Mystery authors gather in Hingham

The style of Dave Zeltserman’s novels is neatly summed up in the words at the top of his website, ‘’Dark Crime Fiction.’’ But the work of the Needham resident, who began writing novels after a long career in developing data communications software, is constantly evolving. His ‘’Julius Katz,’’ which he describes as a ‘’cozy novella,’’ recently won the Derringer Award for best novelette. And two books in the works will stretch readers’ views of him even further.

Zelsterman will discuss his new book, “Killer,’’ during an appearance with three other local authors at the Hingham Public Library’s ''Murder They Write!'' program June 17. He talked about his writing in an interview with The Globe.

In ‘psychotic crime fiction,’ the main characters are somewhat delusional about themselves. Their thought process is logical and makes sense to them, but it doesn’t make sense to others....their thinking is just skewed.

‘Killer’ is noir-ish, but it’s not really in that vein. The feedback I’ve been getting so far from critics and readers is that it seems to be a book that mystery readers are enjoying, crime readers and enjoying, and literary readers are enjoying.

I don’t make a conscious effort to change from book to book; it depends more on what’s pushing me to write. In some cases, it might be a horror novel, a fable, or a crime novel. And if it’s a crime novel, it might be something along the psychotic line, or more of a standard mystery.

My first two novels with [publisher] Serpents Tale, ‘Small Crimes’ and ‘Pariah,’ start the same way, with a pretty dangerous person released from prison, then we see the different paths they take. When the publisher wanted to buy ‘Pariah,’ I wanted to sell two books instead of one, so I threw out this very vague idea of a novel loosely inspired on the idea that someone like John Martorano could kill all these people and still get a deal that lets him out after 12 years.

I proposed that so we could have a trilogy. At the time, I didn’t have a good idea of what type of book I’d write, so it was harder work. ‘Pariah’ just flew out of me in six weeks; ‘Killer’ took about four months, but I think it ended up being the best of the three.

My next book, ‘The Caretaker of Lorne Field,’ is a fable that will definitely surprise people who’ve read my earlier books. ‘Pariah’ and ‘Small Crimes’ are both pretty violent, fierce books, and they’re for people who like dark crime fiction. ‘Caretaker’ is something that can be read by kids, young adults, and adults. Horror and fantasy readers can like it, and general readers can like it.

But the best book I’ve written hasn’t been sold yet. It’s a re-telling of the Frankenstein legend, but it’s told from the point of view of the monster. He’s a tragic, yet heroic, figure, and Victor Frankenstein is not the innocent victim that he is in Mary Shelley’s version.

This book is set in all the places in Shelley’s book, which is all over Europe. I spent probably six months researching it, and basically read enough about European history of that period that I probably could have gotten a BA degree.

“An Evening with the Author: Murder They Write!’’ begins at 7 p.m. on June 17 at the Hingham Public Library. Zeltserman will appear with Margaret McLean, Raffi Yessayan, and Paul Tremblay. The authors' books will be available for sale and signing.