Torn and Frayed

Torn and Frayed is a bit off the wall as detective stories go so I'm very happy to see another positive response left on Amazon. You will probably get tired of hearing me say this but reviews are like gold to an author and beyond helping to move books they are a necessary morale booster.

The Naked Sun

Like robots? Like detective novels? If so, here's my review of THE NAKED SUN.

Lucky #7

                               Drifter Detective #7. This time from yours truly.

                               Amazon eBook | print

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Deep Blue

I review The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes by Lawrence Block at Criminal Element.

Twain’s Other Steamboat Adventure

It was always nuts for Tom Sawyer—a mystery was. If you'd lay out a mystery and a pie before me and him, you wouldn't have to say take your choice; it was a thing that would regulate itself. Because in my nature I have always run to pie, whilst in his nature he has always run to mystery. People are made different. And it is the best way. —Huckleberry Finn

I'm at Criminal Element with Tom Sawyer, Detective: Twain’s Other Steamboat Adventure. Speaking of Twain, he had so many quotable quotes, right? Here's one of my favorites: "When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." Or this one: "But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"

Free eBooks!

Two Jack Laramie, The Drifter Detective, novellas are free for the Kindle over the next several days: The Girls of Bunker Pines by Garnett Elliott and Wide Spot in the Road by Wayne D. Dundee.

Science Fiction Detective Mash-Ups

My first article for Tor.com on Eight Essential Science Fiction Detective Mash-Ups.

Wide Spot in the Road by Wayne D. Dundee

Vagabond P.I. Jack Laramie stops in the remote town of Buele’s Corner for a bite to eat. Before he finishes his bowl of chili, he gets caught up in a tornado of events that starts with a panicked, young couple racing into the diner to use the phone to call for help—a menacing motorcycle gang, The Deguelloes, is chasing after them. When the couple discovers the phone is out of order, Jack steps in to help them fend off the gang who’s accusing the couple of running some of their fellow bikers off the road.

Wide Spot in the Road is the fourth novella in The Drifter Detective series, following on the heels of The Girls of Bunker Pines, Hell Up in Houston, and the eponymous debut, The Drifter Detective.

Wayne's thoughts on Wide Spot in the Road here.

On a Roll: The Drifter Detective Series

The Drifter Detective series is now up to three titles and I gotta say I'm very excited where Garnett Elliott is headed with the next two. And Hardboiled master Wayne D. Dundee will add an adventure of his own, "Wide Spot in the Road" sometime next month.

All stories, thus far, are standalones featuring detective Jack Laramie, grandson of Western legend Cash Laramie, who roves the 1950s landscape in his DeSoto and living out of the attached horse trailer. He carries Cash's old Colt and has much of his granddaddy's grit but his adventures are very much his own as he scrapes along, wandering from town to town, to eke out a living.

If you like hard-boiled noir adventures with a touch of mystery, well, here's "The Girls of Bunker Pines" to get you started that Mr. Dundee says has, ".. all the ingredients you need for some very satisfying reading entertainment."

The Girls of Bunker Pines by Garnett Elliott

The Girls of Bunker Pines is the third novella in The Drifter Detective series and the first one in print. Here's a review from writing legend, James Reasoner.

Free eBook: Hell Up in Houston

The latest Jack Laramie Drifter Detective ebook is free for a few days.

James Reasoner’s Death and the Dancing Shadows

James Reasoner’s “Death and the Dancing Shadows” features his Markham PI who is called to the home of retired movie star Eliot “Lucky” Tremaine. Turns out Tremaine is being blackmailed by video of his missing granddaughter, Stacy, in a porn film. The girl’s trail leads to murder and thugs who rough up the P.I. I spotted the twist at the end but was rewarded with Mr. Reasoner’s very sobering last paragraph where Markham does the right thing.

“Dancing Shadows” is a 9,000 word novella originally published in the March 1980 issue of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE. I hope Mr. Reasoner releases more of these old gems.

Grab a copy of this book at $0.99 and schedule yourself a half hour. You’ll be thoroughly entertained.

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

Police detective John Tallow witnesses the brutal murder of his partner by a schizoid psychopath referred throughout GUN MACHINE as the Hunter. Tallow’s crime scene begins with the Hunter’s apartment that is packed with a plethora of guns lining the walls, carefully linked (almost like an H.R. Giger painting) with each weapon representing an unsolved murder of the last twenty plus years. Tallow’s superiors allow him to work the case (when in reality he should be on extended forced leave) but tie his hands for genuine results by limiting him from police resources needed, and it soon becomes clear to Tallow that someone wants him to fail in his search for the Hunter.

The high point of GUN is the Hunter himself, who believes he is walking the Manahatta landscape when the Lenape peoples of North America were present. Ellis writes these passages in such a convincing manner that I felt like I was inside the impaired brain that evidently short-circuited a long time ago. I hope when Hollywood comes calling (Tinseltown already filmed RED by Mr. Ellis), they don’t try any gimmicky camera tricks to express the amoral, hellish vision of the Hunter. One just needs an actor on the Robert Mitchum or Javier Bardem level to express the unscrupulous, mentally unstable monster.

Mr. Ellis has a solid handle on writing the classic detective novel. It’s crisp storytelling with engaging, well-developed secondary characters (if a bit—geeky misfits banded together—cliche), and robust action sizzling at the right hardboiled turns. Within a few chapters, I was won over by the battle-wearied John Tallow who becomes a man with a single obsessive goal—regardless of the consequences—of tracking his prey down. The ingenious way he works around his superiors with the help of his tight-knit band of police brothers and sister brought a smile to this ‘tired of bureaucratic red tape’ reader’s face. GUN is well paced for two thirds of the novel but I started feeling (around chapter thirty) that I wanted to get to the end a tad bit faster (a novella would have been perfect) but stuck with it and was rewarded with Tallow’s very high tech way of tracking the killer to a satisfying showdown.

My first Warren Ellis John Tallow novel. It won’t be the last. GUN MACHINE is well worth your time and money.

The Drifter Detective

Jack Laramie, grandson of the legendary US Marshal Cash Laramie, is a tough-as-nails WWII vet roaming the modern West. He lives out of a horse trailer hitched to the back of a DeSoto, searching out PI gigs to keep him afloat.

With his car limping along, Jack barely makes it to the sleepy town of Clyde, Texas, where he stops at a garage. While waiting for repairs, he accepts a job from the sheriff, pulling surveillance on a local oilman allegedly running liquor to Indian reservations in Oklahoma. When Jack runs afoul of several locals and becomes dangerously close to the oilman’s hot-to-trot wife, he wonders if the money is worth his life.

Garnett Elliott writes in the best hardboiled tradition of the masters and turns out a tour-de-force novelette, clocking in at a trim, fighting 9k words. Take a chance on this new series ... and experience a Jack Laramie beat.

James Reasoner and Randy Johnson on "The Drifter Detective." 

Available Now: Hardboiled 2

BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled 2 follows the blood-soaked trail left behind by the 2011 award-winning collection edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker, pumping out another thirteen knuckle-breaking, crime tales. With writers from the 1930s and 40s golden era of pulp (Paul S. Powers and Charles Boeckman) and modern hardboiled masters (Robert J. Randisi and Wayne D. Dundee), this wild bunch is set to blaze a rat-a-tat sweep across the pulp fiction landscape. Keeping the body count high are top-shelf stories from Jedidiah Ayres, Eric Beetner, Jen Conley, Matthew C. Funk, Edward A. Grainger, BV Lawson, Tom Roberts, Kieran Shea, and Jay Stringer.

Body Count: The Joe Hannibal Case Files, Vol. I

I began reading Wayne D. Dundee’s Joe Hannibal hardboiled detective series back in the 1980’s. These adventures were tough little gems following in the best tradition of Spade, Chandler, and Hammer. Today, I’m happy to say, Hannibal is still with us and I have had the privilege of even publishing a few tales, like “Apache Fog” that is included in this six-story collection. Highlights here: the first Hannibal short story that appeared in 1982, an introduction by Lynn F. Myers, a complete bibliography to date, and author’s note.

The Joe Hannibal Case Files, Vol. I is available for the Kindle and comes highly recommended from this 30-year-fan.

BTAP #53: Charlie and Stevie Do a Repo by Kieran Shea

Kieran Shea returns to BTAP with another Charlie Byrne story. If you’re not familiar with Shea’s south Jersey shore P.I., well, what the hell are you waiting for? He’s free to read right now but I have no doubt that will change very soon. So click over to BEAT to a PULP for "Charlie and Stevie Do a Repo" and drop one of the finest amongst us a comment.

Next week ...

Heck, I’m not gonna tell ya who’s up next week. I’ll leave it as a surprise. Because a big occasion like wrapping up a very successful first year at BTAP needs a big finale. And we’ve got a BIG writer lined up. Hate to leave you hanging like this, but I know Kieran’s story will more than make up for it.

Radio Days

I’ve finished reading What Really Happened by Brett Halliday so Michael Shayne was on my mind when I spotted these radio collections at Walgreen’s. For only a buck how could you go wrong? I didn’t because the two episodes featured: “The Case of the Crooked Wheel” and “The Case of the Wandering Fingerprints” are entertaining mysteries that I’m enjoying during my morning commute. The Shayne series came to radio in 1944 starring Wally Maher. Rising film star, Jeff Chandler assumed the role in 1950. The other collection, Casey, Crime Photographer starred Staats Cottsworth as a “Morning Express” photographer who loved to play detective. Equally entertaining as the Shayne set but unfortunately this collection only contains two episodes also.

So I’ve started searching the web for more old time radio and came across Radio Lovers. This site contains Ellery Queen, Philip Marlowe, Adventures of, Richard Diamond Police Detective and Voyage of the Scarlet Queen to name a few of the more well-known in the mystery genre. There’s also a sci-fi superhero section that contains Batman and Buck Rogers. If you like old programming, swing by.

Btw, have you listened to Charles Gramlich’s "Thief of Eyes" over at Fear on Demand? If you haven’t then you’re missing an incredible marriage of words and voice. Glen Hallstrom does a masterful job of reading this poetic piece. I’m looking forward to the next offering from Sidney Williams.