About Me
C.B. Forrest is author of the critically acclaimed McKelvey series (The Weight of Stones, Slow Recoil, The Devil’s Dust) as well as the Shamus Award-nominated short fiction, Runaway Girl from Portland, Oregon. The Wrecking Game was published in January 2025. The novel celebrates the spirit of the great noir and pulp crime fiction writers James M. Cain, Jim Thompson and David Goodis.
C.B. Forrest
Crime & thriller novelist and award-nominated author
Nominated for a 2016 Shamus Award for short fiction, C. B. Forrest’s first crime novel, The Weight of Stones, was published in 2009. It was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. His second Charlie McKelvey novel, Slow Recoil (2010), was nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. His final novel in the trilogy, The Devil’s Dust (2012), was called “exceptional” in a starred review by Publisher’s Weekly. The idea for The Go Ahead (July 2020) was sparked in part by a series of journalism pieces exploring the sophistication of staged accident crews operating across North America. Forrest’s short fiction has appeared in Canadian and U.S. journals, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. He also somehow recently appeared in an episode of Morgue Case Files.
Recognized by
Press for C.B. Forrest
Shamus Award Nominee
Publishers Weekly Review: Forrest’s exceptional third Charlie McKelvey novel
Unusual conviction revitalizes familiar material in Arthur Ellis Award–finalist Forrest’s exceptional third Charlie McKelvey novel (after 2010’s Slow Recoil).
EMC News: The Devil’s Dust ends trilogy on a high note
"Writing is something that you don't know how to do."
- Bukowski
The Go Ahead
From the Shamus Award Finalist comes a riveting new crime novel
Ray Carver has just days to pull off the biggest con in his career … but the bodies quickly pile up as ghosts from his past close in and he can no longer trust his own crew.
