Teran, Boston

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TERAN, Boston

PERSONAL: Born in New York, NY.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, St. Martin's Minotaur, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Stephen Crane Literary First Fiction Award, 1999, Mystery Writers of America Award for Best First Novel, 1999, and CWA John Creasey Award for Best First Novel, 2000, all for God Is a Bullet; International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2001; Fiction Novel of the Year Award and Crime Novel of the Year Award, Fiction Lovers Association of Japan, 2002.

WRITINGS:

God Is a Bullet, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), 1999.

Never Count out the Dead, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2001.

The Prince of Deadly Weapons, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Born in the Bronx, Boston Teran claims to have led many lives before he began writing novels. He comes from an Italian family that includes gamblers, con men, number runners, and thieves, and his travels around the world have taken him to unsavory locations as often as not. The places he has seen and the people he has met inspire his writing, providing him with ideal background material for his noir thrillers. The title for his first book came from a bit of graffiti on the wall of a bar in Thailand, and portions of the plot were based on the life of a nineteen-year-old former cult member whom a friend smuggled out of Mexico. Teran's gambling-addicted father inspired, in part, his second novel.

God Is a Bullet, Teran's first novel, follows Bob Hightower as he searches for his daughter Gabi after her mother and step-father are murdered in their home and Gabi disappears. He enlists the help of Case Hardin, an ex-junkie and ex-cult member, and together they enter the world of The Left-handed Path, a violent Satanic cult. Rebecca House Stankowski of Library Journal found the book "at once silly and distasteful," and Vanessa Bush, in a review for Booklist, called it "a testosterone-pumped novel of violence and revenge, with a little redemption mixed in." Fiona Walker, in a review for Mystery Ink, commented of God Is a Bullet that "the writing style is addictive, and shoots into the veins like a drug you cannot get enough of. Boston Teran has a beautifully dark way with words and his use of metaphor raises the device to an art form." LA Weekly contributor Greg Burk remarked that "on its surface, God Is a Bullet is no more than a pulp potboiler," but went on to state that "Teran fires away until you really feel his story. Throughout his in-your-socks present-tense narrative, Teran's language is obsessively musical and novel." He concluded that "Teran is trying to do something . . . and for most of the book he succeeds. He has written a bloody thriller that displays literary ambitions beyond its caste." Teran won several awards for his debut effort, including the Crime Writers of America's John Creasey Award for a best first novel.

With Never Count out the Dead, Teran continues in the thriller genre. The story starts out with Dee Storey forcing her thirteen-year-old daughter Shay to become an accomplice to a murder—that of Victor Sully, the sheriff of a small nearby town. However, Sully does not die, and Shay witnesses him clawing out of his shallow grave as she and her mother are leaving. Sully survives, but other circumstances lead him to leave town in the middle of the night, penniless. Years later, another murder is linked to the attempt on Sully's life and signs begin to point to a conspiracy. Sully ends up returning home to help with the investigation. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly remarked that Teran's book "cements his status as a pulp virtuoso with a gothic sensibility," and Connie Fletcher of Booklist called it "nightmarish and utterly absorbing."

The Prince of Deadly Weapons recounts the adventures of Dane Rudd, a young man who is claimed as the long lost son of several people following a cruel accident, and Taylor Green, who is murdered on the other side of the country, and how their stories interconnect. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called it "an archly overwritten and confusing book," stating that "although there are a few early flashes of the originality that made Teran's first two novels so exciting, these very quickly degrade into sloppy poetry." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews remarked that the novel is "larded with one-dimensional characters and written in pretentious, occasionally incomprehensible pseudolit prose." More enthusiastic, Booklist reviewer Frank Sennett commented that the novel "heralds a bright literary talent—one that just needs a bit more polishing." However, Bob Rhubart, in Bookreporter.com, remarked that the novel "delivers the award-winning author's trademark cast of finely drawn, deeply flawed characters, murky morality, and flat-out nasty violence, all presented at a carefully metered pace that maintains just the right anxious buzz from first page to last."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 1999, Vanessa Bush, review of God Is a Bullet, p. 942; March 15, 2001, Connie Fletcher, review of Never Count out the Dead, p. 1359; November 15, 2002, Frank Sennett, review of The Prince of Deadly Weapons, p. 581.

Entertainment Weekly, April 9, 1999, Margot Mifflin, review of God Is a Bullet, p. 70.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2002, review of The Prince of Deadly Weapons, p. 1424.

LA Weekly, April 30-May 6, 1999, Greg Burk, "Helter Swelter: Blood, Sand, and the First Temptation of Boston Teran."

Library Journal, March 15, 1999, Rebecca House Stankowski, review of God Is a Bullet, p. 111.

New York Times Book Review, July 18, 1999, Jonathon Keats, review of God Is a Bullet, p. 19.

Publishers Weekly, February 8, 1999, review of God Is a Bullet, p 192; April 30, 2001, review of Never Count out the Dead, p. 57; October 7, 2002, review of The Prince of Deadly Weapons, p. 51.