Big Ideas And Big Names In Suspense From Brash Books Blog

03.10.18 DOUBLE WIDE Wins Two Spur Awards

Author Leo W. Bank's debut crime novel Double Wide has scored a rare double-header from the Western Writers of America by winning two 2018 Spur Awards, the "Oscar" of western fiction. The WWA announced today that Double Wide has won the coveted Spur Award for Best First Novel and for Best Contemporary Western Novel, an incredible accomplishment for a debut novel. The Spur Awards have honored the best in Western fiction, nonfiction, poetry, song, and film scripting since 1953. This year's awards ceremony will be held in June at WWA's annual conference in Billings, Montana. Double Wide, which was published by Brash in November 2017,... more

11.24.17 Getting in Touch with Touchfeather

Written by Bill Crider

Jimmy Sangster was an amazing writer. He was one of the best screenwriters for Hammer's horror movies, and he was all over U.S. TV in the '70s (check out his IMDb entry). He also wrote novels, several of which I read and enjoyed, including two about a spy named Katy Touchfeather. When Touchfeather's boyfriend is killed, it's revealed to her by the head of a super-secret British spy agency that he was murdered. She's offered a chance to work for the same agency, as she already has the perfect cover, as she's a stewardess ('60s parlance). Aftr attending spy school, she'll be able to work for any airline at any time and fly over the world on assignment. The big... more

11.22.17 Leo Banks takes his “Double Wide” On the Road

Written by Leo W. Banks

This past weekend was busy and way too much fun. I made two appearances to promote my novel, Double Wide, and both went extremely well. The first, on Saturday, was at Clues Unlimited, a well-known mystery bookshop in Tucson. It has a certain charm, obvious as soon as you step inside and meet the store’s mascot, Bosco, a retired Greyhound racing dog. I had a couple of Milk Bones in my pocket. I have pooches of my own and usually carry treats. My wife, Teresa, thinks I’m nutso about dogs. Doesn’t everyone carry Milk Bones? The store is cozy and we had a good crowd, so owner Chris Burke moved us next door into a church. Double Wide was excerpted in the Tucson Weekly -- along... more

11.07.17 Max Allan Collins: On the Road to Paradise

Written by Max Allan Collins

The new Brash Books edition of Road to Paradise is out, and if you’re a fan of the trilogy – particularly if you’ve never read my complete version of the Road to Perdition movie novel – I hope you’ll support me and Brash in this fine effort, and buy all three. Brash did a lovely job packaging the books, which look very nice on a shelf together. Some readers seem flummoxed by the O’Sullivan saga. It starts as a graphic novel (Road to Perdition), becomes a movie of that novel generating a novelization of the screenplay (with me doing a novel based on a screenplay based on my graphic novel), followed by a sort of prequel graphic novel (Road to Perdition 2: On the Road) published... more

09.11.17 Leo Banks: The Story Behind DOUBLE WIDE

Written by Leo W. Banks

Brash Books will publish my first novel, Double Wide, on Nov 1. I wrote the first version of it in the 1980s. What are we looking at here, more than three decades? Sounds about right. The idea originated on a bus in Mexico. I was a young newspaper reporter looking for a good story. I was single, had vacation time coming and didn't fancy sitting on a beach in some alleged paradise. A friend who used to pitch in the AAA Mexican League described what it was like to play baseball south of the border, the wild times, the characters he'd shared the field with. It sounded good. He gave me the name of a guy with the... more

06.21.17 Max Allan Collins: Support Your Local Bookseller…And Amazon, Too.

Written by Max Allan Collins

Barb and I have always made shopping a big part of our recreation, particularly when we go off on a day trip to the Chicago suburbs or Des Moines. I now realize – looking back on the book-, record- and video stores I have frequented – that we experienced a kind of Golden Age of shopping. It says something that my favorite shop of all time was a laser disc outlet. I would spend about three hours there. On Father's Day, we celebrated "my day" and Barb’s birthday with a Des Moines trip – actually, we mostly go to Clive. There’s a fine Half-Price Books on offer – the place where all my enthusiasms have gone to die – and a big, well-stocked Barnes & Noble. I shop at Barnes... more

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