Hi,
First, I want to thank my US publisher, Soho Press, and the Australia Council for the Arts, for awarding Soho a travel grant to enable me to visit the States to promote the publication of my fifth Inspector Challis and Sergeant Destry crime novel, Blood Moon.
And I want to thank the many fine bookshops, including Seattle's finest mystery bookshop, for hosting my talks and signings. I've been aware of a growing US readership and it's great to meet local readers and writers in the States at last.
I've written over 40 books, mostly fiction: "literary", crime and children's/Young Adult novels, together with texbooks, short story collections, anthologies and how-to books on creative writing. But my first love is crime fiction.
I started with the six Wyatt novels, which are caper novels driven by the question: "Will he get away with it?" (namely, rob a bank, hit a payroll van, etc etc). They were fun to write, and I'm aware how popular they were in the US, where the Australian edition was distributed. They are all now out of print, but fans will be pleased to know that #7, Dirty Old Town, is coming out in early 2010 in Australia, via Text Publishing, who will also slowly release the back issues of the first 6, and I hope they can sell the rights to the US.
Meanwhile, I'm here promoting the police procedurals that I wrote after the Wyatts. The fifth is Blood Moon. The fourth, Chain of Evidence, won best crime novel of the year in Australia, and was one of Kirkus Reviews best books of the year in the States. The series is also best-selling in Germany, where I've made two author tours.
The series features Inspector Challis and Sergeant Ellen Destry, who investigate murders and other serious crimes, but also takes in the day to day activities of the uniformed police. The setting is the Melbourne Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne, a beautiful area, green and mild (certainly not the outback), populated by the very rich and the very poor, which gives rise to social tension, which I also like to explore as a back drop.
Hope you like the books, and thanks for having me in the States,
Garry Disher
visit Garry's Blog: http://garrydisher.wordpress.com/
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