Tuesday, June 26, 2012

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen wins ForeWord Review's 2011 Editor's Choice Prize for Fiction


June 23, 2012─ForeWord Reviews is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Book of the Year Awards and the Independent Publisher of the Year.

At a ceremony today at ALA’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, ForeWord named 209 Book of the Year Award winners in 54 categories. These books, representing the best independently published works from 2011, were selected by a panel of librarian and bookseller judges.

Two books were also named Editor’s Choice Prize winners, a distinction that comes with a $1,500 cash prize. The Editor’s Choice Prize for Fiction was given to The Permanent Press for All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen.
“It’s a rare pleasure to find a protagonist who reads like a literary figure in a thriller,” said editor-in-chief Julie Eakin

Photo: June 23, 2012─ForeWord Reviews is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Book of the Year Awards and the Independent Publisher of the Year.

At a ceremony today at ALA’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, ForeWord named 209 Book of the Year Award winners in 54 categories. These books, representing the best independently published works from 2011, were selected by a panel of librarian and bookseller judges.

Two books were also named Editor’s Choice Prize winners, a distinction that comes with a $1,500 cash prize. The Editor’s Choice Prize for Fiction was given to The Permanent Press for All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen (978-1-57962-222-0).

“It’s a rare pleasure to find a protagonist who reads like a literary figure in a thriller,” said editor-in-chief Julie Eakin

Publisher's Weekly, Starred review of Dead Anyway by Chris Knopf


Knopf, creator of lawyer Jackie Swaitkowski (Ice Cap, etc.) and retired engineer Sam Acquillo (Black Swan, etc.), reaches a new imaginative peak with market researcher Arthur Cathcart in this outstanding revenge novel. One afternoon, Cathcart returns to his Stamford, Conn., home to find his wife, Florencia, sitting in the living room with a man holding a gun. After forcing Florencia to sign a document, the man shoots each of them in the head. Cathcart survives, but is in a coma for months. When he awakes, Cathcart succeeds, with the connivance of his physician sister, in having himself declared dead. As he begins the tortuous rehabilitation process and looks into establishing new identities, Cathcart realizes that it’s almost impossible to go off the grid totally and still be able to function effectively, so he has to compromise in inventive ways. Cathcart ingeniously manages to penetrate the world of hired killers and major crime figures in his quest to discover both the who and the why behind the original hit. (Sept.)

New York Journal of Books reviews Dead Anyway by Chris Knopf



"Dead Anyway is a perfectly rendered murder mystery with enough unpredictable twists and turns to satisfy even the most hardened aficionado of the genre.  
Dry humor is scattered throughout. This offbeat story told in the first-person is executed with faultless page-turner pacing and panache."


To see the full review, go to www.nyjournalofbooks.com

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Kirkus reviews Howard Owen's upcoming novel Oregon Hill


Willie Black is a reporter in Richmond, Va. Pugnacious and defiant, Black was once a star covering politics, and then he was captured by the bottle, messed up one too many times and found himself demoted to the nighttime police beat. He has three ex-wives, a daughter who tolerates him and bean-counter bosses cutting costs by laying off reporters. Then Willie happens to catch a late night report about a body in a river, which is determined to be the decapitated corpse of a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, Isabel Ducharme. Diabolically, Isabel’s head has been shipped to her home in Boston. A suspect is quickly corralled, a sometime-student, sometime-deadbeat named Martin Fell who has a fondness for college girls. There’s a rapid confession. Willie thinks the story’s over, but then he gets a call from his latest ex-wife, now a lawyer, who wants him to meet with Fell’s mother and hear an alibi the police refuse to consider. Nearly all that happens is centered around Oregon Hill, a Richmond neighborhood, “a tight little inbred box” full of factory workers and laborers, fighters and drinkers. Owen’s characters are superbly realistic: Willie himself, sired by a light-skinned African-American musician; his white mother, rejected by family, who turned to serial boyfriends and marijuana; David Junior Shiflett, a police lieutenant whose father was killed in a barroom brawl; Valentine Chadwick IV, the elder Shiflett’s murderer; and Awesome Dude, once a student, now a brain-addled possible witness to Isabell’s murder. Owen knows his setting, his dialogue is spot-on and his grasp of the down-and-dirty work of the police and news reporters lends authenticity to the narrative.  This is Southern literature as expected, with a touch of noir, and with a touch of Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River.

Willie Black deserves a sequel.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Death in a Wine Dark Sea by Lisa King reviewed in Library Journal


San Fransisco real estate mogul Martin Wingo made many enemies during his career, but it was just bad form to throw him overboard at his own wedding. Jean Applequist, wine columnist and good friend of Diane, the bride, finds herself in the middle of a murder case when his corpse washes up. Impetuous Jean quickly enlists the sleuthing help of her best gay friend Roman, who is a martial arts expert, and Zeppo, Martin's young protege. Brilliant Zeppo knows Martin's dark secrets: there's the Eastern European people-smuggling connection, a world-famous author, the ex-wife, and the mistress, and that's just for the openers, and he and Jean appear hell-bent to investigate them all. Mix in Jean's insatiable sex drive and some lively escapades for an eye-popping read that puts the sizzle into romantic suspense. VERDICT: This debut is overstuffed; some of these suspects could have been saved for another book. Still: Sexy? Absolutely. Suspenseful? Ditto. Along with her nonstop action, King manages to make foodies and wine afficfionados drool.

Monday, June 18, 2012

All Cry Chaos nominated for both the 2012 Macavity Award and the 2012 Anthony Award

 June 15, 2012 - The Permanent Press is pleased to announce that All Cry Chaos has been nominated in the Best First Novel category for both the 2012 Macavity Award  and the 2012 Anthony Award. 
 The Macavity award is nominated by and voted on by members and supporters of Mystery Readers International, as well as subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. Winners will be announced at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, in October, in Cleveland, OH this year. The Award will be presented at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Macavity Award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats).
The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. The award is named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America.