T. Jefferson Parker often uses the crime novel to journey into Southern California society. Starting with his debut, Laguna Beach, he is at his best when he looks at the more insular communities outside L.A. With Wild Instinct, he gives us Orange County Detective Lew Gale to take us through some of its lesser known corners. A former marine who served in Afghanistan and part of the area's Acjacheme Indian community, struggling with PTSD. Parker introduces us to him in an engag

WARNING SPOILERS ALL AROUND FOR SHORT STORY AND BOTH FILMS. The Three Ten To Yuma became the first story of Elmore Leonard’s to be adapted into a film. It also became one of two of his works that Hollywood adapted twice. Both took liberties with the story as they expanded it.   Published by Dime Western in 1953, Leonard’s short story begins with Deputy Marshal Paul Scallen riding into the town of Contention with Jim Kidd, a convicted robber and murderer. At the Commercial Hot

Noir can often just be fun, providing a way to have base experiences in the safety of a book. Tod Goldberg executed a perfect understanding of that when he wrote Only Way Out. Filled with unscrupulous people, it keeps us wondering who is truly smart and too smart for their own good. Jack Biddle, a compromised top cop in the run down beach town of Granite Shores, Oregon, is about to shake down a van driver for money to pat off some unsavory types. Before he can reach it, the v

Announcing Boom Town as Nic Stone's adult debut contains more than one meaning. After making a name for herself in the YA field, this is her first published novel out of the genre is a gritty thriller involving the women who work at the Atlanta gentlemen's club where the the title comes from. Instead of exploiting it for cheap thrills, she approaches the subject matter in a mature, unflinching manner. The story moves back and forth between two timelines about two missing wome

As Fall arrives, so does the Texas Book Festival and the Saturday night Lit Crawl Austin Noir At The Bar. This year they have us off Red River Street at Cheer Up Charlies November 8th, 7:30pm for reading up murder, betrayal, thievery, and other fun things in a range of voices. We have a line-up of local and national talent. SARA SLIGAR hit he scene in 2020 with the unnerving pyschological thriller with Take Me Apart. She has earned rave reviews with her dark look at family wi

Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series hit its stride in the fourth book, The Ivory Grin. While Moving Target, The Drowning Pool, and The Way We Die are all strong, reads, this is where Macdonald truly understood his voice and special formula for the private eye novel. Lew Archer dives into some of the darkest places and neither does he or his creator blink. Una, a stocky diamond encrusted woman who immediately gets on Lew's nerves, hires him to track down her maid Lucy Champion,

Last week we lost a writer more should have known. Billy Kring crafted over a dozen self-published novels. Mark Pryor and Craig Johnson became admirers. Often culled from his experiences, serving up books like a fine mescal that goes down smooth and hits you in the gut when you least expect it. His best known and respected work was his series featuring herione Hunter Kincaid. The character came out of the female colleagues he worked with as an agent for The Border Patrol. He

Reavis Z. Wortham combines what he does best with something new in Comancheria, a book that came to him in a dream. It is part western with Texas Rangers Buck Dallas and Lane Newsome chasing down Quanah Parker on his famed raid on Adobe Walls. It then becomes another genre as well when in a skirmish a medicine man turns Buck into one of the undead. Lifting the curse is connected to returning a Comanche captured girl to her home and a magical spring tended by a woman the Coman

There's something about Texans that make them great candidates for the weird western. From Robert E. Howard in the west of the state practically inventing it to Joe Lansdale to the east expanding it, the mixing of the horror and western must come from seeing unnatural in those natural landscapes. Reavis Wortham, a favorite of mine from Frisco, takes on the odd genre with Comancheria. For his story, he drops history into the horror, centering it around the story around The Se

Maxim Jakubowski is one of the most prolific and creative anthology editors. He comes up with some of the best themes that push authors and create entertainment no only from the story themselves but how each author approaches the the theme he establishes. His latest, Birds, Strangers, and Psychos, is fiction that pays tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. He was kind enough to talk about the project with us. SCOTT MONTGOMERY: What drew you to Hitchcock for an anthology? MAXIM JAKUBOWS