The Inside Story Archives

11.30.20 WRITING OLD ANGER: The Heart of the Matter in a Southern Crime Story

Phillip Thompson's crime novel Outside the Law scored wide acclaim from critics and major league authors like David Morrell, Linwood Barclay and Reed Farrel Coleman. Now the long-awaited sequel, Old Anger, is now available and is already scoring raves from Publishers Weekly, and authors like Joe R. Lansdale and S.A. Cosby. Phillip stopped by to share with us the story behind the story.... Writing about race in the Deep South is never easy. Especially during the tumult of 2020. I am white. Born and raised in Mississippi. I was a youngster growing up when the state was going through the painful ending of the American apartheid called “segregation” or “separate but equal.” And... more

01.05.20 Uncovering the “DUST IN THE HEART”

Written by Brash Admin

We've just published Ralph Dennis' crime novel DUST IN THE HEART , a haunting police procedural set in a small, North Carolina town It was the final, typewritten manuscript that Ralph wrote before his death and was discovered by Brash co-founder Lee Goldberg, who took on the task of editing the novel for publication. Lee talked about the editing process this week with The Rap Sheet, one of our favorite blogs and sources of information on the crime fiction scene. Here is an excerpt: I struggled over whether to publish Dust in the Heart or to keep it in a drawer. The original manuscript was nearly 100,000 words and it was a mess … and yet, there was still something... more

12.27.18 Ben Jones: My Friend HARDMAN

Written by Brash Admin

Brash Books is republishing the 12 Hardman novels by Ralph Dennis.... a brilliant series of crime novels long sought-after by collectors and beloved by crime writers. Very little is known about the author, who died in 1988. So we sought out some of the people who knew him best to tell us about him. Ben Jones was one of Ralph's oldest friends and became famous as an actor (he was "Cooter" on Dukes of Hazzard) and later as a Congressman from Georgia in the House of Representatives. His remembrance of Ralph below appears as the Afterword in the Brash edition of the Hardman novel Down Among the Jocks. If, on a late summer afternoon in 1973, you had walked into George’s Deli on Highland... more

08.26.18 Max Allan Collins: The Story Behind BLACK HATS

Written by Max Allan Collins

A new edition of my novel Black Hats has just been published by Brash Books under my real byline and not “Patrick Culhane,” the pseudonym I used the first time it was in print and on a second novel, Red Sky in Morning. The novel is about young Al Capone encountering old Wyatt Earp. Though their meeting is fanciful, the research for the book was on the order of the Heller saga and it is one of my favorite novels, and one that continues to attract very serious Hollywood attention. Harrison Ford has been interested in playing Earp pretty much ever since the novel first came out, and he is still part of the mix – nothing signed-sealed-delivered, mind you. But that he... more

02.14.17 Max Allan Collins: Traveling the Long, Winding road to PURGATORY

Written by Max Allan Collins

Thanks to all of you who responded warmly to my update last week about the recently published “new and expanded” Road to Perdition prose novel. The sequel, Road to Purgatory, has just been reprinted by Brash Books in a uniform edition, and Road to Paradise will follow later this year or early next. So, with your patience, I’ll talk a little about how Road to Purgatory came about, and the challenges involved. The original graphic novel concept of Road to Perdition was developed for DC Comics editor Andy Helfer. Initially the plan was to do three 300-page graphic novels, each serialized in 100-page installments (the final book as... more

11.01.16 Writing MILICENT LE SUEUR: Born on a Zipity Do Dah Morning

Written by Margaret Moseley

Margeret Moseley's Milicent Le Sueur is one of the most charming and delightful characters in crime fiction. Today Margaret, the bestselling author of Bonita Faye, shares how she created the character. It was one of those zipity do dah spring mornings, one of the only fourteen or so we experience in Texas before the big heat comes; I was on the way to the hospital to welcome a new born great-niece into the world. Windows were down and a breeze was blowing. My radio wasn’t on, but I could hear singing outside my car when I stopped for a red light. I sat through several lights (early Sunday morning and no traffic) to listen to a young man, early twenties, good build and blowsy hair, sing... more

Posts Categorized: The Inside Story