Re: RARA-AVIS: Healy-Boston

From: Jeremiah Healy ( jeremiahealy@earthlink.net)
Date: 07 Nov 2001


Everybody,

        First, thanks to all who answered in this string before I was able to return to Boston from Bouchercon, which went off well, especially considering the proximity of the Pentagon geographically and September 11th chronologically. As to the Cuddy books and Boston:

        1) BLUNT DARTS, a Shamus nominee for Best First, is the debut book in the series, set in Metro-West Boston and the downtown area, but with some chapters in the Berkshires. Cuddy searches for the missing son of a judge when the father doesn't seem to want his own child returned to him.

        2) THE STAKED GOAT won the Shamus Award for Best Novel. It is set in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC. Cuddy searches for the killer of a friend of his from the Military Police in Saigon.

        3) SO LIKE SLEEP is set in Metro-West Boston and deals with Cuddy trying to help a black college student accused of killing his white girlfriend in the context of group therapy and hypnosis.

        4) SWAN DIVE, a Shamus nominee, is set in Boston and the North Shore. Cuddy serves as the informal bodyguard for a woman being abused by her husband during divorce proceedings.

        5) YESTERDAY'S NEWS is set on Massachusetts' southern shore near New Bedford and Fall River. Cuddy tries to find the killer of a reporter's confidential source.

        6) RIGHT TO DIE is set in Boston. A law professor crusades for the right to assisted suicide a la Dr. Kevorkian. She receives death threats, and Cuddy tries to figure out who's sending them and why, with a sub-plot of him training for and running the Boston Marathon.

        7) SHALLOW GRAVES, a Shamus nominee, is set in Boston. An Amer-Asian model is killed, apparently as the result of a botched burglary, but her mobster father dragoons Cuddy into finding the killer so the family can take vengeance.

        8) FOURSOME, a Shamus nominee, is set in rural Maine. Cuddy is asked to help a defendant accused of killing three people by cross-bow at a wilderness lake, with a subplot of girl gangs in Boston.

        9) ACT OF GOD is set in Boston. Cuddy looks into the murder of a Holocaust survivor who was part owner of a furniture store and into the disappearance of a secretary from the store a week later.

        10) RESCUE, a Main Selection of the Mystery Guild, is set in Boston, New Hampshire, and the Florida Keys. My own personal favorite in which Cuddy tries to find a boy with a prominent facial birthmark who appears to have been kidnapped.

        11) INVASION OF PRIVACY, a Shamus nominee, is set in Boston and the South Shore. Cuddy is asked by a banker to look into the background of her boyfriend without "invading his privacy."

        12) THE ONLY GOOD LAWYER, a Shamus nominee, is set in Boston. Cuddy tries to determine if an African-American divorce attorney was killed by an irate, bigoted husband from one of his cases.

        13) SPIRAL, a Flamingo Award nominee, is set in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Cuddy tries to determine who killed a provocative, 13-year-old girl who her father was grooming as lead singer to bring his faded, 70's rock band back to the top.

        14) THE CONCISE CUDDY is a collection by Crippen & Landru of roughly the first half of the Cuddy short stories, including three Shamus nominees.

        Legal thrillers:

        1) THE STALKING OF SHEILAH QUINN involves a female criminal defense attorney stalked by the very murder defendant she gets out on bail.

        2) UNCOMMON JUSTICE (under the pseudonym "Terry Devane") features a young, Irish-American female attorney who, disallusioned by large firm practice in Boston, decides to throw in with an older, Jewish male attorney who does mostly criminal defense work. Her first case with him: the defense of a self-anointed Irish "hermit" who is accused of killing another homeless man along the Charles River.

        Upcoming:

        1) Dec, 2001: TURNABOUT, under my name and set on Boston's North Shore, is a stand-alone private-eye thriller about a Vietnam vet asked to undertake a sensitive case while his partner is dipping into client funds.

        2) July, 2001: JUROR NUMBER ELEVEN, under the Devane pseudonym and set in Boston, deals with the defense of a Jewish mobster on the charge that he killed a young Russian boy, bribed a juror, and then killed her as well.

        3) August, 2001: CUDDY PLUS ONE, the second collection of Cuddy stories, including three additional Shamus nominees, from Crippen & Landru.

Good reading and thanks for inviting me to participate,

Jerry

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