Kensington publishing has just leased rights to publish Master Detective to the Chongqing Publishing Company in Chongqing, China. That's mainland China, or the PRC. You know, the BIG one. The rights were sold to Taiwan last year, so the Chinese language market seems to be pretty well covered at this point. I'm not sure exactly what appeal the Lindbergh kidnapping has in the far east, but I love it!

(If you're wondering about the rather cryptic title of this post, it means "hello" in… Continue

Here's a book trailer for Master Detective. Note that there is a second book trailer by someone else. Hey, the more the merrier!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlHvNqLg5jA

My publisher, Kensington, has leased foreign rights to Master Detective to the Goodness Publishing Company in Taiwan, who will publish a Chinese language edition next year. That's fine with me as long as they don't expect me to proof the galleys.

The New England Crimebake Conference was held, appropriately enough, in Dedham, Massachusetts. The guest of honor was Halan Coben, who made an interesting observation. He said that he never met a really sucessful author who was a jerk. (Well actually, he used a synonym for jerk, but you get the idea.) If this is true, it is apparently the only occupation where this occurs.

Anyway, his novel Tell No One has been made into a movie by a French film company. Hollywood had an interest, but he… Continue

When Master Detective was first released, I was interviewed by Channel 13. For a five minute interview by people who had not read the book, it went pretty well. (Well, geez, they can't read everybody's book for a short interview.) Marty Bass latched on to the CSI connection, even though Ellis Parker never heard of DNA and seldom even used fingerprints. I got a free Channel 13 coffee mug out of the deal, and a good jolt of free publicity. Anyway, see for yourself.… Continue

One of the problems with writing a non fiction crime book is knowing when to stop. It seems as if there is always just one more piece of information just over the horizon. Then, of course when you do finish, these bits of information show up, too late to be included. I was reminded of this fact of life at the recent event in New Jersey.

The Ellis Parker book event and historical site tour was held on September 22 in Mt Holly, New Jersey, scene of much of the action in Master…

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Master Detective recently came out in a paperback edition and Kensington Publishing duly sent me a box of them. We weren't home so FedEx left the box on my doorstep in plain view of the neighbors for the afternoon. Apparently Kensington is economizing by recycling book boxes, because the box they sent was printed with the name of another book. There in bold black letters on the box was the title: NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY.

One of the advantages of writing true crime/biography is that there are real people and places you can point to as being part of your book. Much of Master Detective takes place in Mt Holly, New Jersey, the stomping grounds of the "American Sherlock Holmes", Ellis Parker. Many of the sites involved in those events survive, including Parker's house, the courthouse, the old jail, the Elks Club where he hung out when off duty, and even the house where his wake was held (attended by several…

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