There comes a point in a writer’s career when reviewers start to look not just at the book on the “New Releases” table in the bookstore, but at the body of work as a whole. This sort of analysis usually happens when the number of potential books is dwarfed by the author’s previous output; upon recent death, when literary-leaning obituarists struggle to mine some instant legacy; or years if not decades later, when those in the throes of rediscovery commit their ecstatic cries to page and pixel.

For crime writers, such summary judgments focus either on specific characters — Chandler’s Marlowe, Christie’s Marple and Poirot, Highsmith’s Ripley — or indelible one-offs, like Eric Ambler’s “A Coffin for Dimitrios” and Dorothy B. Hughes’ “In a Lonely Place.” Characters inspire loyalty, passion and debate among readers; one-offs spur reexamination, depending on the time period of discovery.

George Pelecanos, however, is a different breed, because his work is less about specific characters and more about discrete periods.

Certainly, all his novels share certain attributes: chronicling urban Washington, D.C., as it was then and now, paying attention to the nuances of racial tensions and togetherness, examining masculinity against the backdrop of criminality, all set to musical soundtracks. (more…)

A brisk pace, sharp dialogue and believable characters propel bestseller Lescroart‘s 13th thriller to feature San Francisco defense attorney Dismas Hardy (after Betrayal). When someone shoots Dylan Volger in an alley near the coffee shop he managed, Bay Beans West, the cops discover a load of marijuana in the victim’s backpack, a crop of weed growing in his attic and a customer list that includes a judge and several local officials. Suspicion centers on Hardy’s client and Bay Beans West’s owner, Maya Townshend, who’s the sister of a city supervisor and the mayor’s niece. That Maya was paying Volger an unusually high salary of $90,000 suggests he was blackmailing her. An arrogant U.S. attorney decides to turn the trial into a “career-making moment,” invoking a little-known law to prosecute Maya. Lescroart skillfully juggles myriad plot threads, including one involving homicide detective Abe Glitsky, a series regular, whose young son is in a coma after a car accident.

Order your signed copy of A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart at www.vjbooks.com

Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, where he has taught since 1982. A prolific writer, he has published seven critically acclaimed non-fiction books which have helped shape the national debate on issues ranging from the role of religion in politics and culture to that of integrity and civility in our daily lives.

Professor Carter was born in Washington, D.C. on October 26, 1954, the second of five children, and attended public school there as well as in New York City and Ithaca, New York. He received his bachelor’s from Stanford University and his law degree from Yale before clerking for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, briefly practicing law, and then finally joining the faculty at Yale.

One of the nation’s leading public intellectuals, he’s among the fifty leaders for the new millennium as picked by Time magazine. His writings have won praise from across the political spectrum. Furthermore, he is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And he is also a trustee of the Aspen Institute, where he moderates seminars for executives on values-based leadership.

Among his half-dozen honorary degrees are doctorates from Notre Dame, Colgate, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. A frequent guest on TV talk shows, Carter has periodically appeared on Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and Face the Nation. Plus, he’s a regular contributor as a columnist to Christianity Today.

In 2002, he received a record $4.2 million advance from Knopf for his first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park, a murder mystery set on Martha’s Vineyard. Here, he talks about his sequel, New England White, another sophisticated suspense thriller set amidst the African-American elite.

His upcoming title Jericho’s Fall delivers a spy thriller, his first work of fiction not to focus on characters from what he has termed “the darker nation.”

Order your signed copy of Jericho’s Fall by Stephen Carter at www.vjbooks.com

Michael Connelly’s Conflict of Interest Part II

James Patterson‘s prolific-ness is well-known- his Web site lists a book a month from now until year’s end (though, curiously, there’s no October release noted).  Even for this megaselling author, however, his current feat is rare:  three titles appearing concurrently on three of Publisher’s Weekly four lists.  The most recent instance was on February 4, 2008, with Double Cross, Cross and The 6th Target.  Patterson‘s newest hardcover boasts 900,000 copies in print.

Order signed copies of the 8th Confession by James Patterson at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, May 11)

Odd Hours, Koontz’s fourth book about this, well, odd character, has more than one million copies in print.  Koontz said in an interview that this unusual protagonist came to him “as a gift, the entire first chapter of his first book having poured out of me as I was in the middle of writing “The Face.”  And though he originally conceived of the series as open-ended, he now believes the seventh book will be the conclusion.

See all titles by Dean Koontz at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, May 11)

Michael Connelly has always tried to give his readers bonus material with each new novel. Short stories, lost chapters, and visual adaptations. This time he has something new. A short film called “Conflict of Interest,” which features the exploits of FBI Agent Rachel Walling leading up to the point she enters the story of THE SCARECROW. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here. The story runs parallel to THE SCARECROW. The case Rachel is working comes very close to the story Jack McEvoy is chasing. Starring Julie St. Claire, Chris Bruno, and James Remar (Sex and the City, Dexter.) Written by Michael Connelly and directed by T.L. Lankford, the film will be available in three parts. The first installment is linked below. Watch for part two next week, and the finale on May 26, the day THE SCARECROW is published in the USA and Canada.

Click to see Conflict of Interest, Chapter One

Order your copy of The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly from www.vjbooks.com

Irish crime writer McKinty (The Bloomsday Dead) delivers an intelligent novel of suspense about cultural identity. After a hit-and-run driver kills Alberto Suarez, a Cuban defector who’s been working as a rodent exterminator in Fairview, Colo., his daughter, Mercado, a talented young Havana cop, feels duty bound to avenge his death. She obtains a visa to Mexico City under a false pretext and later slips across the U.S. border to get to Fairview, which has become the happening place for the Hollywood cognoscenti. Since someone has to clean up after the wild parties, drugs and general debauchery that keep the town’s underground economy bustling, Mercado joins the silent community of illegal workers living on “Wetback Mountain.” As she investigates her father’s death, she discovers that his secrets, like those of Fairview itself, were far more extensive than she could have realized. In trademark fashion, McKinty winds up his provocative tale with a violent and memorable final act. (May)

Order your signed copy of Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty from www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, Mar. 23)

Catch Lawrence Block on the The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Monday, May 18!  He’ll be promoting his new title Step by Step: A Pedestrian Memoir.

Order your signed copy of Step by Step by Lawrence Block from www.vjbooks.com

Michael Connelly, the Nevada desert, Jack McEvoy’s thoughts while driving the loneliest road in America… You’ll find all that and more in this 2 minute video introducing The Scarecrow, Michael Connelly’s new thriller.

Click to see the Scarecrow video by Michael Connelly