A Serial Killer in Albany

Michele Leber reviews Frankie Bailey's new crime fiction novel, The Red Queen Dies (2013), in Booklist. Bailey will share the stage with bestselling author Walter Mosley on Feb. 4th.

More about the events: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mosley_bailey14.html

Here's the Booklist review: "In 2019, a serial killer is on the loose in Albany, New York. Two women in their twenties have been murdered by having phenol injected into their hearts, and when Broadway actress Vivian Jessup, known as the Red Queen for her role in Alice in Wonderland, is killed in the same manner, Albany PD detective Hannah McCabe and partner Mike Baxter struggle to connect the dots in what has become an even higher-profile case. In the near future, everyone has an ORB (smartphone successor?), a drug named Lullaby can erase memories of crime victims (but causes a problem when used by a witness), and a threader (blogger successor?) with inside knowledge plagues the police. What has not changed is that crime solving requires hard work and good instincts. McCabe shows she has what it takes to succeed at her work and to win readers. University of Albany criminal justice professor Bailey, author of the Lizzie Stuart mysteries, leaves some intriguing questions unanswered in this strong start to a projected series."

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Walter Mosley Brings Easy Rawlins Back from the Grave

 

Bestselling crime fiction author Walter Mosley, who visits UAlbany this coming Tuesday, 2/4, brings
back his iconic detective "Easy Rawlins," who drove his car over a cliff some years ago, to star in a new mystery novel set in Los Angeles during the heyday of "Flower Power."

More about Mosley's upcoming visit with crime author and UAlbany professor Frankie Bailey: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#walter

R. A. Brooks Sr. has a review in Black Books and Reviews:

"Powered by some weird concoction called Gator’s Blood given to him by good friend and conjure woman Mama Jo, [Rawlins'] latest journey takes him to the Los Angeles hippie culture and community in 1967. It is a world of free love, psychedelic drugs and for the first time since his days as a soldier in World War II France, Rawlins sees a truly color-blind world."

"But once he steps back outside that world, all the demons, evil and racism remain, stronger than ever. There are the racist cops who want to arrest and destroy him, and the racist thugs who want to kill him. And, oh, the black thugs too."

More:  http://blackbooksandreviews.com/little-green-an-easy-rawlins-mystery-by-walter-mosley/

Picture:  Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlins in the movie adaptation of the first mystery in the series, Devil in a Blue Dress.

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New Sci-Fi Mystery Set in Albany in 2019

The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza will host a book launch party for a new futuristic mystery by Frankie Bailey, Professor in the School of Criminal Justice and frequent Writers Institute programming co-conspirator,  Saturday, September 14, 2013, 3 – 5:30 PM (you're invited!).

Here's the Booklist review by Michele Leber, "In 2019, a serial killer is on the loose in Albany, New York. Two women in their twenties have been murdered by having phenol injected into their hearts, and when Broadway actress Vivian Jessup, known as the Red Queen for her role in Alice in Wonderland, is killed in the same manner, Albany PD detective Hannah McCabe and partner Mike Baxter struggle to connect the dots in what has become an even higher-profile case. In the near future, everyone has an ORB (smartphone successor?), a drug named Lullaby can erase memories of crime victims (but causes a problem when used by a witness), and a threader (blogger successor?) with inside knowledge plagues the police. What has not changed is that crime solving requires hard work and good instincts. McCabe shows she has what it takes to succeed at her work and to win readers. University of Albany criminal justice professor Bailey, author of the Lizzie Stuart mysteries, leaves some intriguing questions unanswered in this strong start to a projected series."

There’ll be food, drink, a door prize, and volunteers who have agreed to read scenes from the book.

Book House event link: http://bookhouse.indiebound.com/event/bh-frankie-failey-signs-her-newest-book-red-queen-dies

Frankie Bailey's website: http://www.frankieybailey.com/

Professor Bailey cooked up our Food, Crime, and Justice Film Series which features "The Garden" on October 11th, and Exterminating Angel on November 1, followed by a Q&A with William Kennedy and Donald Faulkner.  More:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html

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Elmore Leonard Returns

Crime novelist Elmore Leonard, who celebrated his 86th birthday last October, and who visited the Writers Institute in 2001, gets reviewed on the front page of Sunday's New York Times Book Review:

"Jazzy prose that occasionally lets go of 'proper usage' is Leonard’s trademark. He’s a stylist of forward motion, placing narrative acceleration above inconveniences like pronouns and helping verbs."

More.

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