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Advance word on Pariah, available Jan. 2009 in the UK from Serpent's Tails:
Once part of the holy triumvirate ruling the South Boston Irish Mob, Kyle Nevin is set up with the Feds by head mobster, Red Mahoney, which leads him to a court case and a stretch in the slammer. Now out of prison, Kyle wants revenge on his old boss and mentor, and just as importantly, to reclaim his former glory. A kidnapping gone horribly wrong leads to a major book deal for Kyle and a newfound celebrity status - but also brings about bigger problems for both himself and anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. "Pariah" is a heady mix of crime novel, history, social commentary, as well as a satirical look at the publishing industry. |
"Mean like bad whiskey and sophisticated like good scotch, PARIAH is a rare find and a scorching read. This accomplished novel features a great blend of strong narrative voice and a realistic, multi-layered plot that lays bare the dark soul of South Boston's underworld. In Kyle Nevin, his main character, Zeltserman has a dark Celine creation that is as literary as he is noir. To my mind this novel provides the final word on the Southie's demise and does so more artfully than it's predecessors. Brimming with historical anecdote, rife with keen sociological insight, Zeltserman invests his novel with a veracity found mostly in non-fiction. However, this is a novel and a damn entertaining one, one that reminds us that reading the book truly is more informing and riveting than seeing the movie." Cortright McMeel, Publisher of MURDALAND
"PARIAH IS ALL I KNOW OF BLISS AND LAMENT. BLISS AT READING A SUPERB NOVEL AND LAMENT AT KNOWING THAT DAVE ZELTSERMAN HAS NOW RAISED THE BAR SO HIGH, WE'RE SCREWED. THIS IS THE PERFECT PITCH OF REALITY, HISTORY, CRIME, CELEBRITY, PLAGIARISM, AND SHEER ASTOUNDING WRITING. IT NEEDS A NEW WHOLE NEW GENRE NAME..........IT'S BEYOND MYSTERY, LITERATURE, A SOCIO/ECONOMIC TRACT, A SCATHING INSIGHT INTO THE NATURE OF CELEBRITY AND IN KYLE NEVIN WE HAVE THE DARKEST MOST ALLURING NOIR CHARACTER EVER TO COME DOWN THE SOUTH BOSTON PIKE OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN LITERATURE EITHER. I WANT MORE OF KYLE AND MORE OF THIS SUPERB SHOTGUN BLAST OF A NARRATIVE...........IF EVERY WRITER HAS ONE GREAT BOOK IN THEM THEN DAVE CAN REST EASY, HE HAS HIS AND IT'S TO OUR DELIGHT AND DEEPEST ENVY" Ken Bruen |
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"A Jim Thompson mentality on a
Norman Rockwell setting... "Small Crimes" is a strong piece of work,
lean and spare, but muscular where a noir novel should be, with a strong
central character whom we alternately admire and despise."
Boston Globe "nifty, captivating tale... Zeltserman masterfully controls the action, offering dark noir fiction in the best Jim Thompson tradition." Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal "This loamy smorgasboard of salvation and revenge has both a violent and comic edge, marking Zeltserman as a name to watch." Crime Time "A dark masterpiece" Crimespree Magazine "Classic noir, dark, funny, shocking and absolutely no compromise. The last 20 pages are truly a kick in the face. Pure magic of the blackest kind.” Ken Bruen
Available Now Crooked cop Joe Denton gets out of prison early after disfiguring the local district attorney, which doesn't help his popularity. Nobody wants Joe to hang around, not his ex-wife, his parents or his former colleagues. Meanwhile, local mafia don Manny Vassey is dying of cancer and keen to cut a deal with God. He's thinking of singing to the DA if this will set him up for a better afterlife. And he knows stuff that will send Joe down again for a very long time. Set in the pressure cooker of a very small town, Small Crimes is an explosive thriller that brings the claustrophobic hell of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain right up to date. |
"Small Crimes has plenty of crime, but obsession, hubris, and evil, pure and impure, are at the heart of this vivid noir." Booklist, Thomas Gaughan "The characterisation and mental torment are reminiscent of the insightful psychological thrillers of Jim Thompson. Stunning stuff." Cath Staincliffe, Tangled Web "Zeltserman creates an intense atmospheric maze for readers to observe Denton's twisting and turning between his rocks and hard places. Denton is one of the best realised characters I have read in this genre, and the powerfully noir-ish, uncompromising plot, which truly keeps one guessing from page to page, culminates with a genuinely astonishing finale." --David Connett, Sunday Express "This is an extremely black tale that grips readers by the throat and doesn’t let go until their last breath has been spent. In other words, it’s a surefire contender for book of the year." Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm "Surprisingly bold ending", Laura Wilson, Guardian "Noir at it's very best"--I Love A Mystery "Not so much a highway to hell as a full-on rollercoaster ride." Damien Seaman, Shots Magazine "Small Crimes is the kind of grim noir novel they used to write in the Thirties and Forties. There are no good guys, only men who are mean, vicious, tough, corrupt and amoral. Action is frenzied and bloody, women easy but vulnerable, dialogue curt and the plot not necessarily convincing. David Zeltserman serves up the formula with enthusiasm and some fine writing." --Marcel Berlins, London Times "It's Jim Thompson for the new century... Zeltserman comes up with a conclusion that's both stunning and surprising. Check it out." Bill Crider "ultra-noir, funny, and shocking by turns" Barnes & Noble
"Zeltserman delves deeply into his specialty, an unorthodox look at
the criminal mind-- the 'unlucky' guy who can fool himself way too long.
It kept me turning pages and glancing over my shoulder."
Vicki Hendricks
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When he
was thirteen years old, Billy Shannon came home from school one day to
find his mother being murdered in their California home. Dying slowly of
asphyxia, she is drowning in her own blood; a knife protruding from her
open mouth and impaling her to the kitchen table. Twenty years pass, and
Bill Shannon is a cop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living with his wife
Susie and trying to get a handle on the nightmares that have plagued him
for most of his adult life. Every year, as the anniversary of his
mother’s death approaches, the nightmares of his mother’s killer,
Herbert Winters, get progressively worse until the blackouts come, and
then Shannon simply disappears from sight to return home days later
without a clue of what he has done while gone. Bad Thoughts is reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs and Darkly Dreaming Dexter, a terrifying vision of evil that straddles the razor-thin line between horror and crime. The story will leave readers breathless as it races towards a shocking conclusion that few, if any, could anticipate.
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"A compellingly clever wheels-within-wheels thriller. An ingenious plot, skillfully executed" Elliott Swanson, Booklist "This fast-paced, gritty psychological tale balances the fine line between mystery and horror"—Library Journal Bad Thoughts is an ambitious genre-bender combining the paranoia and existential dread of the best noir with a liberal dash of The Twilight Zone. Not to be missed. --Poisoned Pen's Booknews "BAD THOUGHTS is one of those books that has been under the radar all year, yet deserves to be discovered by a wider audience"--Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm.com "Dark, brutal, captivating -- this is one hell of a book, the kind of book that doesn't let go of you once you start it. Dave Zeltserman is clearly the real deal." Steve Hamilton
"...And it's at this point that the genre gets bent. After that, it's a wild ride. I was reminded a little of Blood Dreams, a novel by the late Jack MacLane, published by Zebra just after the era of the knives-in-fresh-fruit covers. Joe Lansdale's Act of Love had one of those covers, come to think of it. Zeltserman's book would rest comfortably on the shelf beside them. If you're looking for a hardboiled anybody-can-die-at-any-time book that's a change of pace from the usual, look no further." Bill Crider "THIS IS HIGH OCTANE NOIR, DAZZLING IN IT'S SHEER VIVACITY........I DIDN'T LIKE THIS BOOK, I ADORED IT" Ken Bruen "Dave Zeltserman's Bad Thoughts is a fast moving occult thriller, with taut dialogue and smart, likeable characters. Darkness pervades the Bay State in the late 1990's and Detective Bill Shannon will be lucky to solve a standard missing person's case in one piece. In fact as the story unfolds we see that death and dismemberment could be the least of Bill's worries. Pour yourself a fifth of Scotch, get an easy chair, grab a protective talisman and enjoy." Adrian McKinty, author of Dead I Well May Be and Hidden River
"I'm not sure I ever truly understood the concept of 'evil' before reading Bad Thoughts. In chilling prose and dialogue, Dave Zeltserman paints a portrait of a serial killer who surpasses Hannibal Lecter in 'creativity' and substitutes astral guile for intellect: a villain who not only toys with his victims' minds but also can enter both his victims' and the hero's dreams. Stunning, though definitely not for the faint of heart." Jeremiah Healy
"Fans of Thomas Harris' "The Silence of the Lambs" and other novels featuring killer/cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter will enjoy "Bad Thoughts." Although he is not as brilliant or cultured as Lecter, Zeltserman's killer is as frightening and cruel and has certain powers that Lecter lacks. Moreover, because Zeltserman is careful to show the reader why his character became and remains a killer, the murderer in "Bad Thoughts" is in some ways more believable than Lecter.." Timothy J. Lockhart, Virginian-Pilot
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"For those of us who believed Jim Thompson would never be equaled, great tidings, he's back in the form of Dave Zeltserman. Hilarious in the darkest fashion, violent, bitter, psychotic and unputdownable... FAST LANE left me bruised, battered and exhilarated ... Tough, violent amoral with that compelling first narrative that has you rooting for a lunatic and crazy he is, in the most entertaining debut since, well, Jim Thompson." KEN BRUEN
"In the last few years there have been a number of writers, such as Ken Bruen and Victor Gischler, who've taken the classic PI novel and tweaked the hell out of it, creating something fresh and unique. Add Dave Zeltserman to the list. Several pages into his debut, I knew that I was reading something special." Poisoned Pen's Book News, Hardboiled Crime Club Selection
"Johnny Lane—the protagonist from hell--to know him is not to love him. He’s that rare blend of greed, gluttony, lust, anger, and psychopathic rationalization that in real life would make you want to shoot first and never bother to ask questions. With tremendous skill, Zeltserman lures you to a wild ride on the shoulders of a grizzly. You can’t let go." Vicki Hendricks
"FAST LANE has everything I relish in a noir novel--an ingenious, twisting plot, characters I took to heart though I wouldn’t want to take some of them home, and a pace that kept me riveted to a book I couldn’t tear away from in one long, deep-into-the night reading. Dave Zeltserman, you’re a treasure!" Seymour Shubin
"FAST LANE has plenty of shocks, and as P.I. Johnny Lane's life begins to spin out of control, Zeltserman leads the reader on to the bleak conclusion with smooth prose and a sure hand. This one's a noir keeper." Bill Crider
"FAST LANE is a wild ride on the darkest noir side of the street. Zeltserman has updated Jim Thompson themes of character and situation to forge a private eye novel where everything that can go wrong, does...with highly entertaining, if very grim results." Jeff Gelb |
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