Small Crimes: A recent Web-review

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A recent Web-review

Kevin Tipple, who has previously reviewed both Fast Lane and Bad Thoughts, has probably as good a perspective on my writing as anyone out there, has recently recently written what I consider yet another very perceptive review, this time on Small Crimes.

Praise for Pariah

"Pariah is a terrific blast" Metro (UK)
"With this book Zeltserman entrenches his position as the ranking neo-noirist, putting a contemporary spin on a tradition that goes way back to Thompson and James M. Cain. If you like your fiction dark, lean and uncompromising, Pariah has to be at the top of your list." Roger Smith, Crime Beat South Africa
"It's the kind of book that is going to spoil whatever I read next, as it's going to be found wanting compared to this." The Bookbag
"PARIAH is sure to catapult Zeltserman head and shoulders above other Boston authors. This is not only a great crime book, but a gripping read that will crossover to allow greater exposure for this rising talent." Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm
"Pariah is one of the most crazed, hilarious, bitter, brutal novels this side of those composed on violent wards." Ed Gorman
"Pariah is all I know of bliss and lament. Bliss at reading a superb novel and lament at knowing that Dave Zeltserman has now raised the bar so high, we're screwed." Ken Bruen
"PARIAH is my pick for crime novel of the year. Tough, relentless, and packed with blunt force trauma, the book uses a Whitey Bulger-inspired premise as the framework for a disturbing and darkly satirical study of a psychopath." Hard Feelings
"This book just sucked the air right out of me. It's more than great noir. This book's got teeth that bite and claws that catch, and it's a masterpiece... If you revere the dark tales of Charles Willeford, Jim Thompson and James M. Cain, add Dave Zeltserman's name to your list. I promise you that in years to come, when those first three names are mentioned, so will the fourth." Corey Wilde, The Drowning Pool
"This is a masterpiece." Seymour Shubin
"For those who prefer the darker slice of life, Pariah will keep you glued to its pages. The chain reaction of Kyle Nevin’s release from prison on the world around him is the stuff of nuclear explosions. Violent, sexual and relentless, there are no holds barred anywhere in this wonderful launch into evil. The meek beware … be-very-ware." Charlie Stella
"Pariah is sharply satirical and mean as a junkyard dog with a burr on its butt." Bill Crider
"Mean like bad whiskey and sophisticated like good scotch, PARIAH is a rare find and a scorching read. " Cortright McMeel
"Its rare that a meta novel ends up being entertaining as well as clever, but Dave Zeltserman’s excellent new novel, Pariah manages that trick very successfully; at once a noir-ish kidnap novel and an attack on the nature of celebrity memoir, plagiarism and the worst excesses of the publishing industry." Crime Scene Scotland

Praise for Small Crimes

"There's a new name to add to the pantheon of the sons and daughters of Cain: Dave Zeltserman." NPR's Top 5 Crime and Mystery Novels of 2008
"A thing of beauty: spare but ingeniously twisted and imbued with a glossy coating of black humor." Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post's Best Books of 2008
"Zeltserman's breakthrough third crime novel deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy", Publisher's Weekly, starred review
"A Jim Thompson mentality on a Norman Rockwell setting... 'Small Crimes' is a strong piece of work, lean and spare, but muscular where a noir novel should be, with a strong central character whom we alternately admire and despise." Boston Globe
"Small Crimes is one of the finest dark suspense novels I've read in the past few years." Ed Gorman
"Small Crimes has plenty of crime, but obsession, hubris, and evil, pure and impure, are at the heart of this vivid noir." Booklist, Thomas Gaughan
"A dark masterpiece" Crimespree Magazine
Zeltserman masterfully controls the action, offering dark noir fiction in the best Jim Thompson tradition." Lansing State Journal
"The characterisation and mental torment are reminiscent of the insightful psychological thrillers of Jim Thompson. Stunning stuff." Cath Staincliffe, Tangled Web
"Zeltserman creates an intense atmospheric maze for readers to observe Denton's twisting and turning between his rocks and hard places. Denton is one of the best realised characters I have read in this genre, and the powerfully noir-ish, uncompromising plot, which truly keeps one guessing from page to page, culminates with a genuinely astonishing finale." --David Connett, Sunday Express
"This loamy smorgasboard of salvation and revenge has both a violent and comic edge, marking Zeltserman as a name to watch." Crime Time

Praise for Bad Thoughts

"A compellingly clever wheels-within-wheels thriller. An ingenious plot, skillfully executed" Elliott Swanson, Booklist
"This fast-paced, gritty psychological tale balances the fine line between mystery and horror"—Library Journal
Bad Thoughts is an ambitious genre-bender combining the paranoia and existential dread of the best noir with a liberal dash of The Twilight Zone. Not to be missed. --Poisoned Pen's Booknews
"Dark, brutal, captivating -- this is one hell of a book, the kind of book that doesn't let go of you once you start it. Dave Zeltserman is clearly the real deal." Steve Hamilton
"Dave Zeltserman's Bad Thoughts is a fast moving occult thriller, with taut dialogue and smart, likeable characters. Darkness pervades the Bay State in the late 1990's and Detective Bill Shannon will be lucky to solve a standard missing person's case in one piece. In fact as the story unfolds we see that death and dismemberment could be the least of Bill's worries. Pour yourself a fifth of Scotch, get an easy chair, grab a protective talisman and enjoy." Adrian McKinty, author of Dead I Well May Be and Hidden River

Praise for Fast Lane

"In the last few years there have been a number of writers, such as Ken Bruen and Victor Gischler, who've taken the classic PI novel and tweaked the hell out of it, creating something fresh and unique. Add Dave Zeltserman to the list. Several pages into his debut, I knew that I was reading something special." Poisoned Pen's Book News, Hardboiled Crime Club Selection
"For those of us who believed Jim Thompson would never be equaled, great tidings, he's back in the form of Dave Zeltserman. Hilarious in the darkest fashion, violent, bitter, psychotic and unputdownable" Ken Bruen
"What begins as rather standard and Chandleresque masks a tale that spirals downward into a pit of noir, lies, betrayal, murder... and worse! Private eye Johnny Lane helps a woman find her birth parents but things soon get out of hand. A likeable PI with a hidden Jim Thompson darkside that gets out of control and seems to know no depths. It's there!" Gary Lovisi, Hardboiled Magazine
"FAST LANE has everything I relish in a noir novel--an ingenious, twisting plot, characters I took to heart though I wouldn’t want to take some of them home, and a pace that kept me riveted to a book I couldn’t tear away from in one long, deep-into-the night reading." Seymour Shubin
"FAST LANE is a wild ride on the darkest noir side of the street. Zeltserman has updated Jim Thompson themes of character and situation to forge a private eye novel where everything that can go wrong, does...with highly entertaining, if very grim results." Jeff Gelb

Small Crimes

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A recent Web-review

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