Joseph Koenig is an author of hard-boiled fiction. A former crime reporter, he won critical acclaim and an Edgar nomination for his first novel, FLOATER (1986), a grimly violent story of con men, cops and killers in the Everglades. His next two novels were LITTLE ODESSA, a tough, sexy crime thriller that takes the reader on a highly entertaining tour of New York City's sleazier side, and SMUGGLERS NOTCH (1989), a story of brutal murder in snowbound Vermont. In 1993 Koenig published his fourth novel, the groundbreaking BRIDES OF BLOOD, which won strong reviews for its elegant treatment of police procedure in Islamic Iran.

For nearly two decades after BRIDES OF BLOOD, Koenig did not publish. But in 2012 the pulp-style publishing house Hard Case Crime will release his newest novel, FALSE NEGATIVE, a rollicking mystery about a journalist who, like Koenig once did, writes for true-crime magazines.

Books by Joseph Koenig

Brides of Blood

by Joseph Koenig - Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery

In Iran’s Islamic Republic, Darius Bakhtiar is an alcoholic in a country where intoxication is punishable by whipping, and a homicide detective in a society that sees death as an opportunity for martyrdom. In Teheran, a young prostitute is found murdered, and Bakhtiar’s superiors tell him to make only a cursory inquiry. But what he uncovers points to a sickening hypocrisy at the heart of the fundamentalis.

False Negative

by Joseph Koenig - Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery

Reporter Adam Jordan comes across the biggest story of his life when he is first on the scene of the murder of a beauty pageant contestant on the beach near Atlantic City. The story, set in the pulp world of the early 1950s, is the first published book by mystery writer Joseph Koenig in 20 years.