Pariah available as a Kindle Book for the First Time!

 

Back in 2007, I was pissed that every New York publisher rejected Small Crimes (some of them two or more times), and I got even more pissed seeing publishers paying big money for crappy mobster tell-all books, and my response to this was over a 6-week period writing Pariah in a blind rage. There was another incident that fueled my rage, but I won't mention it here since it became integral in Pariah's plot. Here's one thing I can guarantee you about Pariah--it's unlike any crime novel you'll ever read--it's part hell-on-wheels brutally subversive crime novel and part savage satirical look at the publishing industry.

Nobody other than Serpent's Tail would've ever published Pariah, at least according to an editor at St. Martin's. After NPR had Small Crimes top their list of best crime/mystery novels of 2008, this editor contacted me, asking me why I didn't let him publish Small Crimes (never mind that his boss was one of three St. Martin's editors who rejected Small Crimes), and he wanted to see what I had next, which was Pariah--and his response to it was that no publisher in New York would touch it. Fortunately, Serpent's Tail was in London, and they were all too happy to do so. But even still, I was lucky to see Pariah in print--shortly after Serpent's Tail bought the rights, Profile Books bought Serpent's Tail, and Pete Ayrton (Serpent's Tail's legendary publisher) told me he had to threaten to quit before they'd let him publish it. Still, the ebook was never put out, and starting back in May of this year I contacted Profile Books about obtaining the ebook rights. On October 10th, the rights were granted back to me. And now a kindle version of Pariah is finally available as a Kindle Unlimited book.

This new version has a foreword that Roger Smith originally wrote for the German edition. I also took this opportunity to remove about 95% of the profanity and make a few other line edits to tighten the writing. The original book probably had more profanity per page than any other crime novel ever written--again, I wrote it in a blind rage, and I also wanted it to sound authentic. I'm pretty sure I succeeded in authenticity--I had one of the mob tell-all book co-authors read Pariah, and she told me this was exactly the way they are and speak. But I'm also older and wiser now and being 100% authentic isn't necessarily the goal. As long as the book feels authentic, that's more than good enough. I've also written enough Julius Katz mysteries and other short stories for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine with no profanity where I've grown to prefer that. In any case, there's been a marked decrease in profanity in my writing since Pariah (The Caretaker of Lorne Field I think has one usage, and most of my other novels have little to none.) I couldn't get rid of all of it in Pariah without parts of it sounding false, but as stated above, 95% has been cleaned out.

I liked the original cover Serpent's Tail did for Pariah. It shows the explosive nature of the book. The protagonist, Kyle Nevin, is someone who brings death and destruction to anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. My new cover provides more of a sense of foreboding. Since most of the book takes place in Boston and Manhatton, a desolate cabin might seem an odd choice, but it will make sense to anyone who reads the book. I think the graphic designer did a brilliant job with it, as she has done with Everybody Lies in Hell and Detectives and Spies.