News — Bring On the P.I. Novels & Libraries Celebrate in San Francisco

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about the dearth of Private eye depiction in todays‘ movies. But the private eye novel has been declared dead or dying from time to time. J Kingston Pierce, editor of the “rap sheet,” “the go-to source for crime fiction news), also picked up the theme for a Kirkus Magazine article.  Pierce is also senior editor of January Magazine and reviewer for Kirkus. If that weren’t enough for one human he has a special blog on “Killer Covers,” a great place to look at vintage crime book covers. Pierce is convinced P.I. novels are holding their own.  In his story, I found my recent book featuring P.I. Deets Shanahan on his list of new P.I. novels that assured him that the P.I. genre is alive and well.

Here are the five new private eye books the busy Pierce picked:

And Sometimes I Worry About You, by Walter Mosley

Robert Parker’s Kickback by Ace Atkins

Vixen, by Bill Pronzini

Shadow of a Hangman by Edward Marston

Killing Frost by Ronald Tierney

This morning a million folks are gathering on San Francisco’s Market Street to celebrate Pride. Given the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage, there should be a little extra energy this year. 

Two blocks away, mostly underground, at the vast Moscone Center, 10,000 or more people gathered for the American Library Association’s big national conference being held over this weekend.  Two huge exhibit halls are filled with booths for publishers, distributors, periodicals and others in the book business. I was invited by Orca Publishing to sign ARCs for my soon-to-be-released novella for them.  Yesterday, I signed and signed and signed. I found the visitors to be especially happy to have a book that takes place in San Francisco while they were here for a mix of business and pleasure. Due out the end of summer, The Blue Dragon is part of Orca’s Rapid Read series. I am thrilled with the concept – easy to read short books perfect for that flight from L.A. to New York. Some are for younger readers. However some are mysteries for the rest of us by authors you may know and love — Reed Farrel Coleman and Rick Blechta as examples.