DAMN NEAR DEAD 2, just a year away!

With the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention nearly upon us (next week in Indianapolis... and if you haven't yet registered, it's not too late!), I thought this would be a good opportunity not only to announce the list of planned contributors to BFP's sequel to the award-winning "geezer noir" anthology, Damn Near Dead (edited by Duane Swierczynski), but also to give a plug to the convention at which it'll be launched next November!

First, the scheduled line-up (with possible surprise additions later!) of Damn Near Dead 2...

Patti Abbott
Ace Atkins
Neal Barrett, Jr.
C. J. Box
Declan Burke
Scott Cupp
Christa Faust
Ed Gorman
Carolyn Haines
David Handler
Gar Anthony Haywood
Dean James
Jennifer Jordan
Toni Kelner
Russel McLean
Denise Mina
Gary Phillips
Scott Phillips
Tom Piccirilli
Bill Pronzini
Cornelia Read
James Reasoner
Kat Richardson
SJ Rozan
Anthony Neil Smith
Don Winslow

Wow!! It doesn't get much better than that. All of it presided over by editor Bill Crider (whose story, "Cranked," from the first Damn Near Dead was nominated for the Edgar & Anthony and won the Derringer!) and with an introduction by Charlaine Harris!

As we get closer to the release, we'll feature on the blog, excerpts & bios & whatnot, so please stay tuned through 2010. But you definitely need to mark your calendars now for the main launch event: NoirCon 2010 in Philadelphia! There's a good chance that many of the contributors will be at the convention (which is, of course, dedicated to noir & hard-boiled crime fiction... books, graphic novels, movies, TV, more!), so what better place to get your copies signed by several authors.

NoirCon will also mark the release of Akashic Books' latest in their noir anthology series, Philadelphia Noir. Guests of Honor include George Pelecanos & Johnny Temple (owner of Akashic Books). Please go here for more information on NoirCon (or to register).

Reed hits the road... and other news!

Reed Farrel Coleman (Tower) and Jason Pinter (The Fury) launched their new books at NYC's Mysterious Bookshop last Wednesday. The place was packed and both books sold very well. Congrats, Reed & Jason, and big thanks to Mysterious Bookshop for putting on a great event!

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Reed Farrel Coleman hits the road this week to promote his newest release, Tower (written w/ Ken Bruen; 978-1-935415-07-7; paperback original; $15). He'll be heading to Minneapolis, Denver/Boulder, San Francisco/San Mateo, Los Angeles, Phoenix/Scottsdale, Indianapolis, Dallas, Austin, Houston, the Hamptons, Clinton (New Jersey), and more!

For a complete list of tour stops & dates, please go here.

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Tower is an IndieBound Indie Next Notable for October!

Many thanks to all of the independent bookstores who helped make that possible.

Please support your favorite local, indie bookstores by purchasing Tower from them.

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Listen to Reed read an excerpt from Tower over at our good friends with Crimewav.com. Give yourself a little time to check out all of their other wonderful podcasts, including Megan Abbott, Michael Connelly, Anthony Neil Smith, and more!

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Tower will be reviewed by Betty Webb in the Holiday issue of Mystery Scene magazine (out in November). Here's a sneak peek at the review:

"My top recommendation is Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman’s Tower. I’m certain that at some point Ken Bruen has written bad prose, but I haven’t found it yet. Here the brilliant Irish noirist shares a byline with Coleman as they work in tandem, telling the story of two tough Brooklyn boys who eventually fall in with the mob. Bruen writes the voice of Nick in gorgeous, mean, Irish punk prose, while Coleman does a superb job with Todd, Nick’s less volatile Jewish friend. Set before the events of 9/11, Nick’s father is a bitter, shot-up cop working security at the World Trade Center. 'Rage kept him grounded,' Nick comments. A battered child, Nick grows up taking out his frustrations on other men’s chins, and eventually winds up working for Boyle, a Bible-spouting psychopath. But not all is grit and gloom. Nick’s interior monologues are quite amusing, especially when he says the exact opposite of what he thinks. Coleman’s Todd is deeply satisfying, too, but in a different way. While foregoing the music of Bruen’s prose, Coleman masterfully paints a picture of an essentially decent Todd whose petty-thief life forces him into a corner he’d rather not be in. 'I’ve always been a bit of a moth. Show me a flame and I’m there.' "

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Tower is an October "Top Shelf Pick" for Austin's BookPeople!

In his review, BookPeople's Scott Montgomery says, "Reed Farrel Coleman and Ken Bruen set the bar for other crime writers. They find the inherent literary qualities in the genre and bring them into bloom. Bruen takes Hammett’s tough, terse phrasing fusing it with attitude of punk rock for a driving, cynical force. Coleman taps into the prose poetry and jazz lyricism of noir fiction and the melancholy of the lone PI to deliver a hardboiled humanism. Together they give us Tower, the story of Nick and Todd, two friends and thieves told in Rashamon style that allows the distinct voice of each other to be uncompromised.... The parallel stories work beautifully. Bruen gives enough narrative space for Coleman to fill without repetition and allow the other expand their style.... Only these two authors could have pulled of this book with both the strong characterization and pace.... The book also finds a way to be a throwback to what a lot of crime fiction fans have mourned, the short (200 pages or less) novel. It has the echoes and experimentation of those paperbacks from the forties to the sixties written by the likes of David Goodis and Dan J. Marlowe. The short format allowed risks that many current over written novels can’t take. Tower reminds you of that tight storytelling that delivered on the edge storytelling with the pathos and punch that drew many of us to the genre in the first place."