Brash Blog

Big Ideas and Big Names in suspense from Brash Books

Get the big ideas from the biggest names in suspense on the Brash Books blog. Here, you'll find posts by some of your favorite mystery authors sharing their views on crime fiction - along with inside stories about everything from how they wrote their bestselling thrillers to what inspires them.

You'll also hear from experts in the mystery and suspense genre, along with fans, publishing insiders, and of course, Brash Books. Posts will range from informative to controversial - but you can bet every one will be a compelling read. This is your destination to explore great crime fiction writing - past, present and future - from the authors, readers, and publishers who keep it alive.

The Inside Story: Death of the Detective by Mark Smith

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Today is pub-day for our re-release of Mark Smith's The Death of the Detective , a National Book Award finalist and widely regarded as perhaps the best crime novel ever written. Author Ed Gorman, founder of Mystery Scene Magazine, took this opportunity to interview Mark. Here's their talk. It's got to be hard to top what many consider to be an American classic. What are you working on now? I have just finished a 168,000 word novel entitled Da Gama's Gold (a line from Robert Frost's "America Is Hard to See"), a reworking and reduction from a longer novel I spent too many years writing. It's likely my most ambitious work since The Death of the Detective, and whereas that novel took on... more

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WL Ripley: MISTAKES MADE BY BEGINNING WRITERS (and what to do about them)

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W.L. Ripley is the author of two critically-acclaimed series of crime novels -- four books featuring ex-professional football player Wyatt Storme and four books about ex-Secret Service agent Cole Springer. His latest novel is Storme Warning, a stunning new mystery/thriller that we're publishing in February. We will also be re-releasing Ripley's other books through 2015 and early 2016. Want to sell your book? Here are the major mistakes to avoid... UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR This is a profession, not a hobby. Act like an adult when you’re dealing with editors (who are overworked and the best people in the business). Don’t write nasty letters when your work is rejected. Nobody likes... more

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STORMING THE GATES: How To Write A Sure-fire, Can’t Miss, Guaranteed-To-Get-A-Read, Fiction Proposal

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W.L. Ripley is the author of two critically-acclaimed series of crime novels -- four books featuring ex-professional football player Wyatt Storme and four books about ex-Secret Service agent Cole Springer. His latest novel is Storme Warning, a stunning new mystery/thriller that we're publishing in February. We will also be re-releasing Ripley's other books through 2015 and early 2016. I live in rural Missouri, which is not in the middle of nowhere despite anything you may have heard. The middle of nowhere is a good fifty yards south of my house. Still, it’s two thousand miles from New York City and the publishing industry.  I’ve never been there and in no hurry to go. I am not a... more

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The Washington Post Celebrates The Return of Barbara Neely’s “Blanche White” Books

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The Washington Post ran a terrific piece today about our reissues of Barbara Neely's ground-breaking "Blanche White" mystery novels. The series explores race, culture, politics and sexism through the prism of a compelling, entertaining, and highly-original crime story. These books are prime examples of our dedication to publishing "the best crime novels in existence." The article includes interviews with Barbara and Brash Books co-founder Joel Goldman. Here's an excerpt: Before “The Help” there was Blanche White, an African American housekeeper with a knack for getting tangled up in murder mysteries. Yet as fascinating as the character Blanche White is, the story of Barbara Neely,... more

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W.L. Ripley: How To Create a Series Character

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W.L. Ripley is the author of two critically-acclaimed series of crime novels -- four books featuring ex-professional football player Wyatt Storme and four books about ex-Secret Service agent Cole Springer. His latest novel is Storme Warning, a stunning new mystery/thriller that we're publishing in February. We will also be re-releasing Ripley's other books through 2015 and early 2016. Wyatt Storme evolved from a love of mystery characters like Travis McGee, Spenser, and the protagonists of Elmore Leonard’s many novels. But in shaping Storme as a series lead, I wanted a neo-classic mystery/thriller hero who would seem familiar and yet would be uniquely his own person and uniquely my... more

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Shadow Counter: Kakonis Scores Again

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Novelist James L. Thane, author of No Place to Die and Until Death, shares his fondness for Tom Kakonis' gambling thriller Shadow Counter. Shadow Counter is the third and final volume in Tom Kakonis’s excellent series featuring Timothy Waverly, a professional card player who has found nothing but trouble ever since Kakonis first introduced him in Michigan Roll. At the end of the second book, Double Down, he and his long-time partner Bennie Epstein had to race away from another dicey situation in Florida. It’s now 1993, and they’ve landed in Vegas, living in a pitiful house and trying to fly under the radar while they attempt to cobble together the stake that will put... more

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