Dave Zeltserman's Blog, page 3
July 30, 2025
July 28, 2025
July 25, 2025
May 14, 2025
Introduction to my Morris Brick crime thrillers
When Michaela Hamilton approached me about writing aserial killer series for Kensington Books, I used John Lutz’s brilliant FrankQuinn series as inspiration for what would become my Morris Brick series. Whatparticularly drew me to the Frank Quinn books was the clever plotting, how Lutzused chapters to flash back to the killer’s earlier life to explore thekiller’s evolution, the way the team of investigators working with Frank werean extended family complete with sniping, jibes, and true caring, and how Lutzmade the victims flesh and blood instead of cardboard cutouts so we’d careabout them and dread what would be happening.
I named my detective Morris after a favorite uncle,and I gave him the name Brick, because like my uncle, my detective would have ashort, compact body, in short, “built like a brick.” The Frank Quinn seriestakes place in NYC whereas my Morris Brick series takes place in Los Angeles,and not just so Morris and Frank Quinn wouldn’t compete to catch the same perpetrators!Hollywood and the drive for fame (or infamy) are an integral part of thisseries. At heart, I’m a crime fiction writer, and these books, particularly ThePeople We Kill, The Lives We Take, and The Pain We Bring arefilled with criminal activity and its consequences.
Now that I have the rights back for this series, I’mpublishing the books under my own name instead of the Jacob Stone pseudonym,with the titles I had originally wanted, and with cover art that I feel bettercaptures the dark nature of these books. While I’m not promising now that therewill be more Morris Brick full-length novels in the future, several MorrisBrick short stories have been published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,and I do expect to write more of these.
All five books will be released June 10th as Kindle books and are available now for preorder.
May 10, 2025
crime thriller series available for preorder
Kensington originally published these books using a "Jacob Stone" pseudonym. I have the e-book rights back, and all five books in the series are now available for preorder.
March 19, 2025
Introduction for Buxton and Other Stories
The Introduction for my new short story collection Buxton and Other Stories:
One of thedefinitions Merriam-Webster gives for fantastic is ‘conceived or seeminglyconceived by unrestrained fancy.’ Another is ‘so extreme as to challengebelief.’ Since all the stories in this collection fit either of thosedefinitions, or at least graze them, I considered calling this collection TheFantastics. But there's a double problem with that: First, there’s the 1960play The Fantasticks, which could cause some confusion, and second, Merriam-Websteralso gives a third possible definition of ‘excellent, superlative’, and thatmight convey more than a whiff of conceit.
Sincemy first short story collection was titled 21 Tales, and there are twentystories in this collection, I briefly considered the title Almost 21 MoreTales. But the stories in this collection are very different from my earliernoir stories in that first collection.
Whilethese stories run the gamut from science fiction to horror to mystery,relationships are at the core of most of them—whether it’s the relationshipbetween a husband and wife, a couple which have just started dating, twopartners, a baseball player on his last legs and his parents, or a reporter andthe truth.
March 18, 2025
Buxton and Other Stories
March 17, 2025
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March 15, 2025
February 25, 2025
More about Everybody Lies in Hell
Over on my free davezeltserman.substack.com, I have some fun with Everybody Lies in Hell illustrations, as well as talking a little bit about the book.
