June 2026: On Chris Chambers Noir, bestselling mystery writer Christopher Chambers shines a light on hot novelists, including this month’s guest, Curtis Ippolito, an Anthony Award-and Derringer Award-winning writer. He is the author of the 2021 novel, BURYING THE NEWSPAPER MAN. His 2026 release is WAVES OF BURDEN, available now!
This month’s topic: Ordinary people’s moral struggle with noir/hardboiled
Meet our guest: BURYING THE NEWSPAPER MAN is Curtis Ippolito’s debut novel, published in 2021. His newest novel is WAVES OF BURDEN. Curtis’ short fiction has been featured in numerous notable publications, including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Dark Yonder, Tough, Vautrin Magazine, and more, as well as being featured in several anthologies, including The One Percent: Tales of the Super Wealthy and Depraved; and The Savage Waves of Spring.
Curtis is the guest editor of On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology from Rock and a Hard Place Press. He is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and serves as vice-president for the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime. Learn more: curtisippolito.com
About Christopher Chambers: A Washington, D.C. native, Chris is a lecturer at Georgetown University, Chair of the International Conflict Resolution Center and is General Counsel to a not-for-profit benefitting HBCUs: Student Housing of America. He is the author of the Angela Bivens thriller series for Random House, The Rocket Crockett pulp noir series, and Black Pulp for Prose-Press, and editor, along with Gary Phillips, of The Darker Mask graphic short story collection, the Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again: Honoring Harlem’s Herb Jeffries. He was a finalist in 2008 for the PEN/Malamud Short Story Award for “Leviathan.”
He’s contributed short stories to The Obama Inheritance: 15 Stories of Conspiracy Noir (Three Rooms Press) and is the winner of the Anthony Award. The Black Panther: Tales Of Wakanda, The Faking of the President, and Midnight Hour, Witnesses for the Dead with Gar Anthony Haywood–all major award-winning collections and bestsellers. His noir hardboiled mystery Scavenger (2020) won a starred review and profile in Publishers Weekly; the sequel Standalone sees the return of the indestructible homeless addict turned PI Dickie Cornish, patrolling the unforgiving city streets ravaged by COVID, with the third in the trilogy Streetwhys in 2025. His next Marvel contribution is in Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson. Learn more: ChrisChambersNoir.com
About Chris’s latest book, “Street Whys:” We again meet Washington, DC’s notorious detective, former street denizen Dickie Cornish, who faces off with bloodthirsty cops and the justice department. Underground detective Dickie Cornish faces a vindictive murder rap from his past if he doesn’t agree to help prove that the fentanyl ravaging the streets of DC is bankrolled by shadowy donors of a certain former president. Broke and desperate, Cornish soon finds himself on a collision course with shady public defenders and corrupt police officers, forcing him to use his street connections to flip their plan. Or die.
The Dickie Cornish series has met with widespread critical acclaim: Publishers Weekly dubbed the series debut, Scavenger, “[A] no-holds-barred crime novel…a 21st-century twist on traditional hardboiled noir.” The Strand Magazine selected Standalone, the second book in the series, as one of the “Top 25 Mystery Novels of the Year,” adding, “It’s apparent that the modern heir to Chandler, Woolrich, and Cain is Christopher Chambers, enough said.” And renowned crime author George Pelecanos raves that the series “really nails Washington, DC in the current environment.” Click here to buy Chris’s books.