Announcing Two Upcoming Books with Level Best Books: Some of My Best Friends are Murderers and 156 Homicides!
It’s finally official now, so I can make the announcement. Level Best Books has accepted two more of my books for publication: a critical analysis of a beloved crime television series, and an experimental epic novel looking at how murder affects a modern American city.
Some of My Best Friends are Murderers studies the classic series Columbo, and critiques every one of the show’s many killers, studying their crimes, psyches, and relationship with Lieutenant Columbo. The book’s description is as follows:
Can you enjoy a crime television show if you already know whodunit? As Columbo proved, definitely! In nearly every episode, Lieutenant Columbo, played by Peter Falk, paired off against a murderer who’d supposedly committed the perfect crime. Columbo would question, trick, and even befriend the very different killers in order to make an arrest. But despite the standard formula for the episodes, each guest murderer was very different. This book will explore the killers who believed they were too clever to be caught, only to be undone by a detective who kept asking about just one more thing…
Some of My Best Friends are Murderers is scheduled for publication in the autumn of 2024.
My other book, 156 Homicides: A Year of Murder in Milwaukee features three hundred sixty-five chapters, telling the story of the toll crime takes on one of the largest cities in the Midwest over the course of twelve months. In this completely fictional story featuring some of my recurring characters from the Funderburke and Kaiming series, plus over a thousand additional characters, a multitude of perspectives come together to create an unprecedented look at the human cost of crime. The book’s description is as follows:
How does murder shape an American city? 156 Homicides is composed of 365 short chapters, each set during a different day of the year, each one narrated by one or more people who have been affected by violence. The over four hundred different narrators come from every conceivable background, and include police officers, grieving loved ones, prosecutors, defense lawyers, trauma surgeons, witnesses, clergymen, gang members, journalists, professors, politicians, criminals, bloggers, children, business owners, and even the perpetrators and victims. The tone of the stories ranges from farcical capers led by inept criminals, to heartbreaking stories of families devastated by the losses of loved ones. Every corner of the city is a setting at some point, from graffiti-scarred alleys to churches filled with mourners, from the universities to the parks, from Lake Michigan to the city’s downtown, from the poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods to the nineteenth-century mansions built by Milwaukee’s first millionaires. No corner of the city is left untouched by the effects of crime.
156 Homicides includes slice-of-life tales, police procedurals, cozy mysteries, private eye narratives, noir, suspenseful adventures with twist endings, opinionated musings, and family dramas. This epic mosaic novel depicts both the worst and the best aspects of society, but it’s not just about crime. 156 Homicides is a story about people, adversity, and ultimately, hope.
156 Homicides is scheduled for publication in the autumn of 2025.
Thanks so much to Level Best Books!
Chris Chan’s sequel to Sherlock’s Secretary, Nessie’s Nemesis, was published on September 3rd by MX Publishing. His novel Ghosting My Friend was released by Level Best Books on March 28th. His first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2. His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books. His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there). It is also available in a Kindle edition.
