Author Archives: Bruce DeSilva

About Bruce DeSilva

Crime Novelist

High Praise for “Down to the River” Crime Fiction Anthology

Posted on April 19, 2019

Thriller writer Jon Land praised Down to the River — a new anthology that includes a short story by Patricia and me — in his book review column for The Providence Journal: “The splendid anthology “Down to the River” (Down & … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A New British Edition of “Incendiary Art”

Posted on April 15, 2019

My wife Patricia Smith’s latest book of poetry, “Incendiary Art” — the one that won the LA Times Book Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize –has just come out in a new … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tears For A Building

Posted on April 15, 2019

When the Twin Towers fell, my tears were for the people trapped inside. Today is the first time I ever wept for a building. (Photos of the Notre Dame Cathedral I took on family trips to Paris.)  

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My Review of “The Perfect Liar,” a New Crime Novel by Thomas Christopher Greene

Posted on January 17, 2019

The great thing about being an artist, Max tells his students, is that you can imagine things into being. But only he knows the extremes to which he has taken that. Max lacks the academic credentials for his job as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

My Review of Joanna Schaffhausen’s New Crime Novel, “No Mercy”

Posted on January 15, 2019

No Mercy is Joanna Schaffhausen’s second compelling novel in a series featuring FBI profiler Reed Markham and Woodbury, MA, police officer Ellery Hathaway, whom Reed once rescued from a serial killer. The story is told in vivid, precise prose, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I Thought He Would Live Forever

Posted on January 2, 2019

At my age, old friends and colleagues die with such frequency that I have almost become numb to it, but somehow I thought that Steve Parisi would live forever. He was a big, boisterous man with a luxurious head of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

My Review of Carol Potenza’s Debut Crime Novel

Posted on December 4, 2018

Hearts of the Missing, Carol Potenza’s debut novel, is a yarn wrapped in Pueblo Indian mythology, forensic evidence, ancient rituals, DNA tests, evil spirits, greed and violence. The story involves so many characters and such a plethora of twists and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Killed by Illegal Abortion: May Burns, My Great Grandmother.

Posted on October 9, 2018

Before Roe v. Wade, untold numbers of America women died from illegal abortions. One of them was May Burns of Middleboro, Massachusetts, shown here in her only surviving photograph. She was my great grandmother. May, an Irish immigrant, was married … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Proof That I’m a Born Romantic

Posted on September 21, 2018

I’m a born romantic. Take tonight when I asked my wife, the poet Patricia Smith, to join me in watching a scene from The Hitman’s Bodyguard. In it, the hitman (Samuel Jackson) is telling his body guard (Ryan Reynolds) how … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

My Review of Sara Gran’s New Claire DeWitt Mystery

Posted on September 20, 2018

For the uninitiated, Sara Gran’s protagonist, 40-year-old Claire DeWitt, is the woman Nancy Drew might have become if she had been raised by indifferent parents, developed a fierce drug habit, got seduced by the occult, became sexually promiscuous,  suffered with … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment