VJ Books has received:  Jeffery Deaver – Edge, Greg Bear – Hull Zero Three, Dennis Lehane – Moonlight Mile, and Scott Spencer - Man in the Woods.

After a tremendous response to their first offering, VJ Books is pleased to announce that they again have copies of Dennis Lehane’s Boston Noir. This book represents the latest in a groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies; it is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.

This hardcover edition is limited to 100 individually numbered copies and represents the “true” first edition, released ahead of the November paperback edition. Needless to say, obtaining additional quantities has been a coup for VJ Books. “We could not be happier finding this new supply,” said VJ Books co-founder, Virginia Lenneville. “Due to the limited quantities,”  Lenneville cautions, “we are forced to offer them on a first come, first served basis.”

Dennis Lehane has proven himself to be a master of both crime fiction and literary fiction. Here, he extends his literary prowess to that of master curator. In keeping with the Akashic Noir series tradition, each story in Boston Noir is set in a different neighborhood of the city – the impressively diverse collection extends from Roxbury to Cambridge, from Southie to the Boston Harbor, and all stops in between. Lehane’s own contribution, the longest story in the volume, is set in his beloved home neighborhood of Dorchester and showcases his phenomenal ability to grip the heart, soul, and throat of the reader.

In 2003, Lehane’s novel Mystic River was adapted into film and quickly garnered six Academy Award nominations, actors Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both won Academy Awards for their performances. Shutter Island, the film based on Lehane’s best-selling 2003 novel of the same title, hits the big screen in November 2009.

Signed editions of Dennis Lehane’s books can be seen at:  http://www.vjbooks.com/Dennis-Lehane-s/554.htm

About VJ Books:  VJ Books started in 1998 and soon learned that their customer was foremost a collector.  Their customers sought collector grade first edition books, preferably autographed by the author.  In an effort to respond to this demand, VJ Books has developed relationships with publishers, authors and agents to provide a continuous supply of new titles for their customers. Each month VJ Books’ customers are able to choose from dozens of author signed books from some of the most exciting, highly acclaimed authors in the areas of mystery, suspense, sci-fi and modern literature. Additionally, they continue to offer an impressive selection of backlist, rare, out-of-print, and special edition titles for your consideration.

The current generation of Irish crime writers had something of an annus mirabilis in 2008, when John Connolly, Tana French, Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and Ruth Dudley Edwards were all nominated for prestigious crime-writing prizes in the US and the UK. Connolly, Dudley Edwards and French all took home awards, with French a multiple-award winner, a decent haul for a relatively small group of writers, and particularly as Irish crime fiction has yet to be taken as seriously at home as it is abroad. (more…)

(Beacon News, Jan. 18, Teresa Budasi)

My favorite of 2008 is the latest novel by Wally Lamb. A decade has passed since Lamb was doubly blessed by Oprah and shot to literary fame. In 1997, the talk show queen chose his first novel, “She’s Come Undone,” as her fourth Oprah’s Book Club selection. His follow-up, “I Know This Much Is True,” was chosen a year later.

So now, 10 years later, comes “The Hour I First Believed,” which supposes the life of a couple trying to put back the pieces of their lives in the wake of the Columbine High School tragedy. Books like this are my favorite kind to read — novels with long, sprawling chapters, where characters are thoughtfully drawn out with multiple, interconnecting story lines — so that’s why it tops my list. It’s a hefty volume, 700-plus pages, and I look forward to every single page turn. (Editor’s note: Sugar Grove resident Greg Zanis, who famously and controversially built and installed crosses near Columbine after the shootings, is mentioned in this fictionalized account.)

So now, 10 years later, comes “The Hour I First Believed,” which supposes the life of a couple trying to put back the pieces of their lives in the wake of the Columbine High School tragedy. Books like this are my favorite kind to read — novels with long, sprawling chapters, where characters are (more…)

(connpost.com, jan. 16, Joe Meyers)

With so many “literary” novelists turning inward and away from broader social concerns and traditional storytelling, readers have been enjoying crime fiction in larger numbers each year.

A genre that was once viewed as essentially escapist — cozy little murders in cozy little towns — is now the place to look for stories that tell us how people live and die all over the world.

You could make a strong argument that some of the finest novelists writing today are working in the mystery and crime fields.

Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos are just three of the many “stars” on this side of the Atlantic and the popular and critically acclaimed crime writers in the United Kingdom include Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell and P.D. James.

Another U.K. star, Val McDermid, will be kicking off her U.S. book tour for “A Darker Domain” (HarperCollins) in Westport on Feb. 9.

The Scottish novelist has two dozen books to her credit. The Observer in London has called her “one of the world’s leading mystery writers … Thomas Harris crossed with Agatha Christie, if you will…” (more…)

(mcherald.com, Nov. 22, JC Patterson)

Here’s a by-the-book breakdown of fine reads I have known and appreciated this year.

The Big Boys: Heavyweight hits like Richard Price’s Lush Life, The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski , and my favorite read of 2008: The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, topped bestseller lists and Oprah’s Bookclub. These massive parables of crime, historical cops and a boy and his dogs are flat out brilliant.

Lady Killers: A bevy of female authors, featuring Nevada Barr‘s long-awaited Winter Study gave the female lead muscles aplenty. Also impressive is April Smith’s The Judas Horse and Andrea Kane‘s Twisted. Like Barr’s Anna Pigeon, both spotlight damaged amazons who work outside the law. Powerful period dramas like The Outlander by Gil Adamson and Ron Rash’s Serena use the (more…)

(Publisher’s Weekly, Nov. 3, Best Books of The Year Award)

In a splended flowering of the talent previously demonstrated in his crime fiction (Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River) Lehane combines 20th-century American history, a gripping story of a family torn by pride and the strictures of the Catholic Church, and the plot of a multifaceted thriller.

Order your signed first edition copy of The Given Day from www.vjbooks.com today!

(www.miamiherald.com, Nov. 14, Nancy Klingener)

The question comes at every one of Dennis Lehane‘s public appearances: “Will you ever return to Patrick and Angie?”

The answer is probably “No.”

”It’s been nine years, and I love those characters,” says Lehane, who appears Saturday at Miami Book Fair International. “But they stopped talking to me, not the other way around. I just can’t seem to get them on the phone.”

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro were the heroes of Lehane’s first five novels, private-eye tales set in contemporary Boston. They were successful books, and Lehane’s publisher would have happily kept putting them out.

Most writers, having found a successful niche, would keep working it. But Lehane, a graduate of Florida International University’s creative writing program, had different stories to tell, bigger stories. The first was Mystic River, a bestseller made into an Oscar-winning movie by Clint Eastwood.

Then he traveled into the past with the thriller Shutter Island, set in 1954 (more…)

(www.miaminewtimes.com, Nov. 07)

Every corner of the country worth a damn seems to have a signature author painting its streets in the darkest shades on the palette – from Tony Hillerman hiking the parched Navajo desert to Dennis Lehane lurking in Boston’s grimiest allies to James Ellroy plumbing LA’s bloodiest past.

Luckily for us, no one does crime quite like Miami. And no one else has a signature queen of the thriller quite like Edna Buchanan.

Buchanan spent years on the police beat at the Miami Herald, where she (more…)

The Miami Book Fair International Celebrates 25 Years!

November 9-16

Authors are coming from all over the U.S. and around the world for this 25th anniversary

Jessica Abel, Fernando Arrabal, Russell Banks, Mario Batali, Ishmael Beah, Anthony Bourdain, Sandra Cisneros, Billy Collins, Michael Cunningham, Junot Diaz, Jorge Edwards, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Hass, Carl Hiaasen, Chip Kidd, Mark Kurlansky, Dennis Lehane, Matt Madden, Peter Matthiessen, Frank McCourt, Campbell McGrath, Brad Meltzer, Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Laura Restrepo, Antonio Orlando Rodriguez, Esmeralda Santiago, Scott Simon, Tavis Smiley, Art Spiegelman, Les Standiford, Wole Soyinka, Yves Swolfs, Scott Turow, Zoe Valdes, Gore Vidal, Derek Walcott, Cornel West, Edmund White, Terry Tempest Williams, Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Won’t you meet them in Miami?

www.miamibookfair.com