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As most of you know, for the past several years Dorchester Publishing offered a subscription service they called the “Hard Case Crime Book Club.” If you signed up for this service, you received each new Hard Case Crime book automatically by mail. Now that Dorchester is no longer publishing our books, they can’t ship new Hard Case Crime books to book club members anymore (or use our name on the club), but they’ve indicated that they would like to keep the club going. Their solution: They plan to find books from other publishers that fans of Hard Case Crime might enjoy and send those books out, under the new, generic name “Hard Boiled Crime Book Club.”

There’s nothing wrong with this idea in principle--there are a lot of great crime novels out there, and not all of them were published by Hard Case Crime. I think Dorchester could do a nice job of selecting other books you might enjoy. In fact, just as a favor to them, I even offered to help them do so; I suggested some books by Hard Case Crime authors Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake, for instance, as well as some authors that we haven’t published, such as Loren D. Estleman and Robert B. Parker. And just this past week, Dorchester started shipping some of these books (one by Parker, I believe, and maybe one by Westlake).

Unfortunately, Dorchester doesn’t seem to have communicated clearly to book club members just what it was they were doing, or reminded members about their right to cancel their subscription if they no longer wanted to be part of the club in light of the changes. Instead, I get the impression that Dorchester simply started shipping the new books without any explanation. Naturally, this left book club members confused and in some cases upset, and I can understand why. I wish Dorchester had handled this better.

That’s why I’m sending this message: I want you to know what’s going on, and also let you know what you can do. If you’re a book club member and don't want to receive any more books from Dorchester, you can call them at 1-800-481-9191 or write to them at [email protected] and tell them you want to cancel your subscription. I’m not saying that you should cancel--if you stay with the club, you might get some terrific books from them. But if you want to cancel, that’s how you can do it.

There’s also another reason I’m writing to you. Many of you have contacted me to ask whether our new publisher, Titan Publishing, plans to offer a similar subscription service when they start publishing new Hard Case Crime books in 2011. And I’m glad to report that the answer is yes. They haven’t worked out all the details yet and it’s possible that it’ll turn out to be harder than they expect--but right now, they are planning to do it.

If you think you might be interested in signing up for Titan’s new subscription service in 2011, please let us know. Just send an e-mail to [email protected] and we’ll send you more information about the service as soon as it’s available. Please note, sending an e-mail to us does not commit you to anything--it just puts you on a list of people who want to know more. If you’re currently a Hard Case Crime Book Club member and would like to continue getting our books by mail, it's very important that you let us know, since we don’t have any information about who the members of the book club are--the club is owned and run by Dorchester and we have no access to any member information. So if you don’t write and tell us, we have no way of knowing that you’re a member.

And if you’re not currently a book club member but think you might like to become one when the new books start coming next year, that’s great--just let us know that.

Bit by bit we’ll get this all sorted out. I apologize for any confusion along the way. The most important thing in a situation like this is clear, prompt and forthright communication, and in Dorchester’s enthusiasm to start shipping books again, I’m afraid they didn’t communicate the way they should have. Hopefully they’ll do better in the future--they’re good people and I know they mean well. In the meantime, though ... please do write to us right away if you’re a current book club member, or if you’re not but might want to become one when Titan launches their subscription offering next year.

And please do contact Dorchester at 1-800-481-9191 or [email protected] if you want to cancel your membership in their club.
I hope this explanation will end some reader confusion.

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Thx for your message. I think it will be for rent. I'm just not sure when yet. We're working on it though currently.

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Friends,

Bit by bit, we're getting closer to the re-launch of Hard Case Crime with our new publisher, Titan Books. Our backlist titles are already available for pre-order from bookstores and online booksellers such as Amazon.com and BN.com; copies will start shipping in February. And we've got new books on the way, too -- if you go to our Web site, www.HardCaseCrime.com, you'll find cover art and sample chapters for four upcoming titles, all of them brand new:

* GETTING OFF: A Novel of Sex and Violence by Lawrence Block (writing as Jill Emerson) -- The story of a beautiful young woman who sets off on a mission to kill every man she's ever slept with (and she's slept with quite a few). For this book, Lawrence Block is reviving a pseudonym he hasn't used in almost 40 years, under which he wrote seven particularly sexy books back in the day. When he saw how sexy this new one was coming out, he thought...that's the Jill Emerson in me coming out again...

* THE CONSUMMATA by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins -- In the late 1960s, Mickey Spillane announced he was writing a new novel featuring the star of his bestseller THE DELTA FACTOR, but after writing half the book, he set he manuscript aside. Twenty years later, he handed the unfinished manuscript to his friend Max Allan Collins, suggesting that Max might finish it someday. And twenty-some years after that...it's finally done. It's the story of one thief going after another against the backdrop of Miami's Cuban-American community, and it's classic Spillane. Anyone who misses the Good Old Stuff will find plenty to love here.

* QUARRY'S EX by Max Allan Collins -- This is one I know you've been waiting for a long time, the next story in the saga of the hit man known as Quarry (star of THE LAST QUARRY, THE FIRST QUARRY, and QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE). This time, Quarry sets out to protect a movie director who's been marked for murder...only to discover that the director is married to Quarry's ex-wife, the woman whose infidelity pushed him into a life of crime in the first place.

* CHOKE HOLD by Christa Faust -- Another long-awaited title, this is the follow-up to Christa's Edgar Award-nominated MONEY SHOT. Ex-porn star Angel Dare is back; when a old co-star is gunned down in front of her, it's up to her to get his 18-year-old son, a hotheaded MMA fighter, to Las Vegas in one piece while two separate groups of killers are gunning for them.

Lots to look forward to! Do check out the covers -- and if you're hungry for some great reading now, you can prepare for the new books coming out (which doesn't happen till September/October) by ordering any of the old ones you've missed. If you haven't met Quarry or Angel Dare yet, you're in for a treat -- grab yourself a copy of MONEY SHOT or the earlier Quarry books. For Spillane fans, there's DEAD STREET, Mickey's last novel. And we have five other books by Lawrence Block you can enjoy while waiting for GETTING OFF to come out: GRIFTER'S GAME, THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART, LUCKY AT CARDS, A DIET OF TREACLE, and KILLING CASTRO.

Other news...

Things are moving forward on the film adaptation of LITTLE GIRL LOST -- I spent an afternoon with the screenwriter who's penning the adaptation, showing him around some of the real-world locations where scenes from the book take place. (And scenes from its sequel, SONGS OF INNOCENCE. We checked out the tunnels under Columbia University, and the all-night tempura joint on Broadway, and FAO Schwarz...) No guarantee the movie will go before the cameras, but...every step we take makes it that much more likely.

And HAVEN, the TV series based (loosely) on our 13th book, Stephen King's THE COLORADO KID, is gearing up for its second season on SyFy. The writers are working in a white-hot storytelling heat, with filming scheduled to begin in a few months. I'm biased, but I think the show really hit its stride in the second half of the season last year, and there are some great stories coming up. We don't have a premiere date yet for the second season, but I'll let you know as soon as we do.

One final bit of news (if you'll forgive a bit of boasting by a proud father): the Ardai/Novik clan saw an addition in December, a baby girl named Evidence ("Evi" for short).

We'll add a photo of her to the Web site just as soon as she's old enough to wear a fedora.

Best,
Charles

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If you're a Fan of Dorchester Publishing here on Facebook, how about dropping by their wall today and posting: "Dear Dorchester, why are you continuing to sell e-books that you do not have the rights to?"

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Friends,

Now that Spring has sprung and June has bloomed, we're just three months away from Hard Case Crime's big re-launch.

Our last new title was Brett Halliday's MURDER IS MY BUSINESS back in August 2010, so we'll have been on hiatus for a bit over a year when our new books hit stores in September. But what a comeback we've got in store! Four books, all brand new, including an original novel by Lawrence Block called GETTING OFF (our first ever hardcover title); a new Quarry novel from Max Allan Collins, QUARRY'S EX; a new novel from Christa Faust, CHOKE HOLD, starring Angel Dare from her Edgar Award-nominated MONEY SHOT; and THE CONSUMMATA, the long-awaited second adventure of the hero of Mickey Spillane's bestselling THE DELTA FACTOR, which was begun by Spillane in the 1960s and finished by Spillane's long-time friend Max Allan Collins some four decades later. You can get a taste of each of these books at our Web site, www.HardCaseCrime.com.

While you're there you can also enjoy a glimpse of our big Spring 2012 title, a never-before-published novel by the late, great Donald E. Westlake. The book is called THE COMEDY IS FINISHED, and it's going to be our second hardcover ever. Don wrote it between the late 1970s and early 80s, but never published it because he found himself worrying that its premise -- the kidnaping of a famous television comedian -- was too similar to the movie "The King of Comedy," which Martin Scorsese released around the same time. He shouldn't have worried -- the book and the movie aren't similar at all outside of sharing that basic premise. It's a hell of a good book and one that very much deserves to be in print, and we're very excited to be bringing it out for the first time, with a fabulous cover by Greg Manchess.

If you would like a Westlake fix sooner than that, we'll be bringing out a trade paperback edition of SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY at the start of July (you'll see it on the front tables at Barnes & Noble, among other places). It's our first book ever in the slightly larger trade paperback format, and as much as I like the smaller pocket-sized format we've used in the past, I have to say I love how this particular cover painting looks with a little more room to breathe. You can pre-order the new edition online already; you can also pre-order THE COMEDY IS FINISHED and all our September/October titles.

Meanwhile, all our old titles should be back in stores at this point, so if there are any holes in your collection you should be able to fill them now.

We're still waiting to hear from our new publisher, Titan Books, about whether or not they'll be able to offer a 'book club'-style subscription service of the sort our old publisher used to offer -- they'd like to, but it's a complicated thing to set up, and the jury's still out. (As soon as we have a final answer from them, we'll let you know.) But fortunately there are other ways to get both our old books and our forthcoming titles by mail if you want them that way -- you can find them on Amazon.com, BN.com, and numerous other sites. Or you can ask your local bookseller to get them for you. We'd encourage you to support your local brick-and-mortar bookstores if at all possible -- they need your business to stay in business. But you have a wide range of options, and we're grateful for your support no matter which option you choose.

Finally, note that HAVEN, the TV series inspired by Stephen King's Hard Case Crime title, THE COLORADO KID, returns to SyFy on July 15th. I'm not penning an episode myself this season but I'm still working on the show as a producer and consulting on all the scripts, and I can tell you we've got some good ones coming. (Plus a new character, Evidence Ryan, named after my newborn daughter. Has there ever been a better reason to watch a TV show than that...?)

Hope you enjoy HAVEN if you do check it out; our new books when they start coming; and the rest of what will no doubt be a long, hot summer.

Best,
Charles
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Charles Ardai
Editor, Hard Case Crime

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