Well, I've just handed in my final draft of the foreword for the next exciting reprint from Stark House Mystery Classics. After reading my piece on Go, Lovely Rose and my astonishment at what a great writer Potts was Greg Shepard began reading her crime fiction. Like me he was impressed with her books, like me he also couldn't stop reading them. In fact he's read more than me as of this date and has pointed me to some of her best ones I still have yet to read. For several months Greg did dogged research, searching for the proper literary executor in order to gain permission to reprint her books. His hard work paid off.Coming in a few months the world will have the first paperback reprint of two Jean Potts books in over fifty years. Go, Lovely Rose, her Edgar award winning debut detective novel will appear side by side with her Edgar nominated novel The Evil Wish. That's two of Potts' best novels in a single volume! And both reviewed here at Pretty Sinister Books.
When the book is available for purchase I'll make another announcement. But I know this book is ready for the printer and eager to get out there into the world. Though I didn't do as much work as Greg did I'm very proud to have been largely responsible for getting Jean Potts back into print. This is the first time I can definitely claim that honor after years of being only influential in reviving interest in other writers and seeing their books eventually get back into print. With luck we'll see more of Jean Potts in Stark House Press reprints.
Thanks for the heads-up. :) Will an electronic copy be released as well?
ReplyDeleteStark House Press makes most of their books available in either ePub or Mobi format. Since the book is not yet released there is no page set up on the website for the Potts twofer and I can't verify that for you. I'm hoping it will be in digital format as well as paperback.
DeleteGood job, John. I'm looking forward to your next announcement, so I can pre-order it.
ReplyDeleteExcellent news and kudos to Stark House Press. I have treasured copies of Go, Lovely Rose, Home is the Prisoner and Death of a Stray Cat from the 1960s and now have the urge to re-read them.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news, John -- I don't kniow Potts at all, but that review of GLR sounds very intriguing, putting it ob the cusp of the two schools vying for superiority at the time of its publication. Congratulations, and thanks to you and Greg for your efforts; I look forward to reading these
ReplyDeleteOh good stuff John. Inspired by you, I have been digging out my Potts books - just read Man With the Cane.
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