Larry D. Sweazy

Larry D. Sweazy's novels include Escape from Hangtown, See Also Murder: A Marjorie Trumaine Mystery, Vengeance at Sundown, The Gila Wars, The Coyote Tracker, The Devil's Bones, The Cougar's Prey, The Badger's Revenge, The Scorpion Trail, and The Rattlesnake Season. He won the WWA (Western Writers of America) Spur award for Best Short Fiction in 2005 and for Best Paperback Original in 2013. He also won the 2011 and 2012 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for books the Josiah Wolfe series. He was nominated for a Derringer award in 2007 (for the short story "See Also Murder"), and was a finalist in the Best Books of Indiana literary competition in 2010. Sweazy was awarded the Best Books in Indiana in 2011 for The Scorpion Trail. And in 2013, he received the inaugural Elmer Kelton Fiction Book of the Year for The Coyote Tracker, presented by the AWA (Academy of Western Artists). Sweazy has published over sixty nonfiction articles and short stories, which have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; The Adventure of the Missing Detective: And 25 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories!; Boys' Life; Hardboiled; Amazon Shorts, and several other publications and anthologies.

Sweazy's new novel is A Thousand Falling Crows.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply:

I’m currently reading A Fine Summer’s Day by Charles Todd. This is an Inspector Ian Rutledge novel, and a prequel to a successful series of mystery novels that I have to admit to not having read. I felt that this new prequel was the best place to start. Charles Todd is actually Charles and Caroline Todd, an American mother-and-son writing team, and I was curious to see if I would be able to tell if the novel had been written by co-authors. Plain and simple, I can’t tell at all. The writing is seamless, and the storytelling top notch.

Quintessentially British, Inspector Rutledge endeavors for Scotland Yard in a thorough and dogged way at the dawn of World War I in this novel. The series, however, takes place after the end of World War II, so there is a lot of experience to be gained and water under bridge between this novel and the series books that come after it. Which, after reading this novel, I will promptly put on my TBR (to be read) pile. As a side note, a friend of mine, who was born and raised in London, said this book was enjoyable and she was surprised to learn that it had been written by a pair of Americans. That in itself was enough of an endorsement for me.

Visit Larry D. Sweazy's website and blog.

Coffee with a Canine: Larry D. Sweazy & Brodi and Sunny (April 2013).

The Page 69 Test: A Thousand Falling Crows.

--Marshal Zeringue