From the creator of the Emmy® Award winning Neverwinter Nights™, a novel with a unique hero, an unlikely love story, and more twists than San Francisco’s Lombard Street. It's not cozy but it's intimate. It's not procedural but it will make you think, which is why it's been honored both as a mystery and as literary fiction.
Its influences range from Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep to the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. "Compelling, mysterious, tender and moving... The Fog Seller will charm the mind and warm the heart." --IndieReader, March, 2017.
Assassinated: The crusading politician who saved hundreds of San Francisco homes from the bulldozers of a big developer.
Accused: A young loner who speaks his own unique dialect of English and refuses to answer questions.
Unexpected: A woman who will risk her promising future for a man without a past.
When teacher-turned-deckhand Steve Ondelle is framed for the killing of a San Francisco Supervisor he tumbles into a world of billion-dollar deals and bizarre sexual adventures, a world where hard evidence depicts him as a misfit who turns to murder.
To expose these freshly-minted lies Steve must first make peace with a lifetime of painful truths. He travels from the piers of Sausalito to the penthouses of San Francisco, with unlikely allies like Leonard the Human Statue, Eli of the Coral Reef, The Prophet of Market Street.
And Liam the Fog Seller.
Assessment:
Plot: The intricate plot is ingeniously executed so that all pieces of the puzzle fit together in the end. Twists and turns that at first appear questionable, end up working perfectly. The flashbacks blend easily into the story.
Prose: The prose is top notch. The use of the present tense is effective and reveals the narrator's psychological situation.
Originality: The book's distinctively original structure moves the story along briskly. Even what seems like extraneous material contributes to the backbone of the novel.
Character Development: All the characters are fully developed. The revelation about the lead character is unexpected but effective.
Date Submitted: August 14, 2017
"Compelling, mysterious, tender and moving, THE FOG SELLER adds layers of psychological and emotional depth to what would be, on its own, an intriguing mystery story. The author's web of story is deftly woven, unveiling the protagonist's hidden depths along with the mystery, while a host of quirky, lively, vivid minor characters add color to the scene. Beautifully written, a loving ode to San Francisco and the oddballs that make it the marvelous city it is, THE FOG SELLER will charm the mind and warm the heart."
"The murder of an actress and a man who sought to save the homes of many seniors and people with low-income jobs is quite the puzzler... One of his suspects is a man named Steve Ondelle, a man who only talks in the present tense and who is 'not good with questions...' The author's portrayal of him was very believable... The characters in this novel are absolutely amazing."
The Independent Book Publishers Association has awarded The Fog Seller its Gold Awad for Best Cover Design for 2016 (Fiction, Small Format) at its annual Benjamin Franklin Book Awards ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah.Author Don Daglow accepted the award and praised designer Borocki for a brilliant interpretation of the book's theme and characters.
Readers' Favorite has announced that The Fog Seller is the winner of the Gold Medal as the Best Mystery of the Year for 2016.
Author Don Daglow will accept the award at the Readers' Favorite award ceremony in Miami on November 19, 2016.
Independent Publisher has announced that The Fog Seller received the Silver Medal for 2016 for Best Novel (West-Pacific) in its 20th Annual Compeition.
Although the book has previous won a major competition in the Best Mystery category, this is its first such recognition for general and literary fiction.
