Bruce DeSilva

Bruce DeSilva is a former journalist whose Edgar Award-winning hard-boiled crime novels chronicle the adventures of Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter for the dying Providence Dispatch.

His new novel is A Scourge of Vipers.

From DeSilva's Q & A with Kristin Centorcelli at My Bookish Ways:

Will you tell us a little about A Scourge of Vipers and what we can expect from Liam Mulligan this time around?

The action begins when Rhode Island’s colorful fictional governor, a former religious sister nicknamed Attila the Nun, proposes legalizing sports gambling to ease the state’s budget crisis. Powerful organizations that have a lot to lose—or gain—if gambling is made legal flood the little state with millions of dollars to buy the votes of state legislators. When a powerful state senator turns up dead, a mobbed-up bagman gets shot down, and his briefcase full of cash goes missing, Liam Mulligan, an investigative reporter for The Providence Dispatch, wants to investigate. But the bottom-feeding conglomerate that recently purchased the struggling newspaper has no interest in serious reporting. So Mulligan goes rogue, digging into the story on his own. Soon, shadowy forces try to derail his investigation by destroying his career, his reputation, and perhaps his life. The result is at once suspenseful murder mystery and a serious exploration of the hypocrisy surrounding sports betting and the corrupting influence of big money on politics. Although the book is certainly hardboiled, the tone is a tad lighter than Mulligan fans have come to expect. The first three novels were littered with innocent victims, but in A Scourge of Vipers, most of the people who get shot...[read on]

Visit Bruce DeSilva's website and blog.

Coffee with a Canine: Bruce DeSilva and Brady.

Coffee with a Canine: Bruce DeSilva & Rondo and Brady.

The Page 69 Test: A Scourge of Vipers.

My Book, The Movie: A Scourge of Vipers.

--Marshal Zeringue