Coney Island Avenue by J. L. Abramo

The dog days of August in Brooklyn and the detectives of the 61st Precinct are battling to keep all hell from breaking loose.

Innocents are being sacrificed in the name of greed, retribution, passion and the lust for power — and the only worthy opponent of this senseless evil is the uncompromising resolve to rise above it, rather than descend to its depths.

The heart pounding sequel to the acclaimed novel Gravesend— from Shamus Award-winning author J.L. Abramo—CONEY ISLAND AVENUE continues the dramatic account of the professional and personal struggles that constitute everyday life for the dedicated men and women of the Six-One—and of the saints and sinners who share their streets.

Award-winning author, J.L. Abramo, spent time discussing CONEY ISLAND AVENUE with The Big Thrill:

What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

• The responsibility of parents and adults in general to be positive role models for all children cannot be overstated.
• Dealing with adversity can create either saviors or demons.
• There are still small town elements in the largest cities in America.

How does this book make a contribution to the genre?

CONEY ISLAND AVENUE, as did its predecessor Gravesend, explores the lives of law enforcers in and outside of their jobs and although forensic science has a role in both novels—the importance of compassion, intuition, legwork, and luck in solving criminal cases is often sadly neglected in some of today’s highly technical crime novels and thrillers.  The contribution of CONEY ISLAND AVENUE is the effort to keep certain classic traditions alive.

Was there anything new you discovered, or that surprised you, as you wrote this book?

• How much I had forgotten about my earlier environment after so many years away and, more surprisingly, how much I remembered.
• The challenges and rewards of writing a follow-up or sequel to what was a very ambitious and personal predecessor.

No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?

How some of the cases challenging the detectives of the Sixty-First Precinct are unknowingly, but in fact, interrelated.

What authors or books have influenced your career as a writer, and why?

I have always been partial to crime and literary fiction with a strong sense of place—Dennis Lehane’s Boston, James Ellroy’s Los Angeles, George Pelecanos’ Washington D.C.  In Gravesend and CONEY ISLAND AVENUE, I have dealt with location as an important character in the narrative.

I have also been influenced by fictional works with strong, authentic dialogue—Loren D. Estleman, Robert B. Parker, Elmore Leonard—works that can easily be imagined cinematically—and, consequently, my work tends to be strongly dialogue driven.

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J.L. Abramo was born in the seaside paradise of Brooklyn, New York on Raymond Chandler’s fifty-ninth birthday. Abramo is the author of Catching Water in a Net, winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America prize for Best First Private Eye Novel; the subsequent Jake Diamond novels Clutching at Straws, Counting to Infinity and Circling the Runway; Chasing Charlie Chan, a prequel to the Jake Diamond series; and the stand-alone thrillers Gravesend and Brooklyn Justice.

Abramo’s short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, Mama Tried: Crime Fiction Inspired by Outlaw Country Music and Murder Under the Oaks, winner of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology of 2015.

Circling the Runway won the Shamus Award for Best Original Paperback Novel of 2015 presented by the Private Eye Writers of America.

To learn more, please visit his website.