that) this will find a US publisher. I showed this book (the English version, not the German translation!) to my fellow crime writer and traveler into dark realms, Roger Smith, Roger's thoughts: "A great book. Dark and insidious. Gets the nerves on edge." I also showed it to an editor at Little Brown, who told me it was the best crime novel he's read in 5 years, and was excited about buying it until he talked to his boss. In the meantime, anyone who wants to read this--learn German!

Small Crimes picked again as a top crime novel in Germany

 When Small Crimes was published in 2008, it received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly ("deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy"), was picked by the Washington Post as one of the best books of the year, and topped NPR's list of best mystery and crime novels of the year. In Italy, it was voted 3rd in their 2010 Bloody Mary award for best crime novel, and now that it has been published in Germany, it was selected by their crime fictions as one of the best 10 crimes in Germany for November and December. If you haven't read Small Crimes yet, isn't it about time you do? Or you can always see the recent Netflix movie based on the book that stars everybody's top 2 Lannisters (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau).

About CRAZED

That author's name on the cover, Jacob Stone? It's a pseudonym. I'm writing these. When I started this thriller series for Kensington, they wanted a different name for marketing purposes to differentiate this series from my other books. But these thrillers have the same twisty plots and darkness as my crime novels, with some of the humor from my Julius Katz stories. And I have to think my bull terrier Parker is as endearing a character as Archie from those Julius Katz stories. 

Originally I was going to make what became my third Morris Brick thriller, MALICIOUS, my follow-up to DERANGED, which is why DERANGED has the epilog that it does. But after the conclusion of DERANGED, which finds Sheila Proops not only alive but free, I decided I needed to bring her back, and so CRAZED was born.
The serial killer in CRAZED, Griffin Bolling, is quite a piece of work, to the say the least. At the beginning of the book, he decides he’s going to make Sheila one of his victims, and travels from Seattle to Los Angeles, leaving a trail of corpses in his path. When he finally meets up with Sheila, plans change, and I think readers will find his partnership with Sheila chilling. Added to the mix is a desperate wannabe filmmaker, Allen Perlmutter, and when Perlmutter stumbles upon what Sheila and Griffin are up to, he starts spying on them, thinking that he’ll be able to make a movie out of it. Perlmutter and his rationalizations is what I believe makes this thriller really sing.
Of course, Morris Brick is back, as is his charming wife, Natalie, their daughter Rachel, and the rest of the MBI (Morris Brick Investigations) team. So is the actor Philip Stonehedge, and Morris’s stubborn-as-hell bull terrier, Parker
Bill Crider on CRAZED:  “Great stuff if you like serial killer thrillers with a difference and highly recommended.”

Small Crimes in Germany!

Germany's crime fiction critics picked Small Crimes as the 6th best crime novel in Germany for November.

CRAZED

A couple of recent lists recommending The Caretaker of Lorne Field

It was nice to see The Caretaker of Lorne Field join Paul Tremblay's sick+twisted+very excellent A Head Full of Ghosts on this list from BookRiot. Those darn Aukowies also showed up on on this Book picks for Halloween.

Play casting agent and win a free copy of MALICIOUS!

Read CRAZED, have some fun playing casting agent, and win a free ebook copy of the 3rd Morris Brick crime thriller MALICIOUS! But that's not all! One lucky winner (if he or she wishes) will also be immortalized in a future Julius Katz mystery story that will be published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by having a suspect named after you.

Send me your dream movie cast for the following characters in CRAZED, and I'll send the best 5 a free ebook for the upcoming MALICIOUS when it's available: Morris Brick, Natalie Brick, Philip Stonehedge,Sheila Proops, Griffin Bolling, and Allen Perlmutter. If you want to include actors to play other characters in the book, feel free!

All entries must be received by Oct. 22.

Small Crimes to Crazed

I sold my 3rd novel Small Crimes to Serpent’s Tail in 2006. Back then we had a different publishing and book world. Hell, ebooks didn’t exist, self-publishing was a dirty word, and it was chain stores putting pressure on independent bookstores, not Amazon. When I was first starting out, I was writing crime noir, then later horror and books that were a mix of horror and crime. All standalones. During this strange journey, I’ve been reviewed in major newspapers, both in the US and abroad. I’ve seen my books translated into six languages, and one of them made into a movie. 
Now in 2017, I’ve just seen my second Morris Brick thriller and 13th traditionally-published novel, CRAZED, be released. There’s not much chance I would’ve been able to write this series when I was first starting out. As long as you’re trying, you can’t help but grow as a writer, and that’s a big part of the reason. My publisher requires these Morris Brick thrillers to be at least 90k words long, which means I need to be able to outline plots where I know how long the book will be while not adding any fat or filler. The books need to be fast, and the complex puzzles I’m constructing need to tightly fit together regardless of the word length. That’s a skill that takes time to learn. Also, I understand the business side much better than when I started. If you’re writing a series, you need to play by a certain set of rules. It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, or you’re not proud of the books—because I’m damn proud of these Morris Brick thrillers—it just means you’re more aware of writing within the genre’s boundaries.
13 books published, dozens of short stories, at least three more Morris Brick thrillers coming, three books self-published, one more noir novel that’s so far only coming out in Germany, and things are looking good for two more movies. It’s certainly been interesting so far. I’ll see how much longer I can keep this ride going.