Dark and, at times, amusing fiction from award-winning author Dave Zeltserman

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Caretaker of Lorne Field



Yeah, I know. Pariah's hasn't been out that long, Killer is coming soon (May) and The Caretaker of Lorne Field won't be out until July, but I thought I'd let people know a little bit what this one's about. It's not crime, not exactly, anyway. So what is it? Well, here's what my publisher (Overlook Press) has put on Amazon:

Review

"If Stephen King had a true Noir calling and Peter Straub added contemporary horror... and Dean Koontz threw in his fine depiction of ordinary life on the edge of the unknown... then bring the specter of James M. Cain to write the narrative, you'd come close to describing the whole effect of this stunning slice for the zeitgeist wondrous novel and the writing is... pure dark bliss."-Ken Bruen, author of London Boulevard

"The Caretaker of Lorne Field is a magnificent novel, with truly believable characters and suspense that keeps building to an explosive climax. There it is, plain and simple." -Seymour Shubin, Edgar Award finalist, author of Anyone's My Name

Product Description

Dave Zeltserman's last novel was named by NPR as one of the top five crime and mystery novels of 2008 and one of The Washington Post's best books of the year. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said his "breakthrough third crime novel deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy." And Crimetime calls him a name to watch." Now, Zeltserman has written the book his fans have been waiting for-a classic unlike anything you've ever read.

Jack Durkin is the ninth generation of Durkins who have weeded Lorne Field for nearly 300 years. Though he and his wife Lydia are miserable and would like nothing more than to leave, Jack must wait until his son has come of age to tend the field on his own. It's an important job, though no one else seems to realize it. For, if the field is left untended, a horrific monster called an Aukowie will grow-a monster capable of taking over the entirety of America in just two weeks. Or so it is said. . .

Overlook has recently sent this out to a lot of people for blurbs, and it's going to be interesting to see who responds. When Paul Tremblay and I were at our event a couple of weeks ago at the Mysterious Bookshop, my Overlook publicist dropped by with ARCs fresh off the press, at which time I got my ARC and also got one for Paul. This is what Paul has to say about Caretaker after giving it a read:

"The Caretaker of Lorne Field is a wonderfully weird, gritty, and pitch-dark legend, perfect for New England. Weaved in the compulsively readable narrative is a heavy dose of our current society's meanness, unease, and ambiguity: kind of a nightmare-noir zeitgeist. The thing of it is, the reader is never safe in Dave Zeltserman's hands. I love that. You should too."

More later as Caretaker comes closer to its release date.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Boston Globe asks ....


"Who is the next face of Boston crime fiction?"

Their answer:

This motley crew!

You can read the article here!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Killer "everything hard-boiled fiction should be"



From today's Morning Star:

"This novel is everything hard-boiled fiction should be - compact, direct and disciplined, and concerned with humans rather than stereotypes.

It is also, for all its violent subject matter, a quietly told story, which makes its tension all the more intense."

You can read the entire review here.

I'd like to thank Mat Coward for giving Killer a read and for including it as one of his crime thriller picks.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Signed ARCS for Caretaker



Last night at my reading at the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan, my Overlook Press publicist dropped off a stack of ARCs for 'The Caretaker of Lorne Field' at the bookstore, which I signed. Caretaker isn't out until July, but you can get a signed ARC for it now. Mysterious Bookshop will be giving out the ARCS they have with each purchase of a signed copy of Pariah. Not a bad deal.

Also last night, I got to meet Otto Penzler, who let me know that my story 'Julius Katz' has made their 50 list for next year's Best American Mystery Story anthology. Now I've just got to wait to see which stories their guest editor ends up picking for inclusion.

Monday, February 8, 2010

More Killer



Another great review for Killer, this one from TheBookBag.co.uk

"Here at the Bookbag, we've been very impressed with Dave Zeltserman's work thus far. He uses a wonderful noirish narrative that takes you straight to the heart of the story. His story telling is very straightforward, not weighing down the story with too much style, but sticking to the substance and delivering a hard-hitting work every time. With Killer, he has done the same again."

That's the beginning of the review and it only gets better from there. I'd like to thank Iain Wear over at TheBookBag for taking the time to read Killer, and for writing such a thoughtful review. You can read Iain's review here.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

More Killer on the Web


Author Charlie Stella has his say here

NextRead.co.uk also has good things to say about Killer