20 quick reasons to search out Small Crimes
"There's a new name to add to the pantheon of the sons and daughters of Cain: Dave Zeltserman." NPR's Top 5 Crime and Mystery Novels of 2008
"A thing of beauty: spare but ingeniously twisted and imbued with a glossy coating of black humor." Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post's Best Books of 2008
"Zeltserman's breakthrough third crime novel deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy", Publisher's Weekly, starred review
"A Jim Thompson mentality on a Norman Rockwell setting... 'Small Crimes' is a strong piece of work, lean and spare, but muscular where a noir novel should be, with a strong central character whom we
alternately admire and despise." Boston Globe
"Small Crimes proves a deft entry in the tradition that goes back to Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and Charles Willeford’s High Priest of California —small masterpieces celebrating the psychopath as a grinning archetype, as American as apple pie." Sun-Sentinel
“Zeltserman masterfully controls the action, offering dark noir fiction in the best Jim Thompson tradition." Lansing State Journal
"Zeltserman creates an intense atmospheric maze for readers to observe Denton's twisting and turning between his rocks and hard places. Denton is one of the best realised characters I have read in this
genre, and the powerfully noir-ish, uncompromising plot, which truly keeps one guessing from page to page, culminates with a genuinely astonishing finale." -- Sunday Express (UK)
"Small Crimes is the kind of grim noir novel they used to write in the Thirties and Forties. There are no good guys, only men who are mean, vicious, tough, corrupt and amoral. Action is frenzied and bloody,
women easy but vulnerable, dialogue curt and the plot not necessarily convincing. David Zeltserman serves up the formula with enthusiasm and some fine writing." -- London Times (UK)
“Zeltserman has mixed together an explosive Molotov cocktail of a book. This is a dark shocker, a downward spiral of violence, betrayal, manipulation and tragic misunderstanding.”—Business Day (South Africa)
"Not only does the novel have clean, simple prose, ample suspense and twists, and a fast-paced plot--standard fare; it also offers brilliant psychological insight into tortured souls, and on a deeper level, it
is a moralistic tale about how small crimes beget larger ones." Bookmarks Magazine
“In The Washington Post, Zeltserman has been compared to the legendary James M. Cain, "The plot of Small Crimes is a thing of beauty: spare but ingeniously twisted and imbued with a glossy coating of black
humor." We would go further -- this tale of a small-town cop going from corrupt to categorically criminal, beats Cain's best.”—Barnes & Noble
"Small Crimes is one of the finest dark suspense novels I've read in the past few years." Ed Gorman
"Small Crimes has plenty of crime, but obsession, hubris, and evil, pure and impure, are at the heart of this vivid noir." Booklist, Thomas Gaughan
"A dark masterpiece" Crimespree Magazine
"The characterisation and mental torment are reminiscent of the insightful psychological thrillers of Jim Thompson. Stunning stuff." Cath Staincliffe, Tangled Web
"This loamy smorgasboard of salvation and revenge has both a violent and comic edge, marking Zeltserman as a name to watch." Crime Time
"Nothing like the bleakest ending of the year to top my list of great crime reads. This book is one gut punch after another and never lets up, which is why I’ve got nothing but high hopes for what Zeltserman
comes up with next." Bookgasm's "Books that were great in 2008'
More Best and Favorite lists that Small Crimes made in 2008: David Thompson's Murder Book's list, Patrick Milliken's Poisoned Pen Bookstore's List, Pulpetti, Mystery Bookshelf, Vince Keenan's Blog, Dark Party Review
Pariah is out in the US this October, and reading Small Crimes first will make Pariah all that much funner!
Has Serpent's Tail ever steered you wrong?
"A thing of beauty: spare but ingeniously twisted and imbued with a glossy coating of black humor." Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post's Best Books of 2008
"Zeltserman's breakthrough third crime novel deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy", Publisher's Weekly, starred review
"A Jim Thompson mentality on a Norman Rockwell setting... 'Small Crimes' is a strong piece of work, lean and spare, but muscular where a noir novel should be, with a strong central character whom we
alternately admire and despise." Boston Globe
"Small Crimes proves a deft entry in the tradition that goes back to Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and Charles Willeford’s High Priest of California —small masterpieces celebrating the psychopath as a grinning archetype, as American as apple pie." Sun-Sentinel
“Zeltserman masterfully controls the action, offering dark noir fiction in the best Jim Thompson tradition." Lansing State Journal
"Zeltserman creates an intense atmospheric maze for readers to observe Denton's twisting and turning between his rocks and hard places. Denton is one of the best realised characters I have read in this
genre, and the powerfully noir-ish, uncompromising plot, which truly keeps one guessing from page to page, culminates with a genuinely astonishing finale." -- Sunday Express (UK)
"Small Crimes is the kind of grim noir novel they used to write in the Thirties and Forties. There are no good guys, only men who are mean, vicious, tough, corrupt and amoral. Action is frenzied and bloody,
women easy but vulnerable, dialogue curt and the plot not necessarily convincing. David Zeltserman serves up the formula with enthusiasm and some fine writing." -- London Times (UK)
“Zeltserman has mixed together an explosive Molotov cocktail of a book. This is a dark shocker, a downward spiral of violence, betrayal, manipulation and tragic misunderstanding.”—Business Day (South Africa)
"Not only does the novel have clean, simple prose, ample suspense and twists, and a fast-paced plot--standard fare; it also offers brilliant psychological insight into tortured souls, and on a deeper level, it
is a moralistic tale about how small crimes beget larger ones." Bookmarks Magazine
“In The Washington Post, Zeltserman has been compared to the legendary James M. Cain, "The plot of Small Crimes is a thing of beauty: spare but ingeniously twisted and imbued with a glossy coating of black
humor." We would go further -- this tale of a small-town cop going from corrupt to categorically criminal, beats Cain's best.”—Barnes & Noble
"Small Crimes is one of the finest dark suspense novels I've read in the past few years." Ed Gorman
"Small Crimes has plenty of crime, but obsession, hubris, and evil, pure and impure, are at the heart of this vivid noir." Booklist, Thomas Gaughan
"A dark masterpiece" Crimespree Magazine
"The characterisation and mental torment are reminiscent of the insightful psychological thrillers of Jim Thompson. Stunning stuff." Cath Staincliffe, Tangled Web
"This loamy smorgasboard of salvation and revenge has both a violent and comic edge, marking Zeltserman as a name to watch." Crime Time
"Nothing like the bleakest ending of the year to top my list of great crime reads. This book is one gut punch after another and never lets up, which is why I’ve got nothing but high hopes for what Zeltserman
comes up with next." Bookgasm's "Books that were great in 2008'
More Best and Favorite lists that Small Crimes made in 2008: David Thompson's Murder Book's list, Patrick Milliken's Poisoned Pen Bookstore's List, Pulpetti, Mystery Bookshelf, Vince Keenan's Blog, Dark Party Review
Pariah is out in the US this October, and reading Small Crimes first will make Pariah all that much funner!
Has Serpent's Tail ever steered you wrong?
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