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Welcome to Al Blanchard's website! Author of the Steve Asher and James Callahan mystery series. |
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 Author of the Steve Asher and James Callahan mystery series.
Murder at Walden Pond
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A Letter from Al’s Wife, Enid, to All of his Fans,Last November as I was visiting my mother in Florida for her birthday, Al was presiding over the third annual New England Crimebake. It was there, doing what he most loved, that he died unexpectedly of an acute pulmonary embolism, so stunning the New England mystery writing community. It has been a long, sad eight months for me, and has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. With the love and support of our friends and relatives, colleagues of Al’s in the writing world, the teaching community and the Weston Racquet Club where he played tennis every day, I have found the strength to turn this devastating loss of my husband into some positive action. In recognition of Al’s 34 years of teaching social studies to seventh and eighth graders at the Kennedy Middle School in Waltham, MA, I started the Al Blanchard Memorial Scholarship fund. I gathered together a committee of seven people, all teachers and administrators who had worked closely with Al for many, many years. Together we culled through the 54 applications from graduating Waltham High seniors and chose two students who each received $1,000. To be eligible for the scholarship, the students had to have a strong interest in the Creative Arts (writing, music, or art) or in Social Studies. The two winners, Matt Cedrone and Sara O’Brien fit the criteria. I attended the award ceremony and just happened to sit behind and strike up a conversation with a woman who turned out to be Sara’s mother! How’s that for coincidence? It was my great pleasure to meet Sara after the awards ceremony. Our good friend, Dane Vannater, who is a fabulous jazz song stylist, has volunteered to do a fundraising concert. It will be a terrific event; he is, as Al was, so very talented. As the planning for this event gets underway, I will write more. The New England chapter of Mystery Writers of America started The Al Blanchard Short Story Prize Contest in honor of Al. They asked me to be on the committee, and I agreed. I joined four other members of MWA in reading the 80 submissions that we received. The prize for the winning short story is $100 plus publication in Level Best’s 2005 short story anthology. Al was the master of the short story and his collection, “The Stalker and Other Tales of Love and Murder”, published just a month prior to his death, showcases 25 or his short stories. They all have a clever plot, fast pace and a unique twist at the end. I so loved his short stories that it is no wonder that my favorite submissions to the contest were deemed by me to be “Al like” or “sick like Al’s” or “had an Al feel”. It was a lot of reading, but was really fun for me. The quality of the stories was extremely high, and all five of us had a difficult time narrowing the field to our top ten favorites. Even so, in just one meeting, we chose a winner. I will be presenting the award to this person (to be named later) at the Al Blanchard Awards Dinner at this year’s Crimebake. Great news! Al’s next novel, Murder on Cape Cod, will be published this fall by Quiet Storm Publishing and should be available in time for the Crimebake in November. Murder on Cape Cod is the fourth Steve Asher novel, joining Murder at Walden Pond, The Mad Season, and Crucial Judgment. I hope to schedule some speaking engagements myself when the book is published. I am not nearly as witty and charming as my husband, but I hope to do him proud as a stand-in! Ending will be thank-you’s to a list of people……… See below for some of Al's work!
"What a coup. clamping the reader's attention on page one with such a mighty grip they are helpless in your clutches." Jane Langton, author of the Homer Kelley series. "Crucial Judgment is complete from front to back with nonstop action. A must read." Iloveamystery.com "Entertaining. Part of Asher's charm is that he stumbles and recovers, second guesses himself and often makes the wrong decision. Far from the perfect sleuth Asher is more Colombo than Perry Mason." Hippo Press "A great read. Blanchard takes us back to school and lets us delight in the chaos. David R. Surette, author of Malden "It's both a puzzling mystery and an insightful commentary on human nature. " William G. Tapply, author of the Brady Coyne Series.
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