Sunday, August 30, 2015

Bouchercon finds room for me

The official schedule for Bouchercon (Raleigh, NC) has been announced.  I am delighted to be on two panels, both for anthologies in which I have stories.



Friday, October 9.  10 AM. Jewish Noir.

Saturday, 10:30 AM Murder Under the Oaks Anthology.  (This is the official B-con anthology, with profits going to libraries.  There will be a signing immediately so  people who buy copies can get them scribbled on by most of the  authors. )

Friday, August 28, 2015

GREENFELLAS hits Seattle

I will be signing my new novel at the Seattle Mystery Bookshop on Saturday, September 5th, 3-4 PM.  There will be cookies!


Tuesday, August 18, 2015

GREENFELLAS at The First Two Pages

B.K. Stevens was kind enough to let me talk today about the beginning of my new novel are at her wonderful website The First Two Pages.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

I am Distinguished

David J Montgomery was kind enough to point out that I made the list of Other Distinguished Mystery Stories in the BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF 2015, edited by James Patterson and Otto Penzler.  It was for "The Accessory," which appeared in EQMM. 

Last time I made a similar list was Edward D. Hoch's in 1982.  It is good to be distinguished again.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Reading GREENFELLAS at Village Books, Sept 3.

I will be doing my first reading from GREENFELLAS at Village Books in Bellingham, 7 PM on Thursday, September 3.  I wrote here about getting ready.  I'm excited!

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

JEWISH NOIR is available for pre-ordering!

And it features my story "Nachshon," along with a bunch of newbies like Marge Piercy, Harlan Ellison, SJ Rozan...  Order it here.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

GREENFELLAS reviewed in Hitchcock's!


Jackie Sherbow, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine:

"What do you expect when you pick up a novel about New Jersey mobsters?  Robert Lopresti's GREENFELLAS (Oak Tree Books, $17.95) has plenty of genre motifs, but it's the unusual characters, vistas, and twists that will surprise and amuse the reader.

"Legendary Sal 'the Screwdriver' Caetano is vying for the spot as head of the Napolito crime family after the impending demise of the current patriarch.  Sal, a widower, is 'even among Sicilians of his generation...a sentimental type' (despite his growing hit list and well-earned reputation).  After his daughter gives birth, Sal is struck with a crisis of conscience during his grandfatherly celebrations when a news report about the dangers of climate change interrupts musings about his granddaughter's bright future.  He enlists some experts and makes going green his first priority.

"Although Sal has always been known as forward thinking, the reactions to his new passion are mixed, to say the least.  While he tries to convince his compatriots of the cause and gather outside allies, changes in leadership and wavering alliances threaten.

"GREENFELLAS features a colorful host of secondary characters, including a computer geek with a belated realization as to who's payroll he's on, a squirmy double agent known to both sides as a seperate type of vermin, a Battlestar Gallactica-watching second in command, and a feminist rival borgata boss, among others up and down the mafia, law-enforcement and political hierarchy.   The chosen settings are equally quirky: A tense conversation occurs while overlooking a field of brightly clad yoga enthusiasts and a climax of the story hits at a picnic.

"Lopresti's multiple-viewpoint storytelling is peppered with clever juxtapositions and puns, but amidst the humorous aspects the characters also deal with betrayal, loss, and hope for the future. 'Caetano looked mostly like a successful small businessman who had been working too hard and had too much on his mind,' one character observes -- and, as the reader will realize, he is.  This idea is the heart of the book, which raises questions about morality both inside and outside the law.  The characters populating Lopresti's world are progressive and open in one instance, and closed off and ignorant in another.  They're shaking hands one moment, and shooting a gun the next.  They're human.

"In GREENFELLAS, Lopresti defies the reader's expectations in a contemporary way, and the result is a fun and suspenseful read."