Will Success Spoil Brad Parks?

When last we spoke with Brad Parks — formerStar-Ledger reporter turned crime novelist — he was just about to embark on his . That was December 2009.

Since then, Parks has sold thousands of books and garnered  — a Shamus and a Nero — for his first effort, Faces of the Gone.

Now, Parks is back in town (tonight at , 7:30 p.m.), but he's still the same nice, no-nonsense guy we spoke with in 2009. Parks' self-deprecating approach to himself and his work is evident from the moment you open his second book Eyes of the Innocent. The dedication recounts how his infant daughter was the first to hear the book read aloud — and how she slept through all of it.

Like Faces of the Gone, Eyes of the Innocentfollows the smart and dedicated, but hopelessly WASPy, somewhat bumbling and accidentally celibate Carter Ross as he reports on major crimes for the fictional Eagle-Examiner in Newark, NJ. (Granted we haven't made it to the end of Eyes yet; Ross may finally get some satisfaction from either his sexy city editor Tina or the babbling blond intern "Sweet Thang.")

Last time, Ross was on the trail of a heroin ring. This time, it's 2008 and Ross is investigating the death of two young boys in a suspicious fire. Parks keeps the prose as light and snappy as the topic will allow, but folds in layers about subprime mortgages, the death of print newspapers, the collapse of the economy, immigration and some history lessons on Newark.

Still, it never feels like a lecture. The book bounces along, much as Ross bounds through the potholed streets of Newark in his beat-up Malibu.

"It's not high literature," said Parks in a phone interview this week. "I take my work very seriously. I don't take myself very seriously. I try to write a book that works on multiple levels for multiple people."

"One of the things that has struck me — I've learned just how much people bring their own stuff to reading. A good book needs a good reader."

Parks drew a nice crowd to his last reading at Words in Maplewood. Loads of former neigbhors from Maplewood, plus colleagues from the Star-Ledger were anxious to see Parks again, since his move to northern Virginia after taking a buy-out from the Star-Ledger in 2008 and signing a book deal with St. Martin's Publishing Group. 

Parks has four novels already completed. He's got the potential to be as prolific as Harlan Coben, Stephen King and, ahem, Danielle Steele.

Being prolific isn't a problem, said Parks. "Writing is painful but not as painful as other parts of publishing." He added, "The really draining part is drafting." Once he has a draft, said Parks, editing is a relative breeze.

And he's getting good at this. Besides his Shamus Award and Nero Award, Parks is racking up the glowing testimonials from the likes of Coben, Michael Connelly and The Wall Street Journal.

 "This book is better," said Parks, comparing Eyes to Faces. "It's tighter. The pacing is better. There are more layers."

But before you think success is going to his head, the self-deprecation comes roaring back:

"It's a good read for airplanes. For most people, it takes six hours."

Parks will be reading and signing Eyes of the Innocent tonight at Words in Maplewood; in Montclair at Watchung Books on Saturday 2/12; in Mendham at Mendham Books on Saturday 2/12; in Springfield at the Barnes & Noble on 2/13; and in Westfield at Town Bookstore on Satirday 2/19.