The Hungry Detective

Spring is about to be sprung on the unsuspecting masses of the Midwest and East coast who will enjoy the 6 hours of nice weather before it all turns to an insufferable sweltering Summer heat. I might have done this in the past, but The Hungry Detective would like to thank Fantastic Fiction and the Bloodstained Bookshelf for being the primarily resources from which this list is drawn up. Cheers, mates! EXPIRATION DATE - Duane Swierczynski - March 30 I mentioned this in my Winter Preview as well. I dig most of what Duane has written so I don't have a problem giving EXPIRATION DATE another plug. Read this dude! INFAMOUS - Ace Atkins - April 15 Baby Face Nelson is the focus of Mr. Atkins next reality based fiction. I really thought the WHITE SHADOW was one of the finest things I read in 2009. It reminds me that I need to get back to WICKED CITY and DEVIL'S GARDEN . THE THIRD RAIL - Michael Harvey - April 20 Chicago. What are you gonna do? I'm a sucker for this place. Fun...

The Hungry Detective is very pleased to present an interview with Thomas Kaufman . Mr. Kaufaman's first book, DRINK THE TEA was released on March 2nd. It was the winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel competition. Mr. Kaufman is now traveling to bookshops in support of his first effort. DRINK THE TEA introduces us to Willis Gidney. Parent-less from an early age Willis uses skills honed on the street in his youth to now work as a PI. Keeping him from straying to far over the line is his foster father Shadrack Davies, a Captain in the DC Police force. Willis is called to look for the missing daughter of close friend and jazz musician Steps Jackson. Willis accepts the hard luck case with little hope of finding an answer. But soon after finding a woman who might be the missing girl's mother, the woman turns up dead, and the police only have one suspect, Willis. The Hungry Detective: What about your first book, DRINK THE TEA, compelled you to write it? Thomas Kaufman: I ...

About a year ago I heard that Russel McLean's first novel had been released in paper in the UK. The Scottish born author keeps a fairly entertaining blog , and has until now been known for his short fiction. His first book THE GOOD SON has now been released here in the States. McNee was a copper. His wife, his father-in-law, and McNee were in a car accident 9 months ago. McNee seriously hurt his leg, but his wife lost her life. The father-in-law blames McNee, but then again so does he. In McNee we follow him as he picks up the pieces of his life and sublimates his desire for redemption in unraveling the misery of others. McNee has gone private, and as THE GOOD SON begins James Robertson asks McNee to look into the recent suicide of his brother who Robertson hadn't seen in 30 years until he discovered his body with a noose around his neck. So what works especially well about THE GOD SON is the lived in quality of Mr. McLean's prose. A big problem with much of the Crime Fic...

In amongst the false starts and partially finished ideas are a few posts that don't quite make it to the 'Publish' button. This review of Michael Lister's intriguing DOUBLE EXPOSURE is one of them. Built into the budget of Bouchercon is some amount of money for books that until I cross the threshold of the Convention floor I have no idea I will be buying. I made two of these purchases, and for the purposes of this review the most important one was Michael Lister's DOUBLE EXPOSURE. As with most of these purchases I had no idea who Michael Lister was let alone that his is a writer of Crime Fiction. That was until Michael Koryta asked Michael Connelly at the Guest of Honor interview if Mr. Connelly had read anything recently that he really liked. Of course he said Michael Lister's DOUBLE EXPOSURE. And, of course, I spent the balance of B'Con finding a copy. Stylistically, DOUBLE EXPOSURE is unlike any Crime Novel I have read in... well... forever. I can short ...

It is the good fortune of The Hungry Detective to now and again receive books from publishers or their associated marketing agencies. These books were received in the month of February 2010. THE LAST CHILD - John Hart - Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books NINETEEN EIGHTY THREE - David Pearce - Vintage SPADE & ARCHER - Joe Gores - Vintage