Reed Farrel Coleman

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times-bestselling author of thirty-one novels—including six in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series—short stories, poetry, and essays.

In addition to his acclaimed series characters, Moe Prager and Gus Murphy, he has written the stand-alone novel Gun Church and collaborated with decorated Irish crime writer Ken Bruen on the novel Tower.

Coleman is a four time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories: Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Short Story. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards.

With their kids moved away to far off Brooklyn, Coleman, his wife Rosanne, and their cats live in the wilds of Suffolk County on Long Island.

His new Nick Ryan novel is Blind to Midnight.

Recently I asked the author about what I'm reading. Coleman's reply:

During the course of my career—my first novel was published in 1991—reading has become, much to my regret, more of a chore and less of a pleasure. It can be an occupational hazard for a genre writer as you know the shorthand and can see what the person behind the curtain is doing to manipulate the reader. That combined with reading for blurbs kind of took it all out of me. During the pandemic I developed a bad case of “Reader Block” and found I had energy only to write. It’s eased somewhat, but in its wake I have found that I now want to read only high quality stuff from writers I love. I say this so you can understand why I’m mentioning the books I’m about to discuss.

Currently, I’m reading The Murder of Mr. Ma by SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee. SJ’s always been a favorite and the setting is 1920s London. It is a fascinating Sherlock Holmes-ian style novel that shines a light on ugly anti-Asian racism. And any book that begins with Bertrand Russell playing a big part’s got me.

New on my list is Still Waters by Matt Goldman. Matt, a former TV comedy writer, is great at setting up readers with premises that grab you immediately and don’t let go. I can’t wait to dig in.

After Matt, I’ve got some of my favorites to reread. In that queue are: Berlin Noir by the late great Philip Kerr, A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Larry Block, and The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell. I can’t bear to reread my older works, but works by the masters are always the way to go.

Visit Reed Farrel Coleman's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Hollow Girl.

The Page 69 Test: Where It Hurts.

The Page 69 Test: What You Break.

My Book, The Movie: Sleepless City.

Q&A with Reed Farrel Coleman.

The Page 69 Test: Sleepless City.

--Marshal Zeringue