Sykes, Jerry

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Sykes, Jerry

PERSONAL:

Born in Yorkshire, England.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England.

CAREER:

Writer and editor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Macallan Short Story Dagger, Crime Writers' Association, 1998, for "Roots," and 2003, for "Closer to the Flame"; Edgar Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America, 2007, for "Colour Me Blood" and "Penguin Island," and 2008, for "Personal Space" and Lose This Skin.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Mean Time, Bloodlines (London, England), 1998.

Lose This Skin, (mystery novel), Five Star (Waterville, ME), 2007.

Contributor to anthologies, including Love Kills, 1997, and The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, 2000. Contributor of stories to periodicals, including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jerry Sykes, an award-winning British author of mystery fiction, published his debut novel, Lose This Skin, in 2007. "As a reader I have always been drawn to the loner," Sykes wrote in the Shots e-zine, adding that "when it came to creating my own leading man I felt that I needed a good reason for him to be acting alone." In Lose This Skin, Sykes introduces Detective Inspector Frank Roscoe, who is on medical leave seven months after his foot was shattered in a drive-by shooting. Still suffering the psychological effects of the incident, Roscoe spends his days at the Echo Barn bar in Camden Town, the scene of the crime, hoping to find a witness who caught a glimpse of his assailant. After an old acquaintance, Rhiannon Burns, asks Roscoe to look into the death of her young son, who was killed by a speeding police car, he reluctantly agrees. As his investigation proceeds, the detective comes to believe that while the boy's death was accidental, the police vehicle was actually targeting another pedestrian. "Sykes writes these characters with rare compassion and understanding," noted Dazed Digital contributor Cathi Unsworth. According to Booklist reviewer David Pitt, Lose This Skin "combines investigation with introspection, and the straightforward style keeps things moving at a nice clip."