Coe Writes 14th Novel “Thieves’ Quarry” Out on July 2

Imagine Sam Spade meets Samuel Adams in Boston during the late-1760s and you have a glimpse into “Thieves’ Quarry,” the latest novel by D.B. Jackson, better known in Sewanee as David B. Coe.
Coe, who has written 14 books in the past 16 years, has a Ph.D. in U.S. history. The new novel, the second in a series, is a timely blend of two of his interests.
“When I left academia, I needed a clean break,” Coe said in a recent interview. “So I wrote fantasy, a genre I love. This new project allows me to play with history and feed my passion for writing fiction.”
“Thieves’ Quarry” takes place in 1768, as the British occupation of Boston begins. The volumes of the Thieftaker Chronicles follow the adventures of Ethan Kaille, a conjurer and thieftaker living in colonial Boston. Each book in the series is a murder-mystery set against the backdrop of a significant historical event in the years leading up to the American Revolution.
Booklist has said the book is “at once a gripping historical mystery and an inventive urban-style fantasy.”
Coe described Kaille as the “most compelling and complex” character he’s written yet.
“He is not a typical hero. He is older, scarred and broken in a lot of ways,” Coe said, “yet he struggles to be whole.”

If he were casting a movie star to play Kaille, Coe said he’d want Mark Wahlberg in the part.

Kaille’s nemesis in “Thieves’ Quarry” is Sephira Pryce, a rival thieftaker based on a historical figure. In Coe’s world, however, this thieftaker is a strong, sexy, fearless woman. Blending the real and the fantastic, as he does with this character, allows him to weave together the disparate threads of his professional life. 

“Urban fantasy has magical elements, but is set in real cities so it has a gritty, realistic feel to it. It has a noirish voice, even with the colonial American vernacular,” he said.

Shifting to a new genre has meant adopting a new pen name for this series. 

“David B. Coe writes epic fantasy set in alternate worlds with a variety of points of view,” he said. “D. B. Jackson writes historical fantasy with a single point of view.”

The author name change helps the reader know what to expect, he said. “Author branding is not as painful as it sounds,” he joked.

“Thieves’ Quarry” will be released on July 2 in hardcover and as an e-book; both will be available wherever books are sold. It is published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers.

Coe will have a book signing for “Thieves’ Quarry” 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m., Thursday, July 4, at the University Book and Supply Store.

The first book in this series, “Thieftaker,” will be released in paperback on July 2. In addition to many fine reviews, Thieftaker was named “Best First Book in a Series” for 2012 by the Word Nerds and was listed as one of the best Science Fiction/Fantasy books of the year by SciFiChick.com.

Coe is best known for his fantasy fiction, including “Children of Amarid” and “The Outlanders,” the first two novels of the LonTobyn Chronicle, which won the William L. Crawford Fantasy Award as the best fantasy by a first-time author.

—Reported by Laura Willis