LATEST NEWS ... BOOKS ... INTERVIEWS ... PHOTOS ... REVIEWS
POETRY ... LINKS ...NEWSLETTER ... MESSAGE BOARD ...MYSPACE
April
17, 2008
THE
MIDNIGHT ROAD has been nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award.
The awards will be presented at ThrillerFest 2008 at the Grand Hyatt in New
York City, where the winners will be announced July 12th.
Click
on any book cover to order direct from Amazon.com
THE
COLD SPOT is due out from Bantam in less than a month now, folks. You can
pre-order at Amazon.com.
Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about THE COLD SPOT: "Orphaned
at 10--his mother murdered, his father a suicide--Chase was raised by his
grandfather Jonah, a grifter who has used Chase as a getaway driver. After
Jonah shoots one of his crew during a poker game, Chase, at 21, realizing
that the icy old man could easily turn on his own grandson, strikes off on
his own. He works his way around the country stealing cars and driving for
petty thieves until one night in Mississippi he runs up against deputy sheriff
Lila Bodeen, who sees something in this brash young outlaw that she likes.
Tragedy puts Chase back on the road, where he faces not only the killer but
the truth--about himself and his shattered family. Piccirilli (The Midnight
Road, etc.) tells the gritty, violent and dark tale in an appealingly noirish
narrative style, highly economical yet bracingly intimate."
Several ace crime writers and literary heroes of mine have been extremely generous with their time and have offered up some major blurbage.
"Blackest noir, the most minimal kind of minimalism, and at the same time deeply emotional: this is not easy to do. I loved The Cold Spot."–Peter Abrahams, bestselling author of NERVE DAMAGE
"The Cold Spot is truly dazzling, Tom Piccirilli has taken the mystery to a whole other level, his skill as a poet, as an award winning author of horror, all come to fruition in this quite amazing novel. My bookshelf has all my favorite authors. I'll need a whole new bookcase for Tom Piccirilli...he is that good, that innovative, and The Cold Spot may head the shelves."–Ken Bruen, author of THE GUARDS and AMERICAN SKIN
"The Cold Spot is crime fiction at its very best, an exceptional revenge story so vivid you feel like you're in the back seat of a getaway car with a master storyteller at the wheel. If you like action-packed suspense with serious bite Tom Piccirilli is your man."–Jason Starr, author of THE FOLLOWER
"THE COLD SPOT grabs you with its big Wow opening and then never lets go. Great characters, cool dialogue, and all around excellent storytelling. Every crime fan needs to add the name Tom Piccirilli to his must-read list." -- Edgar and Anthony nominated author Victor Gischler
"Tugged in by a stark, masterful setup, you'll stick around eagerly for the knifelike prose, sharply-drawn characters and driving plot-line. Lean, brutal and completely arresting, Tom Piccirilli's The Cold Spot is a bull's-eye hardboiled tale."–Megan Abbott, author of QUEENPIN and THE SONG IS YOU
Ray Banks, the Saturday Boy himself and author of the dark as hell Cal Innes series including NO MORE HEROES, DONKEY PUNCH, and SATURDAY'S CHILD, gives a non-review of THE COLD SPOT here: http://www.thesaturdayboy.com/?p=313 That's right, a non-review, wherein he tells you why you should NOT buy the book. So let's hear it for Ray Banks, ladies and gentlemen, my new publicity manager!
Here's a new interview with me, done by the very hip Scotsman Allan Guthrie,
author of such brilliant crime novels as HARD MAN, KISS HER GOODBYE, and the
forthcoming SAVAGE NIGHT for his uber-cool website NOIR ORIGINALS
http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/Feb08/Tom%20Piccirilli.htm
While you're at his site, check it out at length. He's got tons of interviews,
reviews, and info for all your crime fiction needs.
HELLBOY: EMERALD HELL has been shipping from Amazon and showing up in stores and comic shops for a few weeks now. Been receiving lots of questions, so I thought I'd answer a bunch here:
Q: How'd you get involved with writing a Hellboy novel in the first place?
A: Ace writer & editor Chris Golden asked me to be a part of the HB anthology
ODDER JOBS, and he and the good folks at Dark Horse enjoyed the piece enough
that they were willing to take a look at a novel pich. After providing a story
outline about Big Red down in the southern swamps battling evil mystical preachers,
rednecks, witchy women, deadly giant plants, killer gators, and mutant kiddies,
they gave me the green light. These folks like their weird.
Q: Were you intentionally channeling Manly Wade Wellman & Silver John
the Balladeer in your character "John Lament"?
A: Yep. I'm a hardcore Wellman fan, and anyone already familiar with my "Self"
series will know that the Necromancer is something of a very dark version
of Silver John. Lament is more in keeping with hillbilly John's kindly attitude,
positive personality, and homespun magic. Since I decided not to include any
other characters from the Hellboy stories, and since HB usually has some partner
or sidekick to bounce off of, I decided that Lament would be a fun and interesting
character for HB to pal around with.
Q: Do you know that the book is showing up as a graphic novel on some websites
and that some bookstores are shelving it with the comics?
A: That's the nature of the beast. It's happened with every HB novel so far,
and so long as it gets into the hands of the fans, I don't care where it gets
shelved. If you can't find it in the fantasy section, it'll probably be among
the graphic novels.
The great Ed Gorman's new political thriller SLEEPING DOGS is now available at bookstores everywhere. Scarf this bad boy up as soon as you can. Ed's one of the best out there, and he always offers up fiction that has a deeply set moral center, sharp writing, and characters we actually give a damn about. I'm a hardcore fan of his Sam McCain series as well, but then again, I'm a hardcore fan of everything he's ever written.
Ed has some extremely kind words about my novel HELLBOY: EMERALD HELL right here: http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/2008/03/emerald-hell.html
THE
FEVER KILL is almost sold out from the publisher. The novel's been moving
fast, thanks in no small part to the amazing packaging that publishers &
designers RJ & Julia Sevin have come up with for the book.
And in short story news, my novella "Loss," originally published in the Stoker Award-winning anthology FIVE STROKES TO MIDNIGHT, edited by Hank Schwaeble and Gary Braunbeck, will see reprint in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR #19, edited by Stephen Jones.
My tale "Bereavement," which also appeared
in FIVE STROKES TO MIDNIGHT, will see reprint in A PRISONER OF MEMORY &
24 OF THE YEAR'S FINEST CRIME & MYSTERY STORIES edited by Ed Gorman &
Martin H. Greenberg.
August 22, 2007
Here
you go with a link to the Dragon Page podcast interview I did a couple weeks
back. 
Now you can listen to me in all my stuttering, stammering glory! I talk about
the writing process, moving around from horror to crime, and what kind of
tortures I like to inflict upon fans who bring up copies of DARK FATHER to
me at signings.
August 7, 2007
Courtesy of the multitalented Gary Braunbeck (MR. HANDS, KEEPERS, IN SILENT GRAVES), you can check out the book trailer for THE MIDNIGHT ROAD up on YouTube. He did a killer job. Hope folks dig it.
The trailer for THE MIDNIGHT ROAD!
Fellow movie-buff and horror/suspense writer Norman Partridge (DARK HARVEST,
WILDEST DREAMS, SLIPPIN' INTO DARKNESS) recently interviewed me about some
of my latest works, upcoming projects, film noir, and torturing Robert Mitchum.
I just received word that the most excellent Charles De Lint has reviewed THE MIDNIGHT ROAD for the October issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. F&SF was one of the very first "adult" publications that I ever read, scarfing issues down when I was 11 or 12 from the local stationary store while my mother food shopped at the super market next door. It was more or less my introduction to the world of SF, and I vividly recall reading stories by Harlan Ellison, Ed Bryant, and Barry Malzberg, among others.
Here's a portion of the review:
" ...over the years Piccirilli has developed into a powerful voice.
He writes with strong, lean prose. He understands the impact that our pasts
have upon our present selves. And he cares deeply for his characters, which
in turn makes us care for them, too.
"This is as good as — no, better than — any number of the big
name hardcovers that make the bestseller lists. Do yourself a favor and find
out why."
Another recent review:
"I read this novel nonstop. A combination of noir suspense and humorous
ghost story, Piccirilli, winner of multiple Bram Stoker Awards, is at the
top of his game."
- Mark Graham, The Rocky Mountain News
I recently did a podcast interview with Michael Stackpole, Summer Brooks
and Michael Mennenga for the "Cover to Cover" spot on The
Dragon Page. Not sure of the exact date it'll hit, but it's due to appear
on their site before the end of the month.
---------------
Also wanted to let folks know that MIDNIGHT PREMIERE has finally landed.
Midnight Premiere
Edited by Tom Piccirilli and featuring stories by Jack Ketchum, Gary Braunbeck,
Thomas F. Monteleone, Ray Garton, Brian Hodge, Ed Gorman, Al Sarrantonio,
Mick Garris, Patrick Lussier, and many others. These eighteen original tales
celebrate Hollywood and the horror movie-going experience with affection,
devotion, and fear. In Midnight Premiere you'll discover how many of these
authors have worked in film—as screenwriters, actors, and directors—and
put their particular experiences to use in showing you the dark underside
of the Hollyweird dream and the LaLa Land facade. The opening credits are
about to roll. Prepare yourself for the shocking and the illuminating, the
strange and the fanciful...the real and the lies of celluloid that may well
mean more to you than the truth.
You can order your copy of MIDNIGHT PREMIERE from Cemetery Dance right here
May 1, 2007
My next Bantam novel THE MIDNIGHT ROAD will be out June 26. Look for it in your local bookstore or
order online at Amazon.com and buy signed copies at Shocklines
From the moment he saw the girl in the snowstorm, Flynn had less than an hour
to live. But he’ll remember his last fifty minutes long after he’s
dead. As an investigator for Suffolk County Child Protective Services, Flynn
has seen more than his share of misery, but nothing could prepare him for
the nightmare inside the Shepards’ million-dollar Long Island home. In
less than an hour, that nightmare will send him plunging into a frozen lake—and
awaken him to a reality even more terrifying.
They’ve nicknamed Flynn “The Miracle Man” because few have ever been resuscitated after being dead so long. But a determined homicide detective and an inquisitive reporter named Jessie Gray have questions about what really happened at the Shepard house—and why the people around Flynn are suddenly being murdered. Flynn has questions of his own, especially when one of the victims dies while handing him a note: THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. Flynn has returned from the Midnight Road—and someone wants to send him back.
Here's a few more blurbs for THE MIDNIGHT ROAD.
"Nobody scares the be-jaysus outa me like Tom Piccirilli. And
to add amazement to intensity, he writes it all with such beautiful poetic
skill. He is the Poet Laureate of suspense and terror."--Ken Bruen, author
of AMERICAN SKIN and THE GUARDS
"THE MIDNIGHT ROAD is a creepy little thriller...Piccirilli almost always
twists reality with such subtlety that it's sometimes hard to tell where the
real tapers off and the fantastic starts and this one is no exception...Expect
some surprises but no cheap tricks before this one is over."--Critical
Mass, Don D'Ammassa
_______________________________________
And there's still time to pick up your copy of THE DEAD LETTERS.
March
19 , 2007
Amid a grand celebration during the West Coast debut gala, BRUNCH AND
BULLETS, the illustrious co-presidents of ITW, Gayle Lynds and David
Morrell, announced the nominees for this year's "Thriller" awards.
They also officially proclaimed the recipient for the 2007
ThrillerMaster Award (an award honoring an illustrious body of work
spanning two decades or more) to none other than a true master of
suspense, James Patterson.
But why keep you in the dark any longer? Without further ado, here is
the list of nominees in each category:
Best Paperback Original
Skeleton Coast, Clive Cussler with Jack DuBrul (Berkley Trade)
The Deep Blue Alibi, Paul Levine (Bantam)
An Unquiet Grave, P.J. Parrish (Pinnacle)
Headstone City, Tom Piccirilli (Spectra Books/Bantam)
Mortal Faults, Michael Prescott (Onyx Books)
HEADSTONE CITY is also a final nominee for the Bram Stoker Award this
year.
____________________________________
I'm currently working on a straight up crime novel called THE COLD
SPOT for Bantam AND I'm writing a HELLBOY novel for Dark Horse,
tentatively titled EMERALD HELL. This time out Big Red heads down to
the blackwater swamps to do battle with an evil mystical preacher and
just so happens to run into a hillbilly named John (though not the
one you're thinking). Both will be out in mmpb in early '08.
__________________________________
A number of very kind blurbs have come in from some great & generous
people lately. I'm extremely proud to have received them, especially
since they're from some of my very favorite folks out there.
"Tom Piccirilli writes like a crazed banshee. I love his books!"–Ken
Bruen, author of AMERICAN SKIN and THE GUARDS
Ken Bruen's latest outing is the fifth novel in his "Jack Taylor"
series entitled PRIEST. On the shelves you'll also find his
new "Brant" novel CALIBER and the Hard Case Crime collaboration
with
Jason Starr BUST (with its sequel SLIDE due out later this year).
Poetic noir by way of Ireland, once you pick up your first Bruen book
you'll become a total crackhead for the guy. Now go hit the pipe!
"Tom Piccirilli's fiction is visceral and unflinching, yet deeply
insightful. If you miss Piccirilli you're missing one hell of a
treat."--F. Paul Wilson, author of THE KEEP and HARBINGERS
You know who F. Paul Wilson is. You read him, you love him, you want
to have his babies. Now pick up duplicate copies of his novels and
give them away as presents to everyone you love. Give them to
everyone you hate too, maybe it'll turn their lives around and
they'll get their shit together. Repairman Jack forever!
"Tom Piccirilli doesn't just tell stories. He reaches across the
page, grabs a handful of your shirt, and drags you into another
world."--Norman Partridge, author of DARK HARVEST and THE CROW:
WICKED PRAYER.
Norman Partridge is one of those rare writers who spans genres and
yet always manages to do his own thing. You can't read Partridge
without knowing that it's him, it just can't be anybody else. He's
also one of the few people I can have lengthy discussions with about
really really bad z-grade flicks, which only proves he's got as empty
and pathetic a life as I do. Keep your eyes open for his short,
punchy, memorable novel DARK HARVEST, due out from TOR in mass market
paperback around Halloween.
"Tom Piccirilli may write with the muscle of a 1950s paperback pulp
master, but the mood and menace are totally modern. Go ahead and try
to stop turning pages. You can't, even though he's got your heart on
a hook and he's taken your mind places it never imagined. Piccirilli
is the master of that strange, thrilling turf where horror, suspense
and crime share shadowy borders. Wherever he's headed, count me in.
(As long as I'm allowed to bring a gun.)"–Duane Swierczynski, author
of THE WHEELMAN and THE BLONDE
Duane Swiercysnski is an incredible crime writer with such an easy,
hip realistic narrative voice that while you're checking out either
of his latest novels you'll be wondering how long this guy was a pro
thief, getaway man, and govt. assassin before becoming an editor for
a Philly paper. He has an extremely informative blog at
http://secretdead.blogspot.com/index.html that covers damn near
everything in the noir/hardboiled/crime world. Read everything you
can by him.
__________________________________
Also, everybody should definitely check out HAUNTED PELICAN PRESS and
their first anthology FIVE STROKES TO MIDNIGHT, which I'm glad to be
a part of. Great folks and a great book! Here's the official press
release:
Haunted Pelican Press is proud to announce the unveiling of the cover
for its upcoming anthology, Five Strokes to Midnight, as part of the
launch of its new website www.hauntedpelicanpress.com
Five Strokes to Midnight brings together five authors (Tom
Piccirilli, Gary Braunbeck, Deborah LeBlanc, Hank Schwaeble, and
Christopher Golden) for a total of thirteen stories, with each author
providing roughly 20,000 words of fiction inspired by a theme of each
author's choosing. It will be published this summer in a signed,
limited edition, with stunning cover art and interior illustrations
by Hellraiser star Ashley Laurence and an introduction by Bram Stoker-
Award winner Tim Lebbon.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION by Tim Lebbon
COVER & INTERIOR ART by Ashley Laurence
L O S S
Stories by Tom Piccirilli
"Loss"
"Bereavement"
H A U N T I N G S
Stories by Gary A. Braunbeck
"Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway"
"The Queen of Talley's Corner"
"Listening to Hendrix Sing `1983 … (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)'
"
C U R S E S
Stories by Deborah LeBlanc
"White-Hot"
"Bottom Feeder"
D E M O N S
Stories by Hank Schwaeble
"Midnight Bogey Blues"
"Bone Daddy"
"Gomorrah"
F O L K L O R E
Stories by Christopher Golden
"Shaft 39"
"Under Cover of Night"
"All Aboard"
February 27, 2007
My novel HEADSTONE CITY is a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. Thanks
to all the members of the Horror Writers Association who've read and voted
for the book.
_____________________________
A couple of very generous blurbs have come in from two of my favorite crime novelists. The new novel I'm working on, tentatively entitled THE COLD SPOT, will be a straight crime thriller (though Bantam will probably label it "suspense").
"Tom Piccirilli writes like a crazed banshee. I love his books!"–Ken Bruen, author of AMERICAN SKIN and THE GUARDS
"Tom Piccirilli may write with the muscle of a 1950s paperback pulp master, but the mood and menace are totally modern. Go ahead and try to stop turning pages. You can't, even though he's got your heart on a hook and he's taken your mind places it never imagined. Piccirilli is the master of that strange, thrilling turf where horror, suspense and crime share shadowy borders. Wherever he's headed, count me in. (As long as I'm allowed to bring a gun.)"–Duane Swierczynski, author of THE WHEELMAN and THE BLONDE
If you haven't read Ken's Jack Taylor series, Brant series, or his standalone
AMERICAN SKIN, grab them now. You'll wind up a complete crackhead for the
guy (but in a GOOD way). While you're at it, make sure you nab Duane's THE
WHEELMAN and his latest THE BLONDE, which is a completely new fusion of old
school noir, govt. assassins, and some very dark and nasty high tech stuff
thrown in. A guaranteed one-sitting read.
____________________________________________
This one will be out by Creeping Hemlock Press, the fine folks who brought you the terrific anthology CORPSE BLOSSOMS last year.
Description:
"Are you the one who helped him kill the angel?"
Twenty years of repressed anger and memories. A bitter knot of hatred that binds and divides two friends. The dark secret that fuels and devastates them both.
"He killed it. I only helped him to bury it."
Eddie's doing his best to get by, but every day the good fight just gets harder. And now there's a new burden to shoulder. Gray - his best friend and nemesis in literature, romance, and life - has landed in a bizarre mental hospital, known for its radical treatments, because Gray couldn't bear the weight of an unspeakable trauma.
The last time they met, Gray almost killed Eddie, but it seems that all is finally forgiven. Tonight, there's a wild hootenanny up at Gray's house.
The nuthouse.
And Eddie's invited.
"If Donald Barthelme, Kobo Abe, and Dashiell Hammett had somehow been able to collaborate on a novella, the result might be something very much like Tom Piccirilli's Frayed. No, wait, that's not quite right; they would have needed to bring in Buster Keaton as their gag-man. And Kahlil Gibran as spiritual advisor. Shit, even that's not right, but it's close.
"It's impossible to give this marvel of a novella a quick, witty, soundbite blurb because -- like most of Piccirilli's work -- it defies genre boundaries and literary comparisons.
"Piccirilli's work is genuinely unique, and Frayed is a testament to his intensely surreal, sometimes absurdist, often horrifying, and, in this case, surprisingly heartbreaking vision as a storyteller. There is nothing so exciting in a reader's life as watching, dumbfounded, as a favorite author reaches closer to the height of his or her powers, and with Frayed, Tom Piccirilli is damn near there.
"You'll know when he reaches the paramount -- which will be soon, judging
by this book; you'll know because the Earth will shake."--Bram Stoker
and International Horror Guild Award-winner Gary A. Braunbeck, author of PRODIGAL
BLUES and MR. HANDS
_______________________
Folio SF has released the French paperback edition of A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN
with a very cool cover!
October
4 , 2006
THE DEAD LETTERS is out in paperback from Bantam and you can pick it up right
now at your local bookstore. While you're there help out in my grassroots
campaign to correctly stock my novel. Some stores are mistakenly stocking
it in the science fiction/fantasy section so please, if you find it there
buy a copy for yourself and move another copy (or all of them) to the fiction
section where other readers will discover it. You can also order it online
at Shocklines
and Amazon
THE DEAD LETTERS is receiving rave reviews! Read what Publishers Weekly has to say:
"Five years ago Eddie Whitt's 5-year-old daughter was murdered by a serial killer. Dubbed "Killjoy" by the press, the killer ultimately claimed 21 child victims before disappearing without a trace. Eddie, having long since lost faith in law enforcement, has devoted his life to finding Killjoy, who still torments Whitt with a constant string of ranting letters. But Eddie, like the Nassau County cops, is at a loss to explain the murderer's new modus-operandi: kidnapping infants from abusive homes and giving them to families whose children he killed a half-decade before. No matter how repentant Killjoy may seem, the long-suffering Eddie is determined to hunt him down. Suspense keeps dogged pace with the dark, churning emotions of Eddie; Piccirilli does a scarily precise job delving into the mind of a man so overcome with grief that his irrational actions begin to mirror those of the killer he pursues. Although Piccirilli can push his characters' behavior over the top (Eddie is so crazed with frustration and anger that he gnaws sections of his car until his teeth break), his story keeps the pages turning through to the chilling, poignant end." --Publisher's Weekly
And The Romantic Times gave it a Top Pick!, 4 ½ stars Gold Medal.
“Piccirilli’s latest is part psychological suspense, part thriller,
part alternate reality—and boy can he write! His prose is a joy to read;
he has a unique narrative voice, and the dialogue is right on. It’s a
killer plot with a good mix of fascinatingly flawed characters. The protagonist
is full of both wry humor and despair and the villain is psychologically complex.
The secondary characters are just as memorable.”—Romantic Times,
Top Pick!, 4 ½ stars Gold Medal
August
21, 2006
Well, I've finally cracked wide open and joined the MySpace revolution.
I haven't figured out half the bells and whistles yet, but it's been fun tooling
around. Come check out my page and be my BESTEST friend at: http://www.myspace.com/tompiccirilli
And as if you haven't already shown enough Pic lurv yet, you can join the
Tom Piccirilli's Dark Minions group at:
http://groups.myspace.com/TOMPICCIRILLI39SMINIONS
A couple of early reviews have fluttered in for THE DEAD LETTERS.
"For those who have been following Piccirilli's career, there is no
question that he just keeps getting better and better. The prose in THE DEAD
LETTERS is leaner, more tightly wrought than anything we've seen from him
before, barely a spare word to be found...THE DEAD LETTERS excels as a novel
written to blur genre lines...It's brutal,
tragic and at times disturbingly humorous, darkly appealing to just about
any audience that loves a good tale well told."--Jamie Langolf, Insidious
Reflections
"Piccirilli manages to avoid many of the usual trappings of 'serial
killer' novels by changing a lot of the standard tropes...a very intriguing,
exciting and thought-provoking ride. Even with a more straightforward plot,
Piccirilli manages to stamp it with his own unique style and surrealistic
touches. It's great to see Bantam
continuing to embrace Tom and allow him room to grow. Let's all hope that
continues. Recommended!"--James Beach, Horror World
And HEADSTONE CITY is still on the radar:
"Told in a dead-on New York patois, this relentlessly poetic noir comes
across like The Sopranos and The Sixth Sense pulsed in a blender. (The) Dane's
interaction with the shades of the departed is a deft combination of humor
and tragedy, as he soft-shoes Hamlet-like across the stage, a prince in search
of a vengeance yet to be
determined. This is Tom Piccirilli (A Choir of Ill Children, November Mourns)
at the top of his game, showcasing his comfort with the hardboiled tradition,
yet transcending its limitations. HEADSTONE CITY masterfully captures the
iambic rhythm of New York's streets, the city's sinner-saints, and its victims,
then uncoiling a powerful final sting."–William Gagliani, HorrorWorld.com
June
6, 2006
Well, the big news of the day is that the Sunday New York Times Book Review section (the summer reading issue for 6/4/06) covered HEADSTONE CITY. One of the incredibly rare times that they've covered a horror genre paperback original.
"[HEADSTONE CITY is] a beautiful and perversely funny sort of crime novel: a hard-boiled hallucination.... [Piccirilli has] the authentic surrealist's gift of blind trust in his imagination, and that enables him to throw off striking metaphors like sparks from a speeding train. There's a manic insouciance in his prose, along with a persistent, unaccountable melancholy. HEADSTONE CITY gives you the distinctive shiver good horror writing--all good writing--provides: the certainty that the writer's own ghosts are in it."--The New York Times Book Review
Pretty sweet! The reviewer, Terrence Rafferty, promises to make the horror feature a regular one appearing every couple of months.
A couple of very kind advance blurbs have come in for THE DEAD LETTERS over the last couple of weeks.
"Piccirilli has hit full stride with THE DEAD LETTERS, reaching the ranks of the best writers in suspense and terror. Piccirilli has arrived and can stand on even ground with the Samsons of the genre, and if this David is as strong as I perceive, he just may put out Stephen King's lights or Dean Koontz's eye."--Robert W. Walker, author of CITY FOR RANSOM and ABSOLUTE INSTINCT
"Relentless, mesmerizing, and just damned fine. THE DEAD LETTERS is the best suspense novel I've read all year, period."--Steve Hamilton, Edgar Award-Winning author of A STOLEN SEASON
April 8, 2006
NOVEMBER MOURNS has made it to the final
ballot of the Bram Stoker Awards in the novel category. It's a great
honor to see my name alongside those of David Morrell, Gary
Braunbeck, and Charlee Jacob. Thanks to everyone who read,
recommended, voted for, or otherwise supported the book.
And here's a new review of HEADSTONE CITY
"The author's picture of Italian family life in Brooklyn is
stunningly vivid. And those who haunt it, especially Dane's tough and
resilient grandmother Lucia, will capture the reader's imagination.
Dane is an expertly realized picaresque antihero, a latter-day Tom
Jones, who, like Henry Fielding's masterpiece, inspires affection,
despite not being a very nice guy. I hope Piccirilli has room on his
mantle because it won't be surprising if Headstone City brings
another Bram Stoker Award to our state." -- ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, Mark
Graham
March 30 , 2006
My new novel THE DEAD LETTERS is due to hit shelves September 26th. As you can see from the cover art, this will be pushed by Bantam as my first suspense thriller. Synopsis and ordering info below:
Five years ago, Eddie Whitt's daughter became the first victim of a serial killer known as Killjoy. Whitt never stopped searching for him—not after the police gave up, not after Killjoy began sending him insane, taunting letters, and not even after the killer quit his lunatic rampage and faded from the scene.
But now the madman has returned. In some bizarre form of repentance, Killjoy begins kidnapping infants from abusive homes and delivering them to the parents of his original victims. In a strange turnabout, Killjoy becomes a media hero, a savior of unwanted "changeling children", and to those he once tormented he is now transformed into a benefactor.
But Whitt's rage can't be eased, and his urgent search is tainted by his growing suspicion that, like his wife, he’s losing his grip on reality. His daughter’s dollhouse is filled with an eerie activity wherein the dolls act out his family’s life as if the murders never occurred. In a fascinating exploration of fatherhood Whitt interacts with his other self in an effort to regain a part of his soul he fears he's lost.
With members of a deadly cult on the loose, and other dark forces seeking to victimize Whitt and the changeling children, Whitt must balance his need for retribution against the possibility that Killjoy has truly repented—and find a way to overcome his enemies and his grief in order to rescue himself before it’s too late.
Also due out in September is the rerelease of A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN, featuring
a brand new cover.
March
15 , 2006
After a pretty damn long & arduous process, my next novel has finally
arrived at a title: THE
DEAD LETTERS.
It was the first time in my career I ever ran up against such antipathy for
any of my titles. And it was a learning experience to deal with marketing
folks, editors, sub-rights editors, and even higher-ups, who all had something
to say about what had always previously been my own call.
HEADSTONE CITY is out now and here's what the reviewers are saying:
“As much fun as Mario Puzo….Piccirlli's ability to blend genres is always a treat for any reader” - The Horror Fiction Review
"In his latest, Headstone City, Piccirilli returns to his home ground, fusing the flesh-crawling creepiness of such books as A Choir of Ill Children and November Mourns with the muscular hardboiled fiction that he's been quietly crafting under the radar for years."--Fangoria, Thomas Deja
"Piccirilli subverts familiar mob story cliches with dark, sly humor."--LOCUS, Tim Pratt
"Moving away from his recent Southern Gothic works to tell a NYC mob tale about a young ex-con literally haunted by the ghosts of his past, Piccirilli weaves a tense and sometimes sorrowful yarn with just enough supernatural elements to lift it above more typical crime fiction fare. Subtle and masterful." - Rue Morgue, Monica S. Kuebler
January
26, 2006
Happy '06, everybody!
A nice way to start the new year--I just learned that Publishers Weekly has given HEADSTONE CITY a starred review (my first). You can read it for yourself below:
Starred Review. Alternately funny, sad and thrilling, Piccirilli's stellar supernatural crime novel plays haunting riffs on old mob standards. The wise guys of Brooklyn welcome back cab driver Johnny "Dane" Danetello, fresh from two years in the slammer, with a contract on his life and a handful of restless ghosts. Burdened with the ability to see the dead, Dane spends time between fares chatting up spirits and spooks, trying to make sense of his precarious life on the outside. If his old pal (and partner in metaphysical enhancement) Vincent Monticelli wants Dane dead, why hasn't he been taken out? What does the gorgeous movie actress Glory Bishop want from him? Who's the federal lawman looking into the Monticelli family? These questions lead Dane to face his own haunted past, including a murdered father, a mother who lived and died in agony, and the beautiful young Angie Monticelli, who caught a ride to her death in Dane's cab two years earlier. Stoker-winner Piccirilli (A Choir of Ill Children) plays cleverly with his hero's paranormal ability, keeping the reader guessing—and jumping—by blurring distinctions between the living and the dead. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Spanish edition of A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN-under the title Un Coro De Ninos Enfermos--is now available from La Factoria Des Ideas.
The Horror Reader has listed NOVEMBER MOURNS as one of their Top Ten Horror Novels of 2005.
Check out the entire list right here
November
5, 2005
November 6, Sunday at 9:00 PM
look for a television interview with Michelle and me on Denver's channel 2
news.
October
31 , 2005
Here's a picture of Michelle and I that accompanied our interview in the
local Colorado newspaper, The Reporter Herald
May
31, 2005
"Today is the official release date of NOVEMBER MOURNS, gang!
However, I'm getting back lots of reports that the novel is being shelved
in the SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY sections of bookstores, for some reason.
(Sure, it's a dark fantasy, but none of my other novels were ever shelved
in the SF/F section before). Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but we'll
see. Hopefully it'll help push the book even more."
May
26, 2005
The
latest issue of Fangoria has a review of NOVEMBER MOURNS!
Tom Piccirilli. Bantam Spectra, $5.99 (304p) ISBN 0-553-58720-X
From FANGORIA:
For a native New Yorker presently living in the Pacific Northwest, Tom Piccirilli really knows his Southern Gothics. NOVEMBER MOURNS, his follow-up to the amazing A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN, continues to demonstrate Piccirilli's mastery of the form. While the book starts off as something akin to a mystery, it slowly branches off into a strange journey into the other world just over the rise, while once again evoking the author's favorite motifs of ghosts, memory, and belief.
Shad Jenkins, just released from prison, has returned to his home town to investigate the death of his sister. The circumstances surrounding her demise are very curious–she was found lying beside a road called Gospel Trail that no one really likes to talk about. Gospel Trail, you see, is best to a gorge where the locals used to dump the terminally ill, and Shad's father blames it directly for the death of Shad's mother. But as he continues to dig into his sister's passing, Shad becomes convinced that the answer lies somewhere beyond Gospel Trail, and the man who had supposedly set his sights on her.
Even though the book is set up to resemble a classic mystery, those resemblances melt away the closer Shad gets to going to Gospel Trail and venturing into "The Pharisees," the area beyond it. When, in the novel's second part, Shad visits the snake-handling cult that maintains a compound in the vicinity, the book almost becomes a dry satire of the genre it might fit into–with Shad proving himself to be anything but the preternaturally clever country boy we've come to expect in books and films about the South.
The fact that Shad is way out of his depth should not be surprising to fans of Piccirilli's earlier novels like A LOWER DEEP and THE NIGHT CLASS. It's refreshing to see a protagonist who's the first to admit he doesn't know how to get himself out of the hole he has dug for himself, in a horror field now overrun with hyper-able protagonists. And the fact that Shad's reason for investigating his sister's death doesn't lie in a need for revenge, but to keep her spirit present in his frequent visions, makes for a more unpredictable ride.
In NOVEMBER MOURNS, Piccirilli continues to carve a particularly unique space for himself in the genre. That space may be muted and somber and a place where the spirits roam the corners of your mind, but it's all his own, and is worth repeated visits.
May
15, 2005
Publishers Weekly & Locus Review NOVEMBER MOURNS:
Tom Piccirilli. Bantam Spectra, $5.99 (304p) ISBN 0-553-58720-X
From Publishers Weekly:
The investigation of a young girl's apparent murder takes a sharp turn into Twilight Zone territory in Piccirilli's moody follow-up to A Choir of Ill Children (a Stoker finalist). Shad Jenkins is serving out the final days of his two-year prison sentence when he's briefly visited by the ghost of his beloved little sister, Megan, who has just been found dead on a mountain road outside Moon Run Hollow, without a mark on her body. He returns home bent on bringing those responsible to justice, but all potential suspects have solid alibis. Ignoring warnings about the legendary miseries that haunt the mountains where Megan died, Shad takes to the hills to look for clues. His adventures among Tobacco Road moonshiners, snake-handling cultists, interbred grotesques and Bible-thumping fanatics interconnect for a sustained and unnerving evocation of the dark side of Appalachia. Piccirilli successfully blends character and incidents to conjure a spirit of the strange that plays a key role in the tale's surprising but fitting finale. In lieu of a tidy conclusion, this loose and episodic horror novel tantalizes with hints of awesome mysteries that defy complete understanding. (June)
From Locus:
There are plenty of horror writers who can effectively conjure spooks and evoke squalor and desperation, but few can match Piccirilli's skill with words….One of the great strengths in the book is its supporting cast, deftly drawn individuals with their own histories, fears, and motivations…. .NOVEMBER MOURNS is dark, ambiguous, strange, and sometimes surprisingly sweet. The horror here is as much about lost opportunities and failed attempts at salvation as it is about monsters and killers. If EudoraWelty had written about wraiths and haunted hills, it might have sounded like this. The taint in the land brings William Faulkner to mind, while the taint in the people is pure Flannery O'Connor. Piccirilli has taken Southern Gothic imagery and woven it with his own poetry to create something uniquely his own, a book of terrible beauty and beautiful terrors.”
March 15, 2005
BLURBS FOR NOVEMBER MOURNS:
"Mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind...Piccirilli's fever dream storytelling is spellbinding and surprising."–Mick Garris, director of The Stand and Riding the Bullet
"If you go down to the woods with Tom Piccirilli, make sure you have eyes in the back of your head..."–Graham Masterton, author of A Terrible Beauty and The Manitou
"Vivid and ripe with dread and tragedy..."–Ray Garton, author of Scissors and The Girl in the Basement
"A novel of supreme and mesmerizing power that reads like a head-on collision between Flannery O'Connor and M.R. James...A masterpiece."–Gary A. Braunbeck, author of In Silent Graves and Graveyard People
"Piccirilli has the lyrical soul of a poet and the narrative talents of a man channeling Poe, William Faulkner, and Shirley Jackson..."–T.M. Wright, author of Cold House and A Manhattan Ghost Story.
_________________________
Gallimard has just acquired French language rights to A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN
for their "Folio Science Fiction" mass-market series. Should be
out in the next year or so.
The generous Dean Koontz provided a kind blurb for A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN: "A wonderfully wacked, disorienting, fully creepy book from which I never once reeled in revulsion even though as a reader I am admittedly a bit squeamish. I didn't reel because the poetic nature of the prose and seriousness of intent carried the day in every scene."
June
15 , 2004
Tom and Michelle were married June 12, 2004 at the top of the Montauk Lighthouse
in NY
