MIXED BLOOD named among the best books of 2009:
Dave Zeltserman @ Flashlight Worthy
Alan Cranis @ Bookgasm
Deadly Pleasures Magazine (a best first novel)
Titel Magazine (Germany)
Antje Deistler WDR2 (German public radio)
SonntagsZeitung (Switzerland)
NEWS FLASHES
Mixed Blood #1 crime novel of 2009 in Germany (more ...)
The German translation of Mixed Blood wins German Thriller Award 2010 (more ...)
German translation of Wake Up Dead announced
German Book tour 2010 details
Variety, Hollywood Reporter & Screen International write that Phillip Noyce is on board to direct the Mixed Blood movie. Rights optioned by GreeneStreet Films (NYC) with Samuel L. Jackson attached to star and Kelly Masterson adapting
Rights to Mixed Blood & Wake Up Dead (published in the U.S. by Henry Holt & Co) sell to the U.K., Germany, Japan & Italy (more ...)
Mixed Blood is featured on the PBS Masterpiece Mystery: Spotlight on World Mysteries website.
"SMITH IS CHARLES WILLEFORD VIA JAMES ELLROY – PROOF THAT NOIR IS ALIVE AND FLOURISHING." KEN BRUEN – THE GUARDS & LONDON BOULEVARD
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WAKE UP DEAD
"[A] stellar thriller. Bad choices, not bad luck, drive human depravity in this brutal fable. One fundamental irony unforgettably lingers: that these characters, trapped in poverty, ignorance, and prejudice, have really had no choice at all." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"From the terrific first sentence, the reader is firmly hooked in this dark South
African thriller of murder, drugs, corruption, and revenge . . . with bizarre characters
Elmore Leonard might appreciate and an intricate plot of tangled relationships across
racial divides. Highly recommended for those wanting their noir as hard-
"An intricate Robert Altman–like narrative that, when the pieces finally connect, forms a terrifying portrait of the Cape Flats. [A] searing vision of characters trapped in a fetid purgatory." Kirkus Reviews
"Racial tension, gang warfare, prison life, and witchcraft – with a nod to cannibalism
– will make this thriller a prime destination for readers who like to detour from
crime-
“If you are a fan of George Pelecanos or Dennis Lehane, give Roger Smith a close look.” Bruce Tierney – BookPage
“Relentless. Breathtakingly tense.” KÜS Magazine (Germany)
“The comparison to Elmore Leonard is apt (Smith shares not only the amorality, but also the convincingly twisted plotting of that master of the crime novel). Wake Up Dead is one of the most violent books I've read in recent months, but also one of the most compulsively readable.” Glenn Harper – International Noir Fiction
“The novel's flashbacks, narrative asides and occasional political jabs, even the inflections of its characters' speech, contribute to a vivid sense of place. The only question is whether that place is Cape Town or hell.” Peter Rozovsky – Detectives Beyond Borders
"Violent, uncompromising, unflinching, Wake Up Dead grabs you by the throat and will
haunt you long after you've finished its last blood-
"With his second novel, Roger Smith reaches another level of unrelenting noir, with all the elements of the genre given homage yet wonderfully mutated. Dark and brutal, the novel has a focused poetic style that stays with you long after you finish reading." Ken Bruen, author of The Guards & Once Were Cops
"Wake Up Dead could wake up the dead. It barrels forward at the temperature of molten
steel [with] fresh descriptions and taut plot twisters. The pages seem like they’re
soaked red with blood. " Dennis Haritou -
"There's nothing quite like when an author really nails that first line: "The night they were hijacked, Roxy Palmer and her husband, Joe, ate dinner with an African cannibal and his Ukrainian whore." If that doesn't keep you reading, you may in fact be dead." Paul Hochman, Barnes & Noble Book Clubs
"Wake Up Dead nails everything I want in a thriller." Mack Captures Crime
"All the ins and outs make for one exciting and unforgettable story." Life Happens While Books Are Waiting
On a blowtorch-
Disco and Godwynn, the ghetto gangbangers who sped away in Joe's convertible, will stop at nothing to track her down. Billy Afrika, a mixed-
As these desperate lives collide and old debts are settled in blood, Roxy is caught in a wave of escalating violence in the beautiful and brutal African seaport.
"The night they were hijacked, Roxy Palmer and her husband, Joe, ate dinner with an African cannibal and his Ukrainian whore."