“Gourmet fiction” HADLEY COLT SAM HAWKEN DAVID HOGAN RICHARD KALICH JACKIE MALLON DONALD F. MAYO CRAIG McDONALD SEAN MONCRIEFF COLIN O’SULLIVAN KEVIN STEVENS
Catalogue Spring 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS Hadley Colt “Permanent Fatal Error”..............................1 Sam Hawken “La Frontera”...........................................2 David Hogan “The Last Island”.......................................3 Richard Kalich “Central Park West Trilogy”........................4 Jackie Mallon “Silk for the Feed Dogs”..............................6 Donald F. Mayo “Francesca”................................................7 Craig McDonald The Hector Lassiter series...........................8 “One True Sentence” ................................8 “Forever’s Just Pretend” ..........................9 “Toros & Torsos” .....................................9 “The Great Pretender”............................10 “Roll the Credits”...................................10 “The Running Kind”................................11 “Head Games”.........................................11 “Print the Legend”..................................12 “Three Chords and the Truth”..................12 Sean Moncrieff “Angel of the Streetlamps”.....................13 Colin O’Sullivan “Killarney Blues”......................................14 Kevin Stevens “R e a c h t h e S h i n i n g R i v e r ” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5
“Re
Hadley Colt PERMANENT FATAL ERROR A long-missing novelist, a string of murders and a new brand of “There's a real warmth to the heroine fire Permanent Fatal Error, a sexy, Hitchcockian literary writing which implies that, while the author is undoubtedly thriller. having fun with some very
Everett Hyde: Cult-writer extraordinaire, once regarded as the clever plotting, he/she cares voice of his generation; an author in the reclusive tradition of J.D. about the underlying themes, particularly the responsibility of Salinger and Thomas Pynchon but now presumed dead. all writers to write about what
Chase Alger: Award-wining biographer specializing in studies of matters. This book is, first and famous people—writers all—who’ve come to mysterious ends. foremost, written by an author Chase is a self-made man with his own ambiguous past. who loves writing.” When Chase receives an invitation from Everett Hyde’s widow, a disarming offer to write her husband’s sanctioned biography, sinister things begin happening around the would-be biographer. Chase’s initial replies to Mrs. Hyde’s emails are swiftly returned, marked “Permanent Fatal Error.” Further inquiries after Hyde are first met with stonewalls, then menacing phone calls and emailed death threats.
Pub. date: April 2014 Extent: 362 pages Genre: Crime fiction ISBN : 978-0-9926552-6-6 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
Hadley Colt is the pseudonym for an internationally acclaimed author. Hadley Colt's previous novels were published in several languages to excellent reviews and high praise from fellow writers who’ve declared the author’s work, "subtle, moving and tragic", "non conformist", "bold and extravagant", "reviving", "an explosive mix of humor and action”, and who has been described as “an erudite with formidable imagination” and a “master of suspense”. Author’s blog: http://hadleydcolt.blogspot.ie/
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—Sheila Bugler “An insight into the mind of a Writer that not only other writers but also every thoughtful reader would find fascinating.” —Amazon.co.uk, Reader’s review
Sam Hawken LA FRONTERA Ana Torres is a Texas Ranger assigned to a dusty outpost to protect the border. When she discovers the body of a dead crosser, the stage is set for an investigation and a confrontation in the nighttime desert. Luis González lives on the Mexican side, helping those who seek a better life in the north while looking for peace in his own way. Marisol Herrera, a border crosser, braves hardship and dangers on her journey from the high mountains of El Salvador to the sun-blasted flats of the Mexico/Texas border. She is alone, chasing a dream, but threatened by the realities of la frontera. The stories of these three will intersect in the badlands of Texas. There will be death and pain and prices paid along the banks of the Rio Grande. Pub. date: October 2013 Extent: 340 pages Genre: Fiction/Noir ISBN : 978-0-9926552-2-8 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
“La Frontera merely strengthens my admiration for his writing with its perfect rendition of not only location, but the sustained and probing characterisation that underscores a compelling plot. Excellent.” —Raven Crime Reads “La Frontera takes you to a rarely visited word.” “This novel is exceptional. Truly engaging. Truly touching.” “Sam Hawken is at the very top of American crime writing.” “Read it. Enjoy it. This is a writer of quality.” —Amazon.com, readers’ reviews
Sam Hawken’s first novel, The Dead Women of Juarez was published in the UK, France and Germany and shortlisted for the CWA “New Blood” Dagger Award 2011. He is also the author of Tequila Sunset (nominated for the Gold Dagger 2013), La Frontera and of a number of short stories. Sam Hawken’s fiction embraces a broad spectrum of genres and involves extensive research, authentic flavour and a devotion to dealing with issues both historical and contemporary. Author’s website: www.samhawken.com
David Hogan THE LAST ISLAND Finalist of the San Diego Book Awards
The Last Island is a universal tale of escape, love and redemption. A Boston fireman, in an attempt to flee personal and professional tragedy, accepts a job as a bartender on a Greek island. In an isolated cove, he meets Kerryn, an animal rights activist who believes dolphins possess consciousness, intelligence and souls. Kerryn enjoys an extraordinary and personal relationship with a dolphin and is waging a covert war to stop the local fishermen from using illegal nets that not only deplete the sea of fish but also take dolphins’ lives. The fireman is pulled into this conflict as his relationship with Kerryn deepens. But Kerryn’s passion and convictions lead her to make a fatal decision that changes the island and both their lives forever. The novel’s emotional landscape and its themes of environmentalism, animal rights, and the costs of capitalism make The Last Island both timely and timeless.
Pub. date: October 2013 Extent: 192 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction ISBN: 978-0-9926552-1-1 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
"The Last Island delivers smoothly an unforgettable experience you won't get anywhere else." —TheReaderAndTheChef.com “Hogan’s adept storytelling makes us ponder our spiritual essence.” — The Greek Star “A thought provoking bitter-sweet tale. A story of running from one’s self, trying to find the better man that you just "know" is somewhere inside. A story of seeking refuge, trying to preserve a refuge, attempting to keep an old way of life that has survived for thousands of years. A story of belonging, finding ones place in this world, acceptance, being outcast, looking in from the outside. A war of conflict within the soul and with the modern world. Fighting inner demons, fighting demons from without. Trying to find a place of peace and balance. Learning to be, learning to need less.” “Great symbolic imagery. Because inside this short novel, a passionate intensity burns.” —Amazon.com, Readers’ reviews
David Hogan is an acclaimed playwright whose works have been widely produced. Most recently, the NPI-award winning Capital was recommended by LA Weekly and No Sit – No Stand – No Lie opened the ‘Resilience of the Spirit’ Human Rights Festival in San Diego, California. A dual citizen of the US and Ireland, David Hogan lived and worked in Greece for a number of years. He currently resides in Southern California where he is an avid surfer. Author’s blog: davidhoganwriter.com/
Richard Kalich CENTRAL PARK WEST TRILOGY “A major American writer.” —Philadelphia Inquirer Central Park West Trilogy includes three novels, The Nihilesthete, “Richard Kalich is a Penthouse F and Charlie P., originally published separately and collected successful novelist, one who for the first time in a single volume. has succeeded in consistently To read Richard Kalich is to be plunged into an uncompromising world, to be exposed to dark deeds and strange thoughts, to be challenged. The novels collected here tug at our concepts of civility, identity, truth and art. They are postmodern fables; dark, shocking, funny, astute, and compulsively readable. They share a ferocious energy and break down standard notions of plot and character to form a body of work that is distinctive.
Pub. date: August 2014 Extent: 560 pages Genre: Literary fiction ISBN: 978-0-9926552-7-3 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
They are unsettling books, relentless in their demands on the reader – who must pay attention, question the narrator, and stare unflinching at the nightmarish visions unfolding before him or her. The works are written to provoke; the reader may want to recoil and turn away, and yet find themselves caught up in the galloping pace of the plot. But there is also room for laughter, to find humour in the outlandish adventures of Charlie P in particular. Unsurprisingly, the humour is often a perverse, provocative kind. Kalich doesn’t want his readers getting too comfortable. As he would surely say, what is the value of a book that doesn’t question cosy notions of what it is to be human, to be civilised, to be cultured? Instead of answers, we are given shattered fragments, from which we must try to piece together the whole. Kalich experiments with narrative form and characters, pulling us into a murky place where we are left to wonder: what is the difference between Kalich the author, Kalich the character and Kalich the man? Can we ever know what is going on inside the head of another human being?
producing perplexing fictions that fail to categorize themselves and escape the warping influence of authorial intent.” —Christopher Leise, Electronic Book Review “He's after what it means to be profoundly out of step with one's culture yet still unwilling to let go of the American dream.” —Brian Evenson “Kalich represents the best in contemporary fiction. He has every chance to become – why not? – a living classical author.” —Hooligan Literary Magazine, Moscow “Speaks with a singular honesty, power and eloquence about our spiritually diminished modern world.” —Mid-American Review
Praise for The Nihilesthete
Praise for Penthouse F
“A brilliant, hammer-hitting, lightsout novel.” —Los Angeles Times
“Penthouse F is akin to the best work of Paul Auster in terms of its readability without sacrificing its intelligence of experiment. […] Kalich delivers afresh, relevant, and enticingly readable work of metafiction.” —American Book Review
“One of the most powerfully written books of the decade.” —San Francisco Chronicle “As important and original a novel to have been written by an American author in a generation.” —Mid-American Review “A shocking, chilling fable.” —Seattle Times “A tour de force… equals the best work of playwright Sam Shepard.” —Columbus Post-Dispatch
“Ghosts haunt this book from first page to last: Dostoevsky, Mallarme, Kafka, Mann, Camus, Pessoa, Gombrowicz--and, oh yes, most perniciously of all, "Kalich." For he is a man who tortures himself both with the novels he has written and with those he has not. Let us forgive him even if he will not forgive himself, recognizing as we do the one truth of this tale that seems to be beyond doubt: "It was all in his head like everything else about him.” —Warren Motte, World Literature Today “If one of the great European intransigents of the last century—say, Franz Kafka or Georges Bataille or Witold Gombrowicz—were around to write a novel about our era of reality TV and the precession of simulacra, the era of Big Brother and The Real World, what would it look like? Well, it might look like Richard Kalich’s Penthouse F… a space contiguous with those dark inner rooms that the European avant-gardists took us into. Right next door is the closet where the whipper whips his perpetual victim in The Trial.” —Brian McHale
Praise for Charlie P “With his continuous comic exaggeration, Kalich is able to describe, highly uniquely, the overwhelming, vertiginous, risky sensation of being alive.” —American Book Review “Charlie P is an urban everyman, the selfregarding and coreless creature of our times. Kalich has captured him through endless reflections down the tunnel of the facing mirrors. One reads and reads and smiles. Charlie P captures the note of our late modern times.” —Sven Birkerts “Kalich is after what it means to be profoundly out of step with one’s culture yet still unwilling to let go of the American dream. And this tension between dream and reality makes Charlie P a deliciously painful book.” —Bookforum “I would rather that the familiar be embraced and the novel resonate beyond itself and intone the spheres of Plato and Beckett. Charlie P resonates.” —Review of Contemporary Fiction
Richard Kalich was born in New York and grew up on the Upper West side. His mother always encouraged her sons to be writers, scholars, artists, poets. Kalich certainly fulfilled her wishes; he went on to write some of the most original American fiction in a generation. His novels have been published in Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Germany, Holland, Israel, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and Japan. Kalich lives in New York where he co-directs a film company with his twin brother, Robert. Author’s website: www.richardkalich.com
Jackie Mallon SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS Some will do anything to see her fall… Kat Connelly, innovative designer and introspective daughter of an Irish farmer, is disappointed with her first job in fashion. She copies catwalk looks for a London garmento who is reliant on two things to survive: self-medication and cheap Chinese production. Kat feels the lure of a higher aesthetic beckoning and escapes to Milan. As Italy's imminent smoking ban looms darkly over the land, Kat's personal world lights up: design and beauty are all around, dazzling and seducing, not to mention the overwhelming Italian male libido. She has claimed her slice of the bella vita and with it a sense of belonging she has yearned for since childhood. Of course, the bella vita comes at a price. When Kat is invited into the impenetrable House of Adriani to design their high-profile collection, she throws a cast-iron hierarchy into turmoil...
Pub. date: September 2013 Extent: 383 pages Genre: Contemporary women’s fiction ISBN: 978-0-9926552-0-4 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
“Silk for the Feed Dogs is a stellar accomplishment – get it, read it, you won’t regret the indulgence of silk against your skin.” —DisappearingInPlainSight.com "The book is a must read for budding Fashion Designers as it gives a behind the scene glimpse into the real world of fashion, for Fashion Designers, who will relate to Jackie’s words, trials tribulations and successes and for Fashion Lovers who seek a great read. ...Insightful, fun and full of ‘ah that’s what it would’ve been like’ moments." —TheLifeOfStuff.com “The writing is sharp and humorous. Mallon is a very observant author and her heroine Kat negotiates her way through a world it’s clear her creator knows a lot about. The passages in Italy made me feel as if I were there myself, without having to get on the plane to go there.” —Susan Lanigan “Mallon writes out of the great Irish tradition of beautifully descriptive prose, which she wonderfully tailors to a modern, cosmopolitan world.” —Amazon.com, Reader’s reviews
Jackie Mallon is an Irish writer and fashion designer currently living in New York. After studying at London’s St Martins School, she worked in the world of high fashion in Milan for eight years, stockpiling stories for the novel she didn’t know she was gearing up to write. Author’s blog: jackiemallon.com Author’s Pinterest page: http://pinterest.com/maljax1/
Donald Finneaus Mayo FRANCESCA It's December 1975 and seventeen-year-old Francesca is about to find out if that which does not kill her will make her strong. Caught in the crossfire of the Indonesian army's brutal invasion of East Timor, she escapes with her life and little else. Arriving on the shores of Indonesian Borneo, she finds herself thrust into an ersatz American small town carved out of the jungle by Constar Oil of Texas.
“Perhaps reading it prior to going to bed is not advisable as one might end up staying up rather later than one intends and arrive at work blurry eyed the next day.” —Establishment Post, Singapore
Interwoven in Francesca's journey are a cast of vividly drawn characters - the bored expat brat who befriends her, a divorced fundamentalist missionary bringing Christ to the jungle via Oklahoma, the inept son of a murdered socialist martyr, a former Vietnam War helicopter pilot, an amah who supplements her income turning tricks... Watching over them all is the menacing former Colonel Benny Surikano, Constar's Mr. Fixit to whom everyone turns when they need something.
“A full-bodied tale of love and war set against the complex political and commercial landscape of Indonesia in the 70s. It’s a moving and sensitively written story that draws you in from the start.”
Set against a backdrop of endemic political corruption, moral compromise and the pursuit of oil, Francesca is a passionate story of one woman's struggle against overwhelming odds to shape the country that nearly destroyed her.
Pub. date: November 2013 Extent: 377 pages Genre: Fiction ISBN: 978-0-9926552-3-5 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
“From its grim wartime beginnings to passages of true redemption and love, Francesca will appeal to readers of all genres but will certainly be on the nightstand of devotees of war fiction and political sagas.” —Amazon.com, Readers’ reviews
Donald Finnaeus Mayo was born in London and grew up in Australia and South East Asia, the backdrop for his novel, Francesca. He was educated in England, where he graduated in Politics and Culture. At various times he has worked as a radio journalist for the BBC, a business writer for major corporations, and as a photographer. He currently lives in Hampshire with his wife and three children. Author’s blog: donaldfinnaeusmayo.wordpress.com
Craig McDonald THE HECTOR LASSITER SERIES One True Sentence February, 1924: an incredible exchange rate, lack of prohibition and post-war ennui have flooded the City of Light with thousands of Americans — the psychologically damaged members of the so-called Lost Generation. Hector Lassiter, fledgling author and best friend of Ernest Hemingway, is crossing the Pont Neuf when he hears a body fall into the icy Seine – the first in a string of brutal murders of literary magazine editors that throw a shroud over the City of Light. Frantic to stop the killings, the literati form their own improbable vigilante band: Gertrude Stein gathers the most prominent crime and mystery writers in the city, including Hector and the dark, mysterious mystery novelist Brinke Devlin. Soon, Hector and Brinke are tangled not only under the sheets, but in a web of murders, each more grisly than the next.
Pub. date: August 2014 First published 2011. Extent: 380 pages Genre: Crime fiction ISBN : 978-0-9926552-8-0 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
“Nobody does mad pulp history like Craig McDonald. Reading a Hector Lassiter novel is like having a great uncle pull you aside, pour you a tumbler of rye, and tell you a story about how the 20th century really went down.” —Duane Swierczynski “A finely-crafted pulp historical mystery… While McDonald plucks your heartstrings, his wily hero Hector Lassiter will pound out a drum roll on your short ribs, and yes, you actually will be thankful for the experience.” —Tom Piccirilli “Craig McDonald proves he is a master of literary suspense in this riveting historical thriller set in the 1920s Paris of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Complex protagonists, shocking murders, and a gripping tale will leave you wanting more.” —Stefanie Pintoff
Craig McDonald is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hector Lassiter series has been published to international acclaim in numerous languages (French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish). McDonald’s debut novel was nominated for Edgar, Anthony and Gumshoe awards in the U.S. and the 2011 Sélection du prix polar Saint-Maur en Poche in France. The Lassiter series has been enthusiastically endorsed by a who’s who of crime fiction authors. Author’s website: http://www.craigmcdonaldbooks.com/
Forever’s Just Pretend After several years abroad, crime writer Hector Lassiter arrives on “Bone Key” to reunite with his lost love Brinke Devlin, a fellow author and the woman destined to become the first Mrs. Lassiter.
Pub. date: August 2014 Extent: 314 pages
Hector finds an island in turmoil — beset by fatal fires and savage attacks against women that the local press attributes to a baseball bat-wielding fiend dubbed “The Key West Clubber.”
Genre: Crime fiction
When one of the Clubber’s murders hits too close to home, the newlyweds begin to poke around the crimes. What they find casts doubt on the possibility of a single culprit.
and BookDepository
ISBN: 978-0-9926552-9-7 Available from Amazon
“I loved Brinke Devlin the first time she came on the page and I loved her at the end, too. She’s a fascinating character.” —James Sallis “Experiencing the work of Craig McDonald is akin to experiencing a painting by Picasso, a dance by Baryshnikov, music by Tchaikovsky. No two people will experience it exactly the same, but everyone who does experience it will walk away richer.” —Jen Forbus, Jen’s Book Thoughts
Toros & Torsos In “Toros & Torsos”, Hector meets his match in the person of a mysterious killer committed to the craft of murder: a blood-thirsty provocateur who leaves a string of increasingly macabre, homicidal tableaus modeled after seminal works of surrealist art. This startling novel takes it cue from all-too-real recent scholarship postulating the existence of a dark underground of misogynistic and possibly homicidal surrealist artists, photographers and art collectors that flourished in Europe and United States through most of the Twentieth Century. Life imitating art… art imitating death, and for some, it isn’t truly art until somebody dies. “Nothing short of a surrealistic masterwork.” —Chicago Tribune “A bold, ambitious, genre-bending novel from the talented Craig McDonald.” —George Pelecanos “McDonald’s imaginative tale takes an enjoyably different approach to art and murder.” —Publishers Weekly
Pub. date: August 2014 First published 2008 Extent: 384 pages Genre: Crime fiction ISBN: 978-0-9929674-0-6 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
The Great Pretender The Great Pretender spans decades-long, uneasy friendship between Hector Lassiter and Orson Welles, from the run-up to Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds “Panic Broadcast of 1938” to the set of the noir classic The Third Man and the ruins of post-war Vienna. The novel finds the actor and author in a race for a lost holy relic promising its possessor infinite power but a ghastly death if lost. Hector and Orson’s competitors in their quest for the “Spear of Destiny” or “Holy Lance” include German occultists, members of the Third Reich, a sensuous Creole Voodoo priestess, and a strangely obsessed J. Edgar Hoover.
Pub. date: September 2014 Extent: 286 pages Genre: Crime fiction ISBN: 978-0-9929674-2-0 Available from Amazon and BookDepository
Drawing on dark historical legend and rich in atmosphere and character, The Great Pretender is the fourth installment in the series BookPage called “wildly inventive” and The Chicago Tribune declared the “most unusual, and readable” crime fiction “to come along in years.”
Roll the Credits Roll the Credits reveals the crime writer’s storied adventures during World War II. The new Hector Lassiter novel is a globetrotting historical thriller depicting a duel-to-the-death extending from decadent old Berlin to 1920s Paris, from bombed-out London to 1950s’ Hollywood, and a last, bloody siege in the steaming jungles of Brazil. Aided by a beautiful OSS operative and a two-fisted Irish cop-turned-Army intelligence officer, Hector takes on the impossible mission of smuggling a hard-hunted Jewish orphan from France while pursued by the might of Germany’s occupying army. This is the novel Hector Lassiter’s fans have been waiting for: Hector as guerilla leader and OSS spy, as unlikely father figure, husband, and avenging angel. Rich in atmosphere and character is also a chilling tale about the sinister origins of film noir and post-war Hollywood. “A writer of truly unique voice, approach, and ambition, Craig McDonald delivers again with Roll the Credits. Hector Lassiter is a compelling character but also a fascinating forum for McDonald’s historical, social, and artistic observations. For all the wonderful action, slick dialogue, and plot twists McDonald throws at the reader, he’s equally interested in saying something substantial about time and place. Not to be missed.” —Michael Koryta
Pub. date: September 2014 Extent: 420 pages Genre: Crime fiction ISBN: 978-0-9929674-1-3 Available from Amazon and BookDepository
The Running Kind December 1950: A killer blizzard has buried the Midwest. America is staggering into the Korean War and a Tennessee Senator has the nation riveted by his anticipated televised grilling of mob kingpins — an embarrassment for J. Edgar Hoover who has denied the existence of the Mafia. In a snowbound Ohio hotel bar, Hector Lassiter is reunited with old friend Jimmy Hanrahan, an Irish cop committed to catching the one criminal who got away. Jimmy’s in pursuit of America’s most macabre serial killer—the so-called “Torso Slayer” or “Cleveland Headhunter”—a prankish psychotic who has long eluded capture by Jimmy and famed “Untouchable” Eliot Ness. The reunion is interrupted when a young girl tugs on Hector’s sleeve and says, “Please, mister—my mommy needs help.” Hector and Jimmy find themselves locked into a history-changing death race that will test their friendship and bring them in contact with a cast of 20th-Century notables including crooner/mob schmoozer Frank Sinatra and his sultry, soon-to-be wife, Ava Gardner.
Pub. date: December 2014 by Betimes Books Extent : 320 pages ISBN : 978-0-99296743-7
“Craig McDonald has a gift for sure-footed mysteries rooted in historical accuracy... I can’t wait to see where he takes Hector Lassiter next.” —Margaret Maron
Head Games Head Games is equal parts road novel, caper and historical fiction: a black comedy and wistful ballad of lost America rooted in borderland myth and history. Head Games’ narrator is Hector Lassiter, now widowed and feeling his age. When Lassiter recovers Mexican General Pancho Villa’s skull stolen from his grave by an American soldier-offortune, within hours of taking possession of it, Lassiter becomes a target of competing fraternities, Mexican bandits and U.S. intelligence services. The breakneck chase extends across 1957-1970 America — from the cantinas of old Mexico to the Venice, California set of Orson Welles’ noir classic Touch of Evil, to the sanctum sanctorum of Yale’s infamous Skull and Bones Society. The cast of characters includes Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Jack Webb and a young and gone-missing National Guardsman named “George W.” “Strap in, hold on, enjoy the ride.” —San Francisco Chronicle “HEAD GAMES is a gravel and mescal cocktail, a one-day burn, a novel of genuine piss and vinegar, the kind of book you thrust on people with the wild eyes and intent of a PCP freak.” —Ray Banks
Pub. date: 2015 by Betimes Books First published 2007 by Bleak House Books Extent: 300 pages ISBN : 978-1-93255743-5
Print the Legend It was the shot heard ’round the world: On July 2, 1961, Ernest Hemingway died from a shotgun blast. It’s 1965, and two men have come to Ketchum, Idaho to confront the widow Mary Hemingway — men who have serious doubts about the true circumstances of Hemingway’s death. One is Hector Lassiter, the oldest and best of Hemingway’s friends, the last man standing of the Lost Generation. The other is Hemingway scholar Richard Paulson who sets out to prove that Mary actually murdered her famous husband. Print the Legend is a literary thriller about Hemingway's death and the patina that perceived suicide lends the author's legend, an exploration of the sinister shadow play and codependence that binds authors and their academics. It is a love story that finds the aging Hector Lassiter striving to protect the young and pregnant Hannah Paulson as sinister forces gather around her, threatening her and her unborn child.
Pub. date: May 2015 by Betimes Books First published 2010 by St. Martin’s/Minotaur Books Extent: 342 pages ISBN : 978-0-31255437-8
Ingeniously plotted and executed, Print the Legend is an epic masterpiece from Craig McDonald. Beginning to end, I was riveted by this story of character, history and intrigue." —Michael Connelly
Three Chords and the Truth Winter, 1958: Nashville, Tennessee is locked in an icy snow storm doing nothing to cool racial tensions in Music City, USA, or points farther south. Following a midair collision, a U.S. military crew has been forced to dump a hydrogen bomb off the coast of South Carolina— a deadly device still there today, a weapon of mass destruction whose nuclear trigger may be rest rusting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, potentially still threatening the east coast well into the 21st Century. In an up-from-the-heels voice that recalls his first-person narration of Head Games, Hector once again tells his own remarkable story, one that rounds out the saga BookPage has called “wildly inventive” and The Chicago Tribune calls “most unusual, and readable crime fiction to come along in years.” Cover available soon
“What critics might call eclectic and Eastern folks quirky, we Southerners call cussedness -- and it's the cornerstone of the American genius. As in: "There's a right way, a wrong way, and my way." You want to see how that looks on the page, pick up any of Craig McDonald's novels. He's built him a nice little shack out there way off all the reg'lar roads, and he's brewing some fine, heady stuff. Leave your money under the rock and come back in an hour. “ —James Sallis
Pub. date: 2015 by Betimes Books
Sean Moncrieff ANGEL OF THE STREETLAMPS When Manda Ferguson falls out of an apartment window to her death, the story is on all the front pages. But then her death starts to have an effect on the living. Baz: the man accused of killing her has to decide whether or not to turn himself in. Maurice: the taxi driver who inadvertently helped Baz escape wrestles with whether he should meet out his own form of justice. Rachel: the failing election candidate who has to choose between giving up or speaking her mind. Michael: the priest who administered the last rites to Manda and who is finally forced to confront his true (dis)beliefs. Carol: Manda’s cousin. A tabloid reporter on the verge of losing her job who begins to discover some curious gaps in her memory… But the effect travels even further than these five intersecting stories when claims are made that Manda’s ‘spirit’ is appearing beneath lampposts.
Pub. date: April 2015 Extent: 352 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction ISBN: 978-0992967468 Available from Amazon
“Moncrieff is a master of the vicious aside, the canny comment and the funny twist, and he brings insight and intelligence to this novel of a damaged, confused and all too recognisable 21st century Ireland.” —Nuala Ní Chonchúir, author of Mother America “The writing is snappy and stylish, and his dialogue is spot-on.” —The Irish Examiner “It’s thoughtful and dark, even cynical, in its dissection of how a single crime reverberates throughout Irish society.” —The Irish Independent “A riveting read.” —Tatler
Sean Moncrieff’s first novel, Dublin, a needle-sharp, funny and scathing thriller, was published in 2001 by Doubleday and reached the bestseller lists in Ireland. A non-fiction book, Stark Raving Rulers: Twenty Minor Despots of the Twenty-First Century, was published in 2004, followed by God, A User’s Guide in 2006. A second novel, The History of Things, was published in 2007. Sean hosts “Moncrieff”, an award-winning radio show every afternoon on Newstalk in Ireland, and works on a new book.
Colin O’Sullivan KILLARNEY BLUES Picturesque Killarney might seem the perfect place to enjoy the rare gift of sun but the town has got the blues. Bernard Dunphy, eccentric jarvey and guitarist, is pining for his unrequited love and has to contend with an ailing mother and an ailing horse. His troubled friend Jack gets embroiled in a violent crime. A trio of girlfriends becomes entangled in the terrible webs of their own making. As the novel swings back and forth from thorny past to tumultuous present, it swings, too, from darkness to light. Darkness: suicide, abuse, murder. Light: comedic banter, friendship, romance, and the joy and redemptive powers of music. Killarney Blues offers a glimpse of a very modern Irish town in an economic and moral crisis, as well as the trials and torments of its struggling inhabitants.
Pub. date: November 2013
“O’Sullivan’s voice—unique, strong, startlingly expressive—both comes from and adds to Ireland's long and lovely literary lineage. Like many of that island's sons and daughters, O'Sullivan sends language out on a gleeful spree, exuberant, defiant, ever-ready for a party. Only a soul of stone could resist joining in.” —Niall Griffiths “His words swagger with purpose, never meandering too long on a scene, always moving the story forward, even when it goes back in time, like a faded photograph coming into view.“ —LoveSexAndOtherDirtyWords.com “The language of the characters is as musical and as enjoyable as the blues backdrop for the story.” “A bittersweet story, infused with the blues and unrequited love.” “Takes the reader deep into the hardships of life.” —Amazon.com, Readers’ reviews
Colin O'Sullivan lives in the north of Japan and works as an English teacher.
Genre: Contemporary fiction
His short fiction and poetry have been published in various print and online anthologies and magazines, including A Living Word (anthology of Irish writers), Staple New Writing, The Stinging Fly, These are Our Lives and Cork Literary Review.
ISBN: 978-0-9926552-4-2
Author’s blog: http://osullivancolin.wordpress.com/
Extent: 234 pages
Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
Kevin Stevens REACH THE SHINING RIVER Kansas City, 1935. Emmett Whelan, an idealistic county prosecutor who has left behind his Irish roots and married into the country club set, takes on the city’s corrupt political machine when he investigates the brutal murder of a black musician. As Emmett gets deeper into the case, the racial violence deteriorates. So does his personal life. He searches the city for the heart of its corruption and discovers that it runs deeper and a lot closer than he has ever suspected. When the truth unfolds – about the killings, the machine, Emmett’s wife – a surprising and devastating climax reverberates at every level of the city. Reach the Shining River is an urban crime drama about money, race, and class. Tense and full of memorable characters, it has the smell of a big river, the atmosphere of 1930s America, and a soundtrack that is pure jazz and blues.
Pub. date: April 2014 Extent: 299 pages Genre: Historical crime fiction ISBN: 978-0-9926552-5-9 Available from Amazon and BookDepository.com
"Not only a solid murder mystery, but equally a colourful and thought-provoking study of a moment in time. With the rhythm and cadence of the prose, echoing the blues soundtrack that underscored the whole book, Stevens easily achieved that balance between crime fiction and literary fiction due to his exceptional characterization and engaging prose.” —Raven Crime Reads “Tremendous, really beautiful and moving and so lyrical.” —Sheila Bugler “Reach the Shining River impressed me in both the quality of its prose and the vividness of its place. Reading the novel, you are shunted back to another time: a time of corruption, of small-town politics, and the blues. It has the feel of noir, but with a complexity that transcends its stylism. It is a murder mystery but it's characters' flaws, desires, and struggles within an unequal world come first.” —Amazon.com, Reader’s review
Kevin Stevens is the author of two novels published by Simon & Schuster UK, Song for Katya and The Rizzoli Contract, and This Ain’t No Video Game, Kid!, a novel for young adults published by Little Island. His superhero fantasy for children, The Powers, is the Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Citywide Reading Project for children in 2014. The Cops Are Robbers, his true crime account of New England’s largest bank burglary, was made into an NBC Movie of the Week starring Ed Asner and George Kennedy. Kevin lives in Dublin and Boston and writes about jazz and American politics for The Irish Times and other publications. Author’s website: http://reachtheshiningriver.wordpress.com/
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