Houdini is watching you

Forty years at The Stony Pony

For their summer issue, INSIDE JERSEY magazine asked me to write something about the 40th anniversary of Asbury Park's legendary nightclub The Stone Pony, where I spent more time and money (not to mention hearing and brain cells) over the years than I care to admit. It's now available on-line here.

Above: Steve Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen make an impromptu appearance at The Stone Pony in 1977.

Dashiell Hammett, the not-so-simple sorcerer

Dashiell Hammett, putting the whole writing biz in metaphorical - if somewhat cynical - perspective.

"In this nonsense you've learned you'll find the satisfaction a man has in doing what - however silly - he can do skillfully. There will be days when you find a pleasure in the thought of things you have done for your clients, though that will come only on optimistic days ... You'll have your skill, and your craftsman's pride in that skill, and the money it brings you, and presently you will be middle-aged and old. .,. But in the end you will become - as I hope - a simple-minded sorcerer with childish pride and faith in your utility."

From "Magic," collected in THE HUNTER AND OTHER STORIES, published by The Mysterious Press.

NPR interview

Got a chance to talk Crissa Stone, literary and real-life influences, journalism, SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST and much much more in this interview with NPR's Vick Mickunas. You can listen here.

The world according to Al Swearengen

One of DEADWOOD's finest moments. Words to live by from Al Swearengen.

Sam Fuller's introduction to journalism

For everyone who loved and left the newspaper business - by choice or otherwise - this late Valentine. Director Sam Fuller remembers his first visit to a newsroom, circa 1924. Sixty-one years later, I did the same, and felt much the same way.

Crime Thriller Hound's Best Books of the 21st Century

The U.K. website CRIME THRILLER HOUND picks SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST as its Best Book of 2013. Details here.

Sleuthfest 2014 schedule

I'll be keeping busy at Sleuthfest 2014 in Orlando, Fla., next month, with a full schedule of events over the four days.

– On Thursday 2/27 at 1:15, I'll be conducting a "Third Degree" workshop on "Good Bad Guys and Bad Good Guys: Giving Depth to Your Sterling Characters and Humanity To Your Nasty Ones."

– On Friday at 3:40, I'll join Twist Phelan, Jennifer McMahon,and Amanda Kyle Williams for the panel "What You Say Can Be Used Against You: Creating Smooth Dialogue."

– On Saturday at 11 a.m., I'll be back with Amanda for the panel "Urban or Rural Settings: Appraising the Merits of Each" along with Michael Sears and Lisa Unger, moderated by the fabulous Hank Phillippi Ryan.

– That same day, at 3:40, I'll be talking about "Why I Write About Him/Her/Them: Characters Who Monopolize Our Time," again with Lisa, as well as Jamie Mason and Guest of Honor Laura Lippman. Signings will follow each panel.

Registration and hotel info can be found here.

The Five Best Heist Films You've Never Seen

Everyone knows the classics of the genre, but over at the Criminal Element website, I offer some picks for five great under-seen and under-appreciated heist films, including the 1950 classic ARMORED CAR ROBBERY.

COLD SHOT TO THE HEART audio cover

Here's the cover art for Blackstone Audio's forthcoming unabridged audiobook of COLD SHOT TO THE HEART, the first Crissa Stone novel, read by the award-winning Coleen Marlo. Blackstone has also released an unabridged audio version of SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST, with KINGS OF MIDNIGHT to come later this year.
(Click on image to enlarge)

Anthony Lee's MARTIN QUINN reissued

Anthony Lee's NYC-set MARTIN QUINN is one of my favorite crime novels, the story of fatherless Irish-American street kid coming of age in a Russian mob family. Originally published in 2003, it was sadly out of print for many years. I was glad to hear a new edition was in the offing, and honored to be asked to write an introduction for it. You can find that edition, with a new cover and a slightly tweaked title (the book was briefly reprinted in 2005 as a trade paperback called THE FIX) here.
I've written about the book in the past, first in 2007 as an off-shoot of The Rap Sheet's "One Book Project," and then later as one of the titles in my list of "The Five Best Crime Novels You've Never Read." It's highly recommended, and it's great to have it back in print.

Signed copies of SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST

Signed first editions of SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST are now available by mail order from both The Mysterious Bookshop in N.Y.C. (pictured above) and The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Arizona.

SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST reviews - UPDATED

(Click on quotes to go to full review).
*
"Another superior thriller — fast, tough and nasty – without a single extra sentence." – KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review).

* "Lean, poetic prose ... For fans of noir, this is among the best of the current breed." – BOSTON GLOBE

* "You will want to read SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST at least three times: once quickly (you won’t be able to help doing so); once slowly, to savor it; and once simply to admire, line by line, how Stroby demonstrates how the job of writing noir crime fiction is fittingly and properly done." – BOOK REPORTER.COM

* "As taut and tension-filled as an aerial artist's tightrope." – DAVID MARSHALL JAMES

* "Continues the hot streak of this engaging series... SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST is a heist novel that breathes." – MYSTERY PEOPLE

* "Wallace Stroby knows how to move a story. Fast. ... At no point in the novel does Stroby give the reader a chance to wander off and wonder. You just keep turning pages." – THE STAR-LEDGER/NJ.COM

* "Stroby’s superb writing, scene-setting and characters take you into another world." – HEY, THERE'S A DEAD GUY IN THE LIVING ROOM

* "As the finale approaches, Stroby skillfully ratchets up the tension. We get taken down to the wire and then some. ... Like Elmore Leonard, he shows us how fragile the connection is between machismo and angst, bravado and dread." – OPEN LETTERS MONTHLY

* "The book is violent and often dark, and at times extremely touching .... The reader is sitting on pins and needles as the book hurtles toward its inevitable climax." – MYSTERY SCENE

* "One of the more compelling female criminals in mystery fiction... Stroby nails this taut, gripping contest between well-matched opponents." – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)

* "Violence permeates the action-filled pages replete with fascinating characters in this excellent novel." – RT BOOK REVIEWS (4 out of 4 stars)

* "This is why genre fiction can be good. This book feels real." – JEN A. MILLER

* "As the finale approaches, the writing style burns down to its hard essence ... The shootouts have been staged in many a gangster - and western - tale. But when they're done as skillfully as this, who cares?" – BOOKLIST

Mystery Scene magazine on SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST

Mystery Scene magazine finds SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST "violent and often dark, and at times extremely touching ... The reader is sitting on pins and needles as the book hurtles toward its inevitable climax." Read the full review here.

SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST audio cover art

Here's the very Bondian cover art for Blackstone Audio's forthcoming unabridged audiobook of SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST, read by the award-winning Coleen Marlo. Blackstone will also release unabridged audio versions of COLD SHOT TO THE HEART and KINGS OF MIDNIGHT in 2014.
(Click on image to enlarge)

"On my blood-stream, I will carry you ..."

"Put out my eyes, and I can see you still,
Slam my ears to, and I can hear you yet;
And without any feet can go to you;
And tongueless, I can conjure you at will.
Break off my arms, I shall take hold of you
And grasp you with my heart as with a hand;
Arrest my heart, my brain will beat as true;
And if you set this brain of mine afire,
Then on my blood-stream I will carry you."
– Rainer Maria Rilke

NYC launch party for SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST

The official launch for SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST will be Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at The Mysterious Bookshop on Warren Street in TriBeca. Festivities will follow. If you can't make it, but would like a signed - or inscribed - copy, you can pre-order from the store here.

SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST Goodreads giveaway

St. Martin's/Minotaur, in association with Goodreads, is giving away 25 copies of SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST, through Nov. 5, 2013. Enter to win here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/69644-shoot-the-woman-first

Romantic Times on SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST

The Romantic Times gives 4 (out of 4) Stars to SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST in its latest issue.

SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST
by Wallace Stroby

Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Suspense
RT Rating: **** FOUR (out of Four) STARS

Professional thief and stone-cold killer Crissa Stone is back, lining up another caper in burned-out Detroit. Her long-buried conscience leads her further into danger and, perhaps, the end of it all. Violence permeates the action-filled pages replete with fascinating characters in this excellent novel. The plan is to steal more than half-a-million in Mexican drug money, helped by an insider, another friend and Crissa’s partner, Larry. Although they organize to the nth degree, it all goes terribly wrong when it becomes clear that the informant has turned on them. Ex-cop Burke has always played fast and loose with the law, taking and giving bribes and worse. Now that he’s an independent investigator, he alternates between doing impossible jobs and hitting the bottle. When an old contact asks him to track down the thieves that ripped him off, he says he’ll do it — for a price. When he discovers one of the perps is a woman, it puts him on Crissa’s trail.

(MINOTAUR, Dec., 288 pp., $24.99)
Reviewed By: Donna M. Brown

The PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Q&A - uncut

(Here's the complete text of my interview with Publishers Weekly from their Oct. 7 issue. The Q&A was trimmed somewhat for space, but is presented here in its original form.)

 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: Tell us a little about Crissa’s background and how she became a professional thief.

WALLACE STROBY: When I started doing research into professional criminals, I found that – almost without exception – all the women who were in that life had been drawn into it by a man, usually an older mentor/lover. So that was part of my first thinking about her, that she had a chaotic childhood and adolescence, followed by a series of bad and abusive relationships, and involvement in petty crime. And that this older man – Wayne Boudreaux – had taken her away from all that and, in doing so, brought her into his own criminal life, where he would gradually depend on her more and more for her intelligence, instincts and nerve. 

PW: Crissa Stone is a compelling character – she dominates even if she’s not always the one in charge of putting together a team for a heist. Did you envision this character as female from the beginning or did she evolve as you worked on it? 

A: I’d always wanted to write a complete novel from the point of view of a career criminal, to get under their skin and see what makes them tick. I’d done this a little bit in THE HEARTBREAK LOUNGE and GONE ‘TIL NOVEMBER, where half the story was told from the point of view of a criminal, but I really wanted to stretch out with it a little. And the idea of having the character be a woman made it more intriguing to me, because it opened up a whole realm of possibilities. A woman would do things differently than a traditional lone wolf male protagonist. She’d have loyalties and relationships, make alliances, and avoid violence unless she had no choice. That became very interesting to me. 

PW: In concept, putting together a new team specifically for each caper reminded me of Westlake’s Dortmunder without the comic setbacks his plans always encountered.
A: Well, Westlake was the undisputed master of the caper novel, whether it was in his Dortmunder books, or the more-serious heist thrillers he wrote as Richard Stark. Plenty of novelists have done classic one-offs in the genre, but I think only Westlake sustained that throughout his career.

PW: Two characters who play a large part in Crissa’s life are largely offstage in your books – her imprisoned lover and her daughter.

A: That goes back to the idea of having the character be a woman. I wanted someone who was committing crimes for money,but who was not personally greedy. She’s trying to get her lover out of jail, and financially support a daughter who’s being raised by a relative. These are the things she values, rather than personal gain, and, with them, she’s hoping to eventually achieve some semblance of normalcy in her life, which, to a certain extent, she’s fooling herself about. She starts to recognize that near the end of KINGS OF MIDNIGHT, and even more so in SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST.

PW: Many crime fiction series appeal primarily to either men or women, but often not both. Do you have a feel yet for the demographics of your readership?

A: Not really. I would hope it appeals to both. The books are about a smart, capable woman, but they’re still, I hope, realistic and honest when it comes to dealing with the crime elements. I’m just trying to come up with ideas and plots that feel true to the character, and that work in that context.

PW: Because Crissa has no real home base for her activities, she can go anywhere for her next job. Do you like the freedom of choice that gives you? What kind of problems result from needing to learn a new locale for each novel?

A: It’s both freeing and restricting. I’d like to write more about the Jersey Shore, which is where I live and where Crissa’s eventual home base is. The only thing is that she would never work close to home, so there’s only so much I can do with that setting. The challenge with the other locales is getting the details right, especially if I’ve never been there.
SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST is set mainly in Detroit. I’d only intended that the first couple chapters take place there, so I decided I didn’t need to go personally. Eventually, as the book grew, more and more of the action stayed there, and then it was too late to go. I didn’t want the reality of the city to violate what I’d written, strangely enough. So I had a Detroit expert vet the book, and I incorporated all her fixes and suggestions – and there were a lot. Nothing against Detroit though, it’s just the way things worked out.