Rogue Island

The narrator and the quality of the production play a major role in the judging, so I owe thanks to Jeff Woodman, who did the narration, and to Audible Inc., the company that produced and distributed the audio book.

Previously, the print version of Rogue Island won the Edgar and Macavity awards and was a finalist for the Shamus and Anthony Awards.

The other books nominated for the Audie in my category are Feast Day of Fools, by James Lee Burke, Narrated by Will Patton, Simon & Schuster Audio; Naughty in Nice: A Royal Spyness Mystery, by Rhys Bowen, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren, Audible, Inc.; One Dog Night, by David Rosenfelt, Narrated by Grover Gardner, Listen & Live Audio; and Return to Marshall’s Bayou: A Dassas Cormier Mystery, by S.H. Baker, Narrated by a full cast, Siren Audio Solutions

You can purchase the audio version of Rogue Island here. The trade paperback and Kindle editions are available here.

Cliff Walk, the second book in the Mulligan crime novel series, will be published on May 22, and is available for pre-order here.

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In my forthcoming novel, “Cliff Walk,” to be published by Forge on May 22, a Rhode Island mobster named Sal Maniella shakes down Providence strip clubs for protection money.

Today, several Rhode Island organized crime figures, including my old pal Baby Shacks Manocchio, have agreed to plead guilty to doing the same thing to the tune of $800,000.

A link to the Providence Journal story about the plea agreement can be found here.

1. Twenty-eight states require religious institutions to not only make contraceptive care available for employees but to PAY for it.

2. Most religious institutions in those states, including Roman Catholic ones, comply with those laws.

3. Catholic Bishops in some of those states have sued to block these laws and have always LOST in court.

As I have followed the debate over the contraception issue, I have observed that many people misunderstand the nature of freedom of religion as it is guaranteed by the First Amendment. Many seem to think it is an unlimited right. It is not. None of our constitutional rights are unlimited. For one thing, my rights are limited when they conflict with yours.

In the case of freedom of religion, every American is free to BELIEVE anything he or she wants, but no one is free to DO anything he or she wants. Limits on what we can do in the name of religion are many, and some of them should be familiar to everyone.

Christian Science parents are not permitted to deny their children treatment for life-threatening diseases, and if they do so they can be criminally charged. Breakaway Mormon sects are not permitted to engage in bigamy or marry off underage girls, and some of their leaders are in prison for doing so. Conscientious objectors, such as Quakers, may BELIEVE that their federal taxes should not help pay for wars, but if they don’t pay those taxes they face criminal charges.

And so it goes.

The farther a religious organization wanders from worship into other activities, the less it can claim those activities are protected as religious freedoms. That’s why the administration’s new contraception rule does not apply to churches but does apply to hospitals and schools, where what goes on is at least partially, if not predominantly, secular.

Anyone who operates a hospital or school is subject to a large number of federal, state, and local laws including building codes, medical standards, and business laws–and they must obey them regardless of whether they conflict with their religious beliefs.

Of course, Roman Catholics have every right to complain that providing contraception to employees would violate their moral beliefs. But this does not mean they have a legal right not to provide the benefit.

The constitutional claim here is weak, and so far it has been a consistent loser in the courts.

My contribution is an essay on how to create a vivid setting for your story. Other contributors include Louise Penny, Gar Anthony Haywood, Peter James, Simon Brett, Rebecca Cantrell, Reed Farrel Coleman, John Lutz, Meg Gardiner, and many more. The book was edited by Sherry Ellis and Louise Lamson and published by Penguin. It’s available here now.

Michael Haskins’ Stairway to the Bottom:  After finding a murdered female killer from the Cold War era, Mick Murphy faces off with a hit man for Whitey Bulger who has escaped from witness protection to collect Bulger’s hidden millions. At the same time, retired Cold War agents come to Key West looking for someone that walked off with more than $20 million in diamonds and they think the missing hit man is their guy. Murphy thinks the situation is funny as he meets and talks to the agents, but dislikes the hit man even though Padre Thomas has given him absolution. It’s not long before his buddy Norm shows up with CIA agents looking for the diamonds. They are soon followed by the British, French, Israeli and Russian spy agencies. Everyone assumes Murphy can lead them to the Cold War agent, while Murphy tries helplessly to explain the man they are looking for is a Boston gangster. On the water, snorkeling at the reef with Tita, Norm and a female CIA agent everything in Murphy’s world begins to unravel. As both those looking for the hit man and those looking for the diamonds collide, Murphy’s world changes forever. You can purchase it here.

Bill Crider’s Dead on the Island, my favorite of the Truman Smith adventures, finds the private eye returning to his hometown of Galveston to investigate the disappearance of his sister. He runs into people from his past, finds a cat, and gets into lots of trouble, Publisher’s Weekly say Smith is “a moody, introspective PI in the finest tradition, who works in a seamy city smoldering with old and dangerous secrets.” You can purchase the Truman Smith mysteries here.

Novelist Paul D. Brazill has a nice interview with Haskins that you can find here.

And novelist Timothy Hallinan has a fine interview with Crider that you can find here.

This is what the jacket copy says about it:

The publisher is  Hayakawa, one of the better houses in Japan. It’s other American and British authors include George Pelecanos, Thomas H. Cook, Tom Franklin, John Hart and Ian Rankin. I feel lucky to be in that company.

The U.S. edition — in trade paperback, Kindle, and downloadable audio versions — can be found here.

Here’s what David Freed knows:

Murder. He covered the O.J. Simpson trial for CBS News.

Cops. He covered them for The Los Angeles Times, where he was a solo finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and shared in the Pulitzer for coverage of the Rodney King riots.

Military affairs. He reported from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.

Computers. He scripted computerized training simulations for the Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Army’s Battle Command Lab.

Aviation. He is a pilot and owns his own airplane.

Secrets. He holds an active security clearance from the Department of Defense.

And he uses all of this knowledge and then some in Flat Spin, his first novel, which will be published by The Permanent Press in May. It’s already available for pre-order here.

Unlike some novelists with enormous technical expertise, Freed is superb writer. His prose is at once muscular and musical—and sometimes verges on poetry. And he skillfully mixes a hard-boiled sensibility with flashes of sardonic humor. His style reminds me a bit of two of my favorite literary crime novelists, Bill Loehfelm and T. Jefferson Parker.

The hero of Flat Spin, the first book in a planned series, is Cordell Logan, a former member of a top-secret military assassination squad. As the story opens, Logan is living in a converted garage in Rancho Bonita, California, and unsuccessfully trying to make a living by giving flying lessons to spoiled rich kids. He’s haunted by his past, aching for his beautiful ex-wife Savannah, and failing miserably—and hilariously—to find peace through his recent conversion to Buddhism.

When Savannah’s new husband, another former assassination squad member named Arlo Eschevarria, is gunned down at his front door, Logan has a very un-Buddhist reaction. He’s elated. But his mood quickly evaporates when he finds himself the prime suspect.

With police detectives both overworked and looking in the wrong places, Logan gets sucked into investigating the case himself. He takes to the air in “The Ruptured Duck,” his Cessna 172, following the killer’s trail from the mean streets of Oakland to the Las Vegas Strip, from the Arizona desert to Russian Mafia haunts in West Los Angeles.

Eventually, he gets too close to the surprising truth and is targeted for murder himself.

The way Logan sees it, being in mortal danger and suspected of murder are the least of his problems. He is consumed by his longing for Savannah, the pain made so real that your own heart will ache.

The riveting plot, well-drawn characters, and magnificent prose are sure to make Flat Spin one of the finest debuts of 2012.

In any case, here’s the list.

Feast Day of Fools  by James Lee Burke

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran

When the Thrill is Gone by Walter Mosley

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

The Cut by George Pelecanos

The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook

The Devil She Knows by Bill Loehfelm

The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman

Back of Beyond by CJ Box

Trespasser by Paul Doiron

That’s my top ten, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t also recommend:

Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton

The Sentry by Robert Crais

A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

Ghost Heroes by S.J. Rozan

Dead Men’s Harvest

You can find the book here.