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Starred Reviews: A Scourge of Vipers by Bruce DeSilva

March 24, 2015May 15, 2024torforge

“…this excellent addition features a bit of romance, a lot of action, plenty of snappy repartee, and social commentary on the fate of newspaper journalism and the corrupting role of money in the political process. Quality all the way.”

Bruce DeSilva’s A Scourge of Vipers got starred reviews in Library Journal and in Publishers Weekly!

Here’s the full Library Journal review, from the January 1 issue:

Rhode Island Governor Fiona McNerney proposes the legalization of sports betting to reduce the state’s budget deficit. The mob opposes the idea because it would eat into its bookmaking business, and sports oversight groups claim it would open up games to dishonesty. After Atlantic City mobsters show up in Providence with bags of cash, presumably to influence legislators, veteran newspaper reporter Liam Mulligan investigates. When a state legislator and several other people turn up dead, Mulligan soon becomes a prime suspect in several murders. VERDICT DeSilva’s Edgar and Macavity Award-winning books (most recently Providence Rag) is a consistently well-written hard-boiled series. Unfortunately, few of the regular characters have roles here. Still, this excellent addition features a bit of romance, a lot of action, plenty of snappy repartee, and social commentary on the fate of newspaper journalism and the corrupting role of money in the political process. Quality all the way.

Here’s the full Publishers Weekly review, from the February 2 issue:

Edgar-winner DeSilva’s excellent fourth Liam Mulligan novel (after 2014’s Providence Rag) finds the Providence, R.I., investigative journalist on hard times professionally. His newspaper, The Dispatch, has been reduced to a shell of its former self, publishing fluff rather than substance and largely staffed by wet-behind-the-ears newcomers. His jerk of an editor, Charles Twisdale, is more concerned with the bottom line and advertising revenue than reporting the news, leaving Mulligan feeling like a dinosaur on the verge of extinction. But if that’s to be his fate, the reporter is determined to go down swinging, pursuing the truth behind a series of murders that appear linked to the governor, colorfully known as “Attila the Nun,” who hopes to solve the state’s public-pension crisis by legalizing sports gambling. The lean prose and clever plotting will remind hard-boiled fans of Loren Estleman’s Amos Walker novels.

A Scourge of Vipers will be published on April 7.

Excerpts

Sneak Peek: A Scourge of Vipers by Bruce DeSilva

March 3, 2015August 5, 2016torforge1 Comment

Read an excerpt of opens in a new windowA Scourge of Vipers, the newest Liam Mulligan novel from Bruce DeSilva, publishing April 7.

CHAPTER 1

A snake—that’s what Mario Zerilli had called me. And now, just an hour later, something was slithering across my cracked kitchen linoleum. It was three feet long with lemon racing stripes twisting the length of its brown body. I watched it slide past the wheezing fridge and veer toward the kitchen table where my bare feet rested on the floor.

It raised its head and froze, its forked tongue flickering. It had caught my scent.

What's New

Starred Review: Providence Rag

February 25, 2014May 15, 2024torforge

“Mulligan’s character, played off the vicissitudes of his job, is skillfully layered and engaging. DeSilva, who worked for decades at the AP, won an Edgar for Best First Novel for Rogue Island (2010). He knows of what he writes.”

Bruce DeSilva’s Providence Rag got a starred review in Booklist!*

Here’s the full review, from the February 15th issue:

The third entry in this gritty newspaper series spans 20 years, from 1992 to 2012, at the start of which a teenage male commits five gruesome murders, is imprisoned for them, and, years later, becomes the center of a campaign to free prisoners convicted as juveniles. Liam Mulligan, the series hero, is a longtime newspaperman for a Providence, Rhode Island, paper who has witnessed the reduction of resources and the firings of friends, all the while still loving the imperiled business. Mulligan’s coverage of the murders in 1992 was partially responsible for finding the killer. Under the state’s criminal code, the killer should have been released at age 21, but creative fiddling has kept this killer safely behind bars. The son of the paper’s publisher wants to launch an investigation into what he sees as corruption, making the killer’s freedom a looming possibility. The ethical dilemma seems a bit forced, but it does raise the possibility of more mayhem to come. But there is real suspense here. And Mulligan’s character, played off the vicissitudes of
his job, is skillfully layered and engaging. DeSilva, who worked for decades at the AP, won an Edgar for Best First Novel for Rogue Island (2010). He knows of what he writes.

Providence Rag will be published on March 11th.

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