Riding Through Paris

My twenty-six-year-old son Charlie and I decided to spend the Christmas-New Year holidays of 2006 - 07 in Paris, breaking away this once from our usual tradition of doing the holidays in our native, snowy New Hampshire. Despite the fact that I have an apartment in Paris and despite the unusually cold weather, both Charlie and I felt inclined to get out a good deal in the evening. (Paris is brilliantly lit and wonderfully festive at this time of yearl.) During our nocturnal wanderings, we encountered an African cab driver with a PhD in Economics. We found him very engaging and insightful concerning the current state of his homeland as well as that of the US and France. Here is a short video Charlie took of my conversation with the driver. Enjoy!

What People Are Saying About "Birds of Prey"

Comments from an "Average Reader":

"I could not put down Lawrence Kinsman's new crime novel Birds of Prey – not to answer the phone, not to run errands, not to hold a shelf while my husband nailed it securely into place – not even to make lunch. Mr. Kinsman's writing is smooth and fast moving, often funny and charming and shockingly insightful. His cop characters are likeable. But make no mistake, this book can be every bit as gruesome and intense as Patricia Cornwell at her bloodiest. The plot twists come fast and hit hard. Sylvie Kaplan is completely, messily human. In other words, this is not just a crime novel; it's a real novel-novel. A recent rave review in the PORTSMOUTH NEW HAMPSHIRE HERALD – the article that tipped me off to the book's existence – announced that Birds of Prey is to be the first novel in a long series. I'm not sure I can wait for the next one!"

- Deborah Letourneau, Dover, New Hampshire



Comments from the "Experts":

"Lawrence Kinsman's Birds of Prey has it all – sex love, betrayal, murder, money, guns, and Byzantine intrigue – all our favorites - wondrously mixed with ethnicity, gender issues, the class war, and a beautiful woman detective who spits one liners like George Carlin. An irresistible read."

– Eugene K. Garber, author of The Historian



"Birds of Prey is a brilliantly and tightly plotted contemporary American crime novel, a superb page turner. Detective Sylvie Kaplan is, by the way, more than likely to blow Kay Scarpetta clean out of the water."

– Robert J. Begiebing, author of The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin



"Bird of Prey's dual story lines – one concerning high-tech international weapons trafficking and the other a series of brutal murders of lesbian couples – propel this volatile narrative like twin NASA booster rockets. The two crime lines run their parallel courses, finally intersecting to give us a stunning vision of the Janus face of evil in all its hideousness and banality. Even more compelling than the ongoing bloodbath, however, is the novel's extraordinary heroine, Boston Homicide Detective Sylvie Kaplan. She is brilliant, beautiful, bisexual, and a single mother. And like all literary detectives, she swears her allegiance to law and order while fearing that her daily efforts to keep chaos at bay are no more than a punishing exercise in futility. Setting aside her existential terrors hour by hour, she pushes on, dealing with an abruptly departing fiancé, poopy diapers, a bossy bourgeois mother, media harassment, a rather slow-witted captain, and a small army of professional killers. The peculiar limits of the detective genre do not prevent this writer from developing characters of genuine complexity and depth. In fact, Kinsman's rich characterizations and keen observation of significant physical detail nearly bring the detective novel into the realm of literary fiction."

– Edmund White, author of The Married Man