New York City Based Fiction Writer
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Jay Strafford
Book reviews: 'Marble Hall Murders,' 'The Last Death of the Year'
As the early 20th century focused fresh light on cutting-edge murder mysteries — with Agatha Christie at the forefront — other British writers such as Josephine Tey, John Dickson Carr and Dorothy L. Sayers displayed their skills.
Book reviews: 'Fair Play,' 'Chloe'
If conceived with dexterity and executed with polish, often mysteries define mastery. kAmp?5 E92E’D H92E xC:D9 2FE9@C {@F:D6 w682CEJ 56=:G6CD :? “u2:C !=2J” – 2 56E64E:G6 J2C? D92A65 3J E96 A2DE 2?5 7@C865 :? E96 AC6D6?E[ E96 76DE:G:E:6D 4@>>6?46 H:E9 p3:82:=’D 56D:C6 E@ E9C@H 2 4@>3:?2E:@? 3:CE952J 2?5 }6H *62C’D A2CEJ 7@C 96C 3C@E96C[ q6?;2>:?[ 2E 2?
Book review: 'Party of Liars'
In the late 1800s, a tragedy in the Texas Hill Country led to the abandonment of a mansion and whispers of hauntings. A century later, psychiatrist Ethan Matthews and his veterinarian wife, Kim, worked to revitalize the building. But the marriage ended in divorce. Ethan stayed in the house and married Dani, who presented him with infant Charlotte. Meanwhile, he’s planning a blowout 16th birthday party for his and Kim’s daughter, Sophie.
Book review: 'Cold Burn'
When authors Jon Land and Jeff Ayers chose to write together, their first thriller — last year’s “Leave No Trace” — focused on domestic terrorists attacking America’s iconic sites. In their second novel — “Cold Burn” — climate change poses a far greater existential threat.
Jay Strafford: Nelson County provides endless fodder for Elle Cosimano, Rita Mae Brown
For decades, folks in bucolic Nelson County farmed or found work in Charlottesville or Waynesboro. But not Earl Hamner. The author of the beloved novel “Spencer’s Mountain" — which led to the equally cherished, long-running television show “The Waltons” — kept close ties with his Nelson County family but spent most of his adult life as a television writer and producer in California.
Jay Strafford: Nelson County provides endless fodder for Elle Cosimano, Rita Mae Brown
For decades, folks in bucolic Nelson County farmed or found work in Charlottesville or Waynesboro. But not Earl Hamner. The author of the beloved novel “Spencer’s Mountain" — which led to the equally cherished, long-running television show “The Waltons” — kept close ties with his Nelson County family but spent most of his adult life as a television writer and producer in California.
Book reviews: 'Time Will Tell,' 'Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave'
For decades, folks in bucolic Nelson County farmed or found work in Charlottesville or Waynesboro. But not Earl Hamner. The author of the beloved novel “Spencer’s Mountain — which led to the equally cherished, long-running television show “The Waltons” — kept close ties with his Nelson County family but spent most of his adult life as a television writer and producer in California.
Tired of tedious thrillers? Try these 3 new titles
Tired of tedious thrillers? If so, head for a trio of new, imaginative titles that focus on love during World War I, an FBI team of brilliant misfits, and an archaeologist who travels through time seeking endangered artifacts. *** Robert Harris’ 'Precipice' Much of Harris’ canon consists of splendid historical fiction, and his latest novel is no exception. He explores the romance between British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and Venetia Stanley, a young and lovely socialite.
Book reviews: 'What You Leave Behind,' 'When Cicadas Cry'
Her mother in the grave, her marriage over, her law firm done with her, Deena Wood retreats from Atlanta and heads to Brunswick, her hometown in southeastern Georgia. She takes a job as a legal consultant and confronts trouble in Wanda M. Morris’ “What You Leave Behind.” On a drive out to a barrier island, she encounters Holcomb Gardner, who points a gun at her and tells her not to try to inveigle him into selling his trailer.
Book reviews: 'Agony Hill,' 'Death at the Sanatorium'
Sarah Stewart Taylor’s crime fiction never seems to fall into a rut. From 2003 to 2006, she produced four novels in a series featuring Sweeney St. George, a young art historian who specializes in gravestone and funerary art. Twenty years later, she created four mysteries starring Maggie D’arcy, a former New York police detective who decamps to a better life in Ireland. “Agony Hill” introduces Franklin Warren, a state police detective in fictional Bethany, Vermont in 1965.
Book reviews: 'The Drowned,' 'Booked for Murder'
Did Deidre “Dee” Armitage run away from husband Ronnie, did she commit suicide by throwing her herself into the Irish Sea, or did another fate befall her? When local resident Denton Wymes sees an empty car in in rural Ireland, he encounters Ronnie, who varies his take on Deidre’s fate. Detective Inspector St. John (pronounced sinjun) Strafford is on the case during the 1950s in John Banville’s “The Drowned,” also featuring Dr. Garrett Quirke, a pathologist.
Book review: 'Three Days in June'
Through the course of her 50-year career, Anne Tyler has specialized in the fictional lives of Baltimoreans, rendered with extraordinary empathy and generosity. Her 24th original novel — “Three Days in June” — fulfills expectations. As the story opens, educator Gail Baines loses (or quits) her job — just when she and her former husband, Max, are preparing for the wedding of their daughter, Debbie, to Kenneth Bailey.
Book review: 'The Grey Wolf'
Two decades ago, when Canadian author Louise Penny’s splendid debut mystery, “Still Life,” was published, discerning readers immediately recognized her prodigious talent. The gifts with which she is endowed continue to glow, especially in “The Grey Wolf,” the 19th installment in her series featuring Armand Gamache, the head of homicide investigations for the Sûreté du Québec.
Book review: 'Charles J. Stick and His Gardens'
Among landscape and garden architects, Britons Lancelot “Capability” Brown and Gertrude Jekyll, joined by Americans Frederick Law Olmstead and Thomas Church, represent heights of accomplishments in their careers. As does Charles Stick — a Charlottesville resident known for conceiving and achieving alluring features on estates throughout the nation, including Virginia. His life’s work finds elegant expression and definitive details in Jeff Poole’s thoughtful and astute “Charles J.
Two compelling mysteries driven by female investigators
“Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice.” – poet Robert Frost For Milan Swanz, a troubled Amish man, a combination curse finds him bound to a stake and burned to death in a frigid Ohio winter. And it’s up to Painters Mill police chief and formerly Amish Kate Burkholder to determine who and why in “The Burning” (320 pages, Minotaur, $28) — the 16th installment in Linda Castillo’s series.
"The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon"
Her detractors, wishing to define her by their standards, called her “Plastic Pat.” But the woman born Thelma Catherine Ryan, and nicknamed Patricia by her father for her Irish ancestry and birth the day before St. Patrick’s Day, was neither a phony nor a nonentity as she navigated the joys and sorrows of her expansive life. A native of Nevada, Pat Nixon lost both parents as a teenager. After moving to Southern California, she worked multiple jobs to pay for college.
Book reviews: Mysteries at the manor in the U.S. and the UK
Massive estates have long served as sinister settings in suspense novels. And Jillian Cantor doubles the treats for readers with two such sites in “The Fiction Writer." Olivia Fitzgerald’s first novel drew praise, but critics eviscerated her second. So the struggling resident of Boston accepts a write-for-money job with Henry “Ash” Asherwood, a billionaire department store mogul in Malibu, California.
Book review: "Harmony in Black and White"
“At first I didn’t notice the blood dripping down my face into the cold gravel. A tall figure cut out by the streetlight behind him loomed over me. A city detective. “A lot has changed since I stood here four decades ago. Change comes slowly in this Virginia city but it comes just the same. “How fitting that Lee would be the last. Davis, Jackson, and Stuart all gone, pulled down by protesters or hauled away by city crews and cranes.
Book review: 'The King Street Affair'
Reporter Wyatt Brewer of the Charleston Daily Dispatch in South Carolina is stressed. But Wyatt’s anxiety isn’t confined to professional insecurity; elements of his past return to bedevil him in Richmonder Jon Sealy’s fourth novel, “The King Street Affair.” When the body of an Estonian man surfaces on Charleston’s Folly Beach, Wyatt — who has a personal link to an old crime — is assigned to the story.
Book review: 'The Comfort of Ghosts'
In her 2003 debut, British native and California transplant Jacqueline Winspear launched a series spanning the era of both 20th-century world wars. Her work drew early praise and introduced Maisie Dobbs, among the most vividly drawn sleuths in crime fiction. With her 18th installment, Winspear retires the series, a decision that will likely produce dismay after decades of devotion among discerning readers. For first-timers to the series, here’s a brief synopsis of the preceding installments.
Book review: "Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment"
A relatively young nation, the United States holds a counterintuitive distinction as the world’s oldest democracy. But as political cacophony rises, extensive research suggests that such singular status is endangered. Late last year, for instance, the Gallup Poll found that only 28 percent of American adults are satisfied with democracy — a record low since the peak of 64 percent in 1984. In timely fashion, American historian Allen C.
Virginia authors tackle crime’s diversity
Will they hit the jackpot in Atlantic City -- or face a busted flush? That’s the question for the title novelist and her childen’s nanny in “Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice” (320 pages, Minotaur, $27), the fourth novel in Elle Cosimano’s series that blends homicide and humor. As the story opens, writer Finlay and sidekick Veronica “Vero” Ruiz travel from Northern Virginia to New Jersey to confront vicious loan shark Marco Toscano, who has ordered the kidnapping of Vero’s longtime boyfriend.
Book review: 'Leave No Trace'
From Virginia’s Shenandoah to California’s Capistrano, South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore to Texas’ Alamo, the iconic places of the United States speak to the nation’s cultural singularity. To support the thousands of visitors, the National Park Service manages all national parks, most national monuments and other natural, historical and recreational properties.
Book review: 'Trans-Mongolian Express'
Many authors find a genre and remain faithful to it. Richmonder David L. Robbins’ primary choice has been historical fiction, but he expands his brand with a novel inspired by the late Warren Adler’s “Trans-Siberian Express” and requested by Adler’s sons. In “Trans-Mongolian Express,” Robbins crafts “a thriller-adventure-travelogue-comedy-action-romance-mystery” based on the catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine in 1986. The story opens as a wolf wanders the area in search of food.
Book review: 'The Women'
Of the Vietnam War, it can be said that it was: the wrong war in the wrong place: jungles; the wrong war at the wrong time: an ongoing civil conflict; the wrong war with the wrong rationale: the domino theory. Of the 58,000-plus Americans who died, the truth is inescapable — they were martyrs to deception and politics. Of those who returned, many were demonized, ignored or forgotten.
Book review: 'Blessing of the Lost Girls'
Among the atrocities inflicted on Native Americans, the Trail of Tears qualifies as one of the most egregious. Between 1830 and 1850, the U.S. government forced about 60,000 from the Southeast and relocated them to the Indian Territory, which eventually became part of Oklahoma. In “Blessing of the Lost Girls,” prolific author J.A. Jance creates another tragic trail — one of terror — wrought by a serial killer. Rodeo enthusiast Charles Milton (real name Ronald J.
Book review: Gilded Age author stands her ground in new historical fiction tale
In Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, the first Women’s Rights Convention began the slow process that led to profound but still unfinished progress. The title character, a brave young woman, lends her voice to the struggle in “The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann,” Virginia Pye’s third novel.
October Mysteries Roundup: Traverse times, globe in these standout tales of suspense
Cold case, cold climate, cool collaboration. That’s the gift that author Ragnar Jónasson and Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir bestow on crime-fiction fans in “Reykjavík” (Minotaur, $28, 384 pages). In 1956, 15-year-old Lára Marteinsdóttir took a summer job as a maid on Videy, a small island off the coast of Iceland, for a prominent couple — and vanished without a trace. Fast forward 30 years, and the cop who had been in charge of the case has never put his failure behind him.
September Mysteries Roundup: Grim Reaper visits London and Paris
Reputable journalists at respectable publications often view tabloid reporters as ants at a picnic, sure to intrude and annoy. To the decent practitioners of newspapering, the devious run the gamut from disapproval to disdain to disgust as they employ extortion and entrapment to target celebrities and pander to the tasteless readers who revel in other people’s woes.
Book review: 'Jeopardy!' champ offers insights on eternity
“My troubles are many/They’re as deep as a well/I can swear there ain’t no heaven/But I pray there ain’t no hell.” — Laura Nyro, “And When I Die” “There’s no way to know for sure where you’re going when you die — and it might, of course, be nowhere,” Ken Jennings of “Jeopardy!” fame writes in “100 Places to See After You Die” — a compendium that provides informative insights into how various civilizations and cultures conceived of the afterlife.
August Mysteries Roundup: Readers in store for rattling twists and turns
When Americans embraced geographic mobility, abandoned longtime careers and saw their marriages disintegrate, summer neighborhood festivities lost their luster. That change defines Jamie Day’s début thriller, “The Block Party” (St. Martin’s, $28, 384 pages), in which murder crashes the bash. On Alton Road in Meadowbrook, Mass., residents live affluent lives. Near dusk at the end of the Memorial Day celebration, screaming sirens signal them that something is wrong.
Book review: Novel tells history of Jewish state with mix of fact, fiction
As Israel marks 75 years of independence — and the wars it has fought and won against its neighboring Arab states — it simultaneously acknowledges the continuing threat to its survival. The anniversary coincides with the publication of the second installment in Richmonder David L. Robbins’ projected multivolume series “The Promised Wars” — a history of the Jewish state and a gift to enthusiasts of historical fiction.
Book review: A courageous, creative take on lives of Brontë sisters
For a novelist to engage in literary experimentation requires initial boldness and enduring resolve. Rachel Cantor succeeds with energy and empathy in “Half-Life of a Stolen Sister,” in which familial eccentricity abounds, sorrow pervades and time wobbles. Centered on the three most-revered members of England’s Brontë family and their most-famous novels — Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “Agnes Grey” — Cantor’s third novel brims with insight and intensity.
July Mysteries Roundup: Buckle up for tales of suspense in the suburbs
Longtime lovers Kate Burkholder, the formerly Amish police chief of Painters Mill in Holmes County, Ohio, and John Tomasetti, an agent for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, are days away from their wedding, But events put the ceremony in doubt. As Linda Castillo’s “An Evil Heart” (Minotaur, $28, 320 pages) opens, both must prioritize their work. In Cleveland, two little girls have been kidnapped; in Painters Mill, a young Amish man is ambushed and brutally murdered by crossbow.
Book review: 'No Two Persons' tells pithy, powerful stories
Devoted bibliophiles remember and treasure the novels that impacted their lives. Each has the potential to disturb, influence or transform, an observation that seems obvious but merits a more expansive look. Erica Bauermeister directs her vision at those possibilities with elegance and example in her fifth work of fiction, “No Two Persons.” As the story begins, budding writer Alice Wein has moved from Oregon to Maine to attend college, where she studies creative writing.
Start summer with tales of suspense
Too many thrillers rely on a single factor - plot - to carry the novel. But not Polly Stewart's début in the genre, "The Good Ones" (Harper, $30, 304 pages). On Aug. 10, 2001, 23-year-old Lauren Ballard vanishes from fictional Tyndall County, a small locality in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Sixteen years later, a friend, Nicola Bennett, now 37 and out of work after teaching at several small colleges across the nation, returns to Tyndall, still haunted by Lauren's disappearance.
Find pleasure, peril in Sandford's 'Dark Angel'
Technology has made our lives so much easier. Consider bank robbers, for example. No longer do they need to case the joint, recruit a talented safecracker and enlist a speed demon for a clean getaway. Now, they can make easy money with ransomware attacks. That's the basis for "Dark Angel," the second entry in John Sandford's series starring 25-year-old Letty Davenport, the adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport from the author's long-running "Prey" series.
'The Trackers' a powerful, affecting novel of life in Depression era
Readers and critics are unlikely to reach unanimity on the identity of The Great American Novel, but they can agree on its defining aspects: a work of fiction set in a specific era that focuses on a topic central to the American experience. The fruits of Charles Frazier's labors fit those requirements. In his fifth novel, "The Trackers," he explores the Great Depression with a cast of characters who personify their time and are forged with empathy and honesty.
Stand-out thrillers we keep you captivated
The cover of Andrew Welsh-Huggins' first stand-alone book calls it "a crime novel." But that is a massive understatement. It's a captivating chronicle of carnage. As "The End of the Road" (The Mysterious Press, $26.95, 312 pages) begins, Myles has just been released from prison after serving time for being part of a group of men who robbed a bank and caused the cardiac death of a customer. Myles had negotiated a plea deal to finger Pryor as the ringleader.
Find death and danger in trio of whodunits
If deliberate cruelty is the only unforgivable sin, those who abuse children merit severe punishment. Many readers of Alex Finlay's third novel - "What Have We Done" (Minotaur, $27.99, 368 pages) - are likely to agree. As teenagers, Jenna Raines, Donnie Danger and Nico Adakai suffered terrible abuse at Savior House (Hellish House would be more accurate), a group home in Pennsylvania. They exacted retribution, and now each is targeted for death after 25 years of being out of touch.
'Homecoming' an intricate, suspenseful saga
Christmas Eve, 1959, Tambilla, Australia: Isabel and three of her children - Matilda, John and Evie - are found dead near a creekside swimming hole. A fourth, infant Thea, is missing. Dec. 7, 2018, London, England: Recently laid-off journalist Jessica Turner-Bridges learns that her 89-year-old grandmother, Nora, has suffered a bad fall at her home in Sydney. Jess, who was raised by Nora, leaves for Australia, where she discovers that her family and Isabel's are closely connected.
Find death and danger in trio of whodunits
If deliberate cruelty is the only unforgivable sin, those who abuse children merit severe punishment. Many readers of Alex Finlay's third novel - "What Have We Done" (Minotaur, $27.99, 368 pages) - are likely to agree. As teenagers, Jenna Raines, Donnie Danger and Nico Adakai suffered terrible abuse at Savior House (Hellish House would be more accurate), a group home in Pennsylvania. They exacted retribution, and now each is targeted for death after 25 years of being out of touch.
Late crime fiction writer's legacy will endure
The death of a favorite author inevitably leads to a bittersweet read. So it is with Peter Robinson, who died six months ago at 72. The British-Canadian writer, best known for his series featuring Detective Superintendent Alan Banks of England's Yorkshire area, consistently rewarded discerning readers with staggering talent and prodigious output.
Author sets out to correct the record of Poe's life, death
He was born in Boston in 1809, lived in Richmond, Philadelphia and New York, and died in Baltimore in 1849. But for Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia's capital was "the city of his heart," according to Mark Dawidziak's "A Mystery of Mysteries," a cleverly constructed biography that alternates between life and death chapters and in which Richmond plays a significant role. Poe's death, Dawidziak writes, was "one of the great literary stage exits of all time ...
Author weaves together tale of three women across centuries
In three different centuries, three Englishwomen suffer varying forms of imprisonment. In 1619, Altha Weyward is incarcerated while on trial for allegedly using witchcraft to spark a cattle stampede that killed a local farmer. In 1942, teenager Violet Ayres is under the strict control of her martinet father. In 2019, Kate Ayres - Violet's great-niece - opts to flee London to escape from her physically abusive boyfriend.
Mysteries roundup
For three decades, Deborah Crombie has won critical claim and popular success for her dexterity in creating brainy whodunits while developing an affecting account of a happily blended family. Those formidable talents continue in "A Killing of Innocents" (William Morrow, $30, 368 pages), the 19th installment featuring Scotland Yarders Duncan Kincaid and his wife, Gemma James.
Author sets out to correct the record of Poe's life, death
He was born in Boston in 1809, lived in Richmond, Philadelphia and New York, and died in Baltimore in 1849. But for Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia's capital was "the city of his heart," according to Mark Dawidziak's "A Mystery of Mysteries," a cleverly constructed biography that alternates between life and death chapters and in which Richmond plays a significant role. Poe's passing, Dawidziak writes, was "one of the great literary stage exits of all time ...
A trio of whodunits
For three decades, Deborah Crombie has won critical claim and popular success for her dexterity in creating brainy whodunits while simultaneously developing an affecting account of a happily blended family. Those formidable talents continue in "A Killing of Innocents" (William Morrow, $30, 368 pages), the 19th installment featuring Scotland Yarders Duncan Kincaid and his wife, Gemma James.
Story of small-town South is full of heart
If Southerners could vote on which bozo of botany should have been deported from Dixie, they might consider the person who introduced kudzu to the land of cotton. In Mimi Herman's debut novel, "The Kudzu Queen," 15-year-old Mathilda "Mattie" Lee Watson of Cooper County, North Carolina, will win your heart. Mattie lives on a cotton farm with her parents and two brothers, older Danny and younger Joey.
Chilling page-turners will keep you riveted this winter
If Armageddon were to convulse the Mideast, would the finale mark the eve of destruction - or the dawn of correction? The question - born of two disparate song titles of the Sixties - bears pondering while reading Peter Blauner's "Picture in the Sand" (Minotaur, $27.99, 352 pages), his ninth novel.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Jay
Contact Jay, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack