To get the universe of his protagonist, Santa Fe Police Department Detective Denise Aragon, spot on for The Drum Within, Jim Scarantino calls on his skills as a prosecutor, defense attorney and investigative reporter and follows Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for Good Writing It’s a winning combination for a wickedly good procedural.
Posts By: Nancie Clare
Episode 83: T. Jefferson Parker
No one writes crazy quite like T. Jefferson Parker. Not teeth-gnashing, over-the-top-bad-guy-psycho-killer crazy, but crazy on a Biblical, mythical scale, the crazy of obsession and families with conflicts that span generations. And so it is in Crazy Blood, T. Jefferson Parker’s latest, a dark noir tale set in the world of blinding white snow Photo… Read more »
Episode 82: Barry Eisler
In Barry Eisler’s The God’s Eye View, an out-of-control Director at the National Security Agency is running a program that can see everything and is eliminating anyone who poses a threat—not to the country—but to the program. A work of fiction. Really Photo of Barry Eisler ©Naomi Brookner
Episode 81: Trudy Nan Boyce
Out of the Blues, Trudy Nan Boyce’s debut police procedural, hits all the right notes as her protagonist, Sarah Alt—AKA Salt—reports for duty as Atlanta’s newest homicide detective. It’s music, the blues in particular, that brings a very cold case to life for Salt Photo of Trudy Nan Boyce ©Viki Hoang Timian
Episode 80: S. J. Rozan
Moral ambiguity attracts S. J. Rozan to the Private Eye genre, “It’s about what you do when there are only bad choices.” S. J. Rozan writes the Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series—the point of view trades off between her two protagonists book to book—that includes Ghost Hero (a Lydia Chin novel) and On the Line (a Bill… Read more »
Episode 79: Barry Lancet
In Pacific Burn, Barry Lancet’s third mystery featuring PI Jim Brodie, an assassin seems to be targeting the adult family members of an esteemed Japanese artist who is a good friend of Brodie’s. It’s up to Brodie to find out who is killing off the Nobuki family one by one …and why Photo of Barry… Read more »
Episode 78: Phillip Margolin
To all the world, defense attorney Amanda Jaffe’s client—who is charged with murder—looks guilty. Not to mention, he confessed. But in Violent Crimes, Phillip Margolin’s latest legal thriller, nothing is quite what it appears to be Photo of Phillip Margolin ©Anthony Georgis
Episode 77: Joe R. Lansdale
Swamp Noir at its finest: Hap and Leonard, perhaps the world of PI’s most unique partnership, are back in Honky Tonk Samurai And because there really can’t be enough Hap and Leonard in the world, Joe tells us more about the upcoming Hap and Leonard, starring James Purefoy, Michael Kenneth Williams and Christina Hendricks, on Sundance Channel. … Read more »
Episode 76: Denise Mina
Police Scotland’s DCI Alex Morrow is back in Blood Salt Water investigating two murders that may—or may not—be connected The title of the book is inspired by a quote of President John F. Kennedy and for Denise it speaks to the connectivity of lives, circumstances and geography.
Episode 75: Joe Clifford
Lamentation, Joe Clifford’s debut crime fiction novel—and first in a series—explores the region where family, addition, secrets and small town sensibilities intersect
