NEW! MIRROR IMAGE Review

FYI...

Here's nice new review of my crime novel, Mirror Image, by mystery author Mike Orenduff:

Dennis Palumbo is an established writer with a long line of impressive credits – staff writer for the TV series Welcome Back, Kotter; screenwriter for the film My Favorite Year; author of the fiction novel City Wars and the non-fiction book Writing from the Inside Out; and writer of numerous short stories, articles, and reviews for major newspapers, journals, and magazines. 

This impressive background is evident in his first Daniel Rinaldi Mystery, Mirror Image. Rinaldi is a character right out of central casting - tough, troubled, principled, and street smart. Sam Spade with a psychology degree. He may not have come from a script, but I'll wager he's headed for one. This is the stuff movies are made of. The plot is as twisted as the antagonist's mind. The book opens with Rinaldi in a therapy session with Kevin Merrick, a patient trying to deal with the after-affects of being a victim of armed assault who has started to dress like his therapist and copy his mannerisms.  As Rinaldi is walking to his car after the session, he hears someone dash away and finds his patient Kevin stabbed and bleeding. The police figure Rinaldi was the intended victim since he was dressing and acting like him. Then they discover that Kevin Merrick was actually an alias.  

These are just the first two in a stream of surprises that keep you turning the pages. Mystery readers will have already guessed that Rinaldi soon goes from intended victim to suspect, receives death threats, and has to hunt down the killer himself. Did I mention there is another murder? Yet all these traditional elements have a different twist. Palumbo sets a great scene in Pittsburgh and peoples it with great characters, including the mentally tormented Noah and the femme fatale Casey Walters, right out of an SM dream. 

Mirror Image is both thriller and mystery, reminiscent of Jonathan Kellerman but less artificially intellectual and more visceral. Perhaps along the lines of Andrew Vachss' Flood. Mirror Image is a solid, hard-hitting book, not recommended for the squeamish or faint of heart.

As always, I'm grateful to those who've taken the time to read and review my first crime novel.

Best,

Dennis

Fun Photo of MIRROR IMAGE posted by CJ West

FYI...

 

Some nice comments and a cool photo posted by CJ West.

 

Click here: Jen's Book Thoughts: Crime Writers Caught Recommending Crime - Day 14

 

Take care,

 

Dennis

 

MIRROR IMAGE Review in ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE!

FYI--

 

Here's a review of Mirror Image just published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, the largest-circulation mystery magazine in the world. Since the first fiction I ever  published appeared in that magazine (in 1978!), it's a real thrill to have my first mystery novel reviewed there.

 

 

(***...highest ranking)

 

"A screenwriter turned psychotherapist draws on both areas of expertise  in the first novel about Pittsburgh police consultant Dr. Daniel Rinaldi, one of whose crime-victim patients is murdered while dressed in imitation of his psychologist. The short-chapter, multi-reversal thriller offers much better prose, dialogue and characterization than many bestsellers' products and concludes with well-clued and deftly-executed finishing twists."

 

---Jon Breen, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

 

Thanks to all of you for your support...and indulgence!

 

Best,

 

Dennis

NEW! MIRROR IMAGE Review

FYI...

 

Here's a nice new review of my crime novel, Mirror Image.

 

http://www.litfestmagazine.com/litfest/SUSPENSE_LIT/Entries/2010/11/7_MIRROR_IMAGEBy_Dennis_Palumbo.html

Thanks!

 

Dennis

 

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BETWEEN THE LINES Interview

FYI, here's a link to an interview I did for the PBS show Between the Lines.

 

Just go to the page and you'll see my episode listed first. Just click where it says "View video" and you can watch it.

 

Click here: Arts & Culture

 

Thanks!

 

Dennis

 

Bouchercon Appearances This Weekend!

FYI, I'll be doing two events at this weekend's Bouchercon in San Francisco. Taking place at the Hyatt Regency, it's one of the premiere mystery conventions in the country. 

 

First, I'll be part of the Continuous Conversation on Saturday, Oct. 16th, from 11:30 AM till 12:30 PM, joining a group of terrific fellow mystery authors for spirited conversation about the field.

 

Later that day, at 3:30 PM, I'll be doing a "30 on the 30" mini-presentation called "Page Fright," addressing writers' block, procrastination, and other perils of the writer's life. As a licensed psychotherapist specializing in creative issues, I've worked with hundreds of writers over the years on such dilemmas.

 

Signings of my new crime novel, Mirror Image, follow both events.

 

It's my first Bouchercon, and I'm pretty excited! 

 

Dennis

 

BOOKLIST Review of MIRROR IMAGE

FYI, here's a new review of Mirror Image from BookList. (And I didn't pay the guy--honest!)

 

Mirror Image.
Palumbo, Dennis (Author)
Aug 2010. 334 p. Poisoned Pen, hardcover, $24.95. (9781590587508). Poisoned Pen, softcover, $14.95. (9781590587522).

This debut novel from psychotherapist Palumbo features a psychologist, Daniel Rinaldi, whose client, a college student, is murdered. But here's the twist: the victim, for therapeutic reasons, has lately been imitating Rinaldi's appearance and manner of dress. So naturally Rinaldi believes that he, and not his client, was the intended victim. Wracked with guilt over the incident—he believes his encouragement of the victim's behavior got him killed—Rinaldi sets out to find the killer.

 

Palumbo, a screenwriter with credits as varied as Welcome Back, Kotter and the classic film My Favorite Year, does an excellent job of building suspense, and Rinaldi, who comes off as likable if a bit self-absorbed, makes a complex protagonist. A solid first novel, especially recommendable to fans of Jonathan Kellerman, Keith Ablow, and Meg Gardiner.
— David Pitt