'Man out of Prison' noir trilogy explained

Three dangerous men released from prison.

Each man on a different quest.

The three distinct noir journeys which follow.

That’s the premise for my ‘man just out of prison’ noir trilogy which Serpent’s Tail is publishing. The first of these, Small Crimes, was published in 2008 and ended up being named by both National Public Radio and The Washington Post as one of the top crime novels of the year. In Small Crimes, my anti-hero, Joe Denton, is a disgraced ex-cop who is being paroled after eight years for violently disfiguring the County DA who was building a police corruption case against Joe. When Joe was on the force, he was a bent cop, a degenerate gambler, and a coke user. Now that he’s out and back in his fictional hometown of Bradley, Vermont, Joe finds nobody much wants him around anymore, not his parents, his ex-colleagues, or his ex-wife. Joe wants redemption for his past crimes, but the problem is there are too many old ghosts and too much anger for that happen, at least not without a significant cost. The damage that Joe and his releases end up causing the town is staggering.

The inspiration for Small Crimes came from two newspaper article I read. The first was about a cop who committed a similar crime as Joe’s, and like Joe, was able to serve out an amazingly short sentence in a County Jail. This cop also started collecting his pension shortly after being released! The second article was about a corrupt Sheriff’s office in Denver in the 60s where they were robbing stores blind, even going as far as carrying safes out of stores to bust open later. Merging both these stories together, I started playing what-if games and built a scenario in my mind of how a cop could be treated as lightly as Joe for such a heinous crime within an utterly corrupt small town atmosphere. And so Small Crimes was born.

The second book in my series, Pariah, was published in 2009 and also named by the Washington Post as one of the best books of the year, and is written on two levels—one level being a fierce crime story, the other a darkly subversive and satirical look at the New York publishing industry and all their follies, as well as the celebrity-crazed culture in our society. Like a lot of people in Boston, I was fascinated for years by the Whitey Bulger/Billy Bulger story, and read everything I could about it. Here you have the most feared mobster in Boston, with his brother being the State Senate President. Stories would come out about how Whitey would lean on other pols to keep his brother in power, and Billy would squash state police investigations into Whitey, going as far as ruining the careers of state police who would try to bring Whitey in.

After Whitey goes on the lam it then comes out that he was an informant for the FBI, that he corrupted several FBI agents, including his childhood friend, John Connolly. Connolly would tip him off if anyone went to the FBI to give up Whitey, and Whitey would use the FBI to weaken his competition. He'd also give up his own people at times to help Connolly and these other corrupt FBI agents advance their careers.

I knew there was a great crime novel in all of this, and I was mulling over what angle to go at when several things happened--first was a Harvard student who had a reported 500K 2-book deal with Little Brown being vilified for plagiarizing other chick lit books when writing hers. The other was the release of a couple of tell-all books around early March 2006, by South Boston mobsters (Brutal by Kevin Weeks, Rat Bastard by John “red” Shea). I now saw my angle, as well as getting excited about the idea of a "man just out of prison" trilogy, with Small Crimes being the first, Pariah the second. I wanted Pariah to start the same as Small Crimes--a man just getting out of prison, but have this man (Kyle Nevin) be the polar opposite of Joe Denton, my noir ‘hero’ in Small Crimes. While Joe, for all his weakness and self-delusion, is still someone who wants to go through life without causing anymore damage, Kyle is a force of nature; utterly ruthless and remorseless, and someone who leaves death and destruction wherever he goes. I wrote Pariah early in 2006, and finished the book months before the OJ Simpson "If I did it" book story came out--which was all a bizarre coincidence. Anyone reading Pariah will probably think I was inspired by Simpson’s failed book. Not at all. At the time I thought the behavior of my fictional publisher in Pariah was beyond the pall and would be too extreme for any actual publisher, but I was proven wrong. In writing this book I wanted to work in as much history of Whitey and the South Boston mob as I could, and I also wanted to write what could be considered a great crime novel--even with the satirical elements, I wanted to write this straight up, and not for laughs.

Killer, which is going to be released in the US May 1st, rounds out this trilogy. Killer was inspired very loosely on the idea that Boston mob hitman, John Martorano, could murder 20 people, then end up striking a deal for a 12 year prison sentence in exchange for becoming a government witness against Whitey Bulger and the South Boston Mob. With Martorano, he is now out of prison and back in Boston where he’s living among the shadows of his victims.

My anti-hero in Killer is Leonard March. Like the real-life Martorano, March was also a hitman for the mob, in his case performing 28 hits. When he’s picked up on a racketeering charge, he strikes a deal for 14 years in exchange for testifying against the mob and immunity for all his past crimes. It’s only when the deal is struck that the authorities learn about his murders.

Just as Joe Denton and Kyle Nevin have there quests on leaving prison, so does March. His is a search for self-discovery. The chapters of Killer alternate between past and present, with the past chapters showing Leonard as a cold-blooded killer, while the present chapters show him as an older man trying to understand himself and his role in the universe. Since his release from prison he’s working as a janitor and living in a low-rent dirty pest-infested apartment. Any former glory is gone, as well as any fear he might have once have struck in the hearts of the Boston underworld. He has been reduced to a toothless wolf left howling futilely at the moon. March wants to believe that his past job was just a job, that things could have been different for him. That he could have been a good husband and father. In many ways, Killer is a meditation on the mind of a killer, and in the end when Leonard’s past collides with his present the mystery of how these two sides of March can be reconciled is at last answered.

Mystery Night

This Thursday, I'll be joining fellow local area Boston writers David Hosp, Hank Phillipe Ryan and Paul Tremblay from 7pm to 8pm at Newtonville Books, where I'll be reading from Pariah and signing copies afterwards.

Kingdom Books on Killer

"Brace for it: Behind this smoothly narrated page-turner, there are levels of pain and loss that wait, along with the hardened criminals around Leonard, for a chance to strike. It won't be pretty. But it sure will be a compelling read, if you're up to all the darkness. Maybe it would be a good idea to leave a couple of lights on tonight, and make extra sure the door is locked, and the windows, too. Someone like Leonard could be out there now. In fact, it's almost a dead certainty."

I'd like to thank Beth Kanell over at Kingdom Books in Vermont for her terrific review of Killer over on their bookstore's blog.

Crime Factory #2

The new revamped Crime Factory has their second issue, and from the looks of it Keith Rawson, Cameron Ashely and Liam Jose are doing everything right with a solid mix of articles, interviews, fiction and reviews. The physical layout looks great, kind of a gritty retro look. But the biggest thing they're doing with this is not only putting out a PDF version, but also making an ebook version available for Kindle and all other ebook readers by going through Smashwords. I ran Hardluck Stories for five years, and I know how hard it is putting out a crime fiction webzine. There's an excitement every time you put out an issue that you're proud of, but it also wears on you over time knowing that only a few hundred people are ever going to read it, and I think more than anything that's what eventually kills all online crime fiction webzines. This is where I think Crime Factory now has a chance of bucking this trend---by making their issues available as ebooks for popular readers, they have a chance of greatly expanding this typical readership for crime fiction webzines. It's a smart move, and given the attractive look of the magazine, I think it's going to pay off.

I haven't read the complete issue yet, but what I've read is good stuff. This issue's got the first chapter for my upcoming book Killer (May, Serpent's Tail), and now for the good stuff that I've read: a really nicely done essay on William Greshem's Nightmare Alley by Jimmy Callaway that's making me want to track down this book, a good writer and friend Charlie Stella interviewing and being interviewed by Craig McDonald on their latest books, the Nerd of Noir's (Peter Dragovich) look at the films The Baader Meinhof Complex and Flame and Citron, and several short crime stories that I would've gladly put in Hardluck if I were still running it. My hat's off (if I wore one) to Rawson, Ashley and Jose for jumping into the fray like this and putting out such a quality product.

Killer Book Trailer

More Killer Enthusiasm

"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

Gearing up for Killer

Killer is six weeks away from being released in the US and is already generating a good amount of excitement.

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

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

"This novel 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

"Killer is a major novel of crime." Ed Gorman

"The whole book is told in tightly controlled prose that's perfectly suited to the subject matter. Killer is another bang-up job from Zeltserman, and a noir novel in the grand tradition. Don't miss it." Bill Crider

"And the surprise ending... I was trembling after reading the final pages. It's a surprise not only plot-wise, but Zeltserman also turns the theme of his novel totally upside down." - Juri Nummelin, Pulpetti

"Here at the Bookbag, we've been very impressed with Dave Zeltserman's work thus far. He uses a wonderful noirish narrative that takes you straight to the heart of the story. His story telling is very straightforward, not weighing down the story with too much style, but sticking to the substance and delivering a hard-hitting work every time. With Killer, he has done the same again." - Iain, Wear, thebookgag.co.uk

"Read the book, amici. It’s a very good one that will rock you in the last few pages." - Charlie Stella

"To put it simply, Killer is a brilliant character study that will rip the literary rug right out from under the reader's tightly-curled toes." Corey Wilde, The Drowning Pool

"In a Nutshell: Superbly written with a real twist in the tale, Killer is a novel which will appeal to lovers of crime fiction and the general readers alike. As a reader who usually ‘crosses the road’ to get away from crime fiction, Zeltserman has single-handedly convinced me that I should rethink my long-established custom of shying away from the genre." RobAroundBooks

"Highly recommended ... Zeltserman’s choices and the way he links them feel exactly right. He times the revelations and the peeling away of the past to enhance events happening in the present." NextRead

Shot to Death by Stephen Rogers

When I was publishing Hardluck Stories I was always happy to be able to publish stories from fellow Massachusetts crime fiction author, Stephen Rogers, and now that Stephen has a new collection of short crime fiction, Shot To Death, I'm happy to let him hijack my blog for a day to talk about it.

--Dave

I reached the front desk out of breath.- DISTURBED

So begins one of the 31 stories contained in SHOT TO DEATH (ISBN 978-0982589908). Within that beginning lurks the ending to the story and everything that happens between the beginning and the end. Or at least it seems that way to me.

First off, I don't care for the sentence. It doesn't flow. There's something in the phrasing that just seems odd.

So, if I'm going to keep the opening as is, there's going to be something off about the narrator. (While editing the sentence would be easy enough, let's see where this one takes me.)

I reached the front desk out of breath.

We're at a hotel. Well, some restaurants have front desks, but I'm thinking hotel. A nice hotel.

I see four possibilities. The narrator is approaching the front desk from outside. The narrator is a registered guest approaching the front desk from the hotel. The narrator is an employee approaching the front desk from the hotel. The narrator is an employee approaching the front desk from the room behind the desk.

Other options are possible, but these four give me more than enough to work with.

If we're talking a nice hotel, it's unlikely that an employee would be odd in an interesting way. A dive on the other hand.... But I see a nice hotel, which means the narrator is not an employee.

Who rushes into a hotel from outside? Even if you're later than you expected, you're just going to stand in line, if only a line of one. So the narrator is a registered guest.

An odd version of a registered guest. Someone pretending to be a registered guest. Someone pretending to be a specific registered guest.

That's the spark. All that remains is the writing.

For a chance to win a signed copy of SHOT TO DEATH, click on over to http://www.stephendrogers.com/Win.htm and submit your completed entry.

Then visit the schedule at http://www.stephendrogers.com/Howto.htm to see how you can march along.

And then come back here to post your comments. Phew.

About Stephen Rogers:

Stephen D. Rogers is the author of SHOT TO DEATH (ISBN 978-0982589908) and more than six hundred stories and poems. He's the head writer at Crime Scene (where viewers solve interactive mysteries) and a popular writing instructor. For more information, you can visit his website, www.stephendrogers.com, where he tries to pull it all together.

Another Killer Review

"And the surprise ending... I was trembling after reading the final pages. It's a surprise not only plot-wise, but Zeltserman also turns the theme of his novel totally upside down."

Read Juri Nummelin's complete review here.

A List I'm On

It's pretty cool to see Small Crimes on this list of the 100 Best Crime Novels Ever Written (#53).