Melting Pot Miami: Scene of John Lantigua’s PI Willie Cuesta Crime Novels

John Lantigua is the author of a Miami-based crime series featuring PI Willie Cuesta. Praised by Carl Hiaasen as “fresh” and “authentic,” the Edgar Award-nominated novels of John Lantigua present a sizzling slice of Cuban-American life. The 1999 Player’s Vendetta introduces readers to Cuesta’s and Miami’s Little Havana, and the action is carried forward in The Ultimate Havana and The Lady from Buenos Aires.

In his 2011 series addition, On Hallowed Ground, Lantigua offers ” fast-paced action … well matched by concise prose, making this a treat for Elmore Leonard devotees,” according to Publishers Weekly.  Similarly, Booklist  gave the novel a starred review, calling it a “real find for crime-fiction fans.”

Lantigua, formerly a reporter for the Washington Post and the Miami Herald (where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism), is currently a journalist with the Palm Beach Post. He is also the author of the 1989 thriller, Heat Lightning, set in San Francisco. The New York Times noted of this debut novel: “Keeps detective fans eager for the next page. . . Welcome to the world of vendetta, intrigue, and double-cross.” Lantigua also penned the 1990 Burn Season, dubbed a “darkly gripping read” by Publishers Weekly, and Twister, set in Texas.

Read Full Post »

Being Alone in a Crowd: Alafair Burke’s New York Crime Fiction

Alafair Burke, a former deputy district attorney and current professor of criminal law at New York’s Hofstra Univesity, is the author of two crime series, one featuring featuring Portland prosecutor Samantha Kincaid, and the second focusing on NYPD detective, Ellie Hatcher. Publishers Weekly dubbed the third installment of the latter series, the 2010 novel 212, a “white-knuckle thriller.” Similar praise came from Booklist, calling the book “up-to-the-minute, action-packed crime fiction.”

Burke’s first stand-alone crime fiction, Long Gone, is just out and has earned praise from fellow writers. Dennis Lehane found the work “a tremendous novel, and Alafair Burke is one of the finest young crime writers working today.” Likewise, Nelson DeMille termed Long Gone “a very clever and very smart novel by a very clever and smart writer.”

Read Full Post »

The Charlie Fox Thrillers by Zoë Sharp: “One of the most enigmatic − and coolest − heroines in contemporary genre fiction”

Zoë Sharp is the author of nine novels in the hard-hitting thriller series featuring Charlie Fox, a protagoist many reviewers have described as a female equivalent to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. The Chicago Tribune noted of Charlie Fox: “Ill-tempered, aggressive and borderline psychotic, Fox is also compassionate, introspective and highly principled: arguably one of the most enigmatic − and coolest − heroines in contemporary genre fiction.” Former Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox is “a marvellous heroine, with a flawed past,” noted Eurocrime of the 2011 installment of the popular series, Fifth Victim. Of the 2010 addition to the series, Fourth Day, Booklist found it “must reading for fans of action-packed, hard-edged thrillers” while Publishers Weekly dubbed it an ” adrenaline-packed” novel.

Sharp’s novels have been published both in her native England as well as in United States, though U.S. publication began only after the first few books in the series came out in England. The first Fox novel, Killer Instinct, published in 2001, however, finally saw U.S. publication in 2010 and earned this praise from the New York Times Book Review: “The bloody bar fights are bloody brilliant, and Charlie’s skills are both formidable and for real.”

Read Full Post »

Michael Robertson’s Reggie Heath Novels: Coming to You from 221b Baker Street

Michael Robertson is the author of two novels featuring barrister Reggie Heath, whose chambers are located at Sherlock Holmes’s legendary address. Set a century after the demise of Holmes, these novels find Heath becoming an unwilling sleuth, set on his task by letters sent to the famous detective.

The series opener, The Baker Street Letters, from 2009, was dubbed “an engaging debut,” by Publishers Weekly, while Booklist noted of this work: “Judging by this installment, it should be a popular series indeed.” The second series addition, The Brothers of Baker Street, was out earlier this year and earned starred reviews. Publishers Weekly noted: “An extremely clever evil scheme will delight readers.” Further praise came from Booklist, terming it a “delightful romp that offers more tension and suspense than a dozen fat thrillers with bloody knives on the cover.”

Read Full Post »