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Reed Farrel Coleman

(b.1956)

aka Tony Spinosa

Reed Farrel Coleman, former Executive Vice President of Mystery Writers of America, was Brooklyn born and raised. He is the author of ten novels in three series published under his name and his pen name Tony Spinosa. His sixth novel, The James Deans, won the Shamus, Barry, and Anthony Awards. The novel was further nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, and Gumshoe Awards. Reed is also a published poet, and for several years was a co-editor of the journal Poetry Bone. He was the editor of the short story anthology Hard-boiled Brooklyn. His short stories and essays appear in Wall Street Noir, Mystery Readers Journal, Damn Near Dead, Brooklyn Noir 3, Expletive Deleted, These Guns for Hire, Crime Spree Magazine and several other publications. He lives with his wife and teenage children on New York's Long Island.

Awards: Shamus (2017), Macavity (2010), Barry (2006), Anthony (2006) see all

Genres: Mystery

Series

Dylan Klein
   1. Life Goes Sleeping (1991)
   2. Little Easter (1993)
   3. They Don't Play Stickball in Milwaukee (1997)

Moe Prager
   1. Walking the Perfect Square (2002)
   2. Redemption Street (2004)
   3. The James Deans (2005)
   4. Soul Patch (2007)
   5. Empty Ever After (2008)
   6. Innocent Monster (2010)
   7. Hurt Machine (2011)
   8. Onion Street (2013)
   9. The Hollow Girl (2014)

Joe Serpe Mystery (as by Tony Spinosa)
   1. Hose Monkey (2006)
   2. Gun Bunnies (2007)
   3. The Fourth Victim (2008)

Gulliver Dowd
   1. Dirty Work (2013)
   2. Valentino Pier (2013)
   3. The Boardwalk (2015)
   4. Love and Fear (2016)

Gus Murphy
1. Where It Hurts (2016)
2. What You Break (2017)

Nick Ryan
1. Sleepless City (2023)
2. Blind to Midnight (2024)

Novels

   Tower (2009) (with Ken Bruen)
   Gun Church (2012)
   Bronx Requiem (2012) (with John Roe)

Collections

   Pulp Ink (2011) (with others)
   Short Stack (2019)
   Poetry (2019)

Novellas and Short Stories

   Another Role (2014)
   A Redemption of Bones (2014)
   Accidentally Like a Martyr (2019)
   Baby Pigeons (2019)
   Breakage (2019)
   Due Diligence (2019)
   Feeding the Crocodile (2019)
   The Frog (2019)
   Gobble (2019)
   Jibber Jabber (2019)
   Jump (2019)
   Kaddish (2019)
   Look at Me / Don't Look at Me (2019)
   Magic Bullet (2019) (with Peter Spiegelman)
   Mastermind (2019)
   Portrait of The Killer as a Young Man (2019)
   The Prophet (2019)
   Requiem for Spider (2019)
   Slider (2019)

Anthologies edited

Hardboiled Brooklyn (2006)

Series contributed to

Bibliomysteries / Death Sentences
The Book of Ghosts (2013)

Jesse Stone
   13. Blind Spot (2014)
   14. The Devil Wins (2015)
   15. Debt to Pay (2016)
   16. The Hangman's Sonnet (2017)
   17. Colorblind (2018)
   18. The Bitterest Pill (2019)

Books containing stories by Reed Farrel Coleman

Back in Black (2024)
An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories
(Music and Murder Mystery)
edited by
Don Bruns

Hotel California (2022)
An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories
(Music and Murder Mystery)
edited by
Don Bruns

The Darkling Halls of Ivy (2020)
edited by
Lawrence Block

More books

Awards

	2017 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel : Where It Hurts
	2010 Macavity Award for Best Novel : Tower
	2009 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel : Empty Ever After
	2008 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel : Soul Patch
	2006 Shamus Award for Best Original PI Paperback : The James Deans
	2006 Barry Award for Best Paperback original : The James Deans
	2006 Anthony Award for Best Paperback original : The James Deans

Award nominations

	2018 Shamus Award for Best PI Short Story (nominee) : Breakage
	2017 ITW Award for Best Hardcover Novel (nominee) : Where It Hurts
	2017 Edgar Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Where It Hurts
	2017 Barry Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Where It Hurts
	2017 Anthony Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Where It Hurts
	2015 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel (nominee) : The Hollow Girl
	2015 Barry Award for Best Novel (nominee) : The Hollow Girl
	2014 Macavity Award for Best Mystery Short Story (nominee) : The Terminal
	2014 Edgar Award for Best Short Story (nominee) : The Terminal
	2012 Barry Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Hurt Machine
	2012 Anthony Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Hurt Machine
	2010 Anthony Award for Best Paperback original (nominee) : Tower
	2008 Macavity Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Soul Patch
	2008 Edgar Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Soul Patch
	2008 Barry Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Soul Patch
	2006 Macavity Award for Best Novel (nominee) : The James Deans
	2006 Edgar Award for Best Paperback original (nominee) : The James Deans

Reed Farrel Coleman recommends

Bitterfrost (2025)
(Bitterfrost, book 1)
Bryan Gruley
"Intense, insular, stunning, Bryan Gruley's Bitterfrost exposes the blood and violence churning beneath the ice surface of a tiny northern Michigan town."

The Mailman (2025)
(Mailman, book 1)
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
"Welsh-Huggins' The Mailman delivers heart-pounding action and twists from start to finish. If you like smart, fast-paced writing, and an edge of your seat plot, this is your kind of book."

An Inconvenient Wife (2024)
Karen E Olson
"Step aside Gone Girl, An Inconvenient Wife is the new sheriff in town. Everything old is new again. Olson not only proves it; she improves it."

Sweet Thing (2023)
David Swinson
"As detective and author, Swinson is the genuine article. Sweet Thing is a gritty, heartbreaking exploration of how the streets and the system chew people up and spit them out; some alive, others not, no one unchanged."

Cruz (2022)
Nicolás Ferraro
"Ferraro's Cruz is like an exquisitely crafted blade, beautiful to the eye but deadly effective."

Assassin's Lullaby (2022)
Mark Rubinstein
"Jam-packed with crosses, double-crosses, murders fair and foul, Assassin's Lullaby is anything but sleep inducing. An edge-of-your-seat thriller stretching from Israel to Russia to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, it is a novel both grand in scale and incredibly intimate."

Pignon Scorbion & the Barbershop Detectives (2022)
(Pignon Scorbion, book 1)
Rick Bleiweiss
"Bleiweiss's novel is a worthy addition in the tradition of Conan Doyle and Christie. Holmes and Poirot, please make room for Pignon Scorbion."

Family Business (2021)
(Bill Smith, Lydia Chin, book 14)
S J Rozan
"A master of the PI genre."

The Yards (2021)
(Delia Mariola, book 1)
A F Carter
"A F Carter spins a riveting, must read tale of suspense, murder and retribution."

Tower of Babel (2021)
(Queens Mystery, book 1)
Michael Sears
"Sears's Tower of Babel is a fascinating bit of alchemy brewed of real estate, money, murder and betrayal."

The Vow (2020)
(Black Lotus , book 2)
K'wan
"From page one to the last, K'wan's Black Lotus 2: The Vow is a high-wire act with no net. A smart refiguring of hard-boiled with a nitro injection of new-age sensibilities."

Dead West (2020)
(Nils Shapiro, book 4)
Matt Goldman
"A twisty, unfailingly entertaining trapdoor of a novel."

The Patient (2020)
Jasper DeWitt
"The Patient is a fascinating and frightening read that comes at you like the monster under your bed."

Chasing Jack (2020)
Parnell Hall
"Parnell Hall, a master of the genre, is on fire in Chasing Jack, a bloody, twisty tale set in the tabloid world of night time Manhattan. Required reading for mystery fans."

That Left Turn at Albuquerque (2020)
Scott Phillips
"In That Left Turn at Albuquerque, Phillips displays a master alchemist's touch. No one blends the elements of happenstance, malevolence, unintended consequences, irony and humor into crime fiction magic like Phillips. No one!"

Monkey Justice (2019)
Patricia Abbott
"Patricia Abbott shows a rare and quiet mastery of the form. Any one of the stories is worth the price of admission."

The Last Act (2019)
(Last Act, book 1)
Brad Parks
"With The Last Act, Parks conjures meth, murder, and musical theater into a remarkable turn of crime fiction magic."

The Good Detective (2019)
(Detective P.T. Marsh, book 1)
John McMahon
"In The Good Detective McMahon skillfully blends the old and the new and weaves it into spun gold."

Beyond the Truth (2018)
(John Byron, book 3)
Bruce Robert Coffin
"Superbly realistic, tense, and exciting."

Yesterday's News (2018)
(Clare Carlson Mystery, book 1)
R G Belsky
"Belsky's Yesterday's News elicits all parents' deepest fear--the disappearance of a child. But this intelligent, gripping novel is about so much more: ambition, secrets, and, most shocking of all, truth. Read it."

The Lonely Witness (2018)
William Boyle
"The Lonely Witness is a map of Brooklyn’s genome. Amy Falconetti is that rarest of noir characters, a woman redeemed and a redeemer. Walking in her shoes for only a few blocks is worth the price of admission."

Flight of the Fox (2018)
(Sam Teagarden, book 1)
Gray Basnight
"Basnight’s novel does double duty. It’s both a fast-paced and furious thriller and a thought provoking commentary on a government gone wild. Read it."

A Cold Day in Hell (2018)
(Cold Case Investigation, book 1)
Lissa Marie Redmond
"A Cold Day in Hell is a fine first novel and Lauren Riley is cool new addition to the world of PI and cop protagonists. A retired detective, Lissa Marie Redmond gives it to the reader without the sugarcoating and lifts the veil off how the system really works...or doesn't."

A Map of the Dark (2018)
(Searchers , book 1)
Karen Ellis
"A taut, tense, exciting read with a sharp and very human protagonist."

Beacon Hill (2017)
(Jim Grant Thriller, book 5)
Colin Campbell
"A cop with a sharp eye. keen mind, and a lion's heart."

Give Up the Dead (2017)
(Jay Porter, book 3)
Joe Clifford
"Joe Clifford is an underground star. Give Up The Dead should finally expose his star to the light. Jay Porter is a hard-bitten and hard-boiled loner who manages to make you root for him and all the world's underdogs."

Proving Ground (2017)
(Lourdes Robles, book 1)
Peter Blauner
"Proving Ground is a startlingly powerful tale of lost lives and lost souls with a crackling crime drama at its core."

The Weight of This World (2017)
David Joy
"A beautiful nightmare of lives battered by the forces of serendipity and inevitability."

Splice (2016)
(Finn Teller Corporate Spy, book 4)
Twist Phelan
"Phelan works her magic; a must-read mystery."

Brain Storm (2016)
(Angela Richman, Death Investigator, book 1)
Elaine Viets
"In Brain Storm, Elaine Viets takes a dangerous turn down a dark alley but manages it with panache and a touch of humor. Angela Marie Richman is a kick-ass protagonist who is victimized by the thing we all fear most—our own mortality. This is territory Viets knows well, and she does a nice job of showing the readers the terrain, all while entertaining them."

Cascadia (2016)
H W 'Buzz' Bernard
"Heart pounding."

Murder at the 42nd Street Library (2016)
(42nd Street Library Mystery, book 1)
Con Lehane
"A sly and witty new mystery."

Death on the High Lonesome (2015)
(Sheriff Virgil Dalton Mystery, book 2)
Frank Hayes
"Virgil Dalton is the kind of character that comes along maybe once a decade."

Bull Mountain (2015)
(Bull Mountain, book 1)
Brian Panowich
"Bull Mountain is a stunningly polished debut novel. Panowich s tale of family, of land, of crimes large and small, of right and wrong, is so vivid that the reader can almost see the blood in the soil and smell the violence on the wind."

Absolute Zero Cool (2011)
Declan Burke
"Stop waiting for Godot - he's here. Declan Burke takes the existential dilemma of characters writing themselves and turns it on its ear, and then some. He gives it body and soul; an Irish soul."

The Dead Detective (2010)
(Dead Detective , book 1)
William Heffernan
"The Dead Detective breathes new life into the classic police drama. Jam-packed with strong characters and a powerful plot, this is as fine a book of its genre as I've read in decades."

Death on a Budget (2010)
(Emerson Ward, book 6)
Michael W Sherer
"The budget may have been tight, but Michael W. Sherer cuts no corners with Death on a Budget. Buy this book. It's worth every penny."

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