BRAD SMITH

Brad Smith was born and raised in the hamlet of Canfield in southern Ontario, a couple of hours from Toronto.

After high school, he worked for the signal department of the Canadian National Railway, then on a rail project in South Africa, and after that all over the place – Alberta, British Columbia, Texas – at a variety of jobs including farmer, signalman, insulator, truck driver, bartender, schoolteacher, maintenance mechanic and roofer. He became a carpenter and built custom homes in Canada, and still works as a carpenter when not writing. He lives in a ninety-year-old farmhouse near the north shore of Lake Erie.

His novels are often described as ‘country noir’ and have been published by Doubleday, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Severn House, Endeavour Media and Skyhorse. Red Means Run was named among 2012’s Best Crime Novels by Booklist, and Publishers Weekly praised the ‘wonderfully wrought characters, delicious wit, and droll storytelling’ of Shoot the Dog. All Hat was made into a feature film. One-Eyed Jacks was translated into Japanese and Hungarian and shortlisted for the Dashiell Hammett Award. Kid Cooper won the 2019 Spur Award for Best Western by the Western Writers of America. Copperhead Road was shortlisted for the Dashiell Hammett Award.

Books:

RISES A MORAL MAN (1990)
ONE-EYED JACKS (2000)
ALL HAT (2003)
BUSTED FLUSH (2005)
BIG MAN COMING DOWN THE ROAD (2007)
RED MEANS RUN (2012)
CROW’S LANDING (2013)
SHOOT THE DOG (2014)
ROUGH JUSTICE (2016)
HEARTS OF STONE (2017)
THE RETURN OF KID COOPER (2018)
THE GOLIATH RUN (2020)
CACTUS JACK (2020)
COPPERHEAD ROAD (2022)

‘For such a furiously funny writer, Smith has great reserves of tenderness’ – New York Times Book Review
‘Rivals Elmore Leonard at his best’ – Publishers Weekly
‘he’s funny, poignant, evocative, and he tells a blistering tale’ – Dennis Lehane
‘A writer with lots of skill, lots of heart, lots of brains’ – Richard Russo