Sam Reaves

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Sam Reaves

Goodreads Author


Born
in The United States
Website

Genre

Member Since
April 2012


Aka Dominic Martell.

Sam Reaves has written ten novels, most set in Chicago, and co-authored the true crime memoir Mob Cop. Under the name Dominic Martell he writes a European-based suspense series featuring Pascual Rose, and ex-terrorist trying to go straight. Reaves has traveled widely in Europe and the Middle East but has lived in the Chicago area most of his life. He has worked as a teacher and a translator.
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Popular Answered Questions

Sam Reaves Yup. You got it. "Warrensburg" is a fictionalized Galesburg. I didn't want to use real names because I didn't want people trying to guess who the char…moreYup. You got it. "Warrensburg" is a fictionalized Galesburg. I didn't want to use real names because I didn't want people trying to guess who the characters might be based on. All the characters and story elements are completely made up. But I tried to give an authentic impression of life in the area.(less)
Sam Reaves The question is interesting. I have to say that I've been fortunate in not having a lot of serious personal drama in my life that might provide materi…moreThe question is interesting. I have to say that I've been fortunate in not having a lot of serious personal drama in my life that might provide material for a crime novel. The closest I've come to using an incident from my own life was when I heard of the suicide of a high school classmate and subsequently heard that there were suspicions that it might actually have been a murder, with the suicide staged. I never heard any details, but the idea alone sparked the plot of my first novel, A Long Cold Fall.(less)
Average rating: 3.71 · 5,012 ratings · 463 reviews · 24 distinct worksSimilar authors
Cold Black Earth

3.69 avg rating — 4,071 ratings — published 2015 — 8 editions
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Running in the Dark

3.76 avg rating — 415 ratings — published 2018 — 5 editions
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Homicide 69

4.31 avg rating — 71 ratings — published 2006 — 10 editions
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A Long Cold Fall (Cooper Ma...

by
3.87 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 1994 — 12 editions
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Mean Town Blues: A Novel of...

3.61 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1991 — 9 editions
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Fear Will Do It

3.68 avg rating — 28 ratings7 editions
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Bury it Deep

3.84 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1993 — 12 editions
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Dooley's Back: A Novel of C...

4.24 avg rating — 17 ratings5 editions
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Get What's Coming

3.64 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1995 — 5 editions
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Stalking Horse (Cooper MacL...

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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More books by Sam Reaves…

Stalking Horse

Sometimes it takes a while…
Thirty years ago I was a young writer just trying to learn the business. (Now, of course, I’m an old writer still trying to learn the business.) In 1994 Putnam had published my first four novels, a crime series featuring a Chicago taxi driver named Cooper MacLeish. The first book, A Long Cold Fall, was never intended to be a series; I thought I was writing a stand-alone. Read more of this blog post »
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Published on November 03, 2024 08:55
A Long Cold Fall Fear Will Do It Bury it Deep Get What's Coming
(4 books)
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3.79 avg rating — 103 ratings

Sam’s Recent Updates

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The Last King of California by Jordan Harper
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I really liked Jordan Harper's Everybody Knows with its razor-sharp dissection of Los Angeles celebrity culture craziness, and I quickly grabbed this one, his previous novel. Here he takes on a different kind of California crazy-- not the big-money, ...more
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The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day
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Lori Rader-Day writes sharp, smart novels about people with troubled lives. There's always a mystery at the heart of the story, but the real interest is how her people strive for resolution or redemption. This one is a particularly tangled tale, told ...more
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The China Governess by Margery Allingham
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I discovered Margery Allingham many years ago and have read most of the books several times; my eye fell on this one recently and I realized I hadn't read it in decades and remembered very little about it. Revisiting it passed a few pleasant evenings ...more
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The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton
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Family dramas are not a genre I'm particularly inclined to, but when a well-read friend told me it was one of her favorite books, I took notice. First published in 1962, the novel has been highly praised, particularly by Jane Smiley, whose A Thousand ...more
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Surprise, Kill, Vanish by Annie Jacobsen
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Is the CIA an intelligence agency that gathers valuable information about our nation's enemies, or is it a ruthless paramilitary entity that uses violence to achieve results our government doesn't want to pursue publicly? The answer, of course, is th ...more
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Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
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Los Angeles in all its anarchic, extravagant, seamy glory is a Petri dish for crime stories, and writers such as Robert Ferrigno and Joe Ide have long skimmed the exotic culture to craft a sub-genre you might call LA Crazy. Now here comes Jordan Harp ...more
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Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst
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Alan Furst has mined a deep vein of dramatic twentieth-century history in this series, which focuses on the period leading up to World War Two. The stories are set in France and points east and involve the competing armies of spies, zealots and haple ...more
How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn
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How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn
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This is big-picture history from an Oxford don (as of this year shifted to Cambridge according to her jacket-flap bio), but written in an engaging, informal style aimed at the non-academic reader. The general thesis is that the concept of Western Civ ...more
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How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn
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This is big-picture history from an Oxford don (as of this year shifted to Cambridge according to her jacket-flap bio), but written in an engaging, informal style aimed at the non-academic reader. The general thesis is that the concept of Western Civ ...more
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Quotes by Sam Reaves  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“The reader is the final arbiter.”
Sam Reaves

“They traded one of those looks only two people who have grown up together can trade, long and candid, and Rachel found herself hurting for him.”
Sam Reaves, Cold Black Earth

“everybody was afraid and that the trick was to learn to function with fear.”
Sam Reaves, Cold Black Earth

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Mystery/Thriller ...: dec 2009 - sandi 3 31 Dec 31, 2009 10:53PM  
Readers and Reading: This topic has been closed to new comments. December reads 41 81 Jan 09, 2010 09:28AM  
Mystery/Thriller ...: august 2010 - sandi 11 61 Sep 08, 2010 06:16AM  
Readers and Reading: This topic has been closed to new comments. August 2010 reads 25 87 Sep 19, 2010 09:12AM  
Mystery/Thriller ...: Bouchercon in retrospect 39 137 Nov 05, 2010 01:53PM  
Mystery/Thriller ...: Bouchercon 2012, Day One (Thursday) 16 21 Oct 08, 2012 08:37PM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Summer Challenge 2015: Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE POSTS) 3424 692 Sep 01, 2015 07:40PM  
A Million More Pages: HSH: Elle - Ravenclaw - Fast 61 52 Sep 02, 2015 12:26PM  
Crime Detective M...: Upcoming Nominations for Group Reading 63 83 Sep 12, 2015 08:09AM  
19126 The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group — 31728 members — last activity 5 hours, 27 min ago
“It was a dark and stormy night. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the sky. Rain spattered a mysterious, hooded stranger who peered over the ...more
1036 Espionage Aficionados — 960 members — last activity Nov 27, 2025 06:00PM
Pssst--buddy. Dig spy stories? Foreign intrigue? Conspiracies? Join up with.. We got LeCarre, Deighton; Follett; Littell; Ambler; Furst; Silva a ...more
220 Goodreads Librarians Group — 302282 members — last activity 1 minute ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
Comments (showing 1-3)    post a comment »
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message 3: by Kris

Kris Neri Hi Sam. Thanks for friending this mystery & paranormal author. I hope you'll consider adding my books to your to-read list. Great to connect here. I'm looking forward to reading your reviews.

Kris

Kris Neri
Magical Alienation: A Samantha Brennan and Annabelle Haggerty Magical Mystery


message 2: by Beth

Beth Hi Sam,
Thanks for sending a friend request to this fellow crime writer on Goodreads!


message 1: by Simon

Simon Thanks for looking me up, Sam.


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