Forgive some bellyaching for a moment. At Bouchercon this year there were two books that everyone was talking about, books that everyone but me seemed to receive in the bags given to every registrant: Johnny Shaw’s Dove Season and Owen Laukkanen’s The Professionals. I tracked down a copy of Dove Season as soon as I got home, and it ended up on my best books of 2011 list.

I had to wait longer for The Professionals, but it was worth the wait. It’s a thick book, and I expected it to take several days to get through. Two days later, I was done. It’s a very fast read, one that makes cliches like “edge of your seat” ring true.

A quartet of fresh college grads with degrees in majors that make them even more unemployable than the norm allow the old “what if we robbed a bank?” conversation to take root. They shift from bank robbery to kidnapping, and then they’re off. They wisely choose to hit rich targets and ask for modest sums, hoping to stay off the radar of law enforcement. When we meet them, things are just about to go very wrong.

I’m just going to get this off of my chest: I have a bone to pick with Brad Parks.

You see, I’m a journalist, have been for years. At one point, while reading my thousandth or so crime fiction book, it dawned on me: the distance between a reporter and a private investigator is pretty short. Why not write about a crime-solving reporter? It was a genius idea. I went so far as to do research to see what the competition might be. Pretty slim at that time.

Then Parks stole my idea. Sure, you could argue that I let that idea sit for a decade or so. That I did nothing to follow it up, shared it with no one. But come on, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Carter Ross is surely a lot like the guy I would have created, and his quick wit and keen investigative skills are probably a lot like the traits I would have given my protagonist.

Please forgive a bit of narcissism here. I first heard about Hilary Davidson when we both were nominated for a Spinetingler award for best short story on the web a couple of years back. My nomination was  a complete surprise, recognition for one of the first stories I published. As I looked at the other nominees to gauge my admittedly slim chances of winning, one name kept popping up in every mention of the nominations: Hilary Davidson.

She seemed to have a huge fanbase, and I could feel even those meager chances slipping away. Then I went and read the story and was blown away. I knew my chances were nil. As expected, Davidson walked away with the award.

It wasn’t the last. Her debut novel, The Damage Done, came soon after. I quickly converted from competitor to fan, and read and loved the book. So did many others, including voters for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel.