CANR
WORK TITLE: Some Die Nameless
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1960
WEBSITE: http://www.wallacestroby.com/
CITY:
STATE: NJ
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
http://alumknights.rutgers.edu/?p=895#more-895 http://www.wallacestroby.com/writings_abyss.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1960, in Long Branch, NJ; son of William and Inez Stroby.
EDUCATION:Rutgers University, B.A., 1988.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist. Asbury Park Press, NJ, overnight police reporter, beginning 1985, editor; Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ, features editor, 1995-2008.
AWARDS:First Place Awards for review writing, Society of Professional Journalists, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996; awards for editing special sections, Society of Newspaper Design, 2001, 2002.
WRITINGS
Writer of the blog Live at the Heartbreak Lounge. Contributor to publications, including Reader’s Digest, Writer’s Digest, Fangoria, Filmfax, Esquire Japan, and Outre. Contributor to anthologies, including The Highway Kind: Tales of Fast Cars, Desperate Drivers, and Dark Roads and Best American Mystery Stories 2017.
“Crissa Stone” series was optioned for television by Showtime, 2013.
SIDELIGHTS
Wallace Stroby is a journalist whose debut novel, The Barbed-Wire Kiss, features protagonist Harry Rane, a retired New Jersey state policeman with a closet full of demons and ghosts. Two years earlier, Rane’s wife died of cancer. Made careless by his grief, he was shot in the stomach while on duty, which put an end to his fast-track career. Now he broods in his old rural farmhouse, struggling to make it through each day. A telephone call from Bobby, a boyhood friend who seeks his help, turns Harry’s world upside down. Bobby has been dealing drugs on a small scale but tried to score big just once, working with crime boss Eddie Fallon. Bobby’s partner in the deal has run off with their cash, and Bobby now cannot pay Fallon the money for the drugs. Harry agrees to intervene, but he soon learns that the mobster is married to Christina, Harry’s high-school sweetheart, who disappeared from his life while pregnant with their child.
Marilyn Stasio wrote in the New York Times Book Review that in The Barbed-Wire Kiss, “Stroby does wonders with his blue-collar characters.” Chicago Tribune Books reviewer Dick Adler called the book’s action scenes “especially original, set in parts of New Jersey made familiar by The Sopranos but with much of the show-business heat and light deliberately drained out.” “The stage is set for lots of angst and melodrama,” noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer, while a writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer felt that “Stroby controls his material like a veteran.” The same reviewer deemed the book “arresting and powerful,” with “unforgettable and original characters.” “Bullets fly, blood flows, body bags fill,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who added that “all the familiar hardboiled elements are managed competently in this fast-paced debut.”
Harry Rane returns in The Heartbreak Lounge, a story of revenge and murder. Harry, now working as a security guard, gets caught up in the problems of Nikki Ellis, a former dancer at the Heartbreak Lounge in Asbury Park. Johnny Harrow, the father of the baby boy Nikki gave up for adoption, has been released from a Florida prison after serving seven years for attempted murder. Now he wants to find both Nikki and his son and also kill the mob boss who betrayed him.
Stasio called Johnny “an electrifying character” who “presents a genuine challenge for Harry.” Booklist reviewer Frank Sennett felt that “folks who like their protagonists more realistic than heroic will enjoy the refreshing Rane.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted: “When Harrow and Rane go mano a mano in the obligatory showdown, the denouement is bloody, explosive, and deeply satisfying.”
Stroby published his third novel, Gone ’til November, in 2010. Sheriff’s deputy Sara Cross of St. Charles County in Florida arrives to back up her ex-boyfriend and fellow police officer, Billy Flynn, just after he has gunned down an allegedly armed young black man from New Jersey who had tried to flee the scene of a traffic violation. The victim has connections to a contract killer for a narcotics dealer, though, which leads Cross into a multistate crime investigation.
Writing in the Star-Ledger, Vince Cosgrove commented: “Stroby tells his tale swiftly and the action scenes move with cinematic brio. But by the final gunshot, it’s the characters who prove impressive—and make a reader look forward to Stroby’s next book.” Joe Hartlaub, reviewing the novel for Bookreporter.com, wrote that “Stroby truly gets it right,” and added: “If you love noir crime fiction or good, solid literature in general and don’t read this book, then you haven’t kissed the prettiest girl on the block.” In a review for the online magazine January, J. Kingston Pierce observed that the author “is meticulous in entwining his narrative threads here, reaping drama, originality and suspense from what seem at first to be Gone ’til November ‘s familiar themes. But it’s his chief adversarial pair who keep one turning these pages.” Pierce concluded: “Swiftly told but suspenseful, filled with moral choices and a bit of welcome ambiguousness at its end, Gone ’til November is a small story with a hell of a kick.” Booklist contributor Thomas Gaughan called the novel a “rock-solid crime fiction that melds compelling characters, crisp writing, and a finely rendered portrait” of the interior of Florida off the tourist trail. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews agreed that the novel has “a strong cast and energetic storytelling. But it’s Sara, so human and so beset, who makes this another standout for Stroby.”
In Cold Shot to the Heart, Stroby introduces a new protagonist: a professional lawbreaker named Crissa Stone. Stone, wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, is “a world-class thief. She’s learned from the best, but even the best in this chancy vocation is liable to misstep.” However, she miscalculates in an attempt to rob a high-stakes poker game, and a man ends up dead—which violates Crissa’s principles. The dead man’s mobster father-in-law sends a hired killer on Crissa’s trail. “Over the past few years, Stroby has become an author whose books I look out for,” declared Maddy Van Hertbruggen, writing for ReviewingtheEvidence.com. “I found the book to be one that I thoroughly enjoyed. The book is being compared to the best of the Parker books written by Richard Stark … and the comparison is … valid.”
Reviewers particularly praised Stroby’s characterization of Crissa Stone. Stroby depicts her as a woman of strong character with her own sense of morality. “I think it’s less that Crissa wants to live the high life—she has a pretty modest apartment by New York standards—and more that she just wants to live some semblance of a normal life, despite her profession,” Stroby explained in an interview for the Violent World of Parker website. “She has the illusion she can organize her life the way she helps put together a robbery. She wants her dream house in Connecticut, to be reunited with her young daughter—whom she’s given up—and her lover and mentor, who’s in prison. But on one level, she knows all those things are unlikely, because of the choices she’s made.” “I embraced [Crissa],” wrote Eric Edwards in Pop Culture Nerd, “and will be surprised as hell if a strong actress doesn’t grab the movie rights to what I hope will be a long-running series based on this character.”
The backdrop for Kings of Midnight is a real-life heist from New York’s Kennedy Airport in 1978. The novel reprises Crissa Stone, who has concluded that it is time for her to put behind her the criminal life—but she needs one more score to fund her retirement. As luck would have it, ex-mobster Benny Roth appears to provide it. Benny has been in the witness protection program for years. He has gone straight, likes his job, and is happy with Marta. His tranquility comes to a sudden end, however, when an old Mafia crony, Danny Taliferro, tracks him down. Danny believes that Benny knows where mob boss Joey Dio, recently deceased, hid upwards of two million dollars from the notorious heist. On the run from Danny and his band of wise guys, Benny finds Crissa through a mutual friend and recruits her to help him, the two forming an unlikely partnership.
A Publishers Weekly contributor praised Kings of Midnight as “coolly efficient,” citing its “lean storytelling that pauses only for meticulously detailed descriptions of criminals at work or in conflict.” For a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “once again Stroby demonstrates how adept he is at making readers empathize with the essentially unworthy.”
Crissa Stone makes her third appearance in Shoot the Woman First. Detroit drug lord Marquis Johnson runs a slapdash organization that provides Crissa and her two partners, Charlie Glass and Larry Black, with an opportunity to make off with as much as a half million dollars. The heist hits a snag, however, resulting in the deaths of Glass and Black. Crissa heads to Florida, intending to share half the loot with Black’s wife, Claudette, and their six-year-old daughter, Haley. Crissa’s relationship with Claudette is tense, and she is troubled by Claudette’s current boyfriend, a meth addict in major debt to drug dealers. Back in Detroit, Johnson wants his money back, so he hires ruthless and violent ex-cop Frank Burke to track down Crissa, who is forced to put her life in jeopardy to keep Claudette and Haley safe. Burke, whose plan is to keep the money for himself, indicates the significance of the title late in the book: He points out that anyone threatened by a commando group such as the Navy SEALs with a woman among them, like Crissa, should kill the woman first because she has had to work harder and be tougher, smarter, faster, and deadlier than the men to get there in the first place.
Critics were enthusiastic in their response to Shoot the Woman First. Admiring the novel’s style, Jacqueline Cutler wrote on NJ.com that Stroby “delivers the rat-a-tat dialogue that noir novels require. He makes you wish everyone spoke like that. And, he has a great grasp of pace, which is a terrific talent. At no point in the novel does Stroby give the reader a chance to wander off and wonder. You just keep turning pages.” Cutler went on to note: “The years of journalism show in his economy; there’s not an extra word, a wasted thought.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor agreed, remarking that “Crissa’s third is another superior thriller—fast, tough and nasty—without a single extra sentence.” Don Crinklaw, writing in Booklist, noted of the novel that its “shootouts have been staged in many a gangster—and western—tale. But when they’re done as skillfully as this, who cares?” Finally, a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, referring to Crissa and her adversary, Frank Burke, commented: “Stroby nails this taut, gripping contest between well-matched opponents.”
The Devil’s Share finds Crissa working with art collector Emile Cota. Emile has obtained several valuable antiquities in dishonest ways and has been ordered to take them back to the countries from which they came. However, he would much rather sell them. It just so happens there is an interested party that wants to purchase them. Emile hires Crissa to steal the pieces as they are being transported and take them to the person who wants to buy them. Emile’s associate, Randall Hicks, helps her organize the operation. Crissa gathers a team to help her and they practice their maneuvers. When it comes time for them to actually steal the artifacts, everything goes wrong. Members of Crissa’s team are pitted against one another and against her, and Randall vows to eliminate her.
“This taut story has no wasted words, and it packs a singular punch,” asserted Barbara Clark on the BookPage website. A reviewer on the Mystery People website suggested: “Stroby gives a fresh take on the tropes we love with more depth than you might expect. The man knows how to mix his style and substance.” Luan Gaines, a contributor to the Curled Up with a Good Book website, commented: “As expected, Stroby never disappoints, from the setup of an intricate job to the devious complications, usually bloody and often fatal.” Booklist writer Thomas Gaughan remarked: “Stroby’s prose is predictably lean and edgy … and his characters are all well sketched.” A critic in Publishers Weekly described the volume as a “cinematic thriller, which wastes no words and packs a huge punch,” and a Kirkus Reviews contributor opined: “Though Stroby … doesn’t exactly break new ground, readers hungry for an old-fashioned double-strength heist gone wrong could hardly do better.”
In the 2018 standalone novel, Some Die Nameless, a middle-aged former mercenary named Ray Devlin is shocked and confused when an old colleague tries to kill him. His investigation into the matter leads him to Philadelphia, where he meets a reporter named Tracy Quinn. They both become targets for dangerous killers. Stroby discussed the book’s characters in an interview with a contributor to the Mystery People website. He stated: “I was … interested in writing about the lingering effects of war. The main character, Ray Devlin, is a former mercenary haunted by atrocities in which he’d participated. And one of the chief villains, Lukas Dragovic, is an orphan who lost his entire family in the Balkan wars of the early ‘90s, and bore the effects of that. Lukas has a substantial chip on his shoulder, and for good reason.”
“An overly familiar setup … mars this predictable thriller from Stroby,” commented a Publishers Weekly critic. Other assessments of the book were favorable. Fran Wood, reviewer on the Inside-Jersey website, asserted: “Stroby’s thorough homework and penchant for high-voltage action permeate every nook and cranny of Some Die Nameless.” Wood added: “It’s doubtful you’ll find any writer who so candidly and palpably captures a newsroom insider’s view of the downsizing phenomenon and its impact not only on those who work for such institutions but the inevitable consequence of investigative reporting’s erosion on news consumers.” “Stroby has written a delightfully old-fashioned thriller. Devlin has a frailty that many of today’s action thriller protagonists lack,” wrote a contributor to the Crime Fiction Lover website. The same contributor described the book as “a thriller with heart and soul, as well as brawn.” Gaughan, the writer in Booklist, remarked: “Stroby … remains at the top of his game.” Gaughan added: “Stroby’s prose is as lean, clean, and mean as ever.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 15, 2004, Frank Sennett, review of The Heartbreak Lounge, p. 566; December 1, 2009, Thomas Gaughan, review of Gone ’til November, p. 28; November 15, 2010, Don Crinklaw, review of Cold Shot to the Heart, p. 24; November 1, 2013, Don Crinklaw, review of Shoot the Woman First, p. 32; May 15, 2015, Thomas Gaughan, review of The Devil’s Share, p. 27; May 1, 2018, Thomas Gaughan, review of Some Die Nameless, p. 36.
Book World, March 2, 2003, review of The Barbed-Wire Kiss, p. 10.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 23, 2003, review of The Barbed-Wire Kiss.
Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2002, review of The Barbed-Wire Kiss, p. 1739; December 1, 2004, review of The Heartbreak Lounge, p. 1124; January 1, 2010, review of Gone ’til November; December 1, 2010, review of Cold Shot to the Heart; May 1, 2012, review of Kings of Midnight; December 15, 2013, review of Shoot the Woman First; May 1, 2015, review of The Devil’s Share.
Library Journal, February 1, 2003, Rex E. Klett, review of The Barbed-Wire Kiss, p. 121; January 1, 2005, Rex E. Klett, review of The Heartbreak Lounge, p. 84.
New York Times Book Review, February 23, 2003, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Barbed-Wire Kiss, p. 16; February 20, 2005, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Heartbreak Lounge, p. 21.
Publishers Weekly, January 6, 2003, review of The Barbed-Wire Kiss, p. 42; December 6, 2004, review of The Heartbreak Lounge, p. 46; November 2, 2009, review of Gone ’til November, p. 34; May 3, 2010, review of Gone ’til November, p. 54; November 1, 2010, review of Cold Shot to the Heart, p. 28; January 30, 2012, review of Kings of Midnight, p. 35; September 30, 2013, review of Shoot the Woman First, p. 46; May 4, 2015, review of The Devil’s Share, p. 97; May 8, 2018, review of Some Die Nameless, p. 47.
Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), May 26, 2010, Teresa Politano, “Wallace Stroby, Jersey’s No-Frills Crime Writer”; January 17, 2010, Vince Cosgrove, review of Gone ’til November.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), February 23, 2003, Dick Adler, review of The Barbed-Wire Kiss, p. 2; February 20, 2005, Dick Adler, review of The Heartbreak Lounge, p. 2.
ONLINE
BookPage Online, https://bookpage.com/ (July 7, 2015), Barbara Clark, review of The Devil’s Share.
Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (August 12, 2010), Joe Hartlaub, review of Gone ’til November.
Crime Fiction Lover, https://crimefictionlover.com/ (July 14, 2018), review of Some Die Nameless.
Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.curledup.com/ (September 25, 2018), Luan Gaines, review of The Devil’s Share.
Inside-Jersey, https://www.nj.com/ (July 9, 2018), Fran Wood, review of Some Die Nameless.
January, http://januarymagazine.blogspot.com/ (January 22, 2010), J. Kingston Pierce, review of Gone ’til November.
Mystery People, http://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/ (December 31, 2013), “Mystery People Q&A with Wallace Stroby”; (July 17, 2015), review of The Devil’s Share; (July 26, 2018), author interview.
NJ.com, http://www.nj.com/ (December 1, 2013), Jacqueline Cutler, review of Shoot the Woman First.
Pop Culture Nerd, http://popculturenerd.com/ (July 23, 2011), Eric Edwards, review of Cold Shot to the Heart.
ReviewingTheEvidence.com, http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/ (January 1, 2011), Maddy Van Hertbruggen, review of Cold Shot to the Heart.
Violent World of Parker, http://violentworldofparker.com/ (January 22, 2011), “Interview: Wallace Stroby.”
Wallace Stroby website, http://www.wallacestroby.com (September 19, 2018).
Wallace Stroby
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Wallace Stroby (born 1960) is an American crime fiction author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of seven novels, four of which feature Crissa Stone, a female professional thief.
Contents
1
Background
2
Career
3
Crissa Stone novels
4
Television and film
5
Bibliography
6
References
7
External links
Background[edit]
Stroby was born and raised in Monmouth County, New Jersey. He graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Media, and while there wrote for both the Rutgers’ Daily Targum and the Livingston (College) Medium. In 1985, while still a student at Rutgers, he was hired by The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press as the paper’s overnight police reporter. He later became an editor on the paper’s Sunday edition, to which he also contributed book reviews. The Society of Professional Journalists honored him with First Place awards for review writing in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1992. In 1995 he was hired as a Features editor at the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, the state’s largest newspaper. There he won two more First Place SPJ Awards for review writing in 1995 and 1996, as well as three Society of Newspaper Design awards in 2001 and 2002 for editing special sections. He left the paper in 2008.
Career[edit]
In the 1980s and 1990s, Stroby contributed to a number of magazines, including Esquire Japan, Reader’s Digest, Writer’s Digest, Filmfax, Fangoria and Outre. For the 1991 issue of Writer’s Digest, he conducted an extensive interview with author Stephen King about his creative process, the first long-form interview King had done on the subject. The interview has been reprinted many times in at least three languages. King elaborated on many of the points he raised in the interview in his 2000 book ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT.
Stroby’s first novel, THE BARBED-WIRE KISS, published in 2003 by St. Martin’s Press, introduced his hero, an ex-N.J. state trooper named Harry Rane, who becomes entangled with a local mobster and his wife. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly termed the novel “a dazzling debut,” and the Chicago Tribune called it “our annual dose of proof that fresh, new writers can revitalize the mystery genre.” Writing in The New York Times, reviewer Marilyn Stasio said, “Stroby does wonders with his blue-collar characters,” and The Washington Post called the book “a scorching first novel ... full of attention to character and memory and, even more, to the neighborhoods of New Jersey.” The book was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel.
Rane returned in 2005 in Stroby’s second novel, THE HEARTBREAK LOUNGE, which found his hero in a violent confrontation with Johnny Harrow, a murderous ex-con who’d returned to his coastal New Jersey home on a mission of vengeance. Kirkus Reviews called it “a brilliant follow-up to Stroby’s impressive debut” and said, “Harry Rane walks these mean streets perfectly at home with the icons: Spade, Marlowe and Archer.” Reviewing the book for The New York Times, Marilyn Stasio said Stroby writes “with such fierce originality that he rejuvenates genre conventions,” and found Harrow “an electrifying character.” The South Florida Sun-Sentinel termed the book “a tightly plotted fireball of suspense, ” and veteran crime novelist James Crumley called it “the real stuff ... a great pleasure, a crime novel full of fully realized characters - good guys and bad."
In 2005, Stroby’s Jersey Shore-set short story “Lovers in the Cold” was published in the anthology MEETING ACROSS THE RIVER: Stories Inspired by the Haunting Bruce Springsteen Song (Bloomsbury). The following year, his short story “Heart” appeared in the horse racing-themed anthology BLOODLINES (Vintage), edited by Jason Starr and Maggie Estep. That story marked the first appearance of Morgan, an aging enforcer for a brutal Newark. N.J. drug gang with his own code of honor.
In 2010, Morgan returned in Stroby’s stand-alone novel, GONE ‘TIL NOVEMBER, which found him traveling to the rural South to recover $350,000 in missing drug money. He ends up on a collision course with Sara Cross, a single mom and the only female sheriff’s deputy in a small Florida town. The Huffington Post wrote that the novel “puts Stroby in the company of noir masters like Dashiell Hammett and Elmore Leonard.” In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called it “a powerful thriller” that “explores moral choices that leave his devastatingly real characters torn between doing nothing and risking everything.” Novelist and producer George Pelecanos wrote that “Stroby’s mastery of character and dialogue is mated to a hellacious narrative engine. Sara Cross is a wonderful creation.”
In 2017, Stroby's short story "Night Run," which originally appeared in the 2016 anthology THE HIGHWAY KIND: Tales of Fast Cars, Desperate Drivers, and Dark Roads (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown & Co.), was chosen for inclusion in BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2017, edited by Otto Penzler and guest editor John Sandford. Stroby's story was one of the final 20 picked from a field of more than 2,000 entries.
Crissa Stone novels[edit]
In 2011, St. Martin’s Press published Stroby’s COLD SHOT TO THE HEART, the first in his series about a female professional thief named Crissa Stone. This debut novel found Stone on the run after the robbery of a high-stakes card game goes awry. In a starred review, Kirkus called it “Another fast, taut winner from Stroby ... Crissa Stone many be crime fiction’s best bad girl ever.” The reviewer for the Chicago Tribune wrote that the novel “moves at a breakneck speed ... Stroby's sturdy plot is augmented by his intriguing look at how money corrupts and how even a crook can have a moral compass. Fans of Elmore Leonard and George V. Higgins' 'THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE' will find much to like.” The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote “With each novel, Stroby’s demonstrating he’s got the literary muscle to be shelved with the big guys – Elmore Leonard, Jim Thompson and Richard Stark.”
Stroby’s follow-up, 2012’s KINGS OF MIDNIGHT, found Stone joining up with an ex-mobster to search for long-hidden millions from the real-life Lufthansa heist that took place at New York’s Kennedy Airport in 1978. New York magazine called the novel “brilliant,” and the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote that “Stroby has risen to the top of his field. Crissa Stone has become one of the most relatable and likable criminals in contemporary crime fiction... a modern-day hero for an America still recovering from the economic collapse." Kirkus Reviews chose it as one of the Best Books of 2012.
Stone made her third appearance in 2013’s SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST, on the run again, this time with a duffel bag of stolen cash earmarked for the family of a slain partner, with a brutal ex-cop in pursuit. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus both gave the novel Starred Reviews, and The Boston Globe praised its "lean, poetic prose," and said, “For fans of noir, this is among the best of the current breed." Partially set in Detroit, the novel was dedicated to veteran crime novelist Elmore Leonard, who died shortly before it was published.
The fourth Crissa Stone novel, THE DEVIL'S SHARE, was published by St. Martin's Press in July 2015. It dealt with the theft of ancient Iraqi artifacts, and a corrupt art dealer who hires Stone to hijack a truckload of artifacts before they're repatriated to their native land. Publishers Weekly called THE DEVIL'S SHARE "a razor-sharp cinematic thriller which wastes no words and packs a huge punch."
Television and film[edit]
In 2013, the Showtime network optioned the Crissa Stone novels for development as an original series, with a pilot script by Ted Tally, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
Stroby has also written extensively about film noir and American crime films of the 1970s, and continues to host screenings and film festivals. In 2013, he emceed a “Bruce Noir” film festival at the ShowRoom Theater in Asbury Park, N.J., showcasing five film noirs that had influenced the music of Bruce Springsteen. He is also an occasional co-host at the Bryant Park Summer Film Festival in New York CIty.
Bibliography[edit]
1. The Barbed-Wire Kiss (2003, ISBN 0-312-99547-4)
2. The Heartbreak Lounge (2005, ISBN 0-312-93912-4)
3. Gone 'Til November (2010, ISBN 978-0-312-67319-2)
4. Cold Shot to the Heart (2011, ISBN 978-0-312-56025-6)
5. Kings of Midnight (2012, ISBN 978-1-250-00037-8)
6. Shoot the Woman First (2013 ISBN 978-1-250-000385)
7. The Devil's Share (2015 ISBN 978-1-250-065759)
Wallace Stroby is an award-winning journalist and the author of the novels THE DEVIL'S SHARE, SHOOT THE WOMAN FIRST, KINGS OF MIDNIGHT, COLD SHOT TO THE HEART, GONE 'TIL NOVEMBER, THE HEARTBREAK LOUNGE and THE BARBED-WIRE KISS, which was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel. A New Jersey native, he's a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore. For 13 years, he was an editor at The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper. Visit him at www.wallacestroby.com.
QUOTED: "I was ... interested in writing about the lingering effects of war. The main character, Ray Devlin, is a former mercenary haunted by atrocities in which he’d participated. And one of the chief villains, Lukas Dragovic, is an orphan who lost his entire family in the Balkan wars of the early ‘90s, and bore the effects of that. Lukas has a substantial chip on his shoulder, and for good reason."
INTERVIEW WITH WALLACE STROBY
July 26, 2018 mysterypeoplescott1 Comment
We talked with Wallace Stroby about his latest, Some Die Nameless.
MysteryPeople Scott: Some Die Nameless is a bit different from your other work. How did the idea for it come to you?
Wallace Stroby: After the fourth Crissa Stone novel, The Devil’s Share, I decided both she and I needed a break. The end of that book had left her damaged, disillusioned, and on her way to Europe, so it felt like a natural time to do a standalone. I was also interested in writing about the lingering effects of war. The main character, Ray Devlin, is a former mercenary haunted by atrocities in which he’d participated. And one of the chief villains, Lukas Dragovic, is an orphan who lost his entire family in the Balkan wars of the early ‘90s, and bore the effects of that. Lukas has a substantial chip on his shoulder, and for good reason.
MPS: One of the protagonists is a journalist. What did you want to express about your former profession?
WS: I miss it, though the business has changed dramatically – and not for the better – since I left it in 2008, after 23 years. I’d at one point considered pairing Devlin with a female FBI agent, but that seemed too much of a cliche. I realized if I was ever going to write about journalism and newspapers, now was the time. The business has been savaged in the last few years with layoffs, cutbacks and closures. Papers have been gutted by hedge-fund managers, and thousands of journalists have been thrown out of work. Things have only gotten worse since, with a violent attack on a Maryland newsroom in June, and a U.S. president who regularly refers to the free press – a cornerstone of democracy – as “the enemy of the American people.”
MPS: How did you go about constructing a character like Ray Devlin, who could have turned into more of a Jason Bourne type, instead of the more down-to-earth vein you were going for?
WS: I love those types of films and books, but don’t think I could write one. I wanted Devlin to be in his mid-to-late 50s, with physical limitations consistent with his age. He can handle himself in a fight, but not as well as he used to, and the aftereffects last longer. Also, Devlin was never any sort of elite special forces operative. He was just a grunt who left the Army to join a private firm, and whose primary function was to train indigenous forces in basic military tactics.
MPS: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first time you have two protagonists working together. What was that dynamic like for you?
WS: I guess I got tired of writing about isolated loners, and though both Devlin and Tracy are that (Devlin by choice, Tracy not so much), I liked the idea of bringing them together. They each have pieces of the puzzle, without knowing how it all fits together – if it fits together at all. As they figure it out, it puts them both in danger. So they’re wary of each other at first, then drawn together for self-preservation.
MPS: You’ve dealt with political corruption before in your books, but not at this high a level. Were you wanting to explore something about our country’s policies?
WS: I think it was less politics and policies than just the general tone I’m feeling in the country these days. Everyone’s unapologetic-ally on the grift, using their offices to enrich themselves, punish their enemies and reward their friends and investors. Ethics are for losers. It’s disheartening on a daily basis. We left normal in the rear view a long time ago.
MPS: Were there any other books or movies that worked as an inspiration for Some Die Nameless?
WS: I wanted to do something where there was a street-level crime linked to a much-bigger conspiracy, an idea I explored a little in Devil’s Share, where a simple truck hijacking was tied to the looting of Iraqi artifacts. So I had that general concept even before I knew what the plot would be. I also had in mind books like William Goldman’s Marathon Man and Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers, in which everyday crimes – muggings, dope dealing – were actually part of global conspiracies, but only experienced by the characters at the personal levels in which they were involved.
At the same time, there are homages in there to two of my favorite crime writers – John D. MacDonald and James Crumley. Like MacDonald’s Travis McGee, Devlin lives mostly on a boat (though not a houseboat). And in Crumley’s The Last Good Kiss, his detective, C.W. Sughrue, drives a Chevy El Camino. For Devlin, I switched the model to a Ranchero, which was Ford’s version.
MPS: What are you working on next for readers?
WS: Another change of pace. Working on a standalone, a relatively small-scale suspense novel. No title yet. I’ll also have a Crissa Stone short story in an upcoming anthology, At Home in the Dark, edited by Lawrence Block. That should be out at the end of this year or beginning of next. And hopefully at some point she’ll be back in a novel.
Wallace Stroby is an award-winning journalist and the author of eight novels, four of which feature professional thief Crissa Stone, whom Kirkus Reviews named "Crime fiction's best bad girl ever."
A Long Branch, N.J., native, he's a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore. His debut novel THE BARBED-WIRE KISS, which The Washington Post called "a scorching first novel ...full of attention to character and memory and, even more, to the neighborhoods of New Jersey," was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel.
His 2010 novel GONE 'TIL NOVEMBER was picked as a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, as was the second Crissa Stone novel KINGS OF MIDNIGHT. In 2012, the Crissa Stone novels were optioned by Showtime Networks for development.
A graduate of Rutgers University, Stroby was an editor at the Star-Ledger of Newark, Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper, for 13 years.
REPRESENTATION:
Literary: Robin Rue at Writer's House (N.Y.C.): RRue@writershouse.com
Film/TV: Joel Gotler at Intellectual Property Group (L.A.): Joel@ipglm.com
QUOTED: "An overly familiar setup ... mars this predictable thriller from Stroby."
Some Die Nameless
Publishers Weekly. 265.19 (May 7, 2018): p47.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Some Die Nameless
Wallace Stroby. Mulholland, $26 (352p)
ISBN 978-0-316-44020-2
An overly familiar setup--an elite ex-military man attempting to leave his past behind him becomes entangled with a criminal element--mars this predictable thriller from Stroby (The Devil's Share and three other Crissa Stone novels). After a stint as an Army paratrooper, Ray Devlin was part of a mercenary team that worked as security contractors in political hot spots all around the world. Now 54 years old, divorced, and living in a boat off the coast of South Florida, he is almost killed by a former team member he hasn't seen in almost two decades. Attempting to stay alive long enough to find out who is behind the assassination attempt, Devlin follows clues to Philadelphia, where his path intertwines with that of an investigative reporter struggling to keep her job by breaking a story about multiple murders and grand-scale political corruption. Devlin's two-dimensional character is interchangeable with countless similar thriller protagonists, and the story's climax, while satisfying, is unsurprising. Fans will hope for a return to form next time. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Some Die Nameless." Publishers Weekly, 7 May 2018, p. 47. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538858665/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5baae9fa. Accessed 3 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A538858665
QUOTED: "Stroby ... remains at the top of his game."
"Stroby's prose is as lean, clean, and mean as ever."
Some Die Nameless
Thomas Gaughan
Booklist. 114.17 (May 1, 2018): p36.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Some Die Nameless.
By Wallace Stroby.
July 2018. 352p. Little, Brown/Mulholland, $26.99 (9780316440202); paper, $13.99 (9780316440189).
Ray Devlin lives off the grid in Florida, having cut ties with nearly everyone he once knew in the seamy world of private security. So, when Aaron Bell shows up, Devlin is wary-- and his wariness is justified when Bell attempts to kill him. Devlin survives, but Bell doesn't, and Devlin is off to find out who wants him dead. In Philadelphia, newspaper reporter Tracy Quinn's police scanner alerts her to a corpse, a "decomp" just discovered by police. Tracy is smart and driven, and the PD's detectives trust her. But her newspaper is failing. No one knows when the pink slips might be coming. Devlin arrives in Philly to talk with saloon-owner Roark, the only person from his old life whom he trusts. But soon after they talk, Roark and all his customers are murdered. Tracy's decomp has proven to be a South American man living under an assumed name, and soon Tracy and Devlin are both targets and have become uneasy allies. Stroby (The Devil's Share, 2015), who is frequently compared to Elmore Leonard, remains at the top of his game. His sketches of today's newspapers and their financial woes are vividly rendered, as is his take on the sordid business of companies attempting to exploit the idea of "Democracy for Profit." Best of all, Stroby's prose is as lean, clean, and mean as ever.--Thomas Gaughan
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Gaughan, Thomas. "Some Die Nameless." Booklist, 1 May 2018, p. 36. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A539647252/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ddfedf18. Accessed 3 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A539647252
QUOTED: "Stroby has written a delightfully old-fashioned thriller. Devlin has a frailty that many of today’s action thriller protagonists lack."
"a thriller with heart and soul, as well as brawn."
Some Die Nameless
July 14, 2018
Written by RoughJustice
Published in iBook, Kindle, Print, Reviews
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Written by Wallace Stroby — Ray Devlin is a middle-aged ex-mercenary whose deepest wish is to be left alone. He lives in a houseboat in Florida, and has as little as possible to do with his old world. Devlin knows a visit out of the blue from an old colleague spells bad news, but anyway he hears out Bell’s job offer out of politeness before declining. His physical injuries and PTSD make him unfit for that kind of work, and in any case he has long since stopped enjoying the rush that comes from battle.
It turns out Bell’s offer was purely a ruse to put Devlin at ease, since he tries to kill him shortly afterwards. It’s the first of a number of fast, close-quarters fights that happen in the book. Some Die Nameless is populated by tough men inured to violence, and Stroby gives their confrontations a visceral heft. People aren’t just shot – although that happens a lot – they have their bones broken and their faces pummelled.
Devlin knows pretending nothing happened isn’t an option, and so reluctantly heads north to Philadelphia to visit another ex-mercenary known to the pair of them. Roarke, who now runs a Philly bar, hasn’t had any contact with Bell recently, but offers to put Devlin up and help him work out what to do next.
Meanwhile, journalist Tracy Quinn is investigating a murder in downtown Philadelphia. Her ex, Dwight, a married homicide inspector who wants them to get back together, has given her a tip about a corpse found in a factory a month ago. The body has been identified by the criminal database as belonging to Emilio Mata, from the South American republic of San Marcos, but his drivers license has another name on it. It’s enough for Quinn to want to dig deeper. Persuading her boss that the story has legs might be harder. Quinn and her colleagues are being ridden hard in the difficult economic climate for newspapers, and stories that aren’t judged to have the right degree of public interest aren’t followed up. The newsroom scenes feel authentic, and author Wallace Stroby is a journalist. You’ll feel Quinn’s frustration as at first she fights for her story, and later resorts to avoiding her boss in order to carry on working on it.
The link between Devlin and Quinn is Mata. Devlin’s last job as a mercenary was in San Marcos 15 years prior, ushering in democracy via the bullet. Fomenting violent revolution against a left-wing South American government was a risk for the private military contractor then, even if there was tacit approval from Washington. Discovery of their involvement now would be disastrous. The man they helped put in charge has proved to be a brutal dictator, and the company’s ambitions of diversifying into legitimate, and lucrative, government procurement contracts would be toast.
Roarke’s murder – at first glance a botched robbery – the day after Devlin’s arrival, brings them together when Quinn is given the story. Neither really trusts the other, but their own separate investigations eventually lead them to the same target.
Stroby has written a delightfully old-fashioned thriller. Devlin has a frailty that many of today’s action thriller protagonists lack. Reacher and similar characters might shoot somebody from half a mile away or launch into a flying kick, never once seemingly getting out of breath. Devlin knows even if he wins he’ll be puking his guts up for the next half hour. It feels like a long time since I spent company with so many taciturn men who nurse their grudges like their whiskey, and want nothing more than to crawl into a black hole and hide from their flashbacks.
The author, though, is interested in more than just writing an excellent hardboiled throwback. In some excellent scenes with his ex-wife’s new partner, and particularly with his son who is growing up on the other side of the country, the tragic result of Devlin’s inability to face up to his family responsibilities, and to communicate honestly on an emotional level with those he loves, is revealed. The result is a thriller with heart and soul, as well as brawn.
Wallace Stroby is perhaps best known for his Chrissa Stone novels. Have a look at our review of Shoot the Woman First.
Mulholland Books
Print/Kindle/iBook
£9.99
QUOTED: "Stroby's thorough homework and penchant for high-voltage action permeate every nook and cranny of Some Die Nameless."
"It's doubtful you'll find any writer who so candidly and palpably captures a newsroom insider's view of the downsizing phenomenon and its impact not only on those who work for such institutions but the inevitable consequence of investigative reporting's erosion on news consumers."
What Fran's Reading: Wallace Stroby's "Some Die Nameless" (Wow!)
Updated Jul 9; Posted Jul 9
("The Book Browsers," oil painting by Fran Wood)
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By Fran Wood
For NJ.com
If you haven't discovered Wallace Stroby, New Jersey's premier noir novelist, stop what you're doing and head for your local bookstore to pick up "Some Die Nameless" (Mulholland Books, 352 pp., $26). You'll become an instant fan.
A retired mercenary living off the grid in Florida and a Philadelphia crime reporter struggling with new leadership at her downsized newspaper might seem an
unlikely pair of protagonists, but not in the hands of Stroby, who can deftly spin a nail-chewing thriller from dual perspectives.
Following his service as an Army infrantryman, Ray Devlin spent some time as a hired mercenary for a security firm training forces in troubled parts of the world where the US sought regime change. He left the job altogether after being seriously wounded in a roadside IUD explosion in San Marcos (a fictitious South American banana republic purportedly near Venezuela).
Now in his fifties, Devlin's PTSD has destroyed his marriage, and his ex-wife and teen son have moved north. Living in Florida on his 40-year-old refurbished boat, he returns to his Riviera Beach marina slip late one afternoon to find Aaron Bell, a colleague from his mercenary work. Devlin doesn't buy that Bell has tracked him down after two decades just to catch up, and he's right.
Bell proposes a one-shot security gig. Devlin declines but offers to buy him dinner. Bell pulls a gun with the obvious intention of killing him, and the ensuing brutal scuffle ends with Bell dead from a self-inflicted wound.
Devlin's interview with police (after pocketing Bell's notebook) gives them no reason to detain him, but his boat is now a crime scene. He checks into a motel and peruses the notebook, which offers little beyond a Philadelphia phone number. Devlin's immediate concerns are 1) will whoever ordered him killed try to find him through his ex-wife and put her and his son in danger? And 2) does the Philly number belong to another intended target? So he climbs into his truck and heads north.
Enter Tracy Quinn, a hardworking thirtysomething reporter for Philadelphia's Observer newspaper, where the news-gathering mandate has transitioned from investigative articles to quick-and-dirty briefs aimed at revving up online click numbers. Her police contacts have drawn her to the scene of a decomposed body in an abandoned row house. When the dead man is declared a homicide, Quinn's bylined story confirms Devlin's belief he was not the only intended victim.
Working together could be beneficial to each - if Quinn could continue to dodge her new editor who wants her in the office working stories by phone, and Devlin weren't fully aware that his own endangered life means the mere proximity of Quinn will endanger hers.
Then there are the hunters, ruthless men who work for the "security" firm who will stop at nothing to eliminate anyone involved in the organization's previous operations.
These are just the bare bones of this unputdownable novel. Stroby's thorough homework and penchant for high-voltage action permeate every nook and cranny of "Some Die Nameless." Seven previous novels have rendered him a veteran in the thriller genre, but this one further ratchets up his game.
Intense action is a running feature in all Stroby's writing, but this is an altogether different kind of story - albeit crafted with his trademark spare dialogue and spot-on tone.
He's nailed the state of today's newspapers - unsurprising, considering he spent the earlier part of his working career in the industry (including The Star-Ledger). Still, it's doubtful you'll find any writer who so candidly and palpably captures a newsroom insider's view of the downsizing phenomenon and its impact not only on those who work for such institutions but the inevitable consequence of investigative reporting's erosion on news consumers.
Where Stroby's gripping ability to convey tension, evading pursuit and hair-raising confrontation comes from, I couldn't say, but it's convincing to a fault.