Just Call Them Monday Smatterings

The New Yorker couldn’t have known that Nicholson Baker’s fascinating essay about his use of various e-reading devices would come out just as rumors pinpoint the Apple Tablet’s release in September. But the timing works because Baker all but gives the thumbs-up to the mythical device, even if it doesn’t contain the elixir of life or eternal youth or that sort of thing.

So much THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE! Which is wholly deserved, because it’s an amazing thriller, but there’s Dennis Drabelle in the Washington Post, Alan Cheuse in the SF Chronicle, Daniel Mallory in the LA Times, Brian Bethune’s Stieg Larsson profile in Maclean’s, Vanessa Thorpe’s assessment of Larsson-mania in the Observer, the National Post’s Larsson-themed travel guide, Donna Rifkind’s B&N Review take, and Deirdre Donohue’s review in Tuesday’s USA TODAY to check out. 

David Montgomery justifiably praises Richard Lange’s vision of LA noir in THIS WICKED WORLD for The Daily Beast, and rounds up recent mystery/thriller fare by David Morrell, James Rollins, Megan Abbott, Donald Westlake and Joe Lansdale for the Chicago Sun-Times.

In the Chicago Tribune, Dick Adler has nothing but good things to say about Harry Dolan’s clever debut BAD THINGS HAPPEN.

The Boston Globe’s Hallie Ephron reviews new crime fiction by Donald Westlake, John Lescroart and Julie Kramer.

Jane Jakeman has her say on Nicola Upson’s sophomore mystery featuring Josephine Tey, detective.

The G&M’s Margaret Cannon rounds up the latest in crime by China Mieville, Luis Alfredo Garcia-Roza, C.J. Box, Jeffery Deaver, Megan Abbott, A.C. Baantjer, Michael Genelin, Elizabeth George and Raymond Khoury.

Dick Lochte assesses James Lee Burke’s Texas-based crime novel RAIN GODS for the LA Times.

David Peace talks about Japan, his new novel OCCUPIED CITY, and his return to his hometown of Leeds with the Times of London.

Chris Petit is most impressed with Stuart Neville’s debut thriller THE TWELVE.

In advance of last weekend’s Harrogate Crime Festival (ably covered by Peter James, and where Mark Billingham took home the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award), Manda Scott talks about where lesbian writers fit into the crime fiction world.

Kathleen George submits to a personality test given by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

NPR kicks off a new round of Crime in the City with David Baldacci’s Washington DC and Gabriel Cohen’s Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Louis Menand on INHERENT VICE, Thomas Pynchon’s version of a detective novel, in the New Yorker.

Get ready for another edition of the Reading Crime Festival this fall.

And the newest Kurt Wallander novel by Henning Mankell will be published in the UK and US in 2011.

The Scotsman’s Susan Mansfield chats with Jeffery Deaver about his plethora of thrillers, including ROADSIDE CROSSES.

The Portsmouth News talks with Quentin Bates about his new series featuring an Icelandic police detective to be published soon in the UK.

Concertmaster Gerald Elias now has a new vocation as a mystery novelist. He talks with the Berkshire Eagle about his debut crime novel DEVIL’S TRILL.

Ron Fortier jumps the gun a bit reviewing Lester Dent’s HONEY IN HIS MOUTH, since Hard Case Crime isn’t publishing the book until October.

Ed Park reveals more about Invisible Libraries to the NYTBR. 

The WSJ meets up with Victor LaValle, whose upcoming novel BIG MACHINE is drawing comparisons to Pynchon and Ellison and sounds rather fun.

And finally, maybe it doesn’t swing like it used to, but there’s enough spring in Playboy’s step to make ringing a commodity, even now. And yes, I’m torturing the hell out of that metaphor.