Thursday, January 9, 2020

Available Now - JOE HANNIBAL P.I.: THE COMPLETE SERIES - VOLUME 1

For the past four or five years I've been writing almost exclusively in the Western genre, much of it contract work that I can't say too much about. Westerns have worked out very good for me. In the first place, I love writing them (who knew that all those years of devouring Western movies and TV shows and the endless hours spent playing “Cowboys and Indians” as a kid would turn out to be a kind of homework that I would tap into as an old man aiming to re-capture some of those adventures with my writing?). Moreover, the Western writing community has been very welcoming and gracious, I've gotten decent reviews and managed to win a few awards, even made some nice money in the process …
But preceding all of that, as many of you know, what first inspired me to try my hand at writing was the hardboiled detective/mystery genre, particularly in the Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer mold. What resulted, first in a series of short stories and then several novels, was my own PI: Joe Hannibal. At first just another Mike Hammer-wannabe, my own blue collar Midwest background bled through into his characterization and gave him a certain distinction that caused a number of readers and reviewers to dub him “a blue collar private eye”. Which was fine by me—I'm very proud of my blue collar roots.
So eight Joe Hannibal novels and a couple dozen short stories appeared over thirty years. Spotty output (I was working a full-time job and raising a family throughout) and getting handed off to several different publishers made sales far from great, even though the critical response was quite positive (6 PWA Shamus Award nominations, an Anthony nomination, and even an Edgar nom—no wins).
So now, here comes Wolfpack Publishing with a re-issue of all the Hannibal novels and one short story “case file” collection, all revised and re-edited in Kindle “book set” editions at the great price of only 99-cents. The first of these, JOE HANNIBAL, PI: THE COMPLETE SERIES – VOLUME ONE, is available now. It includes four novels: Burning Season; Skintight Shroud; Brutal Ballet; and And Flesh And Blood So Cheap. The second set will follow shortly.
If there's enough interest, I'd love to write some more Hannibal stories and books. Joe and I are both definitely a little (okay, a lot) longer in the tooth, but I think we've still got some moves left to entertain readers and kick a few more bad guy asses … Toward that end, I hope you give JOE HANNIBAL, PI: THE COMPLETE SERIES – VOLUME ONE a try, and like it well enough to want more.