More Large Books from Smaller Houses

I’ve been talking recently about the importance of smaller houses to the crime-fiction publishing scene. Here are two more current examples of books which deserve wide attention.

Keep It Real, published by Bleak House and one of Sarah Weinman’s picks these days, is a debut novel by Bill Bryan, a television writer who claims he has “stolen vast sums from all the major media companies.” It’s about a TV veteran who is reduced to producing a reality show called The Mogul, and winds up investigating a crime using that genre’s techniques.

Imagine Kafka crossed with Woody Allen and you’ll begin to see why Pushcart Prize-winning writer Jack Pendarvis’ stories are so highly praised. The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure, from MacAdam/Cage, is a collection of stories as funny as they are weird.

Let’s hear it for the little guys ...