Lest we forget the Weekend Update

And by dint of not posting on weekends I didn’t get around to talking about the Agatha Award nominations, which can be found here. Congrats to al the nominees, who will be feted (and winners announced) at Malice Domestic on April 22 – a week earlier than usual, as it happens…

Also, with London Book Fair beginning in earnest today, I’ll report any crime fiction-related news here and other stuff of interest there as they roll in. Good to have division of labor, after all.

And now, the links:

NYTBR: Dave Itzkoff (who as of a few days ago, is just one of the many who jumped from the sinking ship that is SPIN magazine) launches his new side gig as the Book Review’s science fiction columnist; Mike Meyer writes about Pearl Buck, once required reading but now not so much; and Daniel Dennett gets really, really mad about Leon Wieseltier’s review of his book.

WaPo Book World: Ron Charles takes issue with David Liss’s politics as depicted in his new thriller; Donna Rifkind admires Anne Roiphe’s historical novel with a contemporary sensibility; and Louis Bayard probes the weirdness of turning books into movies, while the section compiles the best and worst such adaptations.

G&M: Margaret Cannon’s crime column looks at new releases by Peter Blauner, Julie Parsons, Grant McCrea, Phil Rickman, Massimo Carlotto, Carol Goodman and M.C. Beaton; David Gilmour does his version of the books-to-movies thing; and Ami McKay’s paean to midwives is finally out, and THE BIRTH HOUSE seems to be worth the wait.

Guardian Review: lots and lots of good stuff including: a preview of the Young Publishers of the Year Award; why it’s tough to be a writer in Zimbabwe; Andrew Brown argues the case for copying, while Nigel Newton argues against Google; JG Ballard looks back at EMPIRE OF THE SUN, the movie; and Matthew Lewin rounds up thrillers by Charlie Williams, Edward Wright, GM Ford and Aris Forietos, whose book sounds so damn cool that I’ll be buying a copy as soon as I get to Bristol…

Observer: It’s only now that China’s getting the kind of critical look in books that it should, according to Jonathan Denby; Robin McKie recalls the impetus for the mucho-controversial THE SELFISH GENE; and Robert McCrum rounds up the “Power 50” in UK publishing. So when does a similar list come out for the US? I guess Ron and I will have to compile one over at Galleycat…

The Times: Peter Kemp is just one of many, many people to declare Irene Nemirovsky’s SUITE FRANCAISE a masterpiece; Mick Hume wishes Jacqueline Wilson would write about cheerier stuff, just as Ben McInytre wages a happy-ending campaign of his own; Natasha Cooper finds William Broderick’s suffering from the sophomore jinx; and Kate Saunders has some fun ripping Jeffrey Archer’s new novel to shreds.

The Scotsman: David Robinson is utterly gobsmacked by Mary Loudon’s memoir of her sister Catherine; Naomi Alderman gives the tantalizing backstory to DISOBEDIENCE, her debut novel about the Orthodox Jewish world in Hendon; and Tom Adair, in reviewing the latest #1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY novel, explains why the whole series is so wonderful (though I must admit I found this volume to be a lesser effort, even if I haven’t quite worked out why…)

The Rest:

Last week, Oline Cogdill interviewed Bob Crais about his new standalone, THE TWO-MINUTE RULE. This week she explains why she says the book is “time well spent.”

Dick Adler’s Chicago Tribune column examines recent releases by T Jefferson Parker, Miyuki Miyabe, Robert Crais, Sanjay Sanghoee, and all manners reissue by the Hard Case Crime gang.

Crime fiction gets a big dose in the Telegraph as Jake Kerridge reviews new work by David Wolstencroft, Tess Gerritsen, Stephen Leather and Charles Cumming and Susanna Yager looks at new stuff by Ann Cleeves and Laura Wilson.

Tom & Enid Schantz’s latest mystery column for the Denver Post looks at new books by Dana Stabenow, Paul Adam and Peter Guttridge, while Ed WIll gives a thumbs up to Stephen White’s KILL ME.

The SF Chronicle’s David Lazarus looks at new crime novels by Adrian McKinty and Joshua Spanogle, both of whom are West coast-based.

The Austin-American Statesman asks David Liss a whole bunch of questions about his more contemporary-set thriller, THE ETHICAL ASSASSIN, and how it straddles the line between entertainment and polemic. Meanwhile, Betsy Willeford (who is Charles’s widow) gives the book a great review for the Miami Herald.

Regis Behe talks to T Jefferson Parker about how and why synesthesia plays such an important role in his new crime novel, THE FALLEN.

Simon Beckett tells the Yorkshire Post how a visit to Nashville’s famed Body Farm inspired his newest novel, THE CHEMISTRY OF DEATH.

Is Stephen White’s new book KILL ME a “new breed of thriller,” as the Rocky Mountain News claims? I’ll say that it’s highly enjoyable but not as original as the conceit would have readers believe.

The Exeter (NH) News-Letter catches up with Tom Eslick, another prep-school teacher turned mystery author like a certain DVC dude.

Marshall Browne spent 37 years as a banker (and at one point, a paratrooper) but as he tells the Australian, writing crime novels like RENDEZVOUS AT KAMAKURA INN is his full-time occupation now.

The discovery of a lost manuscript by Irene Nemirovsky has critics gushing over its classic-worthiness — and the Age’s Viv Groskop goes to find out more.

Elizabeth Letts talks to the Delaware News Journal about how her globetrotting life — including a stint in the Peace Corps — eventually led to her new career as a novelist.

And finally, it’s about goddamn time this story made it to major media. I don’t get sickened by much, but this does it.