This is the big one. The Poacher's Son has already received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Library Journal. But as humbling as these reviews have been, nothing in publishing matches a positive notice in the New York Times Sunday Book Review: our literary journal of record. Tens of thousands of new books are published each year in this country; the Times reviews very few of these titles. Fewer still come from debut authors like me.
Today, I beat the odds. This afternoon, Minotaur received an advance copy of Marilyn Stasio's next "Crime" column, which will appear in the Sunday, May 9, 2010 issue of the Times. Here's part of what Stasio has to say about The Poacher's Son:
The novel’s eye-popping scenes, idyllic and otherwise, are conveyed by Doiron’s narrator, Mike Bowditch, a rookie game warden who loves the ‘solitary and morbid profession’ that is threatened when his father, Jack, a notorious poacher, is accused of murder. ‘He was a bar brawler, not a terrorist,’ Mike insists, swearing loyalty to a man who may not be worth his son’s faith in him. Jack is still a flamboyant character, one of the best sights in a book that has plenty of natural wonders.
The rest of the review is just as enthusiastic and deftly written. When it comes online later next week, I'll be sure to post a link. In the meantime I'm feeling as happy as I've felt in a long, long time.