Former private investigator, David Corbett is the author of four widely praised novels that carve out a territory somewhere between traditional crime novels and nuanced thrillers. Of his first novel, The Devil’s Redhead, Publishers Weekly noted: “Corbett thunders out of the gate with this gritty, moving debut about an ex-con’s readjustment to freedom and his efforts to reunite with a former lover.” That book was nominated for both the Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel of 2002. His second novel, Done for a Dime, set near San Francisco, pays tribute to Dashiell Hammett and Ross Macdonald in a suspense novel that employs “some of the traditional tools of genre fiction in bold new ways in [a] sharp and exceptionally poignant second suspense novel,” according to Publishers Weekly. That novel was called “the best in contemporary crime fiction” by the Washington Post, was named a New York Times Notable Book, and was nominated for the Macavity Award for Best Novel of 2003.
With his third novel, Blood of Paradise, Corbett moved further afield geographically, to El Salvador, and also into the thematic territory of Graham Greene and Robert Stone. That book was selected one of the Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers of 2007 by the Washington Post. Corbett’s fourth book, Do They Know I’m Running?, appeared in 2010 and earned starred reviews in Publishers Weekly (“Corbett…delivers a rich, hard-hitting epic that illuminates the violent and surreal landscapes of Central America and Mexico”) and Booklist (“Readers who devour and then forget formulaic crime novels won’t soon forget this one”). Agony Column sums up this recent work succinctly, terming the novels “a new sort of noir, set in the desert of the human heart.” (more…)
Scene of the Crime 