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David Edgerley Gates

About

ABOUT

David Edgerley Gates lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The author of the Placido Geist bounty hunter stories, a series of noir Westerns, he is a past nominee for the Shamus, the Edgar, and the International Thriller Writers award. His short fiction appears regularly in ALFRED HITCHCOCK and ELLERY QUEEN mystery magazines, and has been widely anthologized. He recently completed THE BONE HARVEST, a sequel to his Cold War spy novel BLACK TRAFFIC, set in the early days of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and EXIT WOUNDS, a contemporary thriller about private security contractors marketing off-the-shelf services to the spook trade.  His next book is ABSOLUTE ZERO.

DEG posts a column every other week on SleuthSayers, a mystery writers' blog site.  He's a member of the Berlin Island Association, former military intelligence personnel assigned to West Berlin during the Cold War.  

 

“Many of my characters seem to me to be accidental, or at least uncalculated.  The old bounty hunter, for example, stepped into ‘The Undiscovered Country’ about fifteen pages in, without any warning.  I had no idea he was waiting in the wings.  Benny Salvador, on the other hand, was more deliberate, because he’s modeled in part on stories my friend David Salazar told me about his grandfather, who was a peace officer up in Rio Arriba county for many years.”

Books
Updates

Updates

Telemark - Sleuth Sayers Article

I've always had a soft spot for the 1965 war thriller Heroes of Telemark. Directed by Anthony Mann, first off, not to mention I'm a longtime Kirk Douglas fan, it's one of those outnumbered-commandoes-attack-Nazi-stronghold yarns, better than Where Eagles Dare, not quite in the same league as Guns of Navarone.

Wet Work Redux (the Saudi Sanction) -Sleuth Sayers Article

Russian military intelligence, the GRU, has always had an adversary relationship with KGB, state security, and in particular with KGB's foreign directorates. (Now known as SVR; the domestic side of the shop is the FSB.) GRU has an unhappy reputation for being ham-handed, and some of their more recent adventures seem to bear that reputation out.  ...

XPD - Sleuth Sayers Article

XPD is a usage coined by Len Deighton, in his terrific 1981 thriller of that title, an acronym for Expedient Demise.

A week ago Wednesday, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office confirmed that senior deputy prosecutor Saak Karapetyan had been killed in a helicopter crash outside of Kostroma.  ...

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In Print

IN PRINT

“Second Sight”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK Forthcoming 2019

“I Pray the Lord My Soul To Take”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK July/August 2018

“A Multitude of Sins”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK January/February 2018

“Cabin Fever”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK September/October 2017
- Anthologized in
   BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES
2018

   *Available for purchase HERE​

“The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK December
 2016

“Stone Soup”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
November 2016

“The Kneeling Nun”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
April 2016

“Crow Moon”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
March 2016

“In for a Penny”   

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK  July/August 2015

“A Crown of Thorns”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK April 2015

The Sleep of Death”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK December 2015

Shamus Nomination 2016/Best Story

“Stir Crazy”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK July/August 2014

“The Valley of the Shadow”  

- Andrew Scorah’s Anthology May 2014

  SHADOWS & LIGHT (UK)
*Available for purchase HERE​

“Jack Be Nimble”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK March 2014

“The Faraway Nearby”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK October 2013

“Jackknife”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK April 2013

“Old Man Gloom”
- ELLERY QUEEN
December 2012

“Crazy Eights”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
October 2012

“Burning Daylight”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
July/August 2012

“The Devil to Pay”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
April 2012
International Thriller Writers award nominee

 - Anthologized in 

   BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2013
*Available for purchase HERE 

“A Crown of Thorns”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK  April 2015

“Slipknot”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
November 2011

“Skin and Bones”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
October 2008
Edgar Award Nominee
- Anthologized in

  BETWEEN THE DARK AND

THE DAYLIGHT 2009
*Available for purchase HERE

“Set ‘Em Up, Joe”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
March 2008

“Step on a Crack”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
June 2007
  *Available as a free download HERE

“Blood Money”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
January/February 2007

“The Cottonwoods”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
October 2006

“Winter Kill”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK March 2004

“Aces and Eights”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK December 2003
Edgar Award Nominee
- Anthologized in

  WORLD’S FINEST MYSTERY AND 
  CRIME STORIES
2004
*Available for purchase 
HERE

 

“The Lion of the Chama”
- ELLERY QUEEN December 2003
EQ Annual Readers’ Poll Top Ten

 

“Smoke Follows a Liar”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK April 2003

“Medicine Water”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK September 2002

“The Devil You Know”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK April 2002

“The Blue Mirror”

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK December 2001
- Anthologized in

  BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2002
*Available for purchase HERE

 

“If I Die Before I Wake”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK July/August 2001

 

“The Navarro Sisters”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK February 2001

 

“This Little Piggy”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK December 2000

 

“Compass Rose”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK September 1999
- Anthologized in
  BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES
2000
*Available for purchase 
HERE

 

“Cover of Darkness”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK September 1998
*Available as a free download HERE

 

“Sidewinder”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK July/August 1998
Shamus Award Nominee

 

“Kick the Can”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK
June 1998

“Mile Zero”   

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK  November 1997

“The Undiscovered Country   

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK  August 1996

“Shroud Cay" 

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK  March 1993

“How to Electrocute an Elephant”
- STORY Magazine Summer 1992

“Inside Straight”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK October 1991

 

“China Blue”
- A MATTER OF CRIME 1987

 

“Dead Giveaway”
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK February 1980

(Written as John Macnab)

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