Tuesday, January 22, 2013

False Negative: Where the hell is my newspaper?

I like get a malicious kick out of am scandalized that Joseph Koenig's False Negative has a protagonist who works for the Atlantic City Press and that it  mentions the Philadelphia Bulletin plus at least two newspapers from the Jersey Shore without, however, mentioning  the newspaper I work for. The omission may accurately reflect the time in which the novel is set (the 1950s, possibly though not definitely 1953, if it matters), but I and several colleagues enjoyed it nonetheless.

I'm not sure Koenig ever worked for newspapers, but he writes convincingly about writing, whether for newspapers, novels, or true-crime pulp magazines, and I may be back with more on the novel.

In the meantime, here's an excerpt from False Negative of the Hard Case Crime Web site. False Negative is a newly published book, the first new novel in two decades from the author, who made a splash in crime fiction in the 1980s before dropping from sight. This 2005 article by Sara Weinman makes Koenig out to be a bit of a shit but therefore an interesting character.

© Peter Rozovsky 2013

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4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I give the cover art an A+ (especially as it provides wonderful flashbacks to the good old days of 50s and 60s pb originals. It is all about marketing, isn't it. Get the prospective buyer's attention as he is browsing the racks. This cover does the job.

January 22, 2013  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Yep, nobody pays more attention cover art than Hard Case. This book may be unique in the Hard Case catalogue: It's a new book but set in the period of pulps and paperback originals.

January 22, 2013  
Anonymous Elisabeth said...

What's a newspaper?

January 23, 2013  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Right on!

January 23, 2013  

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