Chosen as one of the Los Angeles Times Book Reviews' "Recommended Titles" for 1997, it was also included in The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader's Guide.

His ninth novel, The Reckoning,'[10] about ghosts of the '60s, came out in late 2010 and received very positive reviews from, among others, Publishers Weekly and the New York Journal of Books.

Willie became a central character in future Owen novels: The Philadelphia Quarry[11] (2013), Parker Field (2014) and The Bottom (2015).

[18][19] Regarding Oregon Hill,[20] a New York Times critic said Howard Owen is "a writer we can't wait to hear again.

.Owen knows his setting, his dialogue is spot-on, and his grasp of the down-and-dirty work of the police and news reporters lends authenticity to the narrative.

Another writer in The New York Times Sunday Book Review said, "Owen has recruited his sick, sad and creatively crazy characters from a rough neighborhood cut off from the rest of the city when the expressway was built.

If anyone is watching out for the forgotten citizens of Oregon Hill, it's Willie, who grew up there and speaks the local language, a crisp and colorful urban idiom we can't wait to hear again.

Most of his 11 Willie Black mysteries (Oregon Hill, The Philadelphia Quarry, Parker Field, The Bottom, Grace, The Devil’s Triangle, Scuffletown, Evergreen, Belle Isle, Jordan’s Branch andMonument) also are available as audio books.

Random House bought it from The Permanent Press and reissued it as a Villard (imprint) hardcover in 1993 and a Vintage Contemporary paperback in 1994.

[28] A July 12, 2017 cover story, "Richmond Noir: Author Howard Owen's hard-bitten reporter roams our streets for the sixth time" by Jackie Kruszewski, was featured in Style Weekly magazine.