About The Book
As you read along, be sure to dog-ear the pages bursting with Franscell’s gritty descriptions – a sentence, a paragraph or a page – of the silver-haired people and the gray places of rural Colorado in this raw, wintry crime novel.” —DAVID STEINBERG, Albuquerque Journal
Retired from a big-city homicide beat to a small Colorado mountain town, ex-detective Woodrow “Mountain” Bell yearns only to fade away. He’s failed in so many ways as a father, husband, friend, and cop that it might be too late for a meaningful life. When he stumbles across a long-forgotten, unsolved child murder, his first impulse is to let it lie … but he can’t. He’s drawn into the macabre mystery when he realizes the killer might still be near. Without help from ambivalent local cops, Bell must overcome the obstacles of time, age, and a lack of police resources by calling upon the unique skills of the end-of-the-road codgers he meets for coffee every morning—a club of old guys who call themselves Deaf Row. Soon, this motley crew finds itself on a collision course with a serial butcher.
Ron Franscell is well-known and justly revered for his brilliant, often elegant and always suspenseful non-fiction, but with DEAF ROW he breaks new ground and creates an immediately unforgettable new fictional character—Mountain Bell—who takes his place right near the top in the pantheon of thriller heroes. If you haven’t yet read Franscell, this is a fantastic place to start, in a novel of shattering power and a mystery that will take your breath away. Highly recommended!” —JOHN LESCROART, author of 19 NYTimes bestsellers, including THE 13th JUROR and THE MISSING PIECE
DEAF ROW is more than a tense mystery novel, more than an unnerving psychological thriller drawn from Ron Franscell’s career as a bestselling true-crime writer and journalist. It is also a novel of men pushing back against time and death, trying not to disappear entirely. DEAF ROW is a moving, occasionally humorous, portrait of flawed people caught in a web of pain and regret. And although you might think you know where this ghastly case is headed, the climax will blindside you.
Advanced Praise
Ron Franscell’s 'Deaf Row' tells a darkly engrossing story with masterful, easy-flowing prose and a clever infusion of humor. The tension builds incrementally to a chilling five-star climax in which Franscell puts his well-honed skill as a true crime author to good use. It gave me goosebumps big time. —ANNE HILLERMAN, Bestselling Mystery Author
A lot of people write about crime, but Ron Franscell is a real writer. He stands nearly alone in his ability to render a narrative with an undisputed gift for storytelling. —GREGG OLSEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell
I’m a fan of Ron Franscell’s works and I consider them ‘can’t-miss’ crime books. —CJ BOX, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Long Range and The Highway
It is well established that Ron Franscell is one of the stars of the true-crime genre in today’s publishing world. I’ve followed his career for many years, and have reached the conclusion that he could rewrite the telephone book (to the extent that it exists any more) and make it compelling. Ron is a wordsmith, plain and simple, and his second foray into crime fiction should be warmly welcomed by his legions of fans. —JOHN LESCROART, author of 19 NYTimes bestsellers, including The 13th Jurror and The Missing Piece
About The Author
Author Ron Franscell
Ron Franscell is an acclaimed journalist and the author of 19 books, including the international true-crime bestsellers The Darkest Night and ShadowMan: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling. His debut novelAngel Fire—a USA Today bestselling literary novel about two brothers’ necessary relationship and the wounds of war—was listed by the San Francisco Chronicle among the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century West.
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