The Post-ThrillerFest Weekend Update
NYTBR: Lorraine Adams follows the Silk Road with travel guide Colin Thurbon; Jeremy McCarter has his thoughts on Arthur Miller’s final volume of prose; and did someone at the Book Review assign Curtis Sittenfeld to review Rebecca Curtis’s short stories b/c of the name displacement?
WaPo Book World: Art Taylor reviews mysteries by Tana French, Raymond Miller, Peter Pringle and Mitch Silver; Bruce Schoenfeld appreciates James Blake’s autobiography for not having so much tennis; and a biography of Dick Cheney finally shows up in bookstores.
LA Times: William Vollmann goes on the trail of China’s Most Wanted; Susan Salter Reynolds really resents the time spent with Irini Spanidou’s BEFORE; and Ed Park reviews new books by Liz Williams and David Wellington for his ‘Astral Weeks’ column.
G&M: Guy Gavriel Kay explores non-Potter-related mythical realms; Michael Marrus dives into a new biography of Winston Churchill focusing on his relationship with what would eventually be Israel; and sometimes it takes a film critic to write a stirring tribute to the novel.
Guardian Review: Caryl Phillips writes about James Baldwin’s memorable trip to France in 1957; Lucasta Miller finds out about Michele Roberts’ unique brand of feminism; Chris Petit compares and contrasts Eoin McNamee and Tom Cain’s fictitious visions of what happened to Princess Diana; and Laura Wilson rounds up crime offerings by Danny King, Jason Starr, Laura Lippman and Andrea Camilleri.
Observer: Conal Urqhuart appreciates the look into Palestinian society offered by Matt Rees; Peter Conrad points out the satire in John Gray’s examination of post-9⁄11 activity; and you know it’s that time of the month when Rachel Cooke gets to write a silly essay on challenging her notions.
The Times: Tony Allen-Mills finds out why PJ O’Rourke has decided to write about Adam Smith; Ben MacIntyre gets busy with acronyms; and Marcel Berlins reviews new crime novels by Michael Dibdin, Caro Ramsay, Gianrico Carofiglio and Elena Forbes.
The Scotsman: Val McDermid’s new novel BENEATH THE BLEEDING is available by excerpt; Stuart Kelly wishes more authors would get into fights; and Allan Massie sinks into the pleasures of William Trevor’s prose.
The Rest:
Boy, people want to ask Ridley Pearson questions. He gets the Q&A treatment from the Rocky Mountain News, the St. Louis Dispatch and Reuters.
Oline Cogdill enjoys Shirley Tallman’s latest crime novel but is less keen on Alex Barclay’s DARKHOUSE.
In the Telegraph, Susanna Yager and Jake Kerridge review new mystery novels by Carol O’Connell, Henning Mankell, Peter James, Patrick Quinlan, Matt Rees and Peter May.
Andrew Taylor has a thoughtful tribute to Michael Dibdin wrapped up in his review of END GAMES for the Independent.
Even though the review runs months after pub date, it’s nice to see good ink for David Corbett in the SF Chronicle.
The Sydney Morning Herald explains why Katherine Howell might be the next big thing in thriller writing.
The Melbourne Age meets Matt Rubinstein, whose debut novel is being compared -rightly or not – to THE DA VINCI CODE. The Sydney Morning Heraldy also has a lengthy interview with Rubinstein.
Renee Rosen chats with Dana Kaye about her first novel, writing full-time and what she’s up to next.
And finally, RIP Charles Lane. Dammit.