Seymour Shubin hasn't been as prolific as say Jim Thompson, and that's probably why he hasn't gotten the attention he deserves, but his crime noir novels, such as Anyone's My Name (published the same year as The Killer Inside Me) and The Captain, deserve every bit the attention of Thompson's best. I've read most of the Hardcase Crime books, and by far my two favorite among the new issues are Russell Hill's "Robbie's Wife" and Seymour's "Witness to Myself". Maybe those two are more literary than the typical Hardcase Crime novel, but man they're great books.
Over the last several years after discovering Anyone's My Name (which I believe led Charles Ardai to discover this book, which further led to Witness to Myself being published by Hardcase), Seymour and I have exchanged numerous emails on writing, crime novels and the publishing industry, and this has grown into a friendship that I value greatly, and I was recently honored to write the introduction to Seymour's upcoming crime novel, The Hunch. What I've learned over these years is not only is he a writer of great talent, but also of great integrity, so I can't possibly describe how proud I am when he summed up his thoughts on Pariah with these four words:
"This is a masterpiece"
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2 comments:
Nice blurb, Dave, and good blog. Seymour is a class act all the way and a hell of a writer!
Tom, thanks, and you're right about Seymour. First thing I ever read of his was this very short story of a man whose day is spinning out of control, and as I'm reading it I'm thinking this is ridiculously good. I'd never heard of Seymour at this point, but after reading the story a few email exchanges later had me reading 'Anyone's My Name', which left me every bit as excited as when I first read Jim Thompson's 'Hell of a Woman'.
You're a Colorado guy, right? Myself, 5 mostly good but partially drunken years at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
--Dave
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