So this is exciting: A rave review in the Wall Street Journal!
You may need a subscription to read it, so here are some choice excerpts:
No one could say of Charlesgate Confidential (Hard Case Crime, 383 pages, $22.99), the impressive debut novel by film critic Scott Von Doviak, that it lacks gumption. This inventive chronicle of an audacious Boston art theft and its prolonged aftermath unfolds in alternating chapters on three different chronological tracks—1946, 1986 and 2014. Piecing the story and its large cast together can seem like solving a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle in the mirror. But the challenge is a worthy one, and the finished product is immensely enjoyable…Mr. Von Doviak finds the appropriate tone for every occasion in this unpredictable novel, whose moods range from hard-boiled to slapstick to gothic. Even the author’s afterword is entertaining, ending with the sentence: “Please tell all your friends to buy this book.” Consider it done.
In other news, I spoke to Joe Gross on the Austin American-Statesman‘s podcast, I Love You So Much. My segment starts around 22:55.
But my most treasured endorsement so far comes courtesy of The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Society. Not safe for work!