On with the links

You know what I’d really like to see? Janet Maslin get super-enthusiastic about a notable female crime novelist. But until that impossible day happens, I guess we’ll just have to content ourselves with this double review of two heavyweight thriller writers, Joseph Finder and Peter Abrahams.

Danuta Kean offers up a stirring tribute in praise of romance — just as she gets ready to announce the UK’s Romantic Novel of the Year shortlist.

In what has to be a staggering coincidence, Caroline Cummins’ review of Ilona van Mil’s debut novel SUGARMILK FALLS appears at January Magazine the very day I finished reading the book. I have a similar reaction: wonderful writing, slow start and slightly tacked-on ending, but I’ll definitely read van Mil’s next book.

I’ve been negligent in posting about Andrea Dworkin’s death mostly

because I didn’t really know what to say at first. I always felt that

what I knew paled in comparison to what she really represented and was

about, and only after reading Katharine Viner’s essay at the Guardian do I feel like I have better understanding. Someone’s bound to write a great biography on Dworkin in the near future.

Wilbur Smith has led, shall we say, a most interesting life. He tells all – well, a lot of it — to the Telegraph, and even manages to talk about his bestselling adventure novels, too.

Also in the paper — suitably time-delayed, of course — is Susanna Yager’s crime roundup, looking at new releases by Tom Bradby, Adrian McKinty, Peter Spiegelman, Walter Mosley, Peter Moore Smith, Donna Leon, Martin Cruz Smith, Ed McBain, Richard Kunzmann and Hans Werner Kettenbach.

Gossip columnist Jeanette Walls’s new memoir rips away the artifice and reveals her life to be rather tumultuous, as she explains to Newsday.

What’s up with the wives of famous movie producer types writing novels? First it was Gigi Levangie Grazer (wife of Brian) and now it’s Cheryl Howard Crew (wife of Ron Howard) who’s taken up the book thing.

The Canadian Press chats with Nelson DeMille about his unexpected series character, John Corey (who was supposed to be a one-off, but wasn’t) and his next project.

So what effect will Pamela Anderson’s new TV show have on the book business? The Book Standard tries to speculate, as does Mad Max Perkins (who now has stuck the entire score of “Bye Bye Birdie” in my head, damn him. Well, not really, I love that musical.)

Poisoned Pen Bookstore expanded to a second location in Phoenix and guess what? It’s doing pretty well, as the Scottsdale Republic reveals.

Remember the case of the Waterstone’s staffer who got sacked for bitching about his employer on his blog? Well, the store has offered Joe Gordon his job back…but he’s working somewhere else now.

And finally, others have spoken on this before me, but all I really have to say after much digging and analysis is — this is just wrong.