Posts Tagged: crime novels

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

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

Treasure Coast by author Tom Kakonis

We're only a few days from our Sept. 2nd launch and already we're getting a lot of positive buzz. We were thrilled by an interview with our co-founders, Lee Goldberg & Joel Goldman, in Kirkus Reviews. Here's an excerpt: The Brash editions I’ve seen so far are handsome, trade-size paperbacks, with bold cover imagery and elegant interior design. “Joel and I decided right off that we were either going to do this ‘first-class’ or not at all,” says Goldberg, “with high-quality covers that vividly and definitively establish a franchise for each author or series that we are publishing. We also decided that our covers would be contemporary, regardless of when the stories take... more

Read More of Brash Words: Lots of Positive Buzz Leading Up to Our Sept 2 Launch

Justice Never Sleeps by author Bob Forward

The Owl books were a lot of fun to write. The concept of a private detective who didn’t sleep spawned itself almost naturally from my lifestyle at the time. I was young enough (and dumb enough) so that I would routinely stay awake for three nights in a row. I’m sure you’ve been there. You start by pulling an all-nighter for some test or work deadline. Then you stay up a second night celebrating the successful completion of aforementioned test or deadline. At which point, you are running on fumes and probably not making the best decisions. So you decide to stay up a third night just to see if you can do it. Justice Never Sleeps Somewhere in there (probably during one of those... more

Read More of THE OWL: Pulling the Ultimate “All-Nighter”

There are scores of professional writers out there who sell huge numbers of crime novels, tie-ins and westerns, and yet are virtually unknown...because they toil as work-for-hire authors. One of those writers is Robert Vaughan, who has sold 40 million books, mostly westerns. He was interviewed about his under-the-radar career recently and he's pretty frank about his lack of celebrity. I have written well over 400 books. If I had written every one of those books under my own name, Robert Vaughan would be a name that is immediately recognized. I would have established something of value that my survivors could capitalize on after I die…In my life time, I have probably sold 40 million... more

Read More of The Laborers of Work-for-Hire Crime Fiction Writing

Whenever long term mystery fans gather there is often talk of obscure private eye series still considered to be gems of the hardboiled genre, like Jack Lynch's Bragg novels. These long out of print, usually paperback original series, are learned about by word of mouth from one mystery fan to another. This action often causes mini-tsunamis on Internet used book sites as the new fan seeks out the titles to which they have been referred.  Tattered copies often change hands for ridiculously high prices for what are slim volumes with bad ‘70s cover art. However, it is the words between those tattered covers that keep readers rediscovering the series again and again. Other series falling... more

Read More of Bragg: Credit Due