Phillip Thompson's Blog

I don’t often (read: ever) venture into the horror genre, as it usually ends up being more crime fiction than anything else. In any event, my latest story, “Phantom Pain,” appears in the April issue of Yellow Mama. Check it out here. 

The good folks over the “The Writer’s Block,” Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell, recently invited me to an hourlong conversation about Old Anger, writing, the South, and other topics. You can listen to the January 28, 2021, podcast here.

Had the opportunity recently to sit down for a chat with the always delightful Debbi Mack over at the Crime Cafe podcast. Stay tuned for when that episode drops. In the meantime, check out my guest post on her blog here.

Editors Note: Valerie McEwan runs one of the best websites of Southern writing there is, the Dead Mule School (formerly the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature). The essay below appeared at the Mule recently. If you like Southern fiction by some of the hardest working writers today, you should check out her site of fiction, poetry, art, and all kinds of Southern peculiarities.

Why do we read? Neil Gaiman says we read fiction because it can show you...

Editors Note: This piece originally appeared at Brash Books on Nov. 30, 2020. Reprinted here with permission.

Writing about race in the Deep South is never easy. Especially during the tumult of 2020.

I am white. Born and raised in Mississippi. I was a youngster growing up when the state was going through the painful ending of the American apartheid called segregation or separate but equal. And decades later, the sad truth is race is still central to the identity of nearly every person in the...

From Publisher’s Weekly:

In Thompson’s well-wrought third crime novel featuring Mississippi sheriff Colt Harper (after 2016’s Outside the Law), Colt has a murder to solve after the body of Lucius Wallace, a Black man who worked at a local catfish farm, is unearthed in a gravel pit, and the subsequent autopsy confirms the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. Wallace’s widow last saw her spouse the previous day and tells the sheriff that Lucius was planning to spend the evening at a pra...

Anthony Award winner and author of Blacktop Wasteland S.A. Cosby had this to say about Old Anger:

“Phillip Thompson combines the visceral verbal skills of Craig Johnson with the white knuckle tension of Stephen Hunter. Old Anger will leave you soaked in sweat and gasping for air.”

Coming December 1, but you can pre-order Old Anger (Brash Books) now here. You can also order all the Colt Harper novels (Deep Blood, Outside the Law).

Chris Holm, Anthony Award-winning author of The Killing Kind, had this to say about Old Anger (coming Dec. 1 from Brash Books ):

“Old Anger is a modern Southern novel in the best sense—exploring issues of race, privilege, and generational mistrust with candor and grace. It’s also a fiercely engaging mystery. Thompson’s lawman, Colt Harper, is a man of honor in a world that could use more of ’em. Consider me a fan.”

Publishers Weekly calls Old Anger “well-wrought crime fiction” with “thoughtful prose matched by strong characterizations.”

Read the full report here.

Aug. 17, 2020: I’m excited and pleased to announce that Brash Books and I have teamed up again to produce the third Colt Harper novel, Old Anger. It is scheduled for release on December 1.

In this installment, Sheriff Colt Harper’s investigation of a black man’s murder ignites long-buried bitterness over systemic racism in his county and forces him to confront his own demons … and white supremacists intent on sparking a race war.

Pre-order it now at Amazon.