"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 author of the Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito mysteries

"A line-up that begs to be part of a movie. Author Ron Franscell, who writes both fiction and nonfiction, creates an endearing group of old men in a gripping story of a psychotic killer." — DENVER POST

"I'm a big 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

"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." —ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

"A first-class mystery!" —JORDAN RICH, host at WBZ-AM/Boston

"DEAF ROW is a self-aware, clever police procedural with a riveting climax, but what truly sets this mystery apart is its wonderfully realized characters. Franscell explores struggles with aging, death and friendship with poignant prose, humor and affection and has given us yet another gem of a book that's impossible to put down. I fell in love with these guys in DEAF ROW!" —CHRISTINE CARBO, bestselling author of A SHARP SOLITUDE

"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

"...an undisputed gift for storytelling." —GREGG OLSEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of IF YOU TELL

"A solid mystery that will keep readers rooting for [Woodrow] Bell and his band of retirees. For fans of Craig Johnson, CJ Box and Meg Gardiner." —LIBRARY JOURNAL

"A fantastic whodunit, but that's only part of what makes it so good ... it's also a story about aging, redemption, friendship, and connection. Finishing DEAF ROW was bittersweet; satisfying, yet like saying goodbye to a group of folks I'd come to care about like family." —OIL CITY NEWS, Casper WY

"By the second paragraph of Deaf Row, I was invested. ... I can't say enough about Deaf Row, except that I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. Ron Franscell is one of our finest modern literary masters and this book proves it." —Robert Waters' KIDNAPPING, MURDER & MAYHEM BLOG

"A stroke of genius ... I fell in love with these characters." —TIM DENNIS, host at Darkness Radio

"Horrifying and hysterical! Smart writing and colorful characters from one of crime's best storytellers." —MYSTERYVOX

From the Author

"In the end, DEAF ROW is a classical mystery but it also dives into the lives of old people whose best days are behind them, whom we see every day but no longer actually notice. It's been either the blessing or the curse of my book-writing career: I just don't want to do it like everybody else is doing it. I blended journalism and novel technique in my true crime, and in DEAF ROW, I wanted to blend commercial crime fiction with a kind of literary exploration of men who have outlived their best days and who are now growing invisible to the rest of the world. So, yeah, DEAF ROW is an up-market fiction that should appeal to both suspense fans and to fans of more literary storytelling."

LEE GOLDBERG -- MONK, DIAGNOSIS MURDER, AND NOW THE EVE RONIN SERIES! Great show with Burl's nephew Lee Goldberg.

True Crime Uncensored with Burl Barer and Mark BoyerBy Burl BarerDec 25, 2020