Tag Archives: Associated Press

My Review of “Just Watch Me” by Jeff Lindsay

Posted on December 8, 2019 by Bruce DeSilva

Riley Wolfe, the anti-hero of Jeff Lindsay’s  Just Watch Me,  gets his kicks executing spectacular robberies that no one else would even contemplate. His victims are always the super-rich, whom he despises as “smug, do-nothing, self-loving leeches.” The plot combines … Continue reading →

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

Julia Keller’s Heartbreaking Blues Song of a Novel–My Review

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Bruce DeSilva

Julia Keller’s eighth yarn featuring West Virginia crime fighter Bell Elkins is a heartbreaking blues song of a novel, employing beauty to evoke despair while reminding readers that even in the darkest of days, there might also be light. The … Continue reading →

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

Another Fine Private Eye Novel by T. Jefferson Parker

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Bruce DeSilva

In T. Jefferson Parker’s new Roland Ford thriller, The Last Good Guy, the search for a missing girl leads the private eye to a mysterious date farm with military-grade security, a security firm owned by a racist billionaire, a decommissioned … Continue reading →

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

Ben Coes, Thriller Writer, Has a Temper Tantrum

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Bruce DeSilva

I didn’t find anything to like about The Russians, the new thriller by Ben Coes, but I WAS amused by his petulant temper tantrum over my review for the Associated Press. I rarely write negative book reviews. I think life … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

My Review of “Black Mountain,” New Crime Novel by Laird Barron

Posted on May 8, 2019 by Bruce DeSilva

“You don’t teach a child to become a killer by rote lectures,” Laird Barron writes in his new crime novel, Black Mountain. “To create a predatory machine, you foster an appreciation of the natural world and our minuteness upon its … Continue reading →

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

Pitch-Perfect Dialogue — My Review of Neely Tucker’s New Crime Novel

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Bruce DeSilva

Only the Hunted Run is the third Sully Carter novel by Neely Tucker, a veteran Washington Post war correspondent now covering the presidential election for the paper’s Sunday magazine. Unsurprisingly, Tucker’s depiction of how a crack investigative reporter works is … Continue reading →

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

How I Made the Transition From Journalist to Crime Novelist

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Bruce DeSilva

A lot of people think that daily journalism must be a great training ground for novelists. I tell them that, for the most part, it is not. As someone who worked as a news reporter and editor for forty years … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

How the Decline of the Newspaper Business Harms Our Democracy and Has Forced My Crime Novel Hero Out of the Investigative Reporter Racket

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Bruce DeSilva

Six years ago, when I took early retirement from my journalism career to write hard-boiled crime novels, I decided to make my protagonist a newspaper reporter instead of a cop or a private investigator. I had four good reasons. 1) … Continue reading →

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

My Review of Award-Winning Poet Michael Ryan’s First Crime Novel

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Bruce DeSilva

Guy Novel, the first crime novel by Guggenheim-winning poet Michael Ryan, is part wildly improbable spy thriller and part goofy love story in the vein of  The Hangover movie trilogy. To read the full text of my review for The … Continue reading →

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

My Review of Reed Farrel Coleman’s “Where It Hurts.”

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Bruce DeSilva

Where It Hurts by Reed Farrel Coleman is a superb detective novel in the Raymond Chandler tradition, featuring fine prose, a suspenseful yarn and a compelling main character who will leave readers hungering for the next installment. You can read … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments