Crime Fiction Dossier

Book of the Week: Brett Battles' "The Cleaner"

Brett Battles’ first novel introduces one of the most interesting new protagonists in the thriller genre. Quinn, a covert operative who specializes in making problems go away, has the potential to make this series a long and successful one. With a blazing first half, interesting characters and solid prose, The Cleaner is an entertaining and effective spy novel that heralds good things for Battles' career.

PSA: Killer Year 2008

The following is a public service announcement.

If you are thriller/mystery/suspense writer whose debut novel is being published in 2008, go to http://2008.killeryear.com to learn more about Killer Year 2008.

Killer Year began in 2007 as a group of debut thriller/suspense authors who banded together to help promote each other. In the end thirteen authors were involved. Efforts that they used in promotion included the Killer Year blog, Killer Year website, a chap book mailed to several hundred independent booksellers, organizing Killer Year panels at various conferences and bookseller events, and producing a Killer Year anthology which will be published by St. Martin's in 2008.

For their hard work, they've received major press coverage, radio interviews and feature articles as well as the sponsorship of ITW.

So get ready, because 2008 is gonna be another Killer Year.

For more details go to http://2008.killeryear.com.

Application deadline is June 15, 2007.

Review of Marc Lecard's "Vinnie's Head"

Seamlessly interweaving humor into a crime novel is no easy trick. Few authors can pull it off, and fewer still can do it successfully with their first novel. Marc Lecard has done it, however, with Vinnie's Head, as darkly humorous and entertaining a novel as you'll likely read this year.

Johnnie LoDuco tries his best, but he isn't a very successful criminal. He's been accused of a robbery he didn't even commit, and has been forced to go on the lam. That's when his luck really turns bad. While fishing on Long Island Sound, he inadvertently catches the severed head of Vinnie McCloskey-Schmidt, his best friend and partner in crime.

That discovery sets off a madcap series of adventures, which have Johnnie being chased by a motley crew of mobsters, bent cops and a serial killer who really loves his Mommy. The whole thing would be ridiculous if it weren't so well done and so damn hilarious.

Vinnie's Head is not for every taste, but it's definitely for people who like their crime funny, brutal and over-the-top. Lecard is a true find.

For more reviews like this one, please visit Mystery Ink.

Review of Marcus Sakey's "The Blade Itself"

New authors come and go, with few of them having the staying power to make a lasting career in this crazy business. It's impossible to predict who is going to make it and who is not. Judging by Marcus Sakey's debut novel, The Blade Itself, however, it seems likely that he's going to be around for quite a while.

Danny Carter, the book's protagonist, is just a regular guy living an ordinary life. He's got a good job, a nice condo in the city and a girlfriend he loves. But he also has a secret. Seven years before, he was involved in a robbery where a man was shot and nearly killed.

Danny's partner went to prison, but Danny went free. Now the partner has been released, and has come looking for Danny, eager to resume their life of crime. Danny wants no part of that, however. He's determined to stay on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, for him, his former partner isn't willing to take no for an answer.

Marcus Sakey writes like he's been doing this for a lifetime. Reading The Blade Itself one can make guesses about the authors who may have influenced him, people like Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane. What's most impressive, however, is that rather than resembling the work of those other authors, Sakey's writing reads as if it were all his own.

His prose is so polished, his eyes and ears so keenly attuned, that it's hard to believe that this is his first novel. The Blade Itself has its flaws – it can be too sentimental at times, and the plot requires a little too much suspension of disbelief – but it is nevertheless a remarkable debut, one of the best to come along in some time.

For more reviews like this one, please visit Mystery Ink.

A killer withdrawal

Last year, in a fit of madness, I pledged to read and review all of the books being published by the "Killer Year" gang of debut authors. At the time, I didn't think it would be a problem. Unfortunately, that hasn't proven true.

My reading and reviewing schedule has grown so tight these days that I have very little time to read any books that are not likely to appear in my newspaper column. And since the focus of my column has shifted (with a greater emphasis on books by well-known authors, bestsellers, etc.), it's not likely that I'm going to be able to include many KY books.

I also don't have nearly as much time to read overall as I wish I did. (My daughter and my job keep getting in the way.) One of the downsides to being a professional reviewer is that it puts a serious crimp in your discretionary reading. I have almost no time to read purely for pleasure. (Yeah, I know...  Waah, waah, poor me.)

I'm still trying to read as many of the Killer Year books as I can. And I hope to be reviewing some of them as well. But I'm not going to be able to do all of them as I had originally hoped. I hate having to back off from something like this, but I don't have much choice.

I'm sorry about that, folks.

Review of Sean Chercover's "Big City, Bad Blood"

The private eye novel has been pronounced dead so many times that Mutual of Omaha refuses to return its calls. As long as there are writers like Sean Chercover around, however, the genre will be alive and kicking for a long time.

Big City, Bad Blood introduces Chicago PI Ray Dudgeon, a hardboiled former reporter who has taken a job protecting a Hollywood location manager who saw something he shouldn’t have.

Dudgeon expects the job will be an easy one – after all, his contacts in The Outfit (i.e., the Chicago mob) say they have no interest in the producer. But then the bodies start to fall and Dudgeon finds himself risking his own life to discover the truth.

Big City, Bad Blood doesn’t try to reinvent the detective novel. Instead, it is a respectful homage to the form, a solid example of a fine tradition practiced by such authors as Ross Macdonald and Robert B. Parker. Chercover is a promising talent who bears watching, hopefully for a long time to come.

For more reviews like this one, please visit Mystery Ink.

Killer Year update -- "Vinnie's Head"

I read my fourth Killer Year book and didn't even know it! (Okay, technically it's only my third, since C.J. Lyons had to drop out of the group. But still.)

I devoured Marc Lecard's superb, twisted, hilarious, gruesome, wonderful, outrageous novel Vinnie's Head last weekend, only to discover afterwards that he's part of the Killer Year group. (I guess I should pay attention to who's actually in this group, since I said I'd read all their books.)

I started Vinnie's Head on Saturday afternoon and couldn't put it down until I finished it on Sunday morning. (I guess that's what most people are talking about when they say "I read it in one sitting!" Either that, or they're just lying.)

The book isn't being published until March -- I know, that's a lonnnngggg 'ways off -- but make a note of it now. If you're the least bit sick and twisted -- or just like to read about people who are -- you'll love this book.

Killer Year update

In a fit of madness, I announced a while back that I would be reading and reviewing all of the books published in 2007 by the Killer Year authors.

I wanted to let you know that I recently read my third book from one of the Killer Year folks. No reviews yet (since the books haven't been published), but so far I can say that I have enjoyed all three of them, and have been impressed by the quality of the writing.

The books I've read are:

• Stigma by Philip Hawley, Jr.
• The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey
• Blink of an Eye by C.J. Lyons

If this early bunch is any indication, we can expect some good things from this group.

2007 will be a Killer Year

Old news here, but I wanted to mention it anyway... A group of debut crime novelists, with books all coming out in 2007, has banded together to form a collective called Killer Year.

They're trying to cross-promote each other's work and hopefully gain some publicity for the group as a whole. Definitely a nice idea. It's incumbent upon authors these days to search for creative ways to gain attention, and this is an innovative one.

In an attempt to help out, I've decided that I will read and review all of the books put out in 2007 by Killer Year novelists. I can't guarantee everyone a newspaper review, unfortunately, but at the least, I can write about them here on the blog.

Once the last of them is published, I'll pick my favorite of the bunch and anoint it the Killer Book of the Year. (How's that for a remarkable act of hubris?)

For the record, I've already read two of the books and they're both quite good. So I'm expecting big things for this bunch.

Watch this space for more on the Killer Year books -- and definitely check out what the group is up to. There are some fine writers participating.

(By the way, I've opened up comments on this post, so you can tell me if I'm getting too big of an ego.)