Interview: Author ‘Glen Erik Hamilton’ Talks His New Van Shaw Novel A Dangerous Breed

Glen Erik Hamilton writes crime thrillers. His novels have been called “outstanding” (Publishers Weekly), “perfect mix of serious crime and caper movie” (Criminal Element), and “a must-read series” (Mystery Scene Magazine).

Hamilton’s debut novel Past Crimes won the Anthony, Macavity, and Strand Magazine Critics Awards, and was also nominated for the Edgar®, Barry, and Nero Awards. Kirkus called Past Crimes “an exciting heir to the classic detective novel.” Each of his subsequent books in the Van Shaw series have earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and more, and been published in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and Japan.

Glen grew up aboard a sailboat in Seattle, Washington, playing and occasionally finding trouble around the islands, marinas, and commercial docks of the Pacific Northwest. Whenever the boat drifted on calm seas, Glen would raid his parents’ bookshelves, passing the idle hours with Travis McGee, Spenser, and the labyrinthine plots of Patricia Highsmith and Fredrick Forsyth. Years later, Glen met his wife while both were performing in an Agatha Christie play. Prior to his fiction writing career he worked in wireless telecom, the gaming industry, and non-profit healthcare.

Glen served as President of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America from 2018-2019 and is also a member of International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime. He lives near Los Angeles with his family and publicly acknowledges his addiction to Columbo.

Check out his website here, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The book is in stores on Tuesday, July 14th from William Morrow. You can listen below to the interview.

Van Shaw’s past and present collide when an ingenious blackmailer pushes him to the brink in this electrifying fifth novel in Glen Erik Hamilton’s gritty and emotionally powerful thriller series.

An invitation addressed to his long-dead mother sparks Van Shaw’s curiosity about the woman he barely knew. As he digs into young Moira Shaw’s past, he uncovers startling details about her life, including her relationship to a boy named Sean Burke―a boy Moira may have been seeing when she became pregnant. Could this Burke be the biological father who abandoned Van before he was born? Although Van knows all too well that some doors shouldn’t be opened, he decides to investigate the man―only to discover that Burke has an even darker family history than Van’s own.

But Van’s got more immediate problems. His friend Hollis is in a jam, and helping him out accidentally steers Van into the path of a master extortionist named Bilal Nath. Nath demands that the talented thief to mastermind a daring heist targeting a Seattle biotechnology firm, or the blackmailer will destroy the lives of people Van loves. Will Van be forced to steal a viral weapon with the potential to kill thousands?

With Bilal Nath coercing him into a possible act of domestic terrorism, Van turns to his formidable crew of lawbreaking friends―including Hollis, Big Will Willard, and Willard’s sly and seductive niece Elana―for help. Yet even this team may not be enough. To outwit a brilliant sociopath, Van might just need a cold-blooded killer . . . a criminal whose blood may run through his own veins.