One Angry Julius & only $0.99 until Halloween!

Several of the stories in this collection would make perfect Halloween reading, especially the Thriller Award nominated, A Hostage Situation, so I'm putting this on sale for only $0.99 as a Kindle download until Halloween!

MONSTER, featured title

I'd like to thank Dayton Metro Library for making MONSTER their featured title

More MONSTER on the web + New England Book Fair this Wednesday!

"Award winning novelist Zeltserman currently writes crime and horror books and his latest creation, “Monster,” is a compelling read which sensationally seizes the senses."

You can read the rest of the RohnertPark-CotatiPatch excellent review of MONSTER here.

I'd like to thank the Urbana Free Library for making MONSTER one of their weird and frightful picks for Halloween.

At Barnes & Noble, MONSTER has made it into a monster literary trivia quiz.

And finally, I'm going to be at the New England Book Fair (Newton, MA) tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 24th) at 7pm reading & signing for MONSTER.

20 quick reasons to get MONSTER for Halloween

1) "You don't get much more gothic bang for your buck." Los Angeles Times

2) "juicy material for Franken-fans" Booklist, starred review

3) "chilling and captivating" ForeWord Magazine, pick of the week

4) "Magnificently horrific" Barnes & Noble

5) "a must-read" Historical Novels Review

6) "a rich and fun response to Shelley's classic" Publisher's Weekly

7) "there’s plenty going on thematically" NPR (Boston)

8) "imaginative" Newsday

9) "every page a joy to read" Bookreporter

10) "likely one of the best books of 2012" Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm   

11) "gripping retelling of a classic favorite" Style Magazine

12) "I flat out loved it" Crimespree Magazine

13) "A masterpiece of originality, beauty, ugliness, eloquence, wisdom and power. And it's one hell of a page-turner as well." Ed Gorman

14) "a brilliant reimagining of Frankenstein" Roger Smith

15) "MONSTER shocks and rampages as well as it deftly entertains." Paul Tremblay

16) "When awards season rolls around, this one's going to be a major contender." Bill Crider

17) "Monster is a dark, harrowing tale steeped in grue" Frankensteinia

18) "I'm not usually a fan of retellings of the classics, but this one is terrific—a story well told." Fang-tastic Fiction

19) "Monster is a gripping gothic horror tale, brilliantly told." Between the Covers

20) "If you’re a fan of Frankenstein and the mythos that surrounds it, and love literary horror, this one’s for you. Highly recommended!" MyBookishWays
   

Buy from Amazon

Buy From Barnes & Noble

 

The film company working to make A Killer's Essence

A Killer's Essence is currently in development at Braven Films

About A Killer's Essence (from publisher): In A Killer’s Essence, already optioned for the movies, Zeltserman's unique talent (“deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy” –Publishers Weekly) is back with full, sinister effect. Stan Green is a jaded New York City cop assigned to the most shocking homicide of his career–and he finds only one witness, a neurologically damaged recluse subject to demonic hallucinations. Then the murderer strikes again. Stan’s best hope is a man who claims to be surrounded by ghoulish apparitions. And there’s just a chance this witness isn't insane, but instead terrifyingly perceptive…

Dave Zeltserman's grisly crime novel is backgrounded by the 2004 ALCS playoffs, when the Red Sox triumphed over the Yankees. A knuckle-whitening, surprising, and compelling trip into Stan’s obsession with a brutal case, this serial-killer mystery is Zeltserman's darkest, most gripping work yet.

What the reviewers have said:

"a memorable winner" Boston Globe

"Zeltserman’s signature creepiness is available here and there, but what really drives this novel is the engaging portrait of an honest, hardworking cop who, on the job and off, gives the best he’s got, knowing how rarely it will be enough." Kirkus Reviews

“Detective Green is a believable character, down on his luck with little going for him but his job. Nonetheless, he meanders through life, precariously balancing all its myriad and conflicting facets, and coming out on top in this chilling page-turner attuned to the most discerning of avid crime lovers. Well written and well paced. Recommended.” New York Journal of Books

"A scary, keep-you-guessing thriller not to be missed."  Elliott Swanson, Booklist

Horrors tonight in Scituate with Paul Tremblay and myself

As a way to help get people ready for Halloween, Paul Tremblay and I will be at Front Street Book Shop in Scituate tonight at 7pm reading & signing our latest horror and fantasy novels. I hope folks show up!

Archie's all abuzz!!

The following from Publisher's Weekly's review of The Interrogator and Other Criminally Good Fiction (edited by Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg, Cemetery Dance) has left Archie all abuzz:

Heavyweights of the genre such as Lee Child, Laura Lippman, and David Morrell headline this strong anthology of 26 crime stories. Unsurprisingly, there’s not a dud in the bunch; surprisingly, the best entry may be a comic riff on Rex Stout—Dave Zeltserman’s “Archie’s Been Framed.” 

While people in the Boston area know that Julius Katz and Archie are very real, and that all I'm doing is cleaning up some of the language in the cases that Archie has been transcribing, for whatever reason people outside of Boston think that what I'm coming up with are fictional stories as opposed to nonfiction pieces of actual detective cases. What the hell. So far this confusion has been good to me, winning me a Shamus, a Derringer, an Ellery Queen's Readers Choice Award, and both honorable mention and inclusion in three best of the year anthologies. So I'm not going to complain, and besides the whole thing has been giving Julius a good chuckle, although this latest review from Publisher's Weekly has left Archie so insufferable (according to Julius) that Julius had to turn him off for now. Eh, I'm sure Archie will be fine once Julius turns him back on.

For those who want to start reading these case, I've got as Kindle ebooks Julius Katz Mysteries, which cover the first 2 in the series (Julius Katz, Archie's Been Framed), Julius Katz and Archie, which is the Kingston case, Julius's most dangerous, and is the size of a typical novel, and One Angry Julius & Other Stories, which has the latest case I wrote up, plus five actual crime stories from me (as opposed to these nonfiction pieces!). Ellery Queen in their May 2013 issue will have the next case, Archie Solves the Case, and I still have a dozen or so more cases to write up from Archie's transcriptions.

More MONSTER reviews

I came back from Cleveland/Bouchercon to find three more excellent MONSTER reviews.

Frankensteinia, which is the number #1 source for all things Frankenstein, said in part in their review:

"Author Dave Zeltserman is best known for his hard-hitting noir crime novels. He approaches horror with the same take-no-prisoners attitude. Monster is a dark, harrowing tale steeped in grue, and an unrelentingly grim alternate take on Mary Shelley’s classic, as the man who is made Monster seeks revenge, while still desperately clinging to the last shreds of humanity within himself."

Fang-tastic Fiction summarizes their review with "I'm not usually a fan of retellings of the classics, but this one is terrific—a story well told. "

And from Thommy Ford Reads offers as part of their review:

"The result is a fun read. The gloomy German settings have the right atmosphere. Zeltserman’s monster is a fully fleshed character—uglier, tougher, and less innocent than Shelley’s, but still sympathetic. Besides the nefarious Marquis, Zeltserman adds vampires and satanists to the mix as well, seemingly just for some added adventures. And if the end result seems a little too episodic and a little bit too seedy, I’m willing to set that aside as an homage to those earliest Gothic novels.  If you’re not the squeamish sort give Monster a try. It’s certainly appropriate October reading."