How many threads connect the reader to the crime fiction writers that they follow.

Larry was fortunate to have well known crime fiction writer Reed Farrel Coleman to talk about his latest work Sleepless City.  Larry asks Reed how he defines Noir fiction to which he responds “french for black” which brings a chuckle.  Some have called Reed the “crime fiction writers crime fiction writer” and the response is very telling.  Larry posits the question “how important is the cover of a new book to attract a new reader” and folds that question into how an author challenges himself with a character’s development.  The two also discuss Elmore Leonard and how the protagonist in a work is not always the enemy.

After the break, Larry is joined by author Ben Crane, author of the book Man of Lies.  Larry first poses that the feeling he got from the book is a combination of Ozark, The Sting, and Fargo, and the chill he felt when he read the line from the book “nothing I say is the truth, nothing I say is a lie”.  There is a discussion of how the character’s fascination at a young age with illusionists shapes his world, and how the setting of a story is also a character. Larry also explores what the true definition of an “anti hero” can be.