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Robert Lamb

Robert Lamb

About

I've published three novels novels and one collection of short stories and poems.

My latest novel is A Majority of One, which is about book-banning and religious zealotry. 
The stories and poems collection is titled Six of One, Half Dozen of Another. 
Striking Out, my first novel, is a coming of age story set in Georgia. It was nominated for the PEN/Hemingway 
award.
Atlanta Blues, my second novel, is about the search for a missing college girl by a reporter and two cops. The search leads through the underbelly of urban Atlanta to murder and heartbreak. The novel was nominated for an Edgar Award.
Striking Out and Atlanta Blues have been taught in American lit. courses in college. All my books are available at Amazon.com and at smashwords.com.

Murdo

Murdo

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Description

<p>When Jessica Bryant pesters her wealthy parents to allow her to have a dog as a pet, the answer is a resounding &quot;No&quot;; but they soon come to regret their decision when thier home is broken into one evening whilst they are out and their daughter kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers, in the form of four seedy and incompetent characters wearing Disneyland-type masks, take her hostage and keep her incarcerated in a place from which there appears to be no escape. However, they reckon without the resourcefulness of our heroine, and the courage of a wonderful stray dog who comes to her aid and whom she names 'Murdo'. And so begins an exciting and humurous accounting of the couples' adventures together as they consistently foil and outwit the abductors whilst on the run together.<br /> This is a lovely story of the friendship between a girl and a dog, bringing out themes of responsibility, camaraderie, redemption, salvation and self-sacrifice. It includes some wonderful dialogue sequences as Jessica teaches her new four-legged friend how to communicate with her, with additional delightful conversations between the animals when a rabbit and a sparrow join forces with them in an effort to outwit the kidnappers and restore Jessica safely back to her parents' home. </p>

Story Behind The Book

As a reporter/feature writer for The Atlanta Constitution, I covered a lot of stories about street life: prostitution (both heterosexual and homosexual), runaways, drifters, homeless, bar flies, club workers, etc. I knew that what I was witnessing and writing about was great material for a novel. The central problem was how to get all this into one coherent story. Then I recalled that looking for somebody, in this case a missing college girl, could take a searcher just about anywhere. Suddenly I had my story.

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Reviews

<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Praise for <em>Atlanta Blues</em></span></strong></p><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:'Palatino Linotype', serif;">“No one knows Hotlanta’s seamy underbelly better than ex-Atlanta newspaperman Robert Lamb. <em>Atlanta Blues</em> is almost Chandleresque in the way it explores the dark soul and swift undercurrents of this glittering hub of the New South.” ~ <strong>Mark A. Bradley, former <em>Atlanta Constitution</em> intern reporter and former CIA officer now with the U.S. Justice Dept. </strong></span></p><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:'Palatino Linotype', serif;">“In <em>Atlanta Blues</em>, Robert Lamb writes with the authority and sensitivity of (Joseph) Wambaugh at his best. This haunting novel will keep you awake – reading it the first night, thinking about it afterward.” <strong>~ Richard Layman, author and publisher</strong></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:'Palatino Linotype', serif;">“I was Robert Lamb’s editor when he covered Atlanta’s soft underbelly of sin for <em>The Atlanta Constitution</em> in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I know he writes the truth. The setting could be any big city in America. Bob has done a masterful job of depicting how policing urban America’s mean streets affects the lives of the men in blue and the people they care for.” <strong>~ David Osier, former <em>Atlanta Journal-Constitution</em> and CNN editor</strong></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:'Palatino Linotype', serif;">“Crackling with narrative energy and hardboiled dialogue, Bob Lamb’s new novel is a cat-and-mouse thriller that blows Elmore Leonard out of the water and gives Joseph Wambaugh a tight run for the money.” <strong>~ Wade Tabor, author, <em>Miller’s Rules</em> and <em>The Long-Range Plan</em></strong></span></p>