Mark Troy

Mark Troy is the author of Pilikia Is My Business, a private eye novel published in 2001 and republished in 2010. Pilikia was nominated for a Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America for Best 1st P.I. Novel. Game Face, a collection of short stories featuring P.I. Val Lyon, was published in 2011. The Rules, the first story in the Ava Rome series, was published as an ebook and audiobook in 2013.

The Splintered Paddle is the latest book in the Ava Rome series.

From Troy's Q & A at Omnimystery News:

OMN: Into what subgenre would you place the Ava Rome crime novels? And do you find any advantage to labeling them as such?

MT: My stories are private detective novels. I like to think of them as hardboiled and as crime novels rather than mysteries.

Labels serve to guide readers to new books. Readers of "hardboiled" detective stories should know that's what they'll find here. I know there are some readers who might give the book a pass because of the label, but for everyone who does, there are others who will pick it up because that's what they like to read.

One reviewer recently called The Splintered Paddle "Hawaiian Noir". That's a label I hadn't heard before, but I like it. Maybe it will entice some readers to try something new. Hawaiian Noir: ukuleles, Mai Tais, and bullets.

OMN: Give us a summary of The Splintered Paddle in a tweet.

MT: Revenge and death in the Aloha State. Murder in the part of paradise tourists never see. Ava Rome's mission: protect the defenseless.

OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?

MT: None of...[read on]

Visit Mark Troy's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Splintered Paddle.

Writers Read: Mark Troy.

My Book, The Movie: The Splintered Paddle.

--Marshal Zeringue