SERPENTS IN THE COLD and WE WERE KINGS Press & Copy Reviews:

“This is a bone-crunching, gut-wrenching novel that captures the atmosphere of a city in decay and its inhabitants. IT delivers noir fiction like we always want it to be.” – KIRKUS REVIEWS

“Brutally realistic….The authors give us one last, lingering look at the good-bad old days.” Marilyn Stasio, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“A great addition to the canon of gritty Boston street fiction.” Chuck Hogan, author of THE TOWN

“In the best noir tradition, (Purdy and O’Malley) shine a smoky light on lives often lived in the shadows; in this case, the inhabitants who lived in Scollay Square and the West End of Boston, before it all disappeared under the developers’ wrecking ball/” – Carol Iaciofano, WBUR

“Melancholy as a lonesome train whistle, beautifully writeen as well as thrilling, Serpents in the Cold is a tight little gem of characterization and suspense. You need this!” – Joe Lansdale, author of THE BOTTOMS and PARADISE SKY

“SERPENTS IN THE COLD is a magnificent work. The seamless collaboration between authors Thomas O’Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy results in a cinematic narrative that unreels in a riveting manner, leaving an imprint on the reader’s memory that is unlikely to fade any time soon.” – BOOKREPORTER

“There is a classic noir sensibility at work in Serpents in the Cold, complete with its uncannily rendered sense of time and place, but the novel is also suffused with a thoroughly modern understanding of loss, pain, damage and the price of loyalty. It’s not often you get to pair gritty with lyrical, but you certainly do here.” Alan Glynn, author of LIMITLESS

“Serpents in the Cold is a startling work of art, a beautifully rendered, atmospheric tale of crime and punishment set in mid-twentieth century Boston. The crimes perpetrated are as much of the heart and soul as of the system and the worst punishments, as always, self-inflicted.” Reed Farrel Coleman, award-winning of Robert B. Parker’s BLIND SPOT

“Like Sara Gran’sDope, Serpents in the Cold lovingly revisits the hardboiled noir. From the dives of Dorchester to the Locke-Ober Café, John Garfield and Richard Widmark would feel right at home in O’Malley and Purdy’s bygone, fallen Boston.” Stewart O’Nan, author of WEST OF SUNSET

“The murder of an innocent young woman turns into murder of an entirely different sort in this hair-raising tale of two wounded men squeezed by changing times. Purdy and O’Malley resurrect the neighborhoods of 1950s Boston in faithful, brutal detail — and in language so lush and gorgeous that you’ll fall in love with reading it all over again.” Elisabeth Elo, author of NORTH OF BOSTON

“[O’Malley and Purdy] excel at the language of their characters. . . . Nothing is innocent, and nobody is what he or she seems.” BOSTON GLOBE

“This brilliant second entry in the Boston Saga sizzles . . . This stunning narrative will enrapture fans of James Crumley and the astonishingly deep and dark Sara Gran.” Booklist (starred review)

“Well-written . . . Written with verve . . . Strikingly visual with a very readable style.” Benjamin Boulden, MYSTERY SCENE

“The authors deliver noir done well in dark-city descriptions and a cast of damaged characters.” KIRKUS REVIEWS on WE WERE KINGS

“The first thing I have to say is that the writing in this book is absolutely stunning. In fact, it took me quite a while to get through the first 100 pages because I was mesmerized by the language. I marveled at the way these gentlemen construct a sentence, a paragraph. This is writing the way it should be–gorgeous even in its darkness…….I think the first 50 pages should be required reading for anyone who wants to write mysteries or thrillers. I just with these authors had cut about 150 pages from the book and given me some characters I could have rooted for.” – Goodreads reviewer with an enthusiastic 2-star rating