Ace Atkins's new deal with Putnam!

Congratulations to Busted Flush Press author Ace Atkins (Crossroad Blues), who just sold two Quinn Colson novels -- featuring an Army Ranger who returns to his rural Mississippi county to find it overrun by corruption and his uncle, the sheriff, dead... the beginning of a trail that will lead him not only to the killers but to a new career -- to Neil Nyren at Putnam, for publication in 2011 and 2012.

I asked Ace about this exciting new project....

"The idea for launching a new series was actually posed to me by my editor at Putnam, Neil Nyren. Since Neil is also the editor of John Sandford, Randy Wayne White, and Robert Crais, this wasn’t an opportunity that needed me thinking twice. I’ve written four true-crime novels for Putnam, and I really welcomed creating a new hero to explore my world here in north Mississippi . I think the Deep South -- not counting the other universe of south Louisiana -- hasn’t really been covered. I see so much crime and lawlessness down here that it really called to be written about. And I’ve thought a great deal about the kind of hero it would take. (Many parts of Mississippi feel almost like the old West.) I don’t want to give too much of the story away, but I can promise it will be very gritty, violent and based on very real problems and issues here. The series kicks off a story as old as Odysseus -- a man returns home from war to find his town in shambles. You can bet trouble soon follows. The first book launches in the spring of 2011 and the next story follows in 2012."

But first, look for Busted Flush Press's reprint of Crossroad Blues, due out in mid-December!