“Cliff Walk” Featured on NPR’s “Crime in the City” Segment

Roger Williams looks out on the city he founded

Today, Liam Mulligan, the hero of my two crime novels, Cliff Walk and Rogue Island, was featured on NPR’s wonderful “Crime in the City” segment.

For the uninitiated, the segment features crime novelists taking NPR correspondents on tours of the cities in which their novels are set. I got to accompany Jennifer Ludden of NPR on a jaunt through Providence, R.I., where Mulligan uncovers crime and corruption for the dying Providence Dispatch newspaper.

We began the tour by visiting Prospect Terrace Park, where a huge statue of Roger Williams looks out over the city he founded nearly 400 years ago. From there we hit all of the highlights and lowlights, from the little office where a mobster named Raymond L.S. Patriarca once ruled much of New England to Casserta, the Federal Hill pizzeria where  Mulligan often dines. We dropped by the real Providence newspaper, the Providence Journal, where I began my writing career, and even visited the street where Mulligan lives.

Jennifer and her producer did a great job with both the audio and print versions of the story. You can see them both here, but I recommend you forgo the print version and listen to the audio.

Rogue Island won both the Edgar and the Macavity Awards and was a finalist for the Shamus, Barry, and Anthony Awards. Most reviewers say Cliff Walk is even better. You can purchase print, e-book, and audio editions of the novels here.