A couple of friends from my days in the newsroom, reporter Doug Harlow and photographer Dave Leaming, came by to visit. 
We talked about old crimes and former cronies—a good talk, much of which will never make it to print. Here’s the news that was fit to print.
Press
April 11th, 2011
My past catches up
May 12th, 2010
Three days, three views of Damaged Goods
Stories by an old friend and new ones. I met Bob Keyes from the Maine Sunday Telegram at Arabica coffee shop in Portland. Dan Harrington from the Capitol Weekly and I met at the Chin-ah Dinah in my home town. And Abbie Curtis of the Bangor Daily News and I had a great chat at a coffee shop in Belfast. Her story was interesting.
Dan does a series on Maine icons. I’m not one, but I am absolutely thrilled to be lumped in with Maine legendary boxer Joey Gamache. I mean, is that cool or what? Check it out.
Bob covers the arts for the Portland newspapers. He’s a rock solid reporter and a good guy. Here’s his Q&A.
Abby covers Knox County, Maine. The whole thing. She’s a gamer. Talking with her encouraged me about the future of the newspaper biz.
May 12th, 2010
Farfetched? I don’t think so
In Belfast, Maine (where I’ll be signing DAMAGED GOODS on Friday, 1-3, Mr. Paperback), a reviewer for one of the local papers noted the resemblance between fictional Galway, Maine, and the real Maine mid-coast city named for a city in Northern Ireland. And yes, DAMAGED GOODS does take place in a place that is physically modeled on Belfast, Maine.
But I’ve populated my fictional version with fictional characters, from Jack and Roxanne, to the prostitute who opens up shop on Main Street, to the backwoods Satanist who targets Roxanne, Jack, and their daughter Sophie. The reviewer liked the story but put in one of those smiley things at the notion of a Satanist living in our midst. Those writers and their imaginations!
Is there really a Satanist in the woods around Belfast, Maine. I don’t know. I do know that a white supremacist group was handing out literature just upriver in Bucksport just this week. Good story about it in the Bangor Daily News.
Maybe DAMAGED GOODS isn’t that far off.
May 5th, 2010
207 and DAMAGED GOODS
Had a nice chat last week with Rob Caldwell, “207″ TV host, about DAMAGED GOODS, Jack McMorrow, and why I do this. Talking with Rob is always fun and interesting. Check it out
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April 26th, 2010
Powers of Perception
There are good reviews and bad reviews, cursory ones and some that offer something that the writer hadn’t considered. The latter is the case with a review of DAMAGED GOODS by Beth Kannell, co-owner of (with her husband Dave) Kingdom Books, a specialty mystery bookshop in northeastern Vermont. Kingdom Book is one of those small stores that pack a powerful punch in terms of the love the proprietors have for writing and books.
But back to perception. Beth had some interesting thoughts on Jack and Roxanne in DAMAGED GOODS. But it was her take on their ex-Marine friend Clair that gave me pause.
“Clair’s background as a soldier in Vietnam becomes significant, not just for his ability to take up arms and his willingness to be at Jack’s back or front or whatever it takes, but also for his experience with the personal effects of violence, whether done to you or done by you. Sane and strong, Clair helps Jack maneuver and respond to the chaos around him, showing the best of what war can do to a person’s thought processes.”
What does war do to a person’s thought processes? We hear, justifiably so, about the emotional and physical trauma of combat. But what of the strengths that come from the experience? In Clair’s case, he has become wiser, more philosophical, but also more analytical. When things get tough, as they inevitably do when Jack and Clair get together, Clair becomes calmer, cooler, more collected. It’s a trait honed in the jungles and highlands of Vietnam, when, as a Force Recon Marine, those were essential survival skills. Now the same skills are brought to bear for Jack and Roxanne, their daughter Sophie. The best of what war can do …. Interesting.
February 25th, 2010
A Current Q&A
I was in Biddeford, Maine March 4 to give a talk at McArthur Public Library, Good times!
A pleasant reporter at the paper there asked me a few questions and I answered the best I could, about DAMAGED GOODS, Jack McMorrow’s longevity (we’re both still kicking), an erroneous fact posted about me on Wikipedia. Does anybody check that stuff? Anyway, the resulting Current Publishing Q&A probably has more than you want to know. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.
If you’re in the area, stop in. The library is pretty cool, with a great history. It’s website says, “Robert McArthur (the founder), was an Irish immigrant who had started working in a Rhode Island mill as a bobbin boy at the age of eight.”
Irish. Rhode Island. A mill town. It doesn’t get any better than that. Hope to see you there.
January 25th, 2010
Gerry Boyle Author Page on Amazon.com
Check out my Amazon.com Author Page!
August 26th, 2009
Maine Sunday Telegram Likes Brandon Blake
Brandon Blake (and PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN) got some press last weekend as the Maine Sunday Telegram called the book “one of the best mysteries to come out of the state in recent years.” A nice review by Lloyd Ferris, a newspaper guy who’s also a big fan of Jack McMorrow.
June 30th, 2009
Brandon Blake, act one
A reviewer for the Bangor Daily News weighed in on PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, touching on what is becoming an interesting theme. Dale McGarrigle liked the book, which is great. He also said it was going to be interesting for readers to watch Brandon Blake grow. Exactly.
More than in the Jack McMorrow novels, I have come in early in this protagonist’s life. Brandon is just 21, shaped by an unusual upbringing. But he’s very much a work in progress. Mia is his first love; the collision with Fuller and Kelvin is his first experience with serious bad guys. Interesting to watch him be shaped, seasoned, and scarred by these experiences as well.
With McMorrow I felt I knew him pretty well the first time I typed his name on a page (and I do mean typed, as in on a typewriter). With Brandon, it’s more like I’ve made his acquaintance, understand him as he is today, but will watch like the rest of you as he grows right before our eyes.I think back to when I was 21, ready to take on the world but having little idea of where to begin. Blake’s got me beat in some ways; he’s had to make his way alone for much of his life. I had a sizable support team. But there are some things he’s going to have to learn the hard way.
PORT CITY UNDERGROUND, Brandon Blake’s next story, is in the reseach stage. I expect to begin writing in a couple of months. I’m looking forward to seeing him again. I expect he’ll be a little more mature, that he’ll be figuring out his relationship with Mia–and wrestling in new ways with old demons and some serious new villains.
June 26th, 2009
Portland, Maine, crime fiction hotbed
One night, two crime-novel events, me and James Hayman. Portland was hopping. Blogger Amy Canfield hit both.
Port City Black and White
Brandon Blake No. 2!
After his harrowing adventures in PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, in PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE Brandon has achieved his dream of becoming a rookie cop with the Portland P.D. But it’s a tough job for any cop and Brandon is a rookie—with a beautiful girlfriend waiting on his aging cabin cruiser and some serious baggage. With his mentor Kat at his side, Brandon plunges into a world of drug addicts and homeless, scheming grifters and East End hipsters, trust-funders and immigrants, ambitious entrepreneurs and killers from away. When a baby vanishes from the apartment of his crack-addled mother, Brandon and Kat join the all-out search. As they search for the missing baby they begin to unravel of web of duplicity and deceit.
Want a taste? Read Chapter 1.
What the reviewers are saying:
“Gripping … Boyle’s assured writing and non-cookie-cutter lead are big pluses and portend well for future entries.”—Publishers Weekly
“Boyle’s first Brandon Blake novel (Port City Shakedown, 2009) was well received, and this second installment is compelling and nuanced.”—Booklist
“… a dialogue-driven book sprinkled with diamond-sharp description. Calling it fast-paced is an understatement. This mystery gallops.”—Maine Sunday Telegram
“The Brandon Blake Port City series will be a classic, showing the reality of New England coast life — a mix of myth and painful reality.”—Beth Kanell, Kingdom Books
“Genuine dialogue is the most notable strength in Boyle’s writing.”—Aislinn Sarnacki, Bangor Daily News
“Boyle sure can write and he has earned his praise from the late Robert Parker as ‘the genuine article.’” The Free Press
Purchase PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE
I always ask readers to purchase my books from their local independent bookseller, whenever possible. Purchase through Indiebound.org
Purchase from Down East Books.
Purchase from Amazon.com.
Damaged Goods
“Robert Parker fans who have yet to discover Boyle will be pleasantly surprised by his suspenseful ninth crime novel set in Maine featuring former New York Times reporter Jack McMorrow. … Boyle has succeeded in creating a likable lead whose sense of responsibility is reminiscent of Spenser as well as supporting characters with depth.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“DAMAGED GOODS is so compelling, it’s like literary crack–I simply couldn’t stop reading.”
–Tess Gerritsen, author of THE KEEPSAKE.
“A terrific thriller with terrifically original characters.”
- C.J. Box, Edgar-winning author of NOWHERE TO RUN
I always ask readers to purchase my books from their local independent bookseller. Purchase through indiebound.org
Purchase DAMAGED GOODS from Down East Books
Purchase DAMAGED GOODS from Amazon
Port City Shakedown
In PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, the first Brandon Blake novel, Brandon gets a full dose of bad guys. A brawl in a funeral home introduces him to Joel Fuller, a sociopathic hustler. Fuller is fresh out of jail and determined to take Brandon out—after Fuller and his sidekick Kelvin shake him down.
And if Brandon’s present isn’t enough to contend with, his tragic past comes alive. If his mother died when a yacht went down with all hands, why is one of the presumed-dead crew suddenly walking the streets of Portland? Soon Brandon, and his writer friend Mia, realize that the only thing they know is that nothing is as it seems.
Critics have said good things about my books. For those who like to know such things, here is a random sampling:
“Port City Shakedown is one of the best mysteries to come out of the state in recent years.”—Maine Sunday Telegram
“Brandon Blake is a solid series lead … and we get the impression that Boyle has barely scratched his surface here. … Keep your eyes on this one.”—Booklist
“Boyle keeps the legends of this cold and menacing landscape (Borderline) very much alive.”—The New York Times
“Boyle’s snappy prose stops just short of hard-boiled, letting some poignancy slip into his characters’ plights.”—Publishers Weekly
“The dialogue hums and crackles.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Wonderful supporting characters … superb writing. His feel for small-town new England is almost eerily photographic.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Gerry Boyle is the genuine article.”—Robert B. Parker
“Stunning. … The writing is sharp and evocative.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Features as much sound and fury as a summer movie blockbuster.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Fans of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels will love Jack McMorrow.”—Booklist
“Well-realized, believable characters … unusual and suspenseful.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The author … uses his insider’s knowledge of the newspaper business to give his plot plenty of texture; he also delivers realistic characterizations, diverting subplots and evocative descriptions of rural Maine.”—Publishers Weekly
Home Body
Rocky isn’t a tough guy. He’s a skinny little kid with crooked glasses, and he shouldn’t be homeless in Portland, Maine. When McMorrow and Roxanne pluck him from under the stomping feet of a gang of street kids, Rocky latches onto McMorrow–and drags him into a world of murder, both old and new. Why is McMorrow protecting Rocky? The cops want to know. Why is Rocky on the run? McMorrow wants to know. Why does death follow in Rocky’s wake? Jack and Roxanne need to find out before they’re added to the list. More »
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