Duane Swierczynski Carve those names in granite. Scar them in your mind, as soon they will be legend.......writ huge. Sing Loud Black Mask, City Lights, La Serie Noire.......The Royalty of Mystery PSS.........There’s a new kid on the block, snarling, spitting, already rock’n’roll. POINT BLANK, the publisher of the Zeitgeist. This is *the* list, the no frills, no bullshit real deal. And they already have Jim Sallis, Gary Phillips, Bill Pronzini to name but a taste. The Dorothy Parker of Scotland, Donna Moore, has recently joined up. I'm Irish. I get one wish, green or otherwise, and it would be to write a book with Ray Banks, a writer whose novel THE BIG BLIND tears off the page like a Mack truck, spewing diamond prose of such finesse that you have to push back from the page lest you burn. Al Guthrie, editor of this band of alchemy, was nominated for the CWA Debut Dagger with TWO-WAY SPLIT. Get this, it’s not in my Top 5 of the year, it’s in my Top 5 of all time…His character, Pearce, I flat out like better than Milo or any of Crumley. Then there’s Duane Swierczynski, the Boy From Philly, the only one I’ve met. Post Edgar, in New York with Olen Steinhauer, Jason Starr, Reed Farrel Coleman, Sarah Weinman, Mary Regan, Sinking Sam Adams, Duane encountered the above in Full Jameson, in total roar….. not only did he fit in but stole the night with his Prom Queen Encounter His novel, SECRET DEAD MEN, is the most inventive, uplifting, hilarious, moving novel since CATCHER IN THE RYE. I swore never to use the term feel good factor unless I was carrying a Colt .45. But weaponless, Duane’s book is ....exactly that. Believe in nothing, believe in Hell....... believe in the Brain Hotel. I read an enormous amount of mystery novels. 90% are pure shite. Then down the pike rolls not one but 2-3-4 novels of fierce talent and style. When did I get so lucky? Hunter S. said, "Once you get a feeling for handling Nitroglycerine, you never lose it." Reading Point Blankers has the same rush, and you hang on in the prayer that more will be granted. James Sallis, the finest analyst writing says "Mysteries are the urban fiction, nothing else so catches up the furies and fantasies of our cities." He could have been describing the boyos. Imagine Ken kesey’s Merry Pranksters creating mystery novels without boundaries, noir without frontiers........you get some idea of the power of these novels. Somewhere in the Brain Hotel, Goodis is high-fiving Bill Hicks, going, “Man, those dudes are good.” He’s right, but then he always was. If they could
sign Tom Waits, they’d be complete. They goddamn are as
close as it gets already. KEN BRUEN |
