Sunday, June 27, 2010

What is Reece Hirsch reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Reece Hirsch, author of the legal thriller The Insider.

His entry begins:
I think most writers have at least one book that they keep returning to as a sort of Platonic ideal of what a great book should be. For me, it’s Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone. I recently reread Dog Soldiers and found it to be just as good as I remembered it.

When I first found the book at age 15, I was too young to fully appreciate it. I was impressed by the ecstatic reviews, the National Book Award and the cool cover of the paperback with a soldier carrying a hypodermic needle instead of a rifle. But even at first reading I was captured by the breathlessly paced story of a journalist who brings a shipment of heroin back to California from Vietnam and quickly gets in way over his head.

The book is more than just the tale of a drug deal gone bad and a chase from Berkeley to L.A. to the California desert near the Mexican border. Robert Stone is a writer who has never...[read on]
Among the early praise for Reece Hirsch's The Insider:
"Hirsch's fast-paced, film-ready plot and tough, ambitious characters will keep fans of legal thrillers on the edge of their seats."
Publishers Weekly

"Reece Hirsch is writing and running with the big boys."
—John Lescroart

"Gripping and gritty, The Insider sizzles with tension and twists that both entertain and magnetize..."
—Steve Berry

"This is a legal thriller sure to keep you up late into the night. Watch out, John Grisham!"
—Gayle Lynds

"We will be hearing more from this talented newcomer. Highly recommended."
—Sheldon Siegel
Visit Reece Hirsch's website.

Writers Read: Reece Hirsch.

--Marshal Zeringue