Quickly

Too much to do today so posting will be on the light side.

Whoa, did Patrick Anderson just call Rob Reuland’s SEMIAUTOMATIC “the best legal thriller [he’s] ever read?” Stylistically, true, but it’s still quite the rave from the Washington Post thriller critic.

The Richard and Judy Effect is beyond being in full force–publicists are sucking up to the UK TV show producers’ bigtime, hoping to get their books included as selections. For good reason: those that are picked sell in ridiculous amounts.

How to judge a neighborhood? By the way customers buy books, according to the New York Times. As a former Manhattan bookstore junkie, I can definitely attest to this. Even the B&Ns were different depending on which area I was in….

It’s funny to see Judith Guest’s new book treated as an “ordinary” suspense novel–oh, those hosannas for her earlier work seem so far away (or maybe everyone’s taking a cue from Jonathan Yardley, who was the first to trash the book.)

Stella Rimington, once the head of MI5, has turned to novel-writing. Now AT RISK has been digested by the Guardian, and once again, they make everything sound sillier than it probably is.

Susanna Yager has finally returned to round up a plethora of crime fiction releases for the Sunday Telegraph (link from the affable Fiona.)

Jack Batten, the Toronto Star’s crime columnist, likes Loren Estleman’s new PI novel RETRO but takes exceptions with inaccurate descriptions of Toronto. Can’t win ’em all…

And finally, there’s something….fitting, I suppose, in Toby Young writing about Dale Peck. Though I’m not sure why, exactly. (link from TEV.)