SORROW LAKE named HAMMETT PRIZE Finalist!

SORROW LAKE has been shortlisted for the 2015 HAMMETT PRIZE for best crime novel in the US and Canada!

The announcement was made this past week by the International Association of Crime Writers, whose North American branch awards this prize for "literary excellence in the field of crime writing."

The winner will be announced in October at the NoirCon literary conference in Philadelphia, which runs from October 26-30, 2016.

Past winners of the prize include Stephen King, Richard Lange, George Pelecanos, Margaret Atwood, and Martin Cruz Smith.

Other finalists for the 2015 award include:

The Stranger, by Harlan Coben
The Whites: A Novel, by Richard Price, writing as Harry Brandt
The Do-Right, by Lisa Sandlin
The Organ Broker: A Novel, by Stu Strumwasser


I'm very pleased and gratified that the reading committee selected SORROW LAKE as a finalist for this prize. And take heart--BURN COUNTRY, the second novel in the series, will be ready for publication in the spring!

In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed for SORROW LAKE, the "little crime novel that could!"

Read the IAWC press release here. 

Michael Connelly: Influences and Favorite Books

The Sunday Book Review of The New York Times has an interesting interview with Michael Connelly in its "By the Book" feature. We discover, for example, that Connelly has an eclectic taste in books from historical non-fiction to Stephen King's Doctor Sleep. 

Connelly has some interesting observations to make about writing. He refers to the "momentum" that carries an author through the writing process rather than the time spent writing a book. In fact, Connelly thinks that his best novels are the ones he wrote quickly when he had an "unstoppable" momentum.

He also talks about how his mother introduced him to crime fiction and how he became "hooked" once he began reading John D. MacDonald. And of course he has very strong words of praise for Raymond Chandler, whose work was the impetus for Connelly himself to become a crime fiction writer.

For the full text of the interview, please click here.