In Pursuit of Spenser (32 page)

Authors: Otto Penzler

Tags: #Non Fiction, #Literary Collections, #Essays, #Literary Criticism

MATTHEW CLEMENS
has collaborated with Max Allan Collins on a number of projects, including the
CSI
,
Bones
, and
Criminal Minds
novels, as well as their forensics thrillers,
You Can’t Stop Me
and
No One Will Hear You
.

REED FARREL COLEMAN
is the author of twelve novels, including two under the pseudonym Tony Spinosa. Novels in his popular Mo Prager series have been nominated for two Edgar awards and have won three Shamus Awards for Best Novel of the Year from the Private Eye Writers of America. He also has won Barry, Macavity, and Anthony awards.

MAX ALLAN COLLINS
wrote the graphic novel
Road to Perdition
, the basis of the Academy Award–winning Tom Hanks film. Among his other works are the award-winning Nathan Heller historical thrillers and his series about Nolan, a hitman. He also wrote the Dick Tracy comic strip for many years and completed several Mike Hammer manuscripts left behind at Mickey Spillane’s death.

BRENDAN DUBOIS
is the author of twelve novels and more than a hundred short stories, many of which have received such outstanding honors as two Shamus Awards, two Barry awards, and three nominations for Edgars. “The Dark Snow,” originally published in
Playboy
, was selected for
The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century
; four of his stories have been selected for the prestigious
Best American Mystery Stories of the Year
.

LOREN D. ESTLEMAN
is equally prolific in the Western and mystery genres. He has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, an Edgar Allan Poe Award, and a National Book Award, and has both won and been nominated for numerous Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America and Shamus Awards from the Private Eye Writers of America. His best-known series features private eye Amos Walker, who works in Detroit, the scene of many other of Estleman’s crime novels.

LYNDSAY FAYE
is a professional actress, singer, and gourmet cook. Her first book was
Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson
, which earned her membership in the Baker Street Irregulars. Continuing with historical crime fiction, her second novel was
The Gods of Gotham
, about the origins of the New York City Police Department, which happened to coincide with the Irish potato famine.

ED GORMAN
writes prolifically in several genres, winning a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and being nominated twice for Bram Stoker awards from the Horror Writers Association, but he is mainly known for dozens of mystery novels written under his own name and numerous pseudonyms, most notably E.J. Gorman and Daniel Ransom. His award-winning suspense story, “The Poker Club,” will soon be released as a motion picture with the same title.

PARNELL HALL
has written thirty-four mystery novels, including seventeen about the inept and cowardly private eye Stanley Hastings; five courtroom dramas about Steve Winslow, written under the pseudonym J.P Hailey; and a dozen detective novels featuring “the puzzle lady,” all of which contain crossword puzzles, on which he collaborated with Manny Nosowsky; later “puzzle lady” books featured sudoku puzzles, on which he collaborated with Will Shortz.

JEREMIAH HEALY
graduated from Harvard Law School and taught law for eighteen years at the New England School of Law. He has written eighteen novels and more than sixty short stories, most of which are set in Boston. His twelve-novel series about private investigator John Francis Cuddy began with
Blunt Darts
. He also has written six
legal thrillers about Mairead O’Clare under the pseudonym Terry Devane. He has won or been nominated for fifteen Shamus Awards.

DENNIS LEHANE
was born and raised in Boston, where most of his fiction is set. His first novel,
A Drink Before the War
, introduced his private eyes Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro and won the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America. The fourth in the series,
Gone Baby, Gone
, was filmed with Ben Affleck directing and Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan starring. Other films made from Lehane’s works include
Mystic River
and
Shutter Island
.

ROBERT B. PARKER
and his work are the subject of this book.

OTTO PENZLER
is the founder of The Mysterious Press, a publishing house specializing in literary crime fiction since 1975, and The Mysterious Bookshop in downtown New York City. He has won two Edgar Allan Poe Awards, one for co-writing the
Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection
, and one for editing
The Lineup
. He has edited nearly fifty anthologies, including the annual
Best American Mystery Stories of the Year
.

GARY PHILLIPS
Gary Phillips is the creator of private eye Ivan Monk. On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the ’92 L.A. riots, his debut mystery novel
Violent Spring
, set in the aftermath of that civil unrest, was reissued as an e-book by
MysteriousPress.com
. His most recent crime novel is
Warlord of Willow Ridge
; he also is the editor of and a contributor to
Scoundrels: Tales of Greed, Murder and Financial Crimes
, an all-original e-book anthology from
downandoutbooks.com
.

S.J. ROZAN
has won and been nominated for countless mystery writing awards, mainly for the books in her series about the private investigator partners Lydia Chin, an American-born Chinese who remembers her roots, and Bill Smith, who is more fond of Lydia than she is of him. They more or less alternate in taking the lead role in the novels, one of which,
Winter and Night
, won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of the Year.

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