I have something very special to share with you today. It’s a brand-new, never-before-seen short story featuring the hero of my crime thriller series, Parker Hanson, which I wrote in response to a call for submissions to a crime fiction anthology.

The theme of the anthology is “crime without corpses,” and I chose to write about an investigation that takes place early on in Parker’s career as a private detective. In this story, he’s still stewing about losing his reporting job and bitter about...

If your books were adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?

I was asked this question as part of an author Q&A by a book reviewer recently, and it’s such a fun question to think about. For this month’s newsletter, I thought I’d share my responses.

(FYI, you can read the full interview here.)

Parker Hanson, the former journalist turned private investigator at the center of my mystery series, is in his mid-40s, so maybe somebody like Jake Gyllenhaal...

There’s a long tradition within crime fiction of “badass” sidekicks who not only help the lead detective, but keep them out of danger and serve as enforcer when needed.

Think of Hawk, the mysterious mercenary and former French Foreign Legion member who’s like a brother to Robert B. Parker’s hard-boiled detective, Spenser. Or Mouse, the raging psychopath and childhood best friend of Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins in Walter Mosley’s books. Or Joe Pike, the strong and silent assistant to Robert Crais’...