Rusch, Sheldon M.

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Rusch, Sheldon M.

PERSONAL: Born in Augusta, GA; married; wife's name Katie (a poet and musician); children: Shannon, Michaela, Jackson. Education: University of Wisconsin, B.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—1510 W. El Rancho Dr., #97N, Mequon, WI 53092-5623. Agent—Sarah Lazin Books, 126 5th Ave., Ste. 300, New York, NY 10011. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: BVK Advertising, Glendale, WI, advertising copywriter. Yoga instructor, 1968–.

WRITINGS:

For Edgar (novel), Berkley Prime Crime (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: A lifelong interest in the works of nineteenth-century American writer Edgar Allan Poe led Sheldon M. Rusch to write his debut novel, For Edgar. On his home page, Rusch noted that, as he studied Poe's life and works, he became awed "with [Poe's] absolute brilliance not only as a composer of the tales and poems, but as a scholar, philosopher, and visionary." In For Edgar, a homicide investigator named Elizabeth Taylor Hewitt enlists the help of a professor friend to solve a grisly series of murders, each based on a different short story by Poe. The murderer, who calls himself the Raven, leaves clues with the corpses, and she eventually threatens Hewitt and her partner. "Hewitt is a refreshing new character," noted Deborah Hern on the Romance Reader's Connection Web site. Hern liked the way Hewitt proves "competent and compassionate, never coming across as some kind of woman-in-charge caricature."

Several reviewers reacted favorably to For Edgar. For instance, a Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the title is "a startlingly effective debut, and an obvious candidate for its own Edgar," referring to the annual award for best mystery novel. In Publishers Weekly a critic called the book "sharply written" and commended its heroine's "hilariously outspoken" personality. Rex E. Klett concluded in Library Journal that For Edgar is an "excellent first novel [that] offers a modern-day rendering of old horrors."