Review of Zafiro Novel, WAIST DEEP





I routinely blog any Frank Zafiro news in my other blog, and today I linked to Kevin Tipple's review of my novel, Waist Deep.  The blog entry is here and you can link to that review if you so choose.

The reason I mention it here is that Tipple rightfully comments in his review that Waist Deep is "almost" noir. He's right. It isn't quite noir, but it is damn close to the line and at times, it is definitely there.

Why might you care? Well, BLOOD ON BLOOD, the first novel Jim Wilsky and I have written together, is in the same vein as Waist Deep. True, BLOOD ON BLOOD is grittier and darker. But if you like one, I think you'd like the other. So if you're looking to get warmed up for the ride that is coming with BLOOD ON BLOOD, Waist Deep fits the bill. It has some violence, sex, mystery and questions of morality. It includes teachers, cops, prostitutes, pimps, pornographers and priests. Okay, no priests. And Stefan Kopriva is no saint, but he's doing the best he can in a gray world, trying to make up for mistakes he made in the past.

Too bad no one seems to want to cooperate, or let him forget.

~~~

Waist Deep: When disgraced former cop Stefan Kopriva is asked by an old high school classmate to find a runaway sixteen year old girl, he reluctantly accepts. Driven by guilt over a terrible mistake that drove him from the force more than ten years earlier, Kopriva battles old injuries, old demons and long ago memories as he unravels the mystery of the missing Kris Sinderling...and seeks his own redemption.

Waist Deep is available in paperback and as an ebook (Kindle, etc.).

Post #2

I just wanted to check in here and I'll try to not repeat everything Frank has already said so well. Words cannot describe what kind of writing partner I was lucky enough to be involved with on this project. We also have no intention of letting Blood on Blood be our one and only collaboration. For that reason, this new website was born and put into play. 

As many of  you already know, Frank has many projects of his own both current and past, totally independent of this endeavor. In other words, he has his own gig that's well established and thriving. So think of this as him just pulling over and giving a shaky looking hitchhiker a ride. Frank knew better, the silent alarm was blaring, but he decided to stop anyway. You know how that usually works out right? It might be just across town or I might pull a gun on him and turn it into a little road trip that lasts awhile.

As Frank said, we're cautiously optimistic that we'll both be back in short order with some much more concrete news and information. We're both excited and pumped up about this book. We hope that others will be too.

Thanks for dropping in and please pass the word around to everyone you know and some you don't....Make it a good word too, or we'll have to hurt you or somethin'. I mean we don't want to do that, but like hey, we will. Know what I'm sayin' here?

-JW 

Inaugural Post

Greetings, and welcome to the Hardboiled Partners in Crime Blog.

I'm Frank Zafiro. My partner in crime is Jim Wilsky. We're here to bring you news surrounding our collaborative work.

We both write crime fiction, and together we are writing hardboiled, gritty crime fiction set in the world of today.

Our first novel is BLOOD ON BLOOD. Half brothers Jerzy and Mick Sawyer are summoned to the prison where their father is dying. On his deathbed, he tells his sons about a diamond heist that he was part of and how some of those diamonds are still out there. He sets the two on a path of cooperation and competition to recover the jewels, each playing to his own strengths and against the other's weaknesses.

Jerzy is the quintessential career criminal, fresh out of a short bit and looking to get back into the action right away. Mick is the failed cop and tainted hero struggling to get by with a clean life that doesn't seem to ever pay off. Both men see this score as their ticket out. They have to work together, but the situation is, as one of the brothers observes, "part Hardy Boys, part Cain and Abel." Throw the sexy, myserious Ania into the mix and you have all the ingredients of a classic, hard boiled story set in the Chicago of today.

BLOOD ON BLOOD is written almost entirely in the first person. Chapters alternate back and forth between the two main characters. This format heightens the tension and highlights the two distinct voices of these characters (and both authors). BLOOD ON BLOOD is a gritty, dark novel of crime fiction.

Jim and I are in discussions with a small publisher of high repute within the crime fiction world to publish BLOOD ON BLOOD. We're confident we'll have some good news that is more specific soon.

For more information, you can check out the following sites:

Frank Zafiro Blog:  http://frankzafiro.blogspot.com/

Frank Zafiro website:  http://frankzafiro.com

Frank Zafiro on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/Frank.Zafiro

We'll talk again soon. Until then, stay gritty.