Praise
for The Last Jew Standing:
“A splendid crime thriller!”
—Jewish Literary Review
“Outlandish and highly entertaining.”
—Austin American Statesman
“The fourth excellent offering from lit noir master Michael Simon.”
—Texas Monthly
“The
Last Jew Standing is a terrific detective story,
smart, dark, and acidly funny. A wonderful read!”
—Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland and
Striver's Row
“The
Last Jew Standing is a great rollicking yarn about
good guys and
bad guys in many splendid shades of gray. It is also
a brilliant exploration of
the complex ties of family and the price we pay for
love, and for loyalty.
This is a crime story that transcends any bounds of
genre.
Michael Simon is a literary force to be reckoned with.”
—Thomas Kelly, author of Empire Rising
“The Last Jew Standing is one of the
few crime novels of the past decade by a relatively
new writer that I've felt is a must-read. Gritty,
dirty and
violent, The Last Jew Standing brings to life
characters I don't think I will
ever forget. Some are heartbreakingly sad. Some are
shockingly selfish and violent and others wander through
life improvising with the creativity of the desperate.
Michael Simon is a masterful teller of tales that made
me care.
Don't miss this author who may remind you of James Ellroy
or
George V. Higgins or even Don Winslow, but is uniquely
his very arrestable self.”
—Stuart M. Kaminsky
“In his trademark neat, almost noir prose, Simon perfectly conveys the
dilemmas
facing a perpetual outsider determined to do the right thing.
His hero is subtly drawn, his problems plausible and his colleagues are
smart renderings. A graceful thriller.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Fast,
furious and anarchic!”
—Booklist
Praise
for Little Faith:
“Michael
Simon is one of the most brilliant
voices in crime fiction today.”
—Bookreporter.com
“Tightly
plotted, pithily phrased, and memorably cast, Little
Faith sizzles with anger at hypocrisy as usual.”
—Booklist
“Michael
Simon takes a hard-hitting look at police corruption and its
effect on honest cops in this multi-layered mystery. Rich in detail, the story contains strong sub-plots that explain
the main characters while exposing the flaws of a political
system ruled by business and religious interests.”
—Mystery
Scene magazine
“Little
Faith is an intricate tale of police corruption, political
manipulation and the attempts of a few reasonably honest cops
to work within the system ... all in an urban setting rife
with drugs, mayhem, rape, incest, murder and just about every
other criminal activity you can think of with a gusto that
makes
for fascinating reading.”
—I
Love a Mystery newsletter
“I
loved this book. The
third and best yet in an already impressive series, it's brave,
smart, intense, and human—just like lead character Dan
Reles,
and author Michael Simon.”
—Lee
Child, author of ONE SHOT
“Michael Simon's LITTLE FAITH is a searing
novel about crimes both public and private, crafted with razor-sharp
prose, driven at a breakneck pace by
memorable characters
fighting their own demons of
family and
faith gone wrong.
Be prepared to read
until dawn—
this thriller delivers, on every level.”
—Jeff Abbott,
author of FEAR
“Michael
Simon, coming off two
impressive and chilling novels, doesn't miss a beat in the third Dan Reles thriller. Simon clearly has an eye
and ear for Texas, along with the darkest places of the human
soul, and readers should
have
total faith in the results.”
—Tim Dorsey, author of THE BIG BAMBOO
Praise
for Body Scissors:
“[A]
work so gritty you'll want to scrub your hands with pumice
after putting it down... Simon doesn't waste a syllable—things
keep moving until, literally, the very last sentence... If
Simon keeps it up, he'll have his fans slumming with [James]
Ellroy as they wait for the latest Reles tale.”
—Austin American Statesman
“Simon
captures the dark side of a city being whipsawed by construction
booms and oil busts, and distinctions between good and evil
fade to an undefined gray in [Detective Dan] Reles's world-weary,
cynical eyes.”
—Texas Monthly
“Gritty,
jumpy and absorbing.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A
worthy sequel ... the well-depicted setting, the fast pace,
evocative atmosphere and believable dialogue hold the reader's
attention throughout.”
—Publisher's Weekly
“Simon
indicts misery's profiteers—dealers, developers, and
politicians—
with an infectious indignation.”
—Booklist
“Body
Scissors is the toughest, most powerful police writing
since Joseph Wambaugh.”
—Beyond the Badge magazine
“Simon
writes like a angel sitting in a blackened room
full of spiders.
Highly recommended.”
—Book Reporter.com
“[An]
admirable eye for detail and his sharp ear for the way
people
on all sides of the crime line talk.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Exposes
the ills of a nation gone amok.”
—Washington Post
“Fast
paced and suspenseful from start to finish, Body Scissors is as big-hearted as Texas and
just as violent. Don't ever miss the opportunity
to read a Reles story.”
—Rocky Mountain News
Praise
for Dirty Sally:
“One
of the Top Ten Thrillers
and Mysteries of 2004!”
—Amazon.com
“Dirty
Sally is really good, and so is Michael Simon. He's so
good, in fact, that I'm already
starting to resent him.”
—Robert B. Parker,
Author of the Spenser Novels
“Dirty
Sally is my kind of novel—tough, dark and gritty.
Michael Simon's prose is as riveting as his characters. His
Austin homicide squad takes me back to
Los Angeles in the
'50's—lawless
and dangerous, especially to cops.”
—James Ellroy,
Author of L.A. Confidential
“Michael
Simon has created an authentic noir landscape and peopled
it with equally authentic characters—tarnished cops
and
haunted hookers, trapped in sleaze and longing for redemption.
The pace is fast, the dialogue crackles,
and Dirty Sally is an absolute pleasure.”
—Barry Eisler,
Author of Rain Fall
“A
great story superbly told, the writing as taut and gritty
as anything in modern crime fiction... DIRTY SALLY may be the finest crime-novel debut since Dennis Lehane's
"A Drink Before the War" in 1994... The story unfolds
at a torrid pace, the violence explosive and graphic, the
characters twisted by aberrant pasts that haunt their dreams
and shape their actions.”
—Associated Press
“Full-throttle
detective noir... Simon's writing crackles with smarts and
throbs with suspense. There's nothing tentative
about this explosive debut novel.”
—Texas Monthly
“Promising
debut thriller... Simon is not one to disappoint thriller
aficionados. He speeds [Detective Dan] Reles through the case--and
through a grimy, crack-ravaged Austin that Dubya and Laura
surely didn't promote... Simon brings it all in at 240 pages,
at no loss to characterization (sharp), plotting (canny),
or sense of place (palpable)... Sure to return, Simon and
Reles are two to watch.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Gripping,
brutal stuff, with a freight-train plot that
roars to a jump-the-tracks
ending.”
—Booklist
“A
stylish noir thriller... Simon challenges the reader with
myriad sharp asides that seem unrelated but ultimately fit
neatly together. Watching them fall into place is one of the
chief pleasures of the book, along with Simon's lean
sensual
prose. This is a great read and promising series kickoff.”
—Publishers Weekly
Return
to Top
|