Willie Black goes to Italy

The first Willie Black mystery, Oregon Hill, winner of the Dashiell Hammett Prize in 2012, was launched in Italy in November (NN Editore). The second one, The Philadelphia Quarry, will come out it Italian next year. In the meantime, Willie Black No. 10, Jordan's Branch, launches in the U.S. (Permanent Press) in February or early March. And, I've done the first draft on the one after that, which I'm excited about. It is set in Richmond in 2020, with Black Lives Matter, toppled monuments and the pandemic as the backdrop. In the midst of a pandemic, what are you going to do except write, right?

The next Willie Black mystery, Belle Isle, comes out this month. It was supposed to launch in May, but the publisher wanted to wait until the pandemic had passed. Well, that didn't happen, but Belle Isle is out anyhow. Promoting a book these days is a little different. I'm doing a couple of virtual book talks and one live one, socially distanced. And, it's on Kindle and as an audio book and on Audible, and somebody's doing the Willie Black books in Italian. The next one, Jordan's Branch, will come out in 2021, which has got to be a better year than this.