Brian Panowich Books In Order

Publication Order of Bull Mountain Books

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Anthologies

Brian Panowich is the author of what has become one of the best Southern Crime fiction book titled Bull Mountain. This is not his first or his last piece of writing. After having spent a couple of years as a musician, Panowich ended up settling down with his wife and Family ad four children in East Georgia and became a fireman. Having been raised in an Army family that moved around a lot, Panowich has that old world-weariness about him, which comes through in his critically, acclaimed debut Novel.

About his Debut Novel

Brian Panowich has been described as a fresh Southern voice reminiscent of John Steinbeck in his telling of stories and crafting of characters. Reading stories about the Old south especially about a family of outlaws in the south something’s become a bit clichéd. Yes, there’s moonshine, a sheriff some gun fighting and a lot of family angst over secrets and deeds that go back eons. What Panowich did with his first novel was make the clichéd less obvious by writing with such precise clarity and an understated poetry; every character no matter how small became an intricate part of the tapestry. So no, he is not Steinbeck and although Bull Mountain has been optioned by ITV Studio America and is set to be made into a Television series, it would not be anything like “Justified”. At best, imagine The Godfather set in the rural South deep in HillBilly Country.

Awards and Praise

Panowich has won a couple of wards since the release of Bull Mountain like the 20115 SIBA Book Award and the 2016 International Thriller Award. He made it as a finalist for the Barry Award, the Anthony Award and the L.A Times Book Prize (Thriller category). Reviewers from The New York Time, The Wall Street Journal have praised him for the startlingly brilliant way he weaves a story. The self-confessed Comic Book Nerd and fan of Elmore Leonard is sure to come up with many different worlds inhabited by an array of different characters.

Going through the list of Books with his name on them. It becomes clear that Panowich has an imagination that is a little bit dark, sin-city dark, the kind that makes graphic novels great, and bloody and sexy yet horrific in a way that makes you want to take a shower after reading.

The Zelmer Pulp Collective

It’s true that writers lead double lives. They have to because they need to keep creating things out of nowhere. They sometimes need to inhabit a character and a world that is pure fantasy. The good ones really understand this and aren’t consumed by it. They are the ones that can move from one genre to another. As a member of the Zelmer Pulp Collective, he lets his comic book lover side of him out in a very weird way. He has written about Zombies, in C’Mon and do the Apocalypse with me” the weird Sci-Fi anthology titled “Hey, That Robot Ate My Baby” and he dabbles in the Noir Genre with a contribution top a short story anthology titled “Maybe I should Just Shoot You in The face”. One could say he is a bit of a chameleon, or he is just evolving and coming into his own.

The future

What we can say about Panowich from glimpses of interviews he has given over the last couple of months is that. His success has not changed him all that much as a family man and he is still a dedicated fireman. He finds time to write between shifts at his job in a backroom using some notebook or other. With the news of Bull Mountain being reworked for TV. He would be under pressure of following it up with another masterpiece. Bull Mountain and the way he tells the story from generation to generation from moonshine to marijuana to Meth, it could have been easy for someone to get lost in that world and be confused about who the story about but like all good stories, it is all about one man who’s living an ideal that represents many. Panowich keeps you focused on that one story but makes his character multi-dimensional by introducing characters and situations that paint the main character out. Of course there’s a resolution but this is a gut wrenching resolution that gives rise to other characters makes you look at some other point of view which is where he picks up the pieces of Bull Mountain. He sets his sophomoric novel on the Strong female character and he is has titled the novel “Like Lions”. Whilst Bull Mountain chronicles the struggles and rise of the Burroughs family and the dark twists that bring their criminal world to life into a violent crescendo, “Like Lions” is like the rising from the ashes.

The Sophomore Novel: Like Lions

Although the main Clayton Burroughs character has survived, things have not been left to their natural order on Bull Mountain. It becomes clear to the one woman that remains that there is a legacy that needs to be preserved and preserve it she will, for the sake of her infant son. In Kate’s story, the power of a woman is unleashed. At least not in the clichéd way but in the way that says when a woman is backed against a corner and her survival means the survival of many, she better have the goods to be as Badass as she needs to be. Because of this, because they have that male shadow they have to rise above. Women can be the most brutal people especially when they convince themselves that it’s for the survival of their own. This could be a good sequel or it might be good enough to stand on its own which seems to be where he wants to take it by not threading the same story around the first Novel’s Main character. Again, this is testimony of how great a storyteller Panowich is a storyteller. I’m sure every character he creates no matter how obscure has a story that he can just pick up on and run with it. He has earned his spot amongst the classics created writers like Daniel Woodrell and Larry Lee Burke.

4 Responses to “Brian Panowich”

1. don dawe: 2 years ago

   my first read loved it. need my next fix great family story

   Reply
2. don dawe: 2 years ago

   my first read loved it. nobody listen to kate just like marge in billy summers great reads and dont forget the music in his story . i am hooked i need my next fix finisher don

   Reply
3. Diane Dahlgren: 2 years ago

   Just finished BULL MOUNTAIN. Absolutely outstanding from the first sentence to the last. Even read the acknowledgments! Cannot wait to read the rest of them.
   Thanks for your great talent.

   Reply
4. Carolyn Swift: 2 years ago

   LOVE Brian Panowichs books! “Would LOVE A new one” Brian!

   Reply