Brash Blog

Big Ideas and Big Names in suspense from Brash Books

Get the big ideas from the biggest names in suspense on the Brash Books blog. Here, you'll find posts by some of your favorite mystery authors sharing their views on crime fiction - along with inside stories about everything from how they wrote their bestselling thrillers to what inspires them.

You'll also hear from experts in the mystery and suspense genre, along with fans, publishing insiders, and of course, Brash Books. Posts will range from informative to controversial - but you can bet every one will be a compelling read. This is your destination to explore great crime fiction writing - past, present and future - from the authors, readers, and publishers who keep it alive.

The Wit and Wisdom of Shell Scott

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Here are some of my favorite lines from Richard S. Prather's immensely entertaining Shell Scott novels, the bestselling detective series from the 1960s... which are all but forgotten today, even though, at one point, there were over 10 million copies in print.   “He lay there with his face on the cement, in his own blood and wastes. Lesson for would be killers: Either don’t miss with your first shot, or else eat light, go to the john, take an enema, and be ready to die neat.” Kill Him Twice   “She had short mouse-brown hair, rather nice full lips and gray eyes. But they weren’t pretty eyes. Not dawn gray, slate gray or even muddy gray. They were sort of... more

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The Summer of Sangster

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We're declaring this the Summer of Sangster as we proudly release all of the incredible crime novels and espionage thrillers by Jimmy Sangster, one of the most beloved and versatile writers in the genre... and the truly legendary writer/producer/director of scores of classic Hammer Horror films in the UK. SPY VS SPY Critics are going wild over THE SPY KILLER, one of the best espionage novels ever written. "An exquisite series launch. Spy fiction fans will revel in this dark, witty story." Publishers Weekly Ex-British spy John Smith is nearly broke, has bad teeth, is lousy in bed, and drinks too much. But he's no fool. He's a man who knows his own limitations and works within them.... 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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Max Allan Collins: Talkin’ About SHAFT

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I bought Ernest Tidyman’s novel Shaft in 1970 at Iowa Book & Supply in Iowa City, on my way to class at the University of Iowa. I bought the first edition hardcover primarily because its black private eye hero was described in the jacket copy as making “Mike Hammer look like a sissy.” When the film Shaft came out in 1971, Barb and I were there. We were perhaps unlikely fans of blaxploitation movies (then in their earliest stages), but we went to scads of the things, from Cotton Comes to Harlem to Coffy, from Slaughter to Super Fly. For us, Shaft topped them all, due to the perfect marriage of the opening Isaac Hayes theme, Richard Roundtree’s charismatic performance, and... more

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Real People Don’t Talk Like That

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There are times I get the odd review from readers and critics that my characters are too glib or too articulate to be tough guys.  Or, “real people don’t talk like that”.  Early in my writing career, I wrote a Young Adult novel that was rejected because, “young people aren’t this articulate or humorous” (now you know why more teens don’t read). If you met my four kids and their friends you would find that some people (those with intellect and a sense of humor) do talk like that.  Why? Because they are well-read, articulate and intelligent and each possess a well-developed sense of humor. Second, if you met my friends, you would likewise acknowledge... 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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