PW's Frankfurt Book Fair Report

This is very cool from PW's Frankfurt Book Fair Briefing:

Profile

Profile's Andrew Franklin has submitted his company's titles in (erratically scanning and rhyming) limerick format:

"There once was a publishing house called Profile, / They were small, independent and nubile / On their Frankfurt rights list / There are numerous hits (all with world rights) / Come see us on stand L924, it’ll be worthwhile . . . Korea by Shelia Miyoshi Jager / Is a stunning new history, we wager / The New Scientist will show / How to Make a Tornado / And Mary Beard’s It’s A Don’s Life’s a surefire winner. Authors Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus Husselby / Give us Einstein’s Watch, a Christmas hit, surely / Find out What Darwin Got Wrong / (If you didn’t know all along) / In the book by Fodor and Piatelli-Palmarini. Serpent’s Tail have a strong list every time, / With Zeltserman’s Pariah, Killer, Outsourced and Small Crimes, / Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile, / Will cause a stir, we feel, / And Musa Okwanga’s football book Will You Manage? is sublime.

People have been asking me...

Since Small Crimes, Pariah and Killer all make up my noir 'man out of prison' trilogy, people have been asking me whether the books need to be read in order. Nope. They're all independent from each other. On the other hand, I do think the books are enhanced by reading all of them, and I've gotten this same feedback from others who've read them. It's fun seeing the different journeys my noir protagonists take on being released from prison. It's kind of like the old theme issues I used to run on Hardluck Stories, seeing how different stories take divergent paths along the same general theme.

Pariah in bookstores today!

The first book in my 'man out of prison' noir trilogy being published by Serpent's Tail, Small Crimes, was named one of the 5 best crime and mystery novels of 2008 by NPR and one of the best novels of 2008 by The Washington Post. The second book in the series, my South Boston mob crime novel, Pariah, is being released today. I hope people enjoy this one, I'm thrilled that's it out, and am grateful to Pete Ayrton and John Williams at Serpent's Tail for taking a chance with something as dark and subversive as Pariah.

"Pariah is a terrific blast" Metro (UK)

"It happens rarely, but sometimes you get to the end of a book and what has gone before leaves you speechless. As a reader, this is a wonderful feeling, as you've just been through a great experience. As a book reviewer, however, it presents a problem, as you tend to have to sum up a book in more than no words. My first draft of this review read simply '...'" The Bookbag

"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

"Following up the critically acclaimed SMALL CRIMES, Dave Zeltserman had to prove that book was not some sort of fluke. PARIAH proves that CRIMES was no fluke, even surpassing that previous novel in leaps and bounds, to the point that Zeltserman should be considered the new king of Boston crime. In my eyes, the last writer who held that title was George V. Higgins." Bookgasm

"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. THIS IS THE PERFECT PITCH OF REALITY, HISTORY, CRIME, CELEBRITY, PLAGIARISM, AND SHEER ASTOUNDING WRITING. IT NEEDS A NEW WHOLE NEW GENRE NAME..........IT'S BEYOND MYSTERY, LITERATURE, A SOCIO/ECONOMIC TRACT, A SCATHING INSIGHT INTO THE NATURE OF CELEBRITY AND IN KYLE NEVIN WE HAVE THE DARKEST MOST ALLURING NOIR CHARACTER EVER TO COME DOWN THE SOUTH BOSTON PIKE OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN LITERATURE EITHER. I WANT MORE OF KYLE AND MORE OF THIS SUPERB SHOTGUN BLAST OF A NARRATIVE...........IF EVERY WRITER HAS ONE GREAT BOOK IN THEM THEN DAVE CAN REST EASY, HE HAS HIS AND IT'S TO OUR DELIGHT AND DEEPEST ENVY" Ken Bruen

"This book just sucked the air right out of me. It's more than great noir. This book's got teeth that bite and claws that catch, and it's a masterpiece... If you revere the dark tales of Charles Willeford, Jim Thompson and James M. Cain, add Dave Zeltserman's name to your list. I promise you that in years to come, when those first three names are mentioned, so will the fourth." Corey Wilde, The Drowning Pool

"The often violent story is told quite matter-of-factly, and that serves to harden the edge of this dark novel. Zeltserman also patterns Mahoney on real-life Boston crime czar Whitey Bulger, who remains number 2 on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list, right behind Osama Bin Laden. For readers looking for edgy crime fiction, Pariah fills the bill." Booklist

"With this book Zeltserman entrenches his position as the ranking neo-noirist, putting a contemporary spin on a tradition that goes way back to Thompson and James M. Cain. If you like your fiction dark, lean and uncompromising, Pariah has to be at the top of your list." Roger Smith, Crime Beat South Africa, Mixed Blood, Wake Up Dead

"Its rare that a meta novel ends up being entertaining as well as clever, but Dave Zeltserman’s excellent new novel, Pariah manages that trick very successfully; at once a noir-ish kidnap novel and an attack on the nature of celebrity memoir, plagiarism and the worst excesses of the publishing industry." Crime Scene Scotland

"Pariah is a tense, violent and sometimes absurd study of criminality and the world’s obsession with it. Each layer has something to say that’ll leave you thinking, cringing or praying. But I mean that in the best possible way. Another great addition to the Serpent’s Tail stable." Crime Scene NI

"If I told you any more, I'd be taking a lot of the fun out of your reading the book, which is fast, furious, and funny. I haven't even mentioned what goes on in the last third of the story, which was, for me, the most amusing part of the book. I don't mean this is a farce. It's far from a comedy, but it's sharply satirical and mean as a junkyard dog with a burr on its butt." Bill Crider

"For those who prefer the darker slice of life, Pariah will keep you glued to its pages. The chain reaction of Kyle Nevin’s release from prison on the world around him is the stuff of nuclear explosions. Violent, sexual and relentless, there are no holds barred anywhere in this wonderful launch into evil. The meek beware … be-very-ware." Charlie Stella

"Zeltserman has succeeded in bringing a blithely psychopatic character to the page who will chill the blood. Despite the utter moral bankruptcy of the main character, Pariah is gripping as opposed to repugnant. Zeltserman's writing and plotting are sharp and the plot is immaculately crafted. The only other author writing about such venal characters with such an incisive eye is Jason Starr, and some of Starr's characters are downright cuddly when compared to Zeltserman's. Pariah is a scathing rebuke of society's obsession with fame, and mythologizing of gangsters and the repugnant moral calculus that allows them to victimize innocent people with impunity" Nathan Cain, Independent Crime

"If the major newspapers and critics have any balls at all, this will be on their top ten lists – and not in some sub-category like “Best Mystery Novel” or some condescending bullshit list like that. This is the real deal, dear readers. Go fucking get yourself a taste." NerdOfNoir, BSC Review

a couple of new Pariah web reviews

A couple of new web reviews for Pariah have just shown up.

On Bookgasm, Bruce Grossman say:

"Following up the critically acclaimed SMALL CRIMES, Dave Zeltserman had to prove that book was not some sort of fluke. PARIAH proves that CRIMES was no fluke, even surpassing that previous novel in leaps and bounds, to the point that Zeltserman should be considered the new king of Boston crime. In my eyes, the last writer who held that title was George V. Higgins."

You can read Bruce's complete review here.

The NerdOfNoir in his typical excitable entertaining flair, which involves dropping more than enough F-bombs in his review to get himself banned for life from Saturday Night Live, and drops maybe even more than I do in the book (well, maybe not, but I had 288 pages to deal with!) says the following over at BSC Review:

"If the major newspapers and critics have any balls at all, this will be on their top ten lists – and not in some sub-category like “Best Mystery Novel” or some condescending bullshit list like that. This is the real deal, dear readers. Go fucking get yourself a taste."

You can read the Nerd's complete review here.

Pariah, Chapter 1

My subversive South Boston mob crime novel, Pariah, is being released October 1st, and to celebrate that I've made the first chapter available on my web-site.

Keeping score: Book locations

With a total of 9 books either published or scheduled to be published, I thought I'd keep score of the locations where each book takes place. Below I've listed my books in the order they were written along with their US publication dates.

Fast Lane (2004): Denver, Colorado

Bad Thoughts (2007): Brookline, Cambridge and Boston.

Small Crimes (2008): fictional Bradley, Vermont

Outsourced (10/2010): numerous locations around Boston, primarily Lynn, MA and New Hampshire

Bad Karma (10/2009): Boulder, Colorado

Caretaker of Lorne Field (Summer, 2010): unnamed small New England town

Pariah (10/2009): primarily South Boston, Brighton, Newton, New York, Scotland, and especially New Hampshire

Essence (2011): New York

Killer (5/2010): primarily Waltham MA, but also Charlestown, Revere and Winthrop

Pariah at Harvard Bookstore

Pariah's a little less than two weeks away from it's release date, but nice to see an early (and prominent) display of it at Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge. I'd like to thank my friend, Frank Solensky, for sending me the picture.

Thanks, Bill

I'd like to thank Bill Crider for his recent review of Bad Karma, and yes, the book cover that he shows in the review is the real cover--the book cover amazon and other places are showing was an early+rejected cover.

Pariah at Harvard?

Pariah's not supposed to be out until Oct. 1st, but I heard from a friend that he saw Pariah being prominently displayed at the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA. If you see Pariah at your local bookstore, I'd appreciate letting me know! Thanks!

Three different shades of crime fiction

In a relatively short time period I've got three completely different types of crime fiction being released. Pariah, which is one month away (Oct. 1) goes several steps (miles??) further than Small Crimes, and is by far the most explosive and subversive crime fiction I've written. On the other extreme is my novella, Julius Katz, which appeared in the Sept./Oct. issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and while not exactly a cozy is on the opposite end of the hardboiled spectrum. Light, breezy, and some might (and have) even say charming. Then there's Bad Karma out Oct. 16th, which as a hardboiled PI, albeit with a new age twist, and can be thought of as solidly in the middle. This raises the question as to readers expectations. As readers do you expect the same level of crime fiction from your writers, or are you willing to accept books that range the crime fiction spectrum?