The Cold-Addled Weekend Update

Indeed, almost immediately after going home from the Edgars, some vicious flu decided to take up residence in my body and head, which is why I had to skip pretty much every PEN World Voices event on my schedule, alas. Soup, tea and Y: THE LAST MAN by Brian K. Vaughan are about the best cure that can be conjured up, so I should be back in business by Monday.

To the links!

NYTBR: Mark Oppenheimer delves into the New Age empire of Louise Hay; Aventura King meets the bad boy of Chinese fiction; Troy Patterson clearly has an axe to grind about Mark Sarvas, which is most perplexing; and Marilyn Stasio surveys new crime offerings from Tom Rob Smith, Kjell Eriksson and Chris Knopf while also shouting out a reissue from Derek Raymond.

WaPo Book World: Art Taylor reviews new crime fiction from Nevada Barr, Henning Mankell, Jonathan Kellerman and Peter Abrahams; Ron Charles is unsettled by Gil Adamson’s dark vision; and Jonathan Yardley on the Willie Nelson biography? Ah, I do love these WTF pairings…

LA Times: Scott Timberg revisits the criticism of Leslie Fiedler; Ed Champion is not such a big fan of Susan Hubbard’s vampire tale; David Ulin takes issue with Mikita Brottman’s rethinking of reading being good; and James Sallis totally makes me want to read Boris Vian.

G&M: Elizabeth Renzetti talks with the ever-controversial Martin Amis; Margaret Gray is floored by the narrative verve of Kate Summerscale’s account of a real-life Victorian mystery; and A.L. Kennedy makes the case for KING LEAR.

Guardian Review: Faber & Faber invites authors galore to request books return to print; Maya Jaggi meets the multi-talented Sherman Alexie; Courttia Newland hails Alex Wheatle’s foray into urban fiction; and Matthew Lewin rounds up thrillers by Colin Harrison, Jefferson Bass, Nicci French and Hedi Kaddour.

Observer: Adam Mars-Jones wishes for more literary tricksiness from Arturo Perez-Reverte; Olivia Laing compares and contrasts two books on alternative medicine; and Robert McCrum applauds a new example of literary ghost exorcism.

The Times: Sarah Maslin Nir meets Perry Moore, gay superhero icon; John Spurling wishes Arturo Perez-Reverte would treat his Captain Alatriste novels more seriously; and Joan Smith surveys crime fiction from Guillermo Martinez, Pam Lewis, Ann Cleeves, Andrea Camilleri, Sally Hinchcliffe, Iain Levison, Andrea Cannobio and Donna Leon.

The Scotsman: Stuart MacBride talks up his newest DI Logan Macrae novel to David Stenhouse;Claire Black travels down the mean streets of vintage pulp fiction; and David Robinson meets Donna Leon on the occasion of her latest Brunetti crime novel.

The Rest:

When Eddie Muller decides to survey crime fiction in San Francisco, he doesn’t settle for a few authors here and there. No, he interviews over 30 of them – from John Lescroart to Jacqueline Winspear to Cornelia Read to David Corbett, to name a few – and gets quite the piece out of it.

Oline Cogdill is impressed by the realism in Elizabeth Zelvin’s DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER.

The Chicago Tribune’s Paul Goat Allen reviews the latest in mystery by Steven Sidor, Michael A. Black, Laura Lippman and Raymond Benson.

In the Telegraph, Susanna Yager reviews new crime novels by Asa Larsson and Kenneth Cameron, while Baroness P.D. James is given the profile treatment by William Langley.

Les Roberts reviews new thrillers by Harlan Coben, Jonathan Kellerman and Richard Stark for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Bellingham Herald chats with Jo Dereske about her mystery-solving librarian Helma Zukas.

In the Denver Post, David Milofsky chats with several online stalwarts – including Mark Sarvas, Dan Wickett and yours truly – about the effect of online reviews on unsung authors.

And finally, simple genius.