And this just in…
Posted in A Hard Death by Jonathan on November 13th, 2009
The prize for First Review of A Hard Death goes to… The Daily Mail! Our heartiest congratulations to them, and my thanks for a great review.
I’m flattered that the critic focuses on Jenner as an emotional character (let’s face it – Jenner’s a bit of a trainwreck). I’m also intrigued that he or she cites the book’s refreshing lack of gore – violence was pretty much the only thing American critics had against Precious Blood.
I have to say that the “too violent” critique didn’t worry me. I don’t want to shock or offend, but I realized, as I was writing A Hard Death, that I write violent. Which isn’t surprising – just as breaking eggs is an unfortunate but necessary step in the omelet-making process, if you’re writing murder…
I didn’t think Precious Blood was particularly violent; rather, the violence was explicit and realistic, but never gratuitous. A Hard Death moves faster, and has a signifcantly higher body count than Precious Blood; it’s plenty violent.
It’ll be interesting to see what other critics think… In the meantime, click here to read the Mail review yourself:
CJdL Design says:
Congrats Jonathan. Here is another one: http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/A_Hard_Death.html
November 13th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Daniel G says:
Hi Jonathan,
In a german TV Guide, there was a coupon for the audiobook of “Precious Blood” at audible.de. Because my new mp3 player plays audiobooks from audible, and commuting to and from university takes about three hours (train, bus, walking), I thought I should give it a try.
And now, after six hours of listening, I ended up buying the book at Amazon.
And I honestly can’t wait for “A Hard Death” to come out in germany. Maybe I should try to read the english version.
Ah, and finally:
Please, keep on writing.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Jonathan says:
Hey, Daniel – I’m glad you liked it!
Everything’s moving forward with the German edition of A HARD DEATH; depending on how quickly the translator works, the book could well be available in Berlin before it can be found in New York.
On another note: good Lord, man! Three hours commuting time? That’s incredible!
I’m working on the next book now; this time, it’s set in Europe.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Daniel G says:
Wow, that’s a fast reply! o.O
But thats good news, I’m really looking forward to it. And Europe as location… Well, it sounds pretty interesting.
Yeah, three hours, it’s sometimes tough. Means getting up at 5 am to catch the train on time. But the town, where the university is, is – well, in the middle of nowhere. I tried to live there, but couldn’t stand it for more than a year. And now I share a little flat with my girlfriend in a town, which is larger and not so “dead” like the other one.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Jonathan says:
One of the good things about living in New York is that everything is walking distance. It takes me about 25 minutes to walk to or from work, which is a real treat.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:52 pm