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

Thursday, April 22, 2010

More Killer reviews


Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm and Nathan Cain at Independent Crime have both been strong advocates for my earlier 'man out of prison' crime thrillers, Small Crimes and Pariah, with Bruce picking each as his top crime book of the year at Bookgasm, and Nathan picking them as among his favorites. They've both recently reviewed Killer, both having different takes on it.

From Bookgasm:

"Finishing off his men-out-of-prison trilogy, Dave Zeltserman delivers KILLER, which does nothing else but prove to readers that he is truly the king of Boston crime. This is not some overwrought, long-winded attempt at noir, but streamlined, punch-to-the-gut writing."

You can read the rest of the review here.

From Independent Crime:

"As I said, though, Killer is a letdown only when compared to Zeltserman's previous efforts. As an author, you're in a pretty good shape if the only competition you have is yourself. Taken on its own, Killer is still very good."

You can read the rest of the review here.

I'm proud of Small Crimes and Pariah (and am still amazed I was able to get Pariah published given it's extreme nature and its satirical target). Personally I feel Killer is the best crime novel I've written that has so far been published, but I can understand how fans of Pariah might be disappointed with it. It's not the explosive, subversive thrill ride that Pariah is, instead it's a much quieter book, a much different style of crime novel than the first two in the series.

4 comments:

Naomi Johnson said...

As I've said before, some fans want to just read the same book over and over. If you were the kind of author who wrote the same book over and over, some other fans (me!) would be disappointed. I was delighted that the trilogy wasn't just a series of read-alikes. Each book stands on its own, each is a winner.

Dave Zeltserman said...

thanks, Naomi. What I'm proudest of what I did with these books, was even though they're loosely tied by the 'man just out of prison' theme (and equally, on their own quests after leaving prison), they're all different styles of crime fiction: Small Crimes a claustrophobic small town noir, Pariah, this explosive, subversive thrill ride, and Killer, a quiet meditation into the mind of the Killer. And even though they're these different styles, they still feel like they fit together.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Good going, Dave. You've had a very good year.

Dave Zeltserman said...

Hi Patti, thanks, but the years not over yet. Still hoping for more--mainly Outsourced film to go from development to production (which is sounding likely). And I still have the best novel I've written waiting to be sold, and recently finished the best crime novel I've written to date (although probably far too dark and bleak for NY).