Member: Lehane-A-Maniac

Dear Mr. Lehane,



The day was September 20th, 2008.



That was the day my heart was broken.



It began like any other day until I retrieved my issue of EW from my mailbox. I had my kids that day and wasn't able to flip through it until later on that afternoon.



I was excited to see that your latest book was being reviewed and that there was an article about you also. I quickly devoured the review, disagreed with the reviewer even though I hadn't read the book due to the fact I think you could spit on a page and sell it as a hard back and I would sing it's praises from the rooftops.



I will dare to say it now. I am your biggest fan.



I know you don't have a lot of time so I will make this as quickly as possible. I own all your American first editions, some of them more then 1 copy all signed. I have all your books in paperback, multiple copies of each title. Most signed. I have british hardbacks signed by you, ARC's (Advanced Reading Titles) signed. I worked a book store in San Mateo where my boss was at one of the big conventions and had you sign my books stating "If you don't sign these he will quit".



I met you on May 7th, 2003 for your Shutter Island tour in San Mateo. I could barely speak. When I did speak I stumbled and stuttered. I was in the presence of my hero.



My literary God.



When I read the article. Done Baby Done. My heart broke.



You talked about your Patrick and Angie books like they were worthless. Without Patrick and Angie you would still be a struggling writer in Boston trying to make it big. You could care less? What about the fans that did care? What about the fans that bought the Kenzie/Gennaro books? Are they worthless too?



Kenzie and Gennaro made you who you are today. You owe them the same respect you would want your fans to show you. I'm ok with you never writing one again, but don't spit in their faces. You may as well have spit in mine.



Remember who you are. Remember where you came from.



I still treasure your books and my photo of us together. It hangs on my wall above my desk. Where I write and wanted to be like my hero.



Sadly, my hero has fallen.

posted by Lehane-A-Maniac at 7:11 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2009

Heya-just realized that you "interesting-d" my library sometime last year.

We def. have a lot of overlap in the noir/mystery/thriller space (where I roughly assume that if you have a lot of a given author's books -- coben, crais, etc -- you liked him or her, and if you only have one book/zero books, that means you're not a fan/haven't read any yet.

Some authors that didn't pop up on your list last I checked:

1.joe lansdale
-he's been all over the map, genre-wise, but does some excellent Southern noir/gothic writing -- "A Fine Dark Line" and "The Bottoms" are great to start with.

2.charlie huston
Another author who's done all kinds of stuff -- but if you start w/his Hank Thompson Trilogy -- you'll get a gritty, depressing but excellent noir experience.

* Caught Stealing (2004)
* Six Bad Things (2005)
* A Dangerous Man (2006)

3.cornelia read
-Hard to categorize -- preppy noir, perhaps? both of her books are highly enjoyable, even if her debut novel can be a bit predictable at times.

4.tana french
-very reflective and thoughtful -- a lot of reviewers hated the open-endedness to both of her books (both set in the same universe), but I'm not sure that that was a weak point

5.I saw you had a single Martha Grimes novel on your list -- in a radical departure from her British procedurals, she's more recently written
"Biting the Moon and "Dakota."

posted by cellardoor at 7:32 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

Hi, Thanks for the add as an interesting library and the friend request. I'm sorry I've been so slow in responding, it seems like the past month has been spent mostly preparing to leave town for a couple of weeks, being out of town and trying to get my life back into some semblance of normalcy when we got home! Yikes, we share a lot of books, we must both be people of good taste! I noticed that you seem to really like series, as do I! Have you read any of John Dunning's "Bookman" series? I thought they were all pretty good. The main character sort of reminds me of the Lucas Davenport character in John Sandford books, except he's a book geek like us.

Thanks again, hope you're doing well,
Regards,
Kelly

posted by NovelBookworm at 8:53 am (EST) on Jul 25, 2008