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

Saturday, June 8, 2013

If you like your noir pure and unadulterated

What the critics have said about my man out of prison noir trilogy:

"The plot of Small Crimes ricochets out from this claustrophobic opening, and it's a thing of sordid beauty." Maureen Corrigan on Small Crimes, NPR's top 5 crime and mystery novels of 2008

"Zeltserman's breakthrough third crime novel [Small Crimes] deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy" Publisher's Weekly, starred review

"spare but ingeniously twisted and imbued with a glossy coating of black humor." Washington Post picking Small Crimes as one of the Best Books of 2008

"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

"ultra-noir, funny, and shocking by turns" Barnes & Noble

"Small Crimes proves a deft entry in the tradition that goes back to Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and Charles Willeford’s High Priest of California — small masterpieces celebrating the psychopath as a grinning archetype, as American as apple pie." Sun-Sentinel

"as nasty and clever as noir can get" NPR

"If there's any other young writer out there who does crime noir better than Zeltserman, I don't even want to know." Washington Post picking Pariah as one of the Best Books of 2009

"Darkly enjoyable... clear, crisp prose; his fearless portrait of amorality; and his smart plotting... what a fine addition to the local literary scene he’s become." Boston Globe

"Pariah is a terrific blast" Metro (UK)

"I just finished reading Dave's new novel Pariah. It 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

"Spare prose and assured pacing place this [Killer] above most other contemporary noirs." Publisher's Weekly

"With graphic imagery and exciting twists, this novel [Killer] is impossible to put down and has a surprising ending. A brilliant read." Aberdeen Press & Journal

"Dave Zeltserman is at it again writing about ex-con antiheroes with the kind of panache that would make Jim Thompson, king of the psycho killer novels, proud." Boston Globe

"Written in a spare, terse style, and with chapters alternating between past and present, we slowly learn more about March. But even then the closing chapters present a devastating twist and shocking conclusion." Sunday Tribune

"This novel [Killer] 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" Mat Coward, Morning Star

"Dave Zeltserman's Killer is simply one of the best crime novels I've read. Not in a long time, not in ages, not this year, but ever." Juri Nummelin, Pulpetti

No comments: