A.J. Devlin grew up in Greater Vancouver before moving to Southern California where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from
Chapman University and a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he moved back home to Port Moody, BC, where he now lives with his wife and two children.
The latest book in his "Hammerhead" Jed professional wrestling mystery-comedy series,
Five Moves of Doom, was published September 15th, 2022 by NeWest Press. It was selected by
The Globe and Mail as one of the Best Books of 2022, won the 2022 Crime Fiction Lover Editor's Choice Award for Best Indie Crime Novel, and has been nominated for a 2023 Left Coast Crime Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery.
At
The Strand Magazine Devlin tagged his five favorite and most influential mystery-comedies of all time, including:
Bad Chili by Joe R. Lansdale
It’s no easy task to single out the most humorous novel of Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe’s riotously crackerjack Hap and Leonard series, but this fourth outing for the East Texas-based amateur sleuths (at least at this point in the 
series) stands apart. With an opening that involves male-bonding via good-natured roasting, shooting firearms while hunting small game, and a rabid squirrel attack so hilarious it is all but impossible to not laugh out loud, this book grabs the reader in a stranglehold of sidesplittingly funny adventure that only escalates as the spiritually-enlightened, Caucasian, conscientious war objector and gay, black, Republican Vietnam vet odd couple’s lazy afternoon is hijacked by a trip to the ER. The introduction of a red-haired bombshell love interest for Hap as well as trouble for his true brother (in every way possible except biologically) when the man who stole Leonard’s ex-boyfriend turns up headless in a ditch, this rip-roaring yarn offers perhaps a bit more levity when compared to the previous three novels. Nevertheless, the book still has the signature Lansdale chaotic charm, furious fisticuffs, and gumshoe grit that makes these honorable-yet-troublemaking good ol’ boys so popular.
Read about
the other entries on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
Chapman University and a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he moved back home to Port Moody, BC, where he now lives with his wife and two children.
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