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David Edgerley Gates

Photo credit: Justin Sachs

ABOUT

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David Edgerley Gates was born in Boston.  He makes his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The author of the Placido Geist bounty hunter stories, a series of noir Westerns, his short fiction has been nominated for the Shamus, the Edgar, and the International Thriller Writers award. He is a regular contributor to the mystery magazines ALFRED HITCHCOCK and ELLERY QUEEN, and has appeared four times in the annual Best American Mystery Stories anthology. 

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His novel The Bone Harvest, set in the early days of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, is a sequel to his Cold War spy thriller Black Traffic.  He is completing a trilogy of novellas: Viper, about a KGB deception in Berlin, at the time of Baader-Meinhof; The Kingdom of Wolves, which takes place during the Battle of the Bulge; and The Misfortunes of Octavio Medina, a murder mystery set in 1917 New Mexico.  His next book is Absolute Zero.

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DEG was stationed in West Berlin at the height of the Cold War.  He was a Russian linguist in the Air Force, targeting the Soviet military in Eastern Europe and the Warsaw Pact satellite services.  He’s a member of the Berlin Island Association and the 6912th ESG Veterans, made up of former intelligence personnel who worked in Berlin.  The job was a tripwire, like the place itself.

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David currently writes two online columns.  The first one alternates weeks on  SleuthSayers, a mystery-writing blog where authors talk about the craft of storytelling - setting and voice, character, dumb luck, and coincidence.  His second column, The School of Night, is baggier and more shaggy dog; a framing device for any number of enthusiasms, history and literature, politics and the personal, spycraft and sleight of hand.  It appears twice weekly on Substack.  

 

“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.”

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NOVELS & NOVELLAS

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“Let’s review the bidding,” the First Shirt said. “You got Schaefer, you got Axel Stern, and now you got some Limey.”

“Not just any Limey, but SIS,” Andy said.

“I picked up on that up first time around,” Kowalczek said. “You research his workname, VALENTINE?”

“Didn’t get a direct hit, but here’s the skinny,” Andy told him. “This so-called FIREFLY mission was joint US/UK. Our own service cryptologic agencies provided the intelligence, although operationally it was a Brit show.”

“And, fortuitously, you’ve got a contact at Marienfelde.”

Andy smiled. ‘Fortuitously’ was one of those ten-dollar words the First Shirt sprung on you from time to time, just to remind you he wasn’t your run-of-the-mill lifer. Marienfelde was the US Air Force secure site that intercepted Soviet and Warsaw Pact encrypted military communications. “Turns out that American sources hipped the Brits to what they had, after the plane crash. The dive team that went in, one guy was caught underwater in the wreck, drowned, and a second diver got his arm chopped off. VALENTINE was in charge on the surface, and he compromised mission security to rescue the second diver. He’s a pro, but he’s not some heartless scumbag.”

“Heartless scumbags are thick on the ground in this line of work,” Kowalczek said.

The presidential palace was cold and empty. There were KGB or Spetsnaz sentries on the landings, back in Russian uniform, desert camo, but there was no sense of lives being lived in the building. Vlasov’s bootsteps echoed in the marble stairwells. Down a long, deserted corridor, he found Colonel Kirilenko in an abandoned office. There was a wood stove, and Kirilenko was burning broken furniture. The charred upholstery smoldered, and the room was smoky.

“Colonel,” Vlasov said.

Kirilenko nodded. “Back from the dead,” he said.

“Paroled, not pardoned,” Vlasov said.

“No,” the Spetsnaz colonel said. They’d both suffered disgrace, exile, and eventual redemption, but they had little in common. Kirilenko wore the smell of death like smoke.

“When can the president move in?” Vlasov asked.

“Here? How does never sound?”

“I can’t chaperone him twenty-four hours a day.”

Kirilenko shook his head. “Tajbeg palace is being equipped as headquarters, 40th Army,” he said.

“Where does the president go, then?”

“Does your Afghan not understand that he’s a puppet?”

“He needs the pretense of dignity,” Vlasov said.

“Moscow requires a pretense of dignity,” Kirilenko said.

“We understand each other.”

“The residence can be prepared, then.”

“Thank you.”

Ne stoit,” the colonel said. No cost to him, it meant.

Vlasov turned to leave, but turned back. “What happened to the previous tenants?” he asked the Spetsnaz colonel.

“Food poisoning,” Kirilenko said.

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CIA. Berlin Operations Base, in Steglitz.

“The girl is a low-ranking KGB officer, assigned to Karlshorst. The guy is a serious Moscow Center hood, with what you might call coat-tails.” Waldo sorted out the surveillance photographs. “A major named Petrokhin. He flew into Schönefeld yesterday. She met him.”

Chief of Station was a guy named Yarnell. “Okay,” he said. “Anything else?”

“Karlshorst has been asleep, the last couple of years,” the analyst said. “For whatever reason. But they’re waking up.”

“Russians have got something in play,” Yarnell said.

“No other way to read it,” Waldo said.

“What do we have on this Major Petrokhin?”

“He’s shown up, here and there, but he doesn’t leave any handwriting. He’s attached to First Chief Directorate, foreign intelligence, which means everything and nothing. He could be middle management, or internal security. Or he could be a hired gun.”

“Wet Work?”

“If he’s managed leper operations, there’s no footprint.”

“He’s here for a reason, and it can’t be good,” the station chief said. 

The sentinel was crusted with ice. He kept his sightless watch in cold silence, unyielding and stern. His flesh was waxen, his limbs stiff enough to snap. He’d been dead for days.

Vogel glassed the long, steep-sided valley below them. This was where the Amblève hooked north, toward Liège, with the Bâleur and the Salm feeding into it. Three rivers. The village itself was called Trois-Ponts.

The morning was dirty and grey, snow squalls blowing off the wooded ridgelines. Visibility was down to a quarter-mile, but it was patchy, breaking apart, the odd clear line of sight before the weather closed in again. He was able to see occasional movement in the town, men and vehicles – but trucks, not armor. They were American engineers, mining the bridges. They weren’t reinforced with tanks. Vogel thought he might have the element of surprise.

One of the Feldwebel from the rifle platoon was standing by. The squad sergeant was regular Army, not SS, only attached to the spearhead in the run-up to the offensive, but Vogel had no reason not to trust him. A good NCO was always an asset. Vogel rehearsed their tactics, and sent him to ready the men.

The rest was in hands of God. Vogel wasn’t religious, but like most soldiers, he had his share of superstition. He studied the frozen sentry, waiting to be relieved. Vogel doubted his own heart would thaw. “Father Christmas,” he murmured, with a small smile, and sketched a salute.

The dead man gave no sign he’d heard.

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Recent Blogs

MAGAZINES

"Shuffle Off to Buffalo"

- Anthologized in

MURDER, NEAT February 2024

“Second Sight”  

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK July/August 2020

“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)

LINKS OF INTEREST

ALFRED HITCHCOCK MYSTERY MAGAZINE
http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/

ELLERY QUEEN MYSTERY MAGAZINE
http://www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/

MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA
http://www.mysterywriters.org/

INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS
http://thrillerwriters.org/

STOP YOU’RE KILLING ME
http://stopyourekillingme.com/

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