I’ve just posted about THE DETECTIVE UP LATE by Andrian McKinty which Blackstone will publish in early August, 2023.
And there are two other titles from Blackstone which are worthy of our notice.
SLEEPLESS CITY by Reed Farrel Coleman marks the start of a new series featuring a maverick cop in New York City. Nick Ryan is the mayor’s fix-it man.
Plot summary:
When you’re in trouble, you call 911.
When cops are in trouble, they call Nick Ryan.
Every cop in the city knows his name, but no one says it out loud. In fact, they don’t talk about him at all.
He doesn’t wear a uniform, but he is the most powerful cop in New York.
Nick Ryan can find a criminal who’s vanished. Or he can make a key witness disappear.
He has cars, safe houses, money, and weapons hidden all over the city.
He’s the mayor’s private cop, the fixer, the first call when the men and women who protect and serve are in trouble and need protection themselves.
With conflicted loyalties and a divided soul, he’s a veteran cop still fighting his own private war. He’s a soldier of the streets with his own personal code.
But what happens when the man who knows all the city’s secrets becomes a threat to both sides of the law?
SLEEPLESS CITY will be published July 11th.
THE VICAR by A. J. Chambers is a first novel and one that I’m enjoying reading right now.
Plot summary:
Terry Nolan, an off-the-books MI5 operative known as The Vicar, has been officially dead for the past thirty years. But when Nolan is attacked in Boston, it becomes clear his cover is blown. Even worse, his Parishioners – the network of spies who work under The Vicar – have all been compromised.
Nolan races to New York to try and find his last remaining agent, Shae, whom he personally recruited years ago. Instead, he finds Kristen, a young civilian who is determined to save Shae, too – and who may know more than she’s letting on.
In the search for his missing agent, Nolan intercepts intelligence that indicates weapons of mass destruction are on their way to Britain’s four largest cities. Working directly with the ruthless head of MI5, Nolan must call upon all his clandestine skills to save the final Parishioner and find out who is behind the attacks and why. But he’s playing a dangerous game, and the dark secrets of his past are about to catch up with him.
THE VICAR will be published September 19th.
Not everyone is familiar with the name of Blackstone Publishing so what is Blackstone Publishing?
It bills itself as the largest audio book publisher in the U.S. In 2015 it started its own hardback/trade paperback publishing arm. It started with what I would call good but “no name” authors, and slowly over time has added a fair number of “name” authors, such as Dervla McTiernan, Brian Freeman, Adrian McKinty, Marshall Karp, Reed Farrel Coleman, Meg Gardiner, Catherine Ryan Howard, John Altman, Matthew Betley, Jacqueline Bublitz, Will Dean, Lawrence Dudley, Jack Beaumont, Jeffrey Fleishman, Dana Haynes, Joshua Hood, Will Jordan, William Kotzwinkle, Mark Mills, Adam Mitzner, Eric Rickstad, Robert Rotstein, Martyn Waites, Minette Walters, Tim Willocks and Andrews & Wilson. Steve Hamilton signed with them in either 2019 or 2020 so I’m puzzled why we haven’t seen a book from him for several years (except the Janet Evanovich collaboration last year). For more on Blackstone’s history, click here.
Reprints of Gregory Mcdonald, Adrian McKinty, Don Winslow, James Clavell and Michael Crichton also make up a part of its line.
I’m grateful to Blackstone because it was one of the few publishers who consistently sent me books for review during the Pandemic. Thanks for that.