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I’m not sure whether or not an event that happens on the same date two years in a row can be called a tradition, but nevertheless, THANK YOU to everyone who made it out to Jake’s on Thursday, December 22 to support MAKE Magazine’s second annual holiday event and enjoy all the free Lucky Bucket beer!

It was an honor to take part and read with five great writers: Steve Langan, Timothy Schaffert, Kate Sommer, Rebecca Shaw, and Zachary Schomburg.

Click here to view my reading: “If I Didn’t Love You I Wouldn’t Lie to You.”

Happy Holidays!

Jakob Arjouni has been hailed – mainly in Germany – as the successor to American crime fiction masters Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man) and Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye) since the release of his first novel, Happy Birthday, Turk! in 1987.

Arjouni picks up the tradition of “hardboiled” private eye crime fiction Hammett and Chandler made popular in the 1920s and 1930s, respectively, creating a dark, seedy world and an unorthodox private detective whose morals and actions may be as suspect as the criminals he pursues for money.

The story of Happy Birthday, Turk! revolves around the stabbing death of Ahmed Hamul, a Turkish laborer, on the steps of his “junkie prostitute” girlfriend’s apartment building. The case is brought to Kayankaya by Ahmed’s wife after the police prove themselves unwilling, or unable, to conclude their investigation. In pursuit of the killer, Kayankaya dives into the seedy world of Frankfurt’s red-light district, overindulging in Scotch and caffeine, brawling, mouthing off indiscriminately, making enemies on both sides of the law, all the while slowly gathering together pieces of the puzzle.

Read the full review at MakeMag.com

Publisher’s website: Melville House

Bruce Murkoff’s writing gives the impression he thinks in sepia tones. Such is the clarity of the prose in his second novel, Red Rain.

Set during the Civil War in the Hudson River Valley town of Roundout, New York, Red Rain begins just after the Union Army defeat at Cold Harbor, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. While not a principle driver or the plot, the battle’s shadow hangs heavy over the town and the principle characters of the novel as they go about their lives, trying to move on in the face of the destruction and death surrounding them. This endeavor is met with varying degrees of success and failure.

Red Rain is composed of plot lines as numerous and free flowing as the rivers that snake the western lands which Will Harp, the story’s principle character, has run from. But as all rivers eventually converge in the sea, so too do Murkoff’s plot lines link, coming together in a primordial swamp entombing the bones of a giant mastodon.

Read the full review at MakeMag.com