William Michael Boyle

When Boyle's debut novel, Gravesend, was reissued, the longtime crime fiction reviewer of the New York Times, Marilyn Stasio, noted Boyle's use of local dialect.[2] A U.K. review from The Guardian also cited the book's idiomatic dialogue and blue-collar setting, drawing a parallel with Elmore Leonard.[3]

In its review of The Lonely Witness, Publishers Weekly noted the gritty realism of Boyle's Brooklyn milieu.[4]

New Orleans Review examined the variety of themes that inform Boyle's approach to crime fiction in its discussion of his short-story collection, Death Don't Have No Mercy.[5] In another look at that anthology, the Clarion-Ledger, a leading newspaper in Boyle's adopted home state of Mississippi, touched on the commonality of Boyle's work with Southern forebears Flannery O'Connor and William Gay.[6]

France's oldest daily newspaper, Le Figaro, compared Boyle to Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos, among others.[7] Gravesend was nominated among foreign authors for France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 2016.[8] In addition, it was one of five finalists in the novel category for the Prix SNCF du Polar.[9] The French news weekly L'Express also cited it as one of the 10 best crime novels of that year.[10]

The U.K. has also recognized Gravesend. It was shortlisted for the John Creasey CWA New Blood Dagger in 2018.[11]

Boyle's reputation has been growing in his homeland as well. The Lonely Witness was singled out by the New York Post in June 2018.[12] George Pelecanos name-checked The Lonely Witness a couple of months later in the New York Times,[13] followed shortly by Stasio's review of Gravesend.

Stasio also had praise for Boyle's 2019 comic crime caper, A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, upon its release in March 2019.[14] On the cover of the U.K. edition, Roddy Doyle singled out the strength and humor of the female characters.

Boyle's 2020 novel City of Margins -- set almost entirely in South Brooklyn -- drew plaudits from Stasio once again. She focused on his character studies, which featured "a mixture of affection and despair worthy of a Bruce Springsteen song."[15]

Boyle is the author of the following novels:

• Gravesend (originally published in 2013, French-language edition published in 2016, reissued in the U.S. in 2018): ISBN 978-1681778495
• Tout Est Brisé, or Everything Is Broken (2017; released only in French to date): ISBN 978-2351781616
• The Lonely Witness (2018): ISBN 978-1681777955
• A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself (2019): ISBN 978-1643130583
• City of Margins (2020): ISBN 978-1643133188

He has also written a short story collection:

• Death Don’t Have No Mercy (2015): ISBN 978-1940885193

• Biography at Mississippi Writers and Musicians site
• Official website