Piccirilli’s Passing

I am very sorry to hear that Tom Piccirilli--the Colorado author of such novels as The Cold Spot (2008), The Last Kind Words (2012), and What Makes You Die (2013)--passed away today at age 50 following a years-long battle with brain cancer.

“Over the last twenty years, Piccirilli has written in virtually every genre with the exception of hard sci-fi, but in the last decade, his voice has come to full maturity within crime fiction,” fellow writer Keith Rawson wrote in Lit Reactor, introducing his 2013 interview with Piccirilli. “His dark, at times poetic novels of lowlifes existing in the shadows of American life have consistently ranked as the very best being written in the genre.” Wikipedia adds that Piccirilli “was a two-time winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for ‘Best Paperback Original’ (2008, 2010). He is a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award. He was also a finalist for the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award given by the Mystery Writers of America, a final nominee for the Fantasy Award, and he won the first Bram Stoker Award given in the category of ‘Best Poetry Collection.’”

On Piccirilli’s Facebook page, his wife, Michelle Scalise, wrote that “He was the love of my life, an amazing writer and the best person I have ever known.” I can only offer Piccirilli’s family my best wishes at this painful time.

(Hat tip to Ed Gorman.)

READ MORE: “Interview with Tom Piccirilli,” by Cullen Gallagher (Pulp Serenade); “The Legacy of Tom Piccirilli,” by Ben Lelievre (Dead End Follies); “A Few Kind Words,” by Jedidiah Ayres (Hardboiled Wonderland).