Monday, February 26, 2007

Big Man is "Big Fun"

BIG MAN COMING DOWN THE ROAD, Brad Smith's latest, has gotten some might fine reviews lately.

The Globe and Mail writes:
Brad Smith has been called the "country cousin" of Elmore Leonard, and has the same knack for interweaving twisting and turning storylines without entangling readers so tightly that they stop being fun to negotiate. And like Leonard, Smith creates characters who are quirky, colloquial and never quite as bright or alert as circumstances warrant.

[...]

In less than a decade, Brad Smith has developed a loyal and enthusiastic following, especially among fellow writers. His ability to create down-to-earth characters who inhabit milieus that feel as authentic as Leonard's or Dennis Lehane's has also attracted the interest of filmmakers, who have bought rights to all three of his previous novels: All Hat (starring Water's Lisa Ray ) is in post-production; Busted Flush is in development with the producers of Babel; and One-Eyed Jacks is with the makers of M. Butterfly. If Kris Kristofferson has a yen to make another film, Big Man Coming Down the Road is all the vehicle he needs.

NOW Magazine in Toronto calls the book "big fun" and concludes, "The story just rocks. It's part potboiler, part love story and all heart. The Giller jury may not exactly be calling, but Smith is a Canadian original. Put away your assumptions and enjoy the ride."

See the full text of both reviews here.

Friday, February 23, 2007

It's No Mystery That Jim's The Best

We're very excited to hear that Jim Fusilli's short story "Chellini's Solution" will be included in the 2007 edition of The Best American Mystery Stories, which Houghton Mifflin will publish this fall.

Friday, February 02, 2007

A Star For Free Fire

Remember that Booklist critic who loved C.J. Box's new book so much that he wrote about it on his blog? Well, his review came out recently, and we sure are glad he stayed up all night reading it because he gave it a starred review!

He writes:
Box set the standards so high with his Joe Pickett series that, once in a while, he's had a hard time getting over the bar himself, as with In Plain Sight (2006), where he just tripped it with his toe. In Free Fire, however, he gets over cleanly. Pickett, having been fired as a game warden, is working as foreman of his father-in-law's ranch when Wyoming's loose-cannon governor, Spencer Rulon, reinstates him--not to work his old district but to investigate, without official support, a crime in Yellowstone National Park. A lawyer has found a legal loophole that allows him to kill four campers and walk away scot-free, enraging Rulon. (A remote, uninhabited part of the park, soon dubbed the "Zone of Death," has murky jurisdiction and no residents to form a jury.) But, sure as Pickett is hard on government vehicles, there's something even more sinister than a twisted legal mind behind the murders. Box is a master at working New West issues into his stories--here it's something called biomining--exploring pro and con arguments without missing a storytelling beat. And, mining series gold, he's forged a perfect alloy of familiar and fresh. Though Joe's far out in no-man's-land, as professionally on his own as he's ever been, the family man's moral compass is as strong as ever. And setting the action in the bubbling Yellowstone caldera--which could blow sky high any minute, we're told--is a masterstroke, lending both urgency and the long view to the proceedings. Once again, recommended for practically everybody.