CHRISTINE BOYER In Person With Paul

CHRISTINE BOYER chats to Paul about her noir crime debut Black Maria, the American dream, honing style, short story v novel, psychogeography, regional fiction.

BLACK MARIA: Business magnate Thomas Farney and Detective Felix Kosmatka both want the same thing: to catch the monster who brutally murdered Farney's young grandson.
Thomas, brutal and savvy, didn't become wealthy by playing by the rules or kowtowing to authority. Felix, smart but green, still believes in the integrity of law and order...and he believes solving this case may be his ticket out of his dying hometown.
Felix must team up with seasoned detective Adam Shaffer to hunt the killer. Their investigation leads them into the past-when Thomas and his coal company owned the town, and when the riches beneath the surface belonged to anyone ruthless enough to claim them. Thomas made a multitude of enemies in those lawless days, and perhaps a few followed him into the present to exact their revenge.
Set in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt in the 1970's, Felix's faith in his institutions is shaken when the killer reveals a difficult truth: the rich and powerful rarely pay for their own sins, and vengeance can sometimes look uncomfortably like justice.

Christine Boyer's writing has been honored in both the Best American Mystery and Suspense anthology (Distinguished Mystery and Suspense of 2022) and the Best American Essays anthology (Notable Essays of 2020). Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and literary journals, including Jacked: A Crime Fiction Anthology, Weren't Another Other Way to Be: Outlaw Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Waylon Jennings, FOLIO, Little Patuxent Review, and Tahoma Literary Review. Black Maria is her first novel. Originally from Pennsylvania, Christine now lives in Massachusetts.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time

Produced by Junkyard Dog

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