GM Ford - The Author, not the Bailout

It’s always fun to discover a new author and then watch him or her grow and evolve over the years. It’s even more fun when that author gets better with each new book, especially when writing and publication risks are involved.

I think I first discovered G.M. Ford (I have no idea if that is his real name!) sometime in 1997, several months after the release of his first mystery novel in 1996 – Who the Hell Is Wanda Fuca? Set in Seattle, it was the first in a series of six novels featuring private investigator Leo Waterman.
One of the innovative aspects of Leo Waterman’s investigative technique was the use of a group of middle-aged, semi-inebriated, homeless people as unofficial field operatives. By the mid-nineties, the homeless had become so prevalent in Seattle that G.M. Ford’s little fictional band was quite believable in being able to “operate under a cloak of cultural invisibility,” and thus help Waterman solve crimes. Kind of like Sherlock Holmes’ use of the Baker Street Irregulars.

With six successful books in the series, Ford changed course in 2001, taking a huge risk. He ended the Leo Waterman series, which was somewhat light and funny, and introduced an entirely different character in an entirely different series – Frank Corso, a dark, renegade journalist with a conscience that gets him into trouble.

The risk, of course, was giving up a sure thing with a great publishing track record, and wondering if his loyal fans would follow him in his new literary direction. Well, they did. The Frank Corso has been as successful, if not more so, as the Leo Waterman series.

But wait – it gets even better. Last year, Ford released his first stand-alone novel – Nameless Night – a thriller featuring a man with no name and no past, who is at the center of a conspiracy so pervasive that he's forced to run from the only home he's ever known in his search for the truth.
The paperback edition of Nameless Night has just been released and I have to admit I devoured it in one sitting. One of the best books I’ve read so far this year. But now I can’t wait until the next Frank Corso book is published.

Seriously, if you like the thriller/suspense/mystery genres and haven’t yet discovered G.M. Ford, do yourself a favor – check him out.