Monday, September 25, 2017

Kennealy Savors the Spotlight

In my coverage last week of the 2017 Shamus Award winners, I somehow neglected to mention that 79-year-old author Jerry Kennealy has been honored by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) with its lifetime achievement award, The Eye.

Kennealy, now a resident of San Bruno, California, is a former San Francisco policeman and has worked as a licensed private investigator in the same city. He’s better known nowadays as the writer of the Nick Polo P.I. series. A news release from publisher Down & Out Books explains that Kennealy introduced his protagonist “in 1987 with Polo Solo and followed that entry with nine more over the course of 10 years, two of which—Polo’s Wild Card (1991) and Special Delivery (1993)—were nominated for a Shamus Award for Best Novel. He then went on to write 10 more novels, some thrillers and others featuring P.I.s, but all showcasing his range of talent as a crime novelist.” Kennealy’s latest installment in the Polo series, Polo’s Long Shot, was released earlier this year by Down & Out.

As regards The Eye, Kennealy is quoted in the aforementioned press release as saying: “I have been a movie and music buff all my life, and when I was told that I was to be the recipient of the PWA Life Achievement Award, a Robert De Niro line sprang to my lips: ‘Me? You talkin’ to me?’ … It is truly a humbling experience to have my name added to the list of the prestigious former winners of this award, and I humbly thank all involved.”

Those previous Eye awardees include S.J. Rozan, Ed Gorman, Sara Paretsky, Max Allan Collins, and Stuart M. Kaminsky.

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