Thanks to everyone being patient with me updating the blog. I think in these days of twitter, facebook, instagram, etc. that blogging has started to become classic communication. And I've found lately following other writers, it's the only form these days that doesn't give me a headache. That much said, I hope to be better about updating this fall.

As most of you know, I wrapped up THE BROKEN PLACES book tour in June. I've been back home in Oxford, Mississippi for most of the summer and back to work on my third Spenser novel. As sure as the swallows return to Capistrano, Spenser will be back the first week of May, 2014.

And just for a little inside baseball, the forty-second Spenser story will be called CHEAP SHOT. The novel centers around Spenser's investigation of illegal activity around a New England Patriots player. And believe it or not, I had started the novel before the Aaron Hernandez case.

I've also been receiving a lot of mail in reference to the return of Quinn. Is this a Southern trilogy or will there be more? With that ending in The Broken Places? Are you kidding? Yep, Quinn will be back in a fourth novel that will be published late next summer with plenty more adventures in the gritty South to come.

I want to thank everyone who came out and said hello during the U.S. book tour. And I want to especially thank my teenage crush Adrienne Barbeau for sending me the greatest reader letter of all time. She by chance was reading the new Quinn Colson novel! The story noted that Jean Colson bragged she'd once smoked a joint with her and Jack Elam on the set on Cannonball Run. Now Ms. Barbeau did not confirm or deny if this event took place, but shared some wonderful stories about being on the set and some nice things to say about QC.

For a boys who grew up in the 80s, this is cool stuff.

-- Ace