All you want with the Weekend Update

I feel like the last one just ran, but lo, here is my newest column for the Sun, looking at recent releases by Thomas Perry, Barbara Vine, Rhys Bowen, Joshua Spanogle and Miyuki Miyabe.

And in other news of me, I will be participating in an online chat with the members of the DetecToday mailing list from 5 to 7 PM this evening, so if you are on the list, it’d be great to see you there.

Otherwise, it’s the usual book review stuff:

NYTBR: Nellie McKay tries her hand at a book review about — surprise! — a woman’s strange connection to 50s pop music; Antonya Nelson has a new short story collection out and Joyce Carol Oates gives her take on it; Mary Roach is amused by a new book on the creepiness of body-brokering; and Blake Eskin reports on the Edible Books Festival. I kid you not.

WaPo Book World: Shlomo Avineri looks at two books on Israel’s bid to settle the West Bank; Tracy Chevalier applauds Sarah Waters’ change of direction but does “miss the romp”; Ross King thinks that Kate Mosse’s LABYRINTH is a “thumping good read” that all genders can enjoy equally; and Richard Lipez reviews the latest in mystery by Robert Eversz, Ken Bruen, Frank Tallis, Lisa Scottoline and Paul Adam.

G&M: The yearlong experiment is all the rage in publishing, and Tralee Pearce gets to the bottom of the trend; Diane Baker Mason is enthralled by Rachel Wyatt’s latest magical short story collection; and Martin Levin is preoccupied with which books to read before dying.

Guardian Review: James Meek provides an original short story about the perils of moneylending; a new national library aims to spotlight Welsh literature more properly; Carrie O’Grady welcomes the return of V.I. Warshawski to UK soil; and Maxim Jakubowski rounds up new crime fiction by Val McDermid, Patrick Quinlan, Laura Wilson and David Wolstencroft.

Observer: Kate Kellaway finds out about Jeremy Harding’s unusual journey in discovering his birth mother; the hottest book in Turkey right now probably doesn’t even exist, as Jonathan Heawood finds out; and Rachel Cooke swears by the Spanx.

The Times: Andrew Billen talks to Henning Mankell about his prolific output and the plight of Africans; David Almond probes the consequences of bullying in this new short story; Marcel Berlins looks at new crime books by Mark Gimenez, James McGee and Simon Brett; and hanging out at Hobbitfest incites some strange reactions.

The Scotsman: Julie Wheelwright puzzles over the Rock Bottom Remainders, the rock band with high wattage author power; Alan Massie is impressed with Romesh Gunesekera’s debut enough to call it “one of the most enjoyable efforts you’ll find this year”; and Mark Stanton’s making a name for himself as “one fo the sharpest literary agents around”, at least in Scotland.

The Rest:

Oline Cogdill takes a look at two new-ish crime releases by Paula Woods and Jeffrey Cohen for her latest Sun-Sentinel column.

Hallie Ephron reviews recent crime novels by Gillian Roberts, Sara Gran and Tami Hoag for the Boston Globe.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michele Ross looks at new stuff by Richard Hawke, Tami Hoag, Adrian McKinty, as well as (much) older books by Ian Rankin & Kate Atkinson.

Dick Adler normally reviews mysteries & thrillers for the Chicago Tribune but this week he’s raving — rightly so — about Naomi Novik’s fabulous HER MAJESTY’S DRAGON.

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald’s Paul Fiander gets excited about the latest by Michael Koryta, Heather Graham and Ariana Franklin.

Val McDermid talks to the Courier-Mail about her new book, her new knee, and why crime writers sure do like to party.

Peter Abrahams’ latest novel is a sly take on the writing instinct and trusting the wrong people, as Regis Behe finds out after talking with the author.

The noted Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo (get it?) hasn’t

been translated much into English but a new collection has corrected

this, and the Daily Yomiuri gives its approval of such.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez has sparked interest in readers for decades, and now his hometown of Aracataca is trying to attract people to visit — despite the ramshackle appearance of his boyhood home.

Oh, all that ghostwriting is everywhere! First it was the Observer’s bit about it last week, now Andrew Crofts writes about the practice for The Telegraph

(which makes me wonder: if he ghosted Kevin Lewis’s THE KID, who

actually wrote Lewis’s novel, which was in the 3 for 2 stacks

everywhere in the UK?)

And finally, what’s up with all these zombies? Warren St. John goes exploring.