Twelve Days of Bookmas: Reed Farrel Coleman

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR's Maureen Corrigan and noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman teaches writing classes in mystery fiction and the novel at Hofstra University, and has served as executive vice-president of Mystery Writers of America. He's published novels in three series and one stand-alone (with award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen). Reed is a three-time winner of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year. He's also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar Award.

Reed's latest novel, Hurt Machine, is the seventh installment in his popular Moe Praeger series featuring the ex-NYPD cop turned reluctant PI (and sometime wineseller). Praeger, who's just learned he has stomach cancer, also has to deal with a request from ex-wife and former PI partner Carmella Melendez to solve the murder of Carmella's estranged sister. Hurt Machine is being offered as a free ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, from December 20-24th.

Reed's holiday offering is titled "A Jew's First Christmas":

I’ve never been a big believer in the well-intentioned but misguided attempts to equate Christmas and Chanukah. Christmas is a major Christian holiday whereas Chanukah isn’t a very important holiday at all. Let’s face it, the birth of the son of God vs. some oil that lasted eight days instead of one or two is a big mismatch. Passover and Easter are a much better pairing. That’s not to say I wasn’t envious of my Catholic friends—not many Protestants back in my old Brooklyn neighborhood—at Christmas. Sure, I wanted all those presents too, and a tree, but those weren’t the things I was most jealous of. Even back then, it was the spirit of the season I craved. Somehow, the spirit I saw on display in movies, on TV, in commercials, and print ads always eluded me.

Then, when I was eighteen and a freshman at Brooklyn College, I began dating a woman named Margaret whom I’d met at a summer job. She came from a big Catholic family and though I can’t imagine I was the dream match for their daughter, her parents and family made me a part of their Christmas preparations. I had no idea how early you had to start shopping and getting ready for the holiday. For the first time I saw it really wasn’t about the gifts, but about getting the right gifts to show you cared. Gifts were more than the things themselves. They were meant to be symbolic. I really got into it. I went to midnight mass with Margaret and got a better understanding of the beauty of the rituals of the Catholic faith. I did the whole unwrapping gifts thing on Christmas morning. But the thing I will never ever forget is that Margaret’s parents gave me a jade chai—a combination of two Hebrew letters that symbolize life and good fortune. Apparently, that Christmas had been as important to them as it had been to me.

I have since lost that chai, but never the gift of receiving it.

Favorite Charity: The March of Dimes (originally founded to fight polio and now fighting to prevent birth defects and infant mortality).