Hello. I write novels and screenplays and very occasionally, short stories and comic-books.
My new latest novel, Sunset Swing, was published in paperback last year. It’s the final instalment in the multi-award-winning ‘City Blues Quartet’.
It won two daggers at this year’s CWA (Crime Writer Association) awards:
- The Golden Dagger for best crime novel of the year
- The Historical Dagger for best historical novel of the year
I’m absolutely chuffed to receive such prestigious awards. You can read more about it on the CWA’s website here and there’s a lovely write up in the bookseller here.
Maxim Jakubowski, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: “This is a book bursting with heart, soul and spirit, at once all-encompassing and intimate, superbly paced and immaculately constructed. It’s a testimony to this book that Ray has scooped not just one, but two CWA Daggers.”
It’s also had a great response from reviewers:
- The Times ‘Books of the Year’
- The Financial Times ‘Books of the Year’
- Five Star review in The Sunday Telegraph
- The Sunday Times ‘Historical Novel of the Month’
- The Times ‘Thriller of the Month’
Responses to Sunset Swing
“Celestin’s most dizzying accomplishment, a truly epic crime chronicle.”
The Financial Times
“Sunset Swing may be an ode to the classics of hard-boiled noir, but it has more than enough rhythm of its own to take its place beside them.”
The Times
“Here ends one of the finest achievements in modern crime fiction.”
The Sunday Telegraph
“A book that brilliantly combines the page-turning tension of the best crime fiction with a panoramic portrait of a city in the midst of profound social change”
Sunday Times
“Sunset Swing brings Ray Celestin’s brilliant City Blues Quartet to an end in quite some style… The best book in a quite remarkable series.”
The Quietus
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The Mobster’s Lament
The previous novel, ‘The Mobster’s Lament‘ is already out in paperback. It’s the third instalment in the series.
‘The Mobster’s Lament’ was featured as one of the ‘Books of the Year’ by both The Times and The i newspapers, and was also The Times’ Book of the Month. The Daily Express called it a “contender for book of the year” and it was shortlisted for Best Crime Novel of the Year at the Amazon Publishing Capital Crime Festival.
Its backdrop is New York’s nightlife in the late 1940s. A noirish world of rainy nights, neon lights, bebop clubs and wise-guy detectives. You can find out more about it by clicking here.
