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.

Flummery: Writing Nero Wolfe For TV

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Brash Books co-founder Lee Goldberg was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America for his work on the A&E TV series “Nero Wolfe.” This article about adapting the Rex Stout novels for TV first appeared in Mystery Scene magazine and is reprinted with the author’s permission. INT. BROWNSTONE — WOLFE’S OFFICE — DAY Archie sits at his desk, OILING HIS TWO MARLEY .38s. As we hear his voice-over, he switches to OILING HIS TYPEWRITER with the SAME OIL. ARCHIE’S VOICE Nero Wolfe is a creature of habit. Every morning, from nine until eleven, he tends his 10,000 orchids and I, Archie Goodwin, his confidential secretary and legman extraordinaire, tend... more

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The Bragg Novels: Paladin of the Dispossessed

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Jared Shurin reviews books for one of our favorite websites, Pornokitsch. Today he shares his admiration for the Bragg series of novels by Jack Lynch. There's no feeling in the world better than discovering a new series. Not just a good book, but a vast array of them. And, in this case, the series is Jack Lynch's Peter Bragg- a San Francisco private investigator who combines angst and wit in the perfect proportion. If that sounds familiar - perhaps like my beloved Travis McGee (John D. MacDonald) - it is, and part of the appeal of the Bragg series is that he is a West Coast McGee - a scarred-but-tender, manly-but-sensitive paladin of the dispossessed. The series is... more

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Writing Artie Deemer: Dallas Murphy on “Lover Man,” “Lush Life” and “Don’t Explain”

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Don't Explain by author Dallas Murphy

Artie Deemer is the reluctant sleuth who narrates my three-book series -- Lover Man, Lush Life, Don’t Explain -- published by Brash Books.  He would be happy sitting around his Manhattan apartment listening to jazz and maybe smoking a little pot. He’s able to do so because his dog Jellyroll makes a fortune in dog-food commercials and bad mystery movies featuring “the cutest dog in the world” (nobody cares about the humans).  But when, in Lover Man, his ex-girlfriend, Billie Burke, is found murdered in her bathtub, he gets up, turns off the music, and goes out to track down her killer.  In fact, he becomes obsessed with the search, fully aware of the danger to himself and his... more

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Creating Delilah West: Can’t swim? Dive in Anyway

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Death is Forever by author Maxine O'Callaghan

When I began writing my first novel, I was blissfully ignorant of that sage piece of advice: Write what you know. I wasn't a cop, or a pathologist, or a special agent for the FBI. Besides a stint in the Marine Corp Reserve, I was, first, a secretary, then a stay-at-home housewife and mother who read. A lot. Mostly mysteries and suspense with an emphasis on private eye fiction. So it seemed perfectly natural to me that when one of my first short stories, A Change of Clients, appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 1974, it featured a private detective. My only concession to the write-what-you-know maxim was to make my detective a woman, because, well, I was one. It really... more

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Michael Stone on Writing The STREETER Novels

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Low End Of Nowhere by author Michael Stone

I’ve always loved the write. I was a newspaper reporter for twelve years before I started my private investigations business. I also took a whack at writing a mystery/crime fiction novel back in the mid 1980s. I really liked noir crime movies so I tried to write a novel along those lines. I got some interest from a fairly well-known New York agent. She liked my writing but not the book I wrote. Go figure. She asked me what crime fiction authors I read. I thought about and realized I never actually read any crime fiction or mystery novels. The agent was surprised. She made two suggestions. One, keep writing and, two, start reading novels in the genre. Get the feel for what makes a good... more

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Writing the JUAN DOE MURDERS: What’s Old is New, What’s New is Old

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The Juan Doe Murders by author Noreen Ayres

The Juan Doe Murders could have spun right off today’s headlines. Back in the ‘90s when I was living in Southern California, I was touched by the fate of Hispanics who arrived without, shall we say, government permission. Driving south just twenty miles from my home, I’d see highway signs with the black silhouettes of a running man and a woman just behind him grasping the hand of young child whose pigtails are flying as she seems lifted nearly off the ground; above them, the word “Caution.” The signs were to notify drivers that illegal aliens were told by their “coyotes” to jump out of vehicles near the immigration checkpoint and run across the freeway to hide in the shrubs... more

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