Alex Grecian

Alex Grecian
Grecian in 2012
Born	Alexander Douglas Grecian (1969-08-06) August 6, 1969 (age 54) Kansas, United States
Occupation	Novelist short story writer comic book writer
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Kansas
Genre	Mystery fiction, Historical fiction
Spouse	Christy Grecian
Children	Graham Grecian
Website
alexgrecian.com

Alex Grecian (/ˈɡriːʃən/; born Alexander Douglas Grecian on August 6, 1969) is an American author of short fiction, novels, comic books, and graphic novels. His notable works include the comic book series Proof and the novels in the Scotland Yard's Murder Squad series: The Yard, The Black Country, The Devil's Workshop, The Harvest Man, Lost and Gone Forever, and The Blue Girl. He has been nominated for the Strand Award^{[permanent dead link]} for Best Debut Novel for The Yard, The Dilys Award for The Black Country, and the Barry Award for Best First Novel for The Yard. He was also the recipient of an Inkpot Award in 2018 and of the Kansas Notable Book Awards from the State Library of Kansas for The Yard, The Black Country, and The Devil's Workshop.

Career

Literary influences

As a child and a teenager, Grecian read the works of C. S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and Edgar Allan Poe. He later became a fan of crime fiction, reading the works of authors as diverse as Graham Greene, Donald E. Westlake, Ross Macdonald, and John D. MacDonald. Other influences include John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, and Stephen King.

Comics and graphic novels

Grecian's first comic book work, released in 2006, was a collaboration with Canadian comic book artist and illustrator Riley Rossmo on Seven Sons,^[1] a graphic novel based on the anonymously written Chinese folktale Ten Brothers known to be written around the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644). In 2007, he started work on Proof, also with Riley Rossmo. NPR named this series one of the best books of 2009. Grecian and Rossmo started on their third project together, Rasputin,^[2] in the fall of 2014. This series is a work of fiction based on the life of Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin was a mystical adviser^[3] in the court of Czar Nicholas II of Russia in the early nineteen hundreds.

In 2013, with fellow creators B. Clay Moore, Jeremy Haun, and Seth Peck, Grecian developed the anthology Bad Karma^[4] using a Kickstarter campaign. Bad Karma is a hardcover comics, prose and art collection featuring five separate, inter-related creator-owned concepts.

Novels

In May 2012 Grecian's debut novel The Yard was released by G. P. Putnam's Sons. This novel is the first in the Murder Squad Series. The second novel in the series, The Black Country was released in May 2013, then the third, The Devil's Workshop in May 2014, the fourth, The Harvest Man in May 2015, and the fifth, Lost and Gone Forever in May 2016. The e-book The Blue Girl is also a story of the Murder Squad and was released in June 2013. In April 2018 Grecian released the stand-alone book The Saint of Wolves and Butchers also published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. In September 2023, Grecian released the novel Red Rabbit.

Bibliography

AiT/Planet Lar

• Seven Sons (
  ISBN 1-932051-46-5
  )

Image Comics

• ISBN 978-1-58240-944-3
  )
• ISBN 1-60706-017-5
  )
• ISBN 1-60706-134-1
  )
• ISBN 1-60706-285-2
  )
• ISBN 1-60706-348-4
  )
• ISBN 978-1-60706-391-9
  )
• Fractured Fables (
  ISBN 978-1-60706-269-1
  )
• Dia de Los Muertos (collects #1-3,
  ISBN 978-1-60706-807-5
  )
• Rasputin Volume 1 (collects Rasputin #1-5,
  ISBN 1-63215-267-3
  )
• Rasputin Volume 2 (collects Rasputin #6-10,
  ISBN 1-63215-633-4
  )

Vertigo (DC Comics)

• The Unexpected (
  ISBN 978-1-4012-4394-4
  )

G. P. Putnam's Sons

• The Yard (
  ISBN 0-42526-127-1, 978-0-39914-954-2
  )
• The Black Country (
  ISBN 0-42526-773-3
  )
• The Blue Girl (G. P. Putnam's Sons, June 2013, ASIN B00B1FG9DA)
• The Devil's Workshop (
  ISBN 0-39916-643-2
  )
• The Harvest Man (
  ISBN 0-39916-644-0
  )
• Lost and Gone Forever (
  ISBN 0-39917-610-1
  )
• The Saint of Wolves and Butchers (
  ISBN 0-39917-611-X
  )

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

• Unknown Caller (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 2014)
• The Scarlet Box (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2022)

TKO Studios

• One Eye Open (
  ISBN 978-1-95220-329-9
  )

Tor Books

• Red Rabbit (
  ISBN 978-1-25087-468-9
  )

Selected awards and honors

• 2012 The New York Times Best Seller list for The Yard[5]
• 2013
  Barry Award (for crime novels) nomination for Best First Novel for The Yard^[6]
• 2013
  Strand Magazine's Critic's Award nomination for Best Debut Novel for The Yard^[7]
• 2013 The Kansas Notable Book Awards List for The Yard^[8]
• 2014 Dilys Award nomination for Mystery Title of the Year for The Black Country^[9]
• 2014 The Kansas Notable Book Awards List for The Black Country^[10]
• 2015 The Kansas Notable Book Awards List for The Devil's Workshop^[11]
• 2017 The Kansas Notable Book Awards List for Lost and Gone Forever ^[12]
• 2018 Inkpot Award for The Saint of Wolves and Butchers ^[13]

References

1. ^ Seven Sons Archived 2014-07-27 at archive.today at AiT-PlanetLar.com
2. ^ "Rasputin". Image Comics. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
3. ^ Grigory Rasputin at biography.com
4. ^ Bad Karma at Comixology.com
5. ^ "Best-Seller Lists: Hardcover Fiction". June 17, 2013.
6. ^ "2013 Barry Award Nominations". 2013. Archived from the original on 2012-04-23. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
7. ^ "Strand Magazine Critics Awards Nominees". 2013.
8. ^ "2013 Notable Books". 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-07-27. Retrieved 2014-07-03.
9. ^ The Dilys Award Archived 2017-01-14 at the Wayback Machine Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
10. ^ "2014 Notable Books". 2014.
11. ^ "2015 Notable Books". 2015.
12. ^ "2017 Notable Books". 2017.
13. ^ "Inkpot Award". 2018.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Alex Grecian.

• Official website
• Alexander Grecian at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Grecian, Alex (2014-05-28). "The 7 Most Exclusive Secret Societies in History". www.huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post.
• Fox, Suzanne (2014-05-29). "Mystery author Alex Grecian appears in Vero". Vero News. Indian River County, Vero Beach FL: VeroNews, LLC.