Posts Tagged: Mystery Writing

Uncovering the “DUST IN THE HEART”

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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

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FIREBALL – Long Lost, Unpublished Jimmy Sangster Novel Found

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BIG NEWS! We've found a long-lost, never-before-published Jimmy Sangster novel! It's called Fireball...and here is the incredible story behind the major, literary discovery.   Jimmy Sangster, who died in 2011, was an acclaimed screenwriter (Curse of Frankenstein, Deadlier Than the Male, The Legacy,etc), director (Lust for a Vampire, Banacek, etc), TV writer (Wonder Woman, Cannon, Movin’ On, BJ and The Bear, The Magician, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, etc) and novelist (Touchfeather, Touchfeather Too, The Spy Killer and Foreign Exchange).   He was also the author of three James Reed crime novels... more

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BLACKBALL is Back!

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Here's Robert Randisi's full, 1987 review of Jimmy Sangster's hardboiled classic BLACKBALL, which Brash Books has just re-released in new ebook & trade paperback editions. Randisi is the founder of the Private Eye Writers of America.   Jimmy Sangster first made a name for himself in film and television. He wrote horror films for Hammer in England and then did a lot of episodic television in the United States, including scripts for S.W.A.T., Ironside, The Six Million Dollar Man, McCloud and Wonder Woman. His first novel, Private I (aka The Spy Killer), was published in 1967, and both it and its sequel, Foreign Exchange, were produced for TV with Robert Horton in the role of... more

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Ralph

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Today we're publishing  The Buy Back Blues, the 12th and final book in the Hardman series by Ralph Dennis. To mark the occasion, we're sharing the revealing, deeply personal essay that author Cynthia Williams wrote about Ralph as an afterword for Murder is Not an Odd Job, the 6th book in the series. I knew Ralph Dennis first as a teacher, and later as a friend and mentor. Eventually, he asked me to marry him, but I refused, and our friendship ended. Obviously, I will remember Ralph differently from the men who knew him, because he was, in some ways, a different person with me. I met Ralph Dennis in 1966. I was in my junior year at UNC- Chapel Hill, majoring in... more

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A TALENT FOR KILLING

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For decades, collectors have searched for copies of Ralph Dennis' paperback original DEADMAN'S GAME. It was the most difficult of Ralph's titles to find...and rumors of an unpublished sequel became something of an urban legend.   Now DEADMAN'S GAME is back ... and paired with the long-lost unpublished sequel...to create a new novel, A TALENT FOR KILLING, which is now available for pre-order in paperback and ebook editions (for release on Sept 2, 2019).   Ralph is, of course, is best known for his legendary Hardman series of twelve crime novels, which were published in mid-to-late 1970s. But seven books into Hardman, Ralph walked away from the series to try... more

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A Hardman is Good To Find

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Paul Bishop is a huge Hardman fan and in this essay,  from our reissue of Pimp For The Dead, he talks about the cultural forces that shaped the creation of the series...and the market forces that doomed it to obscurity. Paul is 35-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. His career included a three year tour with his department's Anti-Terrorist Division and over twenty-five years' experience in the investigation of sex crimes. He currently conducts law enforcement related seminars for city, state, and private agencies.  In 1974, Atlanta Deathwatch, the first Hardman novel by Ralph Dennis, debuted as a paperback original from Popular Library. It was done... more

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