It is not uncommon for doctors (Ethan Canin, Daniel Mason), lawyers (Scott Thurow, John Grisham, Barry Reed), and television anchors (Jim Lehrer, Tom Brokaw) to venture into the novel writing game. One might think it would be a more common occurrence but as far as I know only bookseller Sonny Brewer, founder of Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Ala., has taken to penning fiction. Until now.Vincent McCaffrey, owner of the legendary, late, and lamented (brick and mortar)
There are deep rifts in the mystery genre which have given rise to very specific geologic features. There is the "cozy" and the "hard-boiled," of course, as well as the "noir," and the "police procedural"--all well established high ground for the writing practitioner and the faithful reader. There is even a sub-sub-genre for the "biblio-mystery" which a few critics have already used to label Hound. What is unfortunate to my mind is that there is relatively little cross reference. Outside of a few excellent and omnivorous blogs on the subject, few mystery readers play across the rifts.And Hound's dust jacket (featuring a haunting photograph of a fog-bound Salt and Pepper bridge [which spans the Charles River in Boston] by David Fokos) offers up this tidbit by and about the author:
I have been paid by others to do lawn work, shovel snow, paint houses, and to be an office boy, warehouse grunt, dishwasher, and hotel night clerk. I have since chosen at various times to be a writer, editor, publisher, and bookseller--and managed to pay myself occasionally for that. But the one thing I am sure of is that I was very good at shoveling snow...